Walter Henry Medhurst

“ Instead of a savage and untutored people—without a settled government, or written laws,—roaming the desert, and living in caves,—dressed in skins, and sitting on the ground,—knowing nothing of fashion, nor tasting luxuries; we behold in the Chinese a quiet, orderly, well-behaved nation, exhibiting many traces of civilization, and displaying them at a period when the rest of mankind were for the most part sunk in barbarism. Of course we must not look for that high degree of improvement, and those well-defined civil rights, which are in a great measure the effects of Christianity ”

“ To see the demon of darkness reigning in one soul is painful, but to see him rampant over a whole nation, and that nation constituting one-third of the human race, is beyond measure distressing, and might well induce one to exclaim, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of this people." ”

“ From that time to this, revolutions and wars have frequently occurred; the country has been exposed to foreign invasion, and torn by intestine commotion; dynasties have changed, and the people are even now subject to a Tartar yoke,—yet China is China still. Her language and her customs remain unaltered; and the genius and spirit of the people are the same they were in the patriarchal age. No nation has undergone less change, or been less affected from without; and they seem to have grown up as distinct from the rest of mankind as if they had been the inhabitants of another planet ”

“ The love of God is a principle which Confucius never broached, and which his disciples, until taught by a better master, cannot understand; while the employments and enjoyments of heaven never entered into their heads to conceive, nor into their hearts to appreciate. Surely, if ever any needed the teaching of the Divine Saviour, the sages of China do; and the first lesson they would have to learn in Immanuel's school is, humility.
Before quitting the system of Confucius, it may be well just to allude to the opinion of his followers regarding human nature. ”

“ Hence from the earliest antiquity, the emperor has set an example of industry to his people, by personally and publicly holding the plough once a year, while the empress does the same with regard to the loom. In arranging the various classes of the people, the Chinese place the literati in the foremost rank, as learning is with them the stepping stone to honour; but immediately after the learned, the husbandman takes the precedence of all others, because being engaged in raising the necessaries of life, he is abundantly more important than the mechanic, who merely changes the forms of matter ”

“ Chinese philosophers have also spoken much of a "principle of order," by which the universe is regulated, and which is accounted by them the soul of the world. The heavens and earth, together with all animate and inanimate things are, according to them, but one principle, which is as universally diffused through nature as water through the ocean. To this principle they attribute the power of retribution, and say of the wicked that, "though they may escape the meshes of terrestrial law, the celestial principle certainly will not endure them." ”

“ How distressing to think, that this nation has been for ages in its present demoralized and degraded condition, with no light beaming on the people, but that derived from atheism and polytheism, with now and then an obscure ray from a questionable form of Christianity. If we were sure that this state of things would always continue, or that the Gospel was not destined at an early period to subjugate and renovate China, we might almost be led to grow weary of such an unimproving and unimprovable world. ”

“ But the population of China, in its present condition, not only distresses—it appals the mind. The man, who shall set himself to reform his household, or to enlighten his neighbourhood, has assigned himself a task of some difficulty; but of proportionate ease, compared with the great object of arousing a whole nation, turning the current of popular opinion, and bringing the mass of a people to think aright on the subject of religion. ”

“ Three hundred and sixty millions of human beings huddled together in one country, under the sway of one despotic monarch, influenced by the same delusive philosophy, and bowing down to the same absurd superstition. One third of the human race, and one half of the heathen world, held by one tie, and bound by one spell; one million of whom are every month dropping into eternity, untaught, unsanctified, and, as far as we know—unsaved. ”

“ Chinese, ignorant as they must be of the science of political economy, and destitute as they are of the knowledge of Christian ethics,—manage to keep such a mass of people in order, and preserve their empire free from encroachment and diminution? In attempting to solve this difficulty, we cannot but assign to the Chinese an intimate acquaintance with human nature, and an unusual skill in the application of well-defined principles to the business of life. ”

“ A nation increasing as does the Chinese, cannot be long confined within narrow bounds, and restriction with them is impossible. Imperial edicts are already weak and inefficient, but will soon be flung to the winds. Hunger cannot be controlled, and necessity knows no law. Let but another age roll by, and China double her population once more, and her very increase will break down her political barriers, and bring her myriads in contact with the Christian world. ”

“ Thus, then, we find the far-famed school of Confucius deficient in two important points, the existence of a God, and the interest of the world to come; teaching a lifeless, cold-hearted, uninfluential system, which is powerless in the present, and hopeless for the future world. Of what avail is the parade about the five cardinal virtues, and the human relations; when the foundation of all virtue, and the most interesting of all relations, is unknown and neglected? ”

“ What an enormous and overgrown dominion is thus presented before us, extending over thirty-five degrees of latitude and seventy of longitude, and covering an area of upwards of 3,000,000 square miles.
The Chinese empire occupies no inconsiderable space in our map of the earth's surface, and fills up nearly the whole of their own; no wonder, then, that the Chinese should consider their country as the middle kingdom, including all within the four seas; and that, with them, the world and their empire should be synonymous terms. ”

“ The Malthusites have caught at the fact, that China, already over-peopled, is yet increasing in population and is doubling the number of its inhabitants every twenty-five years; which, connected with the circumstance of the scarcity and misery which already prevail, have led them to form the most gloomy apprehensions for the future, and to discourage marriage and encourage wars, lest the world should, like China, become overstocked, and universal want and misery envelope and engulph the whole family of man. ”

“ On the contrary, there is something in the very abundance of the population which constitutes a ground of encouragement; for, the inhabitants of that empire, though numerous, and spread over eighteen provinces, must be considered as a great whole; and what bears on the political, intellectual, moral, and religious condition of the people bears upon them as a whole. Thus China, though vast, is under one despotic form of government, and if measures could be adopted that would influence the ruler of so vast an empire, the whole mass of his subjects would, in a great measure, be affected thereby. ”

“ In all the periods of their history, the Chinese have thought that the heavenly bodies moved in their orbits, for no other purpose, than to point out the rise and fall of dynasties, and to indicate some change of rule in their empire. Famines and pestilences, wars and commotions, droughts and inundations, are with them prognosticated by falling stars and shooting meteors; and so close is the connection between the celestial empire and the powers of nature, that nothing can happen to the one without affecting the other. ”

“ A temple, dedicated to the discoverer of the silk-worm, stands near these gardens, where the empress, and the ladies of the court, attend to the cultivation of silk; in order to encourage a branch of industry, on which China mainly depends for its wealth and elegance. In these gardens, the arrangement is such, that the whole seems the production of nature, rather than the effect of art; and affords a pleasing retreat for those who would retire from the symmetrical disposition of the imperial palace, to enjoy the mildness of natural scenery, in the midst of a dense and crowded capital. ”

“ Broad ways may comport with a high state of civilization, but where the people are little accustomed to luxury and self-indulgence, they will be content with narrow paths; particularly when every particle of improvable soil is needed to sustain the population. What an immense quantity of land is occupied in England, in order to indulge the locomotive propensity of the inhabitants, and to enable them to move, with ease and expedition, from one place to another. ”

“ Some persons may doubt, how a government over so great a country can be maintained for so small a sum, and how a people under an arbitrary rule can be let off with such insignificant imposts; particularly when in a free country like our own, and in a time of profound peace, each individual contributes upwards of two pounds, annually, as his share of the public burthen. ”

“ Indeed, were the question proposed to a Chinese, as to which he considered the most civilized nation, while he might acknowledge the superiority of Europeans in cunning and force, he would not scruple to claim for his own countrymen the praise of a superior polish. They denominate China, "the flowery nation,"—"the region of eternal summer,"—"the land of the sages,"—"the celestial empire,"—while they unscrupulously term all foreigners "barbarians," and sometimes load them with epithets still more degrading and contemptuous, such as swine, monkeys, and devils. ”

“ Moral feeling, therefore, carried to an excess, and strengthened by superstitious awe, lead the Chinese without questioning to yield to authority; and this submissive, unresisting spirit is the source of that peace and good order which prevail throughout the empire. Thus to establish, and thus to sanction the most absolute despotism, and to render it subservient to the pacification of a great country, certainly argues a degree of penetration and discernment which does not comport with a barbarous state of society. ”

“ If you will not think of Buddha, you will lose a human body, and for ten thousand ages not be able to regain it. To think of Buddha, and yet not be delivered from alternate births and deaths—it is impossible. If men pray to Buddha, and yet do not become Buddhas, the error is not in Buddha; it is because the mouth prays, and not the mind. We must have Buddha in the mouth, and Buddha in the mind—neither of these can be dispensed with. ”

“ The southern division of the city, where the Chinese principally reside, is the grand emporium of all the merchandize that finds its way to the capital, and tends to ornament and gratify the adherents of the court. Here, relieved from the strict discipline that prevails in the palace, the citizens give themselves up to business, or dissipation; encouraged and led on by voluptuous courtiers, who have nothing to do, but to display their grandeur, or to please their appetites. ”

“ Some of the spectators profess to be able to see the opening portals, and the scampering demons, pale and wan, with hair standing on end, and every rib discernible, hurrying up to the high table, and shouldering away the baskets of fruit and pots of rice, or whole hogs and goats, as the case may be; and returning with satisfied looks, as if they had enough to last them till the next anniversary. The world of spirits, according to the Chinese, is like the world of men: and as, in this life, it is impossible to live without eating, or to obtain comforts without money ”

“ So great is the work, and so feeble the energies that can be brought to bear on it, that we have no time "to fall out by the way;" and it is a pleasing feature of the Protestant mission to China, that hitherto the agents of various societies, the members of different communions, and the representatives of distant hemispheres, have consented to merge their national and denominational prejudices, and to join heart and hand in making known the great doctrine of justification by faith, to the sceptical and superstitious Chinese. ”

“ In the southern parts of the empire the natives themselves, who might be supposed anxious to conceal the fact, bear ample testimony to its existence, and that in a proportion which it is fearful to contemplate; while the lightness with which they treat the murder of female infants, shews that it must have prevailed, in no ordinary degree, in order so far to blunt their sensibilities on the subject, as to lead them to contemplate the drowning of a daughter as far more excusable than the treading of a printed paper under foot. ”

“ It must be confessed, that these are rather hard terms to bestow upon men who have left their native land, and ventured all, to spread what they conceive to be the truth; men, at the same time, of much learning, and, one would hope, of some sincerity—who have deserved better than to be denounced as downright liars, in matters where they had neither interest nor inclination to deceive. Their opportunities for ascertaining the fact, were many and great, as they were engaged, by imperial authority, in travelling through the various provinces, and drawing up a statistical view of the empire ”

“ Ching-tang said, 'I only wish for rain on account of the people. If prayer will avail, I will present it myself!' He then fasted, and cut off his hair and nails, riding in a mourning chariot; and binding white reeds around him, that he might represent a sacrificial animal, he went forth to the wilderness of mulberry-bushes, and invoked, saying, 'Let not the lives of the people be forfeited, on account of the neglect of one individual!' He then acknowledged his six faults, saying, 'Is it that my government is extravagant? or that the people are not properly attended to? ”

“ The only inducement, that English merchants can have to lead them to carry on the opium trade in China, is the desire of gain; and yet that gain is so considerable as to draw them on with increasing eagerness in its pursuit. It is with them not a means to an end, but the end itself; they do not contemplate the wasting away of the population in consequence of the traffic, and yet the terrible effects of the traffic may be the same as though they did contemplate it. Facts induce us to believe that it is so. ”

“ For some time, porcelain was a regular article of export from China to Europe, and much prized in this country. Since, however, the improvement in our own manufacture, and the discouraging duty levied on imported porcelain, the introduction has greatly diminished; though the value of real China ware still keeps up. Whatever advances we may have made in whiteness of our porcelain, and the brilliancy of our colours, we must remember that the Chinese were the first to practice the art, and still exceed us in the compactness of the material, and the fineness of the ware. ”