CHINA 



1347 



CHINA 



on a Western basis. Primary and secondary 

 schools have been established, grading up to 

 institutions of higher learning, the whole sys- 

 tem culminating in Peking University. As yet, 

 however, education is by no means widespread. 

 Millions of grown men have either no knowl- 

 edge of reading and writing, or just enough for 

 actual necessities of life. Only of late years 

 have the Chinese been brought to look upon 

 women in general as important enough to de- 

 serve even to know how to read, but women 

 of the better classes were taught to read and 

 write even in old China. 



Religion. Religion plays a great part in the 

 life of the Chinese, but it is a religion of super- 

 stition rather than of spiritual appeal. Temples 

 are numerous, shrines are in every house, but 

 fear of demons and not love of deity is the 

 dominant feeling. Mohammedanism has made 

 about 20,000,000 converts, Christianity fewer 

 than 1,500,000, and the rest of the people pro- 

 fess Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, or a mix- 

 ture of the three. In 1914 a strong effort was 

 made to adopt the last-named as the state re- 

 ligion, but the attempt failed. Each of these 

 faiths is treated in these volumes in a separate 

 article, and here it is necessary merely to state 

 their effects upon the people. Ancestor-worship, 

 growing out of Confucianism, is the controlling 

 factor in Chinese life. It has led to lack of 

 progressiveness, for only those things which 

 were done in ancestral times are honorable; 

 to the low position of women, since a daughter 

 cannot offer up the prayers and offerings on 

 which the happiness of a dead parent depends; 

 and, as pointed out above, to the too-rapid 

 growth of population. 



Government. The constitution under which 

 China is governed was promulgated on May 1, 

 1914, to take the place of the first provisional 

 constitution of the republic, adopted in 1912 

 (see subtitle History, below). At the head of 

 the government are a President and Vice- 

 President, elected for five-year terms and 

 eligible for reelection. The President is granted 



extensive powers, for he may convoke the 

 Legislature, and open, prorogue and close its 

 sessions; he may initiate legislation or issue 

 special ordinances at critical times which will 

 be legally effective. He is chief of the army 

 and navy and is vested with important treaty- 

 making powers. Executive authority under the 

 President is vested in a Secretary of State, 

 who is assisted by nine department heads of 

 foreign affairs, interior, finance, war, navy, jus- 

 tice, education, commerce and communications. 

 These department heads are recommended by 

 the Secretary of State, who is himself ap- 

 pointed by the President. There is no Cabinet, 

 as Western nations understand the term, and 

 consequently no responsible government. 



A Parliament, or Legislature, consisting of 

 two houses, was authorized by the first Pro- 

 visional Parliament. This Legislature could 

 not agree with the President, and he accord- 

 ingly expelled enough of its members to make 

 a quorum impossible. In January, 1914, the 

 suspended Parliament was dissolved by Presi- 

 dential mandate. Its place has been taken 

 by a Council of State, whose members, vary- 

 ing in number from fifty to seventy, are ap- 

 pointed by the President. This body has ad- 

 visory, administrative and legislative functions, 

 and is to be continued in all these activities 

 until the formation and election of a future 

 Parliament of one house. At that time it will 

 relinquish its law-making functions. For de- 

 termining finally a permanent constitution for 

 China, it is provided that the Council of State 

 appoint a committee of ten to draft such a 

 constitution. When this has been approved by 

 the Council it will be submitted for final adop- 

 tion to a national assembly. Each province is 

 governed by a governor-general, who, with his 

 assistants, has direct control over internal 

 provincial affairs, industries and education. 

 The underlying principle of the government as 

 now constituted is that every part of the 

 country shall be subordinate to the central 

 authority at Peking. 



The Chinese claim for themselves a history 

 that reaches back for fifty centuries or more, 

 and the closest student can find nothing that 

 absolutely denies the possibility of this. There 

 are, however, no monuments or pyramids, as 

 in Egypt, to prove conclusively the antiquity 

 of the nation, and not until about 1125 B.C. 

 can their history be regarded as really authen- 



History of China 



tic. Confucius, it is true, begins his record 

 with an emperor who is supposed to have 

 reigned from 2357 to 2206 B.C., but Confucius 

 took his statement from earlier records which 

 were far from being historically accurate. 



Early Historical Period. With the Chow 

 dynasty, which began to reign in 1122 B.C., 

 better times dawned for the country. .The 



