The Siege of Pekin 



55 



would endeavor to supplant them in the 

 occupation of China. They have ac- 

 cordingl}' been suspicious of ever3'thing, 

 whether commerce, missionary enter- 

 prise, or railways and mines, which 

 tended to increase the prestige of for- 

 eigners. Some of these undertakings 

 they have looked upon as a preemption 

 claim on their territory; others as a set- 

 tled' scheme for winning awa}^ the hearts 

 of their people. You will naturall}^ 

 infer that they have never shown them- 

 selves, with one exception which I shall 

 presently mention, very solicitous for 

 the intellectual enlightenment of their 

 Chinese subjects. 



The old philosopher, Laotse, lays 

 down as a maxim for easy government, 

 in satire no doubt, that it is only neces- 

 sary to fill the people's bellies and to 

 empty their skulls. On this the pres- 

 ent rulers of China — I mean the Empress 

 Dowager and her clique^are acting in 

 the suppression of schools, the interdic- 

 tion of newspapers, and the attempted 

 extirpation of Christian missions. 



THE REFORMS ATTEMPTED BY 

 EMPEROR KWANG SU. 



The exception is a remarkable one. 

 It is the young Emperor, Kwang Su, 

 who is in no degree responsible for hos- 

 tilities with foreign powers, but is rather 

 to be regarded as the first victim on a 

 long and sanguinar}^ list. Nephew of 

 the Empress Dowager, he was adopted 

 by her at the age of three. 



With a view to preparing him for his 

 great destin}', he was provided with 

 numerous instructors, two of whom were 

 my own students. Their duty was to 

 induct His Majesty into a knowledge of 

 the English language, and, in order to 

 be sure that the lessons which they set 

 for him were correct, they always sub- 

 mitted them to me for approval. I shall 

 not affirm, therefore, that I ani entirely 

 innocent of having exerted some influ- 

 ence to bias the mind of the young 

 Emperor. 



It is impossible that he should have 

 studied English without becoming in- 

 fected with progressive ideas. Still, the 

 blame, or the honor, of having perverted 

 the mind of the ' ' illustrious successor ' ' 

 (as his name signifies) belongs to Kang 

 Yu Wei more than to any one else. This 

 patriotic scholar perceived the necessity 

 of reforming the educational system of 

 China in order to secure the permanent 

 independence of hiscountr3^ He gained 

 the ear of the Emperor, and of that young 

 man it is no little praise to say that he 

 possessed the intellectual capacity to 

 comprehend the ideas of the bold re- 

 former and the strength of will to resolve 

 on carrying them into effect. 



He issued decree after decree, with 

 startling rapidity, setting aside the effete 

 system of essays and sonnets in civil 

 service examinations, in favor of the 

 sciences and practical arts of the modern 

 world. 



In order to prepare students for these 

 new tests, a system of common schools 

 was to be established, Taoist, Buddhist, 

 and Confucian temples being placed at 

 their disposal. Middle schools were to 

 be established in all the districts, and 

 colleges in the several provinces, with a 

 new university in the capital for the 

 graduates of provincial institutions and 

 for the sons of the nobility. 



Nor did His Majesty stop with educa- 

 tional reform. He diligently sought to 

 prune away the dead branches of the tree 

 in order to increase the quantity and im- 

 prove the quality of its fruit. Sinecures 

 in the Mandarinate were abolished, and 

 new bureaus inaugurated, such as those 

 for commerce, mining, and agriculture. 



More than all, he resolved to confer 

 on his people the priceless boon of free 

 speech, ordaining that even junior offi- 

 cials should have the privilege of ad- 

 dressing the throne without let or hin- 

 drance. 



This was the rock on which his noble 

 scheme of reform was shattered. A 

 young man, a doctor in the Han Lin, 

 who was well known to me, through a 



