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New Forces in Old China
An Inevitable Awakening
by ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN
To my Friends in China
Preface
THE object of this book is to describe the operationupon and within old, conservative, exclusive Chinaof the three great transforming forces of the modernworld—Western trade, Western politics and Western religion.These forces are producing stupendous changes in that hithertosluggish mass of humanity. The full significance of thesechanges both to China and to the world cannot be comprehendednow. There is something fascinating and at the sametime something appalling in the spectacle of a nation numberingnearly one-third of the human race slowly and majesticallyrousing itself from the torpor of ages under the influence ofnew and powerful revolutionary forces. No other movementof our age is so colossal, no other is more pregnant withmeaning. In the words of D. C. Bougler, ``The grip of the outerworld has tightened round China. It will either strangle heror galvanize her into fresh life.''
The immediate occasion of this volume was the invitation ofthe faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary to deliver aseries of lectures on China on the Student Lectureship Foundationand to publish them in book form. This will account inpart for the style of some passages. I have, however, addedconsiderable material which was not included in the lectures,while some articles that were contributed to the Century Magazine,the American Monthly Review of Reviews and othermagazines have been inserted in their proper place in thediscussion. The materials were gathered not only in study andcorrespondence but in an extended tour of Asia in the years1901 and 1902. In that tour, advantage was taken of everyopportunity to confer with Chinese of all classes, foreignconsuls, editors, business men and American, German and Britishofficials, as well as with missionaries of all denominations.Everywhere I was cordially received, and, as I look at myvoluminous note-books, I am very grateful to the men of allfaiths and nationalities who so generously aided me in mysearch for information.
No one system of spelling Chinese names has been followedfor the simple reason that no one has been generally accepted.The Chinese characters represent words and ideas rather thanletters and can only be phonetically reproduced in English.Unfortunately, scholars differ widely as to this phonetic spelling,while each nationality works in its own peculiarities whereverpracticable. And so we have Manchuria, Mantchuria andManchouria; Kiao-chou, Kiau-Tshou, Kiao-Chau, Kiau-tschou and Kiao-chow; Chinan and Tsi-nan; Ychou, Ichowand I-chou; Tsing-tau and Ching-Dao; while Mukden is confusinglyknown as Moukden , Shen-Yang, Feng-tien-fu and Sheng-king. As some authors follow one system, some another and somenone at all, and as usage varies in different parts of the Empire,an attempt at uniformity would have involved the correctionof quotations and the changing of forms that have the sanctionof established usage as, for example, the alteration ofChefoo to Chi-fu or Tshi-fu. I have deemed it wise, as a rule,to omit the aspirate (e. g, Tai-shan instead of T'ai-shan) asunintelligible to one who does not speak Chinese. Fewforeigners except missionaries can pronounce Chinese namescorrectly anyway. Besides, no matter what the system of spelling,the pronunciation differs, the Chinese themselves in variousparts of the Empire pronouncing the name of the ImperialCity Beh-ging, Bay-ging, Bai-ging and Bei-jing, while mostforeigners