358 PROBLEMS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION 



it aside as a piece of outer-barbarian folly and have continued 

 their way along the old track from which for centuries the 

 race has never deviated nor wished to deviate. 

 The (2) How, without advancing, have the Chinese been able to 

 problem maintain their civilisation at the highest level reached ? 



This is a far more difficult question than the first. To begin 

 with we have to account for the extraordinary fact that the 

 Chinese empire holds together. With no railways, with the 

 very worst of roads, the huge organism might seem to have 

 too slow a circulation to maintain life at all. But there are 

 Com- strong consolidating forces at work. In the first place there 

 "language ' ]S community of language. All educated Chinamen and 

 education is very general write the same character and 

 through the medium of writing are mutually intelligible from 

 whatever province they may come. The spoken language 

 has broken up into a number of dialects that have diverged 

 so far from one another that, practically, they may be con- 

 sidered different languages. There was no reason for surprise, 

 when two Chinese nurses who met at Eastbourne could not 

 speak intelligibly to one another. But this difference of speech 

 does not reduce the binding power of the written language. 

 That, as Mr Cockburn says, is as intelligible throughout China 

 as the multiplication table is to men of different speech through- 

 Corn- ou t Europe. The system of competitive examinations gives 



petitive . 



examina- the people an interest in the government. Education is cheap 

 tions and anyone who chooses may compete in the series of examina- 

 tions which open the way to the highest appointments in the 

 Empire. China is a true democracy : there is no class privileged 

 by birth. With us much money is necessary to obtain the 

 education without which success in an "open competitive 

 examination" is impossible. In China the door seems to be 

 really open to all who have moderate means. The three 

 examinations, by passing which the first degree is obtained, 

 are all competitive and, if there is any jobbery, it is at any 

 rate insufficient to undermine the people's confidence in them. 

 The third examination is held in the provincial capital. There 

 may be only 30 vacancies and perhaps 2000 competitors, the 



