The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1880-12-03
raj CHINEsE QUESTION

III A@S NSAAA1N tAE@AA1A q
fTaHght with far more Interest add im-
pohARee than tie average citizen Is
willing 10 eORseds at hIst thought. To
contemplate the settlement and growth
and customs u that great empire that
stretches from the darkness Of PIshis-
tori: ages 10 the light Of the ~nineteenth
century, Is a delight 10 every student.
And it should be at least important to
every citizen, for it is only through the
study Of the past Of China that one
may form a clear conception Of the
present character and tendencies Of her
people.
la order TO enlighten the readers Of
the LEADER. and afford them an intel
lectual treat, We propose TO publish
from time to time passages from DIR.
James A Whitney's famous monograph
on The Chinese, and the Chinese
Question" Opening on the subject Of
China, the doctor says:
A population composing one-third Of
the human race, Of a mental, moral
and physical type indigenous to the
soil, unmodiGed by external influences
and intensified by isolation and success
siSe repetition through lens Of centu-
ries, must, in the nature Of things. pos
sess an inertia peculiarly its own. The
future direction of this can only be
foreseen from a knowledge OF its line
of movement in former times. The
slow but progressive development Of
China has produced u civilization in
which the low level of moral and ply
steal life incident to debased and Il
shaved races is strangely combined with
an intellectual yigor that, in all the re-
quirements and yicissitudes of a COM
pick social and political system, has
proved itself equal TO the promotion Of
learning and the extension of arts, and
10 the elaboration Of methods and ira
ditions Of state-craft not inferior to
those that have controlled the policy OF
European countries and of our own.
To understand this, and the logical out
teA4 NhNAtVAs - hiAiAAAtcbA1 Ah0 hloN
step to II proper appreciation of the
conditions Of the conflict, peaceful or
otherwise, impending between the Tur-
anian and the Aryan races. And such
an understanding is best gained 10y the
laborious but fruitful process of tracing
the development OF China through its
salient causes and more noticeable re-
suits from the time when ofT-shoots OF
unlettered tribes crept downward from
the Altaic mountains TO find homes Oh
the marshy borders of the Hoang-Ho.
China is, for the most part, a fertile
plain or basin, bounded on the east by
the Pacific, on all other sides 10y elevat-
ed and comparatively barren plateaus
and ranges of lofty mountains. II is
watered by two great rivers, the Yell
low or IIoang-Ho, and the Blue or
Yang-ste-Kiang and their tributaries.
1t was upon the banks OF these rivers
that the Scythian progenitors of the
present population formed their earliest
settlements. The date is lost in the
midst of legendary and mythical tradI-
tions, but 1t is known that nearly TWEEN
ty-three centuries before the Christian
era the Chinese possessed n written Ian
guage; and rs this was original and not
derived from any external source, there
must have been many ages before this
stage of comparative progress was at
tanned. The Yellow river is dyked
along its length to prevent its foods
from overwhelming the adjoining lands,
and its bed is thirty feet above the level
Of the su rounding country-this ele-
walton having been caused by the grad
nal deposition of earthly material from
the heavily laden waters. Assuming,
although in the nature of things it car
DO only an assumption, that this deposit
is in the same ratio rs that laid upon
the valley of Egypt by the foundations
Of the Nile-four inches In n century
it is easy TO infer how long a period
may have ELAPSED since the artificial
banks were first raised by a ~sedentary
people to protect their fields from inju-
rious overflow. 1t is, however, sutli-
cient to accept the usually acknowl-
edged date of the beginning of letters
rs the period in which the character of
the race began to harden into perma-
nent form, and the institutions which
illustrate, IL they have not caused its
permanence, began to have the force of
organic laws. This was but two hun
dred years later than the historical in
ception of Babylonian power rs unfold
ed from the study Of tho %cuneiform in
%scriptions. At that day the Shepherd
kings had not yet entered Egypt. 1t
was Line hundred years before the APP
pearan,e Of the Hellenes in Thessaly;
1t was more than eleven centuries earl
Ter than the siege of Troy. Since then,
Babylon and Assyria and the later
Egypt, the great empire of the Modes
and Persians, the nations of Macedon
and Rome and Byzantium have risen,
and ruled, and passed away. Race has
followed race and new languages have