suppression of poppy cultivation and in Kan-suh the officials were
conducting a very vigorous campaign against the growth of the poppy.[1]
In their endeavours to suppress opium smoking the Chinese government appealed to the Indian government for help, and in 1907 received a promise that India would decrease the production of opium annually by one-tenth for four years and subsequently if China did likewise. The Indian government also assented to Indian opium being taxed equally with Chinese opium, but China did not raise the duty on foreign opium. In 1908 the Indian government undertook to reduce the amount of opium exported by 5100 chests yearly. In the same year the opium dens in Hong-Kong were closed. In February 1909, on the initiative of the United States, an international conference was held at Shanghai to consider the opium trade and habit. At this conference the Chinese representative claimed that the consumption of opium had already been reduced by one-half—a claim not borne out by the ascertained facts. The conference was unable to suggest any heroic measures, but a number of proposals were agreed to (including the closing of opium dens in the foreign settlements), tending to the restriction of the opium trade. The conference also dealt with another and growing habit in China—the use of morphia.[2] Japan agreed to prohibit the export of morphia to China, a prohibition to which the other powers had previously agreed.
The attempts to reform the educational system of China on a comprehensive scale date from the year of the return of the court to Peking after the Boxer troubles. In 1902 regulations were sanctioned by the emperor which aimed at remodelling the methods of public instruction. These regulations provided among other things for the establishment Education. at Peking of a university giving instruction in Western learning, a technical college, and a special department for training officials and teachers. A much more revolutionary step was taken in September 1905 when a decree appeared announcing as from the beginning of 1906 the abolition of the existing method of examinations. The new system was to include the study of modern sciences, history, geography and foreign languages, and in the higher grades political economy and civil and international law. Thousands of temples were converted to educational purposes. In Canton, in 1907, the old examination hall was demolished to make way for a college with every appliance on Western lines. Equal zeal was noticeable in such conservative cities as Si-gan-fu, and in remote provinces like Kan-suh. By May 1906 fifteen so-called universities had been founded. Moreover, many young Chinese went abroad to acquire education—in Japan alone in 1906 there were 13,000 students. In the same year primary schools for girls were established.[3] Perhaps the most striking evidence of the new spirit regarding education was the tenour of a communication to the throne from the head of the Confucian family. On the 31st of December 1906 an imperial edict had appeared raising Confucius to the same rank as Heaven and Earth—an action taken to indicate the desire of the government to emphasize the value of ethical training. In thanking the throne for the honour conferred on his ancestor the head of the family urged that at the new college founded at the birth-place of Confucius the teaching should include foreign languages, physical culture, political science and military drill.[4]
While China, with the consent of the emperor and the empress-dowager, and under the guidance of Prince Ching, Yuan Shih-kai and Chang Chih-tung, was endeavouring to bring about internal reforms, her attitude to foreign powers was one of reserve and distrust. This was especially marked in the negotiations with Japan and with Russia concerning Manchuria, and was seen also in the negotiations with Great Britain concerning Tibet. It was not until April 1908, after four years’ negotiations, that a convention with Great Britain respecting Tibet was signed, Chinese suzerain rights being respected. In September the Dalai Lama arrived in Peking from Mongolia and was received by the emperor, who also gave audience to a Nepalese mission.[5]
The emperor Kwang-su had witnessed, without being able to guide, the new reform movement. In August 1908 an edict was issued in his name announcing the convocation of a parliament in nine years’ time. In November he died. His death occasioned no surprise, as disquieting Death of the emperor and of the dowager empress. reports about his health had been current since July, but the announcement that the dowager empress died on the 15th of November (the day after that on which the emperor was officially stated to have died) was totally unexpected. She had celebrated her birthday on the 3rd of November and appeared then to be in good health. The empress dowager had taken part in the choice of a successor to the throne, Kwang-su’s valedictory edict had been drawn up under her supervision, and it is believed that the emperor died some days previous to the date officially given for his death. Kwang-su died childless and was succeeded by his infant nephew Pu-Yi (born on the 8th of February 1906), a son of Prince Chun, who was appointed regent. Prince Chun—himself then only twenty-six years old—had exercised considerable influence at court since his mission to Germany in 1901, and was one of the most enlightened of the Manchu princes. The death of the dowager empress removed a powerful obstacle to a reformed regime, and with her passed away the last prominent representative of the old era in China.
The accession to the throne of Pu-Yi, who was given as
reigning title Hsuan Tung (“promulgating universally”), was
unaccompanied by disturbances, save for an outbreak
at Ngan-king, easily suppressed. Prince Chun had
the support of Yuan Shih-kai and Chang Chih-tung,[6]
Accession of
Hsuan Tung.
the two most prominent Chinese members of the
government at Peking—and thus a division between the Manchus
and Chinese was avoided. On the 2nd of December 1908 the
young emperor was enthroned with the usual rites. On the
day following another edict, which, it was stated, had had the
approval of the late dowager empress, was issued, reaffirming
that of the 27th of August regarding the grant of a parliamentary
constitution in nine years’ time, and urging the people
to prepare themselves for the change. Other edicts sought to
strengthen the position of the regent as de facto emperor.
Yuan Shih-kai and Chang Chih-tung received the title of Grand
Guardians of the Heir, and the year 1908 closed with the chief
Chinese members of the government working, apparently, in
complete harmony with the regent.
On the 1st of January 1909, however, the political situation
was rudely disturbed by the dismissal from office of Yuan Shih-kai.
This step led to representations by the British
and American ministers to Prince Ching, the head of
the foreign office, by whom assurances were given that
Dismissal of
Yuan Shih-kai.
no change of policy was contemplated by China, while
the regent in a letter to President Taft reiterated the determination
of his government to carry through its reform policy.
The dismissal of Yuan Shih-kai was believed by the Chinese
to be due to his “betrayal” of the emperor Kwang-su in the
1898 reform movement. He had nevertheless refused to go
to extremes on the reactionary side, and in 1900, as governor
of Shan-tung, he preserved a neutrality which greatly facilitated
the relief of the Peking legations. During the last years
- ↑ See The Times of 7th and 8th of March and 8th of April 1910.
- ↑ The first recorded importation of morphia into China was in 1892, and it is suggested that it was first used as an anti-opium medicine. Morphia-taking, however, speedily became a vice, and in 1902 over 195,000 oz. of morphia were imported (enough for some 300,000,000 injections). To check the evil the Chinese government during 1903 imposed a tax of about 200% ad valorem, with the result that the imports declared to the customs fell in 1905 to 54 oz. only. The falling off was explained “not by a diminished demand, but by smuggling” (Morse’s Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, p. 351).
- ↑ A regulation by the ministry of education, dated the 14th of January 1910, ordered that no girl should be admitted to school dressed in foreign clothes or with unnatural (i.e. bound) feet.
- ↑ For the growth of the education movement see The Times, 4th of September 1909.
- ↑ The Dalai Lama left Peking in December 1908 on his return to Lhassa, which he reached in November 1909. Differences had arisen between him and the Chinese government, which sought to make the spiritual as well as the temporal power of the Dalai Lama dependent on his recognition by the emperor of China. Early in 1910 the Dalai Lama, in consequence of the action of the Chinese amban in Lhassa, fled from that city and sought refuge in India.
- ↑ Chang Chih-tung died in October 1909. He was a man of considerable ability, and one whose honesty and loyalty had never been doubted. He was noted as an opponent of opium smoking, and for over thirty years had addressed memorials to the throne against the use of the drug.
