THIRTY THOUSAND MILES IN CHINA 7 



Remember that before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, 

 China s system of education began, which with a revision in 

 a.d. 627 continued until 1905 to drill all the scholars and 

 statesmen of the realm in a system of ethics the cardinal 

 principle of which is filial piety, and then compare their 

 history with the promise contained in the Hebrew decalogue 

 which says "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days 

 may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth 

 thee," and I, for one, believe that you have noted at least 

 one of the reasons for the survival of the Chinese people. 



Five Imperial Burial Grounds have been visited. Near 

 Peking in three different directions are three such areas: 

 The Ming Tombs near Nankow, much visited by tourists and 

 possessing the finest setting of any of the imperial graves by 

 reason of a great ampitheatre of mountains; the Tungling 

 or Eastern tombs at Malanyu, east and slightly north of 

 Peking by cart, where the late Empress Dowager lies buried 

 behind a series of ornate buildings with most gorgeous roofs 

 of yellow glazed porcelain; and the Shihling or Western 

 Tombs to which one may journey practically all the way by 

 rail via Kaopeitien on the Peking-Hankow line. Here the 

 last Emperor lies buried. At both the Eastern and the 

 Western tombs there are immense graves of cypress in the 

 midst of which stand the shrines. 



At Nanking are the tombs of the Southern Mings with a 

 mile of huge stone figures flanking the avenue of approach 

 just as at Nankow in the north. 



In Southern Shensi and Western Honan are the enormous 

 but simple mounds of earth which mark the resting places of 

 the Elans and the Tangs. These and the two Ming burying 

 grounds are of Chinese kings, while the Eastern and the 

 W 7 estern tombs are of Manchu monarchs. All are truly 

 imperial in their conception and dimensions. 



Nor can we forget our pilgrimage to the birth and burial- 

 place of Confucius, at Kufu, in the ancient Kingdom of Lu 

 (now the province of Shantung) where the 75th lineal des- 

 cendant of the Sage so worthily bears to-day the title of 

 Duke, and cares for the graves of his ancestor marked by a 

 stone bearing the simple yet majestic inscription "Most Holy 

 Ancient Teacher. 



There are five principal kinds of highways in China, just 

 as elsewhere in the world; though up till now the relative 

 importance of certain ones is much greater in China than in 

 most other countries : Waterways, footpaths, pack trails, 

 cart roads, and railways. Roughly speaking China is a 

 country of no good roads. The chief reasons are not far to 

 seek. In the great delta regions of the West and Yangtze 



