Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/285

 Now, this universal Chinese education differs widely from ours. It is not a smattering of acquisitions of all kinds; it is an able, well-tried system of training, narrow but thorough, and directed to the practical end of fitting men for the discharge of their moral duties in domestic and social life. Williams remarks: "The great end of education, therefore, among the ancient Chinese, was not so much to fill the head with knowledge as to discipline the heart and purify the affections. One of their writers says: 'Those who respect the virtuous, and put away unlawful pleasures, serve their parents and prince to the utmost of their ability, and are faithful to their word—these, though they should be considered unlearned, we must pronounce to be educated men.'"

Five hundred years before the Christian era China produced one of the most eminent moral teachers that the world has seen—the philosopher Confucius. The simple, pure, and sublime morality of that old master forms the staple of Chinese education. His ethical inculcations constitute the chief element of the old Chinese classics, which are drilled with such tedious minuteness into the minds of Chinese youth. They are trained in his maxims with an assiduity that is unparalleled. Rational or scientific morality is taught nowhere. It is everywhere a matter of dogmatic, empirical lesson-learning, and from this point of view the moral education of the Chinese is superior to that of any other country. And here has been the stumbling-block of the missionaries. They have not been successful with this people, and acknowledge that they have nothing to encourage them to keep on save "Scripture promises." What else could be expected? When they tell those persons that "their righteousness is all as filthy rags," and that they want a theological system as a basis of morals, it is not surprising that they make but very little impression.

The authorities we have quoted attest that this extensive moral teaching has not been without practical influence upon the national character. The variety and minuteness of the instructions of Confucius for the nurture and education of children, and the stress he lays upon filial duty, tell powerfully upon Chinese social life. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" says (article "China"): "There is a vast deal of quiet, happy domestic life in China. . . . In the ordering of a Chinese household there is much that might be imitated with advantage by European families. The duty of filial piety, which is the first object of Chinese religious teaching, represents much more than the ceremonial observances which outwardly mark its performance. The reverence with which children are taught to regard their parents fosters the affection of which that reverence is the outward and visible sign; and the peace of each household is assured by the presence of a supreme authority against whose dicta there is no appeal." Such principles pervading the household can not be restricted in their influence, and accordingly we are told that in China "the whole theory of government is the embodiment of parental and filial piety."

In regard to the common virtues, the same authority says: "In daily life the Chinese are frugal, sober, and industrious. Their wants are few, and they are easily satisfied. . . . Spirits—they have no wine—appear to have no great attraction for Chinamen. They drink them occasionally, and sometimes to excess, but a reeling Chinaman is rarely to be seen upon the streets."

The "American Cyclopædia" (article "China") says: "As to the moral and intellectual characteristics of the Chinese, great injustice has been done to them. . . . The Chinese, so far as they have come in contact with Europeans and Americans, are industrious, skillful, polite, and provident. . . . In the use of food and drink they are remarkably temperate. . . . Cookery is