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Court Life in China-Part12_Issac Taylor Headland(1859-1942)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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subjects of learning, up to the time when he was dethroned. Let



us tell why it was that an imbecile would study all those foreign

books without help, without an assistant, without a teacher, for



three years, from the time he bought them in 1895 till 1898,

before he began issuing the most remarkableseries of edicts that



have ever come from the pen of an Oriental monarch in the same

length of time. And let us explain how it was that an imbecile



could embody in his edicts of two or three months all the

important principles that were necessary to launch the great



reforms of the past ten years.

I doubt if any Chinese monarch has ever had a more far-reaching



influence over the minds of the young men of the empire than

Kuang Hsu had from 1895 till 1898. The preparation for this



influence had been going on for twenty or thirty years previously

in the educationalinstitutions established by the missions and



the government. From these schools there had gone out a great

number of young men who had taken positions in all departments of



business, and many of the state, and revealed to the officials as

well as to many of the people the power of foreign education. An



imperial college had been established by the customs service for

the special education of young men for diplomatic and other



positions, from which there had gone out young men who were the

representatives of the government as consuls or ministers in the



various countries of Europe and America.

The fever for reading the same books that Kuang Hsu had read was



so great as to tax to the utmost the presses of the port cities

to supply the demand, and the leaders of some of the publication



societies feared that a condition had arisen for which they were

unprepared. Books written by such men as Drs. Allen, Mateer,



Martin, Williams and Legge were brought out in pirated

photographic reproductions by the bookshops of Shanghai and sold



for one-tenth the cost of the original work. Authors, to protect

themselves, compelled the pirates to deliver over the stereotype



plates they had made on penalty of being brought before the

officials in litigation if they refused. But during the three



years the Emperor had been studying these foreign books, hundreds

of thousands of young scholars all over the empire had been doing



the same, preparing themselves for whateveremergency the studies

of the young Emperor might bring about.



One day during the early spring a young Chinese reformer" target="_blank" title="n.改革者；革新者">reformer came to

me to get a list of the best newspapers and periodicals published



in both England and America. I inquired the reason for this

strange move, and he said:



"The young Chinese reformer" target="_blank" title="n.改革者；革新者">reformers in Peking have organized a Reform

Club. Some of them read and speak English, others French, others



German and still others Russian, and we are providing ourselves

with all the leading periodicals of these various countries that



we may read and study them. We have rented a building, prepared

rooms, and propose to have a club where we can assemble whenever



we have leisure, for conversation, discussion, reading, lectures

or whatever will best contribute to the ends we have in view."



"And what are those ends?" I inquired.

"The bringing about of a new regime in China," he answered. "Our



recent defeat by the Japanese has shown us that unless some

radical changes are made we must take a second place among the



peoples of the Orient."

"This is a new move in Peking, is it not?"



"New in Peking," he answered, "but not new in the empire. Reform

clubs are being organized in all the great cities and capitals.



In Hsian, books have been purchased by all classes from the

governor of the province down to the humblest scholar, and the



aristocracy have organized classes, and are inviting the

foreigners to lecture to them. Every one, except a few of the



oldest conservativescholars, are discarding their Confucian

theories and reconstructing their ideas in view of present day



problems. There is an intellectualfermentation now going on from

which a new China is certain to be evolved, and we propose to be



ready for it when it comes."

The leader of this reform party was Kang Yu-wei, a young



Cantonese, who had made a thorough study of the reforms of Peter




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