In the eyes of the Chinese of the old school these changes
in the habit of life infinitely old are improving nothing and ruining
much--all is empty, vapid, useless to God and man. The tawdry shell, the
valueless husk, of ancient Chinese life is here still, remains untouched
in many places, as will have been seen in previous chapters; but the
soul within is steadily and surely, if slowly, undergoing a process of
final atrophy. But yet the proper opening-up of the country by internal
reform and not by external pressure has as yet hardly commenced in
immense areas of the Empire far removed from the imperial city of
Peking. And the mere fact that the Chinese propose such an absurd
program as that which plans the building of all their railways without
the aid of foreign capital is sufficient to react in an unwholesome
manner economically.[BH][BI]
I cannot but admit that, whilst in most parts of my journey there are
distinct traces of reform--I speak, of course, of the outlying parts of
China--and some very striking traces, too, and a real longing on the
part of far-seeing officials to escape from a humiliating international
position, it is distinctly apparent that in everything which concerns
Europe and the Western world the people and the officials as a whole are
of one mind in the methods of procrastination which are so dear to the
heart of the Celestial, and that peculiar opposition to Europeanism
which has marked the real East since the beginning of modern history.
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