The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1901-06-28
The Native Press and the Chin csc
Crisis.

China has the oldest newspaper
i'll the world, the Peking "Gazette. "
1t has been published daily for
many centuries. 1t is made up Of
imperial cdicts, official appoint
mcnts, and reports from various
viccrcys and governors, and is
therefore not at all like our type Of
newspaper. No one who is not a
Chinese official may contribute
line to it. Half century ago the
first newspaper, in our acccptation
of the term, was published in China.
1t is needless to say that this was
the result of missionary energy.
The opposition Of the Imperial
Government, however, was SO great
that as late rs 1890 there were only
seven daily Chinese newspapers
in the Empire, even including nom
Chinese Hong Kong; they were
published at that English port and
in the foreign settlements at
Shanghai and Tientsin. On purely
Chinese soil such an undertaking
| would have been unsafe for any
Chinese editor, as he would have
been liable to be arrested if his
| views differed one iota from those
of the local mandarin. 1t is inter-
csting to note, however, that dur
ing the past decade another kind
of paper has been published on
Chinese soil. 1t has been published
| by the Chinese Government itself
for private circulation only. None
outside the circle of mandarins has
been allowed to receive it, for it
has consisted largely of translations
of anything published in the out
side world unfavorablc to the for
eigners who were pressing upon
China. So states the report printed
at Shanghai of the "Socicty for
the diffusion of Christian and gen
cral knowledge among the Chi
ncsc," copies Of which reached
this country last week. Thirteen
years ago the society was the means
of introducing a monthly maga-
zine, the "Wan kwoh Kung Pao,"
as medium for giving light to the
leading Chinese on the chief prob
lens of the modern world. Arti-
cles were also written by men,
ber of the society as leaders in one
Of the native dailles. His ideas
attracted the attention of the edi-
tors Of the other six native dailies,
and they reprinted half his edito-
rials in their own papers. Thus
the society's principles were circu-
lated by all the native press, and
many mandarins became subscrib-
Iers to the monthly magazine.
| When the ileformers, of whom SO
much has been said, began the
publication of paper of their own,
they used, for the first fortnight,
nothing but a republication Of the
Society's articles, and their later
propaganda was, in the main, on
; the lines commenced by the Socle-
Ity. When the young Emperor
gave to the Rcformer tacit liberty
to proceed, the native press multi
piled phenomenally, the lead being
appropriately taken by the organ
of the reform party, the "Chinese
Progrcss," as It's translated title
reads. BY 1898 there were no less
than seventy newspapers published
in China, pouring immense light
into the darkness of the Chinese
mind. Through such an agency
ideas of reform in all departments
were widely disseminated. When
the Empress Dowager forcibly
seized the reins Of government, she
issued an edict against the news
papers. Only those under foreign
protection dared to continue their
work, and the number of native
papers was reduced to nineteen.
| The good work had been done,
however, and even the bloody
| deeds of last summer can but tenn
porarily check the progress of re-
form. The Outlook.
The Sacred Number Seven.