16G REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 



1880 arrived in the Kiangnan Mission. Here for thirty-seven years he 

 worked with untiring energy and zeal; in addition to his labours as 

 evangelist, as shephered of souls, as professor in two Colleges in 

 Shanghai, he for years edited L'Echo de Chine, regularly translating 

 for that paper the chief official documents of the Chinese Government, 

 for in this task he was an expert. His great gifts as a sinologue have 

 become widely known through his contributions to the Varietes Sinolo- 

 giques, viz., Les Inscriptions Juives de Kai-fong-fou, (No. 17); 

 IS Exhortation a V Etude, (No. 26) ; and, lastly, the Kiao Ou Ki Lie, 

 now under review. 



To form an estimate of the value of any book it is necessary to 

 know its aims ; and in this case, these are eminently practical. H. E. 

 Chou Fu, with a lively sense of the Boxer movement and its calamitous 

 results, caused the work to be prepared, and brought it out in 1905, 

 avowedly as a practical guide to his subordinates in their treatment of 

 difficulties between Christians and non-Christians ; and the book was 

 translated to give foreigners (both individuals and governments) the 

 point of view of one of the most sincere and fair-minded of the high 

 officials under the Manchu regime, as well as to provide a collection of 

 important documents relating to religious matters in China in general. 



The work was actually translated in 1906, though from motives of 

 prudence (we are told) it was withheld from publication till recently. 

 But a great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since then ; 

 and it might seem at first sight that the book has been kept back 

 until it has only an academic interest. The China of 1918, it may 

 plausibly be said, no longer troubles about the opinions of officials 

 "under the former Ch'ings" ; nor are its views on Christianity as on 

 many other matters, those of 1905 ; the distinction between Christians 

 and non-Christians is no longer made under the Republic, etc., etc. 



To this it may be replied in the first place, that the work, as we 

 have it, contains no fewer than fifty-two appendices, the general 

 purpose of which is to bring the whole up-to-date, a document of 

 May 1st, 1915, being the latest. (Appendix XI is given by an error 

 the year 1919). 



In the second place, the opinions of H.E. Chou Fu and of the 

 class he represents are far more powerful than might appear. Back 

 of the Treaty Ports, of the returned students with their Western 

 learning, of the large and growing Christian constituencies, of the 

 fighting Tu-ckuns and quarrelsome politicians, lies China, on which, 

 after all, these things are but excrescences at present. Most old China 

 hands believe that the soundest part of that inarticulate mass is com- 

 posed of the good officials of the old regime. Many of them had 

 already quitted office before the Manchus fell, and are now in retire- 



