It has been said, though it may be going a little far, that the Renaissance took almost as much from China as it did from Greece, and it is possibly not
surprising that the nations of Europe were for long not looked on by Chin as her equals. To the Chinese, with their long, unbroken history, as to the Greeks and Romans, all other nations seemed � Barbarians.� In Europe the development of society had gone forward on military lines, but in China the tendency had been the other way, and the art of living had seemed more important than the art of war.
Wars against other nations made China conscious, for the first time in her history, that she was not the only country in the world at a high stage of development. Hong Kong was handed over to Britain (1839), and five harbour towns were made open to trade with other countries ; part of the trade was in opium, which had for hundreds of years been smoked by the Chinese, and was now to become such a danger to the rest of the world that steps had at last to be taken against its distribution for any but medical purposes. Later came the Chinese-Japanese War, which, though it was between two Asiatic countries, was of world-wide interest ; it was after Japan had overcome Chin in this war that she became an important power. After that came what was named the Boxer War. The � Boxers � were a Chinese secret society formed for the purpose of driving the hated Europeans, specially Christians, out of the country. Attacks were made on the property of those of other nations, and some of it was burned down. The effect of this was that the nations of the West, uniting against the Chinese, got an army together and took Peking, where the behaviour of some of the European forces was truly � barbarian.�
The Chinese were now so completely overpowered that it became clear to their rulers that some great change was necessary. Laws were made giving China a new form of government, in which the Emperor�s power was no longer unlimited (1906). But the feelings of the Chinese were by this time worked up, and there was a general desire for a complete overturning of the old order. A revolution took place, and three months later the rule of the old line of Emperors came to an end. And a Republic was formed.
China was very much troubled by the coming in of the Europeans ; the nation�s belief in its rulers was undermined by seeing them so feeble against attack. After the Revolution the organization of schools was undertaken, new ideas took root, and there was much talk of � democracy � by the small number of persons who had any education. But it was hard to get the country united. Trouble was all the time being caused by wars between different groups, and by bands of outlaws. The Republic was only a name, and China, in place of being under on Emperor as in the days past, was broken up among warring army chiefs.
Today [1938] more than one-fifth of the persons of the world are living in China. The masses have almost no education, and self-government on any great scale is still impossible. China�s hope is not so much in material development, as is commonly said, but in the education of her masses to a true sense of the public interest. So her great need now, as in the past, is for peace in which to overcome her troubles.
( pages 251 - 253 )