54 



The National Geographic Magazine 



last fifteen hundred j^ears ; nor are the 

 troubles caused by them limited to seven 

 centuries, for the Great Wall, so huge as 

 to form a geographical feature on the 

 surface of the globe, attests a perennial 

 conflict between Tatar and Chinese, for 

 it was erected two hundred and forty 

 years before the Christian era for the ex- 

 press purpose of keeping the Tatars out. 

 That such a conflict should exist from 

 generation to generation is no matter of 

 surprise. Schiller tells us that it began 

 not far from the Garden of Eden, and 

 has been handed down from Cain and 

 Abel to the present time. His version of 

 the Bible story is that Abel's sheep tres- 

 passed on the cornfields of his brother 

 Cain. 



A Chinese historian says of the Great 

 Wall : "It required so much labor for its 

 construction that it was the ruin of one 

 generation, but it was the salvation of 

 all that followed." To me this appears 

 to be an overestimate of its benefits; for 

 while it has undoubtedly served the pur- 

 pose of a barrier against small bodies of 

 marauders, it has never sufficed to re- 

 strain great armies like those of Jenghis 

 Khan. The Manchus, who for two hun- 

 dred and fifty-six years have held the 

 throne in Pekiu, were not under the 

 necessity of forcing their way across this 

 international barrier, but had its gates 

 thrown wide open for them by a Chinese 

 general, Wu San Kwei. He invited 

 their assistance to suppress a body of 

 rebels who had taken possession of the 

 capital, and to revenge the crimes com- 

 mitted by them, an errand very similar 

 to that of the eight powers now in occu- 

 pation of China. The rebels were easily 

 put to flight, but when the general of- 

 fered to pay off his Tatar allies and in- 

 vited them to retire to the north of the 

 Great Wall, they respectfully declined 

 to do so. 



An old fable tells us that an ass, in 

 danger of being driven from his pasture 

 grounds by a horned stag, invited a 

 primitive man to mount on his back and 



drive away his enemy. When the stag 

 was put to flight, he asked the man to 

 dismount ; but he was an ass to imagine 

 that the man would comply with his 

 wishes. 



China finds herself in the same pre- 

 dicament today . Instead of the Manchu- 

 Tatars, ranged curiously enough under 

 eight banners, she finds herself com- 

 pletely under the power of the eight 

 mightiest nations of the globe. They are 

 in the saddle, with their bit in the ass's 

 mouth, and though that noble beast, like 

 that of the ancient prophet, speaks with 

 human voice, and utters an energetic pro- 

 test, it remains to be seen whether some 

 of these eight nations will not persist in 

 keeping their place in the saddle. 



The fact that China is and has been 

 under foreign domination for two cen- 

 turies and a half is essential to the com- 

 prehension of that astounding movement 

 which has so engrossed the attention of 

 the world. 



What motives, we are asked, could 

 prove themselves so potent in their effect 

 on all classes in that empire as to bring 

 about combined action of high and low 

 for the expulsion of foreigners? I an- 

 swer that there are three motives which, 

 taken in connection with the circum- 

 stances of the age, appear to me to be 

 sufficient to account for the phenome- 

 non. They are: first, political jealousy, 

 second, religious antipathy, and last, 

 but not least, industrial competition. 

 These have operated in different propor- 

 tions on different classes, while in some 

 instances all three have combined to 

 produce their effect on the mind of one 

 class. The existence of political jeal-_ 

 ousy is inseparable from a foreign domi- 

 nation. 



The Manchu dynasty, though it has 

 produced many able rulers, has never 

 been free from the influence of that kind 

 of jealousy. The Manchus have always 

 feared, since the dawn of commercial 

 intercourse with the great nations of 

 the west, that some of those nations 



