Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

treaty with Siam the Court of Appeal would revise the judgment delivered at Bangkok wherein Phra Yot was acquitted of the murder of M. Grosgurin. In the meanwhile the French will retain Chantaboon.

-The following circular despatch was sent to the foreign legations at Peking by the Tsung-li Yamên :-"Your Excellency. We have the honour to inform you that the 7th of November next will be the sixtieth anniversary of H. I. M. the Empress-Dowager Tze-hsi's, etc., etc., birthday, which will be celebrated throughout the empire. On that day H. I. M. the Emperor, accompanied by the high dignitaries of the whole empire, will proceed to pay felicitous congratulations to the Empress-Dowager, and the occasion will be extensively celebrated. As China is in amity and friendship with your country it is but in accordance with the courtesy due to Your Excellency that proper notice of this joyous occasion

should also be given to Your Excellency. Instructions have already been sent to our ministers abroad to give the same information to Your Excellency's government at home."

28th.-Murder in a Japanese hotel, Shanghai, of Kim Ok-kuin who on the 4th of December, 1884, commenced a rebellion against the Corean government, caused seven of the principal officers of State to be murdered, and on the collapse of the émeute was only saved from execution by the Japanese refusing to surrend der him when he had taken refuge with them. The murderer is Hong Tjyongou, a fellow-countryman, who had only recently returned from Paris, where he had been moving in the best society, and had evidently made himself a familiar figure in the diplomatic, literary and artistic world.

29th.-Arrest of Hong Tjyong-ou near Woosung.

Missionary Journal.

BIRTH.

AT Peking, on 26th Feb., the wife of Rev. C. H. FENN, Am. Presbyterian Mission, of a son.

MARRIAGES.

AT Chen-tu, Szchuen, on 24th Jan., by
Rev. O. M. Jackson, JAMES G. COR-
MACK to Miss ANNIE Y. ANDERSON,
both of China Inland Mission.
AT the German Consulate, Shanghai, on
March 7th, Mr. H. E. FoUCAR to Miss
LILY OLDING, both of C. I. Mission.
AT Tientsin, 15th March, Mr. C. H. S.
GREEN to Miss E. ASTIN, both of C.
I. Mission.

AT Shanghai, on Tuesday, 27th March, at H. I. German Majesty's ConsulateGeneral, by Dr. Eiswaldt, and afterwards at the Union Church, by Rev. Dr. Faber, Pastor PAUL KRANZ to EMMA ALGAR.

DEATHS.

AT Hankow, on the 26th Feb., Mr. E. N. ROBERSON, B. A., of C. I. Mission. ON the 14th March, at 15A Kiukiang Road, ETHEL, the dearly beloved daughter of the Rev. John R. and Rebecca S. Hykes, aged 11 years, two months and three days.

AT Shanghai, on the 24th March, ELIZA
MORING, widow of the late Rev. M. T.
Yates, D.D., aged 72 years.
ARRIVALS.

AT Shanghai, Mar. 2nd, Misses MARY
BLACK, JANE BLACK, EMILY BLACK
(returned), E. J. BRANSCOMBE, R. H.
BROOK and D. W. A. WALLACE, from
England for China Inland Mission.

AT Shanghai, March 12th, Mr. C. T.
BYFORD, from Australia; Messrs. TнO-
MAS WINDSOR (returned) and E. J.
BREWER, from England.

AT Shanghai, March 16th, Miss M.
MACDONALD-LAWSON, from India.
AT Shanghai, March 26th, Misses M.
HEDLUND and E. PETTERSSON,
from
England, all for C. I. M.

DEPARTURES.

FROM Shanghai, March 1st, Mr. GEO. A. HUNTLEY, of C. I. M., for England. FROM Shanghai, 17th March, Miss M. ELLIOT and Mr. H. PRICE, for Eng. land.

FROM Shanghai, 23rd March, Miss M. B. RITCHIE, of American Presbyterian Mission, for U. S. A.

FROM Shanghai, 24th March, Miss C. E. RIGHTER, of Am. Bapt. M. U., Kinhwa, for U. S. A.; Rev. and Mrs. E. P. WHEATLEY and family, C. M. S. and Dr. and Mrs. J. R. WATSON and family, English Baptist Mission, for England. FROM Shanghai, 24th March, Miss L. A. HAYGOOD, Metho. Episcopal Mission, for U. S. A. and Rev. W. A. WILLS, English Baptist Mission, for England. FROM Shanghai, 29th March, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. JOHNSON, wife and children, of the Inter. Miss. Alliance, to Ireland on furlough.

VISITORS.

16th March, Rev. M. C. MASON, wife and child, Mrs. BOND, from Assam, and Mrs. HANCOCK, from Burmah, of Am. Bapt, M. U., en route for home.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

The Edward Bellamy of China: or The Political Condition of the Middle Sungs.*

A

BY REV. ISAAC T. HEADLAND.

[Methodist Episcopal Mission.]

GLANCE at the Political Condition of the Middle Sungs cannot fail to bring to our minds Sir Thomas More and his utopian theories, or Edward Bellamy, the American socialist, who out-mores More as a visionary. Each of these men have presented us with beautiful pictures of ideal governments, where the Wall Street lion may lie down with the lamb without fleecing it, and where social standing depends not upon birth, business or education but upon respectability and virtue. The sentiments of each of these men may be expressed by a sentence from Mr. Bellamy's book, "Looking Backward:"

"With a tear for the dark past turn we then to the dazzling future, and veiling our eyes press forward. The long weary winter of the race is ended. Its summer has begun. Humanity has burst the Chrysalis. The heavens are before us." †

*(1) T'ung Chien (), by Ssu Ma-kuang ( A ).

(2) Kang Mu (B), by Chu Hsi (**).

(3) Chien Shih I Tu ( 2 ), by Chu Ke Ju Chi (#).

(4) Sung Shih Pen Mo (*), by Feng Ch'i ().

(5) Kang Chien I Chih Lu (&), by Wu Ch'eng-ch'uan (AM). (6) History of China, by Boulger.

(7) Chinese Reader's Manual, by Mayers.

(8) Gutzlaff's History of China.

(9) Bellamy's Looking Backward.

(10) Williams' Middle Kingdom.

+ Looking Backward. Chap. xxvi, p. 292. (The italics are mine.)

The fine theories these two men so beautifully expressed on paper were already worked out by Wang An-shih (E) and put into operation by the Sung dynasty, four centuries before Sir Thomas More and eight centuries before Mr. Bellamy was born. With what results let us see, for there could be no better commentary on Mr. Bellamy's socialistic theories than a contemplation of the results wrought out from essentially the same ideas put in force in China, a country where its blessings were needed at that time more than they are needed at the present time in any Western land.

In the first place let me state as concisely as possible Mr. Bellamy's ideas of things and his theory of government as set forth in his book, "Looking Backward." He holds :

1. That the present condition of things is bad, and that this evil condition grows mainly out of man's inability, under the present order of things, to supply his needs.

2. That the present evil order of things is largely the result of the present system of government, or rather lack of system, in government and business.

3. That if man's needs were supplied and permanently provided for, he would be contented and happy and would seek nothing more.

4. That his needs could easily be provided for if all property and all productions were put into the hands of the government.

With these theories of our American clearly before our mind let us turn now to our Chinese Bellamy. And in order to understand his character and work let us first look at his youth.

Wang An-shih (also called Chieh Fu,, a native of Linch'uan, EJ, in Kiang-hsi, ) was born in the twenty-first year of Chen Tsung of the Sung dynasty, A.D. 1019. During his youth he was so diligent in study that he neither took time to comb his hair nor wash his face, so that he was constantly dirty. This habit clung to him during his whole life. Like Socrates, when he put on a new garment he never put it off, even to wash it, till it was worn out; then he changed only for a new one. But this studious habit soon began to show forth its fraits, for in a short time he became celebrated as poet, scholar and statesman. During the reign of Jen Tsung (E) he passed his examination, receiving the Chin-shih or third degree. He was highly praised by the President of the Imperial Academy for his literary essays, and the Emperor conferred on him the office of Assistant Magistrate () of Huinan ().

At that time it was the custom for the officials who were outside to present a written report to the Emperor at the close of their term of office, asking him to examine it, with the prospect of their promotion. This Wang An-shih refused to do. Nevertheless

« AnkstesnisTęsti »