CHINA.

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14764, 1 October 1921, Page 9 (Supplement)

CHINA.

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN. a (By "Marama.") We have lately had the name or China brought frequently into prominence. It is as well to say the name because to the vast majority of people China is but a name. The huge limpiro lies like a wounded whale at the mercy of harpooners, and the powers are anout to take counsel together . respecting the manner in which they shall treat the country. It is a momentous problem of more importance to the world at large than most of us realise. It is to be hoped that botli wisdom and goodwill will be shown by those who have to consider the matter, for it is as often the lack of the second as of the first which brings deliberations to naught, and there is no outside knowledge or public opinion to check any mistakes should such be made. Arrested Development. The problem of China is the stranger, the more it is inquired into. If we go back to the centuries when Europe relapsed into barbarism, after the Ro- . man Empire had fallen, China was flourishing. She had literature, science and art. Order prevailed; there was a fair average of comfort, with no great inequalities of wealth. It escaped the breakdown of Government which plunged Europe into the Dark Ages, and had many centuries of comparative prosperity. Why did she not advance from this stage? For this stage lasted r .< until late in the Nineteenth Century. ''"} Those who have made a study t of Chinese conditions are by no means agreed on the causes which led to this quiescent condition. Some attribute it to the curious want of an alphabet, which reduces writing to a series of ■ separate pictures, and condemns an educated man to spend the greater part of his life in learning him to read anything beyond the simplest matter. ■ Others think it due to the fact that so argc a proportion of the people are mgaged on a very primitive form of igriculture, which absorbs all their snergies in providing a living. Against this it is pointed out that the Chinaman has always been a' successful trader, and that large towns have always been in existence. The immense numbers of the population have been regarded as one reason why conditions, remained stationary. Among smaller numbers there is contact with other races; sometimes by invasion, sometimes by peaceful penetration. The want of such opportunities for the exchange of ideas leads to stagnation as we are likely to find if we persist In our present policy of seclusion. One or all of the above reasons may have contributed to the singular persistence of China in the beaten path, but taken all together they seem a scarcely adequate explanation. Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, Where are They? Mr H. G. Wells, who abounds in ideas, suggests that every nation has a flowering period,-together,with interminable stretches of arid existence. He quotes the Arabs', who led the world for a. brief period in the early days of Mohammedanism, though they had not distinguished themselves before, nor have they done so since. He says Italy was singularly deficient ; n .. art, literature, or science during the days of the Roman Empire, but shone forth in-great-magnificence during the • ' Renaissance. He might have quoted the fifty years of greatness that Spain showed, 'followed by three centuries of decadence, or the glories of Greece during the.stage of the city states and the eclipse it has suffered since. It may be that China shone for so long with a certain mild effulgence that her time has come for alarums and excursions, for wars and rumours of war. It is, however, an uncanny doctrine, and if we accept it, we shall be taken rnuc'h further than we anticipate. Europe as a whole has for the past tour centuries led the world. Four centuries is not long, compared with the histories of China or Babylon or Egypt, but with most of us it might -as well be eternity. It is only since ' Europe discovered America that it has forged ahead of Asia. When Columbus made his memorable voyage Constantinople was an immeasurably - greater city than London or Paris. The division of the trade routes and the rule of the Turk deprived it of pre-emin-ence in spite of its unrivalled geographical position, but it is possible to imagine conditions which would restore its greatness. It is painful, however, for us to conceive such ' changes as the revival of Asiatic greatness and the return of the Dark Ages to Europe. There are More Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio. There is another cause given for Chinese stagnation, in addition to those quoted. For many centuries two forms of religion flourished in China, the Confucian and the Taoist, and the struggle between them terminated -, about.seven hundred years since in the f f ~ success of the former. The Confucian ' ' religion deals with the relations of man to his fellow men; flic Taoist deals with his relations with the Infinite. Our knowledge of the Confucian religion is small, but it is commonly understood to be a code ot . morality, of a line type, anil that it has done very much for the national character- It most certainly seems to be effective, if we may judge from the testimony of those who have lived 'a the country. Almost without exception they have a good word for the people. Fifty years ago there was a great prejudice against thorn in America and in these colonies; one would like to .say it was confined lo the vulgar, but the truth is that it was general. We have learnt better since, and although we do not wish to welcome them in numbers, we base our objection on something moie tangible than imagined vices. This is not a large world. The Chinese are commonly supposed to constitute from twenty to twenty-five per cent of its population. We cannot help biit feel an interest.in their welfare, for in this crowded space it wilt react on our own. It is not flattering to our pretentions thai we should know so little of the history, conditions, problems, and ideas of such a large' part of the world's inhabitants. When we have an effective University it- Will include some professor of foreign knowledge, who will at least bo able to tell us where to look for information, and will be able to some small extent to lighten' our darkness.