The Siege of Pekin 



53 



Japan, Korea, Asiatic Russia, the coast 

 cities of China, the PhiUppines, Siam, the 

 Dutch East Indies, AustraHa, the Ma- 

 lay Peninsula, India, Persia, Arabia, 

 the eastern and then the western coast 

 of Africa, then a tour of the Mediter- 

 ranean and the cities of western Europe, 



and thence back to the place of origin, 

 occup3dng two or perhaps three years, 

 and meantime carrying the American 

 flag and American enterprise to every 

 part of the world. Why not an Around- 

 the-world American Exposition to in- 

 augurate the twentieth century ? 



THE CAUSES THAT LED UP TO THE SIEGE 



OF PEKIN 



By Dr. W. A. P. Martin 



I HAVE been asked to give some 

 account of the siege in Pekin, to- 

 gether with the causes that led up 

 to it, and its probable outcome. No 

 proper view of the thrilling events which 

 have there taken place can be given 

 without first touching upon the ,^eo- 

 graphicxl situation. Man is moulded 

 by his environment, and it would not 

 be difficult to show how the character 

 of the Chinese — physical, moral, and 

 intellectual^has been formed by the 

 geography of their countr}'. 



Of England a well-known poet, after 

 satirizing the villainous climate of his 

 country, exclaims; 



" 'Tis thus, with rig^or for his good designed, 

 She rears her favorite man of all mankind." 



A Chinese philosopher would unques- 

 tionably adopt without objection every 

 word of the English poet, and he would 

 lay special emphasis on the phrase ' ' her 

 favorite man of all mankind." He 

 reads in the ancient books of his own 

 country a tradition that man was made 

 not of dust, but of clay, the clay being 

 of different colors. The Chinese were 

 made first, and of yellow clay; hence 

 they gave themselves the flattering des- 

 ignation of ' ' Men of Gold. ' ' That title 



we find to have been a common one 

 among the Tatars of the north. In 

 the eleventh and twelfth centuries a 

 large part of northern China was sub- 

 ject to a body of Tatars, who bore the 

 tribal name of " Golden Horde." The 

 present rulers of China, called Manchus, 

 claim them for their remote ancestors, 

 and continue to wear the same title of 

 " Golden Horde"— in the Manchu lan- 

 guage ^'Aischin Gioro.'' 



SKVEN CENTURIES OF FOREIGN 

 RULE. 



The relations of the Tatars to the 

 Chinese from time immemorial have 

 been very similar to those of the Shep- 

 herd Kings to the rich inhabitants of the 

 Nile Valley. The Chinese depended 

 upon agriculture, while the wandering 

 nomads of the northern plains subsisted 

 on their flocks and herds without settled 

 homes. They were always ready to 

 make incursions into the bordering prov- 

 inces of China, and oftentimes succeeded 

 in effecting the conquest of a portion or 

 the whole of the Chinese Empire. 



It is startling to discover that one or 

 other of these Northern tribes, Mongol 

 or Manchu, has exercised the mastery 

 over China for seven hundred out of the 



