With reference to the secret societies, we need to' know how they' originated.. These societies flourish. cal greatly during the, time of the Manchu emperor K'ang Hsi. From the time that the emperor Shun Chih shattered the Ming. Dynasty and began to rule in China, the faithful and patriotic leaders of the MinKs, opposed him in every quarter, and op to the time of the frst year of Kang Lis, there were still those who resisted, 90 a¢ that poried China hid rat been enrively subdued by the Man-hus. After the last_yene of Kinng Msi, the survivers of the Ming wore gradually destroyed Amongst these, were some full of nationalistic ideas, who realised that in any seriotis encounter they would "be Unable to cope with the Mancha find eeeing the. social condition devised methods of forming secret fueietion. Their outlook was extensive, their ideas mature, and they saw clearly the condition of the people. Just when they—had parties, Kang' fons in science und literature, and he netted into the service of the Manchus Government almost all the best scholars of the Ming Dynasty.
The men with nationalistic ideas Knew very well that. they couldn't count entirely on the scholars for the maintenance of nationalistic!
Principles, and so gathered the lower classes and homeless wanderers into ies, entrusting the prin-of nationalism to them for preservation. Because these men were the dregs of society, the part: "Ss. they played brought them' into eon-tempt on account of their base actions. Their use of, uncouth Jangaaye in the propagation of their tenets caused men to give no heed to them, so that the old officials of the Ming Dynasty were seen to be cally men of worth and brilliance. As for their desire to preserve the: dea of nationalism, in this manage, is similar to what happened 1g Rebellion. Men wealth naturally hid their Aveasures in costly iron chests, but when robbers entered the house the owners fearing that the chests hundred years ago, no matter what severe restrictions there were the idea of Chinese nationality was able wing to its transmittance cities by word of mouth. Why did not the "Triad Society, whose object was to overthrow the Manchus and restore the Mings, entrust the preservation of their principles to the scholarly classes? Why did they not commit them to writing, so that they might be hand. jed down to others, as The Grand Recorder Ssu Ma Ch'ien has said: The secrets of the famous mountains are made known to men."
Tt was. because the old Ming officials, seeing that for the time nearly all the clever and scholarly men were being used by the jehus, knew that these were not to be trusted; were not the men "disclose the secrets of the famous mountains." Therefore they sought hide such secrets amongst the tower classes of society, and Jaccordingly formed the—parties mentioned, finding that association with such' was very easy and convenient. In such organisations, under'the restrictions imposed by the Manchus, they preserved the principle of nationalism not by means lof writing, but by oral transmission, to-day it is very difficult for us to fexpiain clearly the origin of these sceleties on account of their sele use of oral teaching by detaches! ex. pressions and stories. Ever the moment they had to propagate their teach time of Ch'ien Lung it would "ave queen destroyed. (Editorial Note: A long anecdotal account of serrer societies is here omitted. It - is} presumably meant to show how] Nationalism lived through these] societies and_ perished when, they were suppreated. At the time' this was written Dr. Sun was convinced that he was the head of a military secret society that gave him control of all of China's armi Why. Nationalism Became Decadent, Since the principle of Chinese nationalism is lost, T want to-day to explain the reasons. These are many, but the chief is because of conquest by a foreign people. When tone nation conquers another, it] naturally suppresses any thoughts lof independence. Take for instance [Coren which was conquered by Japan. Japan now desires change the aspirations of the Coveans, and so every sentence re-revving "to Nationalism is erased from all the books. in the schools land colleges of Corea, In thirty years' time, the children of the [Coreans will not know there is sach place as Corea, and will not know that they are 'Coreans. Formerly the Manchus treated us' in the same way. Therefore we know that the chief reason for the extinction Jot nationalism amongst us, is be-jeanses we have been subdued foreign people. A conquering nation desires to destroy entirely the treasure of a vanquished—people. The Manchus knew this very well, und they accomplished it in a very [clever manner. K'ang Hsi imprison-Jed writers of books, but he was not crafty as Ch'ien Lung, who teied to eliminate entirely the idea of! Chinese. nationalism. "K'ang Hsi said of himself that he was especially sent by Heaven to be the emeerer lof China, and exhorted men not to leppose its appointment; but Cn'ien Lung, even more crafty, destroyed entirely the distinction between Man-jehus and Chinese; so from his time onwards the. majority of the scholars. have -had- no idea of rationality, and it has only been
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.