Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-05-05

p
! proven, however, by their treatment
Of women. Tnere is every reason to
/ suppose that j, alousy waa the origin
al motive that lead TO the mutation
of the feet of females, common from
the remotcst times among all except
I the very owes classes of the popu-
laiion; and the custom may also
serve as an example of the brutal
iirectness with which the Chinese
pursue any object they may have IN
view. The women are treated as
slaves; are presumed to have no
souls; and in inahy case subjects
Of established and regular traffic. A
uemher of the British Legislative
Council at Hong Kong said, nearly
hliy yeats ago, " The traffic IN fe-
male; is too Disgusting to detail the
facts are revolving to humanity.
Theii place IN the household Is one
of abject drudgery; AMI, as in IN
fancy they are believed to be hardly
worth tine trouble of maintenance, so
in youth they are not thought to be
worth the expense of educatIou, save
iii the airs of embroidery and the
like; and when fully grown, are
measured only by their value as in
struments of labor or pleasure. 1t
is said that the experience of the
Chinese women, abject and degraded
as it is, has lead many of them to a
! faith, repndisted bv their masters,
Ii. Il hereafter Where SORROW does not
eYist-a faith sprinSin5 flom suffer-
ing; the strange fruit of earthly des-
par.
IL may be very easily conceived
that i'll such q society religion can
hardly exist. That the Chinese wor-
ship the spirits of their ancestors we
have already seen; and lis this is the
oldest faith that they have ever
known, so also it is the only one in
which the belief can be said TO be
sincere. The creed of Confucius
held by the educated classes is SIM
ply formula of materialism in
which morality is taught because of
It's beneticent results on earth, but
in VIII CHI there is no CLEAN or glim-
mer of the higher truths which lead
humanity to ioftier levels of thought
or emotion, or which finds in flu
ture life the rewards or punishments
of good or evil. Mahometanism in
CHINA is even less in morals aud
ethics than it is in Turkey or in the
Barbary States; and Buddhism there
retains no spark of the lambert light
which shone ON India in the earlier
DAYS of the cult of Guatalna. The
Chinese Observation-Disclosures, NOR.
al, or acknowledgements to have in
it nothing of the religious element,
as the term is understood among 9TH
err races. It has successfully resist
ed or debased creed after creed that
has found either temporary or per-
maneut place within its borders.
The soiled streams OF Mahometan
and Buddnistic belief found deeper
soilure in the degraded ideas Of the
Chinese, while the purer faith taught
by the HISTORIANS thousand years
ago was extinguished by fire and
sword; and the efforts of the Roman
missionaries, fervent, earnest and
continued through centuries, have
grasped only spotted handful here
and there from the sodden harvests
of Chinese belief. Whatever may be
claimed as to the successes of the
missionaries of more recent times, or
of other churches, we shall see fur
Their on that they afford little encour-
agemeat to Christian hope; and if
IN the future they shall bourgeon
into promiseof greater fruitfulness,
it must be ander conditions widely
different from those that now exist.
Having considered those charac-
teristics which belong to the Chin
ese as a practically homogeneous
people. and which are common to all
grades and classes, we may we'll ask
by what standard of intellect and
attainment this colossal population
is managed and controlled. In 9th
ell words, our study now leads us to
an examination of the status for
governmental purposes of the gov
eruing classes. These include, of
course, the Emperor, and his subor-
dinates, the mandarins. Thirty
years ago, these latter were stated as
numbering somewhat less than four
teen thousand scattered through the
country, together with two thousand
at the court. These belong To the
civil branch of the Government: the
military mandarins numbered eigh-
teen thousand five hundred. The
former, however, rank the highest in
point of popular respect and admin
istrative power, and with them main
ly lies the control of the vast EN-
pire. They are, and have been, dur
ing at least three thousand years,
drawn from all ranks of the people;
their promotion through tue several
grades being dependent upon their
proficiency in literary studies and
their success in passing literary ex-
aminations. AS these stables are
those that have been accepted and
formulated tn, ough many centuries,
the officers of the Empire are neces-
salily imbued with the popular rev.
erence for antiquity, and ara fixed
and riveted to established usaees.
AS the examinations are competitive,
it follows that the strongest intel
lects are those which rise the most
readily and rise the highest. As
craft and subtletv have no less scope
in this than in any other department
of effort, it results that the keenest
minds come soonest into power and
longest maintain their place on the
t,eacherous sands of official respon-
sibility. As politeness, not less than
the other characteristics we have
mentioned, is always an element of
success, those who combine urbanity
with the stronger intellectual traits
are first to receive the management