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The National Geographic Magazine 



tercourse and deprived them of so many 

 of the attributes of sovereignty possess 

 elements of power and prosperity which 

 they do not enjoy. It has at last become 

 apparent to them that the system, vene- 

 rated for its antiquity, which has made 

 of them a great and enduring race, must 

 in the light of modern civilization be so 

 modified in its social, industrial, and gov- 

 ernmental features as to enable them to 

 compete with the western nations in pros- 

 perity, power, and independence. 



Hence a new era has dawned upon 

 China. It shall be my purpose to show 

 the steps which have been and are being 

 taken by its government and people to 

 bring them abreast of modern progress, 

 and to enable them to take their proper 

 place among the nations of the earth — 

 a place which the vision of a political seer 

 might fix in the van of all the nations. 



Probably the most distinguishing char- 

 acteristic of this ancient Empire and peo- 

 ple has been their intellectual development 

 and education. In the first epoch of even 

 their prehistoric age their study of phi- 

 losophy was noted, and centuries before 

 Christ they had produced in Confucius 

 and Mencius philosophers who stand on 

 a level of intellectual attainments with 

 Socrates and with the best products of 

 ancient or modern times. We shall see 

 that they possessed a code of laws and 

 system of jurisprudence at least contem- 

 poraneous with Hammurabi and many 

 centuries before Justinian. For nearly 

 two thousand years they have made scho- 

 lastic attainments the first requisite to 

 admission to the public service, and 

 schools under the patronage of the gov- 

 ernment have for many centuries existed 

 in every province and district of the Em- 

 pire. 



THE REFORM IN EDUCATION 



But the curriculum of education was 

 confined to Chinese subjects — to a study 

 of its classics, its history, poetry, system 

 of government and society. Up to a 

 very recent date an educated Chinese 

 knew little or nothing of the outside his- 

 tory of the world, its philosophy or lit- 



erature, its science or economics. As a 

 result, they ranked abroad as an ignorant 

 race, and their public men, although pos- 

 sessed often of superior intellectual en- 

 dowments, stood at a great disadvantage 

 in their intercourse with foreign govern- 

 ments and in commercial affairs. 



Besides, education was confined to a 

 limited class of the people — to those who 

 were seeking admission to the public 

 service or to what were known as the 

 literati or gentry of the community. The 

 great mass of the population were un- 

 educated, being unable to read or write, 

 and almost entirely ignorant of the world 

 beyond, although possessed of a knowl- 

 edge of their local rights, with a dispo- 

 sition to assert them. To this ignorance 

 was added a blind superstition, which in- 

 fluenced their every-day life and espe- 

 cially their intercourse with foreigners. 



It became evident, not only to the 

 rulers, but to the intelligent people, that 

 China could never attain her true posi- 

 tion among the nations until a radical 

 change was made in its educational sys- 

 tem. First, the course of study must be 

 entirely changed, the old method of an 

 exclusive instruction in Chinese studies 

 be given a subordinate place, and the 

 modern course, or what is known as the 

 western learning, assigned to the promi- 

 nent position; second, the schools must 

 not be confined to the literati and aspir- 

 ants for office, but extended to the com- 

 mon people as fully and as rapidly as 

 possible. 



Following this program, a great change 

 has taken place in the last few years. In- 

 telligent viceroys like Chang Chih-tung 

 and Yuan Shih-kai did not wait for an 

 imperial initiative from Peking, but upon 

 their own ..authority they entered upon 

 the work of establishing schools of west- 

 ern learning. Other viceroys and gov- 

 ernors, inspired by their example, fell in 

 with the movement, and the authorities 

 in the prefectures and districts are striv- 

 ing to meet the popular demand for the 

 new schools; so that the movement has 

 spread rapidly throughout the entire Em- 

 pire, and there is not a single one of the 



