The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. CHINA AS A NATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 20, 6 January 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. CHINA AS A NATION.

In discussing' the of , the revolt speeding, , a special correspondent; of, the Guardian” writes, it is necessary to. consider how far the' homogeneity of lasp ratioii is afl'ected by diftoi'olice in dialect, local custom, religious feeling, and so on. This may all be made clearer by casting our eyes backward on the lines of Chinese, developjincnt, ,It must be remembered that the, oldest China ■ (of which we have any exact history) barely extended south of the Yellow River, and, if further, then , only;; as' far as., the River Yhng|s<\ : ’iiCtfie Hgiolx'one' hundred miles east and west of Hankow; It seems also that offshoots of! Chinese. “civilisors” or colonists even spread .across the Yarigtse to the eastern lake (Yoyang) and western lake (Tungsing) regions, hut not far from the water. It is easy to understand this;,they floated down the River Han to Hankowj then up and down . the Vanktse to the lakes, and down the innuemable branches of the River Hwai towards the Lower Yangtse A alley ; there were no roads. r l here are distinct mentions of dialect differences so early* as 500 R.C., but there is no reason to suppose that these differences were at all serious, or that interpreters were ever needed; it was one language w.tli local variations. There were also slight differences in the written character as used by the Efferent federal States. But when the “First Emperor” really so called annexed all the federal States to his own (B.C. 220) and created for the first time a really centralised Government (practically that of to-day) he made it his special care to equalise weights, measures, cart axles-, written characters, and laws, so that the fan-like outward development of Chin■so civilisation from the old centre (Si-an Fu and Honan Fu region) towards the sea on the east and south, and towards the desert and India on the west, received fresh impetus from this date (over 2000 years ago). Thus wo find that even now (subject to quite ninor variations) the one language (Kwan-hwa or “public language,” usually mistranslated “mandarin language”) takes one all over the Empire from the Russian, Afghan, Indian, and Korean frontiers to within a comparatively short distance of the coasts. It is only along the southern coasts— Torn Shanghai to Tonquin — that really impracticable languages or dialects 3xist; yet those arc all purely Chinese in etymological value; it is only that during the process of absorption of al ens (or perhaps distant kinsmen) the original Kwan-hwa has been superficially (not fundamentally) modified so far as spoken syllables, aspirates, tones, and so on are concerned ; in a few cases even the construction of short sentences is slightly varied. Notwithstanding all this, when proclamations—of course, always in monosyllables—arc posted, speakers of all dialects, whatever have no difficulty in reading out those monosyllables, though where a Pekinese would say pea a Foochow man would say poke,, a Cantonese put, a Hakka pit, and so on. No Chinese ever reads corrccttly in two dialects. These spoken differences are so serious along the coast that a Cantonese (and his group of sub-dialect speakers) cannot be understood at all by an Amoyan (and his sub-group); still less can either of them be understood by a Foochow man (and his sub-

gioup); far away still less by .1 Wenchow man, who speaks a perfectly “etymological” hut fearful jargon—tills jargon becomes less marked at Ningpo, and much less marked again at Shanghai. Europeans in force first app-.oaciud China from the coast, and were consequently first confronted with “dialects.” They generally thought these were forms of standard Chinese, and that the interior of China was a hopeless jumble cf worse dialects. But that is not the correct way of looking at it. The coasts are tho Ultima Thule of the Chinese world,

and the population ns a whole decs not regard them at all seriously. As in Europe before Latin dropped, modern languages were thought unworthy of literary notice. Mandarins from the coast, of course, all speak their native lingo, but they are ashamed of it, and will not readily do so in public; they must learh Kwan-hwa of some sort, for all civil mandarins are obliged to make their bow at Pekin. A great many mandarins not only fad to acquire Pekinese, but they fail to got hold of any one specific Kwanhwa at all, and it is no exaggeration to say that, at the Foreign Office, for instance, none of the high officials who do not either come from the same neighbourhood or know how to imitate the Pekinese brogue exactly

over perfectly understand .what their colleagues say. They usually speak a jumble or compromise. Nay, more; all over the Empire there is a considerable vagueness in the comprehens'ou of speech amongst officials (who always hail from other provinces) and travellers; the only persons who really “confidently” understand each other are fellow-villagers, fellow-townsmen,

fellow-prefectnrals, fellow-provincials, and so on, in this order of perfection. It may he explained that, the best classes of the ’'old Chinese” having been gradually driven by Taratar dynasties over the Yangtse and through the lakes, we now find Cantonese the dialect which most closely approaches ancient Chinese and native standard diet onary Chinese. As to the ways of thinking prevalent in rival provinces, there are, of course, petty local customs, as there are in other countries ; but the Chinese have always been very catholic in their naturalisation laws, or, their tacit camtoms in that direction. Any savage who “buttons Ids coat on the right,” wears breeches, and (in Manchu times) “sports” a pigtail, is externally Chinese. If lie performs his.ancestral and family duties properly on the ancient Chinese basis he can find sureties and go up for examination, in duo course becoming an official, in wh.ch case, of course* he must, acquire or feign a great admiration for Confucius. The first : thihg the half-ba'rbarcAis Man--1 thus did when they got to Pekin was to start a “dynasticrtemple, JJ 'invent a divine origin for -themselves (though in their private histories they admit that the still more barbarous luchi were their forebears), show excessive tendencies to their grandmothers, and visit the ancient home of Confucius. In all essentials marriage and funeral “laws” are absolutely the same all over China; in any case the dklw” takes note of special local usages if tlie‘ gentry guarantee the' facts. Commercial law, has no existence - y t^ic

guilds make or declare that, and the “law” must ■ recognise their dicta; they are one of the strongest forces in China, and local differences are mutually understood and tacitly adjusted. Manchu ways in no respect clash, with Chinese. The Manchu (i.e., including Mongol and Chinese ‘‘banner”) cantonments of Canton, Nanking, and to a large extent even Pekin, are a closed, reserve, even more so than the British cantonments of India. The bannermen rarely leave the city; their families rarely leave the street. They might as well be a menagerie of strange animals for all the effect they exercise on local life; but they themselves are affected, for thej’ must go to market; hence, whilst they always speak Pekinese, they, most of them, also speak the local dialect, and they are apt to interlard their Pekinese speech with local words. Until recent reforms there were no political aspirations anywhere, or if there were they were suppressed as dangerous, both voluntarily and offi-

cially. The view was: “The mandarins do the governing trade; it is not our business.” If this “trade,” and overdone the people “struck, ,5 and all shops were instantly shut. But now telegraphs and cheap newspapers have altered all that; all people's aspirations are the same—fair taxation, proper use of taxes, abolition of waste or useless Manchu pensioners (no Manchu works; all Manchus “eat” pensions), freedom of trade and trrns t, auditing of finance by popular representatives, and so on.