Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-08-06

through the grass of the starlit steppes
of the North. Necessarily associated
with this reverence of their fOrefathers
is like reverence for the forms, us
ages, and customs of antiquity.
Hence the permanence of their laws,
their stability as people, notwith-
standing the turmoil of many terrible
revolutions. These usages and GUS
toms have sprung from the same
source as the beliefs Of the people and
are the OutgrOwth of the idea of the
family. For although the inhabitants
OF northern China may readily be dis
tinguished by speech and appearance
from those of the South, vet all read
the same language, and all, in essen
tial things, obey the same rules and
follow the same principles of life and
conduct, and this, not only as individ-
uals, but as a colossal community.
Carrying one of the most sacred
laws of the family into the organiza-
ton OF the state, the members of any
one of the twelve tribes, each having a
common name, must marry outside of
his tribe, and with one whose name is
different from his own. AS result of
this the relationship of blood extends
through all parts of the Central King
dom; and each tribe, though distinct
in itself, is bound by innumerable ties
with all the others. The idea of the
family implies mutual cooperation and
helpfulness, and thus, in theory and
practice, that which is the controlling
motive of the civil organization be-
comes also the leading method by
which the ordinary affairs of life are
carried ON. Nowhere else in the world
is the principle of cooperation so well
| understood, and nowhere else is it car
ried into effect with so much utility.
No man stands unsupported and alone
among the Chinese. Throughout the
whole country there are loan societies
by which the burdens of high interest
are lessened. Every trade, profession
and business has its associations; even
the robbers and beggars form them
selves into guilds; and in localities
where the governmental authority has
for the time proved too weak to main
tain order, voluntary combinations of
the inhabitants have supplied it's place.
Thus in the nation, as in the fami-
lies from which it sprang, and which
formed its archetype, the most abso-
lutte form of a centralized government
is made consistent with the utmost
freedom of individual action. The
personal volition of the Chinese is sub
ject only to the rites, observances, and
convictions which are so much por-
ton of the people as is heart or brain,
and as necessary to their normal exist
ence as the air they breathe or the soil
they cultivate. For their convictions
are SO strong-their rites and observ-
ances so fixed and permanent, that no
conquering dynasty has ever changed
them; so strong and so permanent in
deed, that every ruler has respected
and adopted them. When, centuries
ago, Genghiz Khan, the Tartar chief
tain, subdued the land, he held it for
himself and his descendants only by
conforming in every possible way to
its established customs; and when one
of his line attempted to disregard
these, the rule of the Tartar gave way
to that of descendant of the native
kings. In modern times the conquer
ing Mongols, who for two hundred and
forty years have been the political
rulers of China, have held their place
only by becoming the embodiment of
Chinese traditions. The paternal idea
is indeed carried consistently to the
utmost limit, in providing for the re-
mote as well as for the immediate well
fare of the people. 1t is this that from
the most ancient times has instituted
the multiplicity of schools, and has
opened the highest ranks, below that
of the emperor, to those excelling in
scholarly attainments without regard
to their original condition of life. It
is rare to find in China an individual
who cannot read and write. The pre-
cepts of their wise men are painted
upon the fronts of the buildings, so
that, literally, he who runs may read !;
and an official gazette, probably the
oldest newspaper in the world, carries
the intelligence of the work of the
government to- the remotest part of
the Empire.
Nor must it be imagined that this
organization, SO simple in its intricacy,
and SO strong in its apparent weak
ness, is thing that has eliminated
and is now passing to decay. The life
of China has been long, and her
growth proportionately slow. But it
needs but brief recurrence to her his
tory to show that there has been con-
slant progress toward an end not yet
reached, development that is not yet
completed. We have seen that it was
twenty-three centuries before the
Christian era when the Chinese mind
first formulated it's thoughts in written
speech, yet it required seventeen hun
dred years before the outgrowth of
that intellect took ineligible form in
the writings Of Confucius and Lao-Tze.
1t was one thousand years later still
before the system of the great expon-
ent Of philosophy and OF the laws was
regularly organised And IL u,oa sour