Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-08-30


bronze and silver, besides the imported
Spanish dollars, Their language and
mental culture, too. have been almost
stationary since the time of Confucius,
that is, since over 1900 years. His
writings, containing doctrines of moral
and civil duties, poems and the early
history of China, remain and form till
now the main object of instruction,
study and examination.
Upon what causes does this stagnant
condition or sluggish progress of the
Chinese people depend? In the first
place it is due to the vast extent and to
the geographical position of their terri
tory, which, reaching from $50 to 1852
East longitude and from the torrid zone
(2Oo) up to 53o North latitude, comprises
the largest and best part of the temper
ate zone. Thus they were enabled
to produce on their own soil all the
necessaries and Injuries of life, SO
that they had no need of importing any
articles from other countries, and, con-
sequently, did not come in contact with
foreign nations. Besides, this exclusion
was occasioned and favored by the
geographical position of their territory,
which borders on the East and South
upon the Pacific and Indian oceans-at
those early times solitary and not navi.
gated waters-while West aud North its
boundaries are the Himalaya, the Altai
and the 4ablonoi mountains. forming
hardly passable natural barriers. The
latter, however, did not suffice to pre-
vent invasions from the North which
took place so often that the Chinese
government, in order to stop them, had
brick wall erected extending over dis
lance of 1000 miles; yet without much
effect The invading nations were of
the same race, 1. e., Mongolians. who
brought not higher but lower cul-
ture and, therefore, could not improve
the Chinese people.
Another cause of this stagnation or
tardy advancement is the imperfect
development of their language and
writing, which consist solely of words
without fexions and of a great many
signs, each sign representing one word,
or, differently pronounced, few words.
| From this it is obvious:-1, that their
language and writing are very difficult
to learn and that, consequently, the
large masses Of the Chinese population
are not able to acquire much knowledge
beyond the practical necessities and &C.
currences in daily life; and 2, that abb
| stract ideas can be expressed only by the
signs of perceptible objects, correspon-
| sive somehow or other to such ideas; as
| for example, the idea Of soul by the
| sign of the heart; circumstance which
is an impeachment to speculative think
ing and feeling and, thereby, to the
| progress of sciences and arts.
THE JAPANESE
occupy few large and a great many
small islands situated between 1909 to
| 1902 East longitude and 300 to 500 North
| latitude, that is, in the middle part of
| the temperate zone. The climate Of
this archipelago is much better than
| that OF China, fresh sea-breezes cooling
the heat of summer, and warm equa-
torlal currents mitigating the cold of
the winter Where the early fore
fathers of the japanese originated has
not been found out but it is very prob
able that they came from the adjacent
continent and that they conquered the
islands, one after the other, vanuuishing
hairy native inhabitants called "Ainos,"
descendants of whom exist yet at present
in the northernmost corner of the archi-
pelago. This occurred about 700 years
B. G. They found a kind of feudal
monarchy, consisting of sovereign or
emperor, (Mikado) assisted by highest
executive officer Taikun) and 700 to
800 princes and noblemen Daimios) who
obtained larger or smaller tracts of land
as tiefs. The latter soon tried to get
independent and to expand their pos.
sessions and powers by cunning and
violence. In consequence of this, num-
berless differences, fights and wars of
the Dalmlos among themselves and
against the Mikado commenced to take
place and were continued with short in
termissions up to the second half of our
| century, when constitutional govern
ment was established and put an end to
| them,
These internal strifes, however, did
not prevent the japanese from advanc-
ing considerably in the development of
their labor, language and mental power,
after the Chinese letters and arts of in
dustry had been imported to them from
| Corea in the third century B. C. And
they progressed further yet when, in
the 10th century, A. D., the civilization
and culture of the white race COM
menced to be spread among them by the
traders and priests of the Portuguese,
Spanish and Dutch nations. Thus they
were enabled to accomplish great i'm
provement of their language, in which
they surpassed even their original
teachers, the Chinese. They succeeded
in perfecting their woodworking to
syllable writing and in altering more and
more their signs or letters representing
objects into signs and letters represent
ing sounds. By this change their power
of speculative thinking and feeling was
largely increased; and this, in return,
favored considerably the advance of