The following paper was read by Dr, Gilbert Reid at the January meeting of the Shanghai Mi held in the Union Church Hall on Tuesday, January 11
By way of preliminary explanation, I may say that my knowledge of the reform movement in China is derived largely from observation and experience, while what I know of the reforms Japan depends almost entirely on read. ing the views and testimony of others. This being the case, any comparison that is made may well centre around the reforms in China as so many sug-festive and important facts.
The reform movement in Chins, from its initial stage of dim aspiration down to its present period of forward haste and discontented determination been characterized by personal rivalries jealousies, and strife, The same, it mast be remembered, has been trae of Japan, At firet there was ® conflict between the followers of the Shogun and the followers of the Mik: between feodal chiefs in the south aad those in the north, and between the Goveroment troops and the powerful clan of Satsuma. Latterly there has been perpetual conflict between one party and another, especially between the Mi Parliament, relieved oily by the larger straggle of the whole nation, first with China and then with internal conflicts and personal ies that have been witnessed in first recognized alter the defeat of China by Japan, have been duly felt, and in some respects undoly magnified, by those near the scenes, The rounanitnity until the coup d'état of 1808, when the reformer, Yoan Shibkai, jined forces with the extreme element of the reactionaries. Theo stood with face set against every reform, trembling even to whisper the very word, until she experienced the rather severe shake and sodden re kening which was given her by the ince of the armies of all the great to banish the Government that countenanced the barbara £ the Boxer uprising. With the retarn of an intelligent consciousness, the strong will of the late Empress- Dowage seized on the reform suggestions Yoao Shib- backed by his scomn-'Chang ' bib-tong. To phrase, they tried to of the reform party con-driving abroad under the dauntless leadership of Kung Yin-wei and Liang Chi-chiao, as well as of the revolati ary party onder Dr, Sun Wen, With the death of the Empress-Dowager and the Emperor Kuang Hei, the Prince Regent dismissed Yuan Shih-kai, but maintained his zeal and determination for constitutional readjustment. Within the year there has been friction between Tieh Liang the Board of War and the Prince phe there has been a clash between In China, with her inavgaration of 1 and the present Empress-various reforms, there is a strong Dowager; there have been bickerings tendency, on the part of the younger in the palace, and there has been|element, away from religion, and an alarming disagreement between from Confucianism ea far as its religions Central Government and the pro-ideas are concerned. Worse than this vineial gentry, and particularly tholis the failure to lay emphasis on an nowly-established provincial assemblies upright character in official life, While It is not safe to conclude that in- the cry is land for national reform, there teroal discord and personal jealousies|is still " need for individual reforms in El unimportant, because oF better, for spiritual regenerain Japan have tion.
Official corruption, avarice and There are other moral insensibility, have their grip on threatening conditions in China, as we|officialdom more than in the conserrawill see, that make discord a force that tive period of pre-reform. The Prince surely work havoc and disaster.
Regent, to his credit, and to the hope Gennine reform, both in Japan and|of the Empire, stands personally for China, hes had its impetus from the|s clean life and pore administration, party of the young.
In Japan, of the bat the current of mandarin sen-fifty-five men who placeed tinent is set the other way, How throw of the Yedo administ bad it is, the censors over and average age did not exceed thi y. Jover again make plain to the Throne Those young active spirits have since become the Elder Statesmen, As to ina, the reform movement as it originated in 1895, and held on till the antamn of 1898, was dir-ceted by young men, with the young Emperor as a sympathetic ally, The new reform movement, while having the support of such aged per-sous as the late Empress Dowager, the Iste Chang Chih-tang, and the late San Chia-nai, and of middle-aged men like Yoan Shih-ksi, Tuan Fang, Tieh Liang and Na Tong, has bad in every Board in Peking, in every school and assembly in the provinces a mass of young men keenly and persistently agitating for reform and regarded with favour by the young Prince Regent. Tt is to be doubted, however, whether on the part of Young China there is that solid ability and cautious far-sight-eelness that Japan enjoyed in ita young. leaders Ito, Inouye, Okuma, Itagaki, Fukozawa and Yamagata; and it is very much to be doubted whether reform, impelled by the young students, safe a creation, as it would have been under the direction of the y ang literati.
Another point of similarity is the in. alequatecaltivation of the religions spirit and moral ideas, Ancient Japan was dependent on the ethical principles received from China, and now Chins is absorbing the materialistic character of new Japan. Shibasawa, speaking of commercial progress in Japan, makes this candid acknowledgement: "There are fear peculiarities in the Japanese character which make it hard for the people to achieve business success. These are, first, impulsiveness, secondly, lack of patience, thirdly, disinclination for union, and fourthly, they do not honour credit as they should." Count Okuma, ho discusses the question of education, with true philosophic depth, says. " A great difficulty in Japanese education is the lack of a moral standard.
Physical and literary standards exist, bat the Restoration destroyed the religious standard. In the Western world Obristianity supplies the moral standard. In Japan some desire return to old forms, with patriotism added, others prefer Christianity, some lean on Kant, others on other philoso-and th though the general im-Il'we can safely take as real larity of conditions in China and Japan, Speaking generally, official life stands bigherin Japan than in China, jecommercial life in Chi superior to that in Japan, Unfortunately oven the character of basines men in Chi thas been falling of late below its splendid record in th past. One reason may possibly be the closer contact of officialdom and commercial enterprise, the former conte-micating the latter.
Too many mer chants are aspiring to be taotai too many mandanes are becoming manag ing directors. Without a genuine reform in Chinese officialdom, deterioration and disaster will mark the course of the China trade from its moral incapacities.
One word more on the moral of the reform problem. With addi made in legal codes, with the establish-creased number of globe-touring experta, the justice and purity of Chinese Courts no more guaranteed to-day than twenty years ago. It is here that ite of all complaints far outraoks Chins.
To the mors! and religious phases of educational reform—of the New Lestniog—the balance between the two peoples bangs nearly evea that is, in both countries con-ace in the schools has less effective training than in the abandoned system of the past.
A fourth similarity in the reform problem of the two countries is in tele tion to currency, banking and finance, The whole world stands aghast at the almost insurmountable difficulty of finaacing on new methods, and suited to the new conditions of this vast Empire. For countries China has bad a highly-respected and trustworthy class of bankers. Even the dai ily fluctuation of exchange between ad silver, and the difference of weight in the silver of diferent parts of the Empire, were hardly as great the new copper cash—the independent issue of paper money, uncontrolled and unsecured, and the variations of value between gold and silver, though lack of 'a gold standard, incident to increased
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.