Ch. 215.12.
[Harvard Library stamp and note about Wolcott Fund]
vi PREFACE
PREFACE
In publishing an account of what might almost be called "A Walking Tour on the Thibetan Border," I tender no addition to the records of geographical exploration, but simply a picture of China as it exists far removed from Western influence—a China which must ere long pass away as old Japan has done, though with slower steps. Many travellers have passed through the country on their way to and from Thibet, but few have lingered over the Chinese portion as we did, and none have travelled precisely the same route.
China is often regarded as a land of plains and paddy-fields, and it is a surprise to many dwellers on the Coast to learn that, barring the small Cheng Tu plateau in Northern Szechuan, there is scarcely an acre of level ground west of Ichang—nothing but range upon range of precipitous mountains. In penetrating these and in living in a far inland city like Chungking, one finds one's self in plein moyen age, and is enabled to realise the lives of our ancestors before the Reformation awakened men to think for themselves, and started them on the course which has left the Chinese, once our superiors, so far behind. We realise then how our own ancestors managed to live contentedly, as they undoubtedly did, in such, to us, utter discomfort. No newspapers, no public post, no roads beyond foot trails, no street cleaning, no drains, no fires in winter, and no ice in summer. Against these drawbacks, however, we have the brilliant costumes of the Middle Ages pervading China to-day, all but the very poorest being richly and gracefully clad, while our modern dress is as unbecoming as our street architecture un-aesthetic. The aesthetic feeling had the upper hand in our Middle Ages as it has in China to-day. We admire but with slight reverence cannot rival the Gothic buildings of our rude forefathers. Chinese buildings seem to grow up intrinsically picturesque and in exquisite harmony with the surroundings among which they stand. Any one who has had the good fortune to peruse Garnier's Exploration of the Mekong must have been impressed by the romantic beauty displayed in his views of the mountain cities in Yunnan and Eastern Thibet. This rural harmony of Chinese towns and hamlets with surrounding nature thus adds so much to the charm of the mountain views in inhabited districts. In uninhabited regions one has at least Nature pure and unsullied—not scarred by a funicular railway and plastered with mammoth hotels.
在出版這本可以說是「在西藏邊境的徒步旅行」記錄時，我並非旨在補充地理探險的相關資料，而是試圖描繪一幅遠離西方影響的中國景象——一個必將隨著時間推移逐漸消逝的中國，如同舊日本那般，只是步伐稍慢。我們途經的路線曾有不少旅人通過，但像我們這樣駐足於中國部分、深入探索的卻寥寥無幾，且無人走過與我們完全相同的路徑。
中國常被視為一片平原和稻田之地，對許多沿海地區的居民而言，得知除了四川北部的小成都平原外，自宜昌以西幾乎找不到一片平坦的土地，而是山脈綿延起伏，這樣的景象無疑讓人驚訝。深入這些山區，或是生活在像重慶這樣的內陸城市，讓人感到彷彿置身於「中世紀」，得以體會宗教改革前我們祖先的生活方式——一種未曾覺醒自我思考的生活方式，而這種覺醒推動了我們的發展，最終將曾經領先於我們的中國遠遠拋在身後。在這樣的場景中，我們也更能理解祖先是如何在如此看似完全不舒適的環境中，過著安然自得的生活。沒有報紙、沒有公共郵政、沒有道路，僅有步道；沒有街道清潔、沒有排水系統、冬無取暖、夏無冰塊。然而，儘管存在這些不便，我們依然能欣賞到中國今日仍保留的中世紀璀璨服飾，除了最貧窮者外，幾乎人人衣著豐富且優雅。相比之下，我們的現代服飾顯得毫無美感，正如我們的街道建築缺乏美學價值一般。中世紀時期的審美意識在那時佔據主導地位，今日的中國亦是如此。我們欽佩但卻難以復刻我們粗獷祖先所留下的哥特式建築。中國的建築則彷彿天然生成般，與周圍環境和諧融洽，其獨特的畫面美令人嘆服。任何曾閱讀過《加尼耶的湄公河探險記》（Exploration of the Mekong）的人，都會對其描繪雲南及藏東山間城市的浪漫之美印象深刻。中國城鎮與村莊與自然環境的和諧融洽，為有居民區的山地景觀增添了無限魅力。在無人區域，則有純粹且未受玷污的自然——沒有纜車的傷痕，也沒有巨型酒店的點綴。
vii
PREFACE vii
Returning to the coast after a few years in the interior, it is hard to remember in what an incredibly backward condition ninety-nine hundredths of this vast and populous Empire yet remain. In Shanghai and the larger Treaty Ports, where the magic wand of Western progress has transformed Chinese stagnation into a bustling and prosperous activity, one fancies one's self in Europe until (as few residents do) one ventures out of the "settlements" into the native cities alongside, where filth and decay still reign supreme. The results of the war with Japan are gradually breaking down, in a friendly or, where needs must, a forcible way, the opposition of the officials to the enlightenment of their people as to better things. Hence the life I have here described is nearing its end. Whether this end will be utter decay or a new life the next century will show. At present the Chinese, under their generally incompetent and corrupt Mandarinate, are like sheep without a shepherd. The wolves are howling round them. With a China army, like the Messiah the Chinese long write and save them, or will the fate of Poland overtake her? Any change from their present state can hardly be for the better.
A simple remedy there is, had the officials but the sense to grasp it, namely, the opening up of China to European enterprise in the same way that Japan has thrown herself open by the late Treaty Revision. By this means order and progress may yet be infused into China, her immense resources be developed, and she be saved from the decay and decrepitude that have crept over her. The Western Powers had gone on protecting in the crazy status until a lesson from the Japanese awakened it. The question before us residents in China now is, Will our representatives be instructed to work for progress, or will they be told to go on as hitherto and to do their best as hitherto to support all the old abuses, fearing to face the unknown future, led by events instead of trying to guide them?
My wife was my companion on the trip to Ta Chien Lu, and to her energy in photographing under most difficult conditions and the trying interruptions of purely crowd, I am indebted for the illustrations that decorate this book.
幾年後回到沿海地區，難以想像這個幅員遼闊且人口眾多的帝國，竟有百分之九十九的地區仍處於如此落後的狀態。在上海及其他大型通商口岸，西方進步的魔杖已將中國的停滯轉化為繁忙而繁榮的景象，讓人恍若置身歐洲。然而，一旦走出租界，進入毗鄰的本地城市（這是大多數居民鮮少涉足之處），便會發現污穢與衰敗依然主宰著一切。中日戰爭的結果正在逐步瓦解官員對開化民智的抵制，無論是以友好或必要時的強制方式，使人民得以了解更好的生活。因此，我在此所描述的生活已近尾聲。這個結局究竟是徹底的衰敗，抑或是嶄新的開始，下個世紀自會揭曉。如今的中國在其普遍無能且腐敗的官僚體制下，宛如無牧之羊，而狼群已在四周虎視眈眈。中國能否藉由建立一支如彌賽亞般的強大軍隊來自救，還是將重蹈波蘭的覆轍？無論如何，任何改變都難以比現狀更糟。
若官員們具備智慧，簡單的解決方案其實近在眼前：效仿日本最近的條約修訂，開放國門讓歐洲企業進入中國。透過這種方式，中國或許能重獲秩序與進步，開發其豐富資源，避免陷入已然蔓延的衰敗與頹勢。然而，西方列強一直在維護這搖搖欲墜的現狀，直到日本的教訓才使他們醒悟。如今，我們這些在華居民面臨一個關鍵問題：我們的代表是會被指示推動進步，還是會被要求如往常般支持舊有弊端？他們是會因懼怕未知而只是被動跟隨事態發展，還是會主動引導變革？
在前往大劍峽（Ta Chien Lu）的旅程中，我的妻子與我同行。本書的插圖皆出自她之手，雖然在拍攝過程中面臨諸多困難，還要不斷應付圍觀群眾的干擾，但她依然堅持完成任務。對此，我深表感激。
viii PREFACE
These chapters originally appeared, as they were written, in the columns of the North China Herald, to the kindness of whose editor I am indebted for leave to republish them. I am encouraged to hope that they may now find approval among the larger circle of home readers.
The foregoing lines were written in 1899 before my return to China. Since then events have moved apace. Our future here depends it seems to me upon the action of the Allies in the North. If they are satisfied with the capture of Peking, and are bamboozled into a peace and a new treaty yielding on paper everything demanded, it will be 1860 over again, with the addition that the Chinese are now roused and it will only be a question of waiting until they are better and more universally armed to make another and possibly successful attempt to throw off the foreign yoke under which they now labour—officials and people alike.
But if the Allies with Britain and Japan in the van persevere until they have caught the Empress and Prince Tuan and the rest and bring them to trial, and set Kwanghsü or a "progressive" nominee on the throne—consistently opposing partition meanwhile—then we may hope for the real opening up of the country with resulting prosperity and peace.