which gives the Europeans the possibility of robbing with impunity Chinese lands under the pretext of collisions and differences with the Chinese Government.
The Chinese people cannot but feel the necessity of changing its relation to power.
V.
And now I gather from your book and other information that some light-minded Chinese, called the party of reform, think that this alteration should consist in following the methods of the Western nations, i.e., in substituting a representative Government for a despotic one, in organising an army similar to that of Western nations, and a similar organisation of industry.
This solution, which at first sight appears the simplest and most natural, is not only a superficial one, but very silly, and, according to all I know about China, it is altogether alien to the wise Chinese people. To organise such a Constitution, such an Army, perhaps, also, such a conscription, and such an industry as the Western nations have got, would mean to renounce all that by which the Chinese people have lived and are living, to renounce their past, to renounce their rational, peaceful, agricultural life, that life which constitutes the true and only way of Tao, not only for China, but for all mankind.
Let us admit that, having introduced amongst themselves European institutions, the Chinese were to expel the Europeans and to have a Constitution, a powerful standing Army, and an industrial development similar to the European.
Japan has done this, has introduced a Constitution and extended the Army and Fleet, and developed industry, and the result of all these inseparably interconnected measures is already obvious. The condition of its people more and more approaches the position of the European nations, and this position is extremely burdensome.
