Memorial of Prince Kuny on the Establish ment of a College for the Cullication of Western Science Your Majesty's servant and other Ministers of the Council for Foreign Affairs, on their knees present this memorial in regard to regulations for teaching Astronomy and the selection of students.
These sciences being indispensable to the understanding of machinery, and the manufacture of firearms, we have resolved on erecting for this purpose a special department in the Tung-wen College, to which scholars of a high grade may he admitted, trid in which men from the West. shall be invited to give instruction.
The scheme having met with your Majesty's approval, we bey to state that it did not originate ina fondness for no in admiration for the abstract subtle Western science; but solely from sideration that the mechanical arts of the West all have their source in the science of Mathematics. Now, if the Chinese G ment desires to introduce the buildin steamers, and construction of machiner and yet declines to borrow instruction from the men of the West, there is danger lest, following our own ideas, we should squander funds to no purpose.
We have weighed the matter maturely before laying it before the Throne. But among persons who are unacquainted with the subject, there are some who will regard this matter as unimportant; some who will censure us as wrong in abandoning the methods of China for those of the West and some who will even denounce the proposal that Chinese should submit to be Instructed by the people of the West, as shameful in the extreme. Those who urge such objections are ignorant of the demands of the times.
In the first place, it is high time that some plan should be devised for infusing new elements of strength into the government of China. Those who understand the times, are of opinion that the only way for effecting this, is to introduce the learning and mechanical arts of Western nations. Provincial governors, such as TsoTsung-tang and Li Hung-chang, are firm in this conv tion, and constantly presenting it in their addresses to the Throne. The last mentioned officer last year opened an arsenal for the manufacture of arms, and invited men and officers from the "metropolitan garrison to go there for instruction; while the other established in Foochow a school for the study of foreign languages and arts, with a view to the instruction of young men, in ship-building and the mamifacture of engines. The urgency of such studies is, therefore, an opinion which is nut confined to us, your servants, Should it be said that the purchase of firearms and steamers has been tried, and found to be both cheap and convenient, so that we may spare ourselves the trouble and expense of home production, we reply that it is not merely the manufacture of arms, and the construction of ships, that \China needs to learn, But in respect to these two objects, which is the wiser course in view of the future, to content ourselves with purchase, and leave the source of supiply in the hands of others, or to render ourselves independent by making ourselves masters of their arts, it is hardly necessary to inquire.
As to the imputation of abandoning the methods of China, is it not altogether fictitious charge? For, on inquiry, it will be found that Western science had its root in the astronomy of China, which Western scholars confess themselves to have derived from Eastern lands. They have minds adapted to reasoning and abstruse study, so that they were able to deduce from it new arts which shed a lustre on those nations, but, in reality, the original belonged to China, and Europeans learned them from us. If, therefore, we apply ourselves to those studies, our future progress will be built on our own foundation. "Having the root in our possession, we shall not need to look to others for assistance, an advantage which it is impossible to overestimate, the value to be set on the science of the West, your illustrious ancestor, Kang Hsi, gave it his hearty approbation, promoting its teachers to offices of cons; cuons dignity; and employing them to prepare the Imperial calendar; thus setting an example of liberality equalled only by the ness of his all-comprehending wisdom. Our dynasty ought not to forget its own precedents, especially in relation toa matter which occupied the first place among the studies of the ancients.
In olden times, yeomen and common soldiers were all acquainted with Astronomy; but in Inter ages an interdict was put upon it, and those who cultivated this branch of science became few. Tu the reign of Kang Hsi, the prohibition was removed and astronomical science once more began to flourish, Mathematics were studied together with the classics, the evidence of which we find in the published yorks of several schools. A proverb says, thing unknown is a scholar's shame."
na man of letters, on stepping from' his duer, raises his eyes to the stars, and is unable'to tell what they are, is not this enough to make him blush! Even if no schools were established, the educated ought to apply themselves to such studies, how much more so when & goal is proposed. for them to aim at?
As to the allegation that it is a shame to learn from the people of the West, this is the absurdest charge of all. For, under the whole heaven, the deepest disgrace is that of being content to lag in the rear of others. For some tens of years the nations of the West have applied themselves to the study of steam navigation, each imitating the others, and daily producing some new improvement. Recently, too, the Government of Japan has sent men to England for the purpose of acquiring the language and science of Great Britain. This was with a view to the building of steamers, and it will not be many years before they succeed.
Of the jealous rivalry among the nations of the Western Ocean, it is unnecessary to speak; but when so small a country as Japan is putting forth all its energies, if China alone continues to tread indolently in the beaten track, without a single effort in the way of improvement what can be more disgraceful than this now, nottobeashamed of our inferiority, but when a measure is proposed by which we may equal or even surpass our neighbours, to object to the shame of learning from them, and forever refusing to learn, to be content with our inferiority—is not such meanness of spirit itself an indelible reproach
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.