The True Solution of Chinese Question：An Appeal to the People of the United States

The True Solution of Chinese Question：An Appeal to the People of the United States

中国问题的真解决——向美国人民的呼吁

Autumn, 1904

Sun Yat Sen 孙文

In 1904, Sun Yat-sen went to the U.S. mainland, where the Society to Protect the Emperor was still strong, and in St. Louis, at the request of a person by the name of Mr. E. Williams, composed an essay in English entitled “The True Solution of the Chinese Question.” Owing to Williams’ financial support, ten thousand copies were printed in New York, and it was published9 as an “eleven-page pamphlet with a red cover” that broadly appealed the need for a revolution in China to the people of the U.S. and Europe.

https://sunology.yatsen.gov.tw/ebook-uv/corpus/%E7%AC%AC%E5%8D%81%E5%86%8A/0/

The attention of the whole world is at present directed towards the Far East, not only because of the war which is now going on between Russia and Japan, but also because of the fact that

China will ultimately be the main field of struggle between those countries striving for the mastery in Asia. European possessions in Africa which had hitherto been the bone of contention between the European powers having now been pretty well defined, a new field for territorial aggrandizement and colonial expansion must therefore be sought. China, long known as the “Sick Man of the Far East”, affords naturally such a field for the satisfaction of European ambitions. America, notwithstanding her traditional seclusive policy in international politics, is, however, by no means disinterested in it, although in a way somewhat different from that of the other countries. In the first place, the passing of the Philippine Islands under American control makes the United States one of the nearest neighbors of China, and it is therefore impossible for her to shut her eyes to the state of things in that country. In the second place, China is a great market for American goods, and if America intends to extend her commercial and industrial activity to other parts of the world, China is the first country that she must look to. Hence the so-called “Far Easter question” is of peculiar importance to this country.

The problem is as important as it is difficult of solution, owing to the many conflicting interests involved therein. The ultimate outcome of the present war between Russia and Japan has been considered by many as probable solution of the question. But from a Chinese standpoint, the war raises more difficulties than it solves; if it decides anything at all, it would decide, at the most, the question of supremacy between those two countries only. What about the interests of Great Britain? Of France? Of Germany? Of the United States? As to these questions, the war is far form being a solution.

In order to arrive at a satisfactory solution of the whole question, we must find out the root of all these difficulties. The most superficial knowledge of Asiatics affairs will convince any one that this lies in the weakness and corruptness of the Manchu government which threatens, by the very fact of its weakness, to disturb the existing political equilibrium of the world. Paradoxical it is, it is not without foundation, as a proof of this, we would only mention the present Russo-Japanese war. Had it not been for the utter inability of the Manchu government over Manchuria, the war might have been avoided. And it is but the beginning of the long series of conflicts which are likely to arise between the different powers interested in the Chinese question.

We say the Manchu government, and not the Chinese government, with intention. The Chinese have at present no government of their own, and the term “Chinese Government”, if applied to the present government of China, is a misnomer. This seems to be startling to one who is not well acquainted with Chinese affairs, but it is a fact – a historical fact. In order to convince you to this, let us give you a shot account of the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty.

Before they came in contact with the Chinese, the Manchus were a savage, nomadic tribe roaming in the wilds of the Amoor region. The often raided and plundered the peaceful Chinese inhabitants along the frontier. Towards the close of the Ming Dynasty there was a great civil war in China, and taking advantage of this golden opportunity they suddenly came down and captured Peking in much the same way as the barbarians overran the Roman Empire. This was in the year 1644. The Chinese were unwilling to submit to this foreign yoke and offered to the

invaders the most stubborn resistance. In order to force them to yield, the barbarous Manchus ruthlessly massacred millions of people, combatants and non-combatants, young and old, women and children; set fire to their dwellings; ransacked their houses and forced them to adopt their costume. It has been estimated that for disobeying, the order of keeping the queue tens of thousands of persons were slaughtered. It was not until after must bloodshed and barbarity that the Chinese finally submitted to the Manchu rule.

The next measure the Manchus adopted was to keep the conquered people in ignorance as much as possible by burning and destroying all the Chinese books and literature concerning their dealings with and their invasion of China. They also prohibited the people to form associations or to hold meetings for the discussion of public affairs. Their object was to stamp out the patriotic spirit of the Chinese, so that in course of time they might forget that they were subject to a foreign rule. The Manchus number at present not more than five millions, while the Chinese have a population of not less than four hundred millions. It is therefore their constant fear that the Chinese might rise up some day and regain their country. To safeguard against this, many precautions measures have been and are still being adopted. Such has been the policy of the Manchus towards the Chinses.

There is a general misapprehension among western peoples that the Chinese are by nature a seclusive people, unwilling to have any intercourse with outsiders, and that it was only at the point of the bayonet that a few ports along the coast were opened to foreign trade. This misapprehension is due more to the ignorance of Chinese history than to anything else. History furnishes us abundant proof that from the very earliest times up to the establishment of the present dynasty the Chinese entertained close relations with the neighboring countries and did not appear to have the least ill-disposition towards foreign traders and missionaries. The Nestorian Tablet at Si-an Fu give us an excellent record of the evangelistic works of foreign missionaries among the people there as early as the seventh century after christ. Again, the Buddist religion was introduced into China by the Emperor in the Han Dynasty, and the people welcomed the new religion with great enthusiasm. It has since continued to flourish until now it is one of the three leading religions in China. Not only missionaries but traders also were allowed to travel freely throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. Even as late the Ming Dynasty there was no sign of antiforeign spirit among the Chinese. The Prime Minister, Hsu Kwang Che, himself embraced the Catholic faith, and his intimate friend, Mathew Ricci, a Jesuit missionary in Peking, was held in great esteem by the people.

With the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty came a gradual change of policy. The whole country was closed to foreign trade; missionaries were driven out; native Christians were massacred; and no Chinese was allowed to emigrate outside the Chinese border under pain of death. Why was this? Simply because the Manchus wanted to exclude foreigners from their jurisdiction and instigate the people to hate them, lest the Chinese might be enlightened and realize their own nationality through coming in contact with them.

The anti-foreign spirit fostered by the Manchus finally culminated in the Boxer trouble of 1900. It is only well known that the leaders of the movement were nobody else than the members of the reigning family. Hence it may be seen that the seclusive policy of China is the outcome of selfishness on the part of the Manchus and does not represent the will of the majority of the Chinese people. Foreigners traveling in China have often noticed the fact that those people who are farther away from official influence are always more friendly to them than those nearer.

Since the Boxer war many have been led to believe that the Tartar government is beginning to see the sign of time and to reform itself for the betterment of the country, just from the occasional imperial edicts for reform, not knowing that they are mere dead letters made for the express purpose of pacifying popular agitations. It is absolutely impossible for the Manchus to reform the country, because reformation means detriment to them. By reformation they would be absorbed by the Chinese people and would lose the special rights and privileges which they are enjoying. The still darker side of the government can be seen when the ignorance and corruption of the official class is brought to light. These fossilized, rotten, good-for-nothing officials know only how to flatter and bribe the Manchus, whereby their position may be strengthened to carry on the trade of squeezing. A very striking evidence can be seen from the proclamation issued recently by the Chinese Minister at Washington prohibiting the Chinese in this country form having anything to do with the Patriotic Society under the severe penalty that their families and distant relatives will be arrested and beheaded in China. Such a barbarous act coming form such an educated man as Sir Liang Ching, the Chinese Minister, cannot be accounted for except upon the probable assumption that he wishes to flatter the government so that this position as a minister may be secured. Where is the hope for reform by the government and its officials? During the two hundred and sixty years of Tartar rule we have suffered innumerable wrongs, chief of which are following.

The Tarars run the government for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the governed.
They check our intellectual and material development.
They treat us as a subjected race and deny us equal rights and privileges.
They violate our inalienable rights of life, liberty and property.
They practice or connive at official corruption and bribery.
They suppress the liberty of speech.
They impose heavy and irregular taxes on us without our consent.
They practice the most barbarous tortures in the trial of an alleged offender for the purpose of compelling him to give evidence to incriminate himself.
They deprive us of our rights without due process of law.
They fail in their duty to protect the lives and property of all persons residing within their jurisdiction.

Notwithstanding all these grievances, we have tried every possible means to become reconciled with them, but to no purpose. In view of this fact, we, the Chinese people, in order to redress our wrongs, and to establish peace in the Far East and in the world generally, have therefore determined to adopt adequate measures for the attainment of those objects, “peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must”.

The whole nation is ripe for revolution. Look at the Weichow uprising of 1900, the attempted Coup de Main at Canton in 1902, and the Kwang-si movement which is now still going on with ever increasing force and encouragement. The newspapers and the recent publications in China are also full of democratic ideas. Furthermore, there is the Chee Kun Tong (Chinese Patriotic Society), commonly known in this country as the Chinese Freemason, which has for its object “the overthrow of the Chine (Manchu) and the restoration of the Ming (Chinese) Dynasty” This political organization has lasted for over two hundred years and it has now a membership of tens of millions of people, spreading all over Southern China. About 80 per cent of the Chinese in this country belong to this league. Those Chinese who favor revolutionary ideas may be roughly divided into three classes. The first class, the most numerous of the three, comprises those persons who cannot even obtain a bare livelihood because of the extortions and exactions of the officials. To the second belong all those who are provoked by racial prejudice against the Manchus, while to the third class belong those who are inspired by noble thoughts and high ideas. These three factors, co-operating together in different directions, with increasing force and velocity, will ultimately produce the desired result. It is evident, therefore, that the downfall of the Manchu government is but a question of time.

The theory has sometimes been advanced with some show of plausibility that China, with her immense population and her vast resources, would be a menace to the whole world, if she would wake up and adopt western methods and ideas; that if the foreign countries should do anything towards the uplifting and enlightening of the Chinese people, they would thereby create a sort of Frankenstein; and that the wisest policy for other countries to pursue is to keep the Chines down as much as possible. This is, in short, the substance of what is known as the “Yellow peril”. The theory sounds very well; but it will be found upon examination to be untenable from whatever standpoint you may view it. Apart from the moral side of the question as to whether it is right for one country to hope for the downfall of another, is the political side to it. The Chinese are by nature an industrious, peaceful, law-abiding people. They are by no means an aggressive race. If ever they go to war at all, it is only for self-defence. The Chinese would be a menace to the peace of the world only if they were properly drilled by some foreign country and made use of as an instrument for the gratification of its own ambition. It left to themselves they would prove to be the most peaceful people in the world. Again form an economic standpoint, the awakening of China and the establishment of an enlightened government is beneficial not only to the Chinse but also to the world at large. The whole country would be open to foreign trade; railroads would be built; natural resources would be developed; the people would be richer and their standard of living would be higher; the demand for foreign goods would be greater, and international commerce would be increased a hundred fold above its present rate. Is this a peril? Nations are to each other as individuals. Is it economically better for a man to have a poor, ignorant neighbor than it is for him to have a wealthy intelligent one? Viewed from this light, theory falls at once to the ground and we may safely assert that the yellow peril may after all be changed into the yellow blessing.

There are two conflicting policies pursued by the foreign powers in regard to China. The one favors the partitioning and colonizing; the other advocates the integrity and colonizing; the other advocates the integrity and independence of China. To those maintaining the former policy it is needless to remind them that it is fomented with danger and disaster, as the case of colonizing Manchuria by Russia exhibits; while to those maintaining the latter policy we venture to predict that it is impossible for them to realize their object so long as the present government exists. The Manchu Dynasty may be likened to a collapsing house; the whole structure is thoroughly rotten to its very foundation. Is it possible for any one to prevent the house form falling just by supporting the walls collaterally outside with a few beams? We fear this very act of supporting it might hasten its tumbling. The dynastic life in China, as shown from history, is much the same as an individual; it has its birth, growth, maturity, declining and dying. The present Tartar rule has begun to decline since the beginning of the last century and is dying fast now. Therefore we say that even this benevolent and chivalric act of maintaining the integrity and independence of China, if such is meant, as we understand, to support the present tottering Tartar house, is doomed to failure.

Now it is evident, in order to solve this burning question, and to remove the source of disturbance to the peace of the world, that a new, enlightened and progressive government must be substituted in place of the old one. In such a case China would not only be able to support herself, but would also relieve the other countries of the trouble of maintaining her independence and integrity. There are many highly educated and able men among the people who would be competent to take up the task of forming a new government, and carefully thought-out plans have long been drawn up for the transformation of this out-of-date Tartar Monarchy into a “Republic of China”. The general masses of the people are also ready to accept the new order of things and are longing for a change for better, to uplift them from their present deplorable condition of life. China is now on the eve of a great national movement, for just a spark of light would set the whole political forest on fire to drive out the Tartar from our land. Our task is indeed great, but it will not be an impossible one. It needed fewer than twenty thousand troops of the allied army in the Boxer war in 1900 to break down the Tartar resistance, to march into Peking and capture that city. There is no doubt we could do the same with double or triple that number of men; furthermore, we could easily raise a hundred or a thousand times more men form our patriots. And it is evident from recent experiences that the Tartar soldiers are not our match in every field. The present uprising of patriots in the province of Kwang Si is a striking proof. They are far away from the coast and cannot get supplies of arms and ammunition from any source. The only means of getting such materials depends exclusively upon capturing those of the enemy. Even thus they have continued the fight for the last three years and repeatedly defeated expedition after expedition of imperial troops sent against them various parts of the Empire. By possessing such a wonderful fighting capacity, who could say that they could not vanquish the Tartar power from China if sufficient supplies could be forthcoming? When our great object of revolutionizing China shall have been accomplished not only a new era would down on our beautiful country, but a brighter prospect also would be shared by the whole human race. Universal peace will surely follow the step of the regeneration of China, and a grand field hitherto never dreamed of will be opened to the social and economic activities of the civilized world.

To work out the salvation of China is exclusively a duty of our own, but as the problem has recently involved a world wide interest, we, in order to make sure of our success, to facilitate our movement, to avoid unnecessary sacrifice and to prevent misunderstanding and intervention of foreign powers, must appeal to the people of the civilized world in general and the people of the United States in particular for your sympathy and support, either moral or material, because you are the pioneers of western civilization in Japan; because you are a Christian nation; because we intend to model our new government after yours; and above all because you are the champion of liberty and democracy. We hope we may find many Lafayettes among you.

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