Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1859-06-27
Mist&llan&Ous.
Chinese Civilization.

While the great powers Of Europe and
America are engaged il regulating their
future intercourse with China. any infor-
nation in reference to that Empire will
be received with increased interest. 1t
has been the custom of the Western world
TO ridicule Chinese civilization and to
look upon it as undeserving of the consid-
GRAFTON of our statesmen Yet that ciyili-
zation stood the test of thousands OF years.
The same polity that governed China two
thousand years before the Christian era,
governs her this day. Our sages who told
us that, founded upon the grossest mates
riallsm, Chinese society was without any
moral basis have been sadly puzzled to
explain the secre. of its stability, while
the yarious social system of Europe. which
claimed the superiority of moral truth did
not last. The key to the solution of this
problem is furnished in recent work on
THE Chinese and their Rebellions with
Essay on Civilization, by Thomas Taylor
Meadows" From what we CLEAN from
an article in the Westminster Revie,o on
this work, which is the result of years of
practical observation, and philosophical
inquiry into the moral that underles
Chinese society, it completely upsets all
the prcconceived notions of the vest.
In reference to the usual charge that
the Chinese are sceptical, mater.alistic,
&c. Mr.. Meadows remarks:
81 would ask my English, American and
French readers what is it that the hun
dreds of thousands of our respective coun-
trymen, who hurry daily through the
streets Of London, New York and Paris,
are after? Are they, or are they not, pur-
suing wealth and material enjoyments
with ardor, absorbed in material interests.
utiitarians, industrious and gain seeking?
Why have the English been called shop
keepers, the American dollar hunters, and
why do these names stick Why are there
eighty thousand women in the streets and
public places of London and why is there
an enormous organized prostitution in
Paris?" He argues that this monogamc
West is not altogether free from the vices
of poligamistic nations, and that the vices
ard crimes prevalent in both the Orient
and Occident are identical in kind He
asserts as the result of long and indepen-
dent study, and close observation that the
great mass of the Chinese are sunk in
material interests and enjoyments, just as
are the great mass Of the English, French !
and Americans, and that as there exists !
in the West, among its gainoseeking ma
iority large amount of generosity, pub |
lie spirit and right feeling, which may be |
appealed to with confidence when a great
cause is imperilled, and which then is |
capable of unsparing self-sacrifice, so there |
exists similar public spirit in tho Orient, !
and that there is in both hemispheres
actuated by higher feelings, aim
ing at higher objects. The author COM
bats with convincing arguments and facts |
the assertion made by other writers of the
in China of such minority, |
and the latent public spirit of the majority.
They portrayed a people, he says. that
could have no existence, any more than a
nation of ceutaurs; they depicted a peo-
pe not human but inhuman. In assum-
ing this position, the author maintains
n othing more extraordinary than that the
Chinese are a nation, composed Of men |
anS women, exhibiting the same varieties
AZ character in degree and quality, than
other collections of men and women call
ed nations. The charge that the Chinese
are sceptical, destitute of moral feeling, he
refutes by pointipg at the fact that every
and official document Of the
Chinese has its moral tail-piece, invaria"
bly ending with such admoniuons as
,rfhis h right" aObey this" "Ths yirtu'
ous thing must be done" He proves
nbilosophically that the whole scheme OF
Chinese society is spiritual product,
whose aims are ethical apd means moral,
whatever the eorruptiors might DO tnst