Page:Gems of Chinese literature (1922).djvu/292

 LIANG CH‘I-CH‘AO. [Born 1872. One of the most brilliant of the band of reformers who succeeded in establishing the Republic and later on in defeating the treacherous bid for monarchy by. He has written extensively on politics, education, religion, and sociology, in a style which, for beauty and lucidity combined, may well rank with that of China’s masterpieces. It has in fact been said that “his style displays so classical a finish that the Chinese often shed tears over his compositions, simply from admiration of their beauty. He has been Minister of Justice, and also of Finance, under the Republic; and in 1919 he attended the Peace Conference at Paris as delegate.]  MY COUNTRY!   HE greatest country in the greatest of the five continents of the world,―which is it? My country, the Middle State, the Flowery Land! The people who number one-third of the human race,―who are they? My countrymen of the Middle State, the Flowery Land! Annals which extend back without a break for over four thousand years,―of what country are these? Of my country, the Middle State, the Flowery Land! My country contains four hundred million inhabitants, who all speak what is fundamentally the same language, and use the same script: of no other country can this be said. Her ancient books hand down events which have occurred during more than thirty centuries past: of no other country can this be said. Of old, there were five States: China, India, Persia, Egypt, and Mexico. Of four of these the territory remains, but as States all four have disappeared. Wandering over the deserted sites, you see only traces of the ruins left by the ironclad horsemen, followers of Mahomet, or the arenas where once warlike Caucasian tribes gloried in the song and dance. But my country, the Middle State, the Flowery Land, stands proudly alone, having survived, in one unbroken line, ever increasing in size and brilliancy, down to the present day. And in the future it will spread into a myriad branches, to be fused together in one furnace. Ah, beautiful is my