Habit has reconciled the people to its use; but it
still offers a tempting grip to revolutionary agitators. Every
party that raises the standard of revolt abolishes the cue; would
it not be wise for the Manchu Government to make the wearing of
that appendage a matter of option, especially as it is beginning
to disappear from their soldiers' uniform?
The extension of reform in dress from camp to court and from court
to people (to them as a matter of option) would remove a danger.
It would also remove a barrier in the way of China's admission
into the congress of nations. The abolition of the cue implies
the abandonment of those long robes which make such an impression
of barbaric pomp. Already the Chinese are tacitly permitted to
adopt foreign dress; and in every case they have to dispense with
the cue. The Japanese never did a wiser thing than to adopt our
Western costume. Their example tends to encourage a reform of the
same kind in China. A new costume means a new era.
Another point is required to complete the parallel:
[Page 270]
each victor has given the conquered country a better government
than any in its previous history. To Confucius feudalism was a
beau-ideal, and he beautifully compares the sovereign to the North
Star which sits in state on the pole of the heavens while all the
constellations revolve around it, and pay it homage. Yet was the
centralised government of the First Hwang-ti an immense improvement
on the loose agglomeration of the Chous.
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