THE HUNGRY HORDE OF LITERATI IN CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2427, 19 September 1900, Page 70

THE HUNGRY HORDE OF LITERATI IN CHINA.

In a book just published, " China, the Long-lived Empire," the authoress, Miv Scidimore, remarks that one of the signs of decadence which China presents is tlie class of unemployed, literati. " Peking is filled with disappointed scholars," says the author, " who have failed at the examinations', and have a scorn of trade or honest work, and there are horn 30.000 to 80,000 waiting graduates in the empire, successful candidates who have passed the ordeal, but lack the money or influence necessary to secure a Government office." That is a danger which no capital can face with equanimity ; and thia useless mob, inspired by hunger and hate of the foreigner, niiist needs have bocn a, constant threat to the Embassies of Peking.

But the worst danger oi all has been and remain ■> the a'tutc Kmpress, whom 2vli.=s ficidmore .sketches with amazing energy. " There ha\e been Empresses Kegent before in China," she says ; "cut no precedents avail for comparison with thra masteriul llanchu, Tbze Hsi An, the most remarkable woman sovereign and most unbridled female despot tho world ha* known. She rose from the harem' b ranks, uneducated, ignorant of public offairn; but by sheer ability, by her own wils, will, and shrewdness, she attained the supreme power. Hers i= the greatest of personal triumphs, her ftrenglh of mind and io-ce of chaiacler, and dominant personality, having won every Dtep ; centuries' of precedent and all the shackles of Oriental etiquette OAciborno by her masterful Mrateoy and rc-inoi'^elc-,-5 will. Her enemies have fallen away, sickened and died, end scattered rs chaff; no one has opposed her will and survived ; no plot or intrigue has availed agaimt her; no conspirator ha= found her unarmed or off hor guard: and hers has been a charmed, lelentless, terrible life." The porlioit does not lack -» erisimilitude, and its truthfulness explains, perhaps, the discomfiture of the European Powcs and Ihe failure of modern diplomacy.