^54 



The National Geographic Magazine 



to the public service. For many centu- 

 ries the competitive examinations, hoary 

 with age and venerated by the literati 

 and the great mass of the officials, had 

 been the road to imperial honor and 

 office. If that system was to continue it 

 was plain that the progressive men of the 

 Empire would not be able to make the 

 spread of modern education a permanent 

 success. Hence in 1905 an important 

 step was taken by them. Six of the most 

 influential officials, together with others, 

 joined in a memorial to the throne to 

 abolish the ancient curriculum of studies 

 and adopt a new one for the competitive 

 examinations, which would embrace the 

 modern learning as taught in the new 

 schools. At the head of these was Chang 

 Chih-tung, described by Minister Rock- 

 hill as the most celebrated living scholar 

 in China; next came Yuan Shih-kai, the 

 most powerful man today in the Empire, 

 and four others, the more important vice- 

 roys and governors of provinces. It was 

 an array of names which indicated in a 

 most impressive way the strong hold 

 which the reform movement had taken 

 upon the country. Although the memo- 

 rial was stoutly opposed by the conserva- 

 tives in the Court circle, it was approved 

 by the Emperor and Empress Dowager 

 and an edict was issued abolishing the old 

 curriculum of study and the new system 

 adopted. Henceforth no one can pass 

 the competitive examination who has not 

 pursued with success the required course 

 in modern learning. 



The importance of this step can hardly 

 be exaggerated. It was the culmination 

 of a bitter contest for reform ; but its suc- 

 cess does not indicate the end of the diffi- 

 culties for the new education. The great- 

 est defect of the movement is that it has 

 no well-planned and methodical system, 

 with the power and resources to support 

 it. Its advocates recognize this, and a 

 central board of education has been or- 

 ganized at Peking to meet this difficulty. 

 Its task is attended by serious embarrass- 

 ments. Its members are themselves in 

 large measure ignorant of their duties, 

 and unless they call in expert assistance 



they are likely to make grave mistakes. 

 There are no funds at their disposal and 

 resources have to be provided. These 

 will come from taxation and voluntary 

 contributions. The latter are being made 

 with surprising liberality, both in the cap- 

 ital and in the provincial cities, in some 

 instances as much as ten thousand taels 

 being contributed by single individuals. 



OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD PROHIBITED 



It will indicate something of the ear- 

 nest spirit which is enlisted in this educa- 

 tional movement if I give one or two in- 

 stances of the methods resorted to for 

 adding to the funds to sustain it. Within 

 the present year the commissioner of po- 

 lice of Tientsin, a city of over a million 

 of inhabitants, has issued an official noti- 

 fication prohibiting the holding of cele- 

 brations or making offerings to the dead 

 on the great festival of All Souls. The 

 commissioner strongly advises the people 

 to contribute to the educational fund the 

 money intended to be spent in offering 

 sacrifices to the spirits ; as, he says, "with 

 a view of equipping themselves and their 

 families for the exercise of electoral 

 power." 



In August last the Shanghai magis- 

 trate agreed to issue a proclamation, in 

 response to the petition of the native edu- 

 cational committee and the commercial 

 association, exhorting the people of that 

 district to divert the large sums of money 

 used during the three festivals for the 

 dead to the vastly more worthy and prac- 

 tical object of endowing and establishing 

 more schools of modern learning. An 

 extract from the account of these festi- 

 vals in the Shanghai News will show how 

 appropriate is the official exhortation for 

 the increase of intelligence among the 

 Chinese people. It states that immense 

 sums of money are expended by the vota- 

 ries of the Taoist and Buddhist religions 

 in Shanghai and everywhere in the Em- 

 pire in the purchase of incense, candles, 

 paper clothes and money to burn on the 

 three festivals of the dead to the use of 

 the inhabitants of the nether regions, who 

 at that time are let out from hades to re- 



