Book: The Fight For The Republic in China

B >> Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale >> The Fight For The Republic in China





VIII. "DIVINITY DOTH HEDGE A KING"

Now my friends, you have stated in a worthy manner the reasons why
the republican form of state cannot assist China to maintain her
existence; now let me state why it is impossible to restore the
monarchical system. The maintenance of the dignity of a monarch
depends on a sort of mystical, historical, traditional influence or
belief. Such an influence was capable of producing unconsciously and
spontaneously a kind of effect to assist directly or indirectly in
maintaining order and imparting blessing to the country. In this
lies the value of a monarchy. But dignity is a thing not to be
trifled with. Once it is trodden down it can never rise again. We
carve wood or mould clay into the image of a person and call it a
god (idol). Place it in a beautiful temple, and seat it in a
glorious shrine and the people will worship it and find it
miraculously potent. But suppose some insane person should pull it
down, tread it under foot and throw it into a dirty pond and suppose
some one should discover it and carry it back to its original sacred
abode, you will find the charm has gone from it. Ever since the days
of monarchical government the people have looked on the monarch with
a sort of divine reverence, and never dared to question or criticize
his position. After a period of republicanism, however, this
attitude on the part of the common people has been abruptly
terminated with no possibility of resurrection. A survey of all the
republics of the world will tell us that although a large number of
them suffered under republican rule, not a single one succeeded in
shaking itself free of the republican fetters. Among the world
republics only France has had her monarchical system revived twice
after the republic was first inaugurated. The monarchy, however,
disappeared almost immediately. Thus we may well understand how
difficult it is for a country to return to its monarchical state
after a republican regime. It may be said that China has had only a
short experience of the republican regime; but it must also be
remembered that the situation has been developing for more than ten
years and in actual existence for about four years. During the
period of development the revolutionists denounced the monarch in
most extravagant terms and compared him to the devil. Their aim was
to kill the mystic belief of the people in the Emperor; for only by
diminishing the dignity of the monarch could the revolutionary cause
make headway. And during and after the change all the official
documents, school text-books, press views and social gossip have
always coupled the word monarch with reprobation. Thus for a long
while this glorious image has been lying in the dirty pond! Leaving
out the question that it is difficult to restore the monarchy at the
present day, let us suppose that by arbitrary method we do succeed
in restoring it. You will then find that it will be impossible for
it to regain in former dignity and influence.

Turning to another aspect, the most natural course would seem to be
a revival of the last dynasty. It might have been possible for a
Charles II and Louis XVIII of China to appear again, if not for the
hatred of racial domination. But since the last dynasty was Manchu
this is out of the question. If a new dynasty were set up it would
require many years of hard labour and a great deal of organizing to
succeed. Even then only a few have succeeded in this way in
prolonging their dynasties by actually convincing the people of
their merits. Therefore for several years I have been saying to
myself that it would be easier to strengthen the country and place
it on a sounder basis if it were possible for us to return to our
monarchical state. And to revive the monarchical government there
are two ways.

One is that after thoroughly reforming the internal administration
under the leadership of the present Great President, that is, when
all the neglected affairs of the country have been well attended to,
every family in the land made happy and prosperous, the army
well-trained and all the necessary bitterness "eaten," the
President, when a suitable opportunity presented itself, should have
the rare fortune to gain a decisive victory over a foreign foe; then
his achievements would be such that the millions of people would
compel him to ascend the throne, and so he would hand his sceptre on
to his descendants for endless ages.

The second possibility is that after a second great internal
disturbance, resulting in the whole country being thrown into a
state of utter confusion and cut up into small independent states,
the President should suppress them and unite the country into one
empire. We will, of course, not pray for the second possibility to
come about as then there will be little left of the Chinese people.
And no one can be certain whether the person who shall succeed in
suppressing the internal strife will be a man of our own race or
not. Thus the result will not differ very much from national
extinction. As to the first possibility, we know that an exceedingly
capable man is now in a most powerful position; let him be given
time and he will soon show himself to be a man of success. Does not
the last ray of hope for China depend on this?


IX. THE UNRIPE PEAR

This is why I say we should not deliberately create trouble for the
Republic at this time to add to the worries of the Great President
so that he might devote his puissant thoughts and energies to the
institution of great reforms. Then our final hope will be satisfied
some day. But what a year and what a day we are now living in? The
great crisis (_Note: The reference is to the Japanese demands_) has
just passed and we have not yet had time for a respite. By the
pressure of a powerful neighbour we have been compelled to sign a
"certain" Treaty. Floods, drought, epidemics and locusts visit our
country and the land is full of suffering while robbers plunder the
people. In ancient times this would have been a day for the Imperial
Court to remove their ornaments and live in humiliation. What do the
people of our day mean by advising and urging the President to
ascend the throne? To pluck the fruit before it is ripe, injures the
roots of the tree; and to force the premature birth of a child kills
the mother. If the last "ray of hope" for China should be
extinguished by the failure of a premature attempt to force matters,
how could the advocates of such a premature attempt excuse
themselves before the whole country? Let the members of the Chou An
Hui meditate on this point.

The Odes say, "The people are tired. Let them have a respite." In
less than four years' time from the 8th moon of the year Hsin Hai we
have had many changes. Like a bolt from the blue we had the Manchu
Constitution, then "the Republic of Five Races," then the
Provisional President, then the formal Presidency, then the
Provisional Constitution was promulgated, then it was suddenly
amended, suddenly the National Assembly was convoked, suddenly it
was dissolved, suddenly we had a Cabinet System, suddenly it was
changed to a Presidential System, suddenly it was a short-term
Presidency, suddenly it was a life-term Presidency, suddenly the
Provisional Constitution was temporarily placed in a legal position
as a Permanent Constitution, suddenly the drafting of the Permanent
Constitution was pressed. Generally speaking the average life of
each new system has been less than six months, after which a new
system quite contrary to the last succeeded it. Thus the whole
country has been at a loss to know where it stood and how to act;
and thus the dignity and credit of the Government in the eyes of the
people have been lowered down to the dust. There are many subjects
respecting internal and diplomatic affairs which we can profitably
discuss. If you wish to serve the country in a patriotic way you
have many ways to do so. Why stir the peaceful water and create a
sea of troubles by your vain attempt to excite the people and sow
seeds of discord for the State?


X. THE ASSEVERATIONS OF THE PRESIDENT

One or two points more, and I am finished. These will be in the
nature of a straight talk to the Chou An Hui. The question I would
ask in plain words is, who is the person you have in your mind as
the future Emperor? Do you wish to select a person other than the
Great President? You know only too well that the moment the
President relieves his shoulder of the burdens of State the country
will be thrown into confusion. If you entertain this plot with the
deliberation of a person bent upon the destruction of the country,
then the four hundred million of people will not excuse you.

Is the man you have in mind the present President? Heaven and earth
as well as all living creatures in China and other lands know what
the President swore to when he took the oath of office as President.
Rumours have indeed been circulated, but whenever they reached the
ears of the President he has never hesitated to express his
righteous mind, saying that no amount of pressure could compel him
to change his determination. All officials who have come into close
contact with the President have heard such sentiments from the lips
of the President on not a few occasions. To me his words are still
ringing in my ears. General Feng Kuo-chang has conveyed to me what
he was told by the President. He says that the President has
prepared a "few rooms" in England, and that if the people would not
spare him he would flee to the refuge he has prepared. Thus we may
clearly see how determined the President is. Can it be possible that
you have never heard of this and thus raise this extraordinary
subject without any cause? If the situation should become such that
the President should be compelled to carry out his threat and desert
the Palace, what would you say and do then?

Or, perhaps, you are measuring the lordly conduct of a gentleman
with the heart of a mean man, saying to yourself that what the
President has been saying cannot be the truth, but, as Confucius has
said, "say you are not but make a point to do it," and that, knowing
that he would not condemn you, you have taken the risk. If so, then
what do you take the President for? To go back on one's words is an
act despised by a vagabond. To suggest such an act as being capable
of the President is an insult, the hideousness of which cannot be
equalled by the number of hairs on one's head. Any one guilty of
such an insult should not be spared by the four hundred million of
people.


XI. THE CHOU AN HUI AND THE LAW

Next let me ask if you have read the Provisional Constitution, the
Provisional Code, the Meeting and Association Law, the Press
Regulations, the various mandates bearing on the punishment of
persons who dare conspire against the existing form of state? Do you
not know that you, as citizens of the Republic, must in duty bound
observe the Constitution and obey the laws and mandates? Yet you
have dared openly to call together your partisans and incite a
revolution (the recognized definition in political science for
revolution is "to change the existing form of state"). As the
Judiciary have not been courageous enough to deal with you since you
are all so closely in touch with the President, you have become
bolder still and carry out your sinister scheme in broad daylight. I
do not wish to say what sort of peace you are planning for China;
but this much I know, that the law has been violated by you to the
last letter. I will be silent if you believe that a nation can be
governed without law. Otherwise tell me what you have got to say?

It is quite apparent that you will not be satisfied with mere
shouting and what you aim at is the actual fulfilment of your
expectations. That is, you wish that once the expected monarchy is
established it may continue for ever. Now by what principle can such
a monarchy continue for ever, except that the laws and orders of
that dynasty be obeyed, and obeyed implicitly by all, from the Court
down to the common people? For one to adopt methods that violate the
law while engaged in creating a new dynasty is like a man, who, to
secure a wife, induces the virtuous virgin to commit fornication
with him, on the plea that as a marriage will be arranged
preservation of her virtue need not be insisted upon. Can such a man
blame his wife for immorality after marriage? If, while still
citizens of a republican country, one may openly and boldly call
meetings and organize societies for the overthrow of the Republic,
who shall say that we may not in due time openly and boldly call
meetings and organize societies for the overthrow of the monarchy?
What shall you say if in future there should be another foreign
doctor to suggest another theory and another society to engage in
another form of activity? The Odes have it, "To prevent the monkey
from climbing a tree is like putting mud on a man in the mire." For
a person to adopt such methods while engaged in the making of a
dynasty is the height of folly. Mencius says, "a Chuntse when
creating a dynasty aims at things that can be handed down as good
examples." Is it not the greatest misfortune to set up an example
that cannot be handed down as a precedent? The present state of
affairs is causing me no small amount of anxiety.


XII. A POSTSCRIPT

A copy of Yang Tu's pamphlet, "Constitutional Monarchy or the
Salvation of China" reached me after I had finished writing the
above discussion. On a casual glance through it I alighted upon the
following passage: "What is known as a constitutional country is a
country which has definite laws and in which no one, from the ruler
down to the common people, can take any action that is not permitted
by law. Good men cannot do good outside of the bounds of law;
neither can bad men do evil in violation of it." This is indeed a
passage that breathes the very spirit of constitutionalism. Let us
ask Mr. Yang if the activities of the Chou An Hui, of which he is
the President, are acts within the bounds of law? Mr. Yang is a good
man. It is therefore possible for him to believe that he is not
doing evil in violation of the law; but has he not at least been
doing good outside of the bounds of law? If an advocate of
constitutional monarchy is capable of doing such unlawful acts, we
may easily imagine what sort of a constitutional monarchy he
advocates; and we may also easily imagine what the fate of his
constitutional monarchy will be.

Mencius says, "Am I argumentative? I cannot help it." Who would have
thought that a man, who cares not for the question of the form of
state like myself and who opposed you--Mr. Yang Tu--during your
first campaign for the change in the form of State--you were a
Republican then--would be opposing you again now that you are
engaged in advocating another change in the form of state? A change
in the form of government is a manifestation of progress while a
change in the status of the State is a sign of revolution. The path
of progress leads to further progress, but the path of revolution
leads to more revolution. This is a fact proved by theory as well as
actual experience. Therefore a man who has any love for his country,
is afraid to mention revolution; and as for myself I am always
opposed to revolution. I am now opposing your theory of monarchical
revolution, just as I once opposed your theory of republican
revolution, in the same spirit, and I am doing the same duty. My
belief is that since the country is now in a most weakened state, we
may yet fail even if we do all we can at all times to nurse its
wound and gather up its scattered strength. How can any one devote
his time and energy to the discussion of a question of no importance
such as the form of state, and so obstruct the progress of the
administration? But this is not all. The whole country is now
stirred up to an excited state and is wondering how long this
ever-changing situation is going to stop. The loss caused by this
state of affairs, though unnoticed, is incalculable. In the Odes,
it is written "Alas! my brethren. Befriended of the countrymen. No
one wants rebellion. What has no parents?" Let the critics remember
this--let them remember.

Some will say to me that a revolution is an unavoidable thing. Of
all things only the facts cannot be undone. Why then should I bother
myself especially as my last effort fell on deaf ears. This I
realize; but it is not my nature to abandon what is my conviction.
Therefore, although aware of the futility of my words, I cannot
refrain from uttering them all the same. Chu Yuan drowned himself in
the Pilo and Chia Sheng died from his horse. Ask them why they did
these things, they will say they did not know. Once I wrote a piece
of poetry containing the following lines:

"Ten years after you will think of me,
The country is excited. To whom shall I speak?"

I have spoken much in my life, and all my words have become subjects
for meditation ten years after they were uttered. Never, however,
have any of my words attracted the attention of my own countrymen
before a decade has spent itself. Is it a misfortune for my words or
a misfortune to the Country? My hope is that there will be no
occasion for the country to think of my present words ten years
hence.




CHAPTER XI

THE DREAM EMPIRE

"THE PEOPLE'S VOICE," AND THE ACTION OF THE POWERS (FROM SEPTEMBER TO
DECEMBER, 1915)


The effect of Liang Ch'i-chao's appeal was noticeable at once: there
were ominous mutterings among all the great class of "intellectuals" who
form such a remarkable element throughout the country. Nevertheless
there were no overt acts attempted against the authority of Peking.
Although literary and liberal China was now thoroughly convinced that
the usurpation which Yuan Shih-kai proposed to practise would be a
national disgrace and lead to far-reaching complications, this force
were too scattered and too much under the power of the military to
tender at once any active opposition as would have been the case in
Western countries. Yuan Shih-kai, measuring this situation very
accurately, and aware that he could easily become an object of popular
detestation if the people followed the lead of the scholars, decided to
place himself outside and beyond the controversy by throwing the entire
responsibility on the Tsan Cheng Yuan, the puppet Senate he had erected
in place of the parliament destroyed by his _coup d'etat_ of the 4th
November, 1913. In a message issued to that body on the 6th September,
1915, he declared that although in his opinion the time was
inappropriate for making any change in the form of State, the matter
demanded the most careful and serious consideration which he had no
doubt would be given to it. If a change of so momentous a character as
was now being publicly advocated were decided in too great a haste it
might create grave complications: therefore the opinion of the nation
should be consulted by the method of the ballot. And with this _nunc
dimittis_ he officially washed his hands of a plot in which he had been
the prime mover.

The Senate now openly delivered itself over to the accomplishment of the
scheme which had been broached by Yang Tu, the monarchist pamphleteer.
Although this individual still posed as the leader of the movement, in
reality he was nothing but the tool of a remarkable man, one Liang
Shih-yi, famous throughout the country as the most unscrupulous and
adroit politician the Revolution had thrown up. This person, who is
known to have been gravely implicated in many assassinations, and who
was the instrument used in 1912 by Yuan Shih-kai to persuade the Manchu
Imperial Family to abdicate, had in a brief four years accumulated a
vast fortune by the manipulations he had indulged in as Director-General
of The Bank of Communications, an institution which, because it disposed
of all the railway receipts, was always in funds even when the Central
Treasury itself was empty. By making himself financially indispensable
to Yuan Shih-kai he had become recognized as the power behind the
Throne; for although, owing to foreign clamour, he had been dismissed
from his old office of Chief Secretary to the President (which he had
utilized to effect the sale of offices far and wide) he was a daily
visitor to the Presidential Palace and his creatures daily pulled all
the numerous strings.

The scheme now adopted by the Senate was to cause the provinces to flood
Peking with petitions, sent up through the agency of "The Society for
the Preservation of Peace," demanding that the Republic be replaced by
that form of government which the people alone understood, the name
Constitutional Monarchy being selected merely as a piece of political
window-dressing to please the foreign world. A vast amount of organizing
had to be done behind the scenes before the preliminaries were
completed: but on the 6th October the scheme was so far advanced that in
response to "hosts of petitions" the Senate, sitting in its capacity of
Legislative Chamber (_Li Fa Yuan_) passed a so-called King-making bill
in which elaborate regulations were adopted for referring the question
under discussion to a provincial referendum. According to this naive
document the provinces were to be organized into electoral colleges, and
the votes of the electors, after being recorded, were to be sent up
to Peking for scrutiny. Some attempt was made to follow Dr. Goodnow's
advice to secure as far as possible that the various classes of the
community should be specially represented: and provision was therefore
made in the voting for the inclusion of "learned scholars," Chambers of
Commerce, and "oversea merchants," whose votes were to be directly
recorded by their special delegates. To secure uniformly satisfactory
results, the whole election was placed absolutely and without
restriction in the hands of the high provincial authorities, who were
invited to bestow on the matter their most earnest attention.

[Illustration: Modern Peking: The Palace Entrance lined with Troops.
Note the New-type Chinese Policeman in foreground.]

[Illustration: The Premier General Tuan Chi-jui, Head of the Cabinet
which decided to declare war on Germany.]

In a Mandate, issued in response to this Bill, Yuan Shih-kai merely
limits himself to handing over the control of the elections and voting
to the local authorities, safe in the knowledge that every detail of the
plot had been carefully worked out in advance. By this time the fact
that a serious and dangerous movement was being actively pushed had been
well-impressed on the Peking Legations, and some anxiety was publicly
manifested. It was known that Japan, as the active enemy of Yuan
Shih-kai, could not remain permanently silent: and on the 28th October
in association with Great Britain and Russia, she indeed made official
inquiries at the Chinese Foreign Office regarding the meaning of the
movement. She was careful, however, to declare that it was her
solicitude for the general peace that alone dictated her action.[18]
Nevertheless, her warning had an unmistakable note about it and
occasioned grave anxiety, since the ultimatum of the previous May in
connection with the Twenty-one Demands had not been forgotten. At the
beginning of November the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, replying
verbally to these representations, alleged that the movement had gone
too far for it to be stopped and insisted that no apprehensions need be
felt by the Foreign Powers regarding the public safety. Dissatisfied by
this reply all the Entente Powers, now including France and Italy,
renewed their representations, receiving a few days later a formal Note
in which absolute guarantees were given that law and order would be
sedulously preserved. Baffled by this firmness, and conscious that
further intervention in such matter would be fraught with grave
difficulties, the Entente Powers decided to maintain a watchful attitude
but to do no more publicly. Consequently events marched forward so
rapidly that by December the deed was done, and Yuan Shih-kai had
apparently been elected unanimously Emperor of China by the provincial
ballot.

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