THE GREAT UNPROGRESSIVE PEOPLE 359 



survivors of the two previous ordeals, the cream of the intellect 

 of the province which contains, perhaps, some 20,000,000 

 inhabitants. 1 In the examination premises at Hang-chow are 

 10,000 cells in which the candidates are confined day and night 

 for three periods of two days each with an interval of one day 

 between each session. The cells run in long Janes to the east 

 and west of the broad paved path which leads through the area 

 from north to south. Each lane of cells has a separate kitchen 

 and an official cook." 2 And this trial of brain and endurance 

 goes on during "the hot and most unhealthy days of Septem- 

 ber." Yet on one occasion at Hang-chow far more candidates 

 presented themselves than there were cells into which to 

 squeeze them. 3 The final struggle is at Pekin where the 

 pick of all the provinces meet in the arena and the successful 

 candidates are introduced to the emperor. What a porten- 

 tous amount of labour, an Englishman is apt to exclaim, 

 and all to produce a crop of corrupt mandarins ! Why not 

 get your corruption and incapacity by simpler means ? Very 

 natural questions those. But the merit of the system lies 

 in this, that no Chinaman is debarred in his youth from the 

 hope of rising to the top of the tree. If he cannot, it is 

 his own incapacity that arrests his progress. What institution, 

 then, is better calculated than this system of competitive exami- 

 nations to make men supporters of the constitution and worship- 

 pers of things as they are ? The only office not thrown open 

 is that of emperor, and no Chinaman who knows how completely 

 this august potentate is the slave of custom, if not of duty, is 

 likely to covet the position. 



The books which the competitors have to study date from a The 

 gray antiquity. They are the writings of Confucius, of Mencius 

 who became a disciple of the grandson of Confucius and other 

 sages, some of them of still more ancient date. Readers of these 

 books seem most of them to end by being disappointed. Yet 

 some of the dicta of Confucius represent a high morality. " Do 

 not to others what you would not have others do to you." " I 



1 See Neiv China and Old, by Archdeacon Moule, pp. 259-269. 

 2 Loc, cit., p. 263. 3 lb. 



