THE PROBLEM OF CHINA
BY
BERTRAND RUSSELL
O.M., F.K.S.
London
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
RUSKIN HOUSE MUSEUM STREET
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1922
SECOND IMPRESSION 1966
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY
UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON
CONTENTS
- QUESTIONS
- CHINA BEFORE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- CHINA AND THE WESTERN POWERS
- MODERN CHINA
- JAPAN BEFORE THE RESTORATION
- MODERN JAPAN
- JAPAN AND CHINA BEFORE 1914
- JAPAN AND CHINA DURING THE WAR
- THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE
- PRESENT FORCES AND TENDENCIES IN THE FAR EAST
- CHINESE AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION CONTRASTED
- THE CHINESE CHARACTER
- HIGHER EDUCATION IN CHINA
- INDUSTRIALISM IN CHINA
- THE OUTLOOK FOR CHINA
The Ruler of the Southern Ocean was Shû (Heedless), the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was Hû (Sudden), and the Ruler of the Centre was Chaos. Shû and Hû were continually meeting in the land of Chaos, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, "Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this poor Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him." Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.—[Chuang Tze, Legge's translation.]
The Problem of China
CHAPTER I
QUESTIONS
A European lately arrived in China, if he is of a receptive andreflective disposition, finds himself confronted with a number of verypuzzling questions, for many of which the problems of Western Europewill not have prepared him. Russian problems, it is true, have importantaffinities with those of China, but they have also importantdifferences; moreover they are decidedly less complex. Chinese problems,even if they affected no one outside China, would be of vast importance,since the Chinese are estimated to constitute about a quarter of thehuman race. In fact, however, all the world will be vitally affected bythe development of Chinese affairs, which may well prove a decisivefactor, for good or evil, during the next two centuries. This makes itimportant, to Europe and America almost as much as to Asia, that thereshould be an intelligent understanding of the questions raised by China,even if, as yet, definite answers are difficult to give.
The questions raised by the present condition of China fall naturallyinto three groups, eco