A NEW ROAD

One of the most striking defects in the civilisation of China is the absence of anything that can be truly called a road. It seems strange that so vast, so populous, and, in many ways, so highly civilised a State should have held together longer than any other empire in history in default of any decent means of intercommunication. The wonder is that China did not remain the congeries of independent States that it practically was in the time of Confucius and such as Europe is now. Too few details have come down to us of the events of the third century before Christ — which led to the union of the whole empire under the despotism of Chin Shih Hwangti, the " First Emperor " so called — for us to understand how the Napoleon of China succeeded where a similar attempt, and by a more consummate genius, in Europe, two thousand years later, utterly broke down. We know that China again split up into " Three Kingdoms " four hundred years afterwards, and was not finally reunited until after another century of internecine strife. Since then, amidst the many struggles that have accompanied the several changes of dynasties, no attempt at separation has taken place, although did any province desire to set up for itself, nothing would seem to be easier than to hold any invading troops at bay in the roadless mountains which generally form the boundaries. No motive for any such separation exists now, however, the welding of the many regions that compose China proper being thorough and complete, and the intercommunication most active though carried on under difficulties which would repel a less patient people.

新道路

中國文明中最顯著的缺陷之一，就是缺乏真正意義上的道路。令人驚訝的是，這樣一個幅員遼闊、人口眾多、在許多方面高度文明的國家，竟然在缺乏體面的交通網絡的情況下，能夠比歷史上任何其他帝國持續更長時間而不分裂。奇怪的是，中國沒有像孔子時代那樣，保持作為實際上的獨立邦國聯盟，就如當今的歐洲一般。

關於公元前三世紀的具體歷史細節，我們所知不多，那是中國在「始皇帝」秦始皇的專制統治下統一全國的時期。我們無法完全理解他是如何成功的，而兩千年後，在歐洲，拿破崙這樣一位更具才華的天才卻未能實現相似的統一。我們知道，中國在四百年後再次分裂成「三國」，並經歷了一個多世紀的內戰才重新統一。然而，自那以後，無論經歷了多少朝代更替和內部衝突，從未有任何企圖分裂的舉動。

儘管如此，如果某個省份試圖自立，憑藉那片無路可通的邊界山脈，似乎很容易就能抵禦入侵的軍隊。然而，如今已經沒有任何分裂的動機，因為中國內地各個地區的聯繫已經牢固而完整，儘管交通不便，溝通仍然非常活躍，而這是那些更為不耐煩的民族難以實現的。

118 GLEANINGS FROM CHINA

A NEW ROAD 119

The range of not very lofty but extremely rugged and precipitous mountains, roughly some two hundred miles in diameter, that separates the basin of Szechuan from the plains of Hupeh is, as most people are aware, pierced alone by the thread of the Yangtse river, which has found or cut for itself a comparatively level road, walled in by lofty cliffs nearly the whole distance. This road forms the main channel of communication between Eastern and Western China. But it is, and always will remain, a dangerous road as long as the vessels that navigate its foaming torrent are confined to the weak power of human muscle for their means of propulsion and are dependent for their safety on the strength of a plaited tow-line. Accidents are consequently of frequent occurrence, and though the loss of life amongst passengers may not be serious, that amongst the trackers is truly appalling, a " slip " from the almost vertical cliffs or from the huge, jagged rocks amidst which they painfully climb their way, harnessed to a five-hundred-yard tow-line, proving seldom other than fatal to life or limb, as we have too frequently ourselves had occasion to notice. Owing to the vast and rapid changes that occur in the level of the river, the extremes being as much as 200 feet, no permanent towing path can be built, and thus, hereabouts, in the summer season, when the current runs strong, eight to ten miles is a good day's journey ; and such day's journeys as these are not seldom interrupted by a fortnight's rest, when the vessel, having grazed a sunken rock, is hauled aside for repair before she is able to resume her voyage.

這段並不十分高聳但極其險峻的山脈，橫亙在四川盆地和湖北平原之間，直徑大約兩百英里。眾所周知，這片山脈的唯一通道便是長江這條大河，它為自己開闢出了一條相對平坦的水路，沿途幾乎全程都被高聳的峭壁夾峙。這條河流成為中國東西部之間主要的交通要道。然而，這條路一直危險重重，原因在於航行在洶湧激流中的船隻，主要依靠人力纜繩來推進，而安全全然依賴這條編織的纖弱纜繩。因此，事故屢見不鮮，儘管乘客的生命損失可能不大，但纖夫的死亡率卻異常驚人。

這些纖夫繫著長達五百碼的纖繩，艱難地攀爬在幾乎垂直的懸崖或嶙峋的巨石上，而一旦失足，便極可能造成致命的傷亡，這種情況我們已經多次見證。由於長江水位的急劇變化，水位的波動幅度可達200英尺，因此無法建造永久的纖道。在夏季水流湍急時，船隻每天前進八至十英里已經算是極佳的成績。然而，這樣的航程經常會因為船隻碰觸到暗礁而中斷，船隻不得不被拖到一旁進行維修，這樣的修理可能會耗時兩週，船隻才得以繼續前行。

120 GLEANINGS FROM CHINA

The Chinese authorities, with whom of course rests the initiative of any change, would doubtless have resisted any improvement as keenly and as successfully as they did the recent proposed introduction of steam on this route, but for the unfortunate drowning some ten years ago of two of the sons of one of their number. As for England the immolation of a Railway Director was said to be necessary in order to compel the introduction of an improved brake, so the wreck and loss of a mandarin junk with its occupants was the least that could turn the attention of the local officials to the improvement of means of communication in China. The late General Pao, or Pao-chao as he was generally called, was one of the celebrities of theTaiping rebellion, in the suppression of which he filled one of the leading parts. He had been rewarded with the command at Kwei-chow Fu, or, as it is commonly termed to distinguish it from the Kweichow in Hupeh, Kwei-fu, the great frontier city of Szechuan, where his spacious yamen is still a conspicuous feature in the landscape. The loss of his family, which, however, he did not long survive, led to the resuscitation of the old project of a land road through the gorges, in the construction of which there were no insuperable natural difficulties to be surmounted, although the, in China, more formidable question of how to provide the ways and means still remained to be met. Ultimately the Governors of the two provinces concerned, Szechuan and Hupeh, appear to have agreed to make the road, each province building its own portion. The total distance from Ichang to Kweichow Fu is in actual longitude a hundred miles, which with the windings round the ravines probably makes the distance to be traversed by the new road little less than 200 miles. Of this about sixty miles make up the distance from Kwei-fu to the frontier and fall to the charge of Szechuan ; leaving the balance of 140 miles to be constructed by the Hupeh authorities.

中國當局掌握了所有變革的主動權，原本他們可能會像之前那樣，對在這條航道上引入蒸汽動力的建議進行強烈且成功的抵制，若非十年前其中一位官員的兩個兒子不幸溺水身亡。就像英國為了推行改良煞車系統而「犧牲」了一位鐵路董事一樣，一艘載著官員的船隻發生意外並沉沒，才足以引起當地官員對改善中國交通問題的關注。

已故的鮑超將軍（Pao-chao），太平天國之亂的知名鎮壓者之一，曾在平定叛亂中扮演重要角色，並因此被任命為四川邊境城市夔州府（現稱夔府）的總指揮官。如今，他宏偉的衙門仍是當地風景的一部分。他家人的喪生使得當局重新考慮修建穿越峽谷的陸路。儘管這個項目在自然地理上並無難以克服的障礙，但中國的最大問題仍然是如何籌措資金。

最終，四川和湖北兩省的總督達成協議，各自負責修建這條道路的一部分。從宜昌到夔州府的直線距離約為100英里，但因為需繞過峽谷，實際路程將接近200英里。其中，約60英里的路段位於四川境內，剩下的140英里則由湖北當局負責建設。

A NEW ROAD 121

The Szechuan portion of the road was successfully completed in 1890, but no beginning has yet been made on the Hupeh portion, and thus the road terminates on the brink of the almost inaccessible ravine which marks the boundary. Down this ravine passes a mountain burn named Pien Ue Chi (Bream Stream), which breaks the south side of the wild Wushan Gorge about 20 miles from its upper (western) end.

In the Chinese Gazetteer the distances are given as 435 li from Ichang to the boundary, and as 195 It from the boundary to Kwei-fu, making the total distance through the gorges 630 li or (at 3 It to the mile) 210 statute miles. It is curious thus to see a solidly built road winding along the face of these desolate, uninhabited mountains, and still more curious to note its abrupt termination high up the hill side on the edge of an impassable ravine ; but the traveller, wearied with ten days or a fortnight's confinement to his boat, welcomes its appearance as giving him at last the chance of a walk without having to stumble over rocks or climb mountain slopes that nothing but goats and trackers (and these latter often come to grief) can hope to traverse with impunity. His pleasure is only somewhat marred by regrets that the work, which when completed would do away with the necessity of a boat altogether, is still only half begun, and by the information received in Ichang that there is no immediate prospect of beginning the Hupeh portion, for want of the two and a half millions of taels which it is estimated to cost. The Szechuan portion is said to have cost 900,000 taels, being at the rate of 15,000 taels per mile, which seems an excessive figure for the actual work done.

四川段的道路於1890年成功完工，但湖北段至今尚未動工，因此這條道路在邊界的陡峭峽谷處突然中斷。這條峽谷中流淌著一條名為鰱魚溪（Pien Ue Chi）的山溪，穿過巫山峽谷的南側，距其西端約20英里。