THE FLOWERY REPUBLIC

Northern Advocate, 27 August 1913, Page 2

THE FLOWERY REPUBLIC

THE TWO I'KOTAGOMSTS.

SUN VAT SEN AND YUAN SHIH KAI. "A man has arisen in the wilderness of men where the West has said no man existed." In his interesting book telling the story of the revolution in China, Mr Frederick McCormick, who acted for several years as a special correspondent in Peking, gives some account of the life histony, and depicts the character k>f some of the men who are now taking a prominent part in the drama which is being acted in China at the present moment. The passage quoted above is the text of an entertaining sketch of the President, Yuan Shih Kai. "In his hook, which he entitles "The Flowery Republic," Mr McCormick seeks to show that this is the true Golden Age for China. "There is an idea in the world," he says, "that China has grown old, and that her civilisation is in decay, whereas, under the system which she has developed in the past, China has reached the pinnacle of earthly glory so far as she has ever known earthly glory." After the Mongols extinguished the powers of conquest in Western Asia, leaving Europe - disposed of, so to speak, China was free to absorb the so-called barbarian tribes remaining on her borders, and she steadily grew and progressed until she is larger, greater, more prosperous than ever before, and exhibits a greater proportion, as well as a larger number, of contented, if not happy, human beings than are to be found elsewhere on the globe. Civilisation should treasure these facts, as time brings its revolutionary crash, supercilious iconoclasm, and sacrilege." Whether Mr McCormick would write in the same way in the light of more recent events is at least doubtful, but he is undoubtedly on sound lines when he refers to the fact that the ruling Manchu Dynasty, though old, degenerate, and decrepit, was not unaware of China's situation, and had a truer knowledge of its own situation than the others. But the revolutionary temper of the. people was too strong for the modernisation which the Dynasty attempted, which only increased the avidity of the revolutionaries, and hurried on rebellion. "Everything led down, down, down. With the knowledge of its impending fate, the Dynasty descended, open-eyed, under the ministry of its "patriarchal high priest, Prince Chin, into perdition. We who love great events are fortunate to witness the passing of PHaraohs, of Caesars, and of . Moghuls in our time." YUAN SHIH KAI. But Mr McCormick's book is most interesting when it gives some insight into the personal characteristics of some of the great Chinamen associated with the revolutionary movement. The man who had arisen in the wilderness of men—Yuan Shih Kai— had been hailed as "the one man." There was. one Manchu, the Dowager Empress; there was one Chinese, Yuan Shih Kai. "For him the times called, and "he came. Now he is President of 'The Flowery lepublic,' the finished man of r>4, of pure Chinese lineage, the product of the revolutionary era in Eastern Asia." He had a short way with the Boxers in 1900, when he was Governor of Shantung. A Boxer delegation visitied him at his yamen in Tsinan-fu. It was received with great politeness, and Governor Yuan Shih Kai listened to all it had to say. The Boxers claimed to be invulnerable to bullets, and at the conclusion of the interview they were told that he would test their.claims at having achieved

invulnerability by Boxer rites, had them stood up against the wall bet'or his soldier, and shot."

At the end of 1001, when he succeeded Li Hung Chang as Viceroy of Chili, he was a handsome man of forty-three, with mobile swarthy face and typical Chinese drooping moustache. He came by train, surrounded by the bodyguard essential to the dignity of a t high Chinese official, and necessary for his protection. He was in his big mandarin clothes, such as all officials wear. His outer long coat was of plum colour, with the insignia of official rank on the breast and back —embroidered animals for the military, birds for the civil officials—and the official round turban, mounted by a button, indicating degree of rank. > A PICTURESQUE BODYGUARD. "Representatives, of the administration of the metropolitan province and of the foreign Powers thronged the railway station at Tientsin. If is a sidelight on Chinese character, and upon the idiosyncrasies of Yuan Shih Kai, that during the period of his rise to power he kept four soldiers of uncommon stature as his personal bodyguard to impress the populace. He passed in his chair, borne by four chair-bearers, with two .of these giants in their plum-colored Chinese uniforms, with black trimmings and velvet boots, turbans, and with swords on each side. The foreign Icivil and military repi-esesntataves — British, Japanese, French, Italian, and others —in the uniforms of their different services, saluted, and he returned their courtesies by bowing his head and occasionally saluting with ris hand in the Western fashion. ■' Yuan Shih Kai's administration at Tientsin was efficient, if brutal. He had no compunction in executing a thousand people in a district where some rioting had taken place, and, in explaining the act, he said "foreigners may not think well of me for .'doing this, nor of this method, but it is my way." During his early official career he never went abroad, knew no foreign language, and was without "any special literary attainments such as generally distinguish the mandarins of China. ARROGANCE PERSONIFIED. "Nobody understands the meaning of the term' arrogance " said an American diplomat, "who didn"t know ance personified. He would not ance personified. He woould not meet or associate with the Ministers of other Powers unless he was allowed to occupy a sort of throne and 'receive , them as though they were vassal envoys. . . He was in my time .just a big, brutal, sensual, rollicking Chinaman. Having vast powers, he frequently cut off the heads of Chinese gamblers and others, -and I was an unwilling witness to some of these streetside pastimes of his. He would imprison Korean gentlemen who objected to parting with their .ancestral estates in order that they might be used to enlarge Yuan's palatial legation." SUN VAT SEN. Mr McCormick describes his impression of his interview with Sun Vat Sen thus:—"A half-foolish, halfsad smile played round his mouth —he seemed more like Siamese or Burmese than Chinese, and his small stature added nothing of impressiveness to him. It was somewhat strange— half disappointing, half wonderful. Here was the man who it appeared had done the one thing in all the world most needful. Everything about him was simple, and his manners took me off guard—he was most, like a simple boy. He seemed to be dreaming of some yet greater event, perhaps a yet greater fate which he saw dimly and was trying to make out. It was as though he felt a martyrdom, of which he was not fully conscious, to be hanging over him. I did not wish to leave him. There was no doubt of his magnetism, often proved by the fact that when he was farthest way his followers were most loyal to him."