Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 87.djvu/92

88 If not, what shall be done to hinder their progress? (3) The development of commerce raises the question of distribution. Are the goods distributed in a just manner? Are all the people of the country receiving their equitable portion? Manifestly the introduction of modern commercial and industrial methods will in time involve a tremendous change in the economic life of the Chinese. There are indications in China to-day of the beginning of an industrial revolution similar to the one in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. Railway transportation of commercial products has affected thousands of wheelbarrow coolies. The introduction of cotton and wool clothing has thrown large numbers of silk weavers out of employment. Modern machines are rapidly being introduced in the larger and more accessible cities and will soon follow in all parts of the country. Situations of this sort give rise to urgent moral problems and result in moral advance.

While educative and commercial forces have been operative, the introduction of Christianity into China through missionary enterprise in chapels and hospitals, has also greatly furthered moral progress. Christianity has called attention to moral evils and has created a sense of sin and unworthiness which has helped many to break away from pernicious customs. It has engendered a more adequate appreciation of the ideals of brotherhood and social justice and thereby has stimulated new conceptions of the relation of man to man, and of mutual responsibility. It has emphasized the worth of the soul, and in so doing has given added worth to individual life. Thousands have accepted the principles of Christianity—some consciously, other unconsciously. Many of these—especially women—have been encouraged to learn to read, and the ability thus acquired has served not only the immediately desired end of reading the Bible, but has also widened the intellectual horizon and created new and larger interests. Christianity has probably done more during the last hundred years than all other forces combined to liberate Chinese women from the shackles of custom.

China has entered a period of transition comparable to the period of the Sophists of ancient Athens, the Renaissance and the Reformation in western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, and the French Revolution. Old landmarks are being swept away; foot-binding will probably never reappear, and it is highly probable that opium will be effectually driven from the country. But certain old landmarks will be reinstated—in a modified form, perhaps, though not necessarily. At a feast given in the city of Nanking shortly after the formation of the Provisional Republic of China, one of the prominent officials of Sun Yat-sen's government informed the guests that "Confucianism is forever dead." Since that time it has received official recognition from President Yuan Shih-kai, and the titles and privileges which the lineal descendants of