A PEEP INTO WESTERN CHINA.*
CHINA becomes from year to year of more weight and importance on the political chess-board, as well as in the arena of capital and commerce, and we may assume that the circle of readers, alike for pleasure and profit, attracted by books on the subject, goes and will go on widening. But a land of eighteen provinces and many climates, peopled by several varieties of human beings, is so vast a field, that we may welcome an incursion into a narrow but very long belt, especially when that belt forms the banks of the great river which rises somewhere near Eastern Turkestan, threads the chasms in the mighty Thibetan mountains, and flows for more than thirteen hundred miles through the centre of the Empire, known to us as the Yang-tse—it would not by that appellation be recognised by the Chinese, Mr. Little says— and is called by them the River, or the Long River, or, more commonly, the Great River. It is the highway of commerce for Central China, the principal means of communication, serving, in this way, sixteen provinces which border its course ; bringing down an immense volume of water and an enormous amount of sediment, one-fifth of which, Mr. Little estimates, would be "sufficient to create annually a fresh island in the Pacific, one mile square and fifty fathoms deep." So grand an artery would be of inestimable value, were it not that a great part of the upper channel above Hankow, seven hundred miles from the sea, lies in a series of deep and magnificent gorges, where the water swirls along through the rocks in races, eddies, and rapids. Yet the boats and junks manage to ascend and descend these cataracts, and carry the traffic up to a point thirteen hundred miles from the ocean, while even beyond that the persevering native navigators push upwards beyond Batang into the recesses of Thibet. The ocean steamer glides securely as far as Hankow; the traders insist that properly built steamers of light draught could readily go to Chung-king, the commercial capital of Szechnen, eight hundred miles further westward. They are entitled by treaty to try, but hitherto either the junk interests or the fears of the Pekin Government have stood in the way, although, says Mr. Little, the innovation is "as much desired by the native merchants and traders as it is dreaded by the official and literary classes." Perhaps the Government, from their own point of view, could make out a strong case, at least for delay ; but it is difficult to see how the Imperial treasury would suffer by permitting the " barbarian " to increase, as well as improve, those means of communication which swell the volume of transactions and augment the public revenue. At the same time, it is possible that "the fate of Turkey and Egypt," cited to show that it is hopeless for the Chinese to resist " half-a-dozen hungry nations knocking at their door," • Through the Yang-tse Gorges ; or, Trade and Travel in Western China. By Archibald John Little, F.R.G.S. London: Sampson Low and Co.
may have supplied a lesson to John Chinaman very different from that which Mr. Little had in view.
The main reason why he took that adventurous voyage to Chung-king which he has so pleasantly and instructively narrated, was to judge for himself the feasibility of establishing a line of steamers on the great river above Hankow. He went to Shasze in the larger kind of junk, but from Ichang through the Gorges to Chung-king he navigated boldly in a smaller boat ; and he comes to the conclusion that steamers con- structed for the purpose would be safer, as well as quicker and more useful. His facts and reasons appear to sustain his opinion, and there is no good ground for supposing that steamers would not be as successful on the Yang-tee as they are on the Nile. But that is a question which time will settle, and we should mislead the reader if we induced him to believe that the interest of the volume turns upon the fulfilment of the " ambiguous " clauses of the Chefoo Treaty. On the contrary, it is alive from end to end with that kind of entertainment which a keen observer and lively narrator can always supply. Throughout his voyage from Hankow, whether it be in the side- streams which traverse the low lands under water in seasons of flood, or among the stupendous " gorges," where the river rolls on between lofty cliffs, the writer sustains the interest of his story. Perhaps the attractive form and substance of the narra- tive are due to the fact that it was written down in a journal and sent home for "domestic consumption," and it may be that this has given to it the unaffected yet realistic character which makes the reader at home with the writer, alike in the midst of sublime or beautiful scenery, and in the repulsive Chinese interiors which he has so admirably described. As he had the advantage of speaking the native tongue, he was welcome everywhere, and consequently we see and hear a good deal of the merchants, traders, farmers, boat-folk, priests, and even have a glimpse of native street-preachers expounding the moral law. And over all there is an atmosphere of sunny life and freshness which makes the book readable from the first page to the last.
Mr. Little has strong opinions not favourable to the current ideas of the wealth, strength, and prowess of China and her value as an ally, and considers that these are only remotely potential. He thinks the Chinese possess " a much less highly developed organisation than do the Caucasian races ;" finds their religion consists in "propitiating evil spirits ;" and that they "can hardly appreciate the Christian ideal." On the other hand, they have " many virtues," and although the social system is undermined throughout by peculation and deceit, "from the armies which only exist in the Commander-in-Chief's wardrobe and the public granaries containing only chaff, down to the presents not intended for acceptance and the proclama- tions never meant to be observed," so that the Empire is a sham, yet still he is forced to admit, on reflection and in fairness, that such is the persistent industry of the Chinese, "that with highly gifted leaders to guide and role them, they may yet be a great people." As illustrations of their readiness to obey, he points to the edict of Kublai Khan which directed that the cemeteries should be ploughed up, an edict obeyed, and only revoked two centuries ago ; and to the Manchu orders which abolished the flowing robes and imposed the pigtail. The first Emperor of the present dynasty ordered the tribes of Yunan, "on pain of death; to learn Pekingese," and was obeyed. Mr. Little thinks that bad we, when masters of Pekin, "had the courage to usurp the dragon throne, and had we issued an edict prohibiting thenceforth the mutilation of children's feet, the command would have been obeyed, sullenly perhaps at first, but afterwards thankfully." That undoubtedly would have been an immense social reform, liberating from torture and physical deformity the women of China. How far these strong views are sound, the experts must judge ; but it must be terribly difficult to effect radical changes in a people so saturated with the belief in earth- spirits that they oppose mining enterprises, and at the cost of £10,000, built a temple " to face and counteract the pyramidal hill on the opposite side of the river, to the evil influence of which is due the ill-success of the Ichang candidates at the triennial examinations"! That is only one specimen of the traces of earth-worship which abound. A Mr. Tung purchased and desired to quarry a hill near Chung-king ; but he was obliged to desist, because the officials found that the falling-off in trade was " clearly due to the wounding of the ground-pulse." So they met in the " cultivate virtue hall," honestly paid compensation, but obtained a proclamation whereby "it is forbidden to quarry
stone, to burn kilns, or to open a ditch, that the ground-pulse may be cherished and handed down (intact) to all ages." So ended the quarrying; bat the rule is not without exceptions, for some easy plots in the vast Szechuen coal-field are worked with profit; and were the steamers to make their appearance, the temptation to trade in coal would probably prove stronger than the superstitious belief in the ground-pulse and the earth- dragon.
As to Szechuen itself, it has long been known as a mine of varied wealth, which can only be tapped by the river route. It is a beautiful province, and well cultivated ; but the more enter- prising spirits are eager for wider markets and larger results. Mr. Little's account of it from the traveller's as well as the trader's point of view, is stimulating ; while the approaches up the superb river exceed in grandeur any stream with the descriptions of which we are acquainted. The volume, in its serious as well as amusing aspects, is never dull, and is well worth the attention of those who wish to be instructed and entertained on the subject of an important stretch of China, and the qualities of her governors and people.
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