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EAST ASIA.
it. A still greater number hope to raise themselves to the same position, and are,
together with their relations, thus induced to endure such evils patiently rather
than seek to overthrow a Government, the characteristic feature of which is a
system they hope eventually to derive more personal advantages from than would
be sufficient to compensate them for what they suffer. With this latter body
of literati, rising scholars and their near relations, the actual holders of office are,
moreover, always obliged to be somewhat more scrupulous and tender in their
dealings. Hence the only class which the mandarins have to repress and overcome
by force is composed of persons who have either no natural ability, or are too poor
to procure an education persons who, with a moderate proportion of talented and
educated leaders, would from their number and their desperation be truly formid-
able, but, left as they are to themselves, only break out into tumults and insurrections,
which, like the Jacquerie in France, and the insurrection of the common
people in the minority of Richard II. in England, and those that prevailed in the
south of Germany and in Hungary during the end of the fifteenth and the first
quarter of the sixteenth centuries, are ultimately put down with terrible loss
to themselves, after some well-deserved punishments have been inflicted and some
ravages committed by them at the first outbreak.
In China, in addition to the absence of talent and knowledge on the side of the
insurrectionists, it so happens that the education, which the promotion of talent
and ability only to the honour and wealth conferred by office diffuses so extensively,
is of a nature which tends materially to prevent ideas of resistance spreading among
the people. Every man is induced to learn himself, and infuse anxiously into
the minds of his children from their earliest infancy, a set of doctrines all
inculcating the duty of patient endurance, the necessity of subordination, and the
beauty of a quiet, orderly life. The feelings with which the people are thus
imbued would not, of course, be sufficient of themselves to prevent a successful rise
against the cruel oppressions actually existing. But they help to do so, and in
every case they give a speedier effect to the power, moral and physical, which
is put in motion to suppress commotion. For it is only very strong, and therefore
very rare, minds that are able to offer a continued practical resistance to the deep
impressions of early youth.*
THE MANDARINS.
All the civil and military officials, often grouped under the collective
designation of Pe-lmni ("Hundred Functions"), bear the generic name of
Kirnny-fu, translated in European languages by the terra "mandarin," which
was originally the Portuguese pronunciation of the Hindu title of the native
magistrates in Goa.t They are divided into nine orders, outwardly distinguished
by the colour and material of the "button," or knob, about the size of a
pigeon's egg, which is attached to the official cap of straw, felt, or silk, either
* Th. Meadows, op. cit. p. 190.
t Col. Yule's " Book of Ser Marco Polo."