Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-25
CHAPTER XII.
The Awakening.

Or. Yen How was seated III q garden or
the Imperial CITY, reading.
lie was arrayed in sumptuous robes OF
the softest. richest silk. embroidered with
the tongue-darung dragon, in token OF
high rank
His pigtau reached TO his calves: but at
present only one inch and a half of It was
the doctors own hair. The rest was artI-
fcial-made of fine black silk. Many dig
nitaries of even the highest rank in China
adopted this convention.
Yen How, II minute or two before, had
drawn the chop-sticks between his lips as
the final ceremony to dainty feed on
rice birds gust then in SEASON.. ana the
julciest, tenderest tea. The meal had been
held before him by attendants in gorgeous
robes themselves OF high rank.
The lee bound winter Of northern China
was over. The sudden. hot spring was
here.
BY the right hand of Yen How was a
stand OF ebony. arabesqued IN walrus tusk.
ON II was some OF the pigment which the
Chinese use Tor ink, and brushes such as
they use for pens; there We're also some
folios OF fine silk paper; there was silver
gong, and hair falling to the ground, the
North China Daily News.
In Yen Hows hanG was an old copy OF
the Shanghai Mercury. Yen How was
reading it: and as he read his eyes went
small IN a smile. something amused the
doctor.
It was this: Herr Won Bulow. the Ger
man foreign minister, had, a good many
months before, made remark In the
Teichstag which was reproduced later on
in the Mercury. Won Bulow had said :.
The Chinese empire has already lasted
1890 years. II will last another 5000"
He did not mean it, murmured Yen
How because he Is a fool But a fool may
sometimes say true thing without mean
ing it
breast the decoration or the Red Eagle
the First Class, which the German emperor
had conferred upon him Immediately after
the grant by China OF the territories TO
Germany.
Then he went on with his slow, contem-
piauve reading.
We have spoken or the meteoric career
OF this man IA emma; we said that he
rose Ike a rocket" But he did not DO
all this by miracle. A rocket Will not rise
Of itself; it must be impelIed by an up
ward accountable force.
70 what did Yen How owe his supreme
authority2-for his authority was now far
more absolute than that OF any Brother Of
the sun AMI Moon who ever occupied the
throne Of Hsus. He owed II first OF all to
his Learning; secondly, 10 his intensity OF
or Racial Instinct, ana, thirdly, 10 his au-
daciOus Genius.
To his Learning first OF all; for in China
every door was open 10 the learned man.
The learned mans learning, however, must
be Chinese. and here was the miracle OF
Or. Yen How achievements in the state
examination halls OF Canton and Picking;
that he who there proved himself more in
structCd than the pundits In Chinese wis
dom had spent the greater part of his life
IN acquiring western scientific views and
methods In Heidelberg, Parts and kdin-
burgh.
lie began at the bottom. lie passed
through the examination at Canton The
hall was not hall at all, hut q double
row or small sentry boxes. capable OF hold
ing one person only. in which the exami-
nee, provided with food, Ink, brushes
and paper, spent two solitary weeks
seeing no one, answering his questions
He usually came out more like dead than
living man, and, even for the most cru
dite, the ordeal was one of fire.
During that fortnight of dark seclusion
Yen How smiled and smiled and smiled
again. He was examined on the complex
theology. the fancicul history, the intricate
old law. the amazing astronomy of the chi
nese. In all these subjects ana many more
their learning consists Of an immense range
Of minute dogmatism, which the whole life
time OF their wise men was spent in ac-
quiring. Yen How's big brain knew all
about these subjects-more about them than
. his examiners. But he differed from them In
this, that he alone knew the faiseness of
the answers which he painted. His eyes
were all smiles as he sat there writing
about the earth going round the sun ia so