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 A user-friendly reference guide

HTM L5
& CSS3
Rob Crowther

M AN N I N G
www.it-ebooks.info
Hello! HTML5 & CSS3

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www.it-ebooks.info
Hello! HTML5 & CSS3
A user-friendly reference guide

Rob Crowther

MANNING
SHELTER ISLAND

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For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books, please visit
www.manning.com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in
quantity. For more information, please contact:
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 – MAL – 17 16 15 14 13 12

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brief contents

PART 1 LEARNING HTML5 1

1 Introducing HTML5 markup 3
2 HTML5 forms 38
3 Dynamic graphics 73
4 Audio and video 119
5 Browser-based APIs 153
6 Network and location APIs 191

PART 2 LEARNING CSS3 231

7 New CSS language features 233
8 Layout with CSS3 271
9 Motion and color 313
10 Borders and backgrounds with CSS3 351
11 Text and fonts 392

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www.it-ebooks.info
contents

preface xv
acknowledgments xvii
about this book xix

PART 1 LEARNING HTML5 1

1 Introducing HTML5 markup 3
Why do we need new elements? 4
New elements for page structure 7
Sectioning content 7 ❍ Headings, headers, and the outlining
algorithm 9 ❍ Common page elements 15
The HTML DOCTYPE 17
New elements for content 18
Time 18 ❍ Images and diagrams with <figure> and
<figcaption> 21 ❍ Emphasizing words and phrases 22
HTML5’s new global attributes 23
Accessibility with ARIA 24 ❍ Extending HTML with custom
attributes 26 ❍ Expressing more than just document
semantics with microdata 28
The HTML5 content model 29
Browser support 32
Supporting Internet Explorer 35 ❍ Enabling HTML5 support
in Internet Explorer with html5.js 36
Summary 36

vii

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viii contents

2 HTML5 forms 38
The limitations of HTML4 forms 39
Numbers, ranges, dates, and times 42
Validation 46
The required attribute 47 ❍ The min, max, and pattern
attributes 47 ❍ Taking advantage of validation with
CSS 49 ❍ Turning off validation 50
Email and URLs 51
Email addresses 51 ❍ Web addresses 53
Elements for user feedback 53
The <output> element 53 ❍ The <progress> element 55
The <meter> element 56
Less-common form controls 57
Telephone numbers 57 ❍ Color pickers 58
<keygen> 59
New attributes for the <input> element 59
Placeholder text 59 ❍ Form autofocus 61 ❍ Protecting
private information with the autocomplete attribute 61
Extending forms with JavaScript 62
Customizing the validation messages 62 ❍ Triggering
validation with JavaScript 64 ❍ Responding to any
changes in value 64 ❍ Creating combo boxes with
<datalist> 65 ❍ Easy ways to work with form
values in JavaScript 67
Browser support and detecting HTML5 features 68
Browser inconsistencies 69 ❍ Detecting supported
features 69 ❍ The html5-now library 71
Summary 72

3 Dynamic graphics 73
Getting started with <canvas>: shapes, images, and text 74
Drawing shapes 76 ❍ Placing images 82 ❍ Drawing
text 84
Advanced <canvas>: gradients, shadows, and animation 87
Creating gradients 88 ❍ Drawing drop shadows 91
Transformations 92 ❍ Animation 94

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 contents ix

Getting started with SVG 96

Applying styles to SVG 98 ❍ Drawing common shapes 99
Images, text, and embedded content 101 ❍ Transforms,
gradients, patterns, and declarative animation 105
SVG vs. <canvas> 112
Browser support 114
Supporting <canvas> in older versions of IE with
explorercanvas 114 ❍ SVG in XML vs. SVG in HTML 115
Embedding SVG as an image 115 ❍ Referencing an SVG
image from CSS 116 ❍ Embedding SVG as an object 116
SVG support in older browsers with SVG Web and Raphaël 116
Summary 118

4 Audio and video 119

Audio and video on the modern web 119
The <audio> element 123
Common attributes: controls, autoplay, loop, and preload 124
Codecs and license issues 129 ❍ Using multiple sources 133
The <video> element 134
<video> element attributes 135 ❍ Containers, codecs,
and license issues 138 ❍ Easy encoding with Miro Video
Converter 139 ❍ Advanced encoding with FFmpeg 140
Using multiple sources 142
Controlling audio and video with JavaScript 144
Integrating media with other content 146
Browser support 150
Web server configuration for audio and video 151
Supporting legacy browsers with Flash video 152
Summary 152

5 Browser-based APIs 153

Rich-text editing with the contenteditable attribute 154
Basic text editing 155 ❍ The spellcheck attribute 157
Applying formatting to the editable text 160
Natural user interaction with drag-and-drop 164
Basic drag-and-drop 167 ❍ Drag-and-drop in all
browsers 169

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x contents

Managing the Back button with the history API 173

Updating page state 175 ❍ Using location.hash 176
Example: Implementing an undo feature 177
Getting semantic with the microdata API 179
Using a single microdata format 180 ❍ Using multiple
microdata formats 183
Lag-free interfaces with web workers 185
Browser support 189
Summary 189

6 Network and location APIs 191

Finding yourself with the Geolocation API 192
Finding your location 193 ❍ Finding your location more
accurately 194 ❍ Finding your location continuously 195
Practical uses for geolocation 196
Communication in HTML5 200
Enabling more secure integration with cross-document
messaging 201 ❍ Real-time communication with the
WebSocket API 205
Offline web applications 208
Setting up a development environment 209
The application cache 211 ❍ Managing network
connectivity in offline apps 215
Storing data for offline use 222
Local storage 223 ❍ Session storage 227 ❍ Putting
it all together 228
Browser support 229
Summary 229

PART 2 LEARNING CSS3 231

7 New CSS language features 233
Choosing elements through their relationships 234
Selecting sets of elements with combinators 235
Selecting among a set of elements with
pseudo-classes 240

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 contents xi

Choosing elements by their attributes 251

Choosing what isn’t 255 ❍ Pseudo-elements 257
Choosing elements based on user interaction 261
Styling form elements based on state 262 ❍ Styling the
page based on the target of the URL 265
Browser support 267
Using jQuery to support older browsers 269
Summary 270

8 Layout with CSS3 271

Underused CSS2 layout features 272
Placing elements on a line with inline-block 272 ❍ Grouping
element dimensions with display: table 275
CSS3 improvements to CSS2 approaches 279
Mixing different length units with calc 279 ❍ Controlling
the box model 284
Using media queries for flexible layout 285
Resolution detection 287 ❍ Changing layout based on
orientation and aspect ratio 291 ❍ Additional
device-detection features 292
The future of CSS layout 293
Using flexible boxes for nested layout 294 ❍ Using the
CSS3 Grid Alignment module 298 ❍ Controlling content
flow with CSS3 Regions 303 ❍ Making complex shapes
with CSS3 Exclusions and Shapes 305
Browser support 308
inline-block in IE6 and IE7 309 ❍ calc in Chrome and
Firefox 310 ❍ box-sizing in Firefox and Safari 5 310
Flexboxes in Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Safari 310
Media queries and old browsers 311 ❍ Regions and
exclusions 311
Summary 311

9 Motion and color 313

Colors and opacity 314
Opacity 314 ❍ RGBA 318 ❍ HSL and HSLA 320

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xii contents

CSS transforms 323

2D transforms 324 ❍ 3D transforms 328
CSS transitions 330
Transition timing functions 334 ❍ Transition
property 337 ❍ Transition delay 338 ❍ Triggering
transitions with JavaScript 339
CSS Animation 343
Browser support 346
Opacity in IE8 and earlier 346 ❍ Transforms, transitions,
and animations in current browsers 346 ❍ Using
modernizr.js and jQuery for animation in older
browsers 349
Summary 350

10 Borders and backgrounds with CSS3 351

Drop shadows with CSS3 352
Box shadows 352 ❍ Text shadows 356
Easy rounded corners 358
New features for background images 361
Background size 361 ❍ Multiple backgrounds 365
Background origin and clipping 369
Selective background scaling with border images 371
Basic border-image 372 ❍ Stretching and repeating
border-image sections 374 ❍ Using border-image to
create common effects 377
Creating gradients with CSS 378
Browser support 384
Cross-browser drop shadows 385 ❍ Cross-browser
CSS3 gradients 386 ❍ Cross-browser backgrounds and
border-image 387 ❍ Supporting old versions of Internet
Explorer 388 ❍ CSS3 PIE for easy IE support 390
Summary 391

11 Text and fonts 392

Basic web fonts 393
Gaining control of fonts with the @font-face rule 394
Font formats: EOT, TTF/OTF, and WOFF 398
Browser support for downloadable fonts 399

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 contents xiii

Making your life easier with font services 400

Downloadable kits: FontSquirrel 400 ❍ Free font services:
Google Web Fonts 403 ❍ Subscription font services:
Fontdeck 405
Advanced web typography 407
font-size-adjust 407 ❍ Advanced font control 409
Text columns 416
Column count and width 416 ❍ Column spans 418
Gaps and rules 419
Wrapping and overflow 420
Word wrap 420 ❍ Text overflow 422
Browser support 423
Summary 423

Appendix A A history of web standards 425

Appendix B HTML basics 441
Appendix C CSS basics 467
Appendix D JavaScript 491

Index 523

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xiv contents

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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
the Government which will become paramount—the peculiarities of which
are not known to a dozen men, it is a menace which China herself knows
little of. I am fully aware that my contention will open up entirely new
ground. The question of the possibility of the Chinese Government having
been given such trouble as she underwent in Szechuen by the aboriginals of
interior provinces has never been broached, so far as my memory serves me,
in any of the literature dealing with China's reform during the last decade. I
am aware that I shall spring upon the ordinary student of China's affairs a
problem he may wriggle out of by stigmatising as unimportant, for the
world's manner of dealing with China is with those things seen on the
political surface only. Indeed, this is the greatest error in literature upon
China. But I am not speaking without first-hand knowledge. After having
travelled some seven thousand miles in China, in parts often where no other
foreigner has ever entered, and having lived for several months out in the
wilds where none other than the missionary could have contact—so that
none but the missionary would be able to write about it, which is very rarely
done—it may be granted that an opinion in some definite form is at least
justifiable. My purpose was to make the subject a special study. In most of
the country where these tribes people, ordinary foreign travellers are not
allowed to enter. Officials at the fus or the hsiens where escorts are supplied,
refuse to allow you to start if you are foolish enough to let them know that
you intend starting. But it is only by actually travelling in these areas that an
accurate impression of existing conditions can be gathered. Because a man
has travelled from end to end of China by the main road does not justify him
in giving an opinion on the subject; quite easy it is to travel along the main
roads anywhere, but here one sees comparatively little of the tribal element.
Some may speak of the patriotism which has grown in China of late years,
and ask if it is possible for any such menace to continue while this spirit of
patriotism thrives. I admit that a peculiar patriotism has certainly sprung up
among the people of China, but in the places I have in mind, in the wind-
swept savage country of China Far West, patriotism is not known. Those
who have been watching the trouble in Szechuen, started long before the
Revolution broke out, have been able to see what sort of patriotism has
existed. It is merely a common spirit of hooliganism among the common
multitudes, and a spirit of alarming omnipotence among the scholars—little
less, little more. This exists among the Chinese in these regions, but I speak
here more particularly of the tribal races, among whom this hatred towards
the Government is infinitely more bitter. These aboriginal races, or most of
them, were, almost without exception, at one time in the occupation of vast
kingdoms, and their first idea is that the Chinese Government has been built
up by a succession of excessively wicked and unscrupulous men, great
commandment breakers, a peculiarly dangerous type of mankind to which it
is unfortunate to belong. They know nothing about revolutions or reforms.
They have it in strong for the Chinese, and are boiling over with a spirit of
revenge. It is with these people that China will have to deal during the next
decade. If China were to be engaged in an altercation with any other Power,
this tribal danger would be formidable; if all becomes peaceful, when the
Revolution shall have passed onward, the task of putting all men and things
in China underfoot of the Government will not be accomplished without
effort.

As things stand at present, there looms before China a problem that will
not find solution in being continually shelved. In conquering the tribes in her
own country, China faces a danger more momentous than she knows of and
greater than the Western world ever dreamed of.

It would be too long a story here to detail the tribes and the peculiarities
of each family—suffice it to say that every tribe in western China (and their
number may be judged from the fact that no less than twenty are found in
Yunnan alone), hate the Chinese and the Manchus. In the event of any
disturbances arising from the Tibetan border, the Burma border, the Tonking
border, the Mongolian border, this involved problem of her tribespeople and
how to deal with them would so upset China's calculations that she might
lose territory in China Far West, and history might have to record another
rebellion as terrible, perhaps, as the Mohammedan rebellion in Yunnan of
1855 and onwards. Yunnan might then go to France, Tibet to Britain,
Mongolia to Russia. This would be the zenith of complications, but it is of
this that China has always been afraid, and she will always have cause for
fear so long as this question is ignored. At the present moment, when most of
the outlying dependencies are declaring their independence, these fears have
a greater significance. The non-ability of the officials to grip the situation in
these outlying corners of the Chinese Empire, and to have that local
knowledge of affairs which will come only with local experience, is where
China would feel the pinch in a stand-up combat with unconquered races
within her own dominions. This feeling of strife has been growing for years,
long before China had an adventurous policy in Tibet, but however expert
China may have been in duping Europe as to her intentions in Tibet, and
maintaining tranquillity in that country, it is certain that Peking did not, or
would not, recognise the presence of the evil in China Far West, to say
nothing of Tibet for the moment, of many thousands of her nominally
governed races being in a state of lawlessness and social savagery.
Complications in Tibet are liable, as they have been for many years, to arise
at any time, equally as they are in Kansu, Sinking, Szechuen, or Yunnan—
we have seen them, of course, in Szechuen. For serious complications in any
of these provinces China has always been ill-prepared. It has been extremely
doubtful whether her troops would remain loyal, even after she had got them
at the seat of action after a tortuous march over incomprehensibly difficult
country. There are no railways in Western China to speak of—there are
absolutely none in the areas we have under survey in this article—and the
only West China railway from Tonking into the heart of the Yunnan province
would offer no advantages.

The main trunk lines of China, such as they are, run through country
removed by many days of arduous walking over land from the districts likely
to be first affected. Suppose, for a moment, that China had decided to repel
the British at Pienma, or that a civil war were to break out in Yunnan (and
neither of these is so unlikely when one knows the aggressive Yunnanese
spirit), the probability is that, were military assistance necessary, the armies
of Szechuen or Hunan would be mobilised. But to the provincial capital of
Yunnan no less then thirty-three days would be required from Chengtu
(Szechuen's capital), and to reach Yunnan-fu from Changshu (Hunan's
capital) at least fifty days. The entire distance in either case would have to be
negotiated on foot and by native boat, and over country ranging from sea
level to say 12,000 feet above, and if complications with any other Power
had arisen in China Far West, with Szechuen in her fearful ferment one may
guess at the sequel.

Generally speaking, the problem of China Far West with the tribes is akin
to that now holding the attention of the world between China and Tibet. We
all know how, if the Nepaulese had thrown in their lot with the Dalai Lama
there would have been an abrupt interruption to China's Imperialistic policy
there. With China's awakening in Tibet and the dispatch of troops to reside
there to maintain Chinese supremacy, we have seen how Great Britain
rightly sends her troops a little farther on the Indian frontier, showing that
she intends to maintain her own status quo. China has Britain to watch there.
And we seem to see in China's activity in Tibet a menace to the peace of the
neighbouring States between Tibet and India. As Britain watches China from
the Indian side, France, as we have said, watches China on the Yunnan
southern border. It should be remembered that the dream of the French in the
days of their irresistible impulse for colonial expansion in the Far West was
to annex Yunnan to Indo-China, and, however many her mistakes, her faith
has survived her disappointment. Abandoning her dream of territory, she is
now going hard and fast for the trade, and has many thousands of troops to
guard her interests on the Tonking border now that she has her own railway.
All through Yunnan a strong feeling exists among the Chinese against the
French—the French are not liked, and have been the bone of contention for
many years. Taking these facts into consideration, one is inclined to doubt
whether China is really the Power to introduce that government into Tibet
which will keep the country free from internal strife. So far, it must be
admitted, she has done well, but so many dangers will face her after the
Revolution that it seems a most difficult political task. Trouble seems
inevitable if the reforming hand is laid too heavily upon the Tibetans.

Added to this is the tribal danger. It may not be generally known that
many of the tribes of this great ethnological garden, stretching from Burma
right away to the north of the Chinese Empire and south as far as Tonking
and Kwangtung, are of Tibeto-Burman origin. The Hsi-fan group, the Nou-
su group (this is my own theory, for several other theories are known, and
the Nou-su group is placed broadly under the Lolo, itself a term of
opprobrium), and many other tribes of these great families. It is safe to say,
broadly, that all these tribes are allied racially or religiously. It is well known
that in all stages of their civilisation not one tribe has a good word to say for
the Chinese, and in the western provinces these tribes peoples predominate
probably seven in ten. One cannot pose as a political prophet. China's
Revolution has shown the world that prophecy in political possibilities in
China is charged with an extraordinary element of chance, and one may
certainly declare that it is not in the power of any one to say that these non-
Chinese peoples could not be won over to the British. My personal opinion
is that it could be easily done.

And one is able to imagine that in the revolution of politics in Eastern

Asia which this great Revolution will inevitably bring about, and it were
found necessary for China's regular army to proceed en bloc to the east of
the Empire, the tribes of the west would be able to create a situation, by civil
war and open rebellion against the Government, of so serious a nature that
years would intervene before China could completely conquer the people
and gain their moral support.

This New China Government—Republican or Monarchical, or both, as

may be—has to find out for herself her own weak points. No thoughtful man
who has been through these wild regions can doubt that the tribal danger is
one of China's greatest weaknesses, greater as one understands it more,
confronting the new Government with a problem greater than the Manchu
Government was prepared to recognise.

A PRE-REVOLUTION GROUP.
Tuan Fang, the "friend of the foreigner," is seated.
He was decapitated by his own men in Szechuen. General Chang
Piao, Commander in Chief of the Hupeh Army, is standing
 on his right, in military uniform. After being routed
by the Revolutionaries, he fled the country.

In a review of the Szechuen Revolt, the author feels that he has wandered
considerably in his chronicle. But the information contained in what has just
been written has a most vital bearing upon the maintenance of peace in
Western China.[1]

[1] In 1898 Tuan Fang was a Secretary of the Board of Works; his rapid
promotion after that date was chiefly due to the patronage of his friend
Jung Lu. For a Manchu, he is remarkably progressive and liberal in his
views.

In 1900 he was Acting-Governor of Shensi. As the Boxer movement

spread and increased in violence, and as the fears of Jung Lu led him to
take an increasingly decided line of action against them, Tuan Fang,
acting upon his advice, followed suit. In spite of the fact that at the time
of the coup d'état he had adroitly saved himself from clear identification
with the Reformers and had penned a classical composition in praise of
filial piety, which was commonly regarded as a veiled reproof to the
Emperor for not yielding implicit obedience to the Old Buddha, he had
never enjoyed any special marks of favour at the latter's hands, nor been
received into that confidential friendliness with which she frequently
honoured her favourites.

In his private life, as in his administration, Tuan Fang has always

recognised the changing conditions of his country and endeavoured to
adapt himself to the needs of the time; he was one of the first among the
Manchus to send his sons abroad for their education. His sympathies were
at first unmistakably with K'ang Yu-wei and his fellow-Reformers, but he
withdrew from them because of the anti-dynastic nature of their
movement, of which he naturally disapproved.

As Acting-Governor of Shensi, in July, 1900, he clearly realised the

serious nature of the situation and the dangers that must arise from the
success of the Boxer movement, and he therefore issued two
proclamations to the province, in which he earnestly warned the people to
abstain from acts of violence. These documents were undoubtedly the
means of saving the lives of many missionaries and other foreigners
isolated in the interior. In the first a curious passage occurs, wherein after
denouncing the Boxers, he said:—
"The creed of the Boxers is no new thing: in the reign of Chia-Ch'ing
followers of the same cult were beheaded in droves. But the present-day
Boxer has taken the field ostensibly for the defence of his country against
the foreigner, so that we need not refer to the past. While accepting their
good intentions, I would merely ask, Is it reasonable for us to credit these
men with supernatural powers of invulnerability? Are we to believe that
all the corpses which now strew the country between Peking and the sea
are those of spurious Boxers and that the survivors alone represent the
true faith?"

After prophesying for them the same fate which overtook the
Mohammedan rebels and those of the Taiping insurrection, he delivered
himself of advice to the people which, while calculated to prevent the
slaughter of foreigners, would preserve his reputation for patriotism. It is
well, now that Tuan Fang has fallen upon evil days, to remember the
good work he did in a very difficult position. His proclamation ran as
follows:—

"I have never for a moment doubted that you men of Shensi are brave and
patriotic and that, should occasion offer, you would fight nobly for your
country. I know that if you join these Boxers it would be from patriotic
motives. I would have you observe, however, that our enemies are the
foreign troops who have invaded the metropolitan province, and not the
foreign missionaries who reside in the interior. If the Throne orders you
to take up arms in the defence of your country, then I, as Governor of this
province, will surely share in that glory. But if, on your own account you
set forth to slay a handful of harmless and defenceless missionaries, you
will undoubtedly be actuated by the desire for plunder, there will be
nothing noble in your deed and your neighbours will despise you as
surely as the law will punish you.

"At this very moment our troops are pouring in upon the capital from
every province in the Empire. Heaven's avenging sword is pointed against
the invader. This being so, it is absurd to suppose that there can be any
need for such services as you people could render at such a time. Your
obvious and simple duty is to remain quietly in your homes pursuing your
usual avocations. It is the business of the official to protect the people,
and you may rely upon me to do so. As to that Edict of Their Majesties,
which last year ordered the organisation of trained bands, the idea was
merely to encourage self-defence for local purposes, on the principle laid
down by Mencius, watch and ward being kept by each district."

A little later the Governor referred to that decree of the Empress-Dowager

(her first attempt at hedging), which began by quoting the "Spring and
Autumn Classic," in reference to the sacred nature of foreign envoys, and
used it as a text for emphasising the fact that the members of the several
missionary societies in Shensi had always been on the best of terms with
the people. He referred to the further fact that many refugees from the
famine-stricken districts of Shansi and numbers of disbanded soldiers had
crossed the borders of the province, and fearing lest these lawless folk
should organise an attack upon the foreigners, he once more urged his
people to permit no violation of the sacred laws of hospitality. The
province had already commenced to feel the effects of the long drought
which had caused such suffering in Shansi, and the superstitious lower
classes were disposed to attribute this calamity to the wrath of Heaven,
brought upon them by reason of their failure to join the Boxers. Tuan
Fang proceeded to disabuse their minds of this idea.

"If the rain has not fallen upon your barren fields," he said, "if the demon
of drought threatens to harass you, be sure that it is because you have
gone astray, led by false rumours and have committed deeds of violence.
Repent now and return to your peaceful ways, and the rains will assuredly
fall. Behold the ruin which has come upon the provinces of Chihli and
Shantung; it is to save you from their fate that I now warn you. Are we
not all alike, subjects of the great Manchu Dynasty, and shall we not
acquit ourselves like men in the service of the State? If there were any
chance of this province being invaded by the enemy, you would naturally
sacrifice your lives and property to repel them as a matter of simple
patriotism. But if in a sudden excess of madness, you set forth to butcher
a few helpless foreigners you will in no wise benefit the Empire, but will
be merely raising fresh difficulties for the Throne. For the time being,
your own conscience will accuse you of ignoble deeds, and later you will
surely pay the penalty with your lives and the ruin of your families.
Surely, you men of Shensi, enlightened and high-principled, will not fall
so low as this. There are, I know, among you some evil men who,
professing patriotic enmity to foreigners and Christians wax fat on
foreign plunder. But the few missionary chapels in this province offer but
meagre booty and it is safe to predict that those who begin by sacking
them will certainly proceed next to loot the houses of your wealthier
citizens, from the burning of foreigners' homes the conflagration will
spread to your own, and many innocent persons will share the fate of the
slaughtered Christians. The plunderers will escape with their booty, and
the foolish onlookers will pay the penalty of these crimes. Is it not a well-
known fact that every anti-Christian outbreak invariably brings misery to
the stupid innocent people of the district concerned? Is not this a
lamentable thing? As for me, I care neither for praise nor blame; my only
 object for preaching peace in Shensi is to save you, my people, from dire
ruin and destruction."

Tuan fang was a member of the Mission to Foreign Countries in 1905,

and has received decorations and honours at the hands of several
European sovereigns. In private life he is distinguished by his complete
absence of formality, a genial, hospitable man, given to good living,
delighting in new mechanical inventions, and fond of his joke. It was he
who, as Viceroy of Nanking, organised the International Exhibition. As
Viceroy of Chihli, he was in charge of the arrangements for the funeral of
the Empress-Dowager, and a week after that impressive ceremony, for
alleged want of respect and decorum, it was charged against him that he
had permitted subordinate officials to take photographs of the cortège,
and that he had even dared to use certain trees in the Sacred Enclosure of
the Mausolea as telegraph poles, for which offences he was summarily
cashiered; since then he has lived in retirement. The charges were
possibly true, but it is matter of common knowledge that the real reason
of his disgrace was a matter of palace politics rather than funeral
etiquette, for he was a protégé of the Regent, and his removal was a
triumph for the Yehonala clan at a time when its prestige called for a
demonstration of some sort against the growing power and influence of
the Emperor Kwang-Hsu's brothers.

[Transcriber's note: this page was entirely taken up by part of footnote 1,

which is now on page 252 in its entirety.]

[Transcriber's note: this page was entirely taken up by part of footnote 1,

which is now on page 252 in its entirety.]

[Transcriber's note: this page was entirely taken up by part of footnote 1,

which is now on page 252 in its entirety.]

CHAPTER XVIII

SOME REVOLUTION FACTORS

 Revolution is endemic in this land of great movements. The particular
spirit that sways the feelings of the sensuous populace manifests itself now
in the sporadic riotings that seem to occur everywhere and everywhen, and
from no conceivable cause; again in the more widespread upheaval to which
we give the name of "rebellion"—an abortive revolution; but ever and anon,
gathering momentum from varying petty upheavals, the torrent of passions
aroused bursts all restraining bounds and the country is swept from end to
end by the onrushing flood. All erstwhile authority is at an end; fire and
sword are the only "powers that be"; the land drinks deeply of the life-blood
of its sons and daughters; and then, when the torrent of fury has spent its
strength, Nature reclothes herself in a new garb, new homesteads and
teeming villages spring into existence, and a new authority takes to itself
power and grows on to greatness. Decades and centuries roll by; and this
Dynasty also, like the effete Government it displaced, totters through a long
period of hoary childishness to its terrible fall.

Even the casual observer realises that the last scene of a last act is being
played out before our eyes. Full soon the curtain will fall and the Ta Ts'ing
Dynasty exist in history only. Its "cup of iniquity" seems long to have been
full.

Five hundred years ago there was a somewhat analogous situation. The
Emperor of the time, Hwei-ti by name, was but a stripling, and utterly
incapable of guiding the ship of state through the stormy seas of Court
intrigue. His uncle, Prince Yen, the Yuan Shih K'ai of his age, had for years
been drilling his soldiery, accumulating war stores, and in every way
preparing to seize the reins of power. In 1400 A.D. the time seemed ripe; and
in August of that year Yen led forty thousand picked men into Shangtung.
No less than three hundred thousand loyalists were sent to oppose him; but
the better trained and more skilfully led rebels, though numerically so
inferior, utterly routed the badly-placed horde led by General Ping-Wen.
This was but the beginning of a four-years relentless war, waged mostly in
the northern and eastern provinces—Shangtung, Chihli, Anhwei and
Kiangsu—leading to the flight of Hwei-ti to Szechuen (where he became a
Buddhist priest) and the proclamation of Prince Yen as Emperor under the
title of Ch'eng Tsu.
 This Revolution in no way affected the Dynasty, which, in spite of
internal uprisings and external depredations by Mongols and Japanese, ran
for another 250 years in unbroken succession. Nevertheless during the whole
of this period the history of China is one long chapter of domestic trouble,
corruption and decadence alike of ruler and ruled, whilst over all Court life
the deadly upas-tree of eunuchdom cast its blasting shadow. There were
always rebellions, always the argument of the naked sword in the settlement
of differences—and always the emerging from one cloud of trouble to enter
but another, and that of a deeper darkness. Then came the end.

A rebellion that shook the Empire to its centre and brought about the end
of the Ming Dynasty broke out in Shensi, and quickly spread through the
neighbouring provinces, until not only Shensi, but Shansi, Honan, and
Hupeh were involved. Like the Revolution that threatens to be the end of the
present Dynasty, and has already foreshadowed the great and momentous
changes to be, this rebellion was conceived and carried out by a "General
Li"—Li Tsi-cheng by name. For some few years the Government was able to
keep the upper hand—indeed, in 1634 it seemed as if the generalissimo of
the rebel forces was hopelessly involved in a mountainous cul-de-sac, and
that his extermination was but a question of time. Not knowing the strength
of the rebel army, the commander of the Imperial forces granted terms of
capitulation. Li brought away his forces to the number of thirty-six thousand
with only the loss of their arms, much to the chagrin of the Imperial leader.

There was the great mistake of the Imperialists. Almost immediately the
Manchus, having been joined by the Mongol forces, harassed the northern
borders of the Empire. The Ming Dynasty had lost the confidence of the
nation; officialdom was at its weakest through long years of corruption and
misrule; General Li seized his opportunity, other leaders joined themselves
and their forces to the rebel army, and China for ten years became one great
battlefield.[1] To give but a solitary instance of the carnage that ensued: Li
had unsuccessfully invested Kaifeng-fu earlier in the year, but having
captured Nanyang, he led his victorious troops before the former city at the
close of 1641, only to be repulsed, losing an eye, pierced by an arrow, in the
attempt. In the following year Li again laid siege to the seemingly
impregnable place; and, finally, enraged by the nine-months resistance of
plucky Kaifeng, turned the waters of the Yellow River into the doomed city.
The loss of life was fearful—some million souls, it is said, perishing in the
muddy torrent that swept across the plain, twenty feet high. Li himself was
compelled to beat a hasty retreat, losing ten thousand men in his flight.
Compared with such awful carnage and loss of life, the casualties in the war
of the present Revolution seem but trifling.

In the early part of 1644 Li was so far successful that he proclaimed

himself Emperor, called his Dynasty "Tai Shun," appointed various Boards
to control the affairs of the country, granted patents of nobility and other
rewards to all who had faithfully served him, and generally believed that the
Empire, with the throne of it, was his. The rebel chieftain marched through
rivers of blood to Peking, captured the city, and found that the Emperor
(Chwang Lieh-ti) had hanged himself in his own girdle. The revolution
seemed complete, and the prize of life within his grasp.

One enemy remained unconquered, but this enemy was one Wu San-
kwei, the commandant of the fortress of Ning Yuen. His force was not a
large one, and his supplies limited. To crush him utterly seemed but the work
of a few days to the one who had swept on to Peking in one victorious
career. Li Tsi-cheng himself led the army—strong in itself, doubly strong in
its sense of reliance born of victory. Love is strong; love ruthlessly deprived
of its object breeds a hatred that is stronger tenfold in its thirst for
vengeance. Wu San-kwei's beautiful mistress, whom he passionately adored,
had been ravished by one of the rebels. Weak himself, he called in a mighty
power to aid him in wreaking his revenge. About 270 miles away was the
Manchu host, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to strike the blow they had so
long been preparing. Wu must have foreseen the consequences. It was a
deliberate betrayal of his country to her bitterest foes. Hate had its way, and
called in its only effective instrument.

In the battle that followed the Chinese army was completely surprised
and routed, Li being one of the first to flee. His power was broken, his army
gone, and the last of the Chinese Emperors had reigned his reign. The
Manchu had come.

Li's conquest of the Empire was completed with the taking of Peking; in
Peking the subjugation of China by the Manchus was begun. For thirty-
seven years the work of conquest and pacification was carried on. Then the
Empire had rest for a season.
 We quote the following from an interesting article that appeared in the
Central China Post of December 2, 1911: "From this date there was no
serious internal disturbances in China for a hundred and seventy years.
During the greater portion of the time the administration was at once strong,
able, and enlightened, for two of the first four Manchu Emperors were great
and commanding personalities, while the length of time they severally
occupied the throne did much to consolidate the position of the Dynasty. The
second Manchu sovereign, the great Kanghi, proclaimed Emperor at the age
of eight, in 1661, occupied the throne for the long term of sixty-one years,
and his long rule was extremely brilliant and vigorous. Kanghi's immediate
successor, Yung Ching, was far from being a weak man; but as his brief
reign of thirteen years was characterised by no novel departure and no
startling events, he is much less prominent than either his father or the son
that succeeded him. The fourth Manchu sovereign would have had even a
longer reign than his grandfather had if he had not adopted the unusual
course of abdicating the throne, after occupying it sixty years. In this
connection, it may be remarked that cases of abdication are about as rare in
Chinese as in European history, while in Japan during the last millennium it
has been quite exceptional for a sovereign to die in actual occupation of the
throne. The second Manchu Emperor, Kanghi (1661-1722), was one of the
greatest and most successful rulers that ever exercised sway in China. But
his grandson, the fourth Manchu Emperor, Keen-lung (1735-96), was even
greater and even more successful still. Keen-lung was twenty-five years of
age when he ascended the throne in 1735; thus when he abdicated in 1796 he
was a patriarch of fourscore years and six. Yet even till that date he had
retained the active habits which had characterised his youth. Much of his
official work was carried on at an early hour of the morning; and Europeans
who had audience with him shortly before his abdication were greatly
surprised to find the patriarch so keen and eager for business at these early
conferences. Keen-lung did not omit to train, or at least to try to train, a
successor. He abdicated in 1796, as has just been written; but for three years
after that date he kept a keen watch upon his son and successor, Kia-king,
exerting all his efforts to inculcate in him the right principles of sound
government. But the results were nothing much to boast of after all. Half a
century after the death of Keen-lung, the account of the state of China, given
by writers notoriously friendly to the Manchus, is lurid indeed. The
corruption of the public service, we are told, had gradually alienated the
sympathies of the people. Conscience and probity had for a time been
banished from it. The example of a few men of honoured capacity served but
to bring into more prominent relief the faults of the administrative class as a
whole. Justice was nowhere to be found; the verdict was sold to the highest
bidder. It became far from uncommon for rich criminals sentenced to death
to get substitutes procured for them. Offices were sold to men who had never
passed an examination, and who were wholly illiterate, the sole value of the
office lying in its being a tool for extortion. Extortion and malversation ran
to extraordinary lengths. In Kia-king's early years, when the minister
Hokwan was condemned and executed for peculation, it was found that the
fortune he had amassed amounted to eighty million taels—more than
twenty-six million pounds sterling. The officials waxed rich on ill-gotten
wealth, and a few accumulated enormous fortunes. But the administration
went on sinking lower and lower in the estimation of the people, while, of
course, its efficiency was getting steadily crippled. Now, the peculiar Civil
Service of China is at once the strength and weakness of the Empire. It needs
to be made to toe the line very strictly by a stern and upright and ever alert
Imperial master. Keen-lung himself knew its weak spots, and more than once
thought of finding drastic remedies for them. But when questioned on the
matter, one of the ablest and most honest of his ministers maintained that
there was no remedy. 'It is impossible; the Emperor himself cannot do it—
the evil is too widespread. He will, no doubt, send to the scene of
disturbance and complaint mandarins clothed with all his authority; but they
will only commit greater exactions, and the inferior magistrates, in order to
be left undisturbed, will offer them presents. The Emperor will then be told
that all is well, while everything is really wrong, and the poor people are
being oppressed.'

"Therefore, Keen-lung had to depend almost entirely upon others as his

'ears and eyes.' It is all very well to speak of him doing and seeing
everything for himself, but in an Empire such as his the thing was really
entirely out of the question. However, his untiring and unceasing energy did
much to make his subordinates honest and attentive to their duties, in spite of
themselves. But his successor, Kia-king (1796-1821), was neither a strong
man nor a great worker, and under him the debacle began. Under the weak
but well-meaning Taou-kwang (1821-50) it gathered headway apace, with
the result that within half a century of the great Keen-lung's demise the
Manchu Dynasty had to face a national revolt that put its existence into
direst jeopardy."
 Steep was the descent and quick was the pace. As had been the Ming
Dynasty five centuries ago, so had become their so promising succeeding
race. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." There had been
that irritating intercourse with the outside world, and the war—disastrous to
China—consequent upon the proud Empire's attempt to treat all foreign
peoples as vassals of the Son of Heaven. But it was hoped that with the
signing of the Treaty of Nanking wiser councils would prevail, and that the
Chinese had learned to respect the foreigners, or at least the thunder of their
guns. But "such was the gross ignorance of the educated and leading men of
China in regard to foreign nations, it was believed that they were utterly
beneath the contempt of China." The war had taught them no lesson. China's
officials were as arrogant as ever. The civil administration was equally
incapable of dealing with and directing the affairs of State.

In fact, there was a parallel between the Empire at the time under review
and the conditions that obtained when the storm of Revolution burst on
Wuchang last tenth of October, as will have been seen in former parts of this
volume.

Everywhere there had existed secret societies, or numbers of men banded

together by oath to destroy the "Manchu usurpers," and ever and again some
malcontent or another would set up the banner of insurrection, and to him
would flock all the discontents and bandits of the neighbourhood. This is the
opportunity of the secret society men. The cry of "China for the Chinese" is
raised, patriotic feelings are appealed to, and save for the fact that the secret
is always betrayed at headquarters long before the would-be revolutionaries
are ready, any year of the past century might have seen a repetition of the
scenes which are briefly referred to here. Ten years after the Treaty of
Nanking news came that one Hung Siu-Chuen, amongst the mountain
fastnesses of the south, with a small band of men known as the Society of
Worshippers of God, had placed himself at the head of the discontented
people—driven to rebellion by official persecution—and was defeating the
Imperial troops everywhere. He claimed the Throne, called himself the Tien-
wang ("celestial or heavenly king"), and styled his new Dynasty the Taiping
("Great Peace"). To usher in the Golden Age was the work to which he
dedicated himself. Threefold was his desire for freedom. The people groaned
under the tyranny of an alien power, and so desired civil liberty; they were
cursed by the superstition and idolatry to which they had given themselves,
and so desired religious liberty; they saw the craving of opium blighting the
lives of their best, and so were fighting for moral liberty for the nation. All
Manchus were ruthlessly put to the sword, all temples and idols were utterly
destroyed, and all traffic in or smoking of opium was sternly prohibited. In
the early stages of the movement the moral forces of Christianity, the
religious opinions that seemed to hold sway in the minds of the Taipings,
and the high aims of the leaders of the movement made missionaries and
Christians at home think that China was to arise from the ashes of her
destroyed paganism, clothed in the fair garments of Christianity. Reports to
the Dragon Throne informed the Emperor that the rebels were in full flight.
As a matter of fact, they were carrying everything before them. They swept
triumphantly through the provinces of Kwangsi and Hunan, then on to the
busy mart of Hankow in Hupeh; there, freighting a thousand junks with their
spoils, they swept on down the Yangtze to the ancient capital of the Ming
Dynasty—Nanking. This city fell after a brief siege, and with its fall the
initial work in preparing the way for a new kingdom was come. If—and in
the "if" is perhaps the reason of the collapse of the movement—if the new-
made king had known how to construct after he had done the work of
destruction, there would have been a lasting revolution instead of an almost
forgotten rebellion. One authority, who was in China at the time, says that
the very success of the movement seems to have not only affected for the
worse the principles of its leaders and the morals of the Taipings, but also to
have attracted a great many of the baser sort to it. Dr. Martin, in his "A Cycle
of Cathay," says: "He, the Tien-wang, sanctioned robbery and violence, and
himself set the example of polygamy, an example eagerly followed by his
subordinates, who had no scruple in filling their harems with the wives and
daughters of their enemies." The opinion of the outside Powers concerning
the insurgents was not improved by the atrocities of a horde of secret-society
men, who belonged to the Triad Society, and were sometimes called
Redheads. These were regarded as being part of the Taiping Army, though
having really no connection with it or with the aims of its leaders. Their
awful cruelty and bloodshed in capturing Shanghai not only induced the
French to expel them, but alienated the sympathies of the foreign Powers
from the Taipings themselves. One other fact should be mentioned. The
foreign merchants were also prejudiced against the rebels. This is easily
understandable. Trade was at a standstill throughout one-third of the Empire,
and that the part most easily accessible; and at the same time the stringent
laws against the use of opium caused the sympathies of some to be against
the movement. First, an American, General Ward, organised a force of
foreigners and natives and showed the Chinese Government what a trained
soldiery could do. Then, General Gordon was lent to the Imperialists by the
British Government. One by one the cities were retaken, until at last, with
the fall of Nanking, after a protracted siege and the suicide of the Tien-wang,
the rebellion came to an end.

At this juncture of the present Revolution, when so many are clamouring

for foreign intervention, and when individual foreigners are taking it upon
themselves to address the leaders of the parties in the interests of an early
peace, it is well to pause and give due weight to the arguments of the other
side. From the very beginning of this struggle the foreign Powers have been
firmly but respectfully asked to keep their hands off. This is a domestic
matter. The Chinese wish to be allowed to fight the thing out. A premature
patching up of so great an upheaval would be far more disastrous than a
peace deferred. The movement is a people's movement. The nation knows its
own mind on the matter, and is intent on seeing its will carried into effect.
That will may be guided into right and safe channels; but to thwart it by
interference from without would be like attempting to dam up the Yangtze—
an operation fraught with dire disaster to all concerned.

The suppression of a revolution ab extra always reverses the wheels of

progress, and in this instance who can tell by how many centuries it has
postponed the adoption of Christianity by the Chinese? ... Looking back at
this distance of time, with all the light of subsequent history upon the events,
we are still inclined to ask whether a different policy might not have been
better for China. Had foreign Powers promptly recognised the Taiping chief
on the outbreak of the second war, might it not have shortened a chapter of
horrors that dragged on for fifteen more years, ending in the Nien-fei and
Mohammedan rebellions and causing the loss of fifty millions of human
lives.... More than once, when the insurgents were on the verge of success,
the prejudice of short-sighted diplomats decided against them, and an
opportunity was lost such as does not occur once in a thousand years."[2]
Other witnesses of these times and events speak in a similar strain. On the
other hand, it has to be remembered that there was no little failure on the part
of the Taiping Wang to realise the need for reconstruction of a new kingdom,
and seeming lack of ability to use the fruits of his victories. The suppression
of the Taipings took fourteen years (1850-64). The outside world has
forgotten, if it ever knew, the extent and horrors of that terrible time. Not so
the Chinese people. Small wonder is it that when Li Yuan Hung's army
began their terrible slaughter of the Manchus in Wuchang, young and old,
rich and poor, taking only such clothes as they wore or such goods as they
could carry, quietly and in a sort of unorganised order started, eight hundred
thousand of them, on their flight from doomed Hankow. For there were
many who still remembered the coming of the dreaded Taipings, and still
shuddered at the thought of that "tomb of the seventy thousand" outside
Wuchang city, and still remembered the similar flight of fifty years ago.
They knew, too, of the Taiping rebellion, that nine provinces had been
desolated by it. Towns and cities had been left mere heaps of ruins (like unto
Hankow at this present time), and in them wild beasts had their dens, while
some twenty millions of people had been sacrificed in that terrible struggle
of a nation at war with itself.

Almost concurrently with the Taiping movement came the great

Mohammedan rebellion, under the leadership of Yakub Beg. About this time
there was more than one attempt on the part of Islam to avenge the insults of
the arrogant Chinese, a by no means insignificant rising, occurring in
Yunnan, where the Panthays, taking advantage of the Taiping troubles,
captured the western half of Yunnan, and made Talifu their capital, under
Sultan Sulieman. But by far the greatest rising, both in duration and effect,
was that of the north-west, which originated in eastern Turkestan, swept over
the Tien-Shan Mountains, into Ili, on through Kansu, and into the province
of Shensi.

If ever a time seemed favourable to the Revolutionary cause, surely this

was the time. The Taiping rebellion was not yet quelled, China was
embroiled with England, and the rebel chief was able without serious
opposition to hold on his triumphant way. Yakub Beg was so brilliantly
successful in his "holy war" that he was styled the "Champion Father" by the
Mohammedan world. At last had arisen the man who would, under Allah's
blessing, purge away the stain of insult from the "Faithfuls'" escutcheon. It
did really seem as if a permanent kingdom had been founded in this north-
western section of the Flowery Land, and that a new leader was to be the
first of a long line of Mohammedan kings. Then one of those unanticipated
changes occurred—that is, unanticipated by the casual observer of things
Chinese. In little more than a decade from the first raising of the standard of
rebellion, Yakub Beg died, a broken and a beaten man, away in far distant
Korla. For the army which had been trained in the hard school of experience
of fighting the Taipings was, under the excellent leadership of General Tso,
practically invincible when the undisciplined fanatic hordes hurled
themselves against it. City after city was retaken, until in 1878 the rebellion
was at an end, and the times that had been were only a horrible nightmare in
the memories of those who had endured, suffered, and fortunately escaped
with lives.

The last of these great political movements, which must be briefly

referred to here was generally known as the Boxer uprising. This, like the
Taiping rebellion, had as its origin that spirit of enmity that has ever been
manifested between the north and the south. Never was this struggle so
manifestly obvious as during this great movement that is still taking place in
China. The very names of "Northern Army" and "Southern Army," used by
the Hankow populace in everyday parlance when speaking of the opposing
forces under Yuan Shih K'ai and Li Yuan Hung respectively, vouches for
evidence of the truth of the statement. In that valuable contribution towards
the history of the inwardness of the Boxer movement, "China Under the
Empress-Dowager,"[3] this eternal quarrel between the north and the south
is well worked out. We need do no other than refer the reader to it in passing.
In fact, the cause of the Reform movement of 1898 was that the versatile
scholars of the south had captivated the mind of the young Emperor, and had
led him to issue his celebrated Reform Edict. On the other hand, jealous of
their southern opponents, the wily men of the north used their influence with
Jung-Lu and the Empress-Dowager to bring about the coup d'état that
practically dethroned the Emperor and was the first of a series of
retrogressive steps culminating in the enlisting of the Patriotic Harmony
Train-bands (Boxers), to Rid China of the Accursed Presence of the
Foreigners.

Since the time of the Taipings a new element of contention had crept into
State politics—the foreigner. Whether as missionary or merchant, as
financier or diplomat, the "foreigner" was now a force to be reckoned with,
and after this brief review we shall note how all these factors paved the way
for perhaps the greatest movement of all, the Revolution of 1911-12. Away
in the Kwan district of Shantung there existed a secret society rejoicing in
the euphemistic title of Plum Blossom Fists. The late Tuan Fang, when
issuing his famous proclamation that all missionaries should be protected in
his province, compared these Boxers to the White Lily Society[4] which had
done so much to bring about the downfall of the Yuan Dynasty in the
fourteenth century.

But in these Plum Blossom Fists there was something more than the usual
spirit animating the secret-society men. There was the newly awakened
"patriotism"—a word and an idea just taking hold of the student throughout
the country. The utter defeat of China in her short, sharp conflict with the
Japanese, that hitherto despised "nation of dwarfs," caused a thrill of
indignation throughout the Empire. "What are you going to do now?" I
asked a young student, just through his college course. The answer came pat.
"I am going to Japan to study military tactics, and so help save my country,"
a reply pregnant with meaning. But the Plum Blossom Fists had much to
learn before they could come under the spell of that young student's idea.
They were the ones to save China. Themselves invulnerable, their mission
from Heaven itself, their cause righteous, there could be only victory for
them and salvation for their country!

The spirit that animated these fanatical devotees with their blind belief in
incantations and charms[5] was also at work in the more enlightened
Kwang-hsu. China was being dismembered. Germany had practically
occupied Shantung. Russia possessed Liaotung. Japan held Formosa by right
of treaty. And the Powers were coolly discussing "spheres of influence."
They understood the temper of the Chinese as little as the Chinese had
understood that of the foreigners. The young Emperor and his advisers
realised something of the power of knowledge. And as a result of that
Reform Edict the eyes of Young China were turned from the contemplation
of a dead past to the quickening study of all that was best and living in the
colleges of the world. The coup d'état of September 22, 1898, for a time put
back the hands of the clock of progress, and the Empress-Dowager entered
upon her reactionary career. The Boxers, every one of them, had for their
objective the expulsion of the Tartar Dynasty, and the putting of a Chinese
emperor on the throne. Adroitly the clever Empress laid hold of their
"patriotic" desires and turned the machinations of the secret societies against
the Government into a conspiracy for the utter extermination of the foreigner
in China. Wiser counsels had for a time prevailed, and at the commencement
of Boxerism the Imperial troops in Shantung had kept the "patriots" in order,
overcoming by force of arms a party led by an abbot. Although several of
these fanatics were shot, and others executed by the military commander,
thus proving their "vulnerability," the Government was not disposed to do
other than to accept such seemingly powerful allies. "They may be useless as
a fighting force, but their claims to magic will dishearten the enemy, whilst
their enthusiasm will inspire the soldiers of the regular army." Such was the
subtle reasoning of the astute Empress. The die was cast, and she threw in
her lot with those who had but a few short months previously been thirsting
for her own blood.

Such heroes as Jung-Lu, Yuan-Ch'ang, and Hsu-Ching-Cheng tried in

vain to turn the infatuated ruler from her fatal policy. The two latter saved
the lives of many a foreigner—that of the writer amongst them—by
substituting the ideograph meaning "Protect" for the one meaning "Slay" in
the Imperial Edict telegraphed all over the Empire, but suffered the extreme
penalty themselves when the Empress found out what they had done. "Their
limbs should be torn asunder," she screamed, "by chariots driven in opposite
directions. Let them be summarily decapitated."

So the Boxers were let loose upon Chinese Christians and foreign
missionaries alike. Killing, looting, burning went on apace; but perhaps the
most tragic scene of the horrible time was that enacted at Taiyuenfu, in the
yamen of Yu Hsien, the Nero of Shansi, who himself helped to do to death
fifty-five missionaries—men, women, and children—on July 9, 1900.

In North China and Manchuria, to say nothing of isolated instances south

of the Yangtze, over two hundred missionaries, Protestant and Roman
Catholic, were massacred, while several thousands of Chinese Christians
followed their foreign pastors to the death.

The events that led to the collapse of the movement need but a passing
mention. They are matters of history but recently in the minds of all. The
Taku forts capitulated to the little foreign gunboats, the army of the allies
captured Tientsin, and a composite force, fifteen thousand strong, marched
on Peking. In less than a fortnight the work was successfully accomplished;
and on the 14th of August the foreigners, with their Legations, which had
been besieged by a savage horde of Boxers and Imperial troops since the
20th of June, were relieved. Peking was taken by assault, and China's
Imperial Court fled by the "Victory" Gate in three common mulecarts for
Sianfu, in far-away Shansi. The movement ended in a failure as lamentable
as its inception had been a mistake. It was conceived in no spirit of mere
thirst for blood. People and Court believed that the foreign Powers were
"swallowing up" China, and in a moment of mad frenzy believed that the
only way of escape for themselves and salvation for their country lay along
the line of utter extermination of the foreigner and all that belonged to him.

This rapid survey—touching upon the salient features of each of these

great heart-throbs of the nation—shows us the main contributory factors of
the People's Revolution of 1911-12.
 THE CHILD-EMPEROR OF CHINA.
Last of the Manchu Dynasty, that was overthrown by the Revolution.
 The events leading up to the Taiping Rebellion have shown that the
nation was ripe for a change. The fruit, rotten at the core, was dropping from
the tree; as was the Ming Dynasty at its fall, so had become the Tsing
Dynasty that supplanted it. The successful revolution under General Li Ts'i-
chang was brought to naught by the coming in of an exterior power that
snatched the fruits of victory for itself, and, by putting down the Revolution,
put down the Dynasty also, and seized the whole country. The rebellion
under Tien Wang was put down in the same way, but this time the "foreign
Power" invoked was not imbued with a lust for conquest. Yet it brought the
Chinese politics a new force to be reckoned with—the foreigner, with his
law of extra-territoriality. The awakening of China began with the utter
defeat of the Imperial forces by the troops of Japan, and a craving to know
the reason of it all obsessed the nation's mind. "Let us go to school with the
foreigner; let us study his books" became the nation's watchword. Then there
began to dawn in China the thought that far too much national wealth and
power and prestige had been handed over to foreign control. There was
alarm, suspicion, bitter animosity—and the Boxer movement. With the
putting down of this movement and the generous treatment—in spite of all
criticism to the contrary—meted out to China by the foreign Powers, came
the consciousness of her real needs. From this time China put her youth to
school with the "foreigner." Students went abroad by thousands, Japan
taking by far the greater number. Already there was the conviction that the
Government was corrupt, inefficient, and incurable. The spirit of patriotism
had not only been awakened in the heart of the nation, but possessed the soul
of each of her students, and even the country yokels were full of the idea of
it. From contact with the outside world and from a comparative study of
empires, one with another and each with China, came the third necessary
factor of China—the awakened and trained mind.

It is common opinion that the schools and colleges run by foreigners in

China have contributed in no small measure to this Revolutionary
movement. It is pointed out that missionary propaganda have also played
their part in creating in the Chinese mind a desire to do away with make-
believe and insincerity. The charge is a true one. All these new forces
coming into the life of the young student must have created an intense
dissatisfaction with things as they were. The late Empress-Dowager seems to
have been by no means unmindful of this tendency of missionary and
educational effort. To this may be attributed, partly at least, her attempt to
exterminate missionaries and all they stood for.

It must be the aim and intention of the great body of educationists

throughout the Empire to come to the help of Young China in the time of its
greatest need. So much depends on the constructive ability of the student
body during the next few years that well-wishers of China will welcome
every honest attempt to help the student life to attain its ideals; and not only
so—to follow out in their after-life the policy dictated to them by the
manifold call of duty of their enlightened conscience. For this reason, too,
China will assuredly welcome the efforts of the Occident to lead her into the
ways of higher education, such as may be obtained in the new Hongkong
University and the University that is to be in the Wu-han centre.

"The students of to-day are the masters of to-morrow." Nowhere is this

more true than in China, and statesmen-missionaries have always advocated
education as the surest means of reaching the heart of the nation; for the
other classes look to the student class for guidance, and if one can win the
heart of the student, the ear of the people is gained also. The influence of the
student in China has always been great, but it is likely to be still greater in
the future. Which brings us another problem. The students rule the people—
who rules the students? For except in the case of the few who study abroad,
a standard beyond that of an English Sixth Form is seldom attained, while
opportunities for carrying on education at that critical time when for the first
time the student has begun to love his studies are very few. China needs her
great force of students, but she needs men of initiative, men who can lead,
men whose higher education has given them a broader outlook.

It is to supply this need that the United Universities Scheme has been
organised. Space prevents anything but the merest outline of the scheme. It
is proposed, however, to plant in the Wuhan centre, that heart of China, a
University, that will combine the highest education, both Western and
Chinese, with those forces and influences that make for the upbuilding of
strong Christian character. The Universities of Britain and America will
supply the University staff, while various missionary societies will plant
hostels on the University grounds, and in these hostels the students must
reside. As a result, while they are getting an education equal to that of a
Western University, they will, at the same time, be brought in contact with
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