Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-03
CHINESE LITERATURE.
1t Boasts Master Works as Nu-
merous as Our Own.

From the Literary Digest
To the average western mind Chinese
literature is a closed book THE Chi.
nese," Mr.. John Stuart Thomson tells us
however. in his work with that title, car
boast counterparts of such glories OF
English literature as Milton, Shelley
Chatterton, Leigh Hunt, Edgar Allan
Foe and others of equal Importance The
poet Tu Flu. the Celestial Chatterton
starved to death on a temples steps.
and ,Poe's Raven" is matched by thu
century-old white Owl Ode" which has
its exact plot. The Chinese also have
their Herodotus. Horace and Ovid.
Ii western ignorance rates the Chinese
as race without literature, the Chi
nese, 1t seems. entertain a general, and
to their minds well founded, disdain for
the west, as compared with their own
racial and national superiority Mr.
Thomson quotes, at length, the trench
ant diatribe of a bonze (whose name he
does not give) in which he flags western
arrogance for pretending to any such
claim. He commands attention. for he
does not merely assert. He gives his rea
sons. Thus:
You were great only once, and that
time is not now. You will never produce
Bible or Shakespeare again. for, used
to luxurteS as you now are, you will for
ever despise the simple poverty that pro-
duced the poetry of EliZabeths time,
and the manly virtues which evolved the
philosophy of Plato's and PauFs day. The
asceticism and unselfishness of your
Bible gave you sturdy virtues, but now
that you have machinery you are looking
unto wealth for greatness"
The bonze ascribes China's superiority
to the Chinese lack of ''rebellious envy
on the part Of the unhappy many against
the privileged few" and the little OPP
which breeds undying hate, because
prominence and selfishness are synony-
NOUS" I'VE glory in teaching Confucius
in all our schools. You throw
your greatest book out OF your national
schools
After declaring that we were harder
to civilize than any race" he predicts
our downfall and the exaltation of
China. In the adaptation Of ourselves
to the inventive age you will see that we
shall reach the higher plane without
bloody disorganization, as we are a race
with faith and conscience enough to fol-
low what time. the only test (and test
us by IT'D has proved to be right. Look
to yourselves"
Mr.. Thomson adds, on his own account,
that when the extension of railroads shall
scatter the dialects, the Chinese will have
that unification of speech and resultant
dissemination Of ideas" whose absence
have kept them from moving forward
as a very assertive body in the worlds
polity." This has not been DUE he de-
clares, to the lack of Christianity or in
ventions."
Mr.. Thomson also declares that there
are only three races who appreciate and
constantly use humor-the American, the
Scotch and the Chinese Mr.. Thomsons
name is John Stuart, and the receipt for
injecting appreciation of poke into a
Scotchman may come to mind. When
little Hakka girl. carrying her brother
on her back, was asked: lis he heavy?"
she replied. mo. He is my brother"
The natvete seems the pathos of humor,
but Mr. Thomson carefully explains that
the child had no sense Of humor or of
humanity in SO responding, but the grin
on my 'rickisha mems faces showed that
they had seen the other phase" If the
other phase is supposed to appeal to a
sense Of humor. IT may be the kind which
Mr.. Thomson credits the Chinese with.