For a poem, the following theme was presented:

'The azure precipice was half concealed in a mass of rolling clouds.”

In addition to essays and poems, several general papers of questions are set to the candidates. These comprise classical exegesis, history of ancient and mediæval China, ancient geography, etc., and are almost identical, mutatis mutandis, with papers on the languages and literatures of Greece and Rome, such as are set, for instance, at the annual examination of candidates for the Indian civil service. Here is a specimen of a classical question:

6

"Mao Chang in his edition of the Odes interprets The Guests at the Feast' to mean that Duke Wu was upbraiding Prince Yu. Han Ying in his edition says that Duke Wu is here repenting of his fault of drunkenness. Which editor is to be followed?"

Here is a question on the competitive system:

"During the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618-907), personal appearance, fluency of speech, handwriting, learning, and decision were all taken into account at the examinations. How were the various merits of the candidates tested?"

It is the fashion to deride the Chinese curriculum, and to cry out for the introduction of "science." which would, no doubt, be very advantageous in many ways. At the same time, it must be confessed that the Chinese classics have had pre

cisely the effect attributed by Professor Jebb, in his lecture on "Humanism in Education," to the classics of Greece and Rome. Discarding the past tense for the present, his actual words apply with surprising force to the China of to-day:

At the close of this century, the classics still hold a virtual monopoly, so far as literary studies are concerned, in the public schools and universities. And they have no cause to be ashamed of their record. The culture which they supply, while limited in the sphere of its operation, has long been an efficient and vital influence, not only in forming men of letters and learning, but in training men who afterwards gain distinction in public life and in various active careers."

Several noble specimens of Confucianists have disappeared during the present reign. Shên Paochêng (1819-79), who first distinguished himself against the Tai-ping rebels, was a stern Confucianist and, withal, a capable man of business. In 1867 he became director of the Foochow Arsenal, which he started with the aid of M. Prosper Giquel, in the face of much opposition, launching his first gunboat in 1869. Successful as an administrator, he gained a lasting name for probity, courage, and frugality, leaving behind him in material wealth literally no more than he brought with him into the world.

Another official of the same class was Ting Jih-chang (1823-82). He was connected with the arsenals at Soochow and Foochow. He was a commissioner for the settlement of cases arising

out of the Tientsin massacre. He became governor of Fuhkien, and in 1878 was sent to Foochow to arrange a very serious missionary difficulty in connection with some building operations. A Confucianist to the backbone, he earned the full respect of all foreigners, and when he withdrew into private life he carried with him a spotless reputation.

With such a father as Tsêng Kuo-fan, whose dying injunctions to his children compare favorably with Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son, it is hardly a matter for wonder that the Marquis Tsêng (1837-90), once ambassador to the Court of St. James, should have continued the best traditions of Confucianism. He promoted to his utmost the establishment of peaceful relations between China and foreign nations, and his death was a severe loss to Great Britain in particular.

Probity, like its opposite, seems to run in families. In the same year with the Marquis Tsêng died his uncle, Tsêng Kuo-chuan, younger brother of Tsêng Kuo-fan. He had risen to be Viceroy of the Two Kiang, and had consequently held the lives and fortunes of myriads of his countrymen in the palm of his hand. It is only necessary to add that at his death the people of Nanking went into public mourning, from which it may be inferred that, given the right material, Confucianism need be no hinderance to an upright and unblemished career.

One eminent Confucianist is still working for his cause, in a manner which compels the admira

tion of his opponents. Chang Chih-tung, Viceroy of the Two Hu, devotes much of the time which he can snatch from a busy life to the encouragement of Confucian learning. He has founded a college and a library for the benefit of poor students. He is a poor man himself, in spite of the high posts he has filled. He is master of a trenchant style, and has written against the opium habit and against the practice of cramping women's feet. He is hostile to foreigners and to Christianity, from the very natural desire to see his own countrymen and Confucianism paramount. Yet he is known to the general public as the one incorruptible viceroy.

Manners and customs, convenient or inconvenient, if founded, as many of them are, upon the authority of the Confucian canon, remain fixed in the national life even more deeply than is found to be the case among Western peoples. The practice of employing a go-between in marriage, the illegality of marriages between persons of the same surname, the unwritten regulation that the axle-trees of all carts in the same district shall be of uniform length - these and many similar customs, fully in force at the present day, are based upon well-known passages to be found in different parts of the canon. Especially has the patriarchal system taken deep root, so deep, in fact, that, short of an entire upheaval, it is not easy to see how it can ever be eliminated from the social life of China, over which its domination

is complete. Since the days of Confucius, with filial piety as its foundation-stone, patriarchalism has prevailed over the empire, the unit of civilization being not the individual, but the family. The father, and after his death the mother, has absolute power over all the children, until the sons enter upon an official career, when they can be reached only with the consent of the emperor, and until the daughters pass by marriage under the patria potestas of another family. At eighteen or nineteen the sons marry, and bring their wives under the paternal roof. The eldest brother succeeds to the headship and responsibilities of the family, and the subordination of his younger brothers to him is only less marked than that of his children.

Altogether the patriarchal system has many advantages. It knits close the family ties. All earnings or income go to a common fund; and individuals, in days of failure and distress, are not left to their own resources. Labor is thereby provided with a defence against capital, and a steady equilibrium is maintained. It is, no doubt, a check to individual enterprise, and a direct encouragement to clannishness and its evils. On the other hand, it is equally an encouragement to morality and thrift. One thing is quite certaineither it is admirably adapted to the temper of the Chinese people or a long communion has adapted them to it.

The Confucian temple, mentioned above, de