are found in Confucianism, and besides, Confucianism gives still more. From the philosophical standpoint, Christianity is not so deep and rich as Confucianism, nor as Buddhism and Taoism. From the practical standpoint, Christianity is not so human or so related to man as Confucianism. Hence it is extremely difficult to convince Chinese scholars to become Christians. When it comes to the common people, it is still worse. They are afraid even to talk about the word Christianity. It is most opposed to the feelings of the people. In the first place, it is antagonistic to their ancestorworship. In the second place, it has been introduced by arms, protected by treaties and extraterritoriality. It has cost China many lives, many miles of land and many millions of dollars. Many missionaries are not well behaved, and interfere with the people's affairs, such as lawsuits and religious worship. They look upon themselves as ambassadors, and take advantage of the officials and of the people. Therefore, the so-called "missionary cases," of which the Boxers' trouble was the greatest, have occurred many times. In the third place, there are exceedingly few Chinese who honestly become Christians. Most of them are converted for the sake of two things--protection and advantage. If weak people simply seek for protection, they may still be good citizens. But in many cases, as soon as they are protected by the church, they do something out of revenge, or even commit great wrongs. And sometimes they were outcasts before they became members of the church. About those who seek for advantage we need not say anything. Therefore, whenever a native becomes a Christian, China loses a citizen, and the people have more trouble brought in by the Christian. If foreign countries really care for the spread of Christianity, they would be much wiser to let the Chinese alone. Send freely the Christian Bible to every Chinese, and see whether he will accept it, but do not convert him by force, nor by appealing to his self-interest. By so doing, missionaries do great harm rather than good to Christianity; but foreign countries will not believe this, because the missionaries serve as a means of exercising influence over China.1 This is exactly the reason that the Chinese will not accept Christianity; besides, they are not satisfied with the Christian Bible. Hence, all of the foreign religions but Christianity have acquired a foothold in China without trouble, and even Christianity did not bring any trouble to China until after the Opium War. Therefore the Chinese look upon the missionary cases not as religious disputes, but as political uprisings. Some Christians say that China cannot become a strong nation unless she be a Christian nation. This is quite absurd. We may simply point out some historical facts. If Christianity can make every nation strong without regarding other elements, why did the Roman Empire fall? Why have Spain and Portugal become weaker? Why do not the nations in South and Central America become strong? The chief maker of modern nations is not Christianity, but militarism and industrialism. Even the religious revolution was the product of the Renaissance. We are sure that Christianity did, and does, much good for the Christian nations and for the world as a whole, but there is no reason to think that only Christianity can make a nation strong. If a nation cannot be strong without Christianity, why was China strong for a long time until the Opium War, and why did Japan become a modern nation? The originators of the political revolution in Japan were not Christians, but Confucians. Even one branch of Confucianism 1 Even Japan has tried to send missionaries to China in order to teach the Chinese Buddhism-a most ridiculous thing, since Japan got Buddhism from China. the doctrine of Wang Shou-jen-was sufficient to transform old Japan into modern Japan. Why should the whole school of Confucius not be able to modernize China? The future of China is bright. With an uninterrupted history extending over five thousand years, with an intelligent, diligent, prudent, and vigorous people of four hundred million, with an extensive but connected territory of four and a quarter million square miles,' with abundant natural resources, under one centralized government, one uniform language, one highly-developed religion, one national idea, China will, without doubt, become a strong nation, but the world need not be afraid of the so-called yellow peril. China will indeed adopt both militarism and industrialism. But China will not injure anyone not Chinese as the western nations take advantage of other people. After China shall be strong, the Great Similarity of Confucius will come, and the world-state will appear. Then the brotherhood of nations will be established, and there will be no war, but perpetual peace. under |