BERLIN, OXFORD, ST. ANDREWS -1901-1903 199 



that, under the simplest principles of international law, 

 China has the right at any moment to shut its doors 

 against, or to expel, any people whatever whom it may 

 consider dangerous or injurious this power being con 

 stantly exercised by all the other nations of the earth, and 

 by none more than by the American Government, as so 

 many Chinese seeking entrance to our ports have discov 

 ered ; but again and again I warned him that this, if it were 

 ever done at all, must be done without harshness and with 

 proper indemnities, and that any return to the cruelties 

 of the past would probably end in the dividing up of 

 maritime China among the great powers of the world. 

 As to the building up of the nation, I laid stress on the 

 establishment of institutions for technical instruction; 

 and took pains to call his attention to what had been done 

 in the United States and by various European govern 

 ments in this respect. He seemed favorably impressed 

 by this, but dwelt on what he considered the fanaticism of 

 sundry Chinese supporters of technical education against 

 the old Chinese classical instruction. Here I suggested 

 to him a system which might save what was good in the 

 old mode of instruction: namely, the continuance of the 

 best of the old classical training, but giving also high rank 

 to modern studies. 



We also talked over the beginning of a better develop 

 ment of the Chinese army and navy, of better systems 

 of taxation, and of the nations from which good examples 

 and competent instruction might be drawn in these various 

 fields. Curious was his suggestion of a possible amalga 

 mation of Chinese moral views with the religious creeds 

 of the western world. He observed that Christianity 

 seemed to be weak, mainly, on the moral side, and he sug 

 gested, at some length, a combination of the Christian re 

 ligion with the Confucian morality. Interesting was it 

 to hear him, as a Confucian, dwell on the services which 

 might thus be rendered to civilization. There was a sim 

 ple, kindly shrewdness in the man, and a personal dig 

 nity which was proof against the terrible misfortunes 



