But seriously -- check out any unusual practices which might cause serious harm; and also check out what is known about the teachers, guides or gurus. In personal correspondence, Adolf Ratzka attracted or sharpened my interest with some remarks about 'attachment' in Buddhist thinking, and later mentioned the benefits he had found in practical meditation, without any religious context. Adolf and his Nordic colleagues, together with the genial webmaster Miles Goldstick, kindly accommodated and published online the originals or expanded revisions of many of my papers or journal articles in the past 15 years, in the open online 'virtual library' of the Independent Living Institute "May it live a thousand years!
To Lynne Bejoian, for complaining about some earlier paragraphs on Buddhism in articles of mine. That caused me to look more closely at some sources and to try to decide what I wanted to say and write it more clearly. Reviewing the present work, I'm not at all sure that it is any clearer; but it's certainly much longer, so there might be even more cause for complaint.
At least this work is now based in a much greater range and depth of sources that address Buddhism and responses to disability. Further well-informed readers are invited to pile in critically and give more lucid accounts of whatever they may find muddled or mistaken here. To David Werner whose practice-based books and illustrations led a worldwide revolution in communicating realistic, low-cost, practical health and disability information for encouraging remarks about an earlier draft of the bibliography, and for 25 years of correspondence about responses to disability in many countries which are usually weaker economically, but sometimes show more wisdom and humanity than the wealthy countries that patronise them.
Milburn for kindly supplying a published article, many thanks. To members of the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, Moseley, part of the Triratna Buddhist Community , for a polite welcome and allowing me to check through the upstairs wall of books that constituted their library, while they were in the midst of a pre-meditated internal restructuring, switching around the furniture and contents of a large part of the ground floor! To Christine Miles, for continuing to listen to my daily commentary about whatever I happen to read; for commenting on and questioning much of what I write; for 40 years of paying our bills by her own professional work while I was studying and writing and talking; and for taking the time to learn a dozen useful languages across Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, among other varied studies which greatly extended our access to a range of useful resources.
As usual, when compiling bibliographies, I'm vastly grateful to the many authors who wrote works casting light on the field, and also some who were writing on a neighbouring area which provided useful background; and to the many translators who took pains to make good work more widely available. Also to some of the publishers and their employees who took a risk by publishing scholarly works that might interest only a 'minority' readership, because they thought they 'should be' published, even if sales would barely recover costs, or would certainly be a financial loss.
Finally, thanks to Eeva-Liisa Multala, who taught hundreds of us, in Pakistan and Finland, so much about a world of religious thought and practice, with hardly a course of lectures but mostly by listening with open heart and mind, and quietly putting her Christian faith and belief into practice. Such a great-souled teacher transcends the many deep differences between the world's various religions and compilations of wisdom.
It must again be emphasized that the annotations are concerned only with Buddhism and disability, mental disorders or deafness, or the background to these features.
In the works listed below there are many interesting and admirable points about all kinds of human activities and beliefs -- they are not represented in the annotation because they are not targeted in this bibliography. The Kamakura Buddhist monk Myoe Myoebo Koben, regularly characterised himself as a hinin, claiming the 'outcast' and 'undesirable' status of people who traditionally undertook polluting work such as cleaning toilets and removing corpses for burial, and might also engage in "segregating and administering the community of lepers in urban areas", as well as handling animal flesh and skins, and executing criminals; or might themselves have leprosy or other serious skin disease.
Myoe's self-mutilation, by cutting off one ear, was a further attempted identification with deformed persons or 'non-persons', but with a view toward converting their taintedness into purity, by lengthily chanting a powerful mantra to dispel the harm. Some see "a forerunner of modern welfare and social work", while others focus on the roots in 'karmic retribution' which tend to increase and legitimize social discrimination against those with serious impairments.
A possibly comparable dilemma could be seen in Myoe's and Eizon's innovative encouragement of women's participation in ordained Buddhist religious life, which was meritorious in itself, but could provide opportunities for sexual attraction, which might nullify or distract from the religious attainments of the monks and nuns. Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Buddhism , As a student aged 13 he had spent a night in a graveyard, testing his resolve to live a dedicated life and thinking to have himself eaten by wolves, or perhaps a starving tiger, like the Buddha in former lives; but no hungry beast showed up for dinner.
Later, on a journey, "he encountered a leper", and learnt from someone that "the only medicine that could cure the leper of his illness is a small portion of human flesh" Myoe revisited the leper, taking with him a sharp knife - but the leper had by then died, so the experiment collapsed. Myoe apparently believed that "great teachers of the past, in their effort to single-mindedly pursue the Dharma, went so far as gouging out their eyes, and cutting off their noses, ears, arms and legs Myoe thought good to disfigure himself as a token of his dedication, and was rational enough to think that cutting off his nose or a hand would spoil his participation in certain rituals.
Chopping an ear off, without causing loss of hearing, would be an appropriate deformity. Removal of an ear would also symbolise 'not listening' , , to the pussyfooting norms of conventional religion. It would also seem to avoid listening to the Buddha Gotama's rejection of ascetic practices and self-mutilation but that was in a previous era. The Buddha-Karita of Asvaghosha , translated by E. Sacred Books of the East, vol. Prince Gautama's long delayed encounter with sickness, disability and death seems to be central in the foundation of Buddhism, as currently understood.
In Asvaghosha's account 2nd century CE of the life and acts of the Buddha in this incarnation, his childhood and youth were protected from the sight of suffering. When he wished to go beyond the palace, clearance was first undertaken: The blessed youth saw suffering, decay and death, and felt obliged to embrace these phenomena and to seek their meaning and discover how one should conduct oneself in such a world. But those servants, while having significant impairments, would not have been 'squalid beggars' squeezing the maximum pathos out of their suffering, but active people working in known roles.
While growing up familiar with such people, he might not have perceived them in terms of suffering and decay. Problems of suffering as perceived in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manicheeism and Jainism, are given by reference to textual foundations in each religion or philosophy, and by considering later developments of thought, up to the late 20th century.
This summary is partly contradicted by Bowker's opening statement on 'Hinduism': Very little direct reference is made to disability, but the principles behind the exposition of 'suffering' seem to be applicable to the many different ways in which 'disability' may now be understood. It offers comprehensible explanations and cross-references, with what appears to be a strong scholarly base.
It would be possible to skim down the annotations of the following listed items translated from the reported discourses of the Buddha Gotama in 10 minutes, and thereby get an extremely superficial impression of "what the Buddha said about disability". For readers who are not already familiar with the broader teachings of the Buddha, it is strongly recommended that they should go beyond such a glance and take the trouble to get hold of at least one complete book listed, or to find in a library or on the web at least a dozen translated suttas in which some material concerning disability appears, and read the full context of those items along with any explanatory footnotes or endnotes.
Several Buddhist sites provide open online texts, sometimes with commentary and footnotes. To understand how the Buddha Gotama reportedly spoke about deafness, mental disorder or disability, and the context in which his remarks were offered, simply requires more than can be gleaned from the annotations below. Apparently this man was a prince, then an ascetic, then an innovative teacher who lived more than 2, years ago in India, inhabiting a world of thoughts, concepts and daily activities that is vastly different from the urban world of the s.
While some of his teaching about human behaviour sounds quite comprehensible in the present era, there are many details and subtleties that hardly jump the historical gaps of concept and language, without lengthy explanation. A translation of the Digha Nikaya , translated from Pali by M. Brief, passing references to impairments and disabilities appear, e. See Prebish, , 'Cooking the Buddhist Books' for an informed review of scholarly debate on dating, following the 3-volume compilation by Heinz Bechert of a conference proceedings on the topic.
A translation of the Majjhima Nikaya , original draft translation from Pali by Bhikkhu Nanamoli; edited and revised by Bhikkhu Bodhi first published ; second edition This formidable volume drafted in Sri Lanka by the English monk Nanamoli and much revised and overhauled by the American monk Bodhi b. Contents, Preface and Introduction pp. The book would have been even longer, had the duplications in some discourses not been abbreviated where, e.
In some ways 'mental disorder' may be addressed on hundreds of pages, by teaching about 'mindfulness' and the 'well-ordered' mind fundamentally in pp. Yet much of Buddha Gotama's recorded teaching seems to have been directed initially toward people having capacity to be seated in still, silent meditation and to live communally with men who were similarly not 'mad', not openly displaying symptoms of psychoses or strange behaviour - though some may have suffered quieter depressive illnesses.
Reference is sometimes made e. See annotations to [The Buddha. He then showed how, in allegorical form, comparable skills needed to be acquired by the bhikkhus. Cowherds more often figured in stories about fools, as in the following Culagopalaka S pp. However, the description of the detailed 'cowherd skills' suggests some open-mindedness on the part of those who recalled and recorded the illustration, toward those who might be expected to have quite modest intellectual powers.
An example is given in pp. In the man's diseased state, "his faculties were impaired; thus, though the fire was actually painful to touch, he acquired a mistaken perception of it as pleasant.
It could be of interest in the history of disease identification if strong dating evidence were available. Greater knowledge of the actual powers of touch, smell and hearing acquired by some born-blind people might lead to modification of such tales; but without such practical experience, these tales tend to reinforce stereotypes.
The Buddha Gotama, having insight that Bodhi and his wife were not destined to have a child, avoided misguiding the prince. However, when Bodhi asks about following a great teacher's doctrine and making progress toward enlightenment, he learns that there are "five factors of striving", faith, honesty and sincerity, strong commitment, wisdom, and that the learner should be "free from illness and affliction, possessing a good digestion" and thus able to "bear the strain of striving".
The Buddha then suggests that, possessing the five factors and hearing an enlightened teacher, the learner might take seven years to reach the supreme goal A dramatic tale is told of change in the unbalanced mind of Angulimala, a man who had been falsely accused of wrongdoing, and was then tricked into becoming a serial murderer pp. In the telling, other case histories are cited as evidence Piyajatika S, In Dhammacetiya S, That allegedly contrasts with other teachers' followers, who practise for a while, then return to ordinary pleasures; or "recluses and brahmins who are lean, wretched, unsightly, jaundiced, with veins standing out on their limbs, such that people would not want to look at them again"; or "learned men who wander about, as it were, demolishing the views of others with their sharp wits" -- until they meet the fully enlightened Teacher, whose words cause them to rethink their lives pp.
I do not remember, I was mad when I did that. Removal of a poisoned arrow, careful description of technique, and advice on aftercare to prevent infection Sunakkhatta S, Impossible for a woman to be a Fully Enlightened One, unless she first gets reborn as a man Bahudhatuka S, King Yama, interrogating the newly dead, asks whether they had never seen "a man - or a woman - at eighty, ninety, or a hundred years, aged, as crooked as a roof bracket, doubled up, supported by a walking stick, tottering, frail, youth gone, teeth broken, grey-haired, scanty-haired, bald, wrinkled, with limbs all blotchy?
In response, examples are given of people who behave with anger, killing or injuring other beings with hand, clod, stick, or knife, and such action kamma causes the violent and merciless one to reappear in a sad state, perdition, or hell; but if he or she does return to a human existence, it will be short-lived, or sickly, or ugly. Conversely, the person who gives up treating others with violence and injury, and instead acts with kindness and compassion to all living beings, that person will return to a long life, good health and beauty. Probably the Teacher at that time, or any time since, would be equally critical of any student who skimmed through the texts looking for material on deafness, mental disorders and disability, rather than spending 14 years learning the broader teachings of the Buddha's Way and seeking to practise them - and thereby probably becoming better able to grasp the higher meaning of any text referring to bodily or mental difficulties.
Such a critique might not be unreasonable - perhaps it would depend on the student's intentions? Pali Text Society; London: This is a translation of the complete Majjhima Nikaya see previous item by the Cambridge scholar and Pali Text Society officer Isaline Blew Horner , during her many years of Pali studies. See notes by Bodhi, pp. The more recent translation, with the benefit of a further 40 years of textual scholarship, and presumably the use of modern computer software, has a more polished presentation.
However, Horner's translation work is still worth reading, for her somewhat different approach. She was one of very few scholarly women who took a leading part in earlier efforts to make Buddhist texts available to the English-reading world. A translation of the Samyutta Nikaya , translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi This heavy single-volume translation, with scholarly notes and apparatus, is estimated to contain more than half a million words.
Each of these Books has its own listed Contents, and Introduction, and is followed by its own Notes; but there is also a Preface pp. Many of the general remarks in the annotations above to the Digha Nikaya and Majjima Nikaya translations are equally applicable to the Samyutta Nikaya.
Keyword searches have been used to locate passages in the electronic edition, having some possible relevance to impairments, disabilities, deformities etc, which were then checked in the printed version, for context and relevance. Thus it is quite likely that some passages of possible pertinence may have been skipped over.
However, for readers who may have a serious interest, without access to ancient texts and languages or the time to acquire them, the following pages within the present translation may provide a quicker way to begin. The first "has been reborn in a low family" where there is little to eat or drink or to clothe oneself, and he "is ugly, unsightly, deformed, chronically ill - purblind or cripple-handed or lame or paralyzed He engages in misconduct of body, speech and mind The second type of person is also reborn in poor circumstances, food and clothing being hard to obtain, and he too is ugly, deformed, crippled or paralyzed.
Yet in this case, he "engages in good conduct of body, speech, and mind. Having done so, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world. Note on p. As "an immediate kammic result", the thieves lost their own sight, and continued to live there. It was about three kilometres south of Savatthi and was protected by royal guards. Some of the devas tried to complain about this outrage, but their doing so merely had the effect of beautifying this ugly "anger-eating yakkha".
The more angry they were, the more handsome it became. The high deity Sakka used a different approach to expel the intruder: Each time he did so, "that yakkha became uglier and uglier and more and more deformed until he disappeared right there. A modern politically correct exposition, in terms of implacable modern Disability Rights campaigners politely taking over the seat of government in Sweden?!
As the painter creates a figure on the panel, so kamma with its adjuncts creates a form in the realms of existence. As the figure created by an unskilled painter is ugly, deformed, and disagreeable, so the kamma performed with a mind dissociated from knowledge gives rise to an ugly, deformed, disagreeable figure. In the notes pp. Yet the Teacher questions what is recollected, and suggests that it is something "deformed" - deformed by cold, heat, hunger, thirst, contact with flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and serpents.
The note seems to suggest that this may be about the 'emptiness' or non-transmission of a 'self'. Ireland 2nd edition, ; reprinted Some parts of these two minor collections of sayings attributed to the Buddha have pertinence to disabled persons. In the Udana , chapter 5, part 5. This man having leprosy or some other severe skin disease , seeing a crowd in the distance, approached to see if food was being given out.
Finding instead "the recluse Gotama" teaching the Dhamma, Suppabuddha sat down to listen. The great Teacher perceived that the heart and mind of this leper was open to instruction, so gave the message to him, and Suppabuddha received and embraced it, plunged into the Dhamma, took refuge in the teacher, and undertook the way of a lay follower. Departing, he was soon killed by the attack of a cow with calf. The bhikkhus informed the teacher of it, and requested some explanation. They learnt that the man had reached his unfortunate state because in an earlier life he had displayed contempt for a leper seeking alms.
The consequential long period of suffering was now ended, and he had achieved enlightenment. It is interesting to see Suppabuddha portrayed as far more advanced on the Way. Though leprosy would still exclude him from the sangha, he leaps over that obstacle; or at least, the story bypasses that problem. The underlying aim is a critique of the wandering teachers of various sects, who are said to be similarly blind. However, the teacher assured the bhikkhus that Bhaddiya possessed great merit and the highest attainment in the holy life.
From later commentaries, further stories and elaborations may be found, e. Search for 'Bhaddiya', 'lakuntaka', 'dwarf' etc show these on Buddhist websites, some of which have scholarly notes and references. Another source is the Kelisila Jataka No. The introduction to the Itivuttaka notes p. Khujjuttara too was depicted as being a hunchback, and as having acquired this disability as a result of mocking a lame 'private buddha'. For the admission of candidates to the Order of Bhikkhus, rules known as the first Khandhaka, I , , occupy pp.
The translators indicate in lengthy footnotes an early theory of development, i. Lists of physical or sensory impairments and disabilities are recorded from the late stage, among detailed lists of disqualifications, exclusions and prohibitions from ordination. Ordination was prohibited as follows: A further ordinance prescribed that at the upasampada ordination, a candidate should specifically be asked about disqualifications, including the question: This collection of religious discourse, attributed to the Buddha Gotama and widely referred to in western literature as 'the Lotus Sutra' , has been particularly influential in East Asian countries, being translated into Chinese as early as the 3rd century CE p.
It is highly important in Mahayana Buddhism, giving a much stronger role to bodhisatvas, and being understood by some as opening the way for all humans to achieve spiritual enlightenment and compassion for others within the present life or after a few rebirths, rather than after innumerable cycles of suffering existence. However, parts of the Saddharma-Pundarika are not at all easy to understand and are susceptible to multiple interpretations; and Kern's present translation from Sanskrit is sometimes less than transparent, nor did he disguise his lack of sympathy for some of the material he was translating as seen in some footnotes.
Imagery is used in which disabling conditions are listed as a punishment for failing to believe this sutra, or for scorning its contents. In Chapter III , apart from being labelled 'blind' as a synonym for 'ignorant' , such disbelievers are tortured, and experience rebirth as animals pp. In verse , "And whenever they assume a human shape, they are born crippled, maimed, crooked, one-eyed, blind, dull, and low, they having no faith in my Sutra. Chapter V includes an extended discourse taking the supposed example of "a certain blind-born man" pp.
An all-knowing physician reflects that "The disease of this man originates in his sinful actions in former times" p. Applying these, "the blind-born recovers his eyesight, and in consequence of that recovery he sees outwardly and inwardly Exposition of this parable asserts that being 'blind-born' is the normal condition of human beings in the world - they i. Chapter XVIII , gives a series of detailed descriptions of the kind and quality of sensory perceptions that can be achieved by one who preaches this Sutra, whether of vision p. By a 'word of truth', the Bodhisattva then reversed this condition, regaining the arm p.
However, self-mutilation of a similar kind but without restoration then seems to be recommended to earnest followers "who at the Tathagata-shrines shall burn a great toe, a finger, a toe, or a whole limb", an act which would "produce far more pious merit than results from giving up a kingdom More recent and detailed studies, e. Kieschnick The Eminent Monk ; Jimmy YU Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence , may expect a readership beyond 'East Asian studies', as the Internet caters for the vast public appetite for blood, torture and freakish behaviour.
This is not to suggest that such self-harming actions are necessarily common -- it seems likely that the more extreme actions are very uncommon, yet they will tend to be noticed and reported and with imagination and exaggeration at every repetition may generate publicity and echoes hugely out of proportion to actual incidence. No reliable 'statistics' are offered.
Whether the less dramatic actions arise from, or concurrently with, mental disorder in the perpetrators is also debatable. More than a century after Kern's translation from Sanskrit see previous item Burton Watson used for his translation the well-received Chinese text "done in by the Central Asian scholar-monk Kumarajiva" pp.
Watson also notes the considerable problems and choices that must be made when translating from Classical Chinese, and that he has paid attention to Japanese readings of the text, as "followed by Nichiren ", in turn based on commentaries by "Chih-i , founder of the T'ien-t'ai school. Watson acknowledges much assistance from persons associated with Soka Gakkai, while also of course benefitting from much development of scholarship in this field, his own considerable experience as a translator, and an attractive style of modern English.
Some differences, as compared with Kern's translation above may be seen in the following texts concerned with disability:. By contrast, the remarkable nature and quality of the sensory perceptions of the Teacher of the Law appear in pp. Description of self-mutilation by burning one's arm or other limb, as a dedicated offering, are shown on pp. Watson usefully provides a Glossary pp. The Dhammapada , translated by John R.
Quality Paperback Book Club. From this, the Preface and detailed Introduction s by Carter and Palihawadana, and the final 98 pages of endnotes, mostly quite technical e. While obviously being of the greatest benefit to textual scholars, there do not seem to be any introductory notes or endnotes relevant to disability concerns.
The 'Book Club' version editor Jaroslav Pelikan, himself a distinguished scholar in the history of religions, who provides an alternative Introduction, was perhaps justified in omitting the scholarly apparatus, to achieve a much wider circulation of material which already comes with translation of detailed Sinhala commentarial text, showing the Pali text and extensively indicating the meaning of key terms. The Dhammapada, a short, central collection of the teaching of the Buddha Gotama, apparently assembled in Ceylon in the 3rd century BC , probably with subsequent editing, is revered in the major Buddhist schools and traditions across South and East Asia.
The present translation pp. The commentary contains useful explication of significant Pali words. The wise are compared to a Sindhi racehorse, outstripping the lame-legged, slow-learning nag Dham. The section devoted to 'The Childish' Dham. The text exalts wisdom, intelligence, perception, awareness, insight and quick learning. Consequently, ordinary people "wretched, blinded ordinary folk" appear as clods; and people whom these clods perceive as having cognitive impairments may be 'super-clods'.
The Buddhist monk should indeed be guileless in his conduct, and metaphorically 'blind, deaf and dumb' towards worthless actions p. Various disabilities seem to be portrayed as the punitive consequences of evil actions Dham. The destiny of the idle and somnolent person, the dullard with a large appetite, is to suffer an ongoing round of rebirths Dham. The 'dullard' here is mando in Pali p. Fault is found even with the person who remains silent "like one who is dumb, like one who is deaf", pp. Burlingame , 3 volumes, Harvard UP. Reprinted , London: Burlingame's translation of the Dhammapad-Attha-katha , a compendium of stories which may have emerged from the 5th century CE in its present form, benefits from a detailed Introduction vol.
The translator notes that the wish to include more good stories in the 'Dhammapada Commentary' has meant that "the exegesis of the [Dhammapada] text becomes a matter of secondary importance and is relegated to the background" I: Among the stories, some emerge in which "All manner of physical disabilities are looked upon as the fruit of past deeds" I: Some can suggest 'genetic links' between successive births of the same character. Thus the antecedents of one 'dullard' were revealed - he had once been a learned person who mocked a slow-learning monk and thus deserved to be reborn himself as a dullard I: Perhaps the experience of a lifetime of academic incompetence with its attendant social humiliations was needed for this soul to make progress towards perfection.
Similar retribution with opportunity to learn better befell Khujjuttara, the hunchback maid of Queen Samavati. Converted while listening to the Buddha's teaching, Khujjuttara promptly confessed to the queen her previous practice of stealing part of the flower budget, and stated that she now knew better! As a result, she was asked to preach the Law to five hundred women at court, and soon attained a pre-eminent position as a teacher I: This rapid rise from deformed female thief to teacher of the Law was endorsed by the Supreme Teacher.
In an earlier birth, she had mocked a deformed pacceka buddha at the royal court of Benares, imitating his stoop - so she earned the 'corrective' or 'educational' rebirth as a hunchback herself I: Khujjuttara also played a substantial comedy part in Kusa-Jataka, No. She is named as Khujjuttara at the close of the story, where the Master identifies various well-known persons. She was similarly identified as the female servant at the close of Jataka stories , , , but her deformity was not specified there.
Another disabled person depicted as an honoured teacher was Cakkhupala, who was blind. The story had him taking a journey led by a sighted guide holding the tip of his staff; but later, in a familiar setting, he took his exercise independently I: During his exercise Cakkhupala unknowingly trampled many innocent insects that were also out for a stroll after a shower of rain. Between 21 and 24 September, Yeltsin was confronted by popular unrest. The demonstrators were protesting the new and terrible living conditions under Yeltsin.
Since , GDP had declined by half. Corruption was rampant, violent crime was skyrocketing, medical services were collapsing, food and fuel were increasingly scarce and life expectancy was falling for all but a tiny handful of the population; moreover, Yeltsin was increasingly getting the blame. By early-October, Yeltsin had secured the support of Russia's army and ministry of interior forces.
In a massive show of force, Yeltsin called up tanks to shell the Russian White House , Russian parliament building. As the Supreme Soviet was dissolved, elections to the newly established parliament, the State Duma , were held in December Candidates associated with Yeltsin's economic policies were overwhelmed by a huge anti-Yeltsin vote, the bulk of which was divided between the Communist Party and ultra-nationalists.
The referendum, however, held at the same time, approved the new constitution, which significantly expanded the powers of the president, giving Yeltsin a right to appoint the members of the government, to dismiss the Prime Minister and, in some cases, to dissolve the Duma. In December , Yeltsin ordered the military invasion of Chechnya in an attempt to restore Moscow's control over the republic.
Nearly two years later, Yeltsin withdrew federal forces from the devastated Chechnya under a peace agreement brokered by Alexander Lebed ; Yeltsin's then-security chief. The peace deal allowed Chechnya greater autonomy but not full independence. The decision to launch the war in Chechnya dismayed many in the West. Then, what was to be made of Boris Yeltsin? Clearly he could no longer be regarded as the democratic hero of Western myth.
But had he become an old-style communist boss, turning his back on the democratic reformers he once championed and throwing in his lot with militarists and ultranationalists? Or was he a befuddled, out-of-touch chief being manipulated, knowingly or unwittingly, by—well, by whom exactly? If there was to be a dictatorial coup, would Yeltsin be its victim or its leader? Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin promoted privatization as a way of spreading ownership of shares in former state enterprises as widely as possible to create political support for his economic reforms.
In the West, privatization was viewed as the key to the transition from Communism in Eastern Europe, ensuring a quick dismantling of the Soviet-era command economy to make way for "free market reforms". In the earlys, Anatoly Chubais , Yeltsin's deputy for economic policy, emerged as a leading advocate of privatization in Russia.
In late , Yeltsin launched a programme of free vouchers as a way to give mass privatization a jump-start. Under the programme, all Russian citizens were issued vouchers, each with a nominal value of around 10, roubles, for the purchase of shares of select state enterprises. Although each citizen initially received a voucher of equal face value, within months the majority of them converged in the hands of intermediaries who were ready to buy them for cash right away. In , as Yeltsin struggled to finance Russia's growing foreign debt and gain support from the Russian business elite for his bid in the presidential elections, the Russian president prepared for a new wave of privatisation offering stock shares in some of Russia's most valuable state enterprises in exchange for bank loans.
The programme was promoted as a way of simultaneously speeding up privatisation and ensuring the government a cash infusion to cover its operating needs. However, the deals were effectively giveaways of valuable state assets to a small group of tycoons in finance, industry, energy, telecommunications, and the media who came to be known as " oligarchs " in the mids.
This was due to the fact that ordinary people sold their vouchers for cash. The vouchers were bought out by a small group of investors. By mid, substantial ownership shares over major firms were acquired at very low prices by a handful of people. Boris Berezovsky , who controlled major stakes in several banks and the national media, emerged as one of Yeltsin's most prominent supporters.
We can only surmise that some of them may still be alive. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations. In March , Yeltsin would hand over KAL 's black box without its tapes to South Korean President Roh Tae-Woo at the end of the plenary session of the Korean National Assembly with this statement, "We apologise for the tragedy and are trying to settle some unsolved issues.
In , which he labelled the "window of opportunity", he was willing to discuss biological weapons with the United States and admitted that the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak of 2 April which Yeltsin had originally been involved in concealing had been caused as the result of a mishap at a military facility. In February , Yeltsin announced that he would seek a second term at the Russian presidential election in the summer.
The announcement followed weeks of speculation that Yeltsin was at the end of his political career because of his health problems and growing unpopularity in Russia. At the time, Yeltsin was recuperating from a series of heart attacks. Domestic and international observers also noted his occasionally erratic behaviour. When campaigning began in early , Yeltsin's popularity was close to being non-existent. Panic struck the Yeltsin team when opinion polls suggested that the ailing president could not win; some members of his entourage urged him to cancel the presidential elections and effectively rule as a dictator from then on.
Chubais, acting as both Yeltsin's campaign manager and adviser on Russia's privatisation programme, used his control of the privatisation programme as an instrument of Yeltsin's re-election campaign. In mid, Chubais and Yeltsin recruited a team of a handful of financial and media oligarchs to bankroll the Yeltsin campaign and guaranteed favourable media coverage to the president on national television and in leading newspapers.
Yeltsin campaigned energetically, dispelling concerns about his health, and maintained a high media profile. To boost his popularity, Yeltsin promised to abandon some of his more unpopular economic reforms, boost welfare spending, end the war in Chechnya, and pay wage and pension arrears.
They also detailed the extent of their collaboration with the Clinton White House. Zyuganov, who lacked Yeltsin's resources and financial backing, saw his strong initial lead whittled away. In the run-off on 3 July, with a turnout of Yeltsin underwent emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery in November , and remained in the hospital for months. However, his opponents allege that most of these funds were stolen by people from Yeltsin's circle and placed into foreign banks. In , a political and economic crisis emerged when Yeltsin's government defaulted on its debts, causing financial markets to panic and the rouble to collapse in the Russian financial crisis.
In televised comments he stated: Don't push us towards military action. Otherwise there will be a European war for sure and possibly a world war. In Stepashin's place, he appointed Vladimir Putin , relatively unknown at that time, and announced his wish to see Putin as his successor. In late , Yeltsin and U. President Bill Clinton openly disagreed on the war in Chechnya. At the November meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Clinton pointed his finger at Yeltsin and demanded he halt bombing attacks that had resulted in many civilian casualties.
Yeltsin immediately left the conference. In December, whilst visiting China to seek support on Chechnya, Yeltsin replied to Clinton's criticism of a Russian ultimatum to citizens of Grozny. It seems he has for a minute, for a second, for half a minute, forgotten that Russia has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons. He has forgotten about that. On 15 May , Yeltsin survived another attempt of impeachment, this time by the democratic and communist opposition in the State Duma. None of these charges received the two-thirds majority of the Duma which was required to initiate the process of impeachment of the president.
With Pavel Borodin as the Kremlin property manager, Swiss construction firm Mabetex was awarded many important Russian government contracts. Pacolli of bribing President Boris Yeltsin and his family members. Swiss authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Pavel Borodin, the official who managed the Kremlin's property empire.
Pacolli confirmed in early-December that he had guaranteed five credit cards for Mr. Yeltsin's wife, Naina, and two daughters, Tatyana and Yelena. President Putin's first decree as president was lifelong immunity from prosecution for Mr. On 31 December , in an announcement aired at Yeltsin asked for forgiveness for what he acknowledged were errors of his rule, and said Russia needed to enter the new century with new political leaders.
I want to ask for your forgiveness, that many of our dreams didn't come true. That what seemed to us to be simple turned out painfully difficult. I ask forgiveness for the fact that I didn't justify some of the hopes of those people who believed that with one stroke, one burst, one sign we could jump from the grey, stagnant, totalitarian past to a bright, rich, civilized future. I myself believed this. One burst was not enough You deserve happiness, and peace. Yeltsin suffered from heart disease during his first term as President of the Russian Federation, probably continuing for the rest of his life.
He is known to have suffered heart problems in March , just after being elected as a member of parliament. His death in was recorded as due to congestive heart failure. According to numerous reports, Yeltsin was alcohol dependent. The subject made headlines abroad during Yeltsin's visit to the U. A report in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica , reprinted by Pravda , reported that Yeltsin often appeared drunk in public.
His alleged alcoholism was also the subject of media discussion following his meeting with U. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott following Clinton's inauguration in and an incident during a flight stop-over at Shannon Airport , Ireland, in September when the waiting Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds was told that Yeltsin was unwell and would not be leaving the aircraft. Reynolds tried to make excuses for him in an effort to offset his own humiliation in vainly waiting outside the plane to meet him.
Speaking to the media in March , Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Yumasheva claimed that her father had suffered a heart attack on the flight from the United States to Moscow and was therefore not in a position to leave the plane. According to former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov , the bizarre behavior of Yeltsin resulted from "strong drugs" given to him by Kremlin doctors, which were incompatible even with a small amount of alcohol.
Yeltsin, in his memoirs, claimed no recollection of the event but did make a passing reference to the incident when he met Borg a year later at the World Circle Kabaddi Cup in Hamilton, Ontario , where the pair had been invited to present the trophy. After Yeltsin's death, a Dutch neurosurgeon, Michiel Staal, said that his team had been secretly flown to Moscow to operate on Yeltsin in Yeltsin suffered from an unspecified neurological disorder that affected his sense of balance, causing him to wobble as if in a drunken state; the goal of the operation was to reduce the pain [ clarification needed ].
Yeltsin's personal and health problems received a great deal of attention in the global press. As the years went on, he was often viewed as an increasingly drunk and unstable leader, rather than the inspiring figure he was once seen as. The possibility that he might die in office was often discussed. Starting in the last years of his presidential term, Yeltsin's primary residence was the Gorki-9 presidential dacha west of Moscow.
Those who shall dare to discuss among themselves the Shi-King and the Shu-King shall be put to death and their corpses exposed in a public place; those who shall make use of antiquity to belittle modern times shall be put to death with their relations Mention is made of report in the years and , in which "a soldier cut off his left arm in front of the Buddha's relic", and other self-mutilating activities took place pp. A clash is imminent. In April , a new memorial to Yeltsin was dedicated in Moscow's Novodevichy cemetery , to mixed reactions. We are in no hurry to throw away this useful old custom. The text exalts wisdom, intelligence, perception, awareness, insight and quick learning. Buddhist monks "who shave their heads and mutilate their bodies", disrupting the natural order of Chinese life pp.
He made frequent stays at the nearby government sanatorium in Barvikha. In October Yeltsin was hospitalized with flu and a fever, and in the following month he was hospitalized with pneumonia , just days after receiving treatment for bronchitis. Yeltsin maintained a low profile after his resignation, making almost no public statements or appearances. He criticized his successor in December for supporting the reintroduction of the Soviet-era national anthem.
Yeltsin, together with Mikhail Gorbachev , publicly criticized Putin's plan as a step away from democracy in Russia and a return to the centrally-run political apparatus of the Soviet era. In September , Yeltsin underwent a hip operation in Moscow after breaking his femur in a fall while on holiday in the Italian island of Sardinia. Boris Yeltsin died of congestive heart failure [84] [85] on 23 April , aged Yeltsin was the first Russian head of state in years to be buried in a church ceremony, after Emperor Alexander III.
President Putin declared the day of his funeral a national day of mourning , with the nation's flags flown at half mast and all entertainment programs suspended for the day. A new democratic Russia was born during his time: A state in which the power truly does belong to the people. This characteristic compromise shows how much England and China have in common. The Manchu Emperors soon became almost completely Chinese, but differences of dress and manners kept the Manchus distinct from the more civilized people whom they had conquered, and the Chinese remained inwardly hostile to them.
From to , a series of disastrous foreign wars, culminating in the humiliation of the Boxer time, destroyed the prestige of the Imperial Family and showed all thoughtful people the need of learning from Europeans. The Taiping rebellion, which lasted for 15 years , is thought by Putnam Weale to have diminished the population by millions,[31] and was almost as terrible a business as the Great War.
For a long time it seemed doubtful whether the Manchus could suppress it, and when at last they succeeded by the help of Gordon their energy was exhausted. The defeat of China by Japan and the vengeance of the Powers after the Boxer rising finally opened the eyes of all thoughtful Chinese to the need for a better and more modern government than that of the Imperial Family.
But things move slowly in China, and it was not till eleven years after the Boxer movement that the revolution broke out. The revolution of , in China, was a moderate one, similar in spirit to ours of Its chief promoter, Sun Yat Sen, now at the head of the Canton Government, was supported by the Republicans, and was elected provisional President.
But the Nothern Army remained faithful to the dynasty, and could probably have defeated the revolutionaries. Its Commander-in-Chief, Yuan Shih-k'ai, however, hit upon a better scheme. He made peace with the revolutionaries and acknowledged the Republic, on condition that he should be the first President instead of Sun Yat Sen.
Yuan Shih-k'ai was, of course, supported by the Legations, being what is called a "strong man," i. In China, the North has always been more military and less liberal than the South, and Yuan Shih-k'ai had created out of Northern troops whatever China possessed in the way of a modern army. As he was also ambitious and treacherous, he had every quality needed for inspiring confidence in the diplomatic corps. In view of the chaos which has existed since his death, it must be admitted, however, that there was something to be said in favour of his policy and methods.
A Constituent Assembly, after enacting a provisional constitution, gave place to a duly elected Parliament, which met in April to determine the permanent constitution. Yuan soon began to quarrel with the Parliament as to the powers of the President, which the Parliament wished to restrict. The majority in Parliament was opposed to Yuan, but he had the preponderance in military strength.
Under these circumstances, as was to be expected, constitutionalism was soon overthrown. Yuan made himself financially independent of Parliament which had been duly endowed with the power of the purse by unconstitutionally concluding a loan with the foreign banks. This led to a revolt of the South, which, however, Yuan quickly suppressed.
After this, by various stages, he made himself virtually absolute ruler of China. He appointed his army lieutenants military governors of provinces, and sent Northern troops into the South. He died in —of a broken heart, it was said. Since then there has been nothing but confusion in China. The military governors appointed by Yuan refused to submit to the Central Government when his strong hand was removed, and their troops terrorized the populations upon whom they were quartered.
Ever since there has been civil war, not, as a rule, for any definite principle, but simply to determine which of various rival generals should govern various groups of provinces. There still remains the issue of North versus South, but this has lost most of its constitutional significance. The military governors of provinces or groups of provinces, who are called Tuchuns, govern despotically in defiance of Peking, and commit depredations on the inhabitants of the districts over which they rule.
They intercept the revenue, except the portions collected and administered by foreigners, such as the salt tax. They are nominally appointed by Peking, but in practice depend only upon the favour of the soldiers in their provinces. The Central Government is nearly bankrupt, and is usually unable to pay the soldiers, who live by loot and by such portions of the Tuchun's illgotten wealth as he finds it prudent to surrender to them.
When any faction seemed near to complete victory, the Japanese supported its opponents, in order that civil discord might be prolonged. While I was in Peking, the three most important Tuchuns met there for a conference on the division of the spoils. They were barely civil to the President and the Prime Minister, who still officially represent China in the eyes of foreign Powers. The unfortunate nominal Government was obliged to pay to these three worthies, out of a bankrupt treasury, a sum which the newspapers stated to be nine million dollars, to secure their departure from the capital. The largest share went to Chang-tso-lin, the Viceroy of Manchuria and commonly said to be a tool of Japan.
His share was paid to cover the expenses of an expedition to Mongolia, which had revolted; but no one for a moment supposed that he would undertake such an expedition, and in fact he has remained at Mukden ever since. In the extreme south, however, there has been established a Government of a different sort, for which it is possible to have some respect. Canton, which has always been the centre of Chinese radicalism, succeeded, in the autumn of , in throwing off the tyranny of its Northern garrison and establishing a progressive efficient Government under the Presidency of Sun Yat Sen.
This Government now embraces two provinces, Kwangtung of which Canton is the capital and Kwangsi. For a moment it seemed likely to conquer the whole of the South, but it has been checked by the victories of the Northern General Wu-Pei-Fu in the neighbouring province of Hunan. Its enemies allege that it cherishes designs of conquest, and wishes to unite all China under its sway. Professor Dewey, in articles in the New Republic, has set forth its merits, as well as the bitter enmity which it has encountered from Hong-Kong and the British generally.
This opposition is partly on general principles, because we dislike radical reform, partly because of the Cassel agreement. This agreement—of a common type in China—would have given us a virtual monopoly of the railways and mines in the province of Kwangtung. It had been concluded with the former Government, and only awaited ratification, but the change of Government has made ratification impossible. The new Government, very properly, is befriended by the Americans, and one of them, Mr. Shank, concluded an agreement with the new Government more or less similar to that which we had concluded with the old one.
The American Government, however, did not support Mr. Shank, whereas the British Government did support the Cassel agreement. Meanwhile we have lost a very valuable though very iniquitous concession, merely because we, but not the Americans, prefer what is old and corrupt to what is vigorous and honest. I understand, moreover, that the Shank agreement lapsed because Mr. Shank could not raise the necessary capital. The anarchy in China is, of course, very regrettable, and every friend of China must hope that it will be brought to an end.
But it would be a mistake to exaggerate the evil, or to suppose that it is comparable in magnitude to the evils endured in Europe. China must not be compared to a single European country, but to Europe as a whole. In The Times of November 11, , I notice a pessimistic article headed: A dozen rival Governments. The number of troops in Europe is enormously greater than in China, and they are infinitely better provided with weapons of destruction. The amount of fighting in Europe since the Armistice has been incomparably more than the amount in China during the same period. You may travel through China from end to end, and it is ten to one that you will see no signs of war.
Chinese battles are seldom bloody, being fought by mercenary soldiers who take no interest in the cause for which they are supposed to be fighting. I am inclined to think that the inhabitants of China, at the present moment, are happier, on the average, than the inhabitants of Europe taken as a whole. It is clear, I think, that political reform in China, when it becomes possible, will have to take the form of a federal constitution, allowing a very large measure of autonomy to the provinces. The division into provinces is very ancient, and provincial feeling is strong. After the revolution, a constitution more or less resembling our own was attempted, only with a President instead of a King.
But the successful working of a non-federal constitution requires a homogeneous population without much local feeling, as may be seen from our own experience in Ireland. Most progressive Chinese, as far as I was able to judge, now favour a federal constitution, leaving to the Central Government not much except armaments, foreign affairs, and customs.
But the difficulty of getting rid of the existing military anarchy is very great. The Central Government cannot disband the troops, because it cannot find the money to pay them. It would be necessary to borrow from abroad enough money to pay off the troops and establish them in new jobs. But it is doubtful whether any Power or Powers would make such a loan without exacting the sacrifice of the last remnants of Chinese independence.
One must therefore hope that somehow the Chinese will find a way of escaping from their troubles without too much foreign assistance. It is by no means impossible that one of the Tuchuns may become supreme, and may then make friends with the constitutionalists as the best way of consolidating his influence. China is a country where public opinion has great weight, and where the desire to be thought well of may quite possibly lead a successful militarist into patriotic courses.
There are, at the moment, two Tuchuns who are more important than any of the others. These are Chang-tso-lin and Wu-Pei-Fu, both of whom have been already mentioned. Chang-tso-lin is supreme in Manchuria, and strong in Japanese support; he represents all that is most reactionary in China.
Wu-Pei-Fu, on the other hand, is credited with liberal tendencies. He is an able general; not long ago, nominally at the bidding of Peking, he established his authority on the Yangtze and in Hunan, thereby dealing a blow to the hopes of Canton. It is not easy to see how he could come to terms with the Canton Government, especially since it has allied itself with Chang-tso-lin, but in the rest of China he might establish his authority and seek to make it permanent by being constitutional see Appendix. If so, China might have a breathing-space, and a breathing-space is all that is needed.
The economic life of China, except in the Treaty Ports and in a few regions where there are mines, is still wholly pre-industrial. Peking has nearly a million inhabitants, and covers an enormous area, owing to the fact that all the houses have only a ground floor and are built round a courtyard. Yet it has no trams or buses or local trains. So far as I could see, there are not more than two or three factory chimneys in the whole town. Apart from begging, trading, thieving and Government employment, people live by handicrafts. The products are exquisite and the work less monotonous than machine-minding, but the hours are long and the pay infinitesimal.
Seventy or eighty per cent. Rice and tea are the chief products of the south, while wheat and other kinds of grain form the staple crops in the north. When I arrived in China, in the autumn of , a large area in the north, owing to drought, was afflicted with a terrible famine, nearly as bad, probably, as the famine in Russia in As the Bolsheviks were not concerned, foreigners had no hesitation in trying to bring relief. As for the Chinese, they regarded it passively as a stroke of fate, and even those who died of it shared this view.
Most of the land is in the hands of peasant proprietors, who divide their holdings among their sons, so that each man's share becomes barely sufficient to support himself and his family.
Consequently, when the rainfall is less than usual, immense numbers perish of starvation. It would of course be possible, for a time, to prevent famines by more scientific methods of agriculture, and to prevent droughts and floods by afforestation. More railways and better roads would give a vastly improved market, and might greatly enrich the peasants for a generation. But in the long run, if the birth-rate is as great as is usually supposed, no permanent cure for their poverty is possible while their families continue to be so large. In China, Malthus's theory of population, according to many writers, finds full scope.
Only education and a higher standard of life can remove the fundamental cause of these evils. And popular education, on a large scale, is of course impossible until there is a better Government and an adequate revenue. Apart even from these difficulties, there does not exist, as yet, a sufficient supply of competent Chinese teachers for a system of universal elementary education.
Apart from war, the impact of European civilization upon the traditional life of China takes two forms, one commercial, the other intellectual. Both depend upon the prestige of armaments; the Chinese would never have opened either their ports to our trade or their minds to our ideas if we had not defeated them in war. But the military beginning of our intercourse with the Middle Kingdom has now receded into the background; one is not conscious, in any class, of a strong hostility to foreigners as such.
It would not be difficult to make out a case for the view that intercourse with the white races is proving a misfortune to China, but apparently this view is not taken by anyone in China except where unreasoning conservative prejudice outweighs all other considerations. The Chinese have a very strong instinct for trade, and a considerable intellectual curiosity, to both of which we appeal. Only a bare minimum of common decency is required to secure their friendship, whether privately or politically.
And I think their thought is as capable of enriching our culture as their commerce of enriching our pockets. In the Treaty Ports, Europeans and Americans live in their own quarters, with streets well paved and lighted, houses in European style, and shops full of American and English goods. There is generally also a Chinese part of the town, with narrow streets, gaily decorated shops, and the rich mixture of smells characteristic of China. Often one passes through a gate, suddenly, from one to the other; after the cheerful disordered beauty of the old town, Europe's ugly cleanliness and Sunday-go-to-meeting decency make a strange complex impression, half-love and half-hate.
In the European town one finds safety, spaciousness and hygiene; in the Chinese town, romance, overcrowding and disease. In spite of my affection for China, these transitions always made me realize that I am a European; for me, the Chinese manner of life would not mean happiness. But after making all necessary deductions for the poverty and the disease, I am inclined to think that Chinese life brings more happiness to the Chinese than English life does to us. At any rate this seemed to me to be true for the men; for the women I do not think it would be true.
Shanghai and Tientsin are white men's cities; the first sight of Shanghai makes one wonder what is the use of travelling, because there is so little change from what one is used to. Treaty Ports, each of which is a centre of European influence, exist practically all over China, not only on the sea coast. Hankow, a very important Treaty Port, is almost exactly in the centre of China.
These two dividing lines meet at Hankow, which has long been an important strategical point in Chinese history. From Wuchang, opposite Hankow on the southern bank of the river, there is to be a railway to Canton, but at present it only runs half-way, to Changsha, also a Treaty Port. The completion of the railway, together with improved docks, will greatly increase the importance of Canton and diminish that of Hong-Kong. In the Treaty Ports commerce is the principal business; but in the lower Yangtze and in certain mining districts there are beginnings of industrialism.
China produces large amounts of raw cotton, which are mostly manipulated by primitive methods; but there are a certain number of cotton-mills on modern lines. If low wages meant cheap labour for the employer, there would be little hope for Lancashire, because in Southern China the cotton is grown on the spot, the climate is damp, and there is an inexhaustible supply of industrious coolies ready to work very long hours for wages upon which an English working-man would find it literally impossible to keep body and soul together.
Nevertheless, it is not the underpaid Chinese coolie whom Lancashire has to fear, and China will not become a formidable competitor until improvement in methods and education enables the Chinese workers to earn good wages. Meanwhile, in China, as in every other country, the beginnings of industry are sordid and cruel. The intellectuals wish to be told of some less horrible method by which their country may be industrialized, but so far none is in sight. The intelligentsia in China has a very peculiar position, unlike that which it has in any other country.
Hereditary aristocracy has been practically extinct in China for about 2, years, and for many centuries the country has been governed by the successful candidates in competitive examinations. This has given to the educated the kind of prestige elsewhere belonging to a governing aristocracy. Although the old traditional education is fast dying out, and higher education now teaches modern subjects, the prestige of education has survived, and public opinion is still ready to be influenced by those who have intellectual qualifications.
The influence of Young China—i. This is, perhaps, the most hopeful feature in the situation, because the number of modern students is rapidly increasing, and their outlook and aims are admirable. In another ten years or so they will probably be strong enough to regenerate China—if only the Powers will allow ten years to elapse without taking any drastic action.
It is important to try to understand the outlook and potentialities of Young China. Most of my time was spent among those Chinese who had had a modern education, and I should like to give some idea of their mentality. It seemed to me that one could already distinguish two generations: The older men—men varying in age from 30 to 50—have gone through an inward and outward struggle resembling that of the rationalists of Darwin's and Mill's generation.
They have had, painfully and with infinite difficulty, to free their minds from the beliefs instilled in youth, and to turn their thoughts to a new science and a new ethic. Imagine say Plotinus recalled from the shades and miraculously compelled to respect Mr. Henry Ford; this will give you some idea of the centuries across which these men have had to travel in becoming European.
Some of them are a little weary with the effort, their forces somewhat spent and their originality no longer creative. But this can astonish no one who realizes the internal revolution they have achieved in their own minds.
It must not be supposed that an able Chinaman, when he masters our culture, becomes purely imitative. This may happen among the second-rate Chinese, especially when they turn Christians, but it does not happen among the best. They remain Chinese, critical of European civilization even when they have assimilated it. They retain a certain crystal candour and a touching belief in the efficacy of moral forces; the industrial revolution has not yet affected their mental processes. When they become persuaded of the importance of some opinion, they try to spread it by setting forth the reasons in its favour; they do not hire the front pages of newspapers for advertising, or put up on hoardings along the railways "So-and-so's opinion is the best.
And they have no admiration for ruthlessness, or love of bustling activity without regard to its purpose. Having thrown over the prejudices in which they were brought up, they have not taken on a new set, but have remained genuinely free in their thoughts, able to consider any proposition honestly on its merits. The younger men, however, have something more than the first generation of modern intellectuals.
Having had less of a struggle, they have retained more energy and self-confidence. The candour and honesty of the pioneers survive, with more determination to be socially effective. This may be merely the natural character of youth, but I think it is more than that. Young men under thirty have often come in contact with Western ideas at a sufficiently early age to have assimilated them without a great struggle, so that they can acquire knowledge without being torn by spiritual conflicts.
And they have been able to learn Western knowledge from Chinese teachers to begin with, which has made the process less difficult. Even the youngest students, of course, still have reactionary families, but they find less difficulty than their predecessors in resisting the claims of the family, and in realizing practically, not only theoretically, that the traditional Chinese reverence for the old may well be carried too far. In these young men I see the hope of China. When a little experience has taught them practical wisdom, I believe they will be able to lead Chinese opinion in the directions in which it ought to move.
There is one traditional Chinese belief which dies very hard, and that is the belief that correct ethical sentiments are more important then detailed scientific knowledge. This view is, of course, derived from the Confucian tradition, and is more or less true in a pre-industrial society.
It would have been upheld by Rousseau or Dr. Johnson, and broadly speaking by everybody before the Benthamites. We, in the West, have now swung to the opposite extreme: A battleship may be taken as the concrete embodiment of this view. When we read, say, of some new poison-gas by means of which one bomb from an aeroplane can exterminate a whole town, we have a thrill of what we fondly believe to be horror, but it is really delight in scientific skill. Science is our god; we say to it, "Though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee. The Chinese have not this defect, but they have the opposite one, of believing that good intentions are the only thing really necessary.
I will give an illustration. Yet it is often difficult to interest even the most reforming Chinese in afforestation, because it is not an easy subject for ethical enthusiasm. Trees are planted round graves, because Confucius said they should be; if Confucianism dies out, even these will be cut down. But public-spirited Chinese students learn political theory as it is taught in our universities, and despise such humble questions as the utility of trees. After learning all about say the proper relations of the two Houses of Parliament, they go home to find that some Tuchun has dismissed both Houses, and is governing in a fashion not considered in our text-books.
Our theories of politics are only true in the West if there ; our theories of forestry are equally true everywhere. Yet it is our theories of politics that Chinese students are most eager to learn. Similarly the practical study of industrial processes might be very useful, but the Chinese prefer the study of our theoretical economics, which is hardly applicable except where industry is already developed. In all these respects, however, there is beginning to be a marked improvement.
It is science that makes the difference between our intellectual outlook and that of the Chinese intelligentsia. The Chinese, even the most modern, look to the white nations, especially America, for moral maxims to replace those of Confucius. They have not yet grasped that men's morals in the mass are the same everywhere: In so far as there is a difference of morals between us and the Chinese, we differ for the worse, because we are more energetic, and can therefore commit more crimes per diem.
What we have to teach the Chinese is not morals, or ethical maxims about government, but science and technical skill. The real problem for the Chinese intellectuals is to acquire Western knowledge without acquiring the mechanistic outlook. Perhaps it is not clear what I mean by "the mechanistic outlook.
What I mean is the habit of regarding mankind as raw material, to be moulded by our scientific manipulation into whatever form may happen to suit our fancy. The essence of the matter, from the point of view of the individual who has this point of view, is the cultivation of will at the expense of perception, the fervent moral belief that it is our duty to force other people to realize our conception of the world.
The Chinese intellectual is not much troubled by Imperialism as a creed, but is vigorously assailed by Bolshevism and the Y. Both these creeds, in their Western adepts, involve a contempt for the rest of mankind except as potential converts, and the belief that progress consists in the spread of a doctrine. They both involve a belief in government and a life against Nature. This view, though I have called it mechanistic, is as old as religion, though mechanism has given it new and more virulent forms.
The first of Chinese philosophers, Lao-Tze, wrote his book to protest against it, and his disciple Chuang-Tze put his criticism into a fable[38]: Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels over the champaign.
Such is the real nature of horses. Palatial dwellings are of no use to them. So he branded them, and clipped them, and pared their hoofs, and put halters on them, tying them up by the head and shackling them by the feet, and disposing them in stables, with the result that two or three in every ten died. Then he kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting them and galloping them, and grooming, and trimming, with the misery of the tasselled bridle before and the fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than half of them were dead.
If I want it round, I use compasses; if rectangular, a square. If I want it curved, I use an arc; if straight, a line. But on what grounds can we think that the natures of clay and wood desire this application of compasses and square, of arc and line? Nevertheless, every age extols Po Lo for his skill in managing horses, and potters and carpenters for their skill with clay and wood.
Those who govern the Empire make the same mistake. Although Taoism, of which Lao-Tze was the founder and Chuang-Tze the chief apostle, was displaced by Confucianism, yet the spirit of this fable has penetrated deeply into Chinese life, making it more urbane and tolerant, more contemplative and observant, than the fiercer life of the West. The Chinese watch foreigners as we watch animals in the Zoo, to see whether they "drink water and fling up their heels over the champaign," and generally to derive amusement from their curious habits.
And their attitude towards each other is, as a rule, equally tolerant. In talking with a Chinese, you feel that he is trying to understand you, not to alter you or interfere with you. The result of his attempt may be a caricature or a panegyric, but in either case it will be full of delicate perception and subtle humour. A friend in Peking showed me a number of pictures, among which I specially remember various birds: All these pictures showed that kind of sympathetic understanding which one feels also in their dealings with human beings—something which I can perhaps best describe as the antithesis of Nietzsche.
This quality, unfortunately, is useless in warfare, and foreign nations are doing their best to stamp it out. But it is an infinitely valuable quality, of which our Western world has far too little. Together with their exquisite sense of beauty, it makes the Chinese nation quite extraordinarily lovable. The injury that we are doing to China is wanton and cruel, the destruction of something delicate and lovely for the sake of the gross pleasures of barbarous millionaires.
One of the poems translated from the Chinese by Mr. Waley[39] is called Business Men, and it expresses, perhaps more accurately than I could do, the respects in which the Chinese are our superiors: Bragging to each other of successful depredations They neglect to consider the ultimate fate of the body. What should they know of the Master of Dark Truth Who saw the wide world in a jade cup, By illumined conception got clear of heaven and earth: On the chariot of Mutation entered the Gate of Immutability? I wish I could hope that some respect for "the Master of Dark Truth" would enter into the hearts of our apostles of Western culture.
But as that is out of the question, it is necessary to seek other ways of solving the Far Eastern question. China of the Chinese by E. The extent to which the population was diminished is not accurately known, but I have no doubt that 20 millions is nearer the truth than millions. In January , he came to Peking to establish a more subservient Government, the dismissal of which has been ordered by Wu-Pei-Fu. A clash is imminent. The blame for this is put upon Sun Yat Sen, who is said to have made an alliance with Chang-tso-lin.
These statements are apparently unfounded. There are, however, no accurate statistics as to the birth-rate or the death-rate in China, and some writers question whether the birth-rate is really very large. From a privately printed pamphlet by my friend Mr.
Ting, I learn that Dr. Lennox, of the Peking Union Medical College, from a careful study of 4, families, found that the average number of children dead and living per family was 2. Other investigations are quoted to show that the birth-rate near Peking is between 30 and In the absence of statistics, generalizations about the population question in China must be received with extreme caution. I repeat what everybody, Chinese or foreign, told me. Bland, per contra, describes Chang-tso-lin as a polished Confucian.
Lord Northcliffe had an interview with Chang-tso-lin reported in The Times recently, but he was, of course, unable to estimate Chang-tso-lin's claims to literary culture. For Legge's translation, see Vol. For modern China, the most important foreign nation is Japan. In order to understand the part played by Japan, it is necessary to know something of that country, to which we must now turn our attention.
In reading the history of Japan, one of the most amazing things is the persistence of the same forces and the same beliefs throughout the centuries. Japanese history practically begins with a "Restoration" by no means unlike that of Buddhism was introduced into Japan from Korea in A. Both novelties won favour. Two Japanese students followed later by many others went to China in A.