A Mustone or sum Press ano Pune Opnviow aw Cuma—By Lin' Yutang.
Published. forthe China" Institute Of Pacific "Relations by' Kelly Diplomatic correspondents will be thrilled to learn from Dr. Lin Yutang. that oMeial mentality towards pub-city has not greatly changed either in the East or in the West in the last 2,000 years, In 1100 A.D. an official memorandum to the Emperor demanding the suppression of news based its arguments on the ground that. the small newspapers (tabloid) of that. day were apt to publish news advance of official authorization, and Sometimes the news turned out to be true, sometimes false. The memor= andum proceeded then to say that if the news was true it should not have been permitted to leak out and if it was false it was misleading. Thus bogan the idea of official censorship and it indicated that journalism in China was starting to prove vigorous and effective. The press was not the first instrument of public criticism in China any more than in other cou tries, Ballads and epigrammatic verse demanded pride of place and Dr, Lin Yutang maintains that the Chinese excel other races in criticizing their rulers, and he gives reasons:
What makes the Chinese such orities of their" government. 1s the' fact that' they are. consistently and thoroughly cynical about most of their "officials" all" the time—a fact which "is often. superficially ignored through the apparent quiet submission of the people to their oppressors, No" censorship or monarchical abso:
has ever really stopped eriticls' of the government in thet hearts." 1 imagine the. rise. of the and "epligrammatic versa was something Uke this. have said that the Chinese people always. think of their government, and when they think 0f their rulers all" the time, they cannot help talking about them, Or they "gossip, to be. more exact, 'There has always been a tremendous amount' of political gossip in his country which never "quite reaches the Dapers, and'in modern days. it hag ever been the "desire Of the authorities that such gossip shalt not Teach. the papers. Dut. the gossip Persists at Teacparties and" behind making "futile. all theres a" clover' ne. or an peop! on" from' mouth to mouth, and" it Kalng great immediate currency. If the line contains n phrase that clicks This {3 an amusing picture and it recalls to the English reader the atmosphere of "The School for Scandal" in which it was apparent that once an epigram had been conceived no consideration whether of propriety or accuracy prevented the author from spreading it abroad. It to be doubted whether the exposure of the baselessness of the charge against Miss Letitia Piper effectively prevented the circulation and probably the further embellishment. of the amusing story of that amiable maiden lady's dopement "and mis~ fortunes, Scholars and the Government Organized conflict between public opinion and the ruling authorities is discerned by Dr. Lin Yutang to have occurred for the first time in the Yaler Han dynasty. Tt involved the gigantic student movement which repeated itself later in other periods of Chinese history right down to the present day. it checked the powers of the eunuchs, but it involved heavy sacrifices in the murder of several hundred scholars, the imprisonment of over a thousand university students, and several catastrophic upheavals, The war between the scholar critics and the government was the outcome of popular dissatisfaction with the usurpation of authority by the eunuchs and court misrule gener ally, that dissatisfaction being stimulated by students and scholars specially inspired by ideals of personal heroism and chivalry. Dr, Lin Yulang says: salt ly giily unfair to blame these' fearless scholars for the downfall of the Han' Dynasty, as some Jater dyspeptic Confucian crliles have done, If anything, "the scholars lengthened the reign of the Han House, and their eventual failure together with' the collapse of the ruling dynasty was to be' ascribed to the absence "of a more democratic machinery of government than what We had "during this period.
Briefly speaking, the political back ground. had its origin' In a. simple Biological fact, "namely," thatthe lood of the ruling house was running thin. The great power of tne eunuchs and of the brothers. of the Empresses (the cause of all misrule) was due to the simple fact that most the rulers "of the later. Han Dynasty Were extremely shortellved and. that there, was a great searelty of male descendants to the throne.
The institution of imperial censors played an important part which is The importance of remedying this. now fulfilled by the critic inthe state of affairs is examined by Dr.
Is a Fact Western press. The censors. were Lin Yutang when he goes on to say: particularly courageous men because "Wir everyone on earth taking The state of general cynicism of they had no guarantee that their out-the Chinese people isto be. largely part, the molecules in a drop of water, spoken criticism was protected against accounted for by the fact that they could not be counted in 10,000 years." official displeasure. Some of them, of are not allowed to have a cay The enterprise therefore has been course, weakly sold themselves to the matters affecting © the sovereignty, abandoned. ruling' powers, but others were quite territory and very Ufe of the nation. prepared to draft impeachments and there had been an intelligent. cen-Scotland Again sorship, with more liberal standards fold the emperor of his faults even "Teut me, why does a, Scotchman confining itself to. suppressing rebel-though the rebuke might be person have a sense of humour Hous attacks against the government, ally disastrous to ther 'To see the lal censors_in Big, in aleut be ed to tine don't know; why?" that "they "themselves "are operation 1s therefore Iighly interest responsible for the political situation "Because its a gift?" ug, ike watching 'a Roman' gladia-_ through their own negligence of duty.
Misunderstood {orial combat. And the Chinese sm-T''ean never sulliciently stress the eral "censors often carried them-fact that It is' lie {0 say that the "SuaMe on you! Do you think selves Ike" the Roman gladiators, Chinese people "of to-day are' the getting drunk is the way to remem-When they were at their best, Chinese, people of thirty" years ago. ber your wedding anniversary?" Several characteristics of the oper: ud that they are really' "indifferent "Who'sh tryin' to remember Hon of this aystem may be noted. to. their national' welfare,—simply the first place, the Chinese cen Because one sees no visible sign. of Howler sors had the habit of going forward people's activities either in the press, county schoolmistress was "the ency in rin public demonstrations against Gaus" adouthacens of thas tention amused to find the following in a ttle girl's exercise book also has some biting things to censors had the habit of following say about the venality of critics of "An altercation is the speech that Up their' first petitions "or protests concludes a wedding ceremony. the Chinese Government. For ex-with a succession of others, when the ample, he cites the transformation of first "ones failed of their mark.
Sometimes it was the original sender a Western-educated English-speaking Decently and In Order who. followed up with six or seven, writer who after having harped upon A mizanen, on receiving the first or even fourteen or fifteen, success" the official corruption and excessive delivery of a large order, was an-ive petitions, if he was then sill taxation of the administration in tllve; and" sometimes when the Inoyed to find the goods not up to power, blandly turned himself into original sender was put out of action, sample, "Cancel my order imme a vociferous defender of the same facie Win cines] stminenlens eogee charac furerg Soto eae See one for themselves. we see in March 1519, in the reign Paid post on the staff of a govern- cancel immediately. You must take Thus, for instance, ¢T!s! of ey replied: "Regret cannot of) Chengteh, when "the Bmperor ment publication, Unfortunately for Sour turn,"
Thane rae men ewen be, Lin Wetangs A
Peking, "he was bombarded with sea inane a oR aah cee ead St & Once Only clusively applicable to Chinese succession of petitions from dilferet Journalists; but that is no reason why Souiciron representing woman mo-officials including the censors, in torist summoned for speeding: "My of the fact that many of these peop!
Chinese public opinion should not client is being married to-day, and 1 had "already. been "submitted to) take heed of the criticisms which he respectfully submit that a conviction Yarlous penalties for it. 'This war makes in the course of an exceeding-would be an unfortunate wedding started. first' by. two censors, then ly valuable and informative study of present" He won: case dismissed on followed up by' seven others, then altho press in this country—eu, third' protest came. from three. more, payment of 4s, "costs. Chairman fourth one. from fourteen others, added: "Tell your client not to speed 4 fifth one was signed by Mity-three for get married again!"
Persons, a Fey ace sixth one signed
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.