The Fight For The Republic In China | Page 5

that end, their silence being due
to a lack of proper records and to the difficulty of establishing the
simple truth in a country where rumour reigns supreme. But there is
little doubt that the famous Ko-lao-hui, a Secret Society with its
headquarters in the remote province of Szechuan, owed its origin to the
last of the Ming adherents, who after waging a desperate guerilla
warfare from the date of their expulsion from Peking, finally fell to the
low level of inciting assassinations and general unrest in the vain hope
that they might some day regain their heritage. At least, we know one
thing definitely: that the attempt on the life of the Emperor Chia Ching
in the Peking streets at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century was a
Secret Society plot, and brought to an abrupt end the pleasant habit of
travelling among their subjects which the great Manchu Emperors
K'anghsi and Ch'ien Lung had inaugurated and always pursued and
which had so largely encouraged the growth of personal loyalty to a
foreign House.
From that day onwards for over a century no Emperor ventured out

from behind the frowning Walls of the Forbidden City save for brief
annual ceremonies such as the Worship of Heaven on the occasion of
the Winter Solstice, and during the two "flights"-- first, in 1860 when
Peking was occupied by an Anglo-French expedition and the Court
incontinently sought sanctuary in the mountain Palaces of Jehol; and,
again, in 1900, when with the pricking of the Boxer bubble and the
arrival of the International relief armies, the Imperial Household was
forced along the stony road to faroff Hsianfu.
The effect of this immurement was soon visible; the Manchu rule,
which was emphatically a rule of the sword, was rapidly so weakened
that the emperors became no more than rois faineants at the mercy of
their ministers.
[Footnote: As there is a good deal of misunderstanding on the subject
of the Manchus an explanatory note is useful.
The Manchu people, who belong to the Mongol or Turanian Group,
number at the maximum five million souls. Their distribution at the
time of the revolution of 1911 was roughly as follows: In and around
Peking say two millions, in posts through China say one- half
million,--or possibly three-quarters of a million; in Manchuria
Proper--the home of the race--say two or two and a half millions. The
fighting force was composed in this fashion: When Peking fell into
their hands in 1644 as a result of a stratagem combined with
dissensions among the Chinese themselves, the entire armed strength
was re-organized in Eight Banners or Army Corps, each corps being
composed of three racial divisions, (1) pure Manchus, (2) Mongols who
had assisted in the conquest and (3) Nothern Chinese who had gone
over to the conquerors. These Eight Banners, each commanded by an
"iron-capped" Prince, represented the authority of the Throne and had
their headquarters in Peking with small garrisons throughout the
provinces at various strategic centres. These garrisons had entirely
ceased to have any value before the 18th Century had closed and were
therefore pure ceremonial and symbolic, all the fighting being done by
special Chinese corps which were raised as neccessity arose.]
The history of the Nineteenth Century is thus logically enough the

history of successive collapses. Not only did overseas foreigners openly
thunder at the gateways of the empire and force an ingress, but native
rebellions were constant and common. Leaving minor disturbances out
of account, there were during this period two huge Mahommedan
rebellions, besides the cataclysmic Taiping rising which lasted ten
years and is supposed to have destroyed the unbelievable total of one
hundred million persons. The empire, torn by internecine warfare,
surrendered many of its essential prerogatives to foreigners, and by
accepting the principle of extraterritoriality prepared the road to
ultimate collapse.
How in such circumstances was it possible to keep alive absolutism?
The answer is so curious that we must be explicit and exhaustive.
The simple truth is that save during the period of vigour immediately
following each foreign conquest (such as the Mongol conquest in the
Thirteenth Century and the Manchu in the Seventeenth) not only has
there never been any absolutism properly so-called in China, but that
apart from the most meagre and inefficient tax-collecting and some
rough-and-ready policing in and around the cities there has never been
any true governing at all save what the people did for themselves or
what they demanded of the officials as a protection against one another.
Any one who doubts these statements has no inkling of those facts
which are the crown as well as the foundation of the Chinese
group-system, and which must be patiently studied in the village-life of
the country to be fitly appreciated. To be quite frank, absolutism is