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CHINA.

(TA CH'ING KUO-Chung Kuo.)

Reigning Emperor.

Tsai-t'ien, born August 2, 1872, son of Prince Ch'un, who was seventh son of the Emperor Tao-kuang and brother of the Emperor Hsien-fêng. Succeded to the throne under the title of Kuang-hsü on the death of his cousin the Emperor T'ung-chih, January 22, 1875. Came of age and assumed government nominally in March, 1887; married February 26, 1889. From the date of his marriage up to September, 1898, he was to a considerable extent the real and not merely the nominal head of the state, but in consequence of a rather erratic tendency to reform disclosed by a succession of decrees issued in that month, the Empress Dowager (see below) resumed power, and she has been the potential ruler of China ever since.

The Emperor is childless and there is no designated successor or heirpresumptive.

The Chinese Imperial family is of Manchu origin. The dynasty, in fact, dates from 1644, and is styled Ta Ch'ing Ch'ao ("Great Pure Dynasty"), and Kuang-hsü is the ninth of the line; but the official genealogy is carried back six generations earlier than the real founder, and Kuang-hsü's will be the fifteenth name in the canonized series of Ta Ch'ing Emperors. The rule is that a son or nephew or male relation of the next younger generation, designated by the Emperor just deceased, shall succeed; but T'ung-chih is said not to have designated a successor (he died suddenly), and Tsai-t'ien, a cousin of the same generation, became Emperor as the result of a palace arrangement directed by Tzu-hsi, the well-known Empress Dowager (born November 17, 1834), who was the favourite concubine of Hsien-feng, and mother of T'ung-chih. Tsai-t'ien's mother was a sister of Tzu-hsi, and the Empress Dowager is thus the Emperor Kuang-hsü's maternal aunt.

Government.

The laws of the Empire are laid down in the Ta-ts'ing-hwei-tien, or 'Collected Regulations of the Ts'ing dynasty,' which prescribe the govern ment of the State to be based upon the government of the family.

The supreme direction of the Empire is vested in the Chün Chi Ch'u, the Privy Council, or Grand Council. The administration is under the supreme direction of the Nei-ko or Cabinet, comprising four members, two of Manchu and two of Chinese origin, besides two assistants, from the Han-lin, or Great College, who have to see that nothing is done contrary to the civil and religious laws of the Empire, contained in the Ta-ts 'ing-hwei-tien and in the sacred books of Confucius. These members are denominated 'Ta-hsio-shih,' or Ministers of State. Under their orders are the Papu, or eight boards of government, each of which is presided over by a Manchu and a Chinese. These boards are :-(1) the board of civil appointments, which takes

cognisance of the conduct and administration of all civil officers; (2) the board of revenues, regulating all financial affairs; (3) the board of rites and ceremonies, which enforces the laws and customs to be observed by the people; (4) the military board; (5) the board of public works; (6) the high tribunal of criminal jurisdiction; (7) the Wai-wu-pu, or Board of Foreign Affairs, instituted by Imperial Decree of July 24, 1901 (v. infra); and (8) the Board of Commerce, instituted in 1903.

Independent of the Government, and theoretically above the central administration, is the Tu-ch'a-yuen, or board of public censors. It consists of from 40 to 50 members, under two presidents, the one of Manchu and the other of Chinese birth. By the ancient custom of the Empire, all the members of this board are privileged to present any remonstrance to the sovereign. One censor must be present at the meetings of each of the Government boards.

The Tsungli Yamên, or Foreign Office, created by a decree of January 19, 1861, was in July, 1901, superseded by the formation of a new Foreign Office called the Wai-wu-pu, with Prince Ching as President and four secretaries, and with precedence before all other boards.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Each of the 18 provinces is ruled by a Governor or Governor-General, who is responsible to the Emperor for the entire administration, political, judicial, military, and fiscal. He is assisted by a council and various other officials, such as the Treasurer, the Judicial Commissioner, and the Literary Chancellor. Each province is sub-divided into departments ruled by prefects, and each department into districts, each with a district magistrate. Two or more departments are sometimes united into a tao, or circuit, the official at the head of which is called a Taotai. Each town and village has also its governing body, and among the various officials there is regular gradation of rank, each being responsible to his immediate superior. Political office in the general administration of the Empire is less sought after than the position of viceroy or governor in the provinces, where the opportunities of acquiring wealth, not from official salaries but from gifts, &c., are abundant.

Area and Population.

The following table gives a statement of the area and population of the whole of the Chinese Empire according to the latest Chinese estimates :

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According to official data referring to 1842 the population of the 18 provinces of China Proper and Formosa was 413,000,000; other estimates gave 350,000,000. The figures in the following table are those issued by the Chinese Government as the results of an estimate made for the purpose of the apportionment of the indemnity to the Powers :—

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The Island of Formosa was ceded to Japan in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of peace ratified and exchanged at Chefoo on the 8th of May, 1895. The formal transfer of the Island was effected on the 2nd of June, 1895.

In November, 1897, the Germans seized the Port of Kiau-Chau, on the east coast of Shantung, and in January, 1898, obtained from the Chinese a 99 years' lease of the town, harbour, and district. By agreement with tho Chinese Government, dated March 27, 1898, Russia took possession of Port Arthur and Talienwan and their adjacent territories and waters, on lease for the term of 25 years, with option of extension by mutual agreement. Within the territories and waters leased, Russia had sole military and naval control, and was authorised to build forts and barracks as she desired. To the north was a neutral zone where Chinese troops were not to be quartered except with the consent of Russia. The territory acquired here by Russia was formed into the Russian province of Kwang Tung. In 1900, in consequence of the "Boxer" uprising, Russia occupied Manchuria; but in September, 1903, undertook to restore Niuchwang and evacuate Mukden on October 8. On December 28, however, the Russian minister at Peking informed the Chinese Foreign Office that no further steps towards the evacuation could be undertaken for the present. The negotiations for the evacuation of Manchuria, which were

carried on throughout 1903 between Russia and Japan, ended fruitlessly in February, 1904, when on the 6th Japan broke off diplomatic relations, and on the night of the 8th attacked the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, beginning the war which has brought about Japanese occupancy of Port Arthur and of a great part of Southern Manchuria. For such period as Russia should hold Port Arthur, Great Britain was, by agreement with China, April 2, 1898, to hold Wei-Hai-Wei, in the province of Shantung. For defensive purposes Great Britain has, in addition, obtained a 99 years' lease of territory on the mainland opposite the island of Hong Kong. To compensate for these advantages given to the Russians, British, and Germans, the Chinese Government granted to the French in April, 1898, a 99 years' lease of the Bay of KwangChau-Wan, on the coast of the Lien-Chau peninsula, opposite the Island of Hainan. In November, 1899, China conceded to France the possession of the two islands commanding the entrance of the bay. This territory has been placed under the authority of the Governor-General of French Indo-China. Tientsin, which had been occupied by the Powers, was restored to China in 1902, and Shanghai, which had been similarly occupied, was restored in January, 1903.

According to a return of the Imperial Customs authorities the total number of foreigners resident in the open ports of China was 20,404 at the end of 1903. Among them were 5,662 British, 5,287 Japanese, 2,542 Americans, 1,658 Germans, 1,930 Portuguese, 1,213 French, 339 Spaniards, 313 Italians, and 361 Russians, other nationalities being represented by very few members. About one-half of the total number of foreigners resided at Shanghai.

Religion.

Three religions are acknowledged by the Chinese as indigenous and adopted, viz. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

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The Emperor is considered the sole high priest of the Empire, and can alone, with his immediate representatives and ministers, perform the great religious ceremonies. No ecclesiastical hierarchy is maintained at the public expense, nor any priesthood attached to the Confucian religion. The Confucian is the State religion, if the respect paid to the memory of the great teacher can be called religion at all. But distinct and totally separate from the stated periodic observances of respect offered to the memory of Confucius as the Holy Man of old, and totally unconnected therewith, there is the distinct worship of Heaven (t'ien), in which the Emperor, as the sole high priest,' worships and sacrifices to Heaven' every year at the time of the winter solstice, at the Altar of Heaven, in Peking. With the exception of the practice of ancestral worship, which is everywhere observed throughout the Empire, and was fully commended by Confucius, Confucianism has little outward ceremonial. The study and contemplation and attempted performance of the moral precepts of the ancients constitute the duties of a Confucianist. Buddhism and Taoism present a very gorgeous and elaborate ritual in China, Taoism-originally a pure philosophy-having abjectly copied Buddhist ceremonial on the arrival of Buddhism 1,800 years ago. Large numbers of the Chinese in Middle and Southern China profess and practise all three religions. The bulk of the people, however, are Buddhist. There are probably about 30 million Mahometans, chiefly in the north-east

and south-west. Roman Catholicism has long had a footing in China, and is estimated to have about 1,000,000 adherents, with 25 bishoprics besides those of Manchuria, Tibet, Mongolia, and Korea. Other Christian societies have stations in many parts of the country, the number of Protestant adherents being estimated at about 150,000. Most of the aboriginal hill-tribes are still nature-worshippers, and ethnically are distinct from the prevailing Mongoloid population.

Instruction.

Education of a certain type is very generai, but still there are vast masses of adult countrymen in China who can neither read nor write. There is a special literary class who alone know the literature of their country, to the study of which they devote their lives. There are boarding schools and day schools for boys and young men, the latter being held in the entrance halls of temples and in the spare chambers of guilds, and in all the important cities there are colleges for training candidates for degrees. Examinations, mainly confined to moral philosophy and literature, are held in the prefectural cities of each province twice in three years for the lower degree necessary as a passport to the public service, but of the six or seven thousand candidates who come forward, not more than sixty can be admitted to the degree by the Literary Chancellor. For the higher degree, examinations are held in each provincial capital once in three years, and the successful candidates are subjected to a third and a fourth examination, those who finally emerge being divided into four classes to wait for appointments to offices of different grades. There are, however, other means (e.g. military service) by which such appointments may be obtained. In 1887, for the first time, mathematics were admitted with the Chinese classics among the subjects of examination, and schools for the propagation of Western science and literature are now on the increase. The Imperial University at Peking is a Government institution, where the English, French, German, Japanese, and Russian languages, and mathematics, chemistry, physiology, &c., are taught by European, Japanese, and American professors, the Chinese education of the pupils being entrusted to Chinese teachers. In [15 provincial capitals colleges have been founded, while primary and secondary schools, mechanical, agricultural, police, and military schools are springing up all over China. There are numerous Catholic and Protestant mission schools and colleges at Shanghai and other ports, where the English language and lower branches of Western science are taught. Japanese influence has become strong, and at the end of 1904 there were about 1,750 Chinese youths studying in Japan. Recent attempts to reform the Chinese educational system have not been attended with conspicuous success, but a distinct forward movement is now in progress, and translations of foreign standard works are gradually reaching the most distant parts of the Empire, with the effect that the desire for Western knowledge becomes year by year more evident among the people. The Chinese Government has of late years established naval and military colleges and torpedo schools with foreign instructors in connection with the different arsenals at Tientsin, Nanking, Shanghai, and Fuchau. Ten Chinese newspapers are published at Shanghai, and altogether there are about 160 daily, weekly, or monthly journals in China.

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