hi K'ai,
the Northern viceroy. Tientsin was his viceregal capital. Before he could
hope to convince the cynical observers of Britain and Europe that the
anti-opium crusade was really on, he had to make good in his own city.

Yuan Shi K'ai is a remarkable man. Unlike some of his colleagues who have
travelled and studied abroad, he has never, I believe, been over the sea;
yet no Chinese official shows a firmer grasp on his biggest and most
bewildering of the world's governmental problems. Practically a self-made
man (his father was a soldier), he worked up from rank to rank, himself a
part and a product of the antiquated absolutism of his country, until he
emerged at the top, a red-button mandarin, a viceroy, with a personality
towering above the superstitious, tradition-ridden court, and yet
sufficiently able and skillful to work with and through that court. We
have seen, in an earlier chapter, how Yuan, then a governor, kept Shantung
Province quiet during the Boxer outbreak. It is he who is building up the
"new army" with the aid of German and Japanese drill-masters. It is he who
succeeded in introducing the study of modern science into the education of
the official classes. He is committed to the abolition of the palace
eunuch system. He has, during the past year, made great headway with his
bold plan to remodel this land of fossilized ideas into a constitutional
monarchy, with a representative parliament. But first, and above all else,
he places the opium reforms. Unless this curse can be checked, and at
least partially removed, there is no hope of progress.

Throughout this magnificent struggle for a new China, Viceroy Yuan has
radically opposed the very spirit and genius of his race; but far from
ostracizing himself or splitting the government, he has grown steadily in
power and influence, until now, as a sort of prime minister, he appears to
hold the substance of imperial authority in his hands. Try to imagine a
self-made, reform politician outwitting and beating down the traditions of
Tammany Hall in New York City, multiply his difficulties by a thousand or
two, and you will perhaps have some notion of the sheer ability of this
great man, who has risen above the traditions, even above the age-old
prejudices of his own people. There are many Europeans in his
retinue--physicians, military men, engineers, educators--all of whom
apparently look up to him as a genuine superior. An _attache_ summed up
for me this feelin