1 Primary Source 13.0 LIN ZEXU, LETTER TO QUEEN VICTORIA (1839)1 This letter was written by Lin Zexu, an important official in the Qing Dynasty, to Queen Victoria of Britain. He wrote in response to the growing opium trade in China. For nearly 300 years, the Chinese had desired nothing from the Europeans but silver. In the late 1700s, however, British merchants discovered an insatiable desire in China for opium. Traders began delivering every greater quantities of the substance to Chinese territorial waters, where their local counterparts added it to growing domestic production. (At this time, opium was not illegal in Britain.) By the early 1800s, the drug was being used very widely in China and was causing terrible social and health problems. The letter announced that China would no longer tolerate the selling of opium and would take actions against traders. Commissioner Lin’s words, which treat Britain as a tributary state dependent on the benevolence of China, reflect the arrogance China had towards the outside world. However, the letter also reveals the tensions building in China and the unsettling implications of Europe’s imperialistic designs. These fears were confirmed in the First Opium War a year later, when the British inflicted crushing defeats on the Chinese military and shattered the Chinese vision of omnipotence. The British used the victory not only promote to the growth of the opium trade, but also to open China to increasing Western influence. For the complete text online, click here. Art. I. Letter to the queen of England, from the high Imperial Commissioner Lin, and his colleagues. From the Canton press. Lin, high imperial commissioner, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two Keäng provinces, &c., Tang, a president of the Board of War, viceroy of the two Kwang provinces, &c., and E, a vice-president of the Board of War, lieut.-governor of Kwangtung, &c., hereby conjointly address this public dispatch to the queen of England for the purpose of giving her clear and distinct information (on the state of affairs) &c. It is only our high and mighty emperor, who alike supports and cherishes those of the Inner Land, and those from beyond the seas—who looks upon all mankind with equal benevolence—who, if a source of profit exists anywhere, diffuses it over the whole world— who, if the tree of evil takes root anywhere, plucks it up for the benefit of all nations—who, in a word, hath implanted in his breast that heart (by which beneficent nature herself) governs the heavens and the earth! You, the queen of your honorable nation, sit upon a throne occupied through successive generations by predecessors, all of whom have been styled respectful and obedient. Looking over the public documents accompanying the tribute sent (by your predecessors) on various occasions, we find the following: "All the people of my country, arriving at the Central Land for purposes of trade, .

1. 1
Primary Source 13.0
LIN ZEXU, LETTER TO QUEEN VICTORIA (1839)1
This letter was written by Lin Zexu, an important official in the
Qing Dynasty, to Queen
Victoria of Britain. He wrote in response to the growing opium
trade in China. For nearly 300
years, the Chinese had desired nothing from the Europeans but
silver. In the late 1700s,
however, British merchants discovered an insatiable desire in
China for opium. Traders began
delivering every greater quantities of the substance to Chinese
territorial waters, where their
local counterparts added it to growing domestic production. (At
this time, opium was not
illegal in Britain.) By the early 1800s, the drug was being used
very widely in China and was
causing terrible social and health problems. The letter
announced that China would no longer
tolerate the selling of opium and would take actions against
traders. Commissioner Lin’s
words, which treat Britain as a tributary state dependent on the
benevolence of China, reflect
the arrogance China had towards the outside world. However,
the letter also reveals the
tensions building in China and the unsettling implications of

2. Europe’s imperialistic designs.
These fears were confirmed in the First Opium War a year later,
when the British inflicted
crushing defeats on the Chinese military and shattered the
Chinese vision of omnipotence. The
British used the victory not only promote to the growth of the
opium trade, but also to open
China to increasing Western influence.
For the complete text online, click here.
Art. I. Letter to the queen of England, from the high Imperial
Commissioner Lin, and his
colleagues. From the Canton press.
Lin, high imperial commissioner, a president of the Board of
War, viceroy of the two
Keäng provinces, &c., Tang, a president of the Board of War,
viceroy of the two Kwang
provinces, &c., and E, a vice-president of the Board of War,
lieut.-governor of Kwangtung,
&c., hereby conjointly address this public dispatch to the queen
of England for the purpose
of giving her clear and distinct information (on the state of
affairs) &c.
It is only our high and mighty emperor, who alike supports and
cherishes those of
the Inner Land, and those from beyond the seas—who looks
upon all mankind with equal
benevolence—who, if a source of profit exists anywhere,
diffuses it over the whole world—
who, if the tree of evil takes root anywhere, plucks it up for the
benefit of all nations—who,

3. in a word, hath implanted in his breast that heart (by which
beneficent nature herself)
governs the heavens and the earth! You, the queen of your
honorable nation, sit upon a
throne occupied through successive generations by
predecessors, all of whom have been
styled respectful and obedient. Looking over the public
documents accompanying the
tribute sent (by your predecessors) on various occasions, we
find the following: "All the
people of my country, arriving at the Central Land for purposes
of trade, have to feel
grateful to the great emperor for the most perfect justice, for the
kindest treatment," and
other words to that effect. Delighted did we feel that the kings
of your honorable nation so
clearly understood the great principles of propriety, and were so
deeply grateful for the
1 From The Chinese Repository, vol. VIII, no 10 (February
1940): 497-503.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044005277884;view
=1up;seq=509
2
heavenly goodness (of our emperor):—therefore, it was that we
of the heavenly dynasty
nourished and cherished your people from afar, and bestowed
upon them redoubled proofs
of our urbanity and kindness. It is merely from these
circumstances, that your country—
deriving immense advantage from its commercial intercourse

4. with us, which has endured
now two hundred years—has become the rich and flourishing
kingdom that it is said to be!
But, during the commercial intercourse which has existed so
long, among the
numerous foreign merchants resorting hither, are wheat and
tares, good and bad; and of
these latter are some, who, by means of introducing opium by
stealth, have seduced our
Chinese people, and caused every province of the land to
overflow with that poison. These
then know merely to advantage themselves, they care not about
injuring others! This is a
principle which heaven's Providence repugnates; and which
mankind conjointly look upon
with abhorrence! Moreover, the great emperor hearing of it,
actually quivered with
indignation, and especially dispatched me, the commissioner, to
Canton, that in conjunction
with the viceroy and lieut.-governor of the province, means
might be taken for its
suppression!
Every native of the Inner Land who sells opium, as also all who
smoke it, are alike
adjudged to death. Were we then to go back and take up the
crimes of the foreigners, who,
by selling it for many years have induced dreadful calamity and
robbed us of enormous
wealth, and punish them with equal severity, our laws could not
but award to them
absolute annihilation! But, considering that these said
foreigners did yet repent of their
crime, and with a sincere heart beg for mercy; that they took
20,283 chests of opium piled

5. up in their store-ships, and through Elliot, the superintendent of
the trade of your said
country, petitioned that they might be delivered up to us, when
the same were all utterly
destroyed, of which we, the imperial commissioner and
colleagues, made a duly prepared
memorial to his majesty;—considering these circumstances, we
have happily received a
fresh proof of the extraordinary goodness of the great emperor,
inasmuch as he who
voluntarily comes forward, may yet be deemed a fit subject for
mercy, and his crimes be
graciously remitted him. But as for him who again knowingly
violates the laws, difficult
indeed will it be thus to go on repeatedly pardoning! He or they
shall alike be doomed to
the penalties of the new statute. We presume that you, the
sovereign of your honorable
nation, on pouring out your heart before the altar of eternal
justice, cannot but command
all foreigners with the deepest respect to reverence our laws! If
we only lay clearly before
your eyes, what is profitable and what is destructive, you will
then know that the statutes
of the heavenly dynasty cannot but be obeyed with fear and
trembling!
We find that your country is distant from us about sixty or
seventy thousand miles,2
that your foreign ships come hither striving the one with the
other for our trade, and for
the simple reason of their strong desire to reap a profit. Now,
out of the wealth of our Inner
Land, if we take a part to bestow upon foreigners from afar, it
follows, that the immense
wealth which the said foreigners amass, ought properly

6. speaking to be portion of our own
native Chinese people. By what principle of reason then, should
these foreigners send in
return a poisonous drug, which involves in destruction those
very natives of China?
Without meaning to say that the foreigners harbor such
destructive intentions in their
hearts, we yet positively assert that from their inordinate thirst
after gain, they are
perfectly careless about the injuries they inflict upon us! And
such being the case, we
2 That is, Chinese miles, or from 20,000 to 23,000 British
statute miles.
3
should like to ask what has become of that conscience which
heaven has implanted in the
breasts of all men?
We have heard that in your own country opium is prohibited
with the utmost
strictness and severity:—this is a strong proof that you know
full well how hurtful it is to
mankind. Since then you do not permit it to injure your own
country, you ought not to have
the injurious drug transferred to another country, and above all
others, how much less to
the Inner Land! Of the products which China exports to your
foreign countries, there is not
one which is not beneficial to mankind in some shape or other.

7. There are those which serve
for food, those which are useful, and those which are calculated
for re-sale; but all are
beneficial. Has China (we should like to ask) ever yet sent forth
a noxious article from its
soil? Not to speak of our tea and rhubarb, things which your
foreign countries could not
exist a single day without, if we of the Central Land were to
grudge you what is beneficial,
and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could
you foreigners manage to
exist? And further, as regards your woolens, camlets, and
longells, were it not that you get
supplied with our native raw silk, you could not get these
manufactured! If China were to
grudge you those things which yield a profit, how could you
foreigners scheme after any
profit at all? Our other articles of food, such as sugar, ginger,
cinnamon, &c., and our other
articles for use, such as silk piece-goods, chinaware, &c., are
all so many necessaries of life
to you; how can we reckon up their number! On the other hand,
the things that come from
your foreign countries are only calculated to make presents of,
or serve for mere
amusement. It is quite the same to us if we have them, or if we
have them not. If then these
are of no material consequence to us of the Inner Land, what
difficulty would there be in
prohibiting and shutting our market against them? It is only that
our heavenly dynasty
most freely permits you to take off her tea, silk, and other
commodities, and convey them
for consumption everywhere, without the slightest stint or
grudge, for no other reason, but
that where a profit exists, we wish that it be diffused abroad for

8. the benefit of all the earth!
Your honorable nation takes away the products of our central
land, and not only do
you thereby obtain food and support for yourselves, but
moreover, by re-selling these
products to other countries you reap a threefold profit. Now if
you would only not sell
opium, this threefold profit would be secured to you: how can
you possibly consent to forgo
it for a drug that is hurtful to men, and an unbridled craving
after gain that seems to know
no bounds! Let us suppose that foreigners came from another
country, and brought opium
into England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke
it, would not you, the
sovereign of the said country, look upon such a procedure with
anger, and in your just
indignation endeavor to get rid of it? Now we have always
heard that your highness
possesses a most kind and benevolent heart, surely then you are
incapable of doing or
causing to be done unto another, that which you should not wish
another to do unto you!
We have at the same time heard that your ships which come to
Canton do each and every of
them carry a document granted by your highness' self, on which
are written these words
"you shall not be permitted to carry contraband goods;" this
shows that the laws of your
highness are in their origin both distinct and severe, and we can
only suppose that because
the ships coming here have been very numerous, due attention
has not been given to
search and examine; and for this reason it is that we now
address you this public document,

9. that you may clearly know how stern and severe are the laws of
the central dynasty, and
most certainly you will cause that they be not again rashly
violated!
4
Moreover, we have heard that in London the metropolis where
you dwell, as also in
Scotland, Ireland, and other such places, no opium whatever is
produced. It is only in
sundry parts of your colonial kingdom of Hindostan, such as
Bengal, Madras, Bombay,
Patna, Malwa, Benares, Malacca, and other places where the
very hills are covered with the
opium plant, where tanks are made for the preparing of the
drug; month by month, and
year by year, the volume of the poison increases, its unclean
stench ascends upwards, until
heaven itself grows angry, and the very gods thereat get
indignant! You, the queen of the
said honorable nation, ought immediately to have the plant in
those parts plucked up by
the very root! Cause the land there to be hoed up afresh, sow in
its stead the five grains, and
if any man dare again to plant in these grounds a single poppy,
visit his crime with the most
severe punishment. By a truly benevolent system of government
such as this, will you
indeed reap advantage, and do away with a source of evil.
Heaven must support you, and
the gods will crown you with felicity! This will get for yourself
the blessing of long life, and

10. from this will proceed the security and stability of your
descendants!
In reference to the foreign merchants who come to this our
central land, the food
that they eat, and the dwellings that they abide in, proceed
entirely from the goodness of
our heavenly dynasty: the profits which they reap, and the
fortunes which they amass, have
their origin only in that portion of benefit which our heavenly
dynasty kindly allots them:
and as these pass but little of their time in your country, and the
greater part of their time
in our's, it is a generally received maxim of old and of modern
times, that we should
conjointly admonish, and clearly make known the punishment
that awaits them.
Suppose the subject of another country were to come to England
to trade, he would
certainly be required to comply with the laws of England, then
how much more does this
apply to us of the celestial empire! Now it is a fixed statute of
this empire, that any native
Chinese who sells opium is punishable with death, and even he
who merely smokes it, must
not less die. Pause and reflect for a moment: if you foreigners
did not bring the opium
hither, where should our Chinese people get it to re-sell? It is
you foreigners who involve
our simple natives in the pit of death, and are they alone to be
permitted to escape alive? If
so much as one of those deprive one of our people of his life, he
must forfeit his life in
requital for that which he has taken: how much more does this
apply to him who by means

11. of opium destroys his fellow-men? Does the havoc which he
commits stop with a single life?
Therefore it is that those foreigners who now import opium into
the Central Land are
condemned to be beheaded and strangled by the new statute, and
this explains what we
said at the beginning about plucking up the tree of evil,
wherever it takes root, for the
benefit of all nations.
We further find that during the second month of this present
year, the
superintendent of your honorable country, Elliot, viewing the
law in relation to the
prohibiting of opium as excessively severe, duly petitioned us,
begging for "an extension of
the term already limited, say five months for Hindostan and the
different parts of India, and
ten for England, after which they would obey and act in
conformity with the new statute,"
and other words to the same effect. Now we, the high
commissioner and colleagues, upon
making a duly prepared memorial to the great emperor, have to
feel grateful for his
extraordinary goodness, for his redoubled compassion. Any one
who within the next year
and a half may by mistake bring opium to this country, if he
will but voluntarily come
forward, and deliver up the entire quantity, he shall be absolved
from all punishment for
his crime. If, however, the appointed term shall have expired,
and there are still persons
5

12. who continue to bring it, then such shall be accounted as
knowingly violating the laws, and
shall most assuredly be put to death! On no account shall we
show mercy or clemency! This
then may be called truly the extreme of benevolence, and the
very perfection of justice!
Our celestial empire rules over ten thousand kingdoms! Most
surely do we possess a
measure of godlike majesty which ye cannot fathom! Still we
cannot bear to slay or
exterminate without previous warning, and it is for this reason
that we now clearly make
known to you the fixed laws of our land. If the foreign
merchants of your said honorable
nation desire to continue their commercial intercourse, they
then must tremblingly obey
our recorded statutes, they must cut off for ever the source from
which the opium flows,
and on no account make an experiment of our laws in their own
persons! Let then your
highness punish those of your subjects who may be criminal, do
not endeavor to screen or
conceal them, and thus you will secure peace and quietness to
your possessions, thus will
you more than ever display a proper sense of respect and
obedience, and thus may we
unitedly enjoy the common blessings of peace and happiness.
What greater joy! What more
complete felicity than this!
Let your highness immediately, upon the receipt of this
communication, inform us
promptly of the state of matters, and of the measure you are

13. pursuing utterly to put a stop
to the opium evil. Please let your reply be speedy. Do not on
any account make excuses or
procrastinate. A most important communication.
P. S. We annex an abstract of the new law, now about to be put
in force. "Any
foreigner or foreigners bringing opium to the Central Land, with
design to sell the same, the
principals shall most assuredly be decapitated, and the
accessories strangled; and all
property (found on board the same ship) shall be confiscated.
The space of a year and a half
is granted, within the which, if any one bringing opium by
mistake, shall voluntarily step
forward and deliver it up, he shall be absolved from all
consequences of his crime."
This said imperial edict was received on the 9th day of the 6th
month of the 19th
year of Taoukwang, at which the period of grace begins, and
runs on to the 9th day of the
12th month of the 20th year of Taoukwang, when it is
completed.
. . .
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14. Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
U.S. IMPERIALISM IS A PAPER TIGER
July 14, 1956
[Part of a talk with two Latin-American public figures.]
The United States is flaunting the anti-communist banner
everywhere in order to
perpetrate aggression against other countries
The United States owes debts everywhere. It owes debts not onl
y to the countries of Latin
America, Asia and Africa, but also to the countries of
Europe and Oceania. The whole
world, Britain included dislikes the United States. The masses o
f the people dislike it. Japan
dislikes the United States because it oppresses her. None of the
countries in the East is free
from U.S. aggression. The United States has invaded our Taiwa
n Province. Japan, Korea,
the Philippines, Vietnam and Pakistan all suffer
from U.S. aggression, although some of
them are allies of the United States. The people are dissatisfied
and in some countries so are
the authorities.
All oppressed nations want independence.
Everything is subject to change. The big decadent forces will gi
ve way to the small new-
born forces. The small forces will change into big forces becaus
e the majority of the people
demand this change. The U.S. imperialist forces will change fro
m big to small because the
American people, too, are dissatisfied with their government.

15. In my own lifetime I myself have witnessed such changes. Some
of us present were born
in the Ching Dynasty and others after the 1911 Revolution.
The Ching Dynasty was overthrown long ago. By whom? By the
party led by Sun Yat-
sen, together with the people. Sun Yat-sen's forces were so smal
l that the Ching officials
didn't take him seriously. He led many uprisings which
failed each time. In the end,
however, it was Sun Yat-sen who brought down the Ching Dyna
sty. Bigness is nothing to be
afraid of. The big will be overthrown by the small. The
small will become big. After
overthrowing the Ching Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen met with defeat.
For he failed to satisfy the
demands of the people, such as their demands for land and for o
pposition to imperialism.
Nor did he understand the necessity of suppressing the counter-r
evolutionaries who were
then moving about freely. Later, he suffered defeat at the
hands of Yuan Shih-kai, the
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works/index.htm
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chieftain of the Northern warlords. Yuan Shih-kai's forces were
larger than Sun Yat-sen's.
But here again this law operated: small forces linked with the pe

16. ople become strong, while
big forces opposed to the people become weak.
Subsequently Sun Yat-sen's bourgeois-
democratic revolutionaries co-operated with us Communists and
together we defeated the
warlord set-up left behind by Yuan Shih-kai.
Chiang Kai-shek's rule in China was recognized by the governm
ents of all countries and
lasted twenty-two years, and his forces were the biggest.
Our forces were small, fifty
thousand Party members at first but only a few thousand
after counter-revolutionary
suppressions. The enemy made trouble everywhere. Again this l
aw operated: the big and
strong end up in defeat because they are divorced from the peop
le, whereas the small and
weak emerge victorious because they are linked with the people
and work in their interest.
That's how things turned out in the end.
During the anti-Japanese war, Japan was very powerful,
the Kuomintang troops were
driven to the hinterland, and the armed forces led by the
Communist Party could only
conduct guerrilla warfare in the rural areas behind the enemy lin
es. Japan occupied large
Chinese cities such as Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai,
Nanking, Wuhan and Canton.
Nevertheless, like Germany's Hitler the Japanese militarists
collapsed in a few years, in
accordance with the same law.
We underwent innumerable difficulties and were driven from th
e south to the north, while
our forces fell from several hundred thousand strong to a few te

17. ns of thousands. At the end
of the 25,000-li Long March we had only 25,000 men left.
In the history of our Party many erroneous "Left" and Right line
s have occurred. Gravest
of all were the Right deviationist line of Chen Tu-hsiu and the "
Left" deviationist line of
Wang Ming. Besides, there were the Right deviationist errors co
mmitted by Chang Kuo-tao,
Kao Kang and others.
There is also a good side to mistakes, for they can educate the p
eople and the Party. We
have had a good many teachers by negative example,
such as Japan, the United States,
Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Tu-hsiu, Li Li-san, Wang Ming, Chang
Kuo-tao and Kao Kang. We
paid a very high price to learn from these teachers by negative e
xample. In the past, Britain
made war on us many times. Britain, the United States,
Japan, France, Germany, Italy,
tsarist Russia and Holland were all very interested in this land o
f ours. They were all our
teachers by negative example and we were their pupils.
During the War of Resistance, our troops grew and
became 900,000 strong through
fighting against Japan. Then came the War of Liberation. Our ar
ms were inferior to those of
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18. the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang troops then numbered four mi
llion, but in three years of
fighting we wiped out eight million of them all told. The Kuomi
ntang, though aided by U.S.
imperialism, could not defeat us. The big and strong cannot win,
it is always the small and
weak who win out.
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It
is very weak politically
because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disli
ked by everybody and by the
American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but
in reality it is nothing to be
afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of pap
er, unable to withstand the
wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a pa
per tiger.
History as a whole, the history of class society for thousands of
years, has proved this
point: the strong must give way to the weak. This holds true for
the Americas as well.
Only when imperialism is eliminated can peace prevail.
The day will come when the
paper tigers will be wiped out. But they won't become extinct of
their own accord, they need
to be battered by the wind and the rain.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper
tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy.
Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But
regarding each part, we must take it
seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it pieceme

19. al. For instance, if it has ten
fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, k
nock off another, and there
will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have
claws. If we deal with it step
by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism.
Tactically, we must take it
seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, eac
h encounter, seriously. At
present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at
in a broader perspective, as a
whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular suppor
t, its policies are disliked by
the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For
this reason, the tiger is doomed.
Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But
today the United States still
has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of
steel a year and hitting out
everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles ag
ainst it, fight it with all our
might and wrest one position after another from it. And that tak
es time.
It seems that the countries of the Americas, Asia and Africa will
have to go on quarrelling
with the United States till the very end, till the paper tiger is de
stroyed by the wind and the
rain.
To oppose U.S. imperialism, people of European origin in the L
atin-American countries

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should unite with the indigenous Indians. Perhaps the white im
migrants from Europe can be
divided into two groups, one composed of rulers and the other o
f ruled. This should make it
easier for the group of oppressed white people to get close to
the local people, for their
position is the same.
Our friends in Latin America, Asia and Africa are in the same p
osition as we and are
doing the same kind of work, doing something for the people to
lessen their oppression by
imperialism. If we do a good job, we can root out
imperialist oppression. In this we are
comrades.
We are of the same nature as you in our opposition to imperialis
t oppression, differing
only in geographical position, nationality and language. But we
are different in nature from
imperialism, and the very sight of it makes us sick.
What use is imperialism? The Chinese people will have none of
it, nor will the people in
the rest of the world. There is no reason for the existence of imp
erialism.
Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.
HTML revised 2004 by Marxists.org

21. Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-
works/index.htm
Digital Archive
International History Declassified
digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org
April 19, 1955
Main Speech by Premier Zhou Enlai, Head of the
Delegation of the People's Republic of China, Distributed
at the Plenary Session of the Asian-African Conference
Citation:
“Main Speech by Premier Zhou Enlai, Head of the Delegation of
the People's Republic of China,
Distributed at the Plenary Session of the Asian-African
Conference,” April 19, 1955, History and
Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Translation from China
and the Asian-African Conference
(Documents) (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1955), 9-20.
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/121623
Summary:
Zhou Enlai calls for increased cooperation between the
countries of Asia and Africa at the Bandung
Conference.
Credits:
This document was made possible with support from the
MacArthur Foundation.

22. Original Language:
Chinese
Contents:
English Translation
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/121623
MAIN SPEECH BY PREMIER CHOU EN-LAI [Zhou Enlai],
HEAD OF THE DELEGATION OF
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, DISTRIBUTED AT
THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE
ASIAN-AFRICAN CONFERENCE
Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates:
The Asian-African Conference on which the whole world is
focusing its attention has
begun its session. The Delegation of the People's Republic of
China deems it a great pleasure to
be able to discuss the common problems of our Asian and
African countries at this Conference with
the delegations of the other participating countries. We must
first of all thank the five sponsoring
countries, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, whose
initiative and efforts have made it
possible for us to meet here. We should also thank the host of
this Conference, the Government of
the Republic of Indonesia, for the excellent arrangements it has
made for the Conference.
It is the first time in history that so many countries of Asia and

23. Africa have gathered
together to hold a conference. On these two continents live
more than half of the world population.
The peoples of Asia and Africa created brilliant ancient
civilizations and made tremendous
contributions to mankind. But, ever since modern times most of
the countries of Asia and Africa in
varying degrees have been subjected to colonial plunder and
oppression, and have thus been
forced to remain in a stagnant state of poverty and
backwardness. Our voices have been
suppressed, our aspirations shattered, and our destiny placed in
the hands of others. Thus, we
have no choice but to rise against colonialism. Suffering from
the same cause and struggling for
the same aim, we the Asian and African peoples have found it
easier to understand each other and
have long had deep sympathy and concern for one another. Now
the face of the Asian-African
region has undergone a radical change. More and more countries
have cast off or are casting off
the shackles of colonialism. The colonial powers can no longer
use the methods of the past to
continue their plunder and oppression. The Asia and Africa of
today are no longer the Asia and
Africa of yesterday. Many countries of this region have taken
their destiny into their own hands
after long years of endeavours. Our Conference itself reflects
this profound historical change.
However, the rule of colonialism in this region has not yet come
to an end, and new
colonialists are attempting take the place of the old ones. Not a
few of the Asian and African
peoples are still leading a life of colonial slavery. Not a few of
the Asian and African peoples are still

24. subjected to racial discrimination and deprived of human rights.
The courses which we peoples of
the Asian and African countries have taken in striving for
freedom and independence may vary, but
our will to win and preserve our freedom and independence is
the same. However different the
specific conditions in each of our countries may be, it is equally
necessary for most of us to
eliminate the state of backwardness caused by the rule of
colonialism. We need to develop our
countries independently with no outside interference and in
accordance with the will of the people.
The peoples of Asia and Africa have long suffered from
aggression and war. Many of them
have been forced by the colonialists to serve as cannon fodder
in aggressive wars. Therefore, the
peoples of these two continents can have nothing but strong
detestation of aggressive war. They
know that new threats of war will not only endanger the
independent development of their
countries, but also intensify the enslavement by colonialism.
That is why the Asian and African
peoples all the more hold dear world peace and national
independence.
In view of the foregoing, the common desire of the peoples of
the Asian and African
countries cannot be anything other than to safeguard world
peace, to win and to preserve national
independence and accordingly to promote friendly co-operation
among nations.
Following the armistice in Korea, the Geneva Conference
brought about a cease-fire in
Indo-China on the basis of respect for the right to national

25. independence and with the support of
the Conference of the five Colombo powers. As a result,
international tension did somewhat relax
at that time and fresh hopes were brought to the people of the
whole world, and particularly to
those of Asia. However, the subsequent development of the
international situation runs counter to
the hopes of the people. Both in the East and in the West the
danger of war is increasing. The
desire of the Korean and German peoples for peaceful
unification is being frustrated. The
agreements on the restoration of peace in Indo-China reached at
the Geneva Conference are
endangered. The United States continues to create tension in the
Taiwan a rea. Countries outside
of Asia and Africa are establishing more and more military
bases in the Asian and African
countries. They are clamouring openly that atomic weapons are
conventional arms and are making
preparations for an atomic war. The people of Asia s hall never
forget that the first atomic bomb
exploded on Asian soil and that the first man to die from the
experimental explosion of the
hydrogen bomb was an Asian. The peoples of Asia and Africa,
like those in other parts of the world,
cannot be indifferent to the ever-increasing threat of war.
However, those who are committing aggression and making
p1·eparntions for war are after
all extremely, few, while the overwhelming majority of the
people throughout the world, regardless
of what social system they live under, want peace and are
opposed to war. The peace movement of

26. the people in different countries has become more extensive and
intensive. They demand the end
of the armament race and preparations for war. They demand
that first of all the big powers should
reach agreement on the reduction of armaments. They demand
the prohibition of atomic weapons
and all other weapons of mass destruction. They demand that
atomic energy be used for peaceful
purposes in order to bring welfare to mankind. Their voices can
no longer be ignored. The policy of
aggression and war is becoming more and more repugnant to the
people. The plotters of war are
resorting ever more frequently to threats of war as an
instrument of their aggressive policy.
However, threats of war can frighten into submission no one
who is determined to resist. They can
only place the threat-makers in a more isolated and confused
position. We believe that if only we
are determined to preserve peace together with all the peace-
loving nations and peoples of the
world, peace c a n be preserved.
The majority of our Asian and African countries, including
China, are still very backward
economically owing to the long period of colonial domination.
That is why we demand not only
political independence but economic independence as well. Of
course, our demand for political
independence does not mean a policy of exclusion towards
countries outside of the Asian-African
region. However, the days when the Western powers controlled
our destiny are already past. The
destiny of Asian and African countries should be taken into the
hands of the peoples themselves.
We strive to realize our own economic independence; nor does
that mean the rejection of economic

27. co-operation with any country outside of the Asian-African
region. However, we want to do away
with the exploitation of backward countries in the East by the
colonial powers in the West and to
develop the independent and sovereign economy of our own
countries. Complete independence is
an objective for which the great majority of Asian and African
countries have to struggle for a long
time.
In China, ever since the people became masters of their own
country, all their efforts have
been directed to the elimination of backwardness left behind by
the prolonged semi-colonial society
and the building of their country into an industrialized one. In
the last five years we have
rehabilitated the national economy ruined by long years of war,
and have since 1953 started the
First Five-Year Plan of economic construction. As a result of
these efforts, production in all the main
fields, such as iron and steel, cotton cloth and grains, have
exceeded the level of any period in the
history of China. But these achievements are still very small as
compared with our actual needs.
Our country is still very backward as compared with the highly
industrialized ones. Like other
countries in Asia and Africa, we are in urgent need of a
peaceful international environment for the
development of our independent and sovereign economy.
The Asian and African countries, opposing colonialism and
defending national
independence, treasure all the more their own national rights.
Countries whether big or small,
strong or weak, should all enjoy equal rights in international
relations. Their territorial integrity and

28. sovereignty should be respected and not violated. The people of
all dependent countries should
enjoy the right of national self-determination, and should not be
subjected to persecution and
slaughter. People irrespective of race or colour should all enjoy
the fundamental human rights and
not be subjected to any maltreatment and discrimination.
However, we cannot help being aware
that the peoples of Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and other
dependent peoples who have been fighting
for independence have never ceased to be suppressed with
violence. Racial discrimination and
persecution under racialism in the Union of South Africa and
other places have not yet been
curbed. The problem of Arab refugees of Palestine still remains
to be solved.
One should say that now the common desire of the awakened
countries and peoples of
Asia and Africa is to oppose racial discrimination and to
demand fundamental human rights, to
oppose colonialism and to demand for nation al independence,
to firmly defend their own territorial
integrity and sovereignty. The struggle of the Egyptian people
for the restoration of their
sovereignty over the Suez Canal Zone, the struggle of the
Iranian people for the restoration of
sovereignty over their petroleum resources, and the demand for
the restoration of the territorial
rights of India over Goa and of Indonesia over West Irian, have
all won sympathy from many
countries in Asia and Africa. China's will to liberate her own
territory Taiwan has likewise won the

29. support of all righteous people in the Asian-African region.
This proves that the peoples of our
Asian and African countries understand each other and have
sympathy and concern for one
another.
Peace can only be safeguarded by mutual respect for each
other's territorial integrity and
sovereignty. Encroachment on the sovereignty and territory of
any country and the interference in
the internal affairs of any country will inevitably endanger
peace. If nations give assurances not to
commit aggression against each other, conditions will be
created in international relations for
peaceful coexistence. If nations give assurances not to interfere
in each other's internal affairs, it
will then be possible for the people of these countries to choose
their own political system and way
of life in accordance with their own will. The agreements on the
restoration of peace in Indo-China
were reached at the Geneva Conference precisely on the basis of
the assurance of the parties
concerned to respect the independence, sovereignty, unity and
territorial integrity of the Indo-
Chinese states and not to interfere in any way in the internal
affairs of these states. Accordingly,
the Geneva agreements provide that the Indo-Chinese states
shall not join any military alliance and
that no foreign military bases should be established in these
states. That explains why the Geneva
Conference was able to create favourable conditions for the
establishment of an area of peace. But
after the Geneva Conference, we witnessed a development in the
opposite direction. This is not in
the interest of the Indo-Chinese states, nor is it in the interest of
peace. We hold that the Geneva

30. agreements on the restoration of peace in Indo-China should be
strictly and faithfully carried out.
No interference or obstruction from any quarter should be
allowed. The question of peaceful
unification of Korea should also be solved in accordance with
the same principles.
We Asian and African countries need to co-operate in the
economic and cultural fields in
order to facilitate the elimination of the economic and cultural
backwardness caused by the long
period of colonial exploitation and oppression. This co-
operation should be based on equality and
mutual benefit, with no conditions for privilege attached. The
trade relations and economic
cooperation between us should have for its purpose the
promotion of the independent economic
development in each country, and not to convert any country
into a sole producer of raw materials
and a market for consumer goods. Our cultural exchange should
have respect for the development
of the national culture of each country, and not to ignore the
characteristics and special merits of
the culture of any country so that we may learn and benefit from
each other.
Today when the peoples of Asia and Africa are increasingly
taking their destiny into their
own hands, even though the present economic and cultural co-
operation among ourselves cannot
yet be of a very large scale, it can be definitely said that this
co-operation based on equality and
mutual benefit will have a great future. We are convinced that
with the advancement of
industrialization of our countries and the raising of our peoples'
standards of living, and with the

31. elimination of artificial trade barriers placed between us from
without, trade intercourse and
economic co-operation among the Asian and African countries
will become ever closer, and
cultural interflow will be ever more frequent.
By following the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty
and territorial integrity, non-
aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs,
equality and mutual benefit, the
peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems
can be realized. When these
principles are ensured of implementation, there is no reason
why international disputes cannot be
settled through negotiation.
In the interest of defending world peace, we Asian and African
countries, which are more
or less under similar circumstances, should be the first to co-
operate with one another in a friendly
manner and put peaceful coexistence into practice. The discord
and estrangement created among
the Asian and African countries by colonial rule in the past
should no longer be there. We Asian
and African countries should respect one another, and eliminate
any suspicion and fear which may
exist between us.
The Government of the People's Republic of China fully agrees
to the aims of the Asian-
African Conference as defined by the prime ministers of t h e
five South Asian countries in the Joint
Communique of the Bogor Conference. We hold that in order to
promote world peace and co-

32. operation, the countries of Asia and Africa should first of all, in
line with their common interest, seek
goodwill and co-operation among themselves and establish
friendly and neighbourly relations.
India, Burma and China have affirmed the five principles of
peaceful coexistence as the guiding
principles in their mutual relations. These principles have
received support from more and more
countries. Following these principles, China and Indonesia have
already achieved good results in
their preliminary talks on the question of the nationality of the
citizens of one country residing in the
other. During the Geneva Conference, China also expressed its
readiness to develop friendly
relations with the Indo-Chinese states on the basis of these five
principles.
There is no reason why the relations between China and
Thailand, the Philippines and
other neighbouring countries cannot be improved on the basis of
these five principles. China is
ready to establish normal relations with other Asian and African
countries on the basis of the strict
adherence to these principles and is willing to promote the
normalization of relations between
China and Japan. In order to promote mutual understanding and
co-operation among us, we
propose that the governments, parliaments and people's
organizations of the Asian and African
countries make friendly visits to each other's countries.
Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates, gone for ever are the clays
when the destiny of the
Asian and African peoples was manipulated at will by others.
We believe that if we are determined
to preserve world peace, no one can drag us into war; if we are

33. determined to strive for and
safeguard our national independence, no one can continue to
enslave us; if we are determined to
enter into friendly co-operation, no one can split us.
What we Asian and African countries want are peace and
independence. It is not our
intention to make Asian and African countries antagonistic to
countries in other regions. We want
just as well the establishment of peaceful and co-operative
relations with countries in other regions.
This meeting of ours was not easily brought about. Though
there are among us many
different views, they should not influence the common desires
that we all hold. Our Conference
ought to give expression to our common desires and thus make
itself a treasured page in the history
of Asia and Africa. At the same time, the contact that has been
established by us through this
Conference should be maintained in order that we may make
greater contributions to world peace.
As His Excellency President Sukarno of the Republic of
Indonesia has rightly said, we
Asians and Africans must be united.
Let us greet in advance the success of our Conference.
(April 19, 1955)
Qian Long [Ch'ien Lung], (r. 1735-1795) ruled China for much
of the 18th century, the

34. last period in which China was strong enough to resist, or
better, disdain external
influence. Here is letter he sent in response to a request from
George III of Britain (r.
1760-1820) for trade privileges. In 1793, while Britain was in
the midst of the French
Revolutionary situation in Europe, China retained its fredom to
act as it wished. But
within 50 years, all was to change. By the 1840s the British
were able to sail into China's
rivers and destroy its fleets.
You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas,
nevertheless, impelled by your
humble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilisation, you
have dispatched a mission
respectfully bearing your memorial. Your Envoy has crossed the
seas and paid his
respects at my Court on the anniversary of my birthday. To
show your devotion, you
have also sent offerings of your country's produce.
I have perused your memorial: the earnest terms in which it is
couched reveal a respectful
humility on your part, which is highly praiseworthy. In
consideration of the fact that your
Ambassador and his deputy have come a long way with your
memorial and tribute, I have
shown them high favour and have allowed them to be introduced
into my presence. To
manifest my indulgence, I have entertained them at a banquet
and made them numerous
gifts. I have also caused presents to be forwarded to the Naval
Commander and six
hundred of his officers and men, although they did not come to

35. Peking, so that they too
may share in my allembracing kindness.
As to your entreaty to send one of your nationals to be
accredited to my Celestial Court
and to be in control of your country's trade with China, this
request is contrary to all
usage of my dynasty and cannot possibly be entertained. It is
true that Europeans, in the
service of the dynasty, have been permitted to live at Peking,
but they are compelled to
adopt Chinese dress, they are strictly confined to their own
precincts and are never
permitted to return home. You are presumably familiar with our
dynastic regulations.
Your proposed Envoy to my Court could not be placed in a
position similar to that of
European officials in Peking who are forbidden to leave China,
nor could he, on the other
hand, be allowed liberty of movement and the privilege of
corresponding with his own
country; so that you would gain nothing by his residence in our
midst.
Moreover, our Celestial dynasty possesses vast territories, and
tribute missions from the
dependencies are provided for by the Department for Tributary
States, which ministers to
their wants and exercises strict control over their movements. It
would be quite
impossible to leave them to their own devices. Supposing that
your Envoy should come
to our Court, his language and national dress differ from that of
our people, and there
would be no place in which to bestow him. It may be suggested
that he might imitate the

36. Europeans permanently resident in Peking and adopt the dress
and customs of China, but,
it has never been our dynasty's wish to force people to do things
unseemly and
inconvenient. Besides, supposing I sent an Ambassador to reside
in your country, how
could you possibly make for him the requisite arrangements?
Europe consists of many
other nations besides your own: if each and all demanded to be
represented at our Court,
how could we possibly consent? The thing is utterly
impracticable. How can our dynasty
alter its whole procedure and system of etiquette, established
for more than a century, in
order to meet your individual views? If it be said that your
object is to exercise control
over your country's trade, your nationals have had full liberty to
trade at Canton for many
a year, and have received the greatest consideration at our
hands. Missions have been sent
by Portugal and Italy, preferring similar requests. The Throne
appreciated their sincerity
and loaded them with favours, besides authorising measures to
facilitate their trade with
China. You are no doubt aware that, when my Canton merchant,
Wu Chaoping, was in
debt to the foreign ships, I made the Viceroy advance the
monies due, out of the
provincial treasury, and ordered him to punish the culprit
severely. Why then should
foreign nations advance this utterly unreasonable request to be
represented at my Court?
Peking is nearly two thousand miles from Canton, and at such a

37. distance what possible
control could any British representative exercise?
If you assert that your reverence for Our Celestial dynasty fills
you with a desire to
acquire our civilisation, our ceremonies and code of laws differ
so completely from your
own that, even if your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments
of our civilisation, you
could not possibly transplant our manners and customs to your
alien soil. Therefore,
however adept the Envoy might become, nothing would be
gained thereby.
Swaying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to
maintain a perfect
governance and to fulfil the duties of the State: strange and
costly objects do not interest
me. If I have commanded that the tribute offerings sent by you,
O King, are to be
accepted, this was solely in consideration for the spirit which
prompted you to dispatch
them from afar. Our dynasty's majestic virtue has penetrated
unto every country under
Heaven, and Kings of all nations have offered their costly
tribute by land and sea. As
your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I
set no value on objects
strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's
manufactures. This then is my
answer to your request to appoint a representative at my Court,
a request contrary to our
dynastic usage, which would only result in inconvenience to
yourself. I have expounded
my wishes in detail and have commanded your tribute Envoys to
leave in peace on their

38. homeward journey. It behoves you, O King, to respect my
sentiments and to display even
greater devotion and loyalty in future, so that, by perpetual
submission to our Throne,
you may secure peace and prosperity for your country hereafter.
Besides making gifts (of
which I enclose an inventory) to each member of your Mission,
I confer upon you, O
King, valuable presents in excess of the number usually
bestowed on such occasions,
including silks and curios-a list of which is likewise enclosed.
Do you reverently receive
them and take note of my tender goodwill towards you! A
special mandate.
In the same letter, a further mandate to King George III dealt in
detail with the British
ambassador's proposals and the Emperor's reasons for declining
them.
You, O King, from afar have yearned after the blessings of our
civilisation, and in your
eagerness to come into touch with our converting influence have
sent an Embassy across
the sea bearing a memorial. I have already taken note of your
respectful spirit of
submission, have treated your mission with extreme favour and
loaded it with gifts,
besides issuing a mandate to you, O King, and honouring you
with the bestowal of
valuable presents. Thus has my indulgence been manifested.

39. Yesterday your Ambassador petitioned my Ministers to
memorialise me regarding your
trade with China, but his proposal is not consistent with our
dynastic usage and cannot be
entertained. Hitherto, all European nations, including your own
country's barbarian
merchants, have carried on their trade with our Celestial Empire
at Canton. Such has been
the procedure for many years, although our Celestial Empire
possesses all things in
prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders.
There was therefore no
need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in
exchange for our own produce.
But as the tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire
produces, are absolute
necessities to European nations and to yourselves, we have
permitted, as a signal mark of
favour, that foreign hongs [merchant firms] should be
established at Canton, so that your
wants might be supplied and your country thus participate in
our beneficence. But your
Ambassador has now put forward new requests which
completely fail to recognise the
Throne's principle to "treat strangers from afar with
indulgence," and to exercise a
pacifying control over barbarian tribes, the world over.
Moreover, our dynasty, swaying
the myriad races of the globe, extends the same benevolence
towards all. Your England is
not the only nation trading at Canton. If other nations,
following your bad example,
wrongfully importune my ear with further impossible requests,
how will it be possible for
me to treat them with easy indulgence? Nevertheless, I do not
forget the lonely

40. remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by intervening
wastes of sea, nor do I
overlook your excusable ignorance of the usages of our
Celestial Empire. I have
consequently commanded my Ministers to enlighten your
Ambassador on the subject,
and have ordered the departure of the mission. But I have
doubts that, after your Envoy's
return he may fail to acquaint you with my view in detail or that
he may be lacking in
lucidity, so that I shall now proceed . . . to issue my mandate on
each question separately.
In this way you will, I trust, comprehend my meaning....
(3) Your request for a small island near Chusan, where your
merchants may reside and
goods be warehoused, arises from your desire to develop trade.
As there are neither
foreign hongs nor interpreters in or near Chusan, where none of
your ships have ever
called, such an island would be utterly useless for your
purposes. Every inch of the
territory of our Empire is marked on the map and the strictest
vigilance is exercised over
it all: even tiny islets and farlying sandbanks are clearly defined
as part of the provinces
to which they belong. Consider, moreover, that England is not
the only barbarian land
which wishes to establish . . . trade with our Empire: supposing
that other nations were all
to imitate your evil example and beseech me to present them
each and all with a site for
trading purposes, how could I possibly comply? This also is a
flagrant infringement of
the usage of my Empire and cannot possibly be entertained.

41. (4) The next request, for a small site in the vicinity of Canton
city, where your barbarian
merchants may lodge or, alternatively, that there be no longer
any restrictions over their
movements at Aomen, has arisen from the following causes.
Hitherto, the barbarian
merchants of Europe have had a definite locality assigned to
them at Aomen for residence
and trade, and have been forbidden to encroach an inch beyond
the limits assigned to that
locality.... If these restrictions were withdrawn, friction would
inevitably occur between
the Chinese and your barbarian subjects, and the results would
militate against the
benevolent regard that I feel towards you. From every point of
view, therefore, it is best
that the regulations now in force should continue unchanged....
(7) Regarding your nation's worship of the Lord of Heaven, it is
the same religion as that
of other European nations. Ever since the beginning of history,
sage Emperors and wise
rulers have bestowed on China a moral system and inculcated a
code, which from time
immemorial has been religiously observed by the myriads of my
subjects. There has been
no hankering after heterodox doctrines. Even the European
(missionary) officials in my
capital are forbidden to hold intercourse with Chinese subjects;
they are restricted within
the limits of their appointed residences, and may not go about
propagating their religion.
The distinction between Chinese and barbarian is most strict,

42. and your Ambassador's
request that barbarians shall be given full liberty to disseminate
their religion is utterly
unreasonable.
It may be, O King, that the above proposals have been wantonly
made by your
Ambassador on his own responsibility, or peradventure you
yourself are ignorant of our
dynastic regulations and had no intention of transgressing them
when you expressed these
wild ideas and hopes.... If, after the receipt of this explicit
decree, you lightly give ear to
the representations of your subordinates and allow your
barbarian merchants to proceed
to Chêkiang and Tientsin, with the object of landing and trading
there, the ordinances of
my Celestial Empire are strict in the extreme, and the local
officials, both civil and
military, are bound reverently to obey the law of the land.
Should your vessels touch the
shore, your merchants will assuredly never be permitted to land
or to reside there, but
will be subject to instant expulsion. In that event your barbarian
merchants will have had
a long journey for nothing. Do not say that
From E. Backhouse and J. O. P. Bland, Annals and Memoirs of
the Court of
Peking (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), pp. 322331

43. A Plea for the Recognition of the Chinese Republic
by Ching Chun Wang
The Atlantic Monthly, January 1913
The Chinese millions have given the world the greatest
revolution of modern times in the
most civilized manner known to history. We have emancipated
ourselves from the
imperial yoke, not by brute force but by sheer reasoning and
unparalleled toleration.
Within the amazingly short period of four months, and without
shedding over one
hundredth part of the blood that has been shed in other similar
revolutions, we have
transformed our immense country from an empire of four
thousand years' standing into a
modern democracy. After having set this new standard of sanity
in revolutions, we have
organized ourselves into the newest republic, following up-to-
date patterns. Now we
come forward with hands and hearts open to join the sisterhood
of nations, and all we ask
is that the world will permit us to join its company. We are born
into the world as a
nation, and we wish to be registered as a part of the world. We
ask for recognition of our
Republic because it is an accomplished fact. Neither our
modesty nor our sense of self-
respect will ever allow us to make another request if any party
can show us that the
Chinese Republic is not a fact.
The recognition of a new nation by the family of nations should
more or less resemble the

44. announcement or registration of a newly born child. If the baby
is actually born with the
functions of a human being, it is the duty of the family and the
court, if that court is worth
having, to acknowledge the fact. So it should be with the
recognition of a new
government.
If it is born and bona fide in existence, it is incumbent upon the
civilized nations to
acknowledge and admit its birth. Of course, the family of
nations, as the family of some
barbarous tribes, can ignore or even nullify the birth of a newly
born; but I feel that we
have got beyond that stage of barbarity. The law of nations, as
in the case of the law of
the state, has reached or should reach such a state of perfection
that a being should not
only have the right to exist after it is born, but also the right to
be born when it is bone
fide conceived. We are thankful that the United States has taken
the initiative from the
beginning of our Revolution in preventing foreign powers from
interfering, thus enabling
us to be properly conceived and born; but since we are born we
must now ask for
recognition.
Of course there are certain usages to be fulfilled in order to be
recognized. But China has
fulfilled these requirements long ago. So many undeniable
evidences exist, and so many
indisputable arguments have already been produced, in respect
to international law, that it
will be time wasted to emphasize this point here. Suffice it to
say, that facts and the

45. concurrence of best opinion testify that China deserves
recognition. Indeed, the Chinese
people, as well as many others, would be most happy to know in
what respect China has
not fulfilled the requirements to deserve recognition. The only
reason we have heard up
to this time is that given by England and Russia, namely, that
China must make a new
treaty to give practical independence to Tibet and Mongolia
before she can expect
recognition from these two countries. Now let us ask, how could
the making of a new
treaty, or the granting of independence to Tibet and Mongolia,
better qualify China as a
nation? It seems a pity that such a retrogressive step should be
taken, and that the
recognition of a new government should be made an excuse for
fraudulent bargaining.
China to-day is a nation, and the Chinese Republic is a fact. If
any nation or individual
thinks that China is not a nation and the Chinese Republic is not
a fact, it is their duty to
give us the evidence. Or, if they do not think that the republican
form of government is
good enough for recognition, then they must point out that they
have something better in
mind. As one of the most potent factors to prevent a nation from
recognizing a new
government is the fear of offending, or the desire to help, the
old government, prolonged
delay of recognition of the Chinese Republic may mean that the
Powers hope, or fear,

46. that the dissolved Manchu Dynasty, with all its corruption, will
reappear. But we must
see that there is no more dynasty left. Even the Prince Regent
and the Dowager Empress
have forsaken it. The Emperor himself has retired into private
life with satisfaction. In
short, the monarchy is dead -absolutely dead. Then they may
say that the dead may be
raised from the grave, as in the story of Jesus of old; but they
must also remember that
those who were raised by Jesus were good, and not such
obnoxious and decomposed
bones as the Manchu Dynasty.
2018 ALFA ROMEO STELVIO
Another reason given in some quarters for withholding
recognition of the Chinese
Republic, is that the government of the Republic is called
'provisional.' It is really
amusing to see how people, or even statesmen, sometimes balk
at some single word,
which has little or no substantial meaning, sacrificing thereby
results of universal benefit.
The word 'provisional' was adopted in Nanking really without
much consideration. If
anything, it was due to the modesty of our leaders, who thought
that, during the period of
transition from imperialism to democracy, to call the
government 'provisional' might be
more becoming, if not more expedient. To illustrate further that
the word 'provisional' has
no substantial significance, we may recall that, during this
current year, this word has
become so popular that it is indiscriminately prefixed to pretty
nearly everything. Thus,
people say 'provisional' theatre, 'provisional' restaurant, and

47. even 'provisional' enjoyment.
What should be considered is the fact, and not the name. A
government, although called
'provisional,' may be fully deserving of recognition, while
another government may be
called substantial, solid, or whatever else you like, and yet far
less deserve the
characterization. It certainly seems rather unfortunate that on
account of the modesty of
our leaders in adopting the word 'provisional' the deserved
recognition should be
withheld.
As a Chicago paper said, 'For nearly nine months the republican
government of China has
been uncontested. There is not even a "pretender" to the throne.
There is peace and order,
broadly speaking, throughout China.' We ask for recognition,
because the other nations
have hammered at our doors and constantly come in contact
with us. We would not
object to going on without recognition if the other Powers really
wish to sever all
relations with us. In so far as our diplomatic and consular
officers in foreign countries, as
well as those officers of foreign nations accredited to us, are
now conducting our
international affairs much the same as before, and also in so far
as the nations have to
transact business, and are doing it now with us, just as if we
were recognized, we see no
reason why the Powers, especially the United States, which
often boasts of being the

48. mother and champion of republicanism, should refrain from
simply declaring and
acknowledging what is a fact. Indeed, after having known how
these Powers endeavored
to induce us to admit them, and how eager they apparently were
in forcing China to open
her doors, we find it hard to understand why the same Powers
should remain so
indifferent, and even turn a deaf ear to our plea to join their
company, when we have at
last broken loose from the obstacles which they hated, and
opened up not only our doors
but our hearts as well.
Moreover, an early recognition will help us a good deal to calm
the overcharged
suspension of mind, and thus enable the people to forget the
Revolution and to settle
down to business. Like the cheering from the football bleachers
or the applause in the
gallery, there is perhaps nothing substantial in the recognition,
but it is the only thing that
makes a team put in its last ounce of grit and the actor double
his spirit. After seeing what
China has done, we feel that she deserves at least some such
mild sign of appreciation.
An early recognition will also help China in her relations with
other nations. The
recognition itself may not mean much, but at this critical
moment, when China has the
remaking of herself in hand, and when not every nation is too
glad to see China become
strong and peaceful, every little help means a good deal. Indeed,
a little help shown us to-
day means a thousand times the value of the same help if it is
shown us in a year to come.

49. We need help and encouragement. We need help now.
Then the delay of public recognition always casts a baleful
influence upon the minds of
all concerned, and hence invariably hinders the progress of a
new nation. Therefore, by
delaying recognition, you are not only refraining from helping
us, but you are doing a
positive injury to our cause. History tells us that the refusal of
recognition has contributed
its share in bringing about the failure of former revolutions, and
has obstructed progress
in China herself. Such delay has since been lamented. In
speaking of the refusal of the
Powers to recognize the Tai-ping Rebellion, which bears no
comparison to our
Revolution of last year, Dr. W. A. P. Martin, one of the best
American authorities on
China, said several years ago, 'Looking back at this distance of
time, with the light of all
subsequent history upon the events, we are still inclined to ask
whether a different policy
might not have been better....Had the foreign Powers promptly
recognized the Tai-ping
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 many other
revolts 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.'
We hope that the nations are not so prejudiced as to think that

50. our Revolution is even
worse than the Tai-ping Rebellion, and we also hope that the
regrettable short sightedness
of the diplomats may not obtain in our case, so that posterity
may not have to lament our
loss of the present opportunity, as we lament the lost
opportunity of our forefathers of
sixty years ago.
Then again, to give the deserved recognition will be of mutual
benefit by preventing
many mutual embarrassments. The recent International Congress
of Commerce at Boston,
and the Panama Exposition, are two instances. In both cases the
American people were
interested, and, so far as we can see, the American government
also, were anxious to
have China participate. In return, China was glad also to come.
But in the absence of that
official recognition, both parties had to go at the matter in the
most roundabout way
conceivable, so as to make people believe that the one in
inviting the other, and the other
in accepting the invitation, were, at the same time, having
nothing to do with each other.
The round-about red-tape in playing this make-believe is as
amusing as it is troublesome.
Therefore, as a citizen of a republic, the writer feels we had
better stop this make-believe
and settle down to business. We sympathize with all nations
concerned in their
international difficulties, but we also trust that their difficulties

51. will soon be overcome.
During the past seven months China has rushed through her
great drama with appalling
speed and audacity. She has run the hardest Marathon known in
history. After reaching
her goal, breathless, she nervously but confidently looks to the
world for the recognition
due to every such runner. She stretches out her hands to
America first, because she
prefers to have her best friend be the first in giving her this
deserved encouragement.
Now, will America understand the truth? Will America listen to
her plea?
The Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
HER Majesty, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, and
His Majesty the Emperor of China, being desirous of putting an
end to the
misunderstandings and consequent hostilities which have arisen
between the two
countries, have resolved to conclude a treaty for that purpose,
and have therefore
named as their plenipotentiaries, that is to say: Her Majesty the
Queen of Great
Britain and Ireland, sir Henry Pottinger, bart., a major-general
in the service of the
East India Company, &c., &c. And his Imperial Majesty the
Emperor of China, the
high commissioners Kiying, a member of the Imperial House, a
guardian of the

52. Crown Prince, and general of the garrison of Canton; and I'lípú,
of the Imperial
Kindred, graciously permitted to wear the insignia of the first
rank, and the
distinction of a peacock's feather, lately minister and governor-
general, &c., and
now lieutenant-general commanding at Chápú :-- Who, after
having communicated
to each other their respective full powers, and found them to be
in good and due
form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles:
ART. I. There shall henceforward be peace and friendship
between Her Majesty the
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and
His Majesty the
Emperor of China, and between their respective subjects, who
shall enjoy full
security and protection for their persons and property within the
dominions of the
other.
ART. II. His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees, that British
subjects, with their
families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the
purpose of carrying
on their mercantile pursuit, without molestation or restraint, at
the cities and towns
of Canton, Amoy, Fuchau fú, Ningpo, and Shanghai; and Her
Majesty the Queen of
Great Britain, &c., will appoint superintendents, or consular
officers, to reside at
each of the above-named cities or towns, to be the medium of
communication
between the Chinese authorities and the said merchants, and to
see that the just

53. duties and other dues of the Chinese government, as hereafter
provided for, are duly
discharged by Her Britannic Majesty's subjects.
ART. III. It being obviously necessary and desirable that British
subjects should
have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships
when required, and
keep stores for that purpose, His Majesty the Emperor of China
cedes to Her Majesty
the Queen of Great Britain, &c., the island of Hong Kong, to be
possessed in
perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, her heirs and successors,
and to be governed
by such laws and regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain, &C., shall
see fit to direct.
ART. IV. The Emperor of China agrees to pay the sum of six
millions of dollars, as
the value of the opium which was delivered up at Canton in the
month of March
1839, as a ransom for the lives of Her Britannic Majesty's
superintendent and
subjects, who had been imprisoned and threatened with death by
the Chinese high
officers.
ART. V. The government of China having compelled the British
merchants trading
at Canton to deal exclusively with certain Chinese merchants,
called hong-
merchants (or co-hong), who had been licensed by the Chinese

54. government for that
purpose, the Emperor of China agrees to abolish that practice in
future at all ports
where British merchants may reside, and to permit them to carry
on their mercantile
transactions with whatever persons they please; and His
Imperial Majesty further
agrees to pay to the British government the sum of three
millions of dollars, on
account of debts due to British subjects by some of the said
hong-merchants, or co-
hong, who have become insolvent, and who owe very large sums
of money to
subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.
ART. VI. The government of Her Britannic Majesty having been
obliged to send
out an expedition to demand and obtain redress for the violent
and unjust
proceedings of the Chinese high authorities towards Her
Britannic Majesty's officer
and subjects, the Emperor of China agrees to pay the sum of
twelve millions of
dollars, on account of the expenses incurred; and Her Britannic
Majesty's
plenipotentiary voluntarily agrees, on behalf of Her Majesty, to
deduct from the said
amount of twelve millions of dollars, any sums which may have
been received by
Her Majesty's combined forces, as ransom for cities and towns
in China, subsequent
to the 1st day of August, 1841.
ART. VII. It is agreed, that the total amount of twenty-one
millions of dollars,
described in the three preceding Articles, shall be paid as

55. follows:
Six millions immediately. Six millions in 1843; that is, three
millions on or before
the 30th of the month of June, and three millions on or before
the 31st of December.
Five millions in 1844; that is, two millions and half on or
before the 30th of June,
and two millions and a half on before the 3lst of December.
Four millions in 1845;
that is, two millions on or before the 30th of June, and two
millions on or before the
31st of December.
And it is further stipulated, that interest, at the rate of 5 per
cent. per annum, shall
be paid by the government of China on any portion of the above
sums that are not
punctually discharged at the periods fixed.
ART. VIII. The Emperor of China agrees to release,
unconditionally, all subjects of
Her Britannic Majesty (whether natives of Europe or India),
who may be in
confinement at this moment in any part of the Chinese empire.
ART. IX. The Emperor of China agrees to publish and
promulgate, under His
Imperial Sign Manual and Seal, a full and entire amnesty and
act of indemnity to all
subjects of China, on account of their having resided under, or
having had dealings
and intercourse with, or having entered the service of, Her
Britannic Majesty, or of

56. Her Majesty's officers; and His Imperial Majesty further
engages to release all
Chinese subjects who may be at this moment in confinement for
similar reasons.
ART. X. His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees to establish
at all the ports which
are, by the second article of this Treaty, to be thrown open for
the resort of British
merchants, a fair and regular tariff of export and import customs
and other dues,
which tariff shall be publicly notified and promulgated for
general information; and
the Emperor further engages, that when British merchandize
shall have one paid at
any of the said ports the regulated customs and dues, agreeable
to the Tariff to be
hereafter fixed, such merchandize may be conveyed by Chinese
merchants to any
province or city in the interior of the empire of China, on
paying a further amount
as transit duties, which shall not exceed per cent. on the tariff
value of such goods.
ART. XL. It is agreed that Her Britannic Majesty's chief high
officer in China shall
correspond with the Chinese high officers, both at the capital
and in the provinces,
under the term "communication;” the subordinate British
officers and Chinese high
officers in the provinces, under the terms "statement," on the
part of the former, and
on the part of the latter, "declaration;" and the subordinates of
both countries on a
footing of perfect equality; merchants and others not holding

57. official situations, and
therefore not included in the above, on both sides, to use the
term "representation"
in all papers addressed to, or intended for the notice of the
respective governments.
ART. XII. On the assent of the Emperor of China to this Treaty
being received, and
the discharge of the first instalment money, Her Britannic
Majesty's forces will retire
from Nanking and the Grand Canal, and will no longer molest or
stop the trade of
China. The military post at Chinhai will also be withdrawn; but
the islands of Kúláng
sú and that of Chusan will continue to be held by Her Majesty's
forces until the
money payments, and the arrangements for opening the ports to
British merchants,
be completed.
ART. XII. The ratification of this treaty by Her Majesty the
Queen of Britain, &c.,
and His Majesty the Emperor of China, shall be exchanged as
soon as the great
distance which separates England from China will admit; but, in
the meantime,
counterpart copies of it, signed and sealed by the
plenipotentiaries on behalf of their
respective sovereigns, shall be mutually delivered, and all its
provisions and
arrangements shall take effect.
Done at Nanking, and signed and sealed by the plenipotentiaries
on board Her
Britannic Majesty's ship Cornwallis, this twenty-ninth day of
August, 1842;

58. corresponding with the Chinese date, twenty-fourth day of the
seventh month, in the
twenty-second year of Táukwáng.
(L.S.) HENRY POTTINGER.
(L.S.) Kiying (in Tartar)
(L.S.) I'lípú (in Tartar)
Fei Ch'i-hao was a Chinese Christian. Here he recounts the
activities of the millenialist "Boxers" in the Boxer
Rebellion of 1900.
IV
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM
The people of Shansi are naturally timid and gentle, not given
to making disturbances, being the most
peaceable people in China. So our Shansi Christians were
hopeful for themselves, even when the reports
from the coast grew more alarming. But there was one thing
which caused us deep apprehension, and that
was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of
foreigners, was the newly appointed Governor of
Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in
Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress
Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and were true

59. patriots.
Early in June my college friend K'ung Hsiang Hsi came back
from T'ungchou for his vacation, reporting that
the state of affairs there and at Peking was growing worse, that
the local officials were powerless against
the Boxers, and that the Boxers, armed with swords, were
constantly threatening Christians scattered in the
country.
From this time we had no communication with Tientsin or
Peking. All travellers were searched, and if
discovered bearing foreign letters they were killed. So though
several times messengers were started out to
carry our letters to the coast, they were turned back by the
Boxers before they had gone far. It was not
long before the Boxers, like a pestilence, had spread all over
Shansi. School had not closed yet in Fen Chou
Fu, but as the feeling of alarm deepened, fathers came to take
their boys home, and school was dismissed
before the end of June.
Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren and Miss Eldred of the China Inland
Mission had come to Mrs. Price's about the
middle of June, and after the Boxer trouble began they were
unable to leave. Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren soon
heard that their mission at P'ing Yao had been burned.
During the two long months that followed not a word reached us
from beyond the mountains. The church in
Shansi walked in darkness, not seeing the way before it.
The wicked Governor, Yü Hsien, scattered proclamations
broadcast. These stated that the foreign religions
overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods
and men were stirred up against them, and

60. Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign
devils. Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful
to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to unite in
wiping out the foreign religion. He also
offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either titles or
office or money. When the highest official in the
province took such a stand in favor of the Boxers, what could
inferior officials do? People and officials
bowed to his will, and all who enlisted as Boxers were in high
favor. It was a time of license and anarchy,
when not only Christians were killed, but hundreds of others
against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.
Crowds of people kept passing our mission gate to see what
might be happening, for the city was full of
rumors. "The foreigners have all fled."
"Many foreigners from other places have gathered here."
"A great cannon has been mounted at the mission gate."
"The foreigners have hired men to poison wells, and to smear
gates with blood."
I was staying in the compound with the Prices, inside the west
gate of the city, and Mr. and Mrs. Atwater,
with their children, Bertha and Celia, lived near the east gate.
On the 28th of June all day long a mob of one
or two hundred roughs, with crowds of boys, stood at the gate
of the Atwater place, shouting:
"Kill the foreigners, loot the houses."
Mr. Atwater came out once and addressed the crowd:

61. "Friends, don't make this disturbance; whoever would like to
come in, I invite to come, and we will talk
together."
When the crowd saw Mr. Atwater come out, they all retreated,
but when he shut the gate they thronged
back again with mad shouts. This happened several times. By
six or seven in the evening the crowd had
increased and gathered courage. The gate was broken down and
they surged in, some shouting, some
laying hands on whatever they could find to steal, some
throwing stones and brickbats at the windows. As
they rushed in, Mr. Atwater and his family walked through their
midst and took refuge in the Yamen of the
District Magistrate, which was near by. The Magistrate, not
even waiting for his official chair, ran at once to
the mission and arrested two men with his own hands. His
attendants followed close behind him, and the
mob scattered. The Magistrate then sent soldiers to stand guard
at the mission gate, and the Atwaters came
to live with the Prices. We expected the mob to make an attack
on us that same night, but we were left in
peace...
Late in July a proclamation of the Governor was posted in the
city in which occurred the words,
"Exterminate foreigners, kill devils." Native Christians must
leave the church or pay the penalty with their
lives. Li Yij and I talked long and earnestly over plans for
saving the lives of our beloved missionaries. "You
must not stay here waiting for death," we said. Yet we realized
how difficult it would be to escape.
Foreigners with light hair and fair faces are not easily
disguised. Then where could they go? Eastward
toward the coast all was in tumult. Perhaps the provinces to the
south were just as bad. Our best way

62. would be to find a place of concealment in the mountains. Li Y0
and I thought that the chances of escape
would be better if the missionaries divided into two companies;
they must carry food, clothing, and bedding,
and the large company would surely attract attention. Moreover,
if they were in two parties, and one was
killed, the other might escape. So Li Yü and I went to talk the
matter over with Mr. Han, the former helper,
and a Deacon Wang. Both of these men had recanted, but they
still loved their foreign friends. Deacon
Wang, who lived in a village over ten miles from Fen Chou Fu,
wished to conceal Mr. and Mrs. Price and
little Florence in his home for a day or two, and then take them
very secretly to a broken-down temple in
the mountains. Li Yü said to me:
"If you can escape with Mr. and Mrs. Price to the mountains, I
will try to take the Atwaters, Mr. and Mrs.
Lundgren, and Miss Eldred to another place in the mountains."
But when I proposed this plan to Mr. and Mrs. Price, they said:
"We missionaries do not wish to be separated. We must be in
one place, and if we die we want to die
together."
When I spoke to them again about going, they said:
"Thank you for your love, but we do not want to desert the other
missionaries."
"You will not be deserting them," I pleaded. "If you decide to
flee with me, Mr. Li will do his best to escape
with the others."
Then I brought forward all my arguments to persuade them.
Again all consulted together, and decided to
go. I think this was the last day of July-the very day of the Tai
Ku tragedy. Mr. and Mrs. Price made up two

63. bundles of baggage and gave them to Mr. Han, to be carried
secretly to Deacon Wang's home. Mr. Han paid
a large price for a covered cart to wait for us secretly at ten
o'clock in the evening at the gate of an old
temple north of the mission. We were to walk to the cart, as it
would attract attention if the cart stopped
near the mission. We could not leave by the front gate, for the
four Yamen men were guarding it; and
patrolling the streets in front by day and night were twenty
soldiers, ostensibly protecting us, but, as we
surmised, stationed there to prevent the escape of foreigners. I
went privately to the back of the compound
and unlocked an unused gate, removing also a stone which
helped to keep it shut. I had already made up a
bundle to carry with me, and asked Mr. Jen, a Chirstian
inquirer, to take care of it while I was helping Mr.
and Mrs. Price to get ready. After I had opened the gate I asked
Mr. Jen to wait there until I went into the
south court to call the Prices.
Man proposes, but God disposes. A Mr. Wang who had often
come to the mission knew that we were
planning to escape that night and saw me give my bundle to Mr.
Jen. Thinking that it must contain some
valuable things belonging to the Prices, an evil thought entered
his heart. He watched when Mr. Jen laid the
bundle in a small empty room close by the gate, and after he
came out, Mr. Wang went into the room. Mr.
Jen thought nothing of this, supposing that Mr. Wang was a
friend. But in a minute he saw Mr. Wang rush
out of the room, leap over the wall, and run away. Going at
once into the room and not finding the bundle,
he lost his head completely, and set up a loud wail. His one
thought was that he had been faithless to his

64. trust, and sitting down in the back gate which I had opened so
secretly, he cried at the top of his voice,
thus bringing to naught our carefully laid plans to escape. Up
ran the four Yamen men and the soldiers from
the street. Everyone in the compound appeared on the scene.
When I heard his outcry I thought that he
had received some serious injury. All gathered about him asking
his trouble, but overcome with emotion he
jumped up and down, slapping his legs and crying lustily.
Finally he managed to say through his tears, "Mr.
Fay [Fei], Mr. Wang has stolen the things which you gave me.
"When I heard this I could neither laugh nor cry nor storm at
him. The Yamen men and soldiers at once
picked up their lanterns and began to search. When they saw
that the back gate had been unlocked and the
stone removed, not knowing that I had done it, they began to
scold and mutter:
"These things! How contemptible they are! When did they open
this gate in order to steal the foreigners'
things?"
As they muttered they locked the gate and replaced the stone,
then left two men to guard it.
It was after midnight when this commotion was over, and every
gate was guarded. Mr. Price and I saw that
it would be impossible to get out that night. Even if we could
leave the compound, we could not reach
Deacon Wang's before daylight. If we attempted it, the Prices
would not be saved, and Deacon Wang's
whole family would be endangered.
So I went alone outside the compound to tell Mr. Han to dismiss
the cart. As soon as he saw me, he said

65. quickly:
"It is indeed well that the Prices have not come. I just came
across several thieves, and was mistaken for
one of their company. One of them said to me, 'If you get
anything, you must divide with me.' If the Prices
had come out, I fear they would have been killed."
The next day we consulted again about flight. Li Yii said:
"Let us flee all together to the mountains from thirty to sixty
miles away."
So we hired a large cart and loaded it with food and other
necessities, and sent it ahead of us into the
mountains. Two Christian inquirers went with the cart to guard
it. When it had entered the mountains about
seven miles from the city, suddenly a man ran up and said to the
inquirers:
"Run quick for your lives! Your mission in the city is burning,
and the foreigners have all been killed."
As soon as they had jumped down from the cart and run away,
rascals came up and stole all that was on
the cart.
When we heard this we gave up all hope of escape, especially as
we were told that bad men in the city had
heard of our intention, and were hiding outside the city day and
night ready to kill and rob the foreigners if
they should appear. So we talked no more of fleeing, but
committed our lives into the hands of our
Heavenly Father, to do as seemed to Him best. We had little
hope that we would be saved. Still we kept
guard every night, Mr. Atwater and Mr. Lundgren being on duty
the first half of the night, and Mr. Price and
I the last half. At that time all of the servants had left us, and
Mrs. Price did all the cooking, Mrs. Lundgren
and Miss Eldred helping her. It was the hottest time in summer,

66. and Mrs. Price stood over the stove with
flushed face wet with perspiration. Li Y0 and I were so sorry
for her, and wanted to help her, but alas!
neither of us knew how to cook foreign food, so we could only
wash the dishes and help to wash the
clothes.
Li Yü was so helpful those days. He alone went outside the
compound to see the Magistrate, to transact
business, to purchase food, and every day to get the news.
August had come, and we were still alive. Could it be that God
wishing to show His mighty power, would
out of that whole province of Shansi save the missionaries at
Fen Chou Fu and Tai Ku?The second day of
August, a little after noon, a man came into our compound with
the saddest story that our ears had heard
during those sad summer days. He was Mrs. Clapp's cook, and
two days before, in the afternoon, he had
fled from the Tai Ku compound when flame and sword and rifle
were doing their murderous work. As he
fled he saw Mr. Clapp, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Davis making a
last vain effort to keep back the mob of
hundreds of soldiers and Boxers, and saw Mrs. Clapp, Miss
Partridge, Miss Bird, and Ruth taking refuge in a
little court in the back of the compound. Miss Bird had said to
him as he ran:
"Be quick! be quick! "
Over the compound wall, then the city wall, he had taken shelter
in a field of grain, where he still heard the
howling of the mob and saw the heavens gray with smoke from
the burning buildings. He hid in the grain

67. until morning broke, then started on his journey to Fen Chou
Fu.
So to our little company waiting so long in the valley of the
shadow of death, came the tidings that our Tai
Ku missionaries had crossed the river. Several native Christians
who counted not their lives dear unto
themselves, had gone with the martyr band. Eagerly I asked
about my sister, her husband and child. The
messenger did not know whether they were living or dead---
only that they had been staying in the mission
buildings outside the city. Two days later full accounts of the
massacre reached us, and I knew that they
were among the slain.
Bitter were the tears which we shed together that afternoon. It
seemed as if my heart was breaking as I
thought of the cruel death of those whom I loved so much, and
whom I should never again see on earth.
What words can tell my grief? I could not sleep that night, nor
for many nights following. I thought how
lovingly Mr. and Mrs. Clapp had nursed me through my long
illness. I wept for Miss Bird, who had
sympathized with me and helped me. "My dear ones, my dear
ones, who loved and helped me as if I were
your very flesh and blood, who brought so much joy and peace
to the lonely one far from his home, who
worked so earnestly for God, who pitied and helped the
suffering and poor, would that I could have died for
you! Could my death have saved one of You, gladly would I
have laid down my life.
"The Tai Ku missionaries were gone, the Christians were killed
or scattered, the buildings were all burned.
We of Fen Chou Fu alone were left. We all thought that our day
was at hand, but God still kept us for nearly

68. two weeks. And now I want to tell you the story of those
remaining days.
VLAST DAYS AT FEN CHOU FU
The next day after we heard of the Tai Ku tragedy a man ran in
to tell us that several hundred Boxers were
coming from the east. They were those who had killed the
missionaries at Tai Ku, and now they were
resting in a village outside the east gate, prepared to attack our
mission that afternoon. We all believed this
report, for we were hourly expecting death. There was nothing
the foreigners could do but to wait for the
end. Mr. Price urged me to leave them at once and flee. Mr.
Price, Mrs. Atwater, Mrs. Lundgren, and Miss
Eldred all gave me letters to home friends. All of my foreign
friends shook hands with me at parting, and
Mrs. Atwater said, with tears in her eyes:"May the Lord
preserve your life, and enable you to tell our story
to others."Miss Eldred had prepared for herself a belt into
which was stitched forty taels of silver. She
thought that she was standing at the gate of death and would
have no use for money, so she gave it to me
for my travelling expenses. Mrs. Price gave me her gold watch
and an envelope on which an address was
written, and asked me to take the watch to Tientsin and find
someone who would sent it to her father.
Before I went out of the I gate I saw Mrs. Price holding her
little daughter to her heart, kissing her through
her tears, and heard her say:
"If the Boxers come today, I want my little Florence to go
before I do."

69. My heart was pierced with grief as I saw the sad plight of my
friends, but I could do nothing for them. Had I
died with them it could not have helped them. So we parted with
many tears.
While I was away the Magistrate had sent for Li Yü and
demanded that all the firearms of the foreigners be
given up to him. Li Yü replied, "I know the missionaries will
use their weapons only in self-defense.
"The Magistrate was very angry, and ordered that Li Yü be
beaten three hundred blows, with eighty
additional blows on his lips because he had used the word 'I' in
speaking to the Magistrate, instead of the
humble "little one" which was customary. Li Yü was then
locked in the jail, and the Magistrate sent men to
the mission to demand the firearms. The missionaries could not
refuse to comply, so their two shotguns and
two revolvers were given up.
In this time of need two Christians named Chang and Tien came
to help the missionaries. They worked for
Mrs. Price to the last. The sufferings of the missionaries were
indeed sore. Their patience and perfect trust
in God greatly moved my heart. In the summer heat Mrs. Price
three times a day hung over the stove
preparing food for her family of ten, yet I never heard a word of
complaint. Her face was always peaceful,
and often she sang as she went about her work. One evening
when we were all standing in the yard
together Mrs. Price said to me:
"These days my thoughts are much on 'the things above.'
Sometimes when I think of the sufferings through
which my loved friends passed it seems as if a voice from
heaven said to me, 'Dear sister, see how happy

70. we are now; all of earth's sufferings are over, and if our sorrows
on earth are compared with our bliss in
heaven, they are nothing, nothing."'
Miss Eldred was very young, and had come from England only a
year or two before, so she could speak little
Chinese. The expression of her gentle face moved one to pity.
When she was not helping Mrs. Price, she
played outdoors with the three children, and gave Mrs. Price's
little daughter music lessons.
We still patrolled the place at night, I continuing to take my
turn with Mr. Price in the last half of the night.
So I had an opportunity for forming a most intimate friendship
with Mr. Price. He told me many things
during those long hours, sometimes relating his own
experiences when a soldier during the American Civil
War.
Every day at sunset I played with Florence Price and Celia and
Bertha Atwater. Ever since I had come to Fen
Chou Fu I had played an hour with Florence. This had been
good for both of us, for me because I learned
English by talking with her, and for Florence because she had
no children for companions and was very
lonely. If there was a day when something prevented my going
to her as usual, she would come or send for
me. When Mr. Atwater moved to the same place his two little
girls were very fond of romping with me too. I
often carried the children on my shoulder, and they loved me
very much. At seven o'clock, when their
mothers called them to go to bed, all three would kiss me,
saying: "Good-night, Mr. Fay, good-night.
Pleasant dreams, pleasant dreams." So it was until the day when
they left the earth.