question, is now a matter of history.
"China Breaking Up" was the keynote of everything written about the
Middle Kingdom ten years ago; "China Waking Up" has been the keynote
of everything treating of it these last five years.

Sir John Jordan, British Minister to China, does not exaggerate when
he declares that in a European sense China has made greater progress
these last ten years than in the preceding ten centuries. The
criticism one hears most often now is, not that the popular leaders
are too conservative, but that they are if, anything, too radical; are
moving, not too slowly, but too rapidly.

Instead of the old charge that China is unwilling to learn what the
West has to teach, I now hear foreigners complain that a little
contact with Europe and America gives a leader {103} undue influence.
"Let an official take a trip abroad and for six months after his
return he is the most respected authority in the empire." Instead of
English missionaries worrying over China's slavery to the opium habit,
we now have English officials embarrassed because China's too rapid
breaking loose from opium threatens heavy deficits in Indian revenues.
Instead of the old extreme "states' rights" attitude on the part of
the provinces, as illustrated by the refusal of the others to aid
Manchuria and Chihli in the war with Japan, the beginnings of an
intense nationalism are now very clearly in evidence. Even Confucius
no longer looks backward. A young friend of mine who is a descendant
of the Sage (of the seventy-fifth generation) speaks English fluently
and is getting a thoroughly modern education, while Duke Kung, who
inherits the title in the Confucian line, is patron of a government
school which gives especial attention to English and other modern
branches--by his direction. Significant, too, is the fact that the
ancient examination halls in Peking to which students have come from
all parts of the empire, the most learned classical scholars among
them rewarded with the highest offices, have now been torn down, and
where these buildings once stood Chinese masons and carpenters are
fashioning the building that is to house China's first national
parliament--unless the parliament comes before this building can be
made ready.

And so it goes. When a man wakes up, he does not wake up in a part of
his body only, he wakes up all over. So it seems with Cathay. The more
serious problem now is not to get her moving, but to keep her from
mov