incessant civil strife with widespread brigandage by lawless troops (in addition to the floods of 191 1 and the severe famine of 1920-1 in the northern provinces) must have produced a great increase in mortality. Since 1907 there has been a steady mi- gration of agricultural settlers from the congested provinces, especially Shantung, into Northern Manchuria, Eastern Mon- golia and Turkestan. The number of Chinese residents abroad was estimated in 1918 at about 9,000,000: of these, 2,258,000 were in Formosa; 1,500,000 in Siam; 1,825,700 in Java; 1,000,000 in the Straits Settlements, and 1,100,000 in the East Indies. The estimated number of Chinese in Australia was 35,000, and in Canada 12,000; in the United States it was in 1920 61,686.
Social Life and Education. The political upheaval of the revolution of 1911 {see below, section History), the abdication of the monarchy and the abolition of the classical system of examinations for the civil service, naturally produced among the educated classes a relaxation of the ethical restraints and a dis- turbance of many of the popular beliefs upon which the social system of the Chinese is founded. The irreverence displayed towards the canons of the sages and the Confucian doctrines (including ancestor worship) by the youthful iconoclasts who came to power with the proclamation of the republic, became speedily reflected in the widespread and increasing indiscipline of the student class, and in a loosening of that parental authority which is the keystone of the family system and of China's ancient civilization. Believing that the path to public office common goal of ambition in China would henceforward lie, not in study of the classics but in the acquirement of " western learning," men of wealth and influence were naturally disposed to allow their sons to acquire that learning, even if in so doing they should lose their reverence for the immemorial customs and ceremonial observances prescribed by the ancestral cult, and fall short of that filial piety which, according to the Confucian teaching, is the foundation of a well-ordered society. One of the first results of the revolution was therefore to give a fresh impetus to the ac- tivities of European and American missionary educational in- stitutions and to extend the influence of western ideas in many directions; these found expression in the Government's en- 'deavours to replace Chinese social customs and ceremonies by those of the West. After 1916, the increasing demoralization of the central Government produced a corresponding unrest and turbulence amongst trie-student class, which on several occasions successfully asserted its claim to intervene in questions of high policy and in foreign affairs. The strikes and the boycott of Japanese goods organized by students and young journalists (chiefly at the treaty ports) in 1919 afforded significant evidence of the relaxation of parental authority amongst the educated class of the urban population.
Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the extent of the influence of European ideas upon the social life and opinions of the agricultural and artizan classes, who constitute the great majority of the Chinese people, but it may safely be asserted that, generally speaking, the deep-rooted conservatism of the masses remains impervious to the chances and changes of the political world, and that in so far as they conform to the new ordinances promulgated by their rulers (as, for example, in the cutting of the queue), their acquiescence implies a desire to avoid trouble rather than any wide-spread desire for change, or any general departure from the philosophy of life prescribed by authority of immemorial tradition.
The republican Government's attempts to introduce by law innovations which run counter to ancient usage such as the adoption of the western calendar and the proclamation of nation- al holidays in connexion therewith have been more honoured in the breach than the observance. Except at the treaty ports and the provincial centres of western learning, the elaborate ceremonialism which distinguishes every phase of social life in China remains practically unaffected by the promulgation of the law (Aug. 1912) intended to replace the etiquette and salutations of the old regime by the European custom of hat-raising and bowing. The reforms contained in the republican and socialistic programme of the Kuo Min-Tang and other political societies
(including compulsory education, obligatory military service, equality of the sexes, etc.) became matters of frequent discussion in the vernacular press after 1912, and produced certain effects notably a movement for the emancipation of women amongst the westernized element of the younger generation. As the number and circulation of Chinese newspapers penetrated farther and farther into the interior, an increasing number of the literate minority of the nation became familiar with these ideas, but they still contained no practical meaning for the masses. Similarly, by the Criminal Code, promulgated in March 1912 and revised in 1918, torture was abolished, the prison system reformed, and trial by jury introduced, together with many other reforms based on the most modern and humane legislation; but the Code re- mains generally a dead letter in so far as the general administra- tion of justice is concerned. After the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai, the military governors in the provinces became practically independent of the central Government's authority; each within his own satrapy administered public affairs and justice as he thought fit, and since then the framing of national laws has been of little interest or benefit except to the law makers.
Authorities. A. S. Roe, Chance and Change in China (1920); Paul S. Reinsch, Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far East (1912); Emile Hpvelaque, La Chine (1920); Elizabeth Kendall, A Wayfarer in China (1913) ; R. F. Johnston, Buddhist China (1913) ; Y. K. Leong and L. K. Tao, Village and Town Life in China (1915) ; Timothy Richard, Forty-five Years in China (1916); E. H. Wilson, A Naturalist in Western China (1913).
Political History, 1910-21. Most chroniclers are agreed in dating the revolution of 1911 from the outbreak which took place at Hankow in Oct., after the accidental explosion of a bomb and the arrest of a number of anti-dynastic plotters, but the country had undoubtedly contained all the materials for an up- heaval since the death of the Empress Dowager in 1908. The causes of the revolution and of the disorganization of government which subsequently prevailed, were, like those of former rebel- lions, originally social and economic, ascribable chiefly to the disintegrating influence of " western learning " on the one hand, and, on the other, to the increasing burdens imposed upon the nation by foreign loans and indemnities. If the semi-westernized officials, politicians and students who came rapidly to the front after the initial successes of the rising at Hankow, were able to bring about the downfall of the Manchu dynasty and the establishment of a republic almost without a struggle, it was not because they represented any conscious objection to the mon- archical form of government on the part of the masses, but be- cause they constituted at the moment practically the only organ- ized body of educated opinion in the country and were inspired by definite aims and ambitions. Dr. Sun Yat-sen and other active leaders of the revolutionary movement had for some years been conducting their anti-dynastic propaganda in the central and southern provinces, and popular resentment against the Manchus had gradually increased, partly because the dynasty had become identified in the public mind with floods and famines, and partly because of the Government's failure to prevent, and even to resist, the aggressions and encroachments of foreign Powers. The Cantonese leaders and agents of the revolutionary movement stirred up the people, and especially the soldiery, to vague fears and discontent by disseminating the idea that the Manchus were in league with foreigners to partition and dis- arm China. The agitation which they contrived to produce in the name of " sovereign rights," against the Government's negotia- tions for railway loans from abroad, led to the formation of numerous patriotic associations (chiefly at the treaty ports) which displayed great activity in the press and in the National Assembly. The signing of the Hukuang railway loan agreement at Peking (April 5 1911), in the face of strong opposition from the local gentry and literati of Szechuen, was skilfully turned to the purposes of the revolutionaries; rioting took place at Chengtu in July, to the cry of " sovereign rights " and by Sept. the prov- ince was in open rebellion. The opponents of the Government found further material ready to their hands in the aggressive designs manifested in Manchuria and Mongolia by Russia and Japan, and in Great Britain's occupation of the disputed Pienma
