86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



1. Every individual may understand the fundamental principles of 

 life and of things, including moral laws, by learning to understand his 

 own mind and by developing his own nature. This means that it is not 

 necessary to use the criteria of the past as present-day standards. Each 

 individual is able to determine for himself what is right and wrong. 

 Like Protagoras among the Greeks, Wang Yang-ming among the 

 Chinese held that " Man is the measure of all things." 



2. On the practical side, Wang taught that every individual is under 

 obligation to keep knowledge and action, theory and practise together, for 

 the former is so intimately related to the latter that its very existence is 

 involved. There can be no real knowledge without action. The indi- 

 vidual has within himself the spring of knowledge and should constantly 

 carry into practise those things that his intuitive knowledge of good 

 gives him opportunity to do. 



3. Wang taught that heaven, earth, man and all things are an all- 

 pervading unity. The universe is the macrocosm, and each human mind 

 is a microcosm. This naturally leads to the conceptions, equality of 

 opportunity and liberty, and as such serves well as the fundamental 

 principle of social activity and reform. 



Turning to the present reform period, we find two further types of 

 forces at work in the moral development of the Chinese. Of these the 

 first is the work of the modern Chinese reformers, and the second the 

 impact of outside influences upon China. While these are discrete in 

 certain aspects, they coalesce at many points. The ends sought do not 

 differ greatly. The Chinese reformer of the present day recognizes the 

 value of occidental techniques and of the principles of our civilization. 

 This entails a rationalization and socialization of conduct which destroys 

 the value of many Chinese customs and stimulates reflection on problems 

 of conduct. 



Among the principal Chinese reformers of the last two decades we 

 may name K'ang Yu-wei, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, T'an Ssu-t'ung, Dr. Sun 

 Yat-sen and the men associated with them. Almost from the first their 

 object was to rid China of the abuses of an absolute form of government. 

 K'ang Yu-wei, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and T'an Ssu-t'ung were intimately 

 connected with the "hundred days of reform" and the "coup d'etat 

 of 1898," when an attempt was made to inaugurate a milder, more lib- 

 eral form of government. T'an was executed the same year, while 

 K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao escaped. Dr. Sun was connected 

 with a movement in Canton against the government in 1895, as a result 

 of which he became a fugitive. He returned to his country in the 

 autumn of 1911 and became Provisional President of China and a prom- 

 inent member of the People's Party (Kuo-ming-tang). These men and 

 their associates have done much to awaken an interest in republican 

 principles of government, social reform and individual initiative. Liang 



