CHINA 



191 



His great object may be said to have been the 



inculcation of <lnty, setting forth with worn! runs 

 iteration the character of hit* superior or ideal man. 

 Several times he enunciati-d ' the golden rule' in a 

 negative form, 'What ye would not that nn-n 

 should do to you, do not do to them.' Taoism 

 ill-rives its name from the treatise of LI Urh, 

 commonly i-alU-d Lao-tsze, a contemporary of 

 < 'oiit'iit-iiis, called 'The TAo or Way anu its Char- 

 acteristics. ' The Way is the quiet, passionless 

 ili-<'liarge of all whicn our nature ana relations 

 prompt or require us to do, without striving or 

 <-i>i"g, and the method of maintaining and pre- 

 serving life. ' Heaven ' in this ' Way ' is not 

 a ruler or legislator as in Confucianism, but only 

 a pattern. The system was older than Lao-tsze, 

 and indigenous in China, but associated with 

 many superstitions ; and after the entrance of 

 Buddhism into China it adopted many of its 

 peculiarities. The recognised head of Taoism has 

 his seat on the Lung-hS Mountain in Chiang-hst. 

 Lao-tsze has the merit of having formulated the 

 grand principle that good will overcome evil, and 

 should be returned for it. For Buddhism, which 

 was introduced or rather invited to China in our 

 first century, see the article BUDDHISM. 



There is no priesthood in Confucianism ; but 

 Buddhism has its monks and nuns, and Taoism 

 its monks. The government, while not interfering 

 with the internal organisation of either of these 

 systems, has established a scheme of gradations of 

 rank and authority in order that it may have the 

 control of them in its own hands. It would no 

 doubt recognise Christianity in the same way, if 

 the different missions could possibly be amalga- 

 mated, and would unitedly try to adapt themselves 

 to the bed of Procrustes which it would prepare 

 for them in the various departments and districts. 

 This is not the place in which to speak of the 

 comparative number of the adherents of the ' three 

 religions ' in China. To claim a majority for those 

 of any one of them is very absurd. As a matter 

 of fact, Confucianism represents the intelligence 

 and morality of China ; Taoism its superstitions ; 

 and Buddhism its ritualism and idolatry, while yet 

 it acknowledges no God. 



The GOVERNMENT of the empire (omitting the 

 regulation of the imperial court and family, or the 

 special Manchu department) is conducted from 

 the capital, supervising, directing, controlling the 

 different provincial administrations, and exercising 

 the power of removing from his post any official 

 whose conduct may oe irregular or considered 

 dangerous to the state. 



There is the Grand Cabinet, the privy-council 

 of the emperor, in whose presence it meets daily to 

 transact the business of the state, between the 

 hours of four and six A.M. ! Its members are 

 few, and hold other substantive offices. There is 

 also the Grand Secretariat, formerly the supreme 

 council, but under the present dynasty very much 

 superseded by the cabinet. It consists of four 

 grand and two assistant-grand secretaries, three 

 of them Manchus and three Chinese. 



The business on which the cabinet deliberates 

 comes before it from the Six Boards of Civil Office, 

 of Revenue, of Ceremonies ( including all matters 

 pertaining to religion ), of War, of Punishment, 

 and of Works. Each Board has two presidents 

 and four vice-presidents, three of them again 

 Manchus and three Chinese. In 1861 the changed 

 relations between the empire and foreign nations 

 led to the formation of what we may call a 

 seventh Board, styled the ' Ya-mdn (or court) 

 of Foreign Affairs.' There is also another im- 

 portant department which should be mentioned 

 the Censorate members of which exercise a 

 supervision over the Boards, and, distributed 



through the provinces, have it as their duty to 

 memorialise the emperor on all subjects connected 

 with the welfare of the people and the conduct of 

 the government. 



In the administration of the provinces, a governor- 

 general and governor are for the mrmt part awoci- 

 ated as colleagues ; though in Chih-H, Kan-su, and 

 Sze-ch'wan there in only the governor-general, and 

 in Shan-hst, Shari-tung, and Ho-nan only the 

 governor. Below these two functionaries there 

 are the lieutenant-governor (commonly called the 

 treasurer), the provincial judge, the salt comp- 

 troller, and the grain- in tendant. The provinces 

 are further divided for the purposes of adminis- 

 tration into fu or prefectures (amounting in all 

 the provinces to 191), chAu or departments (in all, 

 58 independent of the /M, within which they 

 are comprehended, and 155 subject to it), and 

 hsien or districts, subject to the fu (in all 1288). 

 There are also four fu occupied principally by the 

 aboriginal peoples, twenty-eight chdu and four 

 hsien. The rank of the different officials in these 

 provinces is indicated by a knob or button on the 

 top of their caps. In the two highest it is made 

 of red coral ; in the third it is clear blue ; in the 

 fourth, of lapis lazuli ; in the fifth, of crystal ; in 

 the sixth, of an opaque white stone ; and in the 

 three lowest it is yellow, of gold or gilt. They 

 also wear insignia or badges embroidered on a 

 square patch, in the front or back of their robes, 

 representing birds on the civilians and animals on 

 the military officers. 



As regards the revenue of the empire we need 

 more information than we possess at present. 

 Each province is required to support itself and to 

 furnish a certain surplusage for the imperial govern- 

 ment ; but both the provinces and the court are 

 constantly finding their income insufficient. Of 

 the income of the several provinces for local pur- 

 poses we cannot speak ; but we take the following 

 estimate of the imperial revenue from a series of 

 carefully prepared articles contributed to the China 

 Mail of Hong-kong in 1885 : 



Taels. 



1. Land-tax portion, payable in silver 20,000,000 



2. it rice tribute to Peking at 

 T.1.60 per pecul, and rice levy in provinces 



or money commutation 7,000,000 



3. Salt Gabelle, and likin or transit duty on salt 9,500,000 



4. Maritime customs under foreign supervision.. 13,000,000 



5. Native customs, maritime ami inland, and first 



inland levy on foreign opium 5,000,000 



0. Likin on miscellaneous goods and opium, both 



foreign and native 9,500,000 



Total 64,000,000 



In 1894 the revenue was estimated at near 75,000,000 

 teals. But as the Teal (q.v.) has fallen in value to 

 about 4s., however we stretch its value we do not 

 obtain the amount of 20,000,000 ; surely a very 

 small imperial revenue for so great an empire with 

 so vast a population. It has been increased at 

 times by sales of office and by forced contributions, 

 both dangerous expedients ; out the former was put 

 a stop to by an edict in 1879. China had no foreign 

 debt till 1874; but when in 1895 the first war loan 

 of 3,000,000 was raised, the total external debt 

 had grown to 9,000,000. 



The imperial army proper consists of Manchus, 

 Mongols, and the descendants of Chinese who 

 revolted from the Ming dynasty and joined the 

 Manchfis on their invasion of the empire, the first 

 defection taking place in 1621. These are divided 

 each into eight corps with different coloured 

 banners, and as a whole are styled 'The Eijjit 

 Banners.' Their headquarters are in Peking, and 

 they are distributed in garrisons in most of the 

 provinces, and also in Turkestan and I -11. Their 

 number available for actual service amounts to 

 nearly 350,000, of whom 100,000 are supposed to be 



