He felt that China must
conform to the new order of things, or perish--even if that new
order was in contradiction to her ancient traditions as much as
the change of sunrise to the west. He saw and felt that knowledge
is power, a maxim laid down by Confucius before the days of Bacon;
and he set about inculcating his new ideas by issuing a series
of lectures for the instruction of his subordinates. Collected
into a volume under the title of "Exhortations to Learn,"[*] they
were put into the hands of the young Emperor and by his command
distributed among the viceroys and governors of the Empire.
[Footnote *: Translated by Dr. Woodbridge as "China's Only Hope."
Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai.]
[Page 226]
What a harvest might have sprung from the sowing of such seed in
such soil by an imperial husbandman! But there were some who viewed
it as the sowing of dragons' teeth. Those reactionaries induced the
Dowager Empress to come out from her retirement and to reassume
her abdicated power in order to save the Empire from a threatening
conflagration. It was the fable of Phaeton enacted in real life.
The young charioteer was struck down and the sun brought back to
his proper course instead of rising in the west. The progressive
legislation of the two previous years 1897-98 was repealed and
then followed two years of a narrow, benighted policy, controlled
by the reactionaries under the lead of Prince Tuan, father of the
heir-apparent, with a junta of Manchu princes as blind and corrupt
as Russian grand dukes.
Pages:
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233