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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



looks upon us as creatures of yesterday. 

 To him China is the Middle Kingdom — 

 not only the center, but the major part of 

 the earth. I once saw a Chinese map of 

 the world ; it was three feet square and 

 had a rim all around the edge one inch 

 wide which was marked as the place of 

 the outer barbarians ; the rest was the 

 "Middle Kingdom." 



The Chinaman wonders why the for- 

 eigner leaves his country at all. Is it too 

 small for him to make his living, or has 

 he come to observe the superior people? 

 If so, he is to be commended. But, alas ! 

 what a boor he is. What tight and un- 

 comfortable clothes he wears, like the 

 skins of beasts. How vulgarly he eats, 

 and especially what quantities of flesh he 

 devours. No wonder he is blood-thirsty 

 and loves to fight — he has taken on the 

 disposition of the beast. During the 

 Boxer trouble, in the traveling Punch 

 and Judy shows used to stir the people 

 all foreigners were represented on the 

 stage by the figure of a pig. Although 

 fully convinced of our cleverness, he yet 

 looks upon us as we do upon a trick 

 dog. He is finally forced to .the conclu- 

 sion that he must adopt these methods 

 which have made the foreigners so 

 powerful. 



the: highe;st honors accorded thk 



SCHOLAR 



It is difficult for us to understand the 

 amazing hold of these ideas upon the 

 Chinese mind. It begins in the village 

 school. The boy ready to become a 

 scholar is dressed like a Mandarin for 

 his first day ; elaborate preparations and 

 ceremonies impress his young mind. His 

 father accompanies him to school, where 

 he bows to the ground before the tab- 

 let of Confucius and then before the 

 teacher. 



Only a Chinaman can appreciate the 

 permanent uplift the boy receives from 

 the consciousness of his having now 

 entered upon the quest of scholarship. 

 That first impression never fades. That 

 this impression is phenomenally deep, not 

 only on him but on all the people, is 

 manifest by the high honor paid to the 

 scliolar. 



When the student who succeeds in 

 passing his first examination returns 

 home, every one in his village and neigh- 

 borhood turns out, dressed in holiday 

 attire, to honor him. Everybody brings 

 him a present and officials come in offi- 

 cial robes to congratulate his parents. 

 His household is privileged to erect two 

 tall poles before the door and place a 

 tablet over it stating this to be the home 

 of a scholar. 



But the real depth of the seriousness 

 with which the Chinese regard scholar- 

 ship is shown in the remarkable fact that 

 for five long years, from sunrise to sun- 

 set, this school-boy will pursue, under the 

 most discouraging conditions, the study 

 of reading and writing characters, with- 

 out knowing the meaning of a single one. 

 It is an awful grind, which no human 

 being could sustain save under the most 

 powerful stimulus. That stimulus is the 

 hope of being a scholar and an official. 



ANCESTRAL WORSHIP AND THE EEAR OF 



DEvn.s 



What passes for religion is simply a 

 conglomerate of ancestral worship or 

 filial piety, mixed with Buddhism and 

 Taoism. Translated into actual life, it is 

 superstition of the grossest and most 

 ridiculous kind. It controls every China- 

 man and in almost every portion of his 

 life from birth to death. 



It may be truly said that the influence 

 of the dead upon the living is even 

 greater than all other influences com- 

 bined. 



Undoubtedly the early religion of the 

 Chinese was the worship of the true God, 

 the Siong-Te of the present day. That 

 worship is represented by the Temple of 

 Heaven in Peking. There the Emperor, 

 a solitary figure, but surrounded by an 

 imposing retinue of princes and high offi- 

 cials, and as the representative of his 

 people, appears once a year to ofifer up 

 a whole and unblemished bullock as a 

 burnt ofifering. On the central stone of 

 a magnificent terraced platform of mar- 

 ble 250 feet in diameter and three stories 

 high, he kneels to ofifer prayer for his 

 people. No subject is permitted to take 

 part in this solemn act of worship. 



