Present Conditions in China 



653 



eighteen provinces in which the new sys- 

 tem has not been established. 



The metropolitan province of Chihli, 

 feeling the new inspiration of the court, 

 has done most in this direction. In 

 Peking the new schools are rapidly in- 

 creasing, and in the adjoining district of 

 Tung Chou alone as many as ninety are 

 reported. Under the special direction of 

 the Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai, more than 

 three thousand have been opened in the 

 province and are in operation. A similar 

 condition exists in the provinces under 

 the sway of the venerable Viceroy Chang 

 Chih-tung. At Nanking, the ancient 

 capital and the seat of an important vice- 

 royalty, the new learning has been warmly 

 received. It will indicate something of 

 the interest shown in this direction when 

 I mention that a Japanese gentleman, de- 

 scribed as "of forceful personality and 

 scholarly attainments," who is now on a 

 visit to the leading cities of China to ex- 

 plain to her students and scholars the 

 secret of Japan's wonderful progress, a 

 few weeks ago delivered a series of lec- 

 tures at Nanking which were attended by 

 five hundred students of the collegiate 

 institutions there. It is reported that he 

 eloquently set forth patriotism, a broad- 

 minded willingness to learn, and the 

 sense of individual rights as the secret 

 of what Japan has done and urged the 

 Chinese to follow in the same path. 



This educational movement is not con- 

 fined to the ordinary common schools 

 and colleges, but in various of the prov- 

 inces there are being founded normal and 

 agricultural institutes, manual-training 

 schools, schools for mechanical engineer- 

 ing, electricity, use of modern machinery, 

 and the like. In most of the schools 

 physical exercise has been introduced, a 

 complete innovation for the Chinese, and 

 the branch of western civilization exem- 

 plified in base and foot ball, cricket, &c, 

 is heartily welcomed by them. 



SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS INAUGURATED 



The most gratifying feature of the new 

 movement is the readiness with which 

 the Chinese have accepted schools for 



girls and the rapidity with which female 

 education, hitherto unknown, has spread 

 throughout the country. The Empress 

 Dowager set the example by ordering 

 that a large Lama convent be transformed 

 into a girls' school, and several princesses 

 have undertaken to establish such schools 

 at their own expense in Peking, and be- 

 sides have started schools in their own 

 palaces for their daughters and their 

 relatives. There are now in Peking a 

 number of public girls' schools in which 

 are taught arithmetic, geography, for- 

 eign history, and languages, and in many 

 of them music, drawing, calisthenics, 

 needlework, writing, physiology, hygiene, 

 and nursing. By an order of the board 

 of education, no pupils whose feet are 

 bound are admitted to these schools. As 

 indicating the advance in female educa- 

 tion, a project is being carried into effect 

 by Yuan Shih-kai to establish a female 

 medical school. 



Tuan Fang, who was a member of the 

 imperial commission which visited the 

 United States and Europe early in the 

 present year, has on his return to Peking 

 awakened a new interest in female edu- 

 cation by the report of his observations, 

 especially in the United States, which led 

 the board of education to take measures, 

 it is stated, to push ahead female schools 

 throughout the Empire without any fur- 

 ther procrastination. Tuan Fang's idea 

 is that graduates of female high and nor- 

 mal schools may be put in charge of 

 primary schools, and, with a constantly 

 growing number of educated women, 

 children will have in the near future the 

 valuable privilege of a mother's teaching 

 at home, the real school for patriots. 

 None, he says, are greater patriots and 

 more loyal to a government than women. 



THE LITERARY EXAMINATIONS, CENTURIES 



OLD IN PRACTICE, HAVE BEEN 



ABOLISHED 



After the schools of modern learning 

 had been established all over the Empire, 

 the important question arose what was 

 to become of the literary examinations, 

 through which admission was obtained 



