Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12
Continued From Third Page.)

city--for Ting Hsien was once q rival o
the greatest cities of China. It's wall
are about as high as those of Peipini
and inclose an area large enough t,
house hundreds of thousands of persons
Only the gates. however. were o
stone. The rest of the walls were o
dried mud and one wonders how the,
have kept their form through all thesl
centuries. The bastions, however, ART
still there, and with a little restoration
could almost be brought back to theil
original condition. Inside the gate WI
found ourselves not in a city, but witt
open fields around us for something like
e mile and half, across which our jim.
rickshas made rapid time.
Then, in the very center of the great
Enclosure, we found ourselves within
s7me other and more modern walls. and
passed through sandy streets where dogs
and beggars were lying sleeping here
and there on the stone steps of door,
ways. Everything was shut tight, but II
was possible even then to see the pre-
vailing poverty of the town.
Up side street and through a mar
row alleyway and we were at the head
quarters of the Mass Education Move
ment. The gentry of Ting Hsien last
Winter made a present to the Mass
Education Movement of the deserted
examination halls which. although in
ruins at the tinne. could be easily re-
stored and now are bv far the finest
buildings in the whole hsien. This was
where the candidates of the hsien used
to be examined in the ancient classics
once a year, the successful few being
then passed on to higher competition !:
and from each grade of candidates the
officials of the empire were chosen. The
system was magnificent. but the learn
ing was all about ancient philosophy
and the students were Judged largely by
the perfection of their memory and the
beauty of their handwriting
This system lasted until 1905, when
1t was destroyed by single blow of an
imperial edict. From that time on the
examination halls of all the major
cities of China have either fallen into
ruins or have been taken in for other
and more modern purposes. Peiping
for instance. has the glorious old Tenn
pie of Confucius itself, which is now
almost unvisited. The buildings in
Ting Hsien have been permitted a hap
pier fate. for the Mass Education Move
n1ent has installed the examinations of
modern learning in the halls and houses
Its students in the dormotories and the
rooms where the judges sat are now
nlled with the desks of those working
at the social survey A whole wing is
made over to the new department of
public health.
Saved from Building Expense.
The gift of these buildings to the
Mass Education Movement by the local
magistrates has both saved them from
the expense of building on their own
account and given them the most dig
nifed setting for their work in the
whole countryside. They have been in
possession OF these quarters for less
than year now. but already they are
entirely remade While keeping the
spirit OF the old buildings and restor-
ing as much of the architecture as
could be fitted In with modern needs.
they have made for themselves a set
tlernent center Of great charm and
beauty There are flower gardens in
the courtyard and the fiat mud floor
or the archery ground was simply
turned into tennis court. The ancient
kitchen was modernized but not West
ernized, as the food is all as closely
Appropriated to the native diet as pos
slble. In a word. the headquarters of
the Mass Education Movement is SYM
bolic Of the movement as a whole in
that It has retained everything that it
was possible to keep of the local atmos-
phere and yet made it adequate and
suitable for carrying on modern edu-
cation.
The chief thing in this movement,
however. is not an apparatus, but the
remarkable group Of men who are car
rying it on. I have seen a good many
experiments in social betterment, but
have never seen any that had finer or
more adequate personnel. They are
drawn from all parts OF China and
from every grade of society. Some of
them are the sons of peasants, others
are the children Of local school teach
ers or literati-as is the case of Mr.
Yen himself-and one or two come
from aristocratic homes. but all of
them now are rs anxious to become
part and parcel of the peasant life Of
China as 1t Is possible to be-
The college graduate who Is in charge
Of farm economies, for instance. has
lived among his farmers now for three
years. Winter and Summer, has shared
all their hardships, lived In quarters
that had almost no protection from the
cold, while ali the time he was busy
introducing better seeds for grain
crops, better vegetables and better live
stock, studying what would survive the
rigors Of the Winter and what crops
to that. he lived through the civil wars,
for there was heavy fighting in all the
countryside and much plundering.
Regarded Insignificant.
But this man spoke of these hard
ships as being entirely insignificant.
The thing that was most in his mind
was the fact that he was able to show
me the improved grains, corn and cot
ton, all Of them obtained from local
seeds by gradual selection breeding.
The corn was three times the size of
the local corn: the cotton twice IS
strong and of O richer fiber: rust was
eliminated from millet and kaoliang
(tne native substitute for wheat; white
Leghorn chickens were producing three
times the number of eggs Of the old,
poor, native stock; pigs were twice the
size of the original breed; italian bees
were substituted for the poor Chinese
variety and more than doubled the out
put Of honey, and, above all. goats were
introduced for the first time in this
part of China.
Strangely enough, milk has never
been an article of Chinese diet in the
way 1t has been used in Western civili-
Zation. Cattle are used only like horses.
to drag the cumbersome carts or primi-
tive plows. It would have been tmpos-
sible economically to have introduced
the mich COW because of the cost Of
fodder. but the goats presented no such
problem, and their milk Is now avail
able In most Of the hamlets OF Ting
Hsien.
This agricultural reform Is similar IN
methods to work being carried on at
some Of the agricultural colleges and oy
the more practical minded and efhcient
leaders Of the missionary movement.
But the mass education movement re-
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