Japan and China 



71 



preserving what has been created rather 

 than in producing aught of credit for 

 the present. 



It must be conceded that the signs of 

 past abihty in nearly every direction of 

 human thought and labor compare favor- 

 ably with the remains of any nation ; 

 and with that China is satisfied. Pro- 

 gress and the adaptation of the mental 

 ])Owers to the requirements of modern 

 needs find no favor with the average 

 Chinaman ; and perhaps it is in some 

 sense fortunate for our amour propre that 

 it is so, for if the tremendous mental 

 acumen and brain subtlety possessed by 

 this singular and very gifted race were 

 earnestly applied to the problems of 

 modern life it is extremely doubtful if 

 the intellectual superiority of the Cau- 

 casian would be so much in evidence as 

 appears at present. 



In real mental power, in the ability to 

 grasp the most abstruse conceptions, I 

 doubt if there can be found the equal of 

 the better class of Chinese scholar. 



The native of Japan and his j^ellow 

 brother of China have, however, a 

 marked characteristic in common, and 

 so pervading is this trait and so impor- 

 tant as an indication of remote common 

 origin that I think sufficient stress has 

 not been laid upon it by ethnologists and 

 observers. I refer to the persistence and 

 infinite patience shown in carrying out 

 the greatest works without the aid of 

 machinery — "infinite repetition of in- 

 dividual effort ' ' in all branches of labor. 

 In the minds of the people of these two 

 nations time is not an element entering 

 into calculation, and the cost of a piece 

 of work is apparently computed with 

 sole reference to the quantity of labor 

 expended without taking into account 

 the time as such. 



The native of Japan is willing to ad- 

 mit that he is not the aboriginal — that 

 is, that he displaced a preceding race — 

 and in doing so either absorbed or de- 

 stroyed that race. 



Not so the proud and haughty subject 



of the Son of Heaven. He aspires to be 

 first in everything, and in consequence 

 has convinced himself that his race is 

 the onl}^ one ever inhabiting the land 

 where reigns the Celestial Empire. The 

 Chinaman contends that he is aboriginal, 

 actually to the manor born, and that 

 China belongs to the Chinese because no 

 other race ever occupied the soil. 



It must be admitted that the argument 

 is on the side of the Chinaman, for no 

 history or literature contains the slight- 

 est mention of his predecessors. The 

 written records of Japan and China are 

 daily becoming more accessible to the 

 western scholar, and, notwithstanding 

 the disbelief in their accuracy and value, 

 these ancient documents will probably 

 give as much real historj^ as other ancient 

 records of nations better known to the 

 scholastic world. 



In the matter of domestic architecture 

 Japan and China are at the antipodes. 

 Throughout the Mikado's Empire the 

 people inhabit structures of wooden 

 framework surrounded by paper walls, 

 so that a fierce wind will often blow 

 the sides of a house in on one side and 

 out on the other. The roofs of these 

 slightly built houses are, however, of 

 strong and heavy timbers, bearing a 

 covering of earthen tiles or thick thatch- 

 ing. The frequent and widespread con- 

 flagrations in Japanese cities are not re- 

 garded as inflictions to be regretted; on 

 the contrar}^ the huge fires which some- 

 times consume hundreds of dwellings 

 are looked upon as blessings, their clean- 

 sing and sanitary effects more than off- 

 setting the material losses. 



The almost painful cleanliness in a 

 Japanese house is a never-ending subject 

 of comment by foreigners, and the heart- 

 iness with which the maids of all work 

 rub and scrub and deluge with water 

 every available bit of wood-work is a 

 real revelation of the innate cleanliness 

 of the " little brown man " and all his 

 belongings. The result of all this per- 

 sistent cleaning is that throughout the 



