Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1901 — ON CHINESE CIVILIZATION [ARTICLE]

ON CHINESE CIVILIZATION

Minister Wu Talks of His Nation’s Standing. COMPARES CHINA WITH WEST. Aska Oar People to Study the Civilization of China Instead es Trying to Pull it Down —China Must Also I earn LtMOtli Hl* excellency Wu Ting-fang, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of China to the United States, addressed the thirty-seventh convocation of the University pf Chicago Tuesday. He paid high tribute to western civilization, but maintained sturdily that its superiority to the civilization of China has not been proved. The establishment of the present political and social institution of China Mr. Wu attributed to the duke of Chow, who flourished eleven centuries before the Christian era and was the Moses of the Chinese. Then came Confucius, who not only made the institutions permanent, but made classic ancient Chinese writings and fixed the language as it now exists. He said Nature had blessed the country with every variety of soli and climate, so that the people had never been obliged to look to other countries for the supply of their wants. They have been able to live within themselves without difficulty, and to get along without having anything to do with the outside nations. Their long seclusion has been not only a matter of necessity, but also a matter of choice. It must be admitted that today China is centuries behind th* age In her knowledge of chemistry, electricity, steam navigation, rapid transit and other arts and sciences. All these things she must learn from other nation* before she can hope to put herself abreast of th* times. There has lately been a great deal of newspaper talk about civilizing China. Mr. Wu gave credit to those people who advocate such a course for their good intentions, but Its desirability, to say nothing of its diffiuclty, should not be overlooked. China has already a civilization of her own. It is the growth of time. Long before the ancestors of the people of the west ceased to be naked savages and emerged from the primeval forests of central Europe the Chinese had already known the use of the compass and the art of printing. Now for the people of the west to turn around and ask the Chinese to put away their old civilization is rather novel. The people of the west may know more about the building of railroads, the floating of foreign loans, the combination of capital and trusts, the development of resources and the like. But the Chinese naturally feel that they are in a better position to judge what Is best for their own Interest and welfare than any outsider can be. Therefore any attempt to impose upon them any reform or religion they do not f*el th* seed of is apt to create trouble. It Is not easy for foreigners to look at Chinese questions from a Chinese standpoint. Fortunately there is an increasing disposition on the part of many public men in America and Europe to deal with Chinese affairs not in a high-handed way, as of old, but in a spirit of forbearance and with an earnest desire to do what is right.