20 THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA THE BEGINNINGS OF REFORM 21 later,in 1901,was made Chinese minister to England.3 In 1893,when some of them translations from Western works but the majority written His Imperial Majesty,Kuang Hsu,decided to study English,the teachers by the missionaries themselves.3 To Chinese desirous of gaining a knowl- chosen for him were Tungwen graduates.35 edge of Western thought and institutions these works were indispensable, The influence of the missionary schools and Tungwen College was since most of them knew no Western language and had therefore to rely perhaps exceeded by that of the missionary publications.Their most im- either on translations into the Japanese or those made by the missionaries. portant periodical was the Wang Kwoh Kung Pao,or Review of the The only other important symptom of Westernization was the sending Times,a monthly magazine founded in 1889.They also did good work in to America of the first Chinese educational mission under the direction the translation into Chinese of Western works.The chief center of this of Dr.Yung Wing.40 After receiving his elementary education in mission activity was the Christian Literature Society,or,to give it its other schools in Macao and Canton,he was taken to the United States and there name,the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge attended preparatory school and later Yale,from which in 1854 he re- (S.D.K.).In 1891 the headship of this society passed to Dr.Timothy ceived the first A.B.granted to a Chinese by an American college.After Richard,s an important figure in the history of reform.Richard,who his return to China he formulated a scheme for sending more young had been in China since 1869,had seized every opportunity to discuss Chinese to America for education.He at last succeeded in persuading a with high officials the causes of China's weakness and the most feasible group of prominent officials,including the great Tseng Kuo-fan,conqueror remedies.Among those whom he thus approached were Li Hung-chang, of the Taipings,to memorialize on behalf of the project. Chang Chih-tung,Chang Yin-huan,and Weng Tung-ho.In 1890 this They wisely incorporated in their proposal,as a sop to the conserva- energetic missionary and reformer had accepted the offer made to him tives,the nomination of Chin Lan-pin,a Hanlin Academician and thus by Li Hung-chang and others to become the editor of a daily paper in representative of Confucian learning,to share with Yung Wing the Chinese,the Shik Pao,and had used this periodical for the propagation control of the proposed mission.The maneuver was successful;in the of his ideas.On being chosen editor of the S.D.K.,however,Richard winter of 1870 the imperial approval was granted.The atmosphere in gave up his post with the Shik Pao and left Peking for Shanghai.Under Peking was comparatively auspicious.Under the leadership of Prince his direction the S.D.K.carried on its work vigorously.Prizes were Kung,Wen Siang,and Tseng Kuo-fan the metropolitan government had offered for the best essays by Chinese M.A.candidates on such subjects been dabbling with educational reform by giving patronage to Tungwen as the benefits of the Imperial Maritime Customs and the bettering of College and discussing alterations in the examinations for office.Yung China's relations with the West.The holding of provincial and prefectural Wing and Chin Lan-pin were chosen to be joint commissioners to head civil service examinations served as an excellent opportunity to distribute the mission.In all,120 students between the ages of twelve and fifteen tracts and pamphlets.37 A fair cross-section of this missionary literature were to go.In the summer of 1871 a preparatory school was opened in may be obtained from the titles of the works given to all students who Shanghai to give preliminary training to the first group of thirty,who attended the Changsha examinations in 1902.Each potential mandarin went to the United States in 1872.Yung Wing,remembering his own was given a packet including a copy of the Gospel,a copy of The Gate of pleasant schooldays in New England,chose Hartford,Connecticut,as the Wisdom and Virtue,an eighty-page book prepared by Dr.Griffith John, center of the mission.All went satisfactorily for several years,the annual an article on religious toleration drawn from Chang Chih-tung's Learn, installments of youths arriving as had been arranged.But unfortunately a tract against fout-binding,an article on the nature of God,and a sermon for the enterprise its firm supporter,Tseng Kuo-fan,had died in 1871, on creation and redemption.3 In addition to such works,the S.D.K.and and the dominant position in Peking had passed to Li Hung-chang,who, also the Educational Association,which started life as the School and while not a conservative,was more concerned with military reorganization Text-Book Series Committee,published books on science and history, than with the sending to America of Chinese students.The new educa- tional commissioner who was chosen to succeed Chin as Yung Wing's s Morse,International Relations,II,187. s For lists of books published by the missionary presses,see Fryer,Educational 3s Martin,A Cycle of Cathay,p.316. Directory for China,1895,and Report of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian 30 Richard,Forty-five Years in China,pp.217-218. and General Knowledge,1900. a71bid,pp.215-217,221-224. 40 Yung Wing,My Life in China and America.The account of his educational NCH,October 1,1902. mission given here is drawn from this work. [201 [21]