As we survey the crumbling structure before us, we discern among others, one potent force at work everywhere. I mean the rise of individualism which is the product of modern Europe, and with it the de-of authority. It is this growth of ind decline of religious, moral, and political authority the world over and China is feeling its effect in a very acute form.
It is unscientific nonsense to talk about China's incapacity for self-government and the degeneracy of the Chinese people. These have been the favourite themes of the band of hypercritical friends China with Mr. J. 0. P. Bland as the distinguished leader and Mr. Rodney Gilbert, the latest hero. At. any rate, such theories cannot be proved or disproved except by time. If I were impanneled to sit together the above distinguished gentlemen as the jury, I would certainly have hesitated to vote with them.
From what little Chinese history I know and from what little I see of the world, I see no reason to think that comparatively this generation of Chinese is any more degenerate than any previous generation, and I humbly submit that comparatively the Chinese people as a race are not any less fit for self-government than some peoples that I know. T say this not in the spirit of self-justification but rather to point out their wrong diagnosis of the case of China, We must all admit, however, that this decline and fall of authority without its substitution in. the guiding of our nation's varied activities is certainly a disconcerting fact.
Nationalism is only another and political expression of individualism. The transition from authoritativism to individualism is in the main a revolutionary movement. The Renaissance, the Reformatiom and the Revolution, the three R's are the bridges built across the Medieval and the Modern history in Europe. To change the metaphor and language, the three R's are the stepping stones that enabled Europe to pass from the age of authoritatism to the age of inividualism.
"Choose the timber with greatest Social and Moral Lights Of all that unsound hewer:
It is necessary to be quite clear whether the disorder and confusion in China to-day is only a functional derangement oF an organic disorder. The vast majority has little or no idea of the source of the present trouble. Most of them either put it down that foreign aggression i at the bottom, or hit upon some such as the growth of militarism, the cupidity of officialdom, the backwardness of the industries, or the emptiness of the exchequer. These are serious problems no doubt and do seem to put everything out of order. Nevertheless in the last analysis, these are but the symptoms a1 not the! roots or causes of China's troubles.
An empire has risen and a kingdom fallen, and it is not safe to be dogmatic about the causes of the! rise of the one and the fall of the other. It may be and probably is due to any and varied causes, and circumstances. It is like a stream that gathers force and volume from many tributaries and inland lakes it pursues its seaward way until it swells to a mighty river. In the work of reconstruction and in fact regeneration, there is not a single and royal road to success. There may be many ways and, byways, Now let us return to the point with Which we began that the de: cline of authority and the searching of a new guide, the testing and experimenting in many" directions, the pulling down and the destruction of the old and. the readjustment, constitute the present confusion and chaos. Let us look at the social and moral life of the influential classes in Ching to-day and see what find. In every well ordered [community "there isa" social and moral constitution which serves a fort of rules of game. Confucianism has been in El for the past twenty centuries and Confucius has" been' the lawgiver to. our people. His "Spring and Autumn,"
history of his own time, has been fo" the successive generations a Political constitution, the, funda: mental law for the sons of heaven and their ministers, Tiis discourses formed the basis of moral and social codes of China. It can hardly be exaggerated that it isthe whole. some restraints of Confucian wisdom that has made China what she is The individual conduct is always nided by the "Law of Gentleman" (F231), 0s Mr, Ko Hong Ming translates it. "Without gentlemen you will have no government (Peace End order)". That "Law of Gentle man" is no longer held. with wndisputed respect as before. fuciuniem is not now considered the Con-only way of life. Much of it in fact has been discredited. © With the single and brilliant exception of Mr. Ka. Hung Ming, few western trained Chinese scholars have openly championed'Confucianism. It is 'a lost and unpopular cause. But, what moral code, what social ideal, what new "Law of Gentleman" has in its place? I confess and yet there are many.
Some are drunk with new wine of freedom and equality. Freedom and equality, twin daughters of negation of individualism have been fostered with great enthusiasm while their corresponding positive obligations are forgotten, Others, the so-called progressive leaders, be: come self-appointed apostles' of some new creeds that have found yet no experimenting ground in Europe and America, They are the children of a new hour, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Every new idea or cause will find ready exponents and followers in this land of ours which is hungry and thirsty after every new salvation, result og we see it to-day is the Jack of recognized social and moral code in private life and the want of ea-operation and discipline in our public life,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.