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PUBLIC INSTRUCTION THE LITERATI. 813
tion of parents to instruct their male offspring has been universally recognised.
All towns and villages must be provided with schools, whose teachers are supported
by the commune, and freely chosen on the recommendation of the householders.
Wealthy families generally keep one or two tutors, and in the large towns there
are evening classes for the convenience of those engaged at work during the day.
Thus has been developed a deep-rooted respect for learning amongst all classes. A
sort of reverence is inspired by the inscriptions and sentences of the ancient sages,
which adorn the houses and public buildings, and which convert the whole country
into a vast library. The very paper
is revered, as if the words covering
it were the essence of all know-
ledge.
" After reading and writing the
whole education of the Chinese con-
sists in the knowledge of the ancient
classics, which in themselves con-
tain many excellent doctrines, but
are hardly sufficient to form the
beginning, middle, and end of a
man's education. Moreover, in these
ancient classics there are many
exceedingly difficult and obscure
passages; a certain fixed interpreta-
tion of these is prescribed by law,
and woe betide the unfortunate
candidate at an examination who
should venture to think for himself,
suggest any new meaning, or cast
additional light on that which has
Fig.
150. M. YANO, ATTACHE OF THE CHINESE
LEGATION IN PARIS.
once been explained by the sages in a certain way, and of which in consequence
any further illumination would be profane.
"Can it be possible for any nation to devise a system which would more effectually
"
crush' out all germs of
originality
or thought from the mind *
of the people ?
Yet the superstitious respect for this system has been transferred to the literati,
and to the Government which they represent. Men who have had the good fortune to
penetrate into the mysteries of writing seemed almost like demigods. But recent
events cannot but tend to diminish the traditional veneration of the masses for
the literati. The hollowness of their vaunted science has been revealed, and
it was discovered that, without having studied the " five classics," foreigners
have succeeded in making discoveries immeasurably more important than the
dry-as-dust commentaries on the words of Confucius. Here are already the
germs of a moral revolution, which cannot fail to have its political consequences.
The prestige of authority is on the wane, and no efforts of the mandarins will
53
.
Gill, op. cit. i. p. 307.