THE CHENGTU PLAIN 115 



straw, if you will, but the primary cause of the Rebellion. The 

 dynasty has been dethroned (it was effete, anyway, and 

 should have passed fifty years ago), a dictatorship under the 

 guise of a republic cleverly formed by the only man who can 

 save China from anarchy if not disruption — Yuan-shih-kai. 

 But foreign loans have become more absolutely necessary than 

 ever before. The present system of government can only be 

 transient, another dynasty must arise. I mentioned above 

 that the province was under a viceroy, and that the gentry 

 ruled the province. This is the keynote to the whole difficulty. 

 The Viceroy had to carry out the instructions of the Imperial 

 Government at Peking ; he had also to please the gentry. The 

 wishes of the two powers became diametrically opposed, and 

 not all the tact of the cleverest diplomats could save the situa- 

 tion. The Viceroy (Chao Erh-hsiin) was removed to Manchuria, 

 and his brother (Chao Erh-feng), recalled from the Thibetan 

 Marches (where China's new toy, in the shape of an army 

 modelled on quasi-Western lines, had been indulging in an 

 altogether uncalled-for war of aggression), appointed to the 

 post. The new Viceroy arrived too late to check the revolt, 

 and was ultimately murdered. The gentry have declared 

 that no foreign capital, and the necessary foreign supervision 

 of such capital, shall enter into the construction of a railway 

 in Szechuan. With Chinese money and Chinese engineers the 

 scheme shall be accomplished, say these autocrats. The Cen- 

 tral Government thought otherwise and made other arrange- 

 ments. Then came the revolt, fulminated by the gentry of 

 the Chengtu Plain, which speedily got beyond their control, 

 and where it will really end is beyond prophecy. The Manchu 

 dynasty, when it ascended the Dragon throne in a.d. 1644, 

 immediately set to work and rescued Szechuan from the bloody 

 grip of the rebel and arch-destroyer, Chang Hien-tsung, and 

 brought peace to the land. Two hundred and sixty-seven 

 years later this dynasty has been dethroned by rebellion 

 initiated by the gentry of the Chengtu Plain. Dynasties and 

 republics may come and go, but in the future, as in the past, 

 industry, combined with agricultural skill, will continue to win 

 sustenance, derive wealth, influence, and power from this 

 fertile and beautiful region — the Garden of Western China. 



