Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/81

 in their four thousand years of written history. From the beginning of time—that is, from the days of Yao and Shun, who are said to have flourished long before the Tartar shepherd kings, the Hyksos, invaded Egypt (2000 )—Chinese citizens have been upsetting old dynasties and making new ones. The right which the early emperors had of nominating anyone they pleased as successor—the doctrine of the blood royal being unknown—was held to be good warrant for an illustrious minister mounting the Dragon Throne, the Imperial yellow signifying a priestship rather than a military kingship. Yuan Shih-kai's friends indeed declared that really constitutional monarchy, in which Chinese thought and Western political thought would be impartially mixed, would kill the Tartar-military taint attaching to Peking, and bring national contentment. But his enemies retorted that not only was his sanction of such a scheme deliberate treachery—and the revelations since made regarding the so-called national referendum certainly disclose unblushing fraud—but that what he aimed at was simply the selfsame family rule, with all its corruption and sycophancy made ten times worse with the help of well-trained men—who would have the skill of scientific criminals. Moreover, those