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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



200 B. C. by Li Ping, who has since be- 

 come the patron saint of Cheng-tu — the 

 only instance of which I am aware where 

 a civil engineer has become a patron 

 saint. He divided the Min into three 

 great delta systems of rivers and canals, 

 which radiate to all parts of the 8o-mile 

 plain. The waters are united again in 

 two main streams, which leave the south- 

 west and southeast borders of the plain 

 by the Min and the Lin rivers. He left 

 the people this motto for regulating the 

 canals : "Keep the banks low and the bot- 

 tom clean" ; and this wise counsel has 

 prevented the disastrous floods of ancient 

 times, while furnishing a never-failing 

 supply of mountain water for the fields. 



AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES 



It is not, however, this fertile plain, 

 with its irrigation and teeming millions ; 

 nor the city, with its ancient culture and 

 modern shops ; nor yet this wall, upon 

 whose battlements we lean, that claims 

 chief consideration, but a modern insti- 

 tution rising just beside it ; for, interest- 

 ing as is Old China, with its walled-in 

 peoples and civilization, it holds no such 

 world significance as the China of today, 

 which such institutions have in large 

 measure made possible. 



We are familiar with the magnitude 

 and importance of the work of American 

 colleges at Constantinople and Beirut, in 

 the Near East; but the far-reaching and 

 beneficent work of the Christian colleges 

 in the Far East is not so generally recog- 

 nized. In marked contrast to the Euro- 

 pean missionaries, who have placed com- 

 paratively little emphasis on education in 

 China, and especially higher education, 

 the American missionary enterprise and 

 Christian education have from the first 

 been inseparable and almost synonymous. 



In the training of China's sons the 

 American missionary not only prepared 

 many of the men who have taken high 

 place in the life of the nation, but he 

 created the impulse that led, the sons of 

 its first families to America to complete 

 their education. 



When the Manchu Dynasty was over- 

 thrown and China was floundering head- 

 lessly about, seeking to establish a new 

 dynasty or to re-establish the old Han 

 Dynasty of 4,600 years ago, it was a 



small group of men trained in Christian 

 and American colleges who were the 

 Jefferson and Hamilton of the Chinese 

 Constitution and who brought the most 

 ancient of monarchical countries in line 

 with the democracy of our day. 



The intimate relation of the Christian 

 college to the progress of the nation is 

 not, however, limited to parliament. 

 Graduates of these colleges are superin- 

 tending its great iron and steel plants, 

 directing its railways and telegraphs ; 

 holding portfolios in the cabinet and sit- 

 ting upon the Supreme Bench ; directing 

 in large measure the educational policy 

 of the nation and bearing their full share 

 of the spiritual responsibilities in the 

 church, the Christian schools, and the 

 Y. M. C. A. Should we look into the 

 embassies of that great, so-called heathen 

 nation, we meet Dr. V. K. Wellington 

 Koo at Washington and at London Hon. 

 Alfred S. K. Sze, M. A., both graduates 

 of a Chinese Christian college. 



CHANGING CUSTOMS ^N CHINA 



Ignorance, which breeds superstition 

 and bolsters wrong, is not confined to 

 China, but it has found Christian educa- 

 tion in that nation its worst enemy. 

 Many of the gods of yesterday have been 

 tumbled into the ash-heap to make way 

 for the school-boy with his books, and 

 what was religion to many yesterday is 

 useless superstition today. 



Customs that were respected hitherto 

 are now despised. For centuries little 

 children have been bound at the altar of 

 custom to hobble with constricted feet to 

 a painful old age. Preaching and protest 

 went unheeded until the Christian girls' 

 schools demonstrated that big - footed 

 women were the queens of the land, not 

 its slaves. Students now in government 

 schools are announcing that they will not 

 marry girls who have not natural feet, 

 and girls with bound feet parade the 

 streets with their little feet in big boots. 



The reason is evident. Big feet and 

 brains have come to be synonymous. 

 Government schools are refusing admis- 

 sion to bound- footed girls, and the bet- 

 ter classes are in the big-foot crusade. 

 Women in useful service have come with 

 the new order. 



