Routledge Revivals
China in the Family of Nations
This title, first published in 1923, aimed to provide a brief survey of the historical setting necessary for an understanding of Chinas relations with the West. The book explained and estimated the various forces that were working in China at the beginning of the twentieth century that were producing changes in the political, social, industrial and intellectual spheres. This book will be of interest to students of history and Asian Studies.
China in the Family of Nations
Henry T. Hodgkin
First published in 1923
by George Allen & Unwin
This edition first published in 2015 by Routledge
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1923 Henry T. Hodgkin
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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 23011909
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-92012-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-68733-9 (ebk)
CHINA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS
BY
HENRY T. HODGKIN, M.A., M.B.
Secretary of the National Christian Council of China
UNDER HEAVEN THERE IS BUT ONE FAMILY
LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.
First published in 1923
(All rights reserved)
Printed in Gremt Britain by
UNWTN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON AND WOKING
TO THE CHINESE STUDENTS WHO HAVE STUDIED
OR ARE NOW STUDYING IN BRITAIN
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
IN THE HOPE THAT IT MAY HELP
MY FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN TO UNDERSTAND
SOME OF THEIR FEELINGS AND ASPIRATIONS
AND SO TO
SEEK FOR A NATIONAL POLICY TOWARDS
CHINA, ANIMATED BY RESPECT,
THE SPIRIT OF FAIR PLAY AND INTELLIGENT SYMPATHY.
THE problem of China is rightly claiming far more attention from the English-speaking public to-day than was the case five-and-twenty years ago. During that time I have been fairly continuously a student of China and the Chinese, partly from a distance, but also during a residence of several years in the far-western province of Szechwan, and especially recently in extensive travel for nearly two years in China, Japan and Korea.
In the following pages I have tried to do three things: First, to give a brief survey of the historical setting necessary for an understanding of Chinas present relations with the West; second, to explain and estimate the various forces now working in China, producing changes in the political, social, industrial and intellectual spheres; and, third, to supply a point of view which may help the reader in further study or as he watches the unfolding drama.
While I cannot escape the charge of looking at these many questions with strong pro-Chinese sympathies, I claim to speak as one who has brought to his task a critical judgment as well as a sincere respect for the subjects of my study. China has too often been treated as a land of mystery which intrigues and eludes the observer. I seek to emphasize rather the far more significant fact of our kinship, our common human nature. In the Chinese I find people who are quick to make contacts, appreciative of kindness and sympathy, easy in their manners, adaptable, honourable, full of gratitude and loyalty. Among them I count some of my closest friends, and I do not feel any racial barriers in our intercourse.
Yet China holds, in very truth, a deep mystery. The wonder of China is that of a great nation preserving its unique character and its own social structure for scores of generations, and to-day entering into the broad stream of the worlds life to give and to receive at a thousand points of contact. What new essence is to emerge from the mingling of these different elements? Whither are we to be borne as the river swells and overflows its banks? In the answer to such questions lies the deeper mystery of China.
No writer on China dare claim to be a prophet. All one can do is to state the facts, seeking to set them in true proportion and to estimate something of their meaning. These, broadly speaking, are the facts out of which the future must be shaped. We who read and write are factors of no small import in the shaping of the future, as I hope this volume may make clear.
China is no dead or dying nation. Arrested her development may have been for some centuries, but I prefer to think of these centuries as the resting stage during which she has been gathering strength for new and greater tasks. Is Europe determined to destroy herself by continued wars and enmities? China, perchance, is yet to arise, not as the menace we have dreaded, but as the prophet of peace and reasonableness, whose voice will be heard across the stormy waters summoning us to a kindlier and saner life.
Whether this be a vain dream or a realizable possibility depends in no small measure upon just such persons as the readers of this volume, persons seriously interested in the progress of humanity and alive to the possibilities of the Far East. But it is not so much our deliberate ill-will which is to be feared as a means of turning China from the paths of peace. It is our uninformed and nerveless goodwill which may yet spoil the fair picture; it is the greed of gain which blinds men to the claims of righteousness, it is the indifference born of contempt or even of mere ignorance. To the removal of these things I would direct my own energy, and in that task I look for many a colleague among the readers of this volume.
My thanks are due to the authorities at the Selly Oak Colleges for inviting me to give the lectures which form the basis of the following chapters, to my friends Dr. T. T. Lew and Dr. Phillippe de Vargas, of Peking, for suggestions and information embodied in the chapter on the New Thought Movement, and to various friends and writers, too numerous to mention, whose ideas have been freely used to correct or modify my own experience and impressions. I cannot close this preface without a word of deepest satisfaction in the announcement just made that Britain will hand back to China the remainder of the Boxer indemnity. No act could augur better for the future relations of the two countries.
HENRY T. HODGKIN.
New Years Day, 1923.
CHINA IN THE FAMILY OF NATIONS
IT is still unfortunately true that very many people simply regard China as irrelevant. Discussion of international questions may be carried on for hours without a mention of China. Economic problems are thrashed out as if there were no such country. China is an interesting side-issue, a subject for detached speculation much as we discuss the possible inhabitants of Mars. This attitude of mind is found not only among the ignorant and parochially-minded, but also among persons of wide culture and interests. It may be explained in part by the remoteness of China, in part by her policy, through many generations, of splendid isolation, and in part by the difficulty of understanding her which is commonly felt by Western minds. Whatever the explanation the fact is regrettable. I hope it may be possible in this volume so to put China and her problems into the centre of the picture, not only to cure all my readers of this particular malady, but even to make them physicians for others whose eyesight is similarly affected.
