exhibition of that state and parade of which the
Chinese are so fond. But at the doors of the
examination hall there is a general levelling.
The credentials of patrician and plebeian are the
same. Proclamations are everywhere distributed,
calling upon all the candidates to have their
passports in order, assuring them that they will be
equally and honourably dealt with, requiring them
to be themselves honest, to employ no artifices, to
conceal nothing in their garments which may give
them any advantage over their competitors.

What adds greatly to the extraordinary interest
which relatives and family clans take in
these examinations, is the glory which is reflected
upon the whole race by the success of any one
of its members. In China, rank is hereditary,
not downwards, but upwards. They are the ancestors,
and not the descendants of the man that is
ennobled, who bear his titles and his honours.
When great dignities are conferred, the father,
grandfather, and the long line of predecessors
have distinctions conferred upon them. The
Chinese say, and with good reason, that they can
make themselves acquainted with the past, but
can have no security in the uncertainties of the
future. The good and the wise man, they contend,
is in himself a personal proof that he was trained
by the good and the wise; but who can foretell
what his children and grandchildren may be,
especially in remote generations? A sage may give
birth to a fool—a man of integrity to a knave.
The reverence for their ancestors—it has been
often called an idolatrous worship—is one of the
most distinguishing characteristics of the whole
Chinese nation; there are few men so wretched as
not to be able to trace back their origin for many
generations. Families—clans—have their
ancestral halls, which every child is taught to think
upon and to enter with reverence. Periodical
visits, never neglected, with offerings at the
graves of their progenitors, form a part of the
national habits. This perpetual reference to the
past, this almost universal belief "that the
former days were better than these," and must
be looked to for instruction and guidance, is,
indeed, the great barrier to improvement; but,
in the study of China, the backward-looking
tendencies of the whole nation must be constantly
kept in view as the true key for unlocking
many a seeming mystery, and explaining the
prejudices which otherwise appear inexplicable.
An exaggerated estimate of the national greatness,
and of the infinite superiority of the great
teachers of China to those of all other tribes and
tongues, has naturally led to a contempt for
everything that is foreign. The Taou-li, which
is the concentration of " reason and courtesy,"
the representative of the highest civilisation, is
believed to be unknown to the " outer peoples."
The earliest maps of the world—and the Chinese
possess many—exhibit the great central flowery
land surrounded by vast deserts, over which are
scattered wild animals and uninstructed men.
There is a circular border of about three
hundred miles in width, of which the portion most
adjacent to the empire was appropriated to
banished convicts, and the regions beyond to
various barbarous clans—the more savage as
the more removed from the polished centre. The
earliest books contain instructions for ruling the
man and the E barbarians, many of whom
brought their tribute to the imperial court, and
returned to their native haunts, having learnt
"obedience and submission." The Chinese
emperors claimed dominion over the whole
world, and the various modes of rule are
frequently referred to. " Our ancient kings," says
an old chronicler, " ruled China by a constituted
government—but the barbarians could not be
so controlled. Proper officers were appointed to
explain to them how their conduct should be
regulated. There would be terrible confusion
in introducing amongst barbarians our orderly
administrations, just as there would be in
attempting to regulate the conduct of wild animals
by enlightened laws." Confucius had expressed
a wish to reside among the " Nine tribes" of
barbarians. " How can you dwell," he was
asked, " among a people so degraded?" " How
can they remain degraded," he replied, " if a
good man dwells among them?" On more than
one occasion Confucius taught the Chinese that
though China was the fountain-head of order
and morality, there was much to learn from the
properly disciplined government of some of the
barbarians. Mencius also counsels one of the
kings "to extend his soothing influence over
barbarian tribes;" while in other places he says
that he has heard of the habits of the barbarians
being improved by the Chinese, but had never
heard that the Chinese had been improved by
the barbarians. Among the most popular proverbs
is one of few words: " Tenderness for what
is far away, affection for what is near."

No country in the world possesses so
admirable an educational organisation as China: it
embraces and permeates through the whole social
system. If the things taught were only as
perfect as are the means of teaching—if, in other
words, the laws to be administered were equal
to the facilities for their administration—if
the motives and the means for studying the
various results of modern civilisation and
advanced philosophy were such as are now
exclusively confined to researches into an ignorant,
or, at best, a half-instructed antiquity, the
development of mind would be marvellous.
Whenever a Bacon shall appear in an influential
position, seize and guide the handle of the wonderful
instructional machine in China, and proclaim
thus: " Let authority be barren, let experiment
be fertile," the intellectual revolution of a
third of the human race will be at hand. The
passion for literary distinction, if once
disassociated from the blind admiration for the
writings of the sages, and from the traditions of
the past, would be an all-potent fulcrum for the
elevation of the national mind. But European
influence will be enfeebled unless it is content to
recognise how very much there is that is truly
excellent in the Sacred Books of the Chinese,
whose ethical instructions are almost
unexceptionable, and which have moulded the laws and
the literature of China for a hundred generations,