Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-08-08

From missions In China, treated IN
another column of this paper. 70 the
rsmance of China and its deep mys-
teries is far cry, but the subject is
brought to our attention by book
which has just come into our hands,
though published last winter. This
Is the ANNALS and Memoirs of the
Court of Peking," by E. Bockhouse
and J. o. ?. Bland, the latter before
quoted in recent article ip the
Evening Star.
The book Of Messrs. Bland and
Bockhouse is not exactly one which
the student of history can be recon-
mended TO read as a textbook. The
abruptness of the transitions from
one subject to another would be a
puzzle to the man unfamiliar with
the general outline of Chinese events,
and at times the style is irritating.
But the book is alive with interest.
and when all is said, is of value to
the serious study of Chinese history.
AS the British Review says. there Is
a curious parallelism between the
two great dynasties whose history IS
sketched In the book.
The Ming Empire was founded near
the time that the French victories Of
the Black Prince were being nullified
by the disasters which marked the
closing years of Edward III. The
final extinction of the dynasty. found
ed by a Buddhist priest who success
fully rebelled against the degenerate
heir of Kublai Khan. almost coin
cided with the humiliation and death
Of Charles I.
Ming Emperors Strong.
The early Ming emperors we're men
of great energy and capabilities.
They were strong in the field and
wise in council Under these en-
perors the country enjoyed great
prosperity. Their age was the golden
age Of Chinese art. Even as late as
the period when the present narra-
tive opens we have delightful
glimpses of laborious but not un-
happy people, paying vast respect TO
literary accomplishments, and Of
paternal sovereigns who took the
trouble to see and hear for them
selves what was going on around
them.
We find a Chinese Haroun AL
Raschid, fond Of DISCUSSES and dra-
matte situations, who elevates a poor
but virtuous scholar to a high posi-
ton, degrades an unworthy official
u d COuhtII CACiAH1A dAA0 4ClCCh1
and decapitates an oppressor of the
poor.
We see in full working order the
examinatio which time has fosilized,
but which is even now not so absurd
an institution as 1t has been repre-
sented--a system which at least had
the-xirtue Of throwing an official
career open to all men of talent.
whatever their original rank in life.
Life in China, with its redundant
population, must always have repre-
sented a grim struggle, but under the
carly Ming rulers the wealth of the
country was enormous. The standard
of comfort was probably higher than
now.
But the growth of effeminacy at the
court, under a succession of feeble
rulers, with the consequent nisgov-
eminent, involved an instruction
which paved the way for the estab-
lishment of the Manchu power. In
their time the Manchu sovereigns loss
the viriity of their great founder,
Nurachi; the palace became once
more the theatre of disreputable in
trigues, of poisoning. assassination, Of
extortion and villainy of every de-
scription, and the alien house per-
ished, as did the native one, of sheer
imbecility.
Under the rule Of the earlier Man
chus, however. China enjoyed exter-
nal peace and domestic prosperity,
and soon recovered from the effects
of such hideous incidents of the con-
quest as the sack of Yang-Chu, where
nearly half of the inhabitants-one
million-were put TO the sword.
An idea of the wealth and civiliza-
ton Of the Chinese at the end of the
eighteenth century may be gathered
from the official record of the seques-
tration of the property of the grand
secretary, Ho Sen. He was destroyed
for his wealth, Just as Bouquets
downfall was comprised by Louis
XIV. Ho Sens possessions under
twenty-six official schedules alone
were computed at seventy million
sterling, and his entire estates were
estimated at four times that amount.
He had $1,000 ounces Of gold and
SO, 900 ounces of silver; even the
very wash basins at his various great
houses were of solid gold He had
gathered for his own use no less than
1,417 magnificent sable robes and
more than 1000 other garments of
the most priceless silks.
Among his curios Ho Sen had eigh-
teen gold lobans, each feet 4 inches
in height, and 5000 sceptres of gold.