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Your search within this document for 'book' resulted in 69 matching pages.
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Page i
“...THE
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK
- / BEING
"The Christian Movement in China"
(THIRD YEAR OF ISSUE)
EDITED BY
Rev. O. H. BONDFIELD
SHANGHAI
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY FOR CHINA
19 12...”
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Page ii
“...THE YEAR BOOK IS SOLD:
In Great Britain by
The Religious Tract Society, St. Paul's Churchyard, T,ondon, TvC.
Iu Canada by
Foreign Mission Committee, Presbyterian Church in Canada, Toronto.
or Young People's Forward Movement Dept. 33 Richmond Street, West,
Toronto.
In the United States by
Missionary Kducation Movement, Fifth Avenue, New York....”
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Page iii
“...writers whose contributions, so willingly made, comprise
the greater part of the book. I must also express my
hearty appreciation of the services of Miss M. V. McNeely
and Mr. T. Leslie. The former has done all the drudgery
and the latter has read the proofs and made very valuable
suggestions. Both have placed me under deep obligation
by their willing help.
Next year Dr. MacGillivray expects to issue the Year
Book under his own supervision.
G. IT. B.
Editor pro ten)....”
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Page 1
“...CHAPTER L
GENERAL SURVEY, 191U
(A) Review and Outlook. (B) Leading Events in 1911.
By the Rt Rev* Bishop J. W. Bashford, D-D-, LL.D.
A* Review and Outlooks
IT is impossible for us to duplicate for the China Mission
Year Book of 1912 the brilliant review of Chinese events
which characterized Dr. Arthur Smith's introduction to the
opening volume, or the full and detailed information which
characterized Dr. MacGillivray's review in that of 1911.
Indeed we have deliberately abandoned the effort to char-
acterize in detail the movements now taking place because
these movements are not yet sufficiently developed to reveal
their final outcome. Placing as a supplement to our paper,
therefore, the barest outline of the events of the year, we
aim in the present review to put hope into the hearts of
helpers. But times of danger like the present demand well
grounded hope, not mere illusion. In order, therefore, to
strengthen our hearts for the struggles which are before us,
let us attempt to discover...”
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Page 2
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
Egypt. This fact alone makes China notable among the
nations of the earth. (2) We have in China the strange
phenomenon of an arrested civilization. Chinese civiliza-
tion, beginning before the founding of Greece or Rome,
advanced until it reached substantially its present stage
about 500 B.C. and then halted until 1900 A.D. Sub-
stantially the same type of tools for hoeing, digging and
plowing, substantially the same methods of irrigating the
soil, substantially the same method of making roads and
building bridges, substantially the same style of boats and
houses as prevailed in 500 B.C. prevailed in 1900 A.D.
Families were organized on the old basis of complete
parental authority down to as late as the present generation.
The government was theoretically a pure despotism from
2,000 B.C. down to the death of the late Empress Dowager.
Slavery and polygamy have existed in China during all
these years. The compass was known twenty-six hundred
years before Christ...”
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Page 4
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
According to many competent western writers, there are
traces of a connection between early Chinese civilization
and the civilization of western Asia. Other writers,
however, hold that China's civilization is indigenous.
While the weight of authority is decidedly in favour' of the
earlier view, it matters little which theory we adopt as to
the proximate cause of Chinese civilization. Either there
is an historical connection between the Chinese and those
receiving God's original revelation, or else the Chinese
learned the invisible things of God from the things which
were seen, even His eternal power and godhead. The cause
of China's early civilization, therefore, was communion
with God and the reception of life and light from Him
either through her early connection with the nations of
western Asia, or else, through Him who is the true light
which lighteth every man coming into the world.
II. Causes of the Arrest of China's Civilization.
But a second and more...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
produces similar results to-day. Moreover, isolation results
in inbreeding, and inbreeding results in infertility. The
Chinese soon discovered the dangers of physical inbreeding
and guarded against them by prohibiting marriages within
the clan. But, alas, the Chinese made no provision against
the infertility of intellectual and moral inbreeding. Indeed,
the poison worked to such an extent in her veins that long
before the Great Wall was built China had lost all contact
with foreign nations, and the Great Wall was only the out-
ward expression of Chinese exclusion policy. Here then,
in the isolation of the Chinese for perhaps thirty-five
hundred years through geographical causes we have one
cause of the arrest of Chinese civilization.
Second, China not only lost in a large measure her
contact with the rest of the world through physical causes,
but she also lost in some measure her contact with God
through spiritual en uses. These processes of decreasing
spiritual...”
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Page 8
“...1() CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
Confucius feared all communication with the unseen world,
and advised his people, aside from the customary sacrifices
to ancestral spirits, to have as little connection as possible
with the unseen realms. He was indeed no denier of the
supreme God. Rather he seems clearly to believe in a
supreme God and in an over-ruling Providence for himself.
But certainly he was an agnostic in his teaching in. regard
to such a God; and this agnosticism contributed to the
neglect of the worship of the true God, and discouraged any
earnest search for a knowledge of him. Confucius is so
colossal a figure that we rank him with the forces of nature
in his influence upon the Chinese people. Summing up the
causes of the arrest of Chinese civilization Ave may say,
therefore, that Chinese civilization was paralyzed through
geographical isolation, through the people losing in some
measure their contact with God, through disregard of such
light as they had, and especially through the...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
proverb, "Of ten thousand evils lewdness is the chief; of ten
hundred virtues filial piety is the first." While the Chinese
are far from sainthood in social purity, they have main-
tained the death penalty for adultery for many centuries;
and they never fell into that moral perversion which
would have led them to sanctify lust by making it a part of
worship, as did Greece and Rome, and Babylon and Egypt,
and even Judea at times, as does India yet. Once more,
Chinese parents have observed more fully than any other
people the first maxim of all sound learning: ''Teach your
sons in childhood that which they must practise in age."
The father is not simply the progenitor but the teacher and
companion of his son, bringing him up at his side and
training him in the trade or industry which the son must
practise as a man. Surely if the partial, disobedience of
the Chinese was one cause of the arrest of their civilization,
their partial obedience to such light as they...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
the Chinese than other nations rendered to the true light
which lightethevery man coming into the world; and finally
the awakening of China is due to her contact with western
nations partially Christianized, and above all to the Christian
missionaries. Since, therefore, the new light and life which
have come to China owe their origin to Christianity, the
church must not repudiate her offspring. We may well be
anxious for the outcome, for the Christian church has .not
realized the urgency of the divine summons and has not
sufficiently helped the Chinese to prepare for the crises
which confront her, but Almighty God is back of the
awakening in China.
V. Chinese Institutions and Recent History.
A study of three institutions of China and of her more
recent history furnishes added assurance that God has been
strangely preparing this people for a more democratic form
of government and organization of society. God in His
wisdom and divine grace has used not only Protestant...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
inefficient clan leaders and keep to the front their strong,
representative man. Thus, the masses of the people enjoy
to a considerable extent local self-government. *
(2) Village Government* Moreover, the domocratic spirit
often operates in the selection of the headmen of the tithes
and the hundreds for the wards and the villages. Williams,
in his Middle Kingdom, vol. 1, pages 482, 488, 500, speaks
of each hundred or village selecting its headman in a sort
of town meeting; of the principal men in the village exercis-
ing the power of recall when the headman no longer repre-
sents them; of the large influence of these headmen because
they represent popular sentiment; and of the value of these
representatives of the people in resisting the claims of the
higher officials who receive their offices by appointment from
above. Williams shows further that the principle of local
self-government in some form prevails in all parts of China;
that it has existed from a...”
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Page 15
“...Empire. First in all large cities are
the territorial guildsthe guilds for ihe people of various
provinces or cities residing in that city. Next to these we
have guilds for almost every form of business; the bankers7
guild, the silk merchants' guild, the wheelbarrow guild, the
piece goods guild, the needle makers' guild, the fish-hook
makers' guild, and even the beggars' guild, and the thieves'
guild. Mr. Jernigan in his admirable volume on China in
Law and Commerce, Mr. Morse in his valuable book on
The Guilds of China, and Mr. Macgowan in his admirable
monograph on Chinese Guilds, show that these guilds are
always schools in the art of government and often schools of
democracy. They are always well organized because they
are often engaged in industrial, commercial or political
warfare. Their officers consist generally of an executive
committee whose members usually are elected annually and
are eligible for re-election. The executive committee selects
a secretary and manager. The guilds...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
ment and vastly more influence in the control of the business
interests of the city than has the political government. The
members of the guild settle almost all their personal and
commercial disputes according to guild laws. They often
enact trade regulations, settle general trade disputes, and
perform with equal readiness the functions of a chamber of
commerce or of a municipal council. The guilds often levy
their own taxes, support fire brigades, provide their own
standards of weights and measure, fix the rates of commission,
determine their settling days, so that the combined guilds
regulate and control the internal trade of the Empire- The
laws of the guilds are read in the courts of China as if they
were part of statutory law, and these guild laws determine
the decisions of the courts. Mr. Morse on page 1, says, In
China we have had for centuries a theoretically autocratic
government working through a bureaucracy, but '' the people
have lived their own...”
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Page 18
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
her defence, the Empress Dowager, full of superstition, fell
a victim to the superstitions teachings of the Boxers and
trusted that through them the gods of China would sweep
the hated foreigners from the Empire. A fair reading of
history compels the verdict that the Empress Dowager and
the Manchu leaders desired the complete annihilation of the
foreigners, and the total banishment of all foreign influence
from China. This was no sudden or irrational change in
Chinese policy, but was simply the logical carrying out of
the exclusion policy, which had prevailed in China for more
than two thousand years. Li Hung-chang doubtless would
have been glad to see the Empress' dream fulfilled, but he
had been round the world and knew the power of the for-
eigners. Moreover, he had little faith in the gods of China.
Hence, he and such supporters as Yuan Shih-kai and Chang
Chih-tung and Jung Lu feared from the start that Boxerism
was hopeless, and indeed advised the Empress...”
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Page 20
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
support, and hope through that nation to found a new
dynasty more fully resting upon popular support than had
the Manchu Dynasty for the last one hundred years.
Hence, before his retirement, Prince Chun had pushed
forward the opium reform to the best of his ability and in a
manner which the London Times said challenged the
admiration of the world. He was also pushing rapidly the
movement towards constitutional government. Moreover,
he took the progressive side in suppressing the plague.
Even the revolutionists, by following in his footsteps,
recognize that he adopted a wise policy in attempting to
secure foreign loans; and his successors will yet follow in
his footsteps in connecting the provinces by a national
railway system. He was in advance of his times in his
decree abolishing slavery. Indeed, the criticism which one
of the most enlightened statesmen of Japan made on Prince
Chun's administration was that China under him was
moving so rapidly that she was...”
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“...1() CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
the universe, which are the laws of God, usually the faculties
of a race are not awakened to that degree of activity, which
leads to great inventions and enables the people to master
the material resources of the earth, until communion with
God has first quickened the spiritual nature and through it
the moral and intellectual faculties of that race. All
writers upon civilization recognize that it consists of the
balanced and orderly development of the moral and
intellectual and artistic and material interests of mankind.
In the divine order, this progress originates in the quicken-
ing spiritual life of the race. Nevertheless, it is possible
for a pagan people coming into contact with an imperfect
Christian civilization to accept such portions of this half-
Christian, half-pagan civilization as pleases it and leave the
rest. Thus the American Indians, brought into contact
with the blessings and the evils of the half-Christian civili-
zation which the white men...”
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Page 24
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
dictatorship of Napoleon and the progress and reaction of
subsequent years to the republic of 1870. What right,
therefore, have the western nations to expect Chinese
leaders to prepare four hundred million people to pass from
oriental despotism to a Chinese republic by a few weeks
session of an assembly at Nanking ?
Summing up our conclusions in a sentence, our review
of Chinese history shows on the one hand that processes
which have been at work for centuries have suddenly
culminated, and that a new era has been inaugurated
which will profoundly affect one-fifth of the human race,
while on the other hand the present condition of the
Chinese is such that only those living in a fool's paradise,
and asleep in that, can dream that the proclamation of
a republic will inaugurate the millenium.
VII. Missionary Polity.
What, therefore, shall we do ? First let us urge upon
our governments in the home lands that they abstain from all
intervention, and above all, that...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
Christian principles to help shape the government and policy
of the nation.
What new effort does the crisis demand of the mission-
aries ? Is it not proof of our past providential guidance that
help has been called for so largely along the exact lines upon
which we have been doing our work, that is along lines of
hospital work, of Christian literature, of education, and
even of evangelistic work; for there has been a notable
demand for the preaching of the Gospel among the soldiers
of the revolution. Certainly all of us now recognize the
providential preparation which we have already made in
hospitals and in Christian literature, in Christian schools
and colleges. Our chief mistake has been our lack of faith.
We did not foresee the nearness and the greatness of the
upheaval, and we have not made sufficient preparation for
such a time as this. For instance, we have ready for the
public service of China to-day only a handful of thoroughly
trained Christian young...”
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Page 28
“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
Cabinet was organized in the summer of 1911.
The Tszechengyuan adjourned to meet again in
the fall of 1911.
Jan. J./f, Meeting in Chang Su-ho's garden at Shanghai.
Formally inaugurated the queue movement.
The queue as a badge of subserviency to the
Manchus has been removed by from one-third
to two-thirds of the population in the leading
cities of the Empire.
Feb. 13, Imperial Rescript commanding reform, and
retrenchment in official expenditures.
Feb. 2/fy Imperial Rescript abrogating torture in criminal
trials.
March Li Lien-ying, forty years chief eunuch of late
Dowager Empress died. For many years he
was the chief upholder of official corruption
in the Empire.
Mar. Sheng Iisuan huai negotiates the loan of
10,000,000 Yen for the Yuchangpu from the
Yokohama Specie Bank.
April 3, Imperial Decree proclaiming the Emperor
through his representative the Prince Regent,
Supreme Commander of the Army and the
Navy.
April 5, Plague Conference opens at Mukden and con-...”
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“...1()
CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.
During the summer of .1911 almost unprecedented
floods in the Yangtze Valley caused by excessive rains in
June and July, add greatly to the political disaffection.
Aug. l2/f, The Szechuan Railway Bureau whose immense
profits through contracts were diverted by the
nationalization scheme inaugurated a general
strike at Chengtu.
Sept. /.{, The disorder in Szechuan became so great that
British and American Consuls urgently advised
all missionaries to repair immediately to places
of safety.
The Prince Regent appoints Tsin Chen-hsuan
the popular former viceroy of Szechuan to
take all the military forces in the province and
Tnan Fang and go to to Szechuan and arrange
the railway difficulties. Both men are directed
to use the utmost clemency in dealing with the
people.
Sept. 10, The Imperial bodyguard at Peking reviewed
by Prince Chun in person, who presents the
guard his own colors-an almost unprecedented
glorification of the army.
Manoeuvres of the northern army on...”
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