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

hundred years after this before the
government itself adopted system OF
promoting to the utmost those arts and
industries upon which the prosperity
of the people more and more depended
as the population increased, and the
conditions of life became more COM
plex. For it was in the ninth century
Of our era, according to an Arabian
chrOnicler, that the Chinese were, " OF
all the creatures of God, those who
have the most skill in the hand, in all
that concerns the arts of design and
fabrication, and for every kind OF
work" The same writer SAYS that
when a man has made anything that
probably no one else could be able to,
he carries it to the Governor demand
ing a recompense for the progress he
has made in the art" The test oi its
excellence was, that it should he kept
for year subject to the criticism of
all who came, and if no real fault
were found, the maker was promoted
by being taken into the service of the
Government. Quaint tales are told in
Chinese history of the working of this
plan, and illustrating, not only the ex-
cellence to which the arts were brought
by this method, but the closeness of
observation and severity of judgment
then, as now, one of the salient char
acteristics of the race. 1t is said that
an artist represented sparrow,
perched on an ear of standing grain,
with such consummate skill that none
doubted that the bird was not alive
but it so happened that the ear was
shown as standing straight, whereas if
the bird were perched upon it the stem
would he bent, and so the artist lost
his reward. In the arts, as in letters
and policy, the same slow gradation
of successive progressive steps is seen.
1t certainly required many hundred
years to construct the immense system
OF canals which, even in the beginning
! of our era, are known to have aided
agricultural and facilitated the inland
commerce of China. But it was not
till the year A. ID. COS, that the En-
peror Yangti enlarged the entire sys-
tenn and connected the two great
rivers. In the early ages of China the
records were written on wooden sticks
the art had advanced in the time of
Confucius to the painting of the char
acters on paper. Yet it was only after
fifteen hundred years from this that
wood-engraving and stereotyping came
into use. 1t was not until the thir-
teenth century that the distillation of
grain for the production of alcohol
was discovered by the Chinese; and it
is only since the accession OF the
Manchoo dynasty that foreign grapes
were brought into the country, and
there acclimated.
Although, as We have seen, progress
has been slow in China, it has been
sure; and every forward movement,
whether slight or great, has added to
the resources and the permanent pros
perity of the people. The relations of
China with other nations during the
past century have forced upon her a
a policy that, when carefully exam
ined, will show more rapid and more
aggressive advancement than any other
portion of her history; policy which,
as we shall have occasion to consider,
cannot, if continued, fail to have the
most important bearing upon the fu-
ture of our own country and, indeed,
upon the future of the civilization of
our race.
The retrospect of the past of China
and her people shows absolute perma-
nence in the direction of the Chinese
character, but nothing that indicates
that this character is stationary. Its
scope is limited in certain ways, but in
the line of the course which it has fol-
lowed for more than four thousand
years its path lies open, broad and
clear, as it did in the infancy of record
ed time. Yet, with all that we have
thus far seen, a fair conception of the
favorable side of the Chinese character
is not yet fully given. Reference has
already been made to their close and
accurate powers of observation as dis
played nearly ten centuries ago, and
which form no inconsiderable element
of mental strength and intellectual
success. A distinguished traveller, in
the early part of the present century,
attributed to this the numerous dis
coveries of the Chinese in agriculture,
by which they utilized plants of no
worth in other parts of the world.
And the thoroughness and complete
ness of Chinese ethics and practice, as
applied to the paternal guidance of the
population, is demonstrated by the
fact that this faculty of observation
has been encouraged by Imperial
teaching and example. 1t is written
in the Chinese books. that the Emper-
or Kiang- Hi saw in the first day of the
sixth moon field where rice was
sown to be harvested in the ninth.
But amid all the myriad ears there
was one already ripe. He gathered it
planted it through thirty successive
seasons, and from it came the ya-mi or
imperial rice, the only kind that can
ripen north of the Great Wall, or that
will yield two harvests year in the
South. This new cereal added to the
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