前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

I

CHINA’S PREDICAMENT

In September, 1906, an edict was issued from the Imperial Court at Peking which states China’s predicament 困境 with naïvet 兽医é and vigour.

“The cultivation 教养 of the poppy 罂粟,” runs the edict, in the authorized 授权 translation 翻译, “is the greatest iniquity in agriculture 农业, and the provinces 省 of Szechuen, Shensi, Kansu, Yunnan, Kweichow, Shansi, and Kanghuai abound 盛产 in its product, which, in fact, is found every‧where 到处. Now that it is decided to abandon 放弃 opium 鸦片 smoking 烟 within ten 十 years, the limiting of this cultivation should be taken as a fundamental 基本的 step ... opium 鸦片 has been in use so long by the people that nearly three-tenths or four-tenths of them are smokers 抽烟者.”

“Three-tenths or four-tenths” of the Chinese people,—one hundred 百 and fifty 五十 million opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者—mean three or four times the population of Great Britain, a good many more than the population of the United States!

The Chinese are notoriously 臭名昭著 inexact in statistical 统计 matters. The officials who drew draw up the edict probably wished to convey 传达 the impression 印象 that the situation is really grave 坟墓；严重的, and employed this form of statement 声明 in order to give force to the document 文件. No accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 estimate 估计 of the number of opium 鸦片 victims 受害者 in China is obtain‧able 获得‧能够的; but it is possible to combine the impressions 印象 which have been set down by reliable 可靠 observers 观察者 in different parts of the “ Middle 中部 Kingdom 王国,” and thus to arrive at a fair, general impression 印象 of the truth. The following, for example, from Mr. Alexander Hosie, the commercial 商业的 attach 连接é to the British legation at Peking, should carry weight 重量. He is reporting on conditions in Szechuen Province 省:

“I am well within the mark when I say that in the cities fifty 五十 per cent. of the males 男性的 and twenty 二十 per cent. of the females 女性的 smoke 烟 opium 鸦片, and that in the country the percent‧age 百分比 is not less than twenty 二十-five for men and five per cent. for women.” There are about forty 四十-two million people in Szechuen Province 省; and they not only raise and consume 消耗 a very great quantity 量 of opium 鸦片, they also send about twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 tons 吨 down the Yangtse River every year for use in other provinces 省. The report of other travellers, merchants 商人, and official investigators indicate 表明 that about all of the richest 富有的 soil 泥土 in Szechuen is given over to poppy 罂粟 cultivation 教养, and that the labouring classes show a notice‧able 显 decline 下降 of late in physique and capacity 容量 for work.

In regard to another so-called “opium 鸦片 province 省,” Yunnan, we have the following statement 声明: “I saw practically 实践的 the whole population given over to its abuse 滥用. The ravages 蹂躏 it is making in men, women, and children are deplorable.... I was quite able to realize that any one who had seen the wild 野生的 abuse 滥用 of opium 鸦片 in Yunnan would have a wild abhorrence of it.”

In later chapters 章节 we shall go into the matter more at length. Here let me add to these statements 声明 merely a few typical 典型 scraps 废料 of information, selected 选择 from a bundle 捆 of note-books full of records of chats 聊 and interviews 访问 with travellers of almost every nationality 国籍 and of almost every station in life. The secretary of a life insurance 保险 company which does a consider‧able 大量 business up and down the coast 海岸 told me that, roughly 不精确的, fifty 五十 per cent of the Chinese who apply for insurance are opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者. Another bit 一点 comes from a man who lived for several years in an inland 内陆 city of a quarter 四分之一 of a million inhabitants 居民. The local Anti-opium 鸦片 League 联盟；联赛 had 750 members, he said and he believed that about every other man in the city was a smoker 烟. “It is practically a case of every‧body 每人 smoking,” he concluded 得出结论.

Twenty-five years ago, when the consumption 消费 of opium 鸦片 in China could hardly 几乎不 have been more than half what it is to-day, a British consul estimated 估计 the proportion 比例 of smokers 抽烟者 in the region 地区 he had visited as follows: “Labourers and small farmers, ten 十 per cent.; small shop‧keeper 店主, twenty 二十 per cent.; soldiers 士兵, thirty 三十 per cent.; merchants, eighty 八十 per cent.; officials and their staff 全体职员;参谋, ninety 九十 per cent.; actors 演员, prostitutes 妓女, vagrants, thieves, ninety 九十-five per cent.” The labourers and farmers, the real strength of China, as of every other land, had not yet been overwhelmed 压倒—but they were going under, even then. The most startling 惊吓 news 新闻 to-day is from these lower classes, even from the country villages 村庄, the last to give way. Dr. Parker, the American Methodist missionary 传教士 at Shanghai, informed me that reports to this effect were coming in steadily 稳定的 from up country; and during my own journey 旅行 I heard hear the same bad news almost every‧where 到处 along a route 路线 which measured, before I left China, something more than four thou‧sand 千 miles.

Perhaps the most convincing 说服 summing 和 up of China’s predicament 困境 is found in another translation 翻译 from a recent Chinese document 文件, this time an appeal 上诉 to the throne 王座 from four viceroys. The quaintness of the language does not, I think, impair 妨害 its effectiveness 效用 and its power as a protest 抗议: “China can never become strong and stand shoulder 肩膀 and shoulder with the powers of the world unless 除非 she can get rid 使摆脱 of the habit 习惯 of opium 鸦片-smoking by her subjects, about one quarter 四分之一 of whom 谁 have been reduced to skeletons 骨架 and look half-dead.”

This then is the curse 诅咒 which the imperial 帝国 government has talked so quaintly 精巧 of “abandoning 放弃.” This is the debauchery which is to be put down by officials, ninety 九十 per cent of whom were supposed to be more or less confirmed 确认 smokers 抽烟者. Such almost child‧like 小孩‧喜欢；象 optimism 乐观 brings to mind a certain Sunday in New York City when Theodore Roosevelt, with the whole police force under his orders, tried to close the saloons 轿车. It brings to mind other attempts in Europe and America, to check and control vice 副职的；副的 and depravity—attempts which have never, I think, been wholly 全 successful 成功—and one begins to understand the discouraging 不鼓励 immensity of the task 任务 which China has undertaken. Really, to “stop using opium 鸦片” would mean a very rear‧range 改编 of the agricultural 农业的 plan of the empire 帝国. It would make necessary an immediate solution 解决 of China’s transportation problem (no other crop 农作物 is so easy to carry as opium 鸦片) and an almost complete reconstruction 重建 of the imperial 帝国 finances 金融; indeed, few observers 观察者 are so glib as to suggest off‧hand 离开；从…落下‧手 a substitute 替代 for the immense 极大的 opium 鸦片 revenue 收入 to the Chinese government. And nobody 没有人 to accomplish 完成；实现；达到；做到 all this but those sodden officials, of whom 谁 it is safe 安全的 to guess 推测 that fifty 五十 per cent have some sort or other of a financial 金融 stake 赌注 in the traffic 交通!

In the minds of most of us, I think, there has been a vague 模糊 notion 概念 that the Chinese have always smoked 烟 opium 鸦片, that opium 鸦片 is in some peculiar 奇怪的 way a necessity 必须 to the Chinese constitution 宪法. Even among those who know the extra‧ordinary 非凡的 history of this morbidly fascinating 深深吸引；迷住 vegetable 蔬菜 product, who know that the India-grown grow British drug 药物 was pushed 推 and smuggled 走私 and bayoneted into China during a century of desperate 殊死 protest 抗议 and even armed resistance 抵抗 from these yellow 黄色的 people, it has been a popular 流行的 argument 论据 to assert 断言 that the Chinese have only themselves to blame 指责 for the “demand” that made the trade possible. Of this “demand,” and of how it was worked up by Christian traders 商人, we shall speak at some length in later chapters 章节. “Educational 教育性 methods 方法” in the extending 延伸 of trade can hardly 几乎不 be said to have originated 起源 with the modern trust 信任. The curious 好奇的 fact is that the Chinese didn’t use opium 鸦片 and didn’t want opium 鸦片.

Your true opium 鸦片-smoker stretches 伸展 himself on a divan and gives up ten 十 or fifteen 十五 minutes to preparing his thimbleful of the brown 棕色的 drug 药物. When it has been heated and worked to the proper consistency 一致性, he places it in the tiny 小 bowl 碗 of his pipe 管子, holds it over a lamp 灯, and draws a few whiffs of the smoke 烟 deep into his lungs 肺. It seems, at first, a trivial 不重要的 thing; indeed, the man who is well fed feed and properly housed and clothed 供穿 seems able to keep it up for a consider‧able 大量 time and without appreciable ill 生病 results. The greater difficulty 困难 in China is, of course, that very few opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者 are well fed feed and properly housed and clothed.

I heard little about the beautiful 美丽 dreams and visions 视力 which opium 鸦片 is supposed to bring; all the smokers 抽烟者 with whom 谁 I talked could be roughly divided 分 into two classes—those who smoked in order to relieve 解除 pain or misery 痛苦, and those miserable 悲惨的 victims 受害者 who smoked to relieve the acute 急性 physical 物理 distress 苦难 brought bring on by the opium 鸦片 itself 本身. Probably the majority 多数 of the victims 受害者 take it up as a temporary 临时 relief 宽慰; many begin in early childhood 童年; the mother will give the baby 婴儿 a whiff to stop its crying 哭，叫喊. It is a social vice 副职的；副的 only among the upper 上面的 classes. The most not‧able 显着 outward 向外的 effect of this indulgence 放纵 is the resulting physical 物理 weakness 弱点 and lassitude. The opium 鸦片-smoker cannot work hard; he finds it difficult to apply his mind to a problem or his body to a task 任务. As the habit 习惯 becomes firmly fastened 系牢 on him, there is a perceptible weakening 柔弱的:weak of his moral fibre; he shows himself unequal 不等 to emergencies 急 which make any sudden demand upon him. If opium 鸦片 is denied 拒绝 him, he will lie and steal in order to obtain 获得 it.

Opium-smoking is a costly vice 副职的；副的. A pipe‧full 管子‧满的 of a mode‧rate 有节制的 good native 本土的 product costs more than a labourer can earn 赚得 in a day; consequently 所以 the poorer 贫穷的 classes smoke 烟 an unspeakable compound 组合 based on pipe 管子 scrapings 擦 and char‧coal 木炭. Along the highroads the coolies even scrape 擦 the grime from the packsaddles to mix 混合 with this dross. The clerk 店员 earning 赚得 from twenty 二十-five to fifty 五十 Mexican dollars a month will frequently spend from ten 十 to twenty 二十 dollars a month on opium 鸦片. The typical 典型 confirmed 确认 smoker is a man who spends a consider‧able 大量 part of the night in smoking himself to sleep, and all the next morning in sleeping off the effects. If he is able to work at all, it is only during the after‧noon 下午, and even at that there will be many days when the official or merchant 商人 is incompetent 无能 to conduct 进行 his affairs 事情. Thousands of prominent 突出 men are ruined 破坏 every year.

The Cantonese have what they call “The Ten 十 Cannots regarding The Opium-Smoker.” “He cannot (1) give up the habit 习惯; (2) enjoy sleep; (3) wait for his turn when sharing his pipe 管子 with his friends; (4) rise early; (5) be cured 治愈 if sick 病；恶心; (6) help relations in need; (7) enjoy wealth 财产; (8) plan anything; (9) get credit 信用 even when an old customer 顾客; (10) walk any distance 距离.”

This is the land into which the enterprising 企业 Christian traders 商人 introduced 提出 opium 鸦片, and into which they fed feed opium 鸦片 so persistently 一贯 and forcibly 强制 that at last a “good market” was developed. England did not set out to ruin 破坏 China. One finds no hint 暗示 of a diabolical purpose to seduce 勾引 and destroy 破坏 a wonderful 精彩 old empire 帝国 on the other side of the world. The ruin worked was incidental 附带的 to that far Eastern 东方的 trade of which England has been so proud 自豪的. It was the triumph 胜利 of the balance 平衡 sheet 纸 over common humanity 人性.

And so it is to-day. British India still holds the cream 乳霜 of the trade, for the Chinese grown opium 鸦片 cannot compete 竞赛 in quality with the Indian drug 药物. The British Indian government raises the poppy 罂粟 in the rich 富有的 Ganges Valley 山谷 (more than six hundred 百 thou‧sand 千 acres 英亩 of poppies 罂粟 they raised there last year), manufactures it in government factories 工厂 at Patna and Ghazipur—manufactures four-fifths of it especially to suit the Chinese taste 品尝, and sells it at annual 全年 government auctions 拍卖 in Calcutta.

The result of this traffic 交通 is so very grave 坟墓；严重的 that it is a difficult matter to discuss 讨论 in mode‧rate 有节制的 language. To the traveller who leaves the rail‧road 铁路 and steam‧boat 蒸汽‧小船 lines and ventures 企业；投机活动；商业冒险, in spring‧less 春季‧少 native 本土的 cart 运货马车 or swaying 摇摆 mule 马骡 litter 窝, along the sunken roads and the hills 小山 of western and north‧western 北方‧西方的 China, the havoc 浩劫 and misery 痛苦 wrought 锻 by the “white man’s smoke 3,” the “foreign dust 灰尘,” becomes unpleasantly 不愉快 evident 明显. Some hint 暗示 of the meaning of it, a faint 微弱的 impression 印象 of the terrible 可怕的 devastation 毁坏 of this drug 药物—let loose 松的, as it has been, on a backward 向后的, poverty 贫穷-stricken race—is seared, hour by hour and day by day into his brain 脑.

A terrible drama 戏剧 is now being 存在 enacted 制定 in the Far East. The Chinese race is engaged 从事 in a fight to a finish with a drug 药物—and the odds 奇 are on the drug 药物.

 

 

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II

THE GOLDEN OPIUM DAYS

In the splendid 壮观的, golden 金色的 days of the East India Company, the great Warren Hastings put himself on record in these frank 坦率 words:

“Opium is a pernicious article 文章 of luxury 豪华, which ought 应当 not to be permitted but for the purpose of foreign commerce 商业 only.” The new traffic 交通 promised to solve 解决 the Indian fiscal 财 problem, if skillfully 熟练 managed; accordingly 于是, the production and manufacture of opium 鸦片 was made a government monopoly 垄断. China, after all, was a long way off—and Chinamen were only Chinamen. That the East India Company might be loosing 松的 an uncontrollable monster 怪物 not only on China but on the world hardly 几乎不 occurred 发生 to the great Warren Hastings—the British chickens 鸡 might, a century later, come home to roost in Australia and South Africa was too remote 远程 a possibility 可能性 even for speculative 投机 inquiry 调查.

Now trade supports us, governs us, controls our dependencies 依赖, represents us at foreign courts, carries on our wars, signs our treaties 条约 of peace. Trade, like its symbol 标志，象征 the dollar, is neither good nor bad; it has no patriotism 爱国主义, no morals, no humanity 人性. Its logic 逻辑 applies with the same relentless 狠 force and precision 精确 to corn 玉米, cotton 棉, rice 稻, wheat 小麦, human slaves 奴隶, oil 油, votes, opium 鸦片. It is the power that drives human affairs; and its law is the law of the balance 平衡 sheet 纸. So long as any commodity 商品 remains in the currents of trade the law of trade must reign 统治, the balance sheet must balance 3. It is difficult to get a commodity 商品 into these currents, but once you have got the commodity 商品 in, you will find it next to impossible 不可能的 to get it out. There has been more than one prime 主要 minister 大臣, I fancy 想像, more than one secretary of state for India, who has wished the opium 鸦片 question in Jericho. It is not pleasant 可爱的 to answer the moral indignation 愤慨 of the British empire 帝国 with the cynical 愤世嫉俗的 statement 声明 that the India government cannot exist without that opium 鸦片 revenue 收入. Why, oh, why, did not the great Warren Hastings develop the cotton 棉 rather than the opium 鸦片 industry! But the interesting fact is that he did not. He chose choose opium 鸦片, and opium 鸦片 it is.

The India Government Opium Monopoly is an import 进口 factor 因子 in this extra‧ordinary 非凡的 story of a debauchery of a third of the human race by the most nearly Christian among Christian nations. We must understand what it is and how it works before we can understand the narrative 叙述 of that greed 贪心, with its attend‧ant 服务员 smuggling 走私, bribery 行贿 and blood‧shed 血‧棚 which has brought the Chinese empire 帝国 to its knees 膝. In speaking of it as a “monopoly 垄断,” I am not employing a cant 斜面 word for effect. I am not making a case. That is what it is officially styled 样式 in a certain blue book on my table which bears the title 标题, “Statement 声明 Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress of India during the year 1905-6,” and which was ordered by the House of Commons, to be printed 印刷, May 10th, 1907.

It is easy, with or without evidence 证据, to charge a great corporation 公司 or a great government with inhuman crimes 罪行. If the charge be unjust 不公 it is difficult for the corporation 公司 or the government to set itself 本身 right before the people. Six truths cannot overtake one lie. That is why, in this day of popular 流行的 rule, the really irresponsible 不负责任 power that makes and unmakes history lies in the hands of the journalist 记者. As the charge I am bringing is so serious as to be almost unthinkable 不可思议的, and as I wish to leave no loop‧hole 漏洞 for the counter-charge that I am colouring this statement 声明, I think I can do no better than to lift 举起 my description 描述 of the Opium Monopoly bodily from that rather ponderous blue book.

There is nothing new in this charge, nothing new in the condition which invites 邀请 it. It is rather a common‧place 平凡 old condition. Millions of men, for more than a hundred 百 years, have taken it for granted 发放, just as men once took piracy 海盗行为 for granted 发放, just as men once took the African slave 奴隶-trade for granted 发放, just as men to-day take the highly organized traffic 交通 in unfortunate 不幸的 women and girls for granted 发放. Ask a Tory political leader of to-day—Mr. Balfour say—for his opinion on the opium 鸦片 question, and if he thinks it worth 值得的 his while to answer you at all he will probably deal shortly with you for dragging 拖拽 up an absurd 荒诞 bit 一点 of fanaticism. For a century or more, about all the missionaries 传教士, and goodness 善良 knows how many other observers 观察者, have protested 抗议 against this monstrous 滔天 traffic 交通 in poison 毒药. Sixty-five years ago Lord 主 Ashley (after‧ward 之后 Earl of Shaftesbury) agitated 激荡 the question in Parliament. Fifty years ago he obtained 获得 from the Law Officers of the Crown 王冠 the opinion that the opium 鸦片 trade was “at variance 方差” with the “spirit and intention 意图” of the treaty 条约 between England and China. In 1891, the House of Commons decided by a good majority 多数 that “the system by which the Indian opium 鸦片 revenue 收入 is raised is morally indefensible.” And yet, I will venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to believe that to most of my readers 读者, British as well as American, the bald 秃 statement 声明 that the British Indian government actually manufactures opium 鸦片 on a huge 巨大 scale 规模 in its own factories to suit the Chinese taste 品尝 comes with the force of a shock 震惊；震动. It is not the sort of a thing we like to think of as among the activities of an Anglo-Saxon government. It would seem to be government owner‧ship 物主身份 with a vengeance 复仇.

Now, to get down to cases, just what this Government Opium Monopoly is, and just how does it work? An excerpt 摘抄 from the rather ponderous blue book will tell us. It may be dry, but it is official and unassailable. It is also short.

“The opium 鸦片 revenue 收入”—thus the blue book—“is partly raised by a monopoly 垄断 of the production of the drug 药物 in Bengal and the United Provinces, and partly by the levy 征收 of a duty 职责 on all opium 鸦片 imported 进口 from native 本土的 states.... In these two provinces 省, the crop 农作物 is grown under the control of a government department, which arranges the total area which is to be placed under the crop, with a view to the amount of opium 鸦片 required.”

So much for the broader 宽阔的 out‧line 概述；轮廓线. Now for a few of the details:

“The cultivator 耕种者；耕种机 of opium 鸦片 in these monopoly 垄断 districts receives a license 执照, and is granted 发放 advances to enable 启用 him to prepare the land for the crop, and he is required to deliver 发表 the whole of the product at a fixed 固定 price to opium 鸦片 agents 代理人, by whom 谁 it is dispatched 调度 to the government factories at Patna and Ghazipur.”

This money advanced to the cultivator 耕种者；耕种机 bears no interest. The British Indian government lends 把…借给 money without interest in no other cases. Producers of crops 农作物 other than opium 鸦片 are obliged 责成 to get along without free money.

When it has been manufactured, the opium 鸦片 must be disposed 部署 of in one way and another; accordingly 于是:

“The supply of prepared opium 鸦片 required for consumption 消费 in India is made over to the Excise Department.... The chests 胸部 of ‘provision 规定’ opium 鸦片, for export 出口, are sold sell by auction 拍卖 at monthly sales, which take place at Calcutta.” For the meaning of the curious 好奇的 term, “provision 规定 opium 鸦片,” we have only to read on a little further far. “The opium 鸦片 is received and prepared at the government factories, where the out-turn for the year included 8,774 chests of opium 鸦片 for the Excise Department, about 300 pounds 敲打；英镑 of various opium 鸦片 alkaloids, thirty 三十 maunds of medical opium 鸦片, and 51,770 chests of provision 规定 opium 鸦片 for the Chinese market.” There are about 140 pounds in a chest 胸部. Four grains 谷物 of opium 鸦片, administered 管理 in one dose 剂量 to a person unaccustomed to its use, is apt 易于 to prove fatal 致命.

Last year the government had under poppy 罂粟 cultivation 教养 654,928 acres 英亩. And the revenue 收入 to the treasury 国库, including returns from auction 拍卖 sales, duties 职责, and license 执照 fees 费用, and deducting 扣除 all “opium 鸦片 expenditures 支出,” was nearly $22,000,000 (£4,486,562).

The best grade 年级 of opium 鸦片-poppy 罂粟 bears a white blossom 开花. One sees mauve and pink 粉红色的 tints 着色 in a field, at blossom 开花-time, but only the seeds 种子 from the white flowers 花 are replanted. The opium 鸦片 of commerce 商业 is made from the gum 胶 obtained 获得 by gashing the green 绿色的 seed 种子 pod 荚 with a four-bladed 刀片 knife 刀. After the first gathering 收集, the pod 荚 is gashed a second time, and the gum 胶 that exudes makes an inferior 下 quality of opium 鸦片. The raw 生的 opium 鸦片 from the country districts is sent send down to the government factories in earthenware jars 罐, worked up in mixing 混合 vats, and made into balls 球 about six or eight 八 inches 英寸 in diameter 直径. The balls, after a thorough 彻底 drying on wooden 木制的 racks 架, are packed 一群 in chests and sent send down to the auction 拍卖.

 

KNEADING CRUDE OPIUM WITH OIL 油 TO MAKE ROUND 圆形的；围绕 OR FLAT 平的；公寓 CAKES   MAKING ROUND CAKES OF OPIUM

 

The men who buy in the opium 鸦片 at these monthly auctions 拍卖 and after‧ward 之后 dispose 部署 of it at the Chinese ports 港口 are a curious 好奇的 crowd 人群；拥挤 of Parsees, Mohammedans, Hindoos, and Asiatic Jews. Few British names appear in the opium 鸦片 trade to-day. British dignity 尊严 prefers 更喜欢 not to stoop 哈腰 beneath 之下 the taking in of profits 收益; it leaves the details of a dirty 肮脏 business to dirty hands. This is as it has been from the first. The directors 主管 of the East India Company, years and years before that splendid 壮观的 corporation 公司 relinquished 放弃 the actual government of India, forbade 禁止:forbid the sending of its specially-prepared opium 鸦片 direct to China, and advised 劝告 a trading station on the coast 海岸 whence the drug 药物 might find its way, “without the company being 存在 exposed 暴露 to the disgrace 耻辱 of being engaged 从事 in an illicit 非法的 commerce 商业.”

So clean hands and dirty 肮脏 hands went into partner‧ship 合伙. They are in partner‧ship 合伙 still, save that the most nearly Christian of governments has officially succeeded 成功 the company as party of the first part. And sixty 六十-five tons of Indian opium 鸦片 go to China every week.

As soon as the shipments 装船 of opium 鸦片 have reached Hongkong and Shanghai (I am quoting 引用 now in part from a straight‧forward 直截了当 account by the Rev. T. G. Selby), they are broken break up and pass in the ordinary 普通的 courses of trade into the hands of retail 零售 dealers 商人，商贩. The opium 鸦片 balls are stripped 剥光 of the dried leaves in which they have been packed, torn 撕裂；泪:tear like paste 粘贴；面团 dumplings into fragments 分段, put into an iron 铁器 pan 平底锅 filled with water and boiled 煮沸 over a slow fire. Various kinds of opium 鸦片 are mixed 混合 with each other, and some shops 商店 acquire 获得 a reputation 名气 for their ingenious 巧妙 and tasteful blends 混合. After the opium 鸦片 has been boiled to about the consistency 一致性 of coal 煤 tar 柏油 or molasses, it is put into jars 罐 and sold sell for daily 每日的 consumption 消费 in quantities 量 ranging 范围；射程；类别 from the fiftieth part of an ounce 盎司 to four or five ounces 盎司. “I am sorry 对不起的 to say,” observes Mr. Selby, “that the colonial 殖民 governments of Hongkong and Singapore, not content 内容 with the revenue 收入 drawn draw from this article 文章 by the Anglo-Indian government, have made opium 鸦片 boiling 煮沸 a monopoly 垄断 of the Crown 王冠, and a large slice 片 of the revenue 收入 of these two Eastern 东方的 dependencies 依赖 is secured 安全 by selling the exclusive 独家 rights to farm this industry to the highest bidder 出价.”

The most Mr. Clean Hands has been able to say for himself is that, “Opium is a fiscal 财, not a moral question;” or this, that “In the present state of the revenue 收入 of India, it does not appear advisable 可取 to abandon 放弃 so important a source 资源 of revenue 收入.” After all, China is a long way off. So much for Mr. Clean Hands! His partner 伙伴, Dirty 肮脏 Hands, is more interesting. It is he who has “built build up the trade.” It is he who has carried on the smuggling 走私 and the bribing 贿赂 and knifing 刀 and shooting and all-round 圆形的；围绕, strong-arm work which has made the trade what it is. To be sure, as we get on in this narrative 叙述 we shall not always find the distinction 区别 between Clean and Dirty 肮脏 so clear as we would like. Through the dust 灰尘 and smoke and red flame 火焰 of all that dirty business along “the Coast 海岸” we shall glimpse 一瞥 for an instant 瞬间 or so, now and then, a face that looks distressingly like the face of old Respectability himself. I have found myself 我 in momentary 短暂的 bewilderment when walking through the splendid 壮观的 masonry-lined streets of Hongkong, when sitting beneath 之下 the frescoed 壁画 ceiling 天花板 of that pinnacled structure 结构体 that houses the most nearly Christian of parliaments 议会, trying to believe that this opium 鸦片 drama 戏剧 can be real. And I have wondered, and puzzled 使迷惑, until a smell 气味；嗅觉 like the smell of China has come floating 漂浮 to the nostrils 鼻孔 of memory 记忆; until a picture of want and disease 疾病 and misery 痛苦—of crawling 爬行, swarming 一群 human misery unlike 不像 anything which the untravelled Western mind can conceive 构想—has appeared before the eyes of memory. I have thought of those starving 饿死 thou‧sand 千 from the famine 饥荒 districts creeping 爬行 into Chinkiang to die, of those gaunt, seemed faces along the high‧road 高的‧路 that runs south‧westward 南方‧向西 from Peking to Sian-fu; I have thought of a land that knows no dentistry, no surgery 医疗手术, no hygiene 卫生, no scientific 科学的 medicine 医学, no sanitation; of a land where the smallpox is a lesser menace 威胁 beside 旁边；除了 the leprosy, plague 鼠疫, tuberculosis 结核, that rage 愤怒 simply at will, and beside famines 饥荒 so colossal 庞大 in their sweep 打扫, that the overtaxed Western mind simply refuses 拒绝 to comprehend 理解 them. And De Quincey’s words have come to me: “What was it that drove drive me into the habitual 惯常的 use of opium 鸦片? Misery 痛苦—blank 空白 desolation—settled and abiding 遵守 darkness 黑暗——?” These words help to clear it up. China was a wonderful 精彩 field, ready prepared for the ravages 蹂躏 of opium 鸦片— none 没有人 better. The mighty 威武 currents of trade did the rest. The balance sheet 3 reigned 统治 supreme 最高 as by right. The balance sheet reigns 统治 to-day.

But we must get on with our narrative 叙述. I will try to pass it along in the form in which it has presented itself 本身 to me. If Clean and Dirty 6 appear in closer and more puzzling 使迷惑 alliance 联盟 than we like to see them, I cannot help that.

It was not easy getting opium 鸦片, the commodity 商品, into the currents of trade. There was an obstacle 障碍. The Chinese were not an opium 鸦片-consuming 消耗 race. They did not use opium 鸦片, they did not want opium 鸦片, they steadily resisted 抵抗 the inroads of opium 鸦片. But the rulers 统治者 of the company were far-seeing men. Tempt 引诱 misery 5 long enough and it will take to opium 鸦片. Two centuries ago when small quantities of the drug 药物 were brought in from Java, the Chinese government objected. In 1729 the importation was prohibited 禁止. As late as 1765, this importation, carried on by energetic 有活力 traders 商人 in spite 恶意 of official resistance 抵抗, had never exceeded 超过 two hundred 百 chests a year. But with the advent 来临 of the company in 1773, the trade grew grow. In spite of a second Chinese prohibition 禁令 in 1796, half-heartedly enforced 执行 by corrupt 腐败 mandarins, the total for 1820 was 4,000 chests. The Chinese government was faced not only with the possibility 可能性 of a race debauchery but also with an immediate and alarming 警告 drain 排水 of silver 银 from the country. The balance of the trade was against them. Either as an economic or moral problem, the situation was grave 坟墓；严重的.

The smoking of opium 鸦片 began in China and is peculiar 奇怪的 to the Chinese. The Hindoos and Malays eat 吃 it. Complicated and wide-spread 伸开 as the smoking habit 习惯 is to-day, it is a modern custom 习惯 as time runs in China. There seems to be little doubt in the minds of those Sinologues who have traced 跟踪 the opium 鸦片 thread 线 back to the tangle 纠纷 of early missionary 传教士 reports and imperial 帝国 edicts, that the habit 4 started either in Formosa or on the main‧land 大陆 across the Straits, where malaria 疟疾 is common. Opium had been used, generations 代 before, as a remedy 治疗法 for malaria 疟疾; and these first smokers 抽烟者 seem to have mixed a little opium 鸦片 with their tobacco 烟草, which had been introduced by the Portuguese in the early seventeenth century. From this beginning, it would appear, was developed the rather elaborate 阐述 outfit 配备 which the opium 鸦片-smoker of to-day considers necessary to his pleasure 愉快.

Nothing but solid 固体的 Anglo-Saxon persistence 坚持 had enabled 启用 the company to build up the trade. Seven 七 years after their first small adventure 冒险活动, or in 1780, a depot 仓库 of two small receiving hulks was established 建立 in Lark’s Bay 湾, south of Macao. A year later the company freighted 货物 a ship to Canton, but finding no demand were obliged 责成 to sell the lot of 1,600 chests at a loss 损失 to Sinqua, a Canton “Hong- merchant 商人,” who, not being 3 able to dispose 部署 of it to advantage 有利条件, reshipped it. The price in that year was $550 (Mexican) a chest 胸部; Sinqua had paid pay the company only $200, but even at a bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 he found no market. Meantime 其时, in the words of a “memorandum 备忘录,” prepared by Joshua Rowntree for the debate 辩论 in parliament 议会 last year, “British merchantsspread 伸开 the habit 5 up and down the coast 3; opium 鸦片 store-ships armed as fortresses 堡垒 were moored 泊 at the mouth 口 of the Canton River.”

In 1782, the company’s supercargoes at Canton wrote to Calcutta: “The importation of opium 鸦片 being strongly prohibited 禁止 by the Chinese government, and a business altogether 全部地 new to us, it was necessary for us to take our measures (for disposing 部署 of a cargo 货物) with the utmost 极 caution 小心.”

This “business altogether new to us” was, of course, plain 平原；明显 smuggling 走私. From the first it had been necessary to arm the smuggling 走私 vessels 容器; and as these grew grow in number the Chinese sent send out an increasing 增加 number of armed revenue 收入 junks 破烂 or cruisers. The traders 商人 usually found it possible to buy off the commanders of the revenue 收入 junks 破烂, but as this could not be done in every case it was inevitable 必然 that there should be encounters 遭遇 now and then, with occasional 偶然 loss 损失 of life. These affrays soon became too frequent to be ignored 忽视.

Meantime 其时 the British government had succeeded the company in the rule of India and the control of the far Eastern 东方的 trade. As this trade was from two thirds to four-fifths opium 鸦片, a prohibited 禁止 article 文章, and as the whole question of trade was complicated 使复杂化 by the fact that China was ignorant 愚昧 of the greatness 伟大 and power of the Western nations and did not care to treat or deal with them in any event, a government trade agent 代理人 had been sent send out to Canton to look after British interests and in general to fill the position of a combined consul and unaccredited minister 大臣. In the late 1830’s this agent, Captain 船长 Charles Elliot (successor 接班人 to Lord 主 Napier, the first agent), found himself in the delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 position of protecting 保护 English smugglers 走私者, who were steadily drawing their country towards war because the Chinese government was making strong efforts to drive them out of business. From what Captain Elliot has left on record it is plain 平原；明显 that he was having a bad time of it. In 1837, he wrote to Lord 主 Palmerston of “the wide-spreading 伸开 public mischief 恶作剧” arising 产生 from “the steady 稳定的 continuance of a vast 广大, prohibited 禁止 traffic 交通 in an article 3 of vicious 恶毒 luxury 豪华,” and suggested that “a gradual 渐进的 check to our own growth and imports 进口 would be salutary.” Two years later he wrote that “the Chinese government have a just ground grind for harsh 苛刻 measures towards the lawful 合法 trade, upon the plea 恳求 that there is no distinction 区别 between the right and the wrong.”

He even said: “No man entertains 热情款待 a deeper detestation of the disgrace 耻辱 and sin 罪 of this forced traffic 交通;” and, “I see little to choose between it and piracy 海盗行为.” But when the war cloud 云 broke break, and responsibility 责任 for the welfare 津贴，福利 of Britain’s subjects and trade interests in China devolved upon him, he compromised 妥协. “It does not con‧sort CON‧分类 with my station,” he wrote, “to sanction 制裁 measures of general and undistinguishing violence 暴力 against His Majesty’s officers and subjects.”

It will be interesting before we consider the opium 鸦片 war and its immense 极大的 significance 重要性 in history, to glance 一瞥 over the attitude 态度 of the company and later of its successor 接班人, the government, towards the whole miserable 悲惨的 business. The company’s board of directors, in 1817, had sent send this dispatch 调度 from Calcutta in answer to a question, “Were it possible to prevent 预防 the using of the drug 药物 altogether 全部地, except strictly 严格的 for the purpose of medicine 医学, we would gladly 高兴的 do it in compassion 同情 to man‧kind 人类.”

It would be pleasant 可爱的 to believe that the East India Company was sincere 真诚的 in this ineffective 不灵 if well-phrased 短语 expression 表现 of “compassion 同情.” The spectacle 场面；眼镜 of a great corporation 公司 in any century giving up a lucrative 有利可图 traffic 交通 on merely human and moral grounds would be illuminating 照亮 and uplifting 抬起. But unfortunate 不幸的 business corporations 公司 are, in their very nature, slaves of the balance sheet, organized representatives 代表 of the mighty 威武 laws of trade. I have already quoted 引用 enough evidence 证据 to show that the company was not only awake 醒着的 to the dangers of opium 鸦片, but that it had deliberately 故意 and painstakingly worked up the traffic 交通. Had there been, then, a change of heart in the directorate? I fear not. Among the East Indian correspondence 对应 of 1830, this word from the company’s governor 州长；主管人-general came to light: “We are taking measures for extending the cultivation 教养 of the poppy 罂粟, with a view to a larger increase in the supply of opium 鸦片.” And in this same year, 1830, a House of Commons committee reported that “The trade, which is altogether 全部地 contraband, has been largely extended 延伸 of late years.”

G. H. M. Batten, a formal 正式 official of the Indian Civil 国内 Service, who contributed 有助于 the chapter 章节 on opium 鸦片 in Sir 先生 John Strachey’s work on “India, its Administration 行政 and Progress,” has been regarded of late years as one of the ablest defenders 辩护人 of the whole opium 鸦片 policy. He believes that “The daily 每日的 use of opium 鸦片 in moderation 适度 is not only harm‧less 无害 but of positive 正 benefit 效益, and frequently even a necessity 必须 of life.” This man, seeing little but good in opium 鸦片, doubts “if it ever entered into the concept‧ion 概念 of the court of directors to sup‧press 压制 in the interests of morality 道德 the cultivation 教养 of the poppy 罂粟.”

Perhaps the most striking testimony 见证 bearing against the policy of the company was that given by Robert Inglis, of Canton, a partner 伙伴 in the large opium 鸦片-trading firm of Dent & 功放; Co., to the Select 选择 Committee on China Trade (House of Commons, 1840). Here it is:

Mr. Inglis.—“I told him ( Captain 船长 Elliot) that I was sure the thing could not go on.”

Mr. Gladstone.—“How long ago have you told him that you were sure the thing could not go on?”

Mr. Inglis.—“For four or five years past.”

Chairman 主席.—“What gave you that impression 印象?”

Mr. Inglis.—“An immense 极大的 quantity 量 of opium 鸦片 being forced upon the Chinese every year, and that in its turn forcing it up the coast in our vessels.”

Chairman.—“When you use the words ‘forcing it upon them,’ do you mean that they were not voluntary 自主性 purchasers 购买者?”

Mr. Inglis.—“No, but the East India Company were increasing 增加 the quantity of opium 鸦片 almost every year, without reference 参考 to the demand in China; that is to say, there was always an immense 极大的 supply of opium 鸦片 in China, and the company still kept increasing the quantity at lower prices.”

Three years later, just after the war, Sir 先生 George Staunton, speaking from experience as a British official in the East, said in the House of Commons, “I never denied 拒绝 the fact that if there had been no opium 鸦片 smuggling 走私 there would have been no war.

“Even if the opium 鸦片 habit had been permitted to run its natural 自然 course, if it had not received an extra‧ordinary 非凡的 impulse 冲动 from the measures taken by the East India Company to promote 促进 its growth, which almost quadrupled the supply, I believe it would never have created that extraordinary alarm 警告 in the Chinese authorities 权威 which betrayed 背叛 them into the adoption 采用；收养 of a sort of coup 政变 d’ etât for its suppression 抑制.”

Sir 先生 William Muir, some time lieutenant 陆军中尉- governor 州长；主管人 of the Northwest Provinces of India, is on record thus: “By increasing 增加 its supply of ‘provision 规定’ opium 鸦片, it (the Bengal government) has repeatedly 反复 caused a glut in the Chinese market, a collapse 坍方 of prices in India, an extensive 广阔的 bankruptcy 破产 and misery 6 in Malwa.”

The most interesting summing 和-up of the whole question I have seen is from the pen 笔 of Sir 先生 Arthur Cotton 棉, who wrote after sixty 六十 years’ experience in Indian affairs, protesting 抗议 against “continuing this trading upon the sins 罪 and miseries 痛苦 of the greatest nation in the world in respect of population, on the ground grind of our needing the money.”

What was China doing to protect 保护 her‧self 她自己 from these aggressions 侵略? The British merchants and the British trade agent 3 had by this time worked into the good-will of the Chinese merchants and the corrupt 腐败 mandarins, and had finally established 建立 their residence 住宅 at Canton and their depot 仓库 of store-ships at Whampoa, a short journey 旅行 down the river. In 1839 there were about 20,000 chests of opium 鸦片 stored in these hulks. In that same year the Chinese emperor 皇帝 sent send a powerful 强大 and able official named Lin Tse-hsu from Peking to Canton with orders to put down the traffic 交通 at any cost. Commissioner Lin was a man of unusual 异常 force. He perfectly 完美地，完满地 understood understand the situation in so far as it concerned China. He had his orders. He knew what they meant. He proposed 提议 to put them into effect. There was only one important consideration 考虑 which he seems to have over‧look 俯瞰—it was that India “needed the money.” His proposal 提议 that the foreign agents deliver 发表 up their stores of “the prohibited 禁止 article” did not meet with an immediate response 响应. The traders 商人 had not the slightest notion 概念 of yielding 屈服 up 20,000 chests of opium 鸦片, worth 值得的, at that time, $300 a chest 胸部. Lin’s appeals 上诉 to the most nearly Christian of queens 女王, were no more successful 成功. He did not seem to understand that China was a long way off; it was very close to him. Here is a translation 翻译 of what he had to say. To our eyes to-day, it seems fairly intelligent 智能, even reason‧able 合理的:

“Though not making use of it one’s self 自己, to venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 on the manufacture and sale of it (opium 鸦片) and with it to seduce 勾引 the simple folk 民间 of this land is to seek 寻求 one’s own livelihood 生计 by the exposure 经受 of others to death. Such acts are bitterly 苦的 abhorrent to the nature of man and are utterly 完全 opposed 反对 to the ways of heaven 天. We would now then concert 音乐会 with your ‘Hon. Sovereignty’ means to bring a perpetual 永动的 end to this opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 so hurtful to man‧kind 人类, we in this land forbidding 禁止 the use of it and you in the nations under your dominion forbidding its manufacture.”

Her “Hon. Sovereignty,” if she ever saw this appeal 上诉 (which may be doubted), neglected 疏忽 to reply 回答. Meeting with small consideration 考虑 from the traders 商人, as from their sovereign 君主, Commissioner Lin set about carrying out his orders. There was an admirable 令人钦佩 thoroughness in his methods 方法. He surrounded 包围 the residence 住宅 of the traders 商人, Captain 3 Elliot’s among them, with an army of howling 嗥, drum 鼓-beating 打败 Chinese soldiers, and again proposed that they deliver 发表 up those 20,000 chests. Now, the avenues 大道 of trade do not lead to martyrdom. Traders rarely 很少；不常见；难得 die for their principles 原理—they prefer 更喜欢 living for them. The 20,000 chests were delivered 发表 up, with a rapidity that was almost haste 匆忙; and the merchants, under the leader‧ship 领导 of the agent, withdrew to the doubtful 疑 shelter 居所 of their own guns, down the river. Commissioner Lin, still with that exasperatingly thorough 彻底 air, mixed the masses 大量 of opium 鸦片 with lime 青柠 and emptied 空的 it into the sea 海. England, her dignity 尊严 out‧rage 暴行, hurt 损害 at her tenderest 纤弱的 point, sent send out ships, men and money. She seized 抓住 port 港口 after port 港口; bombarded 轰击 and took Canton; swept 打扫:sweep victoriously up the Yangtse, and by blocking 块 the Grand 宏大的 Canal 运河 at Chinkiang interrupted 打断 the procession 队伍 of tribute 贡 junks 破烂 sailing 航行；帆 up the Peking and thus cut off an important source 资源 of the Chinese imperial 帝国 revenue 收入. This resulted in the treaty 条约 of Nanking, in 1843, which was negotiated 谈判 by the British government by Sir 4 Henry Pottinger.

Sir 5 Henry, like Commissioner Lin, had his orders. His methods 方法, like Lin’s, were admirable 令人钦佩 in their thoroughness. He secured 安全 the following terms from the crestfallen Chinese government: 1. There was to be a “lasting peace” between the two nations. 2. Canton, Amoy, Foochou, Ningpo, and Shanghai were to be open as “treaty 条约 ports 港口.” 3. The Island of Hongkong was to be ceded 放弃 to Great Britain. 4. An indemnity of $21,000,000 was to be paid, $6,000,000 as the value of the opium 鸦片 destroyed 破坏, $3,000,000 for the destruction 破坏 of the property of British subjects, and $12,000,000 for the expenses 费用 of the war. It was further far understood understand that the British were to hold the places they had seized until these and a number of other humiliating 羞辱 conditions were to be fulfilled 履行. Thus was the energy 能源 and persistence 坚持 of the opium 鸦片 smugglers 走私者 rewarded 报酬. Thus began that partition 划分 of China which has been going on ever since. It is difficult to be a Christian when far from home.

It is difficult to get an admission 准许进入 even to-day, from a thorough 彻底-going British trader, that opium 鸦片 had anything to do with the war of 1840-43. He is likely to insist 咬定 either that the war was caused by the refusal 拒绝 of Chinese officials to admit 许可进入 English representatives on terms of equality 平等, or that it was caused by “the stopping of trade.” There was, indeed, a touch of the naively 幼稚 Oriental in the attitude 态度 of China. To the Chinese official mind, China was the greatest of nations, occupying 占据 something like five-sixths of the huge 巨大 flat 平的；公寓 disc called the world. England, Holland, Spain, France, Portugal, and Japan were small islands crowded 人群；拥挤 in between the edge 边 of China and the rim 轮缘 of the disc. That these small nations should wish to trade with “the Middle 中部 Kingdom 王国” and to bring tribute 贡 to the “Son of Heaven 天,” was not unnatural 不自然. But that the “Son of Heaven” must admit 许可进入 them whether he liked or not, and as equals, was preposterous. Stripping these notions 概念 of their quaint 精巧 Orientalism, they boiled down to the simple principle 原理 that China recognized no law of earth or heaven which could force her to admit foreign traders 商人, foreign ministers 大臣, or foreign religions if she preferred 更喜欢 to live by her‧self 她自己 and mind her own business. That China has minded her own business and does mind her own business is, I think, indisputable.

The notions 概念 which animated 活跃 the English were equally simple. Stripped of their quaint 精巧 Occidental shell 壳 of religion and respect‧ability 尊重‧能力 and theories 理论 of personal 个人 liberty 自由, they seem to boil 煮沸 down to about this—that China was a great and undeveloped market and therefore the trading nations had a right to trade with her willy-nilly 零, and any effective attempt to stop this trade was, in some vague 模糊 way, an infringement 侵害 of their rights as trading nations. In maintaining 保持 this theory 理论, it is necessary for us to forget 忘记 that opium 鸦片, though a “commodity 商品,” was an admittedly 固然 vicious 恶毒 and contraband commodity 商品, to be used “for purposes of foreign commerce 商业 only.”

In providing that there should be a “lasting peace” between the two nations, it was probably the idea to insure 保证 British traders 商人 against attack, or rather to provide a technical 技术 excuse 原谅 for reprisals in case of such attacks. But for some reason nothing what‧ever 无论什么 was said about opium 鸦片 in the treaty 条约. Now opium 鸦片 was more than ever the chief of the trade. England had not the slightest notion 概念 of giving it up; on the contrary 相反, opium 鸦片 shipments 装船 were increased and the smuggling 走私 was developed to an extraordinary 4 extent 程度. How a “lasting peace” was to be maintained 保持 while opium 鸦片, the cause of all the trouble, was still unrecognized by either government as a legitimate 合法 commodity 商品, while, indeed, the Chinese, however chastened and humiliated 羞辱, were still making desperate 殊死 if indirect 间接 efforts to keep it out of the country and the English were making strong efforts to get it into the country, is a problem I leave to subtler 微妙 minds. The upshot was, of course, that the “lasting peace” did not last. Within fifteen 十五 years there was another war. By the second treaty 条约 (that of Tientsin, 1858) Britain secured 安全 4,000,000 taels of indemnity money (about $3,000,000), the opening of five more treaty 条约 ports 港口, toleration for the Christian religion, and the admission 准许进入 of opium 鸦片 under a specified 具体说明；明确指出 tariff 关税. The Tientsin Treaty legalized 合法化 Christianity and opium 鸦片. China had defied 违抗 the laws of trade, and had learned learn her lesson 教训. It had been a costly lesson—$24,000,000 in money, thou‧sand 千 of lives, the fixing 固定 on the race of a soul 灵魂-blighting 枯萎病 vice 副职的；副的, the loss 损失 of some of her best seaports, more, the loss 3 of her independence 独立 as a nation—but she had learned it. And therefore, except for a crazy 荒唐的 out‧burst 突发 now and then as the foreign grip 握 grew grow tighter 紧的, she was to submit 给.

But China’s trouble was not over. If she was to be debauched whether or no, must she also be ruined financially 经济? There were the indemnity payments 付款 to meet, with interest; and no way of meeting them other than to squeeze 挤 tighter a poverty 贫穷-stricken nation which was growing more poverty-stricken as her silver 银 drained 排水 steadily off to the foreigners 外国人. There was a solution 解决 to the problem—a simple one. It was to permit the growth of opium 鸦片 in China itself 本身, sup‧plant SUP‧植物；种 the Indian trade, keep the silver at home. But China was slow to adopt 采用；收养 this solution. It might solve 解决 the fiscal 财 problem; but incidentally 顺便 it might wreck 破坏；使遇难 China. She sounded England on the subject,—once, twice 两次. There seemed to have been some idea that England, convinced 说服 that China had her own possibility 可能性 of crowding 人群；拥挤 out the Indian drug 药物, might, after all, give up the trade, stop the production in India, and make the great step unnecessary 不必要. But England could not see it in that light. China wavered 动摇, then took the great step. The restrictions 受限制的，受约束的 on opium 鸦片-growing were removed 去掉. This was probably a mistake 错误, though opinions still differ 不同 about that. To the men who stood stand responsible for a solution 3 of Chinese fiscal 财 problem it doubt‧less 毫无疑问， seemed necessary. At all events, the last barrier 屏障 between China and ruin 破坏 was removed 去掉 by the Chinese themselves. And within less than half a century after the native 本土的 growth of the poppy 罂粟 began, the white and pink 粉红色的 and mauve blossoms 开花 havespread 伸开 across the great empire 帝国, north and south, east and west, until to-day, in blossom 开花-time almost every part of every province 省 has its white and mauve patches 补丁. You may see them in Manchuria, on the edge 边 of the great desert 沙漠；抛弃 of Gobi, within a dozen （一）打；十二 miles of Peking; you may see them from the headwaters of the mighty 威武 Yangtse to its mouth 口, up and down the coast for two thou‧sand 千 miles, on the distant 遥远的 borders 边；界 of Thibet.

No one knows how much opium 鸦片 was grown in China last year. There are estimates 估计—official, missionary 传教士, consular; and they disagree 不同意 by thou‧sand 千 and tens 十 of thou‧sand 千 of tons. But it is known that where the delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 poppy 罂粟 is reared 后, it demands and receives the best land. It thrives 兴旺 in the rich 富有的 river-bottoms 底部. It has crowded out grain 谷物 and vegetables 蔬菜 wherever 随地 it has spread 3, and has thus become a contributing 有助于 factor 因子 to famines 饥荒. Its product, opium 鸦片, has run over China like a black wave 波浪, leaving behind it a misery 7, a darkness 黑暗, a desolation that has struck strike even the Chinese, even its victims 受害者, with horror 恐怖. China has passed from misery to disaster 灾难，大祸. And as if the laws of trade had chosen choose to turn capriciously from their inexorable business and wreak a grim 严峻 joke 笑话 on a prostrate race, the solution, the great step, has failed in its purpose. The trade in Indian opium 鸦片 has been hurt 损害, to be sure, but not supplanted. It will never be supplanted until the British government deliberately 故意 puts it down. For the Chinese cannot raise opium 鸦片 which competes 竞赛 in quality with the Indian drug 药物. Indian opium 鸦片 is in steady 稳定的 demand for the purpose of mixing with Chinese opium 鸦片. No duties can keep it out; duties simply increase the cost to the Chinese consumer 消费者, simply ruin 破坏 him a bit 一点 more rapidly 快速地. So authoritative 权威性 an expert 专家 as Sir Robert Hart, director 主管 of the Chinese imperial 帝国 customs 习惯, had hoped that the great step would prove effective. In “These from the Land of Sinim” he has expressed his hope:

“Your legalized 合法化 opium 鸦片 has been a cure 治愈 in every province 省 it penetrates 穿透, and your refusal 拒绝 to limit or decrease 减少 the import 进口 has forced us to attempt a dangerous 危险 remedy 治疗法—legalized 合法化 native 4 opium 鸦片—not because we approve 赞成 of it, but to compete 竞赛 with and drive out the foreign drug 药物; and it is expelling 驱逐 it, and when we have only the native 5 production to deal with, and thus have the business in our own hands, we hope to stop the habit in our own way.”

The great step has failed. Indian opium 鸦片 has not been expelled 驱逐. For the Chinese to put down the native drug 药物 without stopping the import 进口 is impossible 不可能的 as well as use‧less 无用. The Chinese seem determined, in one way or another, to put down both. Once, again, after a weary 厌倦 century of struggle 挣扎；搏斗, they have approached the British government. Once again the British government has been driven drive from the Scylla of healthy 健康 Anglo-Saxon moral indignation 愤慨 to the Charybdis behind that illuminating 照亮 phrase 短语—“India needs the money.” Twenty million dollars is a good deal of money. The balance sheet reigns 统治; and the balance sheet is an exacting ruler, even if it has triumphed 胜利 over common decency 风化, over common morality 道德, over common humanity 人性.

********

Will you ride with me (by rickshaw) along the International Bund at Shanghai—beyond the German Club and the Hongkong Bank—over the little bridge 桥 that leads to Frenchtown—past a half mile of ware‧house 仓库 and chanting 呗 coolies and big yellow 黄色的 Hankow steamers 汽船—until we turn out on the French Bund? It is a raw 生的, cloudy 多云的, March 行军；三月 morning; the vendors 供应商 of queer 奇怪 edibles 食用 who line the curbing 抑制 find it warmer 暖和的 to keep their hands inside their quilted 被子 sleeves 袖.

 

AN OPIUM RECEIVING SHIP OR “GODOWN” AT SHANGHAI
The Imported Indian Opium is Stored in These Ships Until it Passes the Chinese Imperial Customs

 

THE OPIUM HULKS OF SHANGHAI
“They Symbolize China’s Degredation”

 

It is a lively day on the river. Admiral Brownson’s fleet 舰队 of white cruisers lie at anchor 锚 in mid‧stream 中‧河流. A lead-gray 灰色 British cruiser 巡航 swings 摇摆 below them, an anachronistic Chinese gun‧boat 枪‧小船 lower still. Big black merchantmen fill in the view—a P. and O. ship is taking on coal 煤—a two-hundred 百-ton 吨 junk 破烂 with red sails 航行；帆 moves by. Nearer at hand, from the stone 石头 quay outward 向外的, the river front is crowded close with sampans and junks 破烂, rows 行 on rows of them, each with its round 3 little house of yellow 黄色的 matting 席子, each with its swarm 一群 of brown 棕色的 children, each with its own pungent contribution 贡献 to the all-pervasive 无处不在 odour. Gaze out through the forests 森林 of masts 桅杆, if you please 请;讨人喜欢, and you will see two old hulks, roofed 屋顶 with what looks suspiciously 可疑的 like shingles 卵石, at anchor 锚 beyond. They might be ancient 古代的 men-of-war, pensioned 养老金 off to honourable decay 腐烂. You can see the square out‧line 概述；轮廓线 of what once were portholes, boarded up now. The carved 雕刻, wooden 木制的 figure-heads at the prow of each are chipped 芯片 and blackened 黩 with age and weather 天气. What are they and why do they lie here in mid 中-channel 渠道, where commerce 4 surges 浪涌 about them?

These are the opium 鸦片 hulks of Shanghai. In them is stored the opium 鸦片 which the government of British India has grown and manufactured for consumption 消费 in China. They symbolize 象征 China’s degradation 降解.

 

 

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III

A GLIMPSE INTO AN OPIUM PROVINCE

The opium 鸦片 provinces 省 of China—that is, the provinces 省 which have been most nearly completely ruined by opium 鸦片—lie well back in the interior 室内. They cover, roughly, an area 1,200 miles long by half as wide, say about one-third the area of the United States; and they support, after a fashion 时尚, a population of about 160,000,000. There had been plenty 丰富 of evidence 证据 obtain‧able 获得‧能够的 at Shanghai, Hankow, Peking, and Tientsin, of the terrible 可怕的 ravages 蹂躏 of opium 鸦片 in these regions 地区, but it seemed advisable 可取 to make a journey 旅行 into one of these unfortunate 不幸的 provinces 省 and view the problem at short range 范围；射程；类别. The nearest and most accessible 无障碍 was Shansi Province 省. It lies to the west and south‧west 西南 of Peking, behind the blue mountains 山 which one sees from the Hankow-Peking Railroad 铁路. There seemed to be no doubt that the opium 鸦片 curse 诅咒 could there be seen at its worst 生病:ill. Everybody 每人 said so—legation officials, attach 连接és, merchants, missionaries 传教士. Dr. Piell, of the London Mission 任务 hospital at Peking, estimated 估计 that ninety 九十 per cent. of the men, women, and children in Shansi smoke opium 鸦片. He called in one of his native medical assistants 助理, who happened to be a Shansi man, and the assistant 助理 observed, with a smile, that ninety 九十 per cent. seemed pretty 漂亮的 low as an estimate 估计. Another point in Shansi’s favour was that the rail‧road 铁路 were pushing 推 rapidly through to T’ai Tuan-fu, the capital 首都 (and one of the oldest cities in oldest China). So I picked up an interpreter 翻译，弄清含义 at the Grand 宏大的 Hotel des Wagon-lits, and went out there.

 

THE VILLAGES WERE LITTLE MORE THAN HEAPS OF RUINS
These Holes in the Ground grind are Occupied by Formerly Well-to-do Opium Smokers

 

AT LAST HE CRAWLS OUT ON THE HIGHWAY 公路, WHINING, CHATTERING
AND PRAYING THAT A FEW COPPER 铜 CASH 现金 BE THROWN throw TO HIM

 

The new Shansi rail‧road 铁路 was not completed through to Tai-Yuan-fu, the provincial 省级 capital 首都, and it was necessary to journey 旅行 for several days by cart 运货马车 and mule 马骡-litter 窝. While this sort of travelling is not the most comfort‧able 舒服；自在 in the world, it has the advantage 有利条件 of bringing one close to the life that swarms 一群 along the high‧road 高的‧路, and of making it easier to gather 收集 facts and impressions 印象.

Every hour or so, as the cart crawls 爬行 slowly along, you come upon a dusty 尘土飞扬gray 灰色 village 村庄 nestling 贴近 in a hollow 空的 or clinging 依偎 to the hill‧side 山坡. And nearly every village is a little more than a heap 堆 of ruins 破坏. I was prepared to find ruins, but not to such an extent 程度. When I first drew draw John, the interpreter’s, attention to them, he said, “Too much years.” As an explanation 说明 this was not satisfactory 满意, because many of the ruined buildings were comparatively 比较 new—certainly, too new to fall to pieces. At the second village 村庄 John made another guess 推测 at the cause of such complete disaster 灾难，大祸. “ Poor 贫穷的—too poor,” he said, and then traced 跟踪 it back to the last famine 饥荒, about which, he found, the peasants 农 were still talking. “Whole lot o’ mens die,” he explained. It was later on that I got at the main contributing 有助于 cause of the wreck 破坏；使遇难 and ruin 4 which one finds almost every‧where 到处 in Shansi Province 省, after I had picked up, through John and his cook 烹调, the road‧side 路边 gossip 八卦 of many days during two or three hundred 百 miles of travel, after I had talked with missionaries 传教士 of life-long experience, with physicians 医师 who are devoting 奉献 their lives to work among these misery-ridden ride people, with merchants, travellers, and Chinese and Manchu officials.

Before we take up in detail the ravages 蹂躏 of opium 鸦片 through‧out 始终 this and other provinces 省, I wish to say a word about one source 资源 of information, which every observer of conditions in China finds, sooner or later, that he is forced to employ. Along the China coast one hears a good deal of talk about the “missionary 传教士 question.” Many of the foreign merchants abuse 滥用 the missionaries 传教士. I will confess 供认 that the “anti 抗-missionary 传教士” side had been so often and so forcibly 强制 presented to me that before I got away from the coast I unconsciously 不知不觉 shared the prejudice 成见. But now, brushing 刷子 aside 在旁边 the exceptional 优秀 men on both sides of the controversy 争议, and ignoring 忽视 for the moment the deeper significance 重要性 of it, let me give the situation as it presented itself 本身 to me before I left China.

There are many foreign merchants who study the language, travel extensively 广阔的, and speak with authority 权威 on things Chinese. But the typical 典型 merchant 商人 of the treaty 条约 port 港口, that is, the merchant whom 5 one hears so loudly 响亮的 abusing 滥用 the missionaries 传教士, does not speak the language. He transacts most of his business through his Chinese “Compradore,” and apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 divides 分 the chief of his time between the club, the race-track 小路, and various other places of amusement 娱乐. This sort of merchant 4 is the kind most in evidence 证据, and it is he who contributes 有助于 most largely to the anti 抗-missionary 传教士 feeling “back home.” The missionaries 传教士, on the other hand, almost to a man, speak, read, and write one or more native dialects 方言. They live among the Chinese, and, in order to carry on their work at all, they must be continually 不断 studying the traditions 传统, customs, and prejudices 成见 of their neighbours. In almost every instance 例 the missionaries 传教士 who supplied me with information were more conservative 保守 than the British and American diplomatic 外交, consular, military 军事, and medical observers 观察者 who have travelled in the opium 鸦片 provinces 省. I have since come to the conclusion 结论 that the missionaries 传教士 are over-conservative 保守 on the opium 鸦片 question, probably because, being constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 under fire as “fanatics 狂热的” and “enthusiasts 爱好者,” they unconsciously 不知不觉 lean 靠 too far towards the side of under-statement 声明. The published 发布 estimates 估计 of Dr. Du Bose, of Soochow, president of the Anti-opium 鸦片 League 联盟；联赛, are much more conservative 保守 than those of Mr. Alex Hosie, the British commercial 商业的 attach 连接é and former consul-general. Dr. Parker, of Shanghai, the gentlemen of the London Mission 任务, the American Board, and the American Presbyterian Missions at Peking, scores 得分了 of other missionaries 传教士 whom 6 I saw in their homes in the interior 室内 or at the missionary 传教士 conference 会议 at Shanghai, and Messrs. Gaily, Robertson, and Lewis, of the International Young Men’s Christian Association, all impressed 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 me as men whose 谁的 opinions were based on information and not on prejudice 成见. Dr. Morrison, the able Peking correspondent 通信者 of the London Times, said to me when I arrived at the capital 首都, “You ought 应当 to talk with the missionaries 传教士.” I did talk with them, and among many different sources 资源 of information I found them worthy 值得 of the most serious consideration 考虑.

The phrase 短语, “opium 鸦片 province 省,” means, in China, that an entire province 省 (which, in extent 程度 and in political out‧line 概述；轮廓线, may be roughly compared to one of the United States) has been ravaged 蹂躏 and desolated 荒凉 by opium 鸦片. It means that all classes, all ages, both sexes 性别, are sodden with the drug 药物; that all the richer 富有的 soil 泥土, which in such densely 密地-populated 填充 regions 地区, is absolutely 完全地；绝对地 needed for the production of food, is given over to the poppy 罂粟; that the manufacture of opium 鸦片, of pipes 管子, of lamps 灯, and of the various other accessories 附件, has become a dominating 支配 industry; that families are wrecked 破坏；使遇难, that merchants lose their acumen, and labourers their energy 能源; that after a period of wide-spread debauchery and enervation, economic, as well as moral and physical 物理 disaster 灾难，大祸, settles down over the entire region 地区. The population of these opium 鸦片 provinces 省 ranges 范围；射程；类别 from fifteen 十五 or twenty 二十 million to eighty 八十 million.

“In Shansi,” I have quoted 引用 an official as saying, “ every‧body 每人 smokes 烟 opium 鸦片.” Another cynical 愤世嫉俗的 observer has said that “eleven 十一 out of ten 十 Shansi men are opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者.” In one village 3 an English traveller asked some natives 本土的 how many of the inhabitants 居民 smoked opium 鸦片, and one replied 回答, indicating 表明 a twelve 十二-year-old child, “That boy doesn’t.” Still another observer, an English scientist 科学家, who was born bear in Shansi, who speaks the dialect 方言 as well as he speaks English, and who travels widely through the remoter 远程 regions 地区 in search 搜寻 of rare 罕见的 birds 鸟 and animals 动物, puts the proportion 比例 of smokers 抽烟者 as low as seventy 七十-five per cent. of the total population. I had some talks with this man at T’ai Yuan-fu, and later at Tientsin, and I found his information so precise 精确 and so interesting that I asked him one day to dictate 听写 to a stenographer some random 随机 observations 意见 on the opium 鸦片 problem in Shansi. These few paragraphs 段 make up a very small part of what I have heard him and others say, but they are so grimly 严峻 picturesque 如画, and they give so accurately 准确的；精确的；正确的 the sense of the mass 大量 of notes and interviews 访问 which fill my journal 日志 of the Shansi trip 旅游, that it has seemed to me I could do no better than to print 印刷 them just as he talked them off on that particular day at Tientsin.

“The opium 鸦片-growers 种植者 always take the best piece of land,” he said, “in their land—the best fertilized 施肥, and with the most water upon it. They find that it pays them a great deal better than growing wheat 小麦 or anything else. Around Chao Cheng, especially, they grow opium 鸦片 to a large extent 3 just beside 旁边；除了 the rivers, where they can get plenty 丰富 of water. The seeds are sown about the beginning of May, and they have to be trans‧plant 移植. It takes until about the middle 中部 of July before the opium 鸦片 ripens. Just before it is ripe 成熟的 men are employed to cut the seed 种子 pods 荚, when a white sap 树液 exudes, and this dries upon the pod 荚 and turns brown 棕色的, and in about a week after it has been cut they come around and scrape 擦 it off. The wages 工资 are from twenty 二十 to thirty 三十 cents (Mexican) per day. Men and women are employed in the work. The heads of the poppy 罂粟 are all cut off, when they are dried and stored away for the seed 种子 of the next year.

“It is a very fragile 脆弱 crop 4, and until it gets to be nine 九 inches high it is very easily broken break. The full-grown poppy 罂粟 plant is from three to four feet high. The Chao Cheng opium 鸦片 is considered the best.

“In the Chao Cheng district the people have been more or less ruined by opium 鸦片. I have heard of a family, a man and his wife, who had only one suit of clothes 衣服，衣物 between them.

“In Taiku there is a large family by the name of Meng, perhaps the wealthiest family in the province 省 of Shansi. For the past few years they have been steadily going down, simply from the fact that the heads of the family have become opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者. In Taiku there is a large fair held each year, and all the old bronzes 青铜, porcelains 瓷, furniture 家具, etc., that this family possesses 拥有 are sold sell. Last year enough of their possessions 所有物 were on sale to stock ten 十 or twelve 十二 small shops at the fair.

“Another man, a rich 富有的 man in Jen Tsuen, possessed 拥有 a fine summer residence 住宅 previous 以前 to 1900. This residence 住宅 contained several large houses and some fine trees and shrubs 灌木, but during the last seven 七 years he has taken to opium 鸦片 and has been steadily going down. He has been selling out this residence 住宅, pulling down the houses and cutting down the trees, and selling the wood 木材；树林 and old bricks 砖. He is now a beggar 乞丐 in the streets of Jen Tsuen.

“All through the hills west of Tai Yuan-fu the peasants 农 are addicted 瘾君子 to the use of opium 鸦片. About seventy 七十 per cent. of the population take opium 鸦片 in one form or another. I was speaking to a number of them who had come into an inn 小旅馆 at which I was stopping. I asked them if they wanted to give up the use of opium 鸦片. They said yes, but that they had not the means to do so. Everybody 3 would like to give it up. The women smoke, as well as the men.

“The smoker does not trouble himself to plant seeds, nor to go out.

“The houses in Shansi are very good; in fact, they are better than in other provinces 省, but they are rapidly going to ruin 5 owing 欠…债 to the excessive 过度的 smoking of opium 鸦片, and wherever 随地 one goes the ruins are seen on every side. On the roads the people can get a little money by selling things, but off the main roads the distress 苦难 is worse 更坏的 than any‧where 任何地方 else.

“Up in the hills I stopped at a village and inquired 打听 if they had any food for sale, and they told me that they had nothing but frozen 使结冰；不动:freeze potatoes 土豆. So I asked to be shown those, and I went into one of the hovels and found little potatoes, perhaps one-half an inch 英寸 across, frozen, and all strewn over the kang (the brick 砖 bed), where they were drying. As soon as they were dry, they were to be ground down into a meal 餐 of which dumplings were made, and these were steamed 蒸汽. That was their only diet 饮食, and had been for the past month. They had no money at all. What money they had possessed had been spent spend on opium 鸦片, and they could not expect anything to make up the crop 5 of potatoes the following autumn 秋. I noticed in a basin 盆 a few dried sticks 棍；粘贴, and I asked what they were for, and the man told me they were the sticks taken from the sieve through which the opium 鸦片 was filtered 过滤 for purification. These sticks are soaked 浸泡 in hot water, and the water, which contains a little opium 鸦片, is drunk drink. They were using this in place of opium 鸦片. I gave this man twenty 二十 cents, and the next day when I returned he was enjoying a pipe 管子 of opium 鸦片.

“While passing through an iron 铁器-smelting village I noticed that the blacksmiths who beat 打败 up the pig 猪 iron were regular 有规律的 living skeletons 骨架. They work from about five in the morning until about five in the evening, stopping twice 两次 during that time for meals 餐. When they leave off in the evening, after a hasty 匆 meal 餐 they start with their pipes and go on until they are asleep 睡着的. I do not know how these men can work. I presume 假设 that it was the hard work that made them take to opium 鸦片-smoking.

“On asking people why they had taken to the drug 药物, they invariably 不变地 replied that it was for the cure 治愈 of a pain of some sort—for relieving 解除 the suffering. The women often take to it after child‧birth 分娩, and this is generally what starts them to smoking.

“The wealthier 富裕 men who smoke opium 鸦片 nearly all day cannot enter another room until this room has first been filled with the fumes 烟 of opium 鸦片. Some one has to go into the room first and smoke a few pipes, so that the air of the room may be in proper condition.

“There was an official in Shau-ying who used to keep six slave 奴隶 girls going all day filling his pipes. The slave girls and brides 新娘 very often try to commit 承诺 suicide by eating 吃 opium 鸦片, owing to the harsh 苛刻 treatment 治疗 they receive.”

Everywhere 到处 along the high‧road 高的‧路 and in the cities and villages of Shansi you see the opium 鸦片 face. The opium 鸦片-smoker, like the opium 鸦片-eater 吃, rapidly loses flesh 肉 when the habit has fixed itself 本身 on him. The colour leaves his skin 皮, and it becomes dry, like parchment. His eye loses what‧ever 无论什么 light and sparkle 火花 it may have had, and becomes dull 钝的；没兴趣 and list‧less 清单‧少. The opium 鸦片 face has been best described as a “ peculiarly 奇怪的 withered 枯萎 and blasted 爆破 countenance 面容.” With this face is usually associated 关联 a thin 薄的 body and a languid gait. Opium gets such a powerful 强大 grip 握 on a confirmed 确认 smoker that it is usually unsafe 不安全 for him to give up the habit without medical aid 援助. His appetite 食欲 is taken away, his digestion 消化 is impaired 妨害, there is congestion 拥塞 of the various internal 内部 organs 器官；机构, and congestion 拥塞 of the lungs. Constipation and diarrhœa result, with pain all over the body. By the time he has reached this stage, the smoker has become both physically 物理 and mentally 精神上 weak 柔弱的 and inactive 待用. With his intellect 智力 deadened, his physical 物理 and moral sense impaired 妨害, he sinks 淹没 into laziness, immorality, and debauchery. He has lost lose his power of resistance 抵抗 to disease 疾病, and becomes predisposed to colds, bronchitis, diarrhœa, dysentery, and dyspepsia. Brigade Surgeon J. H. Condon, M. D., M. R. C. S., speaking of opium 鸦片-eaters before the Royal 王国的 Commission 佣金 on Opium, said: “They become emaciated and debilitated 衰弱, miserable 悲惨的-looking wretches 不幸的人, and finally die, most commonly of diarrhœa induced 促使 by the use of opium 鸦片.”

When a man has got himself into this condition, he must have opium 鸦片, and must have it all the time. I have already pointed out that opium 鸦片-smoking not only is perhaps the most expensive 昂贵的 of the vices 副职的；副的, but that, unlike 不像 opium 鸦片-eating, it consumes 消耗 an immense 极大的 amount of time. Few smokers 抽烟者 can keep slaves to fill their pipes for them, like that wealthy 富裕 official at Shau-ying. It takes a seasoned smoker from fifteen 十五 minutes to half an hour to prepare a pipe 4 to his satisfaction 满足, smoke it, and rouse 唤醒 himself to begin the operation again. If he smokes ten 十 or twenty 二十 pipes a day, which is common, and then sleeps off the effects, it is not hard to figure out the number of hours left for business each day. When he has slept sleep, and the day is well started, his body at once begins to clamour for more opium 鸦片. He must begin smoking again, or he will suffer an agony 痛苦 of physical 物理 and mental 心理 torture 拷打. His ten 十 to twenty 二十 pipes a day will cost him from fifty 五十 cents or a dollar (if he is a poor 贫穷的 man and smokes the scrapings from the rich 3 man’s pipe 5), to ten 十 or twenty 二十 dollars (or more, if he smokes a high grade 年级 of opium 鸦片). I learned of many wealthy 富裕 merchants and officials who smoke from forty 四十 to sixty 六十 pipes a day.

It is just at this period, when the smoker is so enslaved by the drug 药物 that he has lost lose his earning power, that his opium 鸦片 expenditure 支出 increases most rapidly. He is buying opium 鸦片 now, not so much to gratify 取悦 his selfish 自私的 vice 副职的；副的, as to keep himself alive 活的；有生命的. He becomes frantic 疯狂的 for opium 鸦片. He will sell anything he has to buy the stuff 塞满；材料. His moral sense is destroyed. A diseased 疾病, decrepit, insane 疯 being, he forgets 忘记 even his family. He sells his bric-a-brac, his pictures, his furniture 家具. He sells his daughters 女儿, even his wife, if she has attractions 吸引, as slaves to rich men. He tears 撕裂；泪 his house to pieces, sells the tiles 瓦 of his roof 屋顶, the bricks of his walls, the wood‧work 木制品 about his doors and windows. He cuts down the trees in his yard 院子 and sells the wood 木材；树林. And at last he crawls 爬行 out on the high‧way 公路, digs 挖 himself a cave 洞穴 in the loess (if he has strength enough), and prostrates himself before the camel 骆驼 and donkey 驴 drivers 司机, whining 抱怨, chattering 喋喋不休, praying 祈祷 that a few copper 铜 cash 现金 be thrown throw to him.

Since there are no statistics 统计数据；统计资料 in China, I can give the reader only the observations 意见 and impressions 印象 of a traveller. But Shansi Province 省 is full of ruins. So are Szechuan and Yunnan and Kuei-chow, and half a dozen （一）打；十二 others. It is with the province 省 as a whole much as it is with the individuals of that province 省. The raising of opium 鸦片 to supply this enormous 巨大 demand crowds 人群；拥挤 off the land the grains and vegetables that are absolutely needed for human food. The manufacture of opium 鸦片 and its accessories 附件 absorbs 吸收 the energy 能源 and capital 3 that should go into legitimate 合法 industry. The government of the province 省 and the government of the empire 5 have become so dependent 依靠的 on the immense 5 revenue 收入 from the taxation 税收 of this “vicious 恶毒 article of luxury 豪华” that they dare 敢 not give it up. In the body politic an unhealthy 不良 condition not only exists, but also controls. Drifting into it half-consciously 有意识的, the province 省 has been sapped 树液 by a vicious 恶毒 economic habit. That is what is the matter with Shansi. That is what is the matter with China. All the way along my route 路线 in Shansi I photographed 照片 the ruins that typify the disaster 灾难，大祸 which has overtaken this opium 鸦片 province 省. And a few of these photographs 照片 are reproduced 复制 here, all showing houses of men who were well-to-do only a few years ago. It will be plainly 平原；明显 seen from the cuts, I think, that these ruins are not the result of age. The sun 太阳-dried bricks of the walls show few signs of crumbling 崩溃. The walls themselves are not weather 天气-beaten 打败:beat, and have evidently 明显地 been destroyed by the hand of man, and not by time.

 

WRECK 破坏；使遇难 AND RUIN IN CHINA These Houses were Torn Down by their Owners, the Woodwork and Bricks Sold, and the Money Used to Purchase 采购 Opium

 

 

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IV

CHINA’S SINCERITY

China is the land of paradox 悖论. If it is an absolute 绝对的, despotic monarchy 帝制, it is also a very democratic 民主的 country, with its self 自己-made men, its powerful 强大 public opinion, and a “states’ rights” question of its own. It is one of the most corrupt 腐败 of nations; on the other hand, the standard of personal 个人 and commercial 商业的 honesty 诚实 is probably higher in China than in any other country in the world. Woman, in China, is made to serve; her status 状态 is so low that it would be a discourtesy even to ask a man if he has a daughter 女儿: yet the ablest ruler China has had in many centuries is a woman. It is a land where the women wear socks 短袜 and trousers 长裤, and the men wear stockings and robes 长袍; where a man shakes 摇晃 his own hand, not yours; where white, not black, is a sign of mourning 悼; where the compass 罗盘 points south, not north; where books are read backward 向后的, not forward 前进地; where names and titles 标题 are put in reverse 反向；倒转 order, as in our directories 目录—Theodore Roosevelt would be Roosevelt Theodore in China, Uncle 叔叔 Sam would be Sam Uncle; where fractions 分数 are written upside 上边 down, as [8]⁄5, not 5⁄8; where a bride 新娘 wails 哀号 bitterly as she is carried to her wedding 结婚, and a man laughs 笑 when he tells you of his mother’s death.

Chinese life, or the phases 相 of it that you see along the highroads of the north‧west 西北, would appear to be a very simple, honest 诚实的 life, industrious, methodical, patient in poverty 贫穷. The men, even of the lowest classes, are courteous to a degree that would shame 羞愧 a Frenchman. I have seen my two soldiers, who earned 赚得 ten 十 or twenty 二十 cents, Mexican, a day, greet 欢迎 my cook 烹调 with such grace 优雅；惠赐 and charm 魔力；使陶醉 of manner that I felt like a crude 原油 barbarian as I watched them. The simplicity 简单 and industry of this life, as it presented itself 本身 to me, seemed directly opposed to any violence 暴力 or out‧rage 暴行. Yet only seven 七 years ago Shansi Province 省 was the scene of one of the most atrocious mass‧acre 屠杀 in history, modern or ancient 古代的. During a few weeks, in the summer of 1900, one hundred 百 and fifty 五十-nine 九 white foreigners 外国人, men, women, and children, were killed within the province 省, forty 四十-six of them in the city of T’ai Yuan-fu. The mass‧acre 屠杀 completely wiped 擦 out the mission 任务 churches and schools and the opium 鸦片 refuges 避难所, the only missionaries 传教士 who escaped 逃脱 being those who happened to be away on leave at the time. The attack was not directed at the missionaries 传教士 as such, but at the foreigners 外国人 in general. It was widely believed among the peasantry that the foreign devils 魔鬼 made a practice of cutting out the eyes, tongues 舌头, and various other organs of children and women and shipping them, for some diabolical purpose, out of the country. The slaughter 屠宰 was directed, from beginning to end, by the rabid Manchu governor 州长；主管人, Yü Hsien, and some of the butchering 屠夫 was done by soldiers under his personal 个人 command. But the interesting fact is that the docile, long-suffering people of Shansi did some butchering 屠夫 on their own account, as soon as the word was passed around that no questions would be asked by the officials.

Apparently, the Shansi peasant 农 can be at one time simple, industrious, loyal 忠诚的, and at another time a slaying 诛戮, ravishing maniac. The Chinaman himself is the greatest paradox 悖论 of all. He is the product of a civilization 文明 which sprang from a germ 病菌 and has developed in a soil 泥土 and environment 环境 different from anything within our Western range 范围；射程；类别 of experience. Naturally 自然地 he does not see human relations as we see them. His habits 习惯 and customs are enough different from ours to appear bizarre 奇异的 to us; but they are no more than surface evidences 证据 of the difference between his mind and ours. Thanks to our strong racial instinct 直觉, we can be fairly certain of what an Anglo-Saxon, or even a European, will think in certain deeply human circumstances 环境—in the presence 出席 of death, for instance 例. We cannot hope to understand the mental 心理 processes of a Chinaman. There is too great a difference in the shape of our heads, as there is in the texture 质地 of our traditions 传统.

But we can see quite clearly that the imperial 帝国 government of China is, while it endures 忍受, a strong and effective government. It is significant 重大 that the Chinese people rarely 很少；不常见；难得 indulge 放纵 in mass‧acre 屠杀 on their own account. Why not? The hatred 仇恨 of foreigners 外国人 must be always there, under the placid surface, for these people rarely fail to turn into slaying 诛戮 demons 恶魔 once the officials let the word be passed around. There have been thirty 三十-five serious anti 抗-foreign riots 暴动 and mass‧acre 屠杀 in China within thirty 三十-five years, besides 而且 the Boxer uprising 暲 of 1900; and among these there was probably not one which the mandarins could not have sup‧press 压制 had they wished. The Boxer trouble was worked up by Yü Hsien while he was governor 3 of Shantung Province 省. When the foreign powers protested 抗议 he was transferred 转让 to Shansi, which had scarcely 缺乏的 heard of the Boxer Society, and almost at once there was a “Boxer” out‧break 暴发 and mass‧acre 屠杀 in Shansi. The Peking government mean‧while 同时 carried on Yü Hsien’s horrible 可怕 work at Peking and Tientsin. The siege 围城 of the legations at Peking was conducted 进行 by imperial 帝国 soldiers, not by mobs 暴民. During all the trouble of that bloody 血腥的；该死的；他妈的 summer, Yuan Shi K’ai, who succeeded to the governor‧ship 州长；主管人‧船 in Shantung, seemed to have no difficulty 困难 in keeping that province 省 quiet, though it was the scene of the original 原版的 trouble.

Chang Chi Tung, “the great viceroy,” subdued 征服 the Upper 上面的 Yangtse provinces 省 with a firm hand, though the Boxer difficulty there was complicated by the ever-see‧thing 看见‧东西；事件 revolution 革命. In a word, the officials in China seem perfectly able to control their populace and protect 保护 foreigners 外国人. As Dr. Ferguson, of Shanghai, put it to me, “No other government in the world can so effectively enforce 执行 a law as the Chinese government—when they want to!”

You soon learn, in China, that you can trust 信任 a Chinaman to carry through anything he agrees to do for you. When I reached T’ai Yuan-fu I handed my interpreter a Chinese draft 草案 for $200 (Mexican), pay‧able 应付 to bearer, and told him to go to the bank and bring back the money. I had known John a little over a week; yet any one who knows China will understand that I was running no appreciable risk 危险. The individual Chinaman is simply a part of a family, the family is part of a neighbourhood, the neighbourhood is part of a village or district, and so on. In all its relations with the central 中央 government, the province 省 is responsible for the affairs of its larger districts, these for the smaller districts, the smaller districts for the villages, the villages for the neighbourhoods, the neighbourhoods for the family, the family for the individual. If John had disappeared 不见 with my money after cashing 现金 the draft 草案, and had after‧ward 之后 been caught catch, punishment 惩罚 would have been swift 迅速 and severe 严峻的. Very likely he would have lost lose his head. If the authorities 权威 had been unable 无法 to find John, they would have punished 处罚 his family. Punishment would surely have fallen fall on some‧body 某人.

The real effect of this system, continued as it has been through unnumbered centuries, has naturally 自然地 been to develop a clear, keen 热切的 sense of personal 个人 responsibility 责任. For, what‧ever 无论什么 may occur 发生, somebody is responsible. The family, in order to protect 保护 itself 本身, trains its individuals to live up to their promises, or else not to make promises. The neighbourhood, well knowing that it will be held account‧able 问责 for its units, watches them with a close eye. When a new family comes into a neighbourhood, the neighbours crowd 人群；拥挤 about and ask questions which are not, in view of the facts, so impertinent as they might sound. Indeed, this sense of family and neighbourhood account‧ability 问责 is so deeply rooted 根 that it is not uncommon 罕见, on the failure 失败 of a merchant 5 to meet his obligations 义务；责任；职责, for his family and friends to step forward 前进地 and help him to settle his accounts. It is the only way in which they can clear themselves.

All these evidences 证据 would seem to indicate 表明 that the Chinese people, on the one hand, have an innate 先天 fear of and respect for their government and their law, such as they are; and that the government, on the other hand, is, in the matter of enforcing 执行 the traditional 传统 law, one of the most powerful 强大 governments on earth. None 没有人 but an exceedingly 非常 well-organized government could deliberately 故意 incite 煽动 its people to repeated 重复 riots 暴动 and mass‧acre 屠杀 without losing control of them. The Chinese government has seemed to have not the slightest difficulty 3 in keeping the people quiet—when it wanted to. The story of Shantung Province 省 makes this clear. It was driven drive into what appeared to be anarchy 无政府状态 by a rabid governor. But only a few months later this governor’s successor 接班人 had little difficulty in keeping the entire province 省 in almost perfect 使完善；完美的 order while the adjoining 毗 province 省 was actually at war with the allied 联盟；盟友 powers of the world and was over‧run 泛滥 with foreign troops 部队. No; a government which has within it the power, on occasion, to carry through such an achievement 成就 as this, can hardly 3 be called weak 柔弱的.

We begin, then, by admitting 许可进入 that the Chinese government has the strength and the organization necessary to carry out any ordinary 普通的 reform 改革—if it wants to. The putting down of the opium 鸦片 evil 邪恶的 is, of course, no ordinary reform 改革. It is an under‧take 承担 so colossal 庞大 and so desperate 殊死 that it staggers 错开 imagination 想像力, as I trust 信任 I have made plain 平原；明显 in the preceding 优于 articles 文章. But setting aside 在旁边, for the moment, our doubts as to whether or not the Chinese government, or any other government on earth, could hope to check so insidious and pervading 弥漫 an evil 邪恶的, we have to consider other doubts which arise 产生 from even a slight acquaintance 熟人 with that puzzling organism 生物, the Chinese official mind. If the Chinese business man is, as many think, the most honest 诚实的 and straight‧forward 直截了当 business man on earth, the Chinese official, or mandarin, is about the most subtle 微妙 and bewildering 困惑. His duplicity is simply beyond our understanding. He has a bland 平淡 and childish 幼稚 smile, but his ways are peculiar 奇怪的. Most of us know that our own state department has a neat 整洁的 little custom 习惯 of issuing letters to travellers ordering our diplomatic 外交 and consular representatives abroad 到国外 to extend 延伸 special courtesies 礼貌, and sending, at the same time, a notice to these same representatives advising 劝告 them to take no notice of the letters. In Chinese diplomacy 外交 everything is done in this way, but very much more so. Documents issued by the Chinese government usually bear about the same relation to any existing facts or intentions 意图 as a Thanksgiving proclamation does. You must be very astute, indeed, to perceive 认为 from the speech 演说, manner, or writing of a mandarin what he is really getting at. Motive under‧lie 是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响 motive 动机; self 自己-interest lies deeper still; and the base of it all is an Oriental concept‧ion 概念 of life and affairs which cannot be so remodelled 改装 or reshaped 重塑 as to fit into our square-shaped Western minds. No one else was so eloquent 雄辩 on the horrors 恐怖 of opium 鸦片 as the great Li Hung hang Chang, when talking with foreigners 外国人; yet Li Hung hang Chang was one of the largest producers 制片人 of opium 鸦片 in China. When the Chinese army, under imperial 帝国 direction, was fiercely 凶猛的 bombarding 轰击 the legations in Peking, the imperial 帝国 government was officially sending fruit 成果 and other delicacies 美味, accompanied 陪 by courteous notes, asking if there was not something they could do for the comfort 安慰 of the hard-pressed foreigners 外国人.

This indirection would seem to be the result of a constant 不变 effort, on the part of everybody in authority 权威, to shirk the responsibility 责任 for difficult situations. Under a system which holds a man mercilessly account‧able 问责 for carrying through any under‧take 承担 for which he is known to be responsible, he naturally 自然地 tries to avoid 避开 assuming 承担 any responsibility 责任 whatever 3. An official is punished for failure 失败 and rewarded for success in China, as in other countries. And the official on whom 7 is saddled 马鞍 the extremely 非常；极端；极其 difficult job of pleasing 请;讨人喜欢, at one time, an empress who believes that a Boxer can render 给予 himself invisible 无形 to foreign sharpshooters by a little mumbling 咕哝 and dancing, a set of courtiers and palace 宫 eunuchs who are constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 under‧mine 破坏 one another with the deepest Oriental guile, a populace with little more understanding and knowledge of the world than the children of Israel in the Sinai Peninsula, and a hostile 敌对 band 带 of keen 热切的, modern diplomats 外交官 with trade interests and “concessions 让步” on their tongues and machine guns and magazine 杂志 rifles 步枪 at call in their legation compounds 组合, is not in for an easy time.

It hardly seems, then, as if we should blame 指责 the Chinese official too harshly 粗暴地 if his whole career appears to be made up of a series 系列 of “side-steppings” and “ ducks 鸭子”—of what the American boxer 盒；耳光 aptly 易于 calls “foot work.” On the other hand, it is not difficult to sympathize 同情 with the foreign diplomat 外交官 who has, year after year, to play this baffling 障 game. He is always making progress and never getting any‧where 任何地方. He has his choice 选择 of going mad 疯狂的 or settling down into a confirmed 确认 and weary 厌倦 cynicism 玩世不恭. In most cases he chooses the latter 后者的, and ultimately 最终 drifts 漂移 into a frame 框架 of mind in which he doubts anything and everything. He takes it for granted 发放 that the Chinese government is always insincere. It is incredible 难以置信 to him that a Chinese official could mean what he says. And so, when the Chinese government declared 宣布 against the opium 鸦片 evil 邪恶的, the cynical 愤世嫉俗的 foreign diplomats 外交官 and traders 商人 at once began looking between and behind the lines in the effort to find out what the crafty yellow 黄色的 men were really getting at. That they might mean what they said seemed wholly 全 out of the question. But what deep motive 动机 might under‧lie 是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响 the proposal 提议 was a puzzle 使迷惑. At first the gossips 八卦 of Peking and the ports 港口 ran to the effect that the real scheme 方案 was to arouse 引起 the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 public opinion in England, and force the British Indian government to give up its opium 鸦片 business. Very good, so far. But why? In order that China, by successfully 顺利 shutting 关闭 out the Indian opium 鸦片, might set up a government monopoly 垄断 of its own, for revenue 收入, of the home-grown drug 药物? This was the first notion 概念 at Peking and the ports 港口. I heard it voiced frequently everywhere 4. But it proved a hard theory 理论 to maintain 保持.

In the first place, the Chinese government could set up a pretty 漂亮的 effective government opium 鸦片 business, if it wanted to, without bothering 烦 about the Indian-grown drug 药物. Opium is produced everywhere 5 in China. The demand has grown to a point where the Indian article alone could not begin to supply it. But, on the other hand, the stopping of the importation is necessarily the first step in combating 战斗 the evil 3; for, if the Chinese should begin by successfully 顺利 decreasing 减少 their own production of opium 鸦片, the importation would automatically 自动 increase, and consumption 消费 remain the same.

In the second place, if it is wholly 全 a “revenue 收入” matter to the Chinese government, why give up the large annual 全年 revenue 收入 from customs duties on the imported 进口 opium 鸦片? In asking the British to stop their opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 the Chinese are proposing 提议 deliberately 故意 to sacrifice 牺牲 $5,000,000 annually 每年 in customs and liking duties on the imported 进口 drug 药物, or between a fifth and a sixth of the entire revenue 收入 of the imperial 帝国 customs.

One very convincing 说服 indication 迹象 of the sincerity 诚意 of the Chinese government in this matter, which I will take up in detail a little later, is the way in which the opium 鸦片 prohibition 禁令 is being enforced 执行 by the Chinese authorities 权威. But before going into that, I should like to call attention to two other evidences 证据 of Chinese sincerity 诚意 in its war on opium 鸦片. The first is the patent 专利 fact that public opinion all over China, among rich and poor 贫穷的, mandarins and peasants 农, has turned strongly against the use of opium 鸦片. I have had this information from too many sources 资源 to doubt it. Travellers from the remotest 远程 provinces 省 are reporting to this effect. The anti 抗-opium 鸦片 sentiment 情绪 is found in the highest official circles 圆, in the army, in the navy 海军, in the schools. Within the past year or so it has been growing steadily stronger. Opium-smoking used to be taken as a matter of course; now, where you find a man smoking too much, you also find a group of friends apologizing 道歉；认错；谢罪 for him. I have already explained that opium 鸦片-smoking is not tolerated 容忍 in the “new” army. There is now a rapidly growing number of officials and merchants who refuse 拒绝 to employ opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者 in any capacity 容量.

Now, why is the public opinion of China setting so strongly against opium 鸦片? Even apart 相隔 from moral considerations 考虑, bringing the matter down to a “ practical 实践的” basis, why is this so? I will venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to offer an answer to the question. Said one Tientsin foreign merchant, an American who has had unusual 异常 opportunities to observe conditions in Northern 北方的 China: “If the Chinese do succeed 成功 in shutting down on opium 鸦片, it may mean the end of the foreigners 外国人 in China. Opium is the one thing that is holding the Chinese back to-day.”

Ten 十 or twelve 十二 of the legations at Peking now have “legation guards 警卫” of from one hundred 百 to three hundred 百 men each. In all, there are eighteen 十八 hundred 百 foreign soldiers in Peking, “a force large enough,” said one officer, “to be an insult 侮辱 to China, but not large enough to defend 辩护 us should they really resent 愤恨 the insult.”

Twelve hundred 百 miles up the Yangtse River, above the rapids 快速的, there is a fleet 舰队 of tiny 小 foreign gunboats, English and French, which were carried up in sections 部分 and put together “to stay.” At every treaty 条约 port 港口 there are one or more foreign settlements 沉降, maintained 保持 under foreign laws. The Imperial Maritime Customs Service of China is directed and administered 管理 through‧out 始终 by foreigners 外国人; this, to insure 保证 the proper collection 收集 of the “indemnity” money. Foreign “syndicates 辛迪加” have been gobbling up the wonderful 精彩 coal 煤 and iron 铁器 deposits 留下 of China wherever 随地 they could find them. And so on. I could give many more illustrations 插图 of the foreign grip 握 on China, but these will serve. And back of these facts looms 织布机 the always impending 即将发生 “partition 划分 of China.” The Chinese are not fools 愚人. They have sat sit tight 紧的, wearing that inscrutable smile, while the foreigners 外国人 discussed 讨论 the cutting up of China as if it were a huge 巨大 cake 蛋糕. They have seen the Japanese, a race of little brown 3 men, inhabiting 居住于 a few little islands, face the dreaded 恐惧 bear of Russia and drive it back into Siberia. Now, at last, these patient Chinamen are picking up some odds 奇 and ends of Western science. They are building railroads, and manufacturing the rails 围栏；钢轨 for them. They are talking about saving China “for the Chinese.” In 1906 they mobilized 动员 an army of 30,000 “modern” troops 部队 for manœuvres in Honan Province 省. If they are to succeed 成功 with this notion 概念, they must begin at the beginning. Opium is dragging them down hill 小山. Opium will not build railroads. Opium will not win battles 与…作战. Opium will not administer 管理 the affairs of the hugest 巨大 nation on earth. Therefore, no matter what it costs in revenue 收入, no matter how staggering 错开 the necessary reform 改革 and reorganization 重组, opium 鸦片 must go.

China may be a puzzling land. The Chinese officials may be cap‧able 能 of the most baffling 障 duplicity. But we are forced to believe that they are “ sincere 真诚的” in putting down the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通. It appears, for China, to be a case of sink 淹没 or swim 游泳.

The next question would seem to be, if the Chinese are really trying to put down the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通, how are they succeeding 成功? We will pass over that part of the problem which relates to Great Britain and the Indian opium 鸦片 trade, with the idea of taking it up in a later chapter 章节. Let us consider now what China, flabby, backward 向后的, long-suffering China, is actually doing in this tremendous 巨大 effort to cure 治愈 her disorder 混乱 in order that she may take a new place among the nations. We will deal here with the enforcement of the edict in Shansi Province 省, taking up in later chapters 章节 the results of the prohibition 禁令 movement 运动 in the other provinces 省.

The plan out‧line 概述；轮廓线 in the edicts prohibiting 禁止 opium 鸦片 is clear, direct, forcible. It was evidently 明显地 meant to be effective. It provides (first) that the governors 州长；主管人 of the provinces 省 shall ascertain 探明, through the local authorities 权威, the exact number of acres 英亩 under poppy 罂粟 cultivation 6. The area of the land used for this purpose shall then be cut down by one-ninth part each year, “so that at the end of nine 九 years there will be no more land used for such purposes, and the land thus disused”—I am quoting 引用 here from the Chinaman who translated 翻译 the regulations 规 for me—“shall never be used for the said purposes again. Should the owners 所有者 of such lands disobey the decree 法令, their lands shall be confiscated 没收. Local officials who make special efforts and be able to stop the cultivation 7 of poppy 罂粟 before the said time, they shall be rewarded with promotions 提升.”

The plan provides (second) that “all smokers 抽烟者, irrespective 不管 of class or sex 性别, must go to the nearest authorities 权威 to get certificates 证书, in which they are to write their names, addresses 地址, profession, ages, and the amount of opium 鸦片 smoked each day.” Latitude is allowed smokers 抽烟者 over sixty 六十 years of age, but those under sixty 六十 “must get cured before arriving at sixty 六十 years of age. Persons who smoke or buy opium 鸦片 without certificates 证书 will be punished. No new smokers 抽烟者 will be allowed from the date of prohibition 禁令. The amount of opium 鸦片 supplied to each smoker must decrease 减少 by one-third each year, so that within a few years there will be no opium 鸦片 smoked at all.” Officials who over‧step 之上‧步；走 the law are to be deprived 剥夺 of their rank 排列. In the case of common people, “their names will be posted 邮件 up thoroughfares, and will be deprived 剥夺 of privileges 特权 in all public gatherings 收集.”

Opium dens 巢穴, as also all restaurants 饭店, hotels, and wine 葡萄酒-shops which provide couches 长椅 and lamps for smokers 抽烟者 were to be closed at once. If any regular 有规律的 opium 鸦片 den 巢穴 was found open after the prohibition 禁令 (May, 1907), the property would be confiscated 没收. No new stores for the sale of opium 鸦片 could be opened. “Good opium 鸦片 remedies 治疗法 must be prepared. Multiply 乘 the number of anti 抗-opium 鸦片 clubs. If any citizens 公民 who can, through their efforts, get many people cured, they will be rewarded.... All officials, and the officers of the army and navy 海军, and professors 教授 of schools, colleges, and universities, must all get cured within six months.” And further far, it was decided to “open negotiations 谈判 with Great Britain, arranging with that power to have less and less opium 鸦片 imported 进口 into China each year, till 到 at the end of nine 九 years no opium 鸦片 will be imported 进口 at all.” The Chinese, it is evident 明显, are not wanting in hopeful 有希望 sentiment 情绪. Reading this, it is almost possible to forget 忘记 that India needs the money.

“There is another drug 药物, called morphia, which has done (thus my Chinaman’s translation 翻译) or is doing more harm 损害 than opium 鸦片. The custom 习惯 authorities 权威 are to be instructed 指导 to prohibit 禁止 strictly the importation of it, except for medical uses.”

 

ENFORCING THE EDICT AT SHANGHAI

Burning Opium Pipes of Ivory and Costly Woods   Breaking the Opium Lamps

 

A clean-cut programme, this; apparently meant to be effective. It was with no small curiosity 好奇心 that I looked about in Shansi Province 省 to see whether there seemed any likelihood 可能性 of enforcement. The time was ripe 成熟的. It was April; in May the six months would be up. Opium had ruled in Shansi: could they hope to depose 免职 it before the final 最后 havoc 浩劫 should be wrought 锻?

The nub of the situation was, of course, the limiting of the crop. Theoretically, it should be easier to prohibit 禁止 opium 鸦片 than to prohibit 禁止 alcoholic 酒精 drinks. Wines and liquors 酒 are made from grains and fruits 成果 which must be grown anyway 无论如何, for purposes of food. It would not do to attempt to prohibit 禁止 liquor 酒 by stopping the cultivation 8 of grains and fruits. The poppy 罂粟, on the other hand, produces nothing but opium 鸦片 and its alkaloids. In stopping the growth of the poppy 罂粟 you are depriving 剥夺 man of no useful 有用 or necessary article. The poppy 罂粟 must be grown in the open, along the river-bottoms (where the roads run). It cannot be hidden 隐藏的. As government regulating 调节 goes, nothing is easier than to find a field of poppies 罂粟 and measure it. The plans of the Shansi farmers for the coming year should throw some light on the sincerity 诚意 of the opium 鸦片 reforms 改革. Were they really arranging to plant less opium 鸦片? Yes, they were. Reports came to me from every side, and all to the same effect. West and north‧west 西北 of T’ai Yuan-fu many of the farmers had announced 宣布 that they were planting no poppies 罂粟 at all. This, remember, was in April: planting time was near; it was a practical 实践的 pro‧position 主张 to those Shansi peasants 农. In other regions 地区 men were planting either none 没有人 at all, or “less than last year.” The reason generally given was that the closing of the dens 巢穴 in the cities had lessened 变少；减轻 the demand for opium 鸦片.

The officials were planning not only to make poppy 罂粟-growing unprofitable to the farmers, they were planning also to advise 劝告 and assist 帮助；协助；援助 them in the substitution 代换 of some other crop for the poppy 罂粟. But here they encountered 遭遇 one of the peculiar 奇怪的 difficulties 困难 in the way of opium 鸦片 reform 改革, the transportation problem. All transportation, off the railroads, is slow and costly. No other product is so easy to transport 运输 as opium 鸦片. A man can carry several hundred 百 dollars’ worth 值得的 on his person; a man with a mule 马骡 can carry several thou‧sand 千 dollars’ worth 3. That is one of the reasons why opium 鸦片 is a more profit‧able 有利可图 crop than potatoes or wheat 小麦. But the law descends 下来 without waiting for solutions 解决 of all the problems involved. The closing of the opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 all over Shansi had the immediate effect of limiting the crop. It also had the effect of driving out of business a great many firms engaged 从事 in the manufacture of pipes and lamps. Sixty-two manufacturing houses in one city, Taiku, either went out of business altogether 4 during the spring months, or turned to new enterprises 企业. I add an interesting bit 3 of evidence 证据 as to the effectiveness 效用 of the enforcement. It is from a missionary 传教士.

“I was calling on one of the foreigners 外国人 in T’ai Yuan-fu and found a beggar 乞丐 lying on one of the door-steps, with his pipe and lamp 灯 all going. I told him to clear out. I asked him why he was there, and he told me he had now‧here 无处 else to go, now that the smoking-dens 巢穴 were all closed, and that he had to find some sheltered 居所 nook where he could have his smoke.”

It was not the plan to close the opium 鸦片 sale shops; theoretically 理论上, it will take nine 九 or ten 十 years to do that. But after closing all the places where opium 鸦片 was smoked socially and publicly, it should become possible to register 寄存器 all the individuals who buy the drug 药物 for home consumption 消费. It was the closing of the dens 巢穴, the places for public smoking, in all the cities of Shansi, which had the immediate effect of limiting the crop and the manufacture of smoking instruments 仪器. The one hundred 百 and twenty 二十-nine 九 dens 巢穴 of T’ai Yuan-fu were all closed before I arrived there. In T’ai Yuan-fu, as in Peking, you could buy an opium 鸦片-smoker’s outfit 配备 for next to nothing. Cloisonné pipes, mounted 增加 with ivory 象牙 and jade 玉, were offered at absurd 荒诞 prices.

One of the saddest 悲哀的 features 特征 of the situation in Shansi is the activity of the opium 鸦片- cure 治愈 fraud 舞弊. The opium 鸦片-smoking habit can be cured, once the social element 元件 is eliminated 排除；消除；清除, as easily as the morphine or cocaine 可卡因 habits—more easily, some would claim. I do not mean to say that a degraded 降级, degenerate 退化 being can be made over, in a week, into a normal 正常, healthy 健康 being; but it does not seem to be very difficult to tide 潮汐 even the confirmed 确认 smoker over the discomfort 不舒适 and danger that attend 出席 breaking off the habit. In Shansi, as in all the opium 鸦片 provinces 省, “opium 鸦片 refuges 避难所” are maintained 保持 by the various missions 任务. The usual plan is to charge a small fee 费用 for the medicines 医学 administered 管理, in order to make the refuges 避难所 self 自己-supporting. It takes a week or ten 十 days to effect a cure 4 by the methods 方法 usually followed. The patient is con‧fine 局限 to a room, less and less opium 鸦片 is allowed from day to day, stimulants (either strychnine or atropine) are administered 管理, and local symptoms 症状 are treated as may seem necessary to the physician 医师 in charge. Some of the missions 任务 at first took a stand against the reduction 减少 method 方法, believing that medical missionaries 传教士 should not administer 管理 opium 鸦片 in any form; but after a death or two they accepted the inevitable 必然 compromise 妥协, recognizing that it is not safe 安全的 to shut 关闭 down the supply too abruptly 突然. But the number of these refuges 避难所 is pitifully small beside 3 the extent of the evil. They have been at work for a generation 代 without bringing about any perceptible change in the situation. There are now fewer refuges 避难所 than formerly in Shansi Province 省, for none 3 of the missions 任务 is fully 充分 recruited 招聘，吸收；征募新兵 as yet, after the terrible 可怕的 set-back of 1900.

The opium 鸦片-cure 5 faker 假 in China, as in the United States and Europe, usually sells morphia under another name. Dr. Edwards, the author 作者 of “Fire and Sword 剑 in Shansi,” last year spent spend five weeks in travelling north‧west 西北 of T’ai Yuan-fu, and reported finding a great many men employed in selling so-called anti 抗-opium 鸦片 medicines. The demand for cures 治愈 existed everywhere. Now that the popular 流行的 sentiment 情绪 is setting in so strongly against the opium 鸦片 habit, the Chinese are peculiarly easy prey 猎物 for these rascals. They have no concept‧ion 概念 of medicine 医学 as it is practiced in Western countries, and eagerly 渴望的 take whatever is offered to them in the guise 伪装 of a “cure.” The following, told to me by an Englishman who lives in the province 省, illustrates 说明 this:

“There is a lot of mischief 恶作剧 being done in Shansi just now by men who have bought buy drugs 药物 in Tientsin, are selling them at random 随机, and making a good thing for themselves. I was travelling one day and was taken violently 猛烈 ill 生病, and I happened to reach a place where I knew a man who had some drugs 药物, so I sent send for him and asked him to bring me some medicine 医学. He came along with three bottles 瓶子, none of which was labelled 标签. He could not tell me what any one of them contained. He said they were all good for stomach 胃-ache 疼痛, and proposed to mix 混合 the three up and give me a good, strong dose 剂量. It is need‧less 不必要 to say I refused 拒绝. That man is running a proper establishment 机构 and making a lot of money on the drugs 药物 he sells, and that is all he knows about the business.”

The upshot of my investigations 调查 and inquiries 调查 in Shansi was that the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 edicts were being enforced 执行 to the letter. This conclusion 结论 reached, I naturally 自然地 looked about to find the man behind the enforcement. Judging from the work done, he should prove worth seeing. Further far inquiries drew draw out the information that he was one of the three rulers 统治者 of the province 省, with the title 标题 of provincial 省级 judge, and that his name was Ting Pao Chuen.

Calling upon a prominent 突出 Chinese official is, to a plain 3, democratic 民主的 person, rather an impressive 有声有色 under‧take 承担. The Rev. Mr. Sowerby had kindly volunteered 志愿者 to act as interpreter, and him I impressed for instructor 讲师 and guide 引路 through the mazes 迷宫 of official etiquette. It was arranged that I should call at Mr. Sowerby’s compound 组合 at a quarter 四分之一 to four. From there we would each ride in a Peking cart 运货马车 with a driver and one extra 额外的 servant 仆人 in front. There was nothing, apparently, for the extra servant to do; but it was vitally 重要的 important that he should sit on the front platform 平台 of the cart 运货马车.

A Peking cart 5 is a red-and-blue dog house, balanced 平衡, without springs, on an axle between two heavy wheels 轮子. The sides, back, and rounding 圆形的；围绕 roof 屋顶 are covered with blue cloth 布. A curtain 窗帘 hangs in front. In the middle 3 of each side is a tiny 小 window, and it is at such windows that you occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时 get the only glimpses 一瞥 you are ever likely to get of Chinese ladies 女士. There is no seat 席位 in a Peking cart 6; you sit on the padded 垫 floor. When you get in, the servant 仆人 holds up the front curtain 窗帘, you vault 拱顶 to the front platform 平台, and, placing your hands on the floor, propel 推进 your‧self 你自己 backward 向后的, with as much dignity 尊严 as possible, taking care not to knock 敲 your hat 帽子 against the roof 屋顶, until you have disappeared inside. If you are long of leg 腿, your feet will stick 棍；粘贴 out in front of the curtain 窗帘, leaving scant 很少的 room for the two servants 仆人, who sit, one on each side, with their feet hanging down in front of the wheels. The two carts 运货马车, two drivers 司机, and two extra 额外的 servants, set out from the Baptist Mission 任务 compound 组合, to convey 传达 Mr. Sowerby and me to the Yâmen, or official residence 住宅, of His Excellency.

Every Yâmen has three great gates 门 barring the way to the inner 里面的 compound. If the resident 居民 official wishes to humiliate 羞辱 you, he has his man stop your cart 7 at the first gate 门 and compels 迫使 you to enter on foot. Fortunately for us, since it was raining 雨 hard, His Excellency had chosen to treat us with marked courtesy 礼貌. The carts halted 停 at the second gate while Mr. Sowerby’s servant 仆人 ran in with our red Chinese cards 卡片. There was a brief 简要 wait, and then we drove drive on through a long court‧yard 庭院 to the inner 里面的 or screen 屏幕 gate, where massive 大规模的 timbered 木材 doors were closed against us. Soon these swung 摇摆:swing open; the carts crossed 穿过；十字 a paved 铺平 yard 院子 and pulled up under the projecting 项目 roof 3 of the Yâmen porch 门廊; and we scrambled 争夺 down from the carts, while two tall 身高；高的 mandarins, in official caps 盖 and buttons 按钮, dressed in flowing 流 robes 长袍 of silk 丝 and embroidery, came rapidly forward 前进地 to meet us. One of these, the younger and shorter, I recognized as Mr. Wen, the interpreter for the Shansi foreign bureau 局.

The other mandarin was a man of ability 能力 and charm 魔力；使陶醉. Some of us, perhaps, have formed our notion 概念 of the Chinaman from the Cantonese laundry‧man 洗衣店‧男人 type which we may have seen at his bench 长凳 or on the Third Avenue 大道 elevated 提升 rail‧way 铁路 in New York. This would be about as accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 as to call the coster at his barrow the typical 典型 Englishman; just about as accurate as to call the Bowery loafer 面包条 the typical 典型 American. His Excellency appeared to be close to six feet in height 高度; he was erect 直立 and lithe of figure, with marked physical 物理 grace 优雅；惠赐. He greeted 欢迎 Mr. Sowerby by clasping 钩 his hands before his breast 乳房 and bowing 弓, then turned, and with a genial smile extended his right hand to grip 握 mine 我的. He used no English, but the Chinese language, as he spoke speak it, was both dignified 褒 and musical 音乐, and not at all like the sing‧song 唱‧歌曲 jabbering I had heard on the streets and about the hotels.

Ting led the way into a reception 招待会-room which was furnished 陈设 in red cloth 布 and dark woods 木材；树林. There was a seat 席位 and a table against each side, and two red cushions 垫子 on the edge 边 of a platform 平台 across the end of the room, with a low table between them. An attend‧ant 服务员 appeared with tea 茶水. Ting took a covered tea bowl 碗 in his two hands, extended it towards me, bowed 弓, then placed it on the low stand—thus indicating 表明 the seat 席位 which I was to take, on the platform 平台. Mr. Wen said, in my ear 耳朵, “Sit down.” Mr. Sowerby was placed at the other side of the stand; the two Chinese gentlemen seated 席位 themselves at the two side-tables, facing each other. One thing I remembered from Mr. Sowerby’s coaching 教练—I must not touch my bowl 碗 of tea. I must not even look at it. The tea is not to drink; it is brought in order that the caller may be enabled 启用 to take his leave gracefully 优美. The Chinese gentle‧folk 温和的‧人们，乡亲们 are so wedded 结婚 to life’s little ceremonies 典礼 that guest 客人 and host 主人 cannot bring themselves to talk right out about terminating 终止 a visit. The guest would shiver 发抖 at the notion 概念 of saying, “Well, I must go, now.” Instead, he fingers 手指 his tea bowl 碗, or perhaps merely glances 一瞥 at it; and then he and his host both rise.

His Excellency fixed his eyes on me and uttered 说出 a deliberate 商榷, musical 音乐 sentence 句子. “He says,” translated Mr. Sowerby, “that you have come to help China.” I am afraid 害怕的 I blushed 脸红 at this. It had not occurred 发生 to me to state my mission 任务 in just those words. I replied that I had come, as a journalist 记者, to learn the truth about the opium 鸦片 question. We talked for an hour about the wonderful 精彩 war‧fare 战 which China is waging 工资 against her besetting vice 副职的；副的. “China is sincere 真诚的 in this struggle 挣扎；搏斗,” he said. “Public opinion was never more determined.” He asked me if I had investigated 调查 the new Malay drug 药物 which had lately 近来 been heralded 先锋 as a specific 具体 for opium 鸦片-poisoning 毒药. “If,” he said, “you should learn of any real cure, while you are investigating 调查 this subject, I wish you would advise 劝告 me about it.” I promised him I would do so. I had already heard from a number of sources 资源 that Ting was personally 亲自 giving two to three thou‧sand 千 taels a month (a tael is about seventy 七十-five cents) to the support of opium 鸦片 refuges 避难所 and for the purchase 采购 of drugs 药物 for distribution among the poor 3. “China is sick 病；恶心,” he said; “she must be cured so that she may hold up her head among the nations.”

Shortly after we had driven drive back through the rain 雨 and had mounted the stairs 楼梯 to Mr. Sowerby’s library 图书馆, a Yâmen runner was shown into the room, bearing presents from the provincial 省级 judge. The runner bowed to me and presented his tray 盘子. On it, beside the large red “ card 卡片” of Ting Pao Chuen, were four bottles of native wine 葡萄酒, or “shumshoo,” two cans of beef 牛肉 tongue 舌头, and two cans of sauerkraut!

 

 

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V

SOWING THE WIND IN CHINA—SHANGHAI

In her development China is dependent 依靠的 on the adoption 采用；收养 of Western ideas and is influenced by the example set by Western civilization 文明. This modernizing 现代化 influence is strongest at the point where the Westerner meets the Chinaman, where the two civilizations 文明 come into direct contact 联系. At Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow, Hongkong, and the other ports 港口 there are some thirty 三十 to forty 四十 thou‧sand 千 Europeans, Englishmen, and Americans. They build splendid 壮观的 buildings and lay lie good pavements 路面. They bring with them the best liquors 酒. The life they live gives about as accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 an impression 印象 of Western civilization 文明—of what the Western nations stand for—as the great majority 多数 of the Chinese (a most observing race) are ever likely to receive. We have examined 检查 into China’s sincerity 诚意, now let us examine 检查 into the honesty 诚实 of purpose of the foreign “concessions 让步” and “settlements 沉降” which fringe 边缘 the China Coast. If these communities are representing our civilization 文明 out there, it seems fair to ask whether they are representing it well; for if they are misrepresenting us, if they are contributing 有助于 to the sort of international misunderstanding 误解 which breeds 养育；繁殖 trouble, we may as well know it.

When, in the course of her gropings 摸索 and strugglings 挣扎；搏斗 towards civilization 文明, China turns for enlightenment 启示 to the great, successful 成功 nations of Europe and America, what does she see? Well, for one thing, she sees Shanghai.

Shanghai has been called the Paris of the extreme 极端的 East. It is the paradise 天堂 of the adventurer 冒险活动 and the adventuress, of the gambler 赌, the beach 海滩-comber 梳子, and the long-chance promoter 启动. Midway of the China Coast, at the mouth 口 of the mighty 威武 Yangtse River, it is the principal 主要 port 港口 of entrance 入口 into China. From England, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, the United States, and Canada comes an end‧less 无穷 column 柱 of steamships to Shanghai. To Hongkong, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Chefoo, Tientsin, and the upper‧most 最高的 ports 港口 of the Yangtse, 1,250 miles inland 内陆, go end‧less 无穷 columns 柱 of steamships from Shanghai. And of the travellers on these ships nearly all have, or expect to have, or have had, business or pleasure 愉快 at Shanghai.

It is the most truly 真 cosmopolitan 大都会 city in the world; for Paris, after all, is mainly French; London, after all, is mainly English; New York, after all, is mainly American. Shanghai has its French hotels, its imposing 强加 German Club, its English Country Club, its race-track 小路, its Russian Bank, its Japanese mercantile houses, its American post 邮件-office. It is ruled by a council 委员会 of Englishmen, Germans, and Americans. It is policed by English bobbies, Irishmen, Sikhs from India, and Chinamen. On the Bubbling Well Road, of a sunny 晴朗 spring after‧noon 下午, where the latest thing in motor 马达 cars weaves 编 through the line of smart 聪明 carriages 运输, you may see Spaniard elbowing 弯头 Filipino, Portuguese jostling Parsee, Austrian chatting 聊 with Bavarian; and they all talk, gamble 赌, drink, and buy in pidgin English.

This settlement 沉降 of fifteen 十五 thou‧sand 千 Europeans, living apart 相隔 from that public opinion which compells the maintenance 保养 of a social standard in every European country, and indifferent 冷漠 to that local public opinion which keeps up a certain curious 3 standard among the Chinese themselves, seems to have practically no standard at all. The problem of every decent 正经 American or Englishman who finds himself established 建立 in business is whether he dare 敢 bring his wife and family and introduce 提出 them into circles so degraded 降级 that families disintegrate 瓦解 and children grow up under disheartening influences. The heavy drinking of the China Coast ports 港口 is proverbial, yet the drinking seems little more than an incident 事件 in a city where the social atmosphere 大气层 is tainted 污点 and altogether 5 unwholesome.

I stood one night in the bar‧room 条；酒吧‧房间 of one of the big hotels. It was one o’ clock 钟 in the morning, and nearly every one of the dozen （一）打；十二 white men in the room was more or less drunk drink. They were roaring 咆哮 out maudlin songs 歌曲, and shouting 呼喊 incoherent cries 哭，叫喊. Two men, well-dressed gentlemen, were on the floor. And behind the bar, yawning 打哈欠, waiting for an opportunity to close up and go to sleep, stood two Chinese men and one boy. They were neat 整洁的, respectful 尊敬的, and perfectly sober 清醒. Their almond 杏仁 eyes flitted about the room, taking in every detail of that beastly 野兽 scene. It would be impossible 不可能的 to say what they were thinking, but I observed that they did not smile as a Chinaman usually does. Perhaps, to the reader who does not know the China Coast, it seems unfair 不公平 to cite 举例 this case as an example of the active influence of our civilization 文明 in China. I will not do so. I will merely ask if you could ever hope to make those three young Chinamen believe that our civilization 文明 is superior 优越 to theirs.

Where such a low moral tone 音 prevails 战胜, in a self 4-governing community, it is bound 必定；跳 to limit the perception 看法 and the power of the government of that community. Let any observing visitor 访问者 acquaint 认识 himself with Shanghai and its social and moral standards (which will not be difficult, for these will be thrust 推力 upon him soon after his arrival 到达) and he will soon see for himself that the residents 居民 of Shanghai, while they freely and hotly criticize 批评，批判；指责 their council 委员会, never accuse 指责 it of priggishness or of moral restraint 克制. This is enough to show that the council makes no effort to oppose 反对 the prevailing 战胜 sentiment 情绪. The gambling 赌 business attains 达到, in Shanghai, to the altitude 高度 of a consider‧able 大量 industry. During the race weeks, spring and fall, the vacant 空的 lots near the race-track 小路 are rented 租；租金 at high rates by those gamblers of all nations who have no regular 有规律的 quarters 四分之一, and the games go on merrily 愉快的 in the open air, within full view of the crowds in the road. Now seven 七 of the nine 九 members of the council 3 are Englishmen. English ideas are supposed to prevail 战胜 in the settlement 沉降, feebly 微弱 seconded by German and American. And the laws under which Shanghai is theoretically 理论上 governed forbid 禁止 gambling 赌.

All the lower forms of organized vice 6 combine to form a large and highly profit‧able 有利可图 branch 树枝 of Shanghai’s commerce 5. Partly because of the willingness 愿意 of the locally stronger nations to shoulder 肩膀 off the responsibility 责任 for a disgraceful state of things, and partly because of the number of adventurous 爱冒险的 and unprincipled Americans who have drained 排水 off to the China Coast, America has had to endure 忍受 more than her share of the blame 指责 for this condition. For years every degraded 降级 woman who could speak the language has called her‧self 她自己 an “American girl”; until the term, which at home arouses 引起 a natural 自然 pride 自尊, has grown so unpleasant 不愉快 that decent 正经 Americans have chafed under the insult 侮辱. To-day it is best not to use the phrase 短语 “American girl” on the China Coast.

Of the other and less vicious 恶毒 sorts of adventurers 冒险家 who turn up like bad pennies 便士 at Shanghai, the beach 海滩-comber is easily the most picturesque 如画. Many writers 作家, not‧able 特别是 Robert Louis Stevenson, have employed him as a character in fiction 小说. The majority 多数 of the beach 海滩-combers probably are or have been seafaring men. Next in numerical 数字的 order, probably, come the discharged 卸货 soldiers and the deserters. It takes either a certain amount of money or a certain amount of ability 能力 for any unattached American or European to get out to the China Coast, and an equal amount for him to get back. Therefore the stranded 缕 soldiers and sailors 水手, brought out there at the cost of nation or ship owner, beating their way from port 港口 to port 港口, drinking, gambling 赌, starving 饿死, ready for any dubious 可疑 enterprise 企业 that promises quick returns on a small investment 投资, are a sorry 对不起的 lot. The sharps 敏锐的, swindlers, and shadowy 神出鬼没 promoters 启动, on the other hand, are men necessarily possessed either of money or wit 风趣 sufficient 足够 to get them out to China, and not unnaturally 不自然 they represent the higher grades 年级 of their various crafts 手艺. From Peking to Hongkong, the coast is infested with these gentle‧man 先生 rascals, each with impressive 有声有色 garments 服装 and a convincing 说服 story. Josiah Flynt once wrote a tale 故事，不实之词 of some enthusiastic 热情 young promoters 启动 who undertook, at a consider‧able 大量 outlay in capital and in personal 个人 risk 危险, to sell a steam 蒸汽 calliope to the Grand 宏大的 Lama of Thibet. After a brief 简要 acquaintance 熟人 with the diverse 多种 and ingenious 巧妙 schemes 方案 that sprout 发芽, flower 花, and go to seed 3 on the China Coast, this tale seems not nearly so improbable 难以置信 as it perhaps sounds to the casual 随便 reader.

Other, and more recent, types of adventurers 冒险家 are the stranded 缕 free-lance journalist 记者 and camp 营地-followers 信徒 who were lured 饵 Eastward by the prospect 展望 of pickings along the trails 乡间小道 of the Japanese and Russian armies during the late war, and who later found themselves unable 无法 to get back home. In 1906, Consul-General Rodgers, of Shanghai, reported as follows on the subject of unscrupulous Americans who have been imposing 强加 on the Chinese to the detriment 损害 of American trade:

“There are many things which can be given as current reasons for retarding 减速 American trade in the Orient. The advent 来临 of a class of Americans, like those who came from Manila after a brief 简要 experience there, and those who tried their for‧tune 命运 in connection 连接 with the events of the Russo-Japanese War, has done a great deal to injure 损伤 the American name and reputation 名气 with the Chinese. This class, usually indigent, has, by reason of imposition 征收 upon the Chinese, destroyed to some extent a confidence 信心 which has existed for many years and which had borne bear good fruit 成果. There are good reasons for saying that every American firm which contemplates 沉思 sending a representative 代表 to China should be very certain of his character, and, other things being equal, should choose the quiet, orderly person rather than the reverse 反向；倒转 type, in spite 恶意 of the current opinion that such are indicated 表明 for the Orient.”

If Shanghai is the sort of a place that it would here appear to be, if it sets a vicious 恶毒 example in its government, in its business practice, and in the character of many of its inhabitants 居民, the fact would seem to indicate 表明 that it is most decidedly 果断地 misrepresenting out there the sort of civilization 文明 that we, Europeans as well as Americans, have always supposed that we stood for. It would appear that the Chinese, at the point of contact 联系 with our civilization 文明, are getting a false 虚伪的 impression 印象 of us. It would be easy to dismiss 解雇 as remote 远程 and unimportant 不重要 the vicious 恶毒 example set by a group of adventurers 冒险家 and promoters 启动 on the China Coast; but unfortunately 不幸 this little group is the most important single contributing 有助于 factor 因子 in the exceedingly 非常 delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 matter of the rapidly developing relations between China and the great Christian nations.

The influence of the Shanghai example on China is real and positive 正. Geographically, Shanghai commands the trade of the middle coast, the immense 6 Yangtse Valley 山谷, and the Grand 宏大的 Canal 运河. Every night a big river steamer 蒸汽 leaves for Hankow and the intermediate 中间 river ports 港口. Every day a big river steamer comes in from the same cities. Trading junks 破烂 and small steamers 汽船 innumerable 无数 ply 股 between the river and coast ports 港口 and Shanghai. Chinese merchants come from hundreds 百 of miles around to trade with the foreigners 外国人 or with the native “compradores” attached 连接 to foreign houses. On their return to their various interior 室内 cities or villages these traders 商人 spread tales 故事，不实之词 of the foreign devils who inhabit 居住于 the great city near the sea 海. Foreign merchants, travelling salesmen, engineers 工程师, and insurance 保险 agents travel up and down the great river, up and down the coast; they penetrate 穿透, by steamer, railroad 3, mule 马骡-litter 窝, or cart, into the interior 室内 cities of the great provinces 省, leaving everywhere on plastic 塑料 minds distinct 不同 and ineffaceable impressions 印象 of their manners, business methods 方法, and morals.

In the foreign settlement 沉降 of Shanghai, and apart 相隔 from the population of the native city which adjoins 毗 it, there are, roughly, 450,000 Chinese who have chosen to dwell 住 in the territory 疆土，领域 and under the laws of the white men. This population is not fixed, but fluctuates 波动 as the floating element 元件 comes and goes; and everywhere that this floating element 元件 travels when out of the city it leaves an impression 印象—a story, a bit of gossip 八卦, an example of the sharp 敏锐的 dealing learned from the foreigner—of the manners, business methods 方法, and morals of Shanghai. The native news‧paper 报纸 comment 评论 frankly 坦率地说 on life and conditions in the great sea‧port 海‧港口，城镇, and their comments 评论 are reprinted 重印 in the papers of the interior 室内. Shanghai exerts 发挥 a direct and result-breeding 养育；繁殖 influence on fifty 五十 to seventy 七十-five million native minds, and an indirect 间接 influence on all China. How many scores 得分了 of fair-minded, straight‧forward 直截了当 merchants, how many thou‧sand 千 of scattered 散落 missionaries 传教士 and teachers will it take, think you, to counter‧act 抵消 that influence?

China, grappling 抓钩 with the problem of decay 腐烂, fighting desperately 拼命 against an evil which the most nearly Christian of the Christian nations has fastened on her, looks west‧ward 向西 for enlightenment 启示, and sees—Shanghai. And Shanghai—well Shanghai plays the races and the roulette wheel 轮子, and drinks, and forgets the sacred 神圣的 significance 重要性 of marriage 结婚 and the economic importance 重要性 of the home, and goes to the club, and except in casting 种姓 up profits gives never a thought to that vast 广大, muttering 咕哝 populace that waits—waits—for the day of the under-dog to come.

Such was the condition of things when the Chinese war on opium 鸦片 began to assume 承担 effective proportions 比例 during the spring of 1906. Now, Shanghai—the “settlement 沉降,” that is—was in a peculiar 4, an unfortunate 不幸的, condition as regarded the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 crusade 运动. I have already given, in an earlier chapter 章节, the estimate 估计 of Robert E. Lewis, general secretary of the Y. M. C. A., at Shanghai, that there were, in 1906, nearly 22,000 places in the international settlement 沉降, little and big, where opium 鸦片 could be purchased 采购, more than 19,000 of which kept pipes, lamps, and divans on the premises 前提 for smokers 抽烟者. All of the dens 巢穴 which were openly conducted 进行 were paying a regular 3 license 执照 fee 费用 to the municipal 市政 government, amounting last year to 98,000 Shanghai taels, or about $70,000 in gold 金. It is against the law to permit women or children to enter the smoking-dens 巢穴, and a clause 条款 to this effect is printed on the license 执照 as a condition in granting 发放 it; yet when Captain Borisragon, the chief of police, was asked how many regular women inmates 犯人 were in the dens 巢穴, he replied, in writing, that there were at least 3,200 women so kept, and doubt‧less 毫无疑问， a great many more who did not appear on his records. When the tax and license 执照 department was asked why this clause 条款 was not enforced 执行, the reply 回答 was made, without the slightest attempt at excuse 原谅 or explanation 说明, that when a license 执照 was issued to the keeper of an “opium 鸦片 brothel” the clause 条款 prohibiting 禁止 women inmates 犯人 was erased 抹去.

These curious facts combine to present an appearance 外貌 familiar 熟悉的 to one who has studied the municipal 市政 protection 保护 of vice 7 in this country. It is asking too much of human credulity to expect one to believe that this clause 条款 was regularly 经常 erased 抹去 for nothing. But apart 3 from what individual graft 接枝 there may have been in it, that $70,000 in revenue 收入 was an item 项目 not to be lightly given up by the hard-headed municipal 市政 council. And the amount of money put into circulation 循环 by the patrons 顾客 of these dens 巢穴 was also an attractive 有魅力的 item 项目, as Shanghai sees things. The prevailing 战胜 opinion among the foreigners 外国人 of “the settlement 沉降” was simply and flatly 平的；公寓 that the settlement 沉降 could not afford 买得起 to close the dens 巢穴. The leading English news‧paper 报纸 hastened 加速 to defend 辩护 the sordid attitude 态度 of the council by explaining that, as the licenses 执照 were issued for a year, they had no right to close the places, at least before the spring of 1908.

The interesting and significant 重大 fact is that while this miserable 悲惨的 condition of affairs was allowed to drag 拖拽 along in the international settlement 沉降, where the white men rule, the Chinese native city, immediately adjoining 毗, was strictly enforcing 执行 the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 edicts. The Chinese authorities 权威 went about the enforcement in a thoroughly 彻底 effective manner. The date set for the closing of the dens 巢穴 was May 22, 1907. There was some fear that the closing down might precipitate 沉淀 a riot 暴动, and, accordingly 于是, the authorities 权威 took measures to keep the populace in hand. Chinese soldiers were placed on guard 警卫 at the places where crowds would be most likely to gather 收集, the dens 巢穴 were quietly closed, padlocked, and the shutters 快门 put up; and red signs, calling attention to the imperial 帝国 edict prohibiting 禁止 opium 鸦片, were pasted 粘贴；面团 up on doors or shutters 快门. It was quite evident 明显 that the proprietors 业主 of these dens 巢穴 took the enforcement 5 most seriously. Some of them went immediately into other lines of business; others made their places over into tea-houses.

 

IN AN OPIUM DEN, SHANGHAI

 

OPIUM SMOKING

 

So at Shanghai the Chinese war‧fare 战 on the “foreign smoke” was waged 工资 ear‧nest 热心的 and effectively in the native city. The Chinese authorities 权威 closed the dens 巢穴— permanently 永久, it seems fair to believe. And the only result of their heroic action,—and it is an heroic action to sup‧press 压制 a prosperous 繁荣 and thoroughly established 建立 branch 树枝 of commerce in any city,—the only result was that the opium 鸦片 business went over to the adjoining 毗 city of the foreigners 外国人, who gladly accepted it, and took the money which had formerly been spent spend in the native city. The foreigners 外国人 live wholly 全 outside of and above Chinese law. They have their own strips 剥光 of land, their own courts, their own local government, all guaranteed 保证 to them by the treaties 条约 which China has, at one time or another, been forced to sign. When the Chinese first proposed to stamp 邮票 out opium 鸦片, these foreigners 外国人 laughed 笑, and talked about the chronic 慢性 insincerity of the Chinese government. When the yellow 4 men did stamp out opium 鸦片 in that native city a mile or so away, these foreigners 外国人 said that it would not be fair to the holders 持有人 of licenses 执照 to close down in the settlement 沉降. As I have had occasion to say before, the Chinese are not fools. They grasped 把握 the significance 重要性 of the situation, and spoke speak out frankly 坦率地说. The local mandarins protested 抗议 to the settlement 沉降 council. The native newspapers called attention to it. And all this clear insight 眼光 into an extraordinary 5 situation and the frank 坦率 comment 评论 on it were communicated 通信, by the routes 路线 and the means which I have described earlier in this chapter 章节, to the fifty 五十 or seventy 七十-five million Chinese who are directly influenced by conditions at Shanghai. Now, in the light of these facts, in the light of what they see and know, it is time to ask, and to ask with feeling—How can you hope to make those fifty 五十 to seventy 七十-five million Chinamen believe that our civilization 文明, with its science, and its whisky 威士忌酒, and its keen 热切的 grasp 把握 on “revenue 收入,” and its contradictory 矛盾 and confusing 使困窘 teachings of Christianity, is superior 优越 to their civilization 文明? And if they do not believe that our civilization 文明 is superior 优越, how long do you suppose they will endure 忍受 the treatment 治疗 they receive from us? As time rolls 翻滚；摇晃 on, there will be more “Boxer” uprisings 暲 in China, more crazy 荒唐的 and disastrous 惨重 protests 抗议 against foreign domination 统治 and exploitation 开发. When these troubles come, it will be well to recall 召回 that Shanghai,—not the individual inhabitants 居民, but the government of that little “settlement 沉降” of foreigners 外国人 which lies upon the west bank of the Woosung River,—officially and for profit 收益 maintained 保持 its traffic 交通 in the drug 药物 that is China’s curse 诅咒 after the Chinese had stopped their own opium 鸦片 traffic 交通. It will be well to recall 召回 it, because it is quite certain that the Chinese themselves will not have forgotten 忘记:forget it.

I have gone thus at length into the deplorable example which Shanghai, the most important foreign settlement 沉降 in China, exhibits 展示 to the struggling 挣扎；搏斗, opium 鸦片-ridden yellow 5 men, because it is typical 典型 of the whole course of the foreigner in China. In the next chapter 章节 we shall consider further evidence 证据 in looking into the conditions of life and of the opium 鸦片 problem at Hongkong and Tientsin. It is of course peculiarly unfortunate 不幸的 that Shanghai, when the great opportunity came to extend 延伸 a helping hand to China in the opium 鸦片 fight, should have failed, utterly 完全, ignominiously. But the slightest acquaintance 熟人 with the place is enough to make it plain that Shanghai, as it has been and still is, is not likely to extend a helping hand to any‧body 任何人. The helping hand is not exactly what Shanghai stands for. It really stands for the domination 统治 of the great Yangtse Valley 山谷, for the exploitation 开发 of China, and, incidentally 顺便, for a sort of snug harbour for criminals 罪犯 and degenerates 退化. There can be no doubt that the fifty 五十 to seventy 七十-five millions of Chinese who come directly within the radiating 辐射 influence of Shanghai know this perfectly well. It is also quite likely that these and the few hundred 百 other millions who make up “the Middle Kingdom 王国” know perfectly well, that the complicated commercial 3 establishments 机构 of all the various foreign nations in China stand for similar 类似 principles 原理. And they doubt‧less 毫无疑问， know further that the very important and very cynical 愤世嫉俗的 gentlemen who represent the great and prosperous 繁荣 foreign powers at Peking, are there for no other purpose than diplomatically 外交 to put on the pressure when‧ever 随时 China chances to block 块 a move or gain a piece in this sordid and unholy game of chess 棋. So perhaps we had better give up, once and for all, any serious consideration 考虑 of the charges made by certain foreign powers that China is insincere in her war‧fare 战 on opium 鸦片. Such charges and insinuations, coming from such sources 资源, hardly command respect.

It is plain that this greedy 贪婪 exploitation 开发, going so far as even to snatch 抢夺 a profit 收益 out of the opium 鸦片 struggle 挣扎；搏斗, is not a healthy 健康 basis of inter‧course 交往 between great nations. If the Chinese were a Congo tribe 部落, or a race of American Indians, this policy might pay commercially 商业的; for in that case it would be a matter for the Christian nations of simply killing off the Chinese or driving them off the land, and then of fighting among themselves over the division 分开 of the spoils 损坏；变质. But this policy, which succeeds 成功 against weak 柔弱的 and numerically 数字的 small nations, will hardly succeed 成功 in China. Driving four hundred 百 million Chinese off the land would be a large order, a very different thing, indeed, from wiping 擦 out a tribe 部落 of “Fuzzy Wuzzys” with machine guns. All of the military 军事 observers 观察者 with whom I have talked in China show a tendency 趋势 to grow thoughtful 周到 over the subject of China’s potential 潜在 military 军事 strength. From the days of the T’ai Ping Rebellion and “Chinese” Gordon’s “ever victorious” army, down to the review 复习 of 30,000 of Yuan Shi K’ai’s troops 部队, with modern weapons 武器 and modern drill 钻头, in Honan Province 省 in the summer of 1906, it has been plain that the Chinese make splendid 壮观的 soldiers when properly led. And yet it seems to have occurred 发生 to few white statesmen that the deepest interests of trade itself 本身, sordid trade, demand that China be treated fairly and that the relations between China and the powers be established 建立 on a basis that makes for mutual 相互 respect and for peace, rather than on a basis that makes for exploitation 开发, out‧rage 暴行, mass‧acre 屠杀, war‧fare 战, “indemnity,” and smouldering hate 仇恨. John Hay 干草 saw over the balance-sheet, when he established 建立 the “open door” policy. Elihu Root 根 has seen over the balance-sheet in arranging to waive 放弃 the future claims of this country for indemnity money. And Lord 3 Elgin, for England, saw over the balance-sheet when he outlined that sound policy which he was after‧ward 之后 one of the first to violate 违反—“Never to make an unjust 不公 demand of China, and never to recede 退 from a demand once made.” To-day it seems apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 that the great nations cannot be brought together to agree on any really enlightened 开导 policy in China. Even had such a thing been possible a few years ago, the untrustworthy methods 方法 of Russia and the growing ambitions 抱负 of Japan would make it impossible 3 to-day. Nations which, when brought together in a “Peace Conference,” cannot even agree upon the rules of war, will hardly forego 放弃 the chance of seizing 抓住 some special advantage 有利条件 in the colossal 庞大 grab 用手抓-bag 袋 which is China. And so it seems likely that the genial commercial adventurers 冒险家 and gamblers and vice 8 promoters 启动 of Shanghai will go on sowing 母猪 the wind 风 in China—and that the sullen hate 仇恨 of those silent 沉默的, observing millions of yellow men will deepen 变深 and smoulder until the final 最后 day of reckoning 估计, the day of reaping 收割, shall come.

There is one ray 光束 of light which, to-day, illuminates 照亮 the China Coast. It is a small ray, when we consider the number of dark corners to be illuminated 照亮, and yet there is the bare 光秃秃的 possibility 可能性 that it may prove the beginning of better conditions. Some‧what 有些 less than two years ago the United States government established 建立 a wholly 全 new institution 机构, the United States Court for China. L. R. Wilfley, one of the legal 法律 officers whom Judge Taft had trained in Manila during his governor‧ship 州长；主管人‧船 of the Philippines, was appointed 任命 the first judge of this court, and was sent send out, with a district attorney 律师, a marshal 元帅, and a clerk 店员, to administer 管理 just‧ice 正义 to Americans up and down the China Coast and along the Yangtse River. By treaty 条约, all American citizens are exempt 豁免 from judgment 判断 under the Chinese law, that peculiar 5 jumble 混乱 of tradition 传统, superstition 迷信, common sense, and Oriental severity 严重. Formerly, justice had been dealt deal out in courts pre‧side 主持 over by the consul-generals and the consuls in their respective 各自 districts.

Now it should be obvious 明显 to the most casual 随便 observer that the peculiar conditions and the peculiar industries which thrive 兴旺 in the treaty 条约 ports 港口 give rise to a consider‧able 大量 number of legal 法律 entanglements. There is, of course, a large volume 卷 of legitimate 合法 business transacted on the Coast, which gives legitimate 合法 employment 雇用 to a few lawyers 律师; but there is a volume 卷 of illegitimate 非法的 and semi 半-legitimate 合法 business which would also naturally 自然地 give employment 雇用 to other lawyers. At the time of Judge Wilfley’s appointment 约定 one thing was clear to the enlightened 开导 heads of our Department of State at Washington; the consular courts, thanks 谢谢 to the skill 技能 and resource 资源 of the American lawyer 律师 on the Coast, were in a constant 不变 tangle 纠纷 of perplexed 困扰 inefficiency 低效, and the American name was sinking 淹没 steadily lower in China.

It is likely that no American judge ever faced so peculiar and difficult a task 任务 as that assigned 分配 to Judge Wilfley. It was his duty 职责 to take the place of a lacking public opinion, and to raise the drooping prestige 声望 of his country. He had behind him no settled code 码 of laws, but merely a few treaties 条约 and a few orders from the Department of State. He had not only to judge cases between Americans, but also cases between Americans and citizens of other nationalities 国籍, including the Chinese themselves. He had to establish 建立 rulings on the most complicated matters of coast‧wise 海岸‧明智的；聪明的 commerce, in a land where coast‧wise 海岸‧明智的；聪明的 commerce is involved with perplexing 困扰 local customs and superstitions 迷信. Above all, he had, from the start, to fight a well-organized, well-entrenched 巩固 band 带 of shady 阴凉 characters who had run their course for so long without anything in the nature of a public opinion to hold them in check that they resented 愤恨 his advent 来临 as an encroachment on their vested 背心 right to do as they chose. The last and most perplexing 困扰 of his problems was that in rooting 根 out these evils 邪恶的 he was in danger at every turn of arraying 排列 against him the citizens of other nationalities 国籍 and even of arousing 引起 the active enmity of the courts and the officials of other nations, most of whom had been content 内容 to let Shanghai jog 慢跑 along in its easy-going, sordid way.

It is to Judge Wilfley’s everlasting 永久的 credit 信用 that, with a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers before him, he went straight 直的 to the heart of the problem. Seeing that certain American lawyers had long stood between the old consular courts and anything which could be called just‧ice 正义, he set to work first to solve 解决 the problem of the lawyers. His campaign 运动 for a higher standard on the Coast has not been without its humorous 幽默 moments. Mr. Bassett, his shrewd 精明 young district attorney 律师, preceded 优于 him to Shanghai to “look the ground over.” The little group of American lawyers at Shanghai made haste 匆忙 to get acquainted 认识 with him. One of the ablest among them invited 邀请 him, casually 胡乱；漫不经心 and informally 非正式的, to dinner 正餐. When Bassett arrived at the dinner he found himself, to his astonishment 惊愕, con‧front 面对 with thirty 三十 or forty 四十 “leading citizens,” including all the American lawyers and several men of question‧able 可疑的 business character whom he rather expected to be prosecuting 起诉 a little later on.

After the coffee 咖啡 and cigars 雪茄, the host 主人 rose rise, and in a neat 整洁的 little speech 演说 called on Bassett to tell the company something about Judge Wilfley and what work he meant to do in Shanghai. It was a difficult situation. A slow-witted 风趣 man might have found himself in a fix 固定. But Bassett, if I may credit 信用 the account which reached me, was equal to the situation. He rose rise, and looked around the table from face to face.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “as I have come unprepared for this pleasure 愉快, I shall have to fall back on story-telling. In the small hours, one morning, two men who had been having rather too good a time were navigating 导航 from street corner to street corner. Said Smith, ‘Jonesh, shtime to go home. Shgetting broad 宽阔的 day‧light 日光. Theresh sun 太阳 shining 发光 up there.’

“‘No, Shmith,’ replied Jones, ‘you’re mistaken 错误. Tha’sh moon 月亮 up there, and it’s night.’ They staggered 错开 down the street, Smith insisting 咬定 that it was day, Jones insisting 咬定 that it was night, until they met meet a fellow 同伴 inebriate clinging 依偎 to a fire plug 插头. To him they appealed 上诉 their dispute 争议. He heard them out, and then looked thoughtfully 沉思地 up at the moon. For a long time he puzzled over the problem, and finally, giving it up, turned to them and said politely 有礼貌的, ‘Gentlemen, you’ll have to ’scuse me. I’m a stranger in town.’

“And, gentlemen,” said Bassett, again looking about from face to face, “you’ll have to excuse 原谅 me. I’m a stranger in town.”

Judge Wilfley began by calling upon every American lawyer 律师 who was practicing in Shanghai to bring a certificate 证书 of good moral character and to pass an examination 检查 before he could be admitted 许可进入 to practice in the new court. The examination 检查 was given, and only two of the lawyers passed. At once there was a hubbub. The judge was attacked hotly. One of the lawyers who failed to pass hurried 赶紧 over to this country, making a speech 演说 at Honolulu, on the way, in which he insinuated charges of corruption 腐败 against Judge Wilfley. Shortly after his arrival 到达 at San Francisco, he prevailed 战胜 upon the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, on the Pacific Coast, to reverse 反向；倒转 one of Judge Wilfley’s decisions without having the facts of the whole case in hand and without a hearing from the China court. He went on to Washington, and within a month or two last winter 冬 actually got a bill through the United States Senate rein‧state 恢复 all the disqualified 资格 lawyers. The bill is before the House at this present session 会议. He has conducted 进行 a news‧paper 报纸 campaign 运动 against Judge Wilfley in this country since his return last year. It seems only fair to call attention to these facts on a fear‧less 害怕‧少 and able man, because Judge Wilfley is too hard at work in a distant 遥远的 country to be able to defend 辩护 himself. In the course of my travels from port 港口 to port 港口 last year, it became clear to me that this new court was the one uplifting 抬起 factor 因子 in a distressing 苦难 general condition.

Judge Wilfley, like his district attorney 律师, seems to hold no visionary 空想家 theories 理论, in spite 恶意 of the high standard he has set. Before leaving China, I made it a point to call on him and talk with him about the work he is doing in the interest of the American name. He seemed to recognize clearly enough that vice 9 and depravity can no more be put down out of hand in Shanghai than they can be put down out of hand in New York or Chicago or Boston. But he maintained 保持 that the disreputably open flaunting of vice can be stopped. In fining the “American girls” $500 ( gold 金) each, and driving a number of them off the Coast, his attack has been directed mainly against the dishonourable use of an honourable phrase 短语. In imprisoning 监禁 or driving away the American gamblers, he has been trying to put gambling 赌 down more nearly to the place it occupies 占据, in this country, as a minor 次要 rather than as a major branch 树枝 of industry. Judge Wilfley has undertaken an Herculean task 任务. It seems to be the hope of all that patient minority 少数民族, the better class of Americans on the China Coast, that he will be permitted to continue his fight unhampered by political machinery 机器 “back home.”

There are two other points, besides 而且 Shanghai, at which the two kinds of civilization 文明, Western and Eastern 东方的, come into contact 联系—Hongkong and Tientsin. Each is different from the other as well as from Shanghai; and each plays a curious part in the opium 鸦片 drama 戏剧. We shall take them up in the next chapter 章节.

 

 

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VI

SOWING THE WIND IN CHINA—TIENTSIN AND HONGKONG

If you could avoid 避开 the suburbs 市郊 of mud 泥 huts 小屋 and walled compounds, and step directly down from an air‧ship 天空‧船 on the broad 宽阔的 piazza of the Astor House at Tientsin (no treaty 条约 port 港口 is complete without its Astor House), you might also imagine your‧self 你自己 in a thriving 兴旺 English town. Set about this piazza are round tables, in bowers of potted 罐 plants, where sit Britishers, Germans, and Americans, with a gay 快乐的 sprinkling 撒 of soldiery. Across the street there is a green 绿色的 little park, where plump 丰满 British babies 婴儿 are wheeled 轮子 about and children romp among the shrubbery, and where the Sikh band 带 plays on Sundays. There is nothing, unless 除非 it be the group of rickshaw coolies at the curb 抑制, or the fat 肥的 Chinese police‧man 警察 in the road‧way 路‧路；方法, to recall 召回 China to the mind.

Yet Tientsin dominates 支配 all Northern 北方的 China much as Shanghai dominates 支配 the mighty 威武 valley 3 of the Yangtse. The rail‧way 铁路 and water‧way 水路 (including the Grand 4 Canal 运河) all lead to Tientsin. It is Peking’s sea‧port 海‧港口，城镇. The viceroy of the Northern Provinces makes it his seat 3 of government. The chief point of contact 联系 between these Northern Provinces and Western civilization 文明, it is through Tientsin that the new ideas which are stirring 搅动 the sluggish 迟缓 Chinese mind to new desires and to a new purpose filter 过滤 into one hundred 百 million Mongoloid heads.

The foreign settlement 沉降 is simply a polyglot cluster 簇 of nationalities 国籍, each with its “concession 让步” or allotment 配股 of land wrung from a browbeaten empire 6, each with its separate municipal 市政 government ruled by its own consul-general, and the whole combined, for purposes of defense and aggression 侵略, into a loosely 松的 knit 针织 city of seven 七 or eight 八 thou‧sand 千 whites under the general direction of a dozen （一）打；十二 consulates. The British have their polo 马球, golf 高尔夫球, and racing grounds; the French have their wealthy 富裕 church orders and their Parisian moving pictures; the Germans have their beer 啤酒 halls and delicatessen shops. The Japanese, the Russians, the Italians, the Austrians, all the powers, in fact, excepting the United States—which holds no land in China—contribute 有助于 their lesser shares to the colour and the activity of this extraordinary place. And only a mile or two away, further up the crooked 弯曲 river, lies the huge 巨大, sprawling 蔓生 Chinese city, where nine 九 hundred 百 and fifty 五十 thou‧sand 千 blue-clad 包层的 celestials 天上—nearly a round million of them—ceaselessly watch the squabbling 争吵 groups of foreigners 外国人, and by means of newspapers, travelling merchants, and the thou‧sand 千 and one other instruments for the spreading of gossip 八卦, tell all Northern 4 China what they see.

Tientsin, then, like Shanghai, is a potent 有力的, an electric, force in its influence on China. Whatever the Chinese are to become in their struggle 3 towards the light of day will be in some measure due to the example set by these two cities, the only samples 样品 of Western civilization 文明 which the Chinaman can scrutinize 细察 at close range 范围；射程；类别. The missionary 传教士 tells him of the God of the Western peoples, and of how His Spirit regenerates human‧kind 人‧种类; the Chinaman listens stolidly, and then turns to look at the samples of regenerated peoples that fringe 边缘 his Coast. What he actually sees will stick 棍；粘贴 in his mind long after what he merely hears shall have passed out at the other ear. And these impressions 印象 that stick in the Chinaman’s mind are precisely 精确地 the highly charged forces that are revolutionizing 革命化 China to-day.

While still at Peking, I had picked up more or less gossip 八卦 which seemed to indicate 表明 that the Tientsin foreign concessions 让步 were setting an unfortunate 不幸的 example in the matter of opium 鸦片. In several of the concessions 让步 there are thou‧sand 千 of Chinese traders 商人 who have crowded in the white man’s territory 疆土，领域, in order to make a living. These Chinese districts demand their opium 鸦片, and they have always been allowed to have it. The opium 鸦片 shops and dens 巢穴 are licensed 执照, as are our saloons 轿车, and the resulting revenue 收入 is cheerfully 乐意 accepted by the various municipalities 直辖市. When the Chinese officials set out to fight opium 鸦片 last winter 冬 and spring, they asked the foreign consuls to cooperate 合作 with them. This could be no more than a friendly 友好的 request 要求, for the concessions 让步 are foreign soil 3, that have passed wholly 全 out of China’s control; but it was obviously 明显 of no use to close the dens 巢穴 of the native city if smokers 抽烟者 could continue to gratify 取悦 their desire by simply walking down the road.

This request bothered 烦 the consuls. The Chinese had adroitly placed them in a difficult position. A failure 失败 to cooperate 合作 would look bad; but revenue 收入 is revenue 收入, on the Chinese Coast as else‧where 在别处. More, if they could play for time, the enforcement 6 in the native city, by driving the smokers 抽烟者 over into the concessions 让步, would actually increase the revenue 收入. So the consuls played for time. They spread the impression 印象 “back home” that they were going to close the dens 巢穴. When? Oh, soon—very soon. There were matters of detail to attend 出席 to. The licenses 执照 must run out. Then, too, perhaps the Chinese proposals 提议 were “insincere”—a little time would show.

The British concession 让步 boasted 自夸 proudly 自豪的 that it had no opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴. This was true. The concession 让步 is wholly 全 taken up with British shops and British homes, and there is no room for Chinese residents 居民. The German concession 让步 had so few natives that it closed some of its dens 巢穴 and took what credit 信用 it could. The Japanese quietly put on the lid 盖子. But all the other concessions 让步 remained “wide open.”

So ran the Peking gossip 八卦. It seemed to me worth while to follow it up; for if it should prove true that the concessions 让步 were actually profiting 收益, like Shanghai, by the native prohibition 禁令, that fact would be significant 重大. It would leave little to say for the representatives of foreign civilization 文明 in China.

There was a particular reason why the prohibition 禁令 should be made effective in and about Tientsin. The one official who stood before his country and the world as the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 leader, who personified, in fact, the reform 改革 spirit which is leavening the Chinese mass 大量, was Yuan Shi K’ai, the Northern 5 viceroy. Tientsin was his viceregal capital. Before he could hope to convince 说服 the cynical 愤世嫉俗的 observers 观察者 of Britain and Europe that the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 crusade 运动 was really on, he had to make good in his own city.

Yuan Shi K’ai is a remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 man. Unlike 不像 some of his colleagues 同事 who have travelled and studied abroad 到国外, he has never, I believe, been over the sea 海; yet no Chinese official shows a firmer grasp 把握 on his biggest and most bewildering 困惑 of the world’s govern‧mental 政府 problems. Practically a self 5-made man (his father was a soldier 士兵), he worked up from rank 排列 to rank, himself a part and a product of the antiquated absolutism of his country, until he emerged 出现 at the top, a red-button 按钮 mandarin, a viceroy, with a personality 个性 towering 塔 above the superstitious, tradition 传统-ridden court, and yet sufficiently 充分地 able and skillful 熟练 to work with and through that court. We have seen, in an earlier chapter 章节, how Yuan, then a governor, kept Shantung Province 省 quiet during the Boxer out‧break 暴发. It is he who is building up the “new army” with the aid 援助 of German and Japanese drill 钻头-masters 主人；硕士. It is he who succeeded in introducing 提出 the study of modern science into the education of the official classes. He is committed 承诺 to the abolition 废除 of the palace 宫 eunuch system. He has, during the past year, made great head‧way 头；上端‧路；方法 with his bold 胆大的；醒目的 plan to remodel 改装 this land of fossilized ideas into a constitutional 构成 monarchy 帝制, with a representative 代表 parliament 议会. But first, and above all else, he places the opium 鸦片 reforms 改革. Unless 除非 this curse 诅咒 can be checked, and at least partially 部分 removed 去掉, there is no hope of progress.

Through‧out 始终 this magnificent 华丽的 struggle for a new China, Viceroy Yuan has radically 很不同的，革命性的 opposed the very spirit and genius 天才 of his race; but far from ostracizing himself or splitting 分裂 the government, he has grown steadily in power and influence, until now, as a sort of prime 主要 minister 大臣, he appears to hold the substance 物质 of imperial 帝国 authority 权威 in his hands. Try to imagine a self-made, reform 改革 politician 政治家 outwitting and beating down the traditions 传统 of Tammany Hall in New York City, multiply 乘 his difficulties by a thou‧sand 千 or two, and you will perhaps have some notion 概念 of the sheer ability 能力 of this great man, who has risen rise above the traditions 传统, even above the age-old prejudices of his own people. There are many Europeans in his retinue—physicians 医师, military 军事 men, engineers, educators 教育者—all of whom apparently look up to him as a genuine 真正 superior 优越. An attach 连接é summed 和 up for me this feeling which Yuan inspires 激励，鼓舞 in those who know him: “You forget 忘记 to think of him as a Chinaman,” said this attach 连接é, “as in any way different from the rest of us.”

The viceroy took a personal 个人 hand in the Tientsin situation. On December 2, 1906, he issues the following document 文件 to the North and South Police Commissioners of Tientsin native city. Rather than altar 坛 the quaint 精巧 wording, I quote 引用 just as it was translated for me:

“I have just received instructions 指令 from the cabinet 内阁 ministers enjoining me to act according to the regulations 规 which they presented to the throne 王座, and which received their Majesties’ consent 同意. The evil effects of opium 鸦片 are known to all. It is the duty 职责 of us all to act according to the regulations 规, and do our utmost 极 to get rid 使摆脱 of them.

“The North and South police commissioners 专员 are authorized 授权 to close the opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴, which have been the refuge 避难所 of idle 无意义的 hands and young people who are not allowed to smoke at home. The said dens 巢穴 are to be closed at the end of the Tenth Moon 月亮 (December 14th), at the same time notifying 通知 the keepers 管理人 of restaurants and wine 葡萄酒 shops not to have opium 鸦片-smoking instruments or opium 鸦片 prepared for their customers 顾客, nor are their customers allowed to take opium 鸦片 and smoke there.

“As to the concessions 让步, the Customs Taotai is authorized 授权 to open conference 会议 with the different consuls, asking them to close the opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 within a limited time.”

The two police commissioners 专员 at once made the proclamation public; and, as is evident 明显 from the following “ Reply 回答 to a petition 请愿,” met meet with difficulties in enforcing 执行 it:

“It is impossible to change the date of closing dens 巢穴. What is said in the petition 请愿, that the keepers 管理人 cannot square their accounts with their customers, may be true, but the viceroy’s order must be obeyed 服从. The dens 巢穴 shall be closed at the specified time.”

These orders were carried out. It is one of the advantages 有利条件 of a patriarchal form of government that orders can be carried out. There were no injunctions 禁令, no writs 令状 to show cause, no technical 技术 appeals 上诉. The few den 巢穴 keepers 管理人 who dared 敢 to violate 违反 the prohibition 禁令 were mildly 温柔的 punished on the first offense 进攻—most of them receiving two full weeks at hard labour. The real responsibility 责任 was placed upon the owners 所有者 of the property rented out to the den 巢穴 keepers 管理人. It was recognized that these owners 所有者 were the ones who really profited 收益 by the vice. They were given an opportunity to report any violations 违反 occurring 发生 on their property; but if a violation 违反 occurred 发生, and the owner failed to report, his property was promptly 敏捷的 confiscated 没收. Here we see successfully 顺利 employed a method 方法 which we in this country have been unable 无法 as yet to put into effect. The futility of punishing 处罚 engineers and switchmen for the sins 罪 of railroad corporations 公司, of punishing clerks 店员 for the offenses 进攻 of bank directors, of punishing keepers 管理人 of disorderly 混乱 houses in cases where we know that the real profit 收益 goes, in the form of a high rental 出租, to the respect‧able 可敬 owner of the property, has long been recognized among us. In China, while we see much that seems intolerable 无法忍受 in the enforcement 7 of law, we must admit 3 that it is refreshing 使恢复 to find laws really enforced 执行, and to see responsibility 责任 sometimes put where it belongs 属于. We of the United States are far ahead 前面；往前 of the Chinese in all that goes to make up what we call civilization 文明. But we have, among others, a law forbidding the sale of liquor 酒 on Sundays in New York City. We couldn’t enforce 执行 the law if we tried; and we haven’t enough moral courage 勇气 to strike it off the books for the dead letter it is.

Yes, the Tientsin situation has its refreshing side. Yuan Shi K’ai—a Chinaman,—set about it to close the opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 that supplied this swarming 一群 cityful of Chinamen, and succeeded. He solved 解决 that most difficult problem which con‧front 面对 human governments everywhere—in every climate 气候, under every sky 天（空）—the problem of moral regulation 规. He drove drive the manufacturers 生产厂家 of opium 鸦片 and of opium 鸦片 accessories 附件 out of business. He cut his way through a tangle 纠纷 of “interests,” vested 背心 and other‧wise 否则, not so different in their essence 本质 from the liquor 酒 interests of this country. Thanks to his own character and resource 资源, thanks to the cheerful 快乐 directness of Chinese methods 方法 of governing (when directness and not indirectness is really wanted), he “got results.” And not only in Tientsin native city, but also in Peking, and Pao-ting-fu, and all Chili Province 省, and through‧out 始终 Shansi Province 省, and over large portions 一部分；一份 of Shantung, Shansi, and Manchuria. It was not a case of Maine prohibition 禁令, or Kansas prohibition 禁令, or New York excise 摘除 regulation 规. He closed the dens 巢穴!

While he was accomplishing 完成；实现；达到；做到 this result, and while the native Chamber 室 of Commerce was appropriating 适当 a sum 和 of money to found a hospital for the cure of opium 鸦片 victims 受害者, the “Customs Taotai,” obeying 服从 the viceroy’s instructions 指令, courteously requested 要求 the consuls, as rulers 统治者 of the foreign city, to help along by closing the dens 巢穴 in their municipalities 直辖市. It was mainly to see whether or not the consuls were “helping” that I went down to Tientsin. There was no need to ask questions or to burrow 地洞 among statistics. The opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 of the concessions 让步 were either or they were not. Accordingly, I set out from the Astor House at nine 九 o’ clock 钟 one evening, by rickshaw. For interpreter I had Mr. Sung, the secretary of the Native Young Men’s Christian Association, and with us went a young Englishman who spoke speak the language. This test seemed a fair one to apply, for it was April 23d, nearly five months after Viceroy Yuan’s proclamation, and several weeks after the closing of the last dens 巢穴 in the native city.

We began with the French concession 让步; and our first glimpses 一瞥 of the thriving 兴旺 opium 鸦片 business of the little municipality 直辖市 astonished 使惊讶 us. The Taiku Road, the main street, where one finds churches, mission 任务 compounds, offices, and shops, displayed 显示 a row 行 of red lights. Our three rickshaws pulled up at the first and we went in.

An opium 鸦片 den 巢穴 usually takes up one floor of a building. Against the walls is a continuous 连续 wooden 木制的 platform 平台, perhaps two feet high and extending over seven 七 or eight 八 feet into the room. This platform is divided at intervals 间隔 of five or six feet by low partitions 划分, sometimes but a few inches in height 高度, into compartments 隔室, each of which accommodates 容纳 two smokers 抽烟者, with one lamp 灯 between them. Sometimes a rug 小块地毯 or a bit of matting is laid lay on this hard couch 长椅, sometimes not; for the Chinaman, accustomed 使习惯 to sleeping on bricks, prefers his couches 长椅 hard. A man always lies down to smoke opium 鸦片; for the porous pill 丸, which is pressed into the tiny 小 orifice of the pipe, cannot be ignited 点燃, but is held directly over the lamp and the flame 火焰 drawn draw up through it.

The first den 巢穴 we entered was on the second floor of a rickety building. We climbed 攀登 the steep 陡峭的, infinitely 无限地 dirty 7 stair‧way 楼梯‧路；方法, crossed a narrow 狭窄的 hall, and opened a door. At first I found it difficult to see distinctly 历历 in the dim 暗淡 light and through the thick 浓的 blue haze 阴霾; and the over‧power 压倒, sickish fumes 烟 of the drug 药物 got into my nose 鼻子 and throat 咽喉 and made breathing 呼吸 a notice‧able 显 effort. There was a desk 书桌 by the door, behind which sat sit the keeper of the den 巢穴, with a litter 窝 of pipes and thimble-like cups 杯子 before him. In a corner of the desk was a jar 罐 of opium 鸦片, a thick 浓的, sticky 黏 substance 物质, dark brown in colour, in appearance 外貌 not unlike 不像 molasses in January. There were twenty 二十 smokers 抽烟者 on the couches 长椅, some preparing the pellet 丸 of opium 鸦片 by kneading it and pressing it on the pipe- bowl 碗, some dozing off the fumes 烟, and a few smoking. An attend‧ant 服务员 moved about the room with fresh 新鲜的 supplies of the drug 药物. For each thimbleful, enough for one or two smokes, the price was fifteen 十五 cents (Mexican).

The smokers 抽烟者 seemed to be mainly of the lower classes; though hardly so low as coolies, who are lucky 幸运 to earn 赚得 as much as fifteen 十五 cents in a day. It was evident 明显 to both of my companions 同伴, from the appearance 外貌 of these men and from their talk, that they could ill 生病 afford 买得起 the luxury 豪华. The number of smokes indulged 放纵 in seemed to range 3 from three or four up to an indefinite 不定 number. The youngest and healthiest appearing man in the room told us that after three pipes he could go home and go to sleep in comfort 安慰. He had been at it less than a year, he said; and, judging from the expression 表现 of peaceful 平静的 content 内容 that came over his face as he held the pipe-bowl 5 over the lamp 灯 and drew draw the smoke deep into his lungs, he had not yet begun to feel the ravages 蹂躏 of the drug 药物.

The next den 巢穴 we entered was small, crowded, and dirty 8. The price was only ten 十 cents. But the third den 巢穴 was the largest and decidedly 果断地 the most interesting of any that we saw. Like the others, it was situated 位于 in a prosperous 繁荣 section 部分 of the Taiku Road, with its red light conspicuously 显着 displayed 显示 over the door. From the facts that it was frankly 坦率地说 open for business and that not the slightest concern was shown at our entrance 入口, it seemed fair to believe that the keepers 管理人 had no fear whatever of publicity 公开 or of the law. Even when we announced 宣布 ourselves 我们自己 to be investigators, our questions were answered cheerfully 乐意 and fully 充分, and the man who escorted 护送 us from room to room was apparently proud 自豪的 of the establishment 机构. The couches 长椅 were not all occupied 占据, but I counted thirty 三十-five men sitting or reclining on them. One man had a child with him, a girl of some six or eight 八 years of age, and when he had prepared his pipe and smoked it he permitted her to take a whiff or two. In a rear 后 room we saw four women smoking with the men. The price of a smoke in this den 巢穴 was twenty 二十-five cents.

I do not know how many opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 were open for business in the French concession 让步 on this particular April 23d, 1907, but of those that were open I personally 亲自 either entered or at least saw fifteen 十五 or six‧teen 十六, and that without attempting anything in the nature of an exhaustive 详细 search 搜寻. In the Italian and Russian concessions 让步 I found about sixty 六十 dens 巢穴 open, mostly of a very low grade 年级. But the worst of the concessions 让步, in this regard, was the Austrian. Lying nearest to the native city, it had profited more largely than any of the others by the native prohibition 禁令. It seemed also to have the largest Chinese population; indeed, in appearance 3 it was more like the quaint 精巧 old Chinese city than any of the other foreign municipalities 直辖市.

We entered only three of the Austrian dens 巢穴. But we saw the signs and glanced 一瞥 in through the door‧way 门口 of so many others that I was quite ready to accept Mr. Sung’s rough 粗糙的 estimate 估计 of the total number within the narrow 狭窄的 con‧fine 局限 of the concession 让步: he put it at fifty 五十 to one hundred 百. It is difficult to be exact in these estimates 估计, because where laws are so languidly enforced 执行 the official returns hardly begin to state the full number of flourishing 繁荣 establishments. These three dens 巢穴 which we entered were enough to make an ineffaceable impression 印象 on the mind of one traveller. I have eaten 吃:eat and slept in native hostelries, in the interior 室内, so unspeakably dirty 9 and insanitary that to describe them in these pages 页 would exceed 超过 all bounds 必定；跳 of taste 品尝, but I have never been in a filthier 污秽 place than at least one of these Austrian dens 巢穴. And the other two were little better. It would require some means more adequate 足够的；合格的；合乎需要的 than pen 笔, ink 墨水, and paper, to convey 传达 to the reader an accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 notion 概念 of the mingled 交融, half-blended 混合 odours which seemed to under‧lie 是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响, or to form a back‧ground 背景 for, the over‧power 压倒 fumes 烟 of what passed here for opium 鸦片. What this drug 药物 compound 组合 was I really do not know; but it was sold sell at the rate of two pipes for three cents, Mexican, equivalent 当量 to a cent and a half, gold 金. For real opium 鸦片, of fair or good quality, it is quite possible, in China, to pay from ten 十 to twenty 二十 times as much. Such dens 巢穴 as this, then, are not only vicious 恶毒 resorts 度假胜地 maintained 保持 for the purpose of catering 迎合 to a degrading 降级 habit; they are also breeding places of disease 疾病 and pestilence.

Thus one night’s work made it plain that the foreign concessions 让步 were taking no steps that would evidence 证据 a spirit of coöperation with the Chinese authorities 权威 in their vigorous 蓬勃 attempt to check and control the ravages 蹂躏 of opium 鸦片. Tientsin, like Shanghai, did not care. Tientsin, like Shanghai, is sowing 母猪 the wind 风 in China.

Let us now turn aside 在旁边 for a moment to consider the third important point of contact 联系 between the two kinds of civilization 文明—Hongkong.

Hongkong is neither a “settlement 沉降” nor a “concession 让步.” It is a British crown 王冠 colony 侨民, with its own government and its own courts. The original 原版的 property, a mountainous 多山 island lying near the mouth 3 of the Canton River, was taken from the Chinese in 1842, as a part of the penalty 罚款 which China had to pay for losing the Opium War. Later, a strip 剥光 of the main‧land 大陆 opposite 相对的 was added to the colony. Hongkong is one of the most important seaports in the world. It is the meeting place for freight 货物 and passenger 乘客 ships from North America, South America, New Zealand and Australia, India, Europe, Africa, and the Philippines and other Pacific islands. It commands the trade of the Canton River Valley, which, though not geographically 地理 so imposing 强加 as the wonderful 精彩 valley of the Yangtse, supports, nevertheless 虽然, the densely 密地 populated 填充 region 地区 reached by the innumerable 无数 canal 运河-like branches 树枝 of the river. The city of Canton alone, eighty 八十 or ninety 九十 miles inland 内陆 from Hongkong, claims 2,500,000 inhabitants 居民. It is safe 安全的 to say that fifty 五十 million Chinamen are constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 under the influence of the civilizing 使文明 example set by Hongkong.

What is the attitude 态度 of the Colonial government towards the opium 鸦片 question? Simply that the opium 鸦片 habit is a legitimate 合法 source 资源 of revenue 收入. The British gentlemen who administer 管理 the government seem never to have been disturbed 打扰 by doubts as to the morality 道德 or humanity 人性 of their attitude 态度. Let me quote 引用 from the report of the Philippine Commission 佣金:

“Farming is the system adopted 采用；收养 ( renting 租；租金 out the monopoly 垄断 control of the drug 药物 to an individual or a corporation 公司) and a consider‧able 大量 part of the income 收入 of the colony 侨民 is obtained 获得 from this source 资源. The habit seems to be spreading. No effort—except the increased price demanded by the farmer to compensate 补偿 for the increased price he has to pay to secure 安全 the monopoly 垄断—is made to deter 阻止 persons from using opium 鸦片 in the colony 3. Most of the opium 鸦片 comes from India.”

The attitude 态度 of the residents 居民 and merchants of the colony seems to be expressed plainly enough by an editorial 社论 in a leading Hongkong paper which lies before me, dated December 1, 1906: “It will take volumes 卷 of imperial 帝国 edicts to convince 说服 us that China ever honestly 诚实的 intends 意欲 or is ever likely to sup‧press 压制 the opium 鸦片 trade. It is up to China to take the initiative 倡议 in such a way as to leave no doubt that her intentions are honest 诚实的 and that the native opium 鸦片 trade will be abandoned 放弃. Until that is done, it is idle 无意义的 to discuss 讨论 the question.”

In other words, Hongkong refuses to consider giving up its opium 鸦片 revenue 收入 until the Chinese take the market away from it.

I think we may consider the point established 建立 that Great Britain is directly responsible for the introduction 介绍 of opium 鸦片 into China, and, through the ingenuity 创造力 and persistence 坚持 of her merchants and her diplomats 外交官, for the growth of the habit in that country. To-day, in spite 4 of an unmistakable 明白的 tendency 趋势 on the part of the Home government (which we shall consider in a later chapter 章节) to yield 屈服 to the pressure of the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 agitation 搅动 in England, the government of India continues to grow and manufacture vast 广大 quantities of the drug 药物 for the Chinese trade. To-day the representatives of that government at Hongkong are profiting largely from a monopoly 垄断 control of the opium 鸦片 importation. To-day, at Shanghai, where the British pre‧dominate 掌握 in population, in trade, and in the city government, the opium 鸦片 evil is mishandled in a scandalous manner, and—as else‧where 在别处—for profit 3. Small wonder, therefore, that other and less scrupulous foreign nations, where they have an opportunity to profit by this vicious 恶毒 traffic 交通, as at Tientsin, hasten 加速 to do so.

These three great ports 港口—Shanghai, Tientsin, and Hongkong—are in constant 不变 touch commercially with a grand 5 total of very nearly 200,000,000 Chinese. They are, therefore, constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 exerting 发挥 a direct influence on that number of Chinese minds. As I have pointed out, this influence, because it is concentrated 集中 and tangible 有形, is much stronger than the admittedly 固然 potent 有力的 influence of the widely scattered missionaries 传教士, physicians 医师, and teachers. From the life and example of the Western nations, as they exist at these ports 港口, the Chinaman is drawing most of his ideas of progress and enlightenment 启示.

In a word, the new China that we shall sooner or later have to deal with among the nations of the world is the new China that the ports 港口 are helping to make—for this new China is to-day in process of development. She is struggling heroically to digest 挖 and assimilate 吸收 the Western ideas which alone can bring life and vigour to the sluggish 迟缓 Chinese mass 大量. And yet, turning west‧ward 向西 for aid 援助, China is con‧front 面对 with—Shanghai, Tientsin, and Hongkong. Turning to Britain for a helping hand in her effort to check the inroads of opium 鸦片, she hears this cheerful 快乐 doctrine 教义 from the one British colony which China can really see and partly understand, Hongkong—“It is up to China.” Dr. Morrison has stated in one of his letters to the Times that Britain’s attitude 态度 towards China is one of sympathy 同情, tempered 性情 by a lack of information. One very eminent 杰出 British diplomat 外交官 with whom I discussed the opium 鸦片 question assured 向…保证；肯定地说 me that that attitude 态度 of his government was “most sympathetic 同情的.” Later, in London, I found that this same government was quieting an aroused 引起 public opinion with assurances 保证 that steps were being taken towards an agreement 协议 with China in the matter of opium 鸦片. All this was in the spring and summer of 1907. Six months later, the one British colony in China, and the two great international ports 港口, were cheerfully 乐意 continuing their cynical 愤世嫉俗的 policy of sneering 冷笑 at or ignoring 忽视 the attempts of the Chinese to over‧come 战胜 their master 主人；硕士-vice, and were cheerfully 乐意 profiting by the situation.

It would perhaps seem fanciful to suggest that the great nations should unite to regulate 调节 the coast ports 港口. It would appear obvious 明显 that such regulation 规, in so far as it might create a better understanding between the Chinese and the representatives of foreign civilizations 文明 with whom they must come in contact 联系, would work to the advantage 3 of commercial interests. Anti-foreign riots 暴动 are in progress to-day in China which have their roots 根 partly in racial misconception 误解, partly in a long tradition 传统 of injustice 不公正 and bad faith 信用; and it is hardly necessary to suggest that an atmosphere 大气层 of injustice 不公正, bad faith, and rioting 暴动 is not the best atmosphere 大气层 in which to carry on trade. But, nevertheless 虽然, the inevitable 必然 difficulties in the way of drawing the great nations together in the interests of a better understanding with the Chinese people would seem to make such a solution academic 学术的 rather than practical 实践的.

But, still hoping that something may be done about it, something that may lessen 变少；减轻 the likelihood 可能性 of the reaping 收割 of a whirl‧wind 旋转‧风 in China, suppose that we alter 改变 the phrase 短语 of that Hongkong editorial 社论 and state that instead of the problem being up to China, it is distinctly 历历 up to Great Britain? Great Britain brought the opium 鸦片 into China. Great Britain kept it there until it took root 根 and spread over the native soil. Great Britain has admitted her guilt 有罪, and had pledged 保证 her‧self 她自己 by a majority 多数 vote in Parliament, and by the promises of her governing ministers, to do something about it. Suppose that Great Britain be called upon to make good her pledge 保证? It would be an interesting experiment. All that is necessary is to cut down the production of opium 鸦片 in India, year by year, until it ceases 停止 altogether, and with it the exportation into China. This course would solve 解决 automatically 自动 the opium 鸦片 problem at Hongkong; and it would put it up to the municipal 市政 authorities 权威 at Shanghai and Tientsin in an interesting fashion 时尚. It would in no way jeopardize 危害 Britain’s interest in the diplomatic 外交 balance of the Far East. It would work for the good rather than the harm 损害 of the trade with China. And it would be the first necessary step in the arduous matter of cleaning up the treaty 条约 ports 港口 and setting a higher example to China.

To this course Great Britain would appear to be committed 承诺 by the utterances 发声 for her government. But the world, like the man from Missouri, has yet to be “shown.” In a later chapter 章节 we shall consider this question of promise and performance in the light of Britain’s peculiar govern‧mental 政府 problem.

 

 

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VII

HOW BRITISH CHICKENS CAME HOME TO ROOST

We have seen, in the preceding 优于 chapters 章节, that the Anglo-Indian government controls absolutely the production of opium 鸦片 in India, prepares the drug 药物 for the market in government-owned and government-operated factories, and sells it at monthly auctions 拍卖. Let me also recall 召回 to the reader that four-fifths of this opium 鸦片 is prepared to suit the known taste 3 of Chinese consumers 消费者. The annual 全年 value to the Anglo-Indian government of this curious industry, it will be recalled 召回, is well over $20,000,000.

Now we have to consider the last strong defense of this policy which the British government has seen fit to offer to a protesting 抗议 world, the report of the Royal 王国的 Commission 佣金 on Opium. Against this stout 肥硕 defense of the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 in all its branches, we are able to set not only the findings of other governments, such as those of Japan, the Philippines, and Australia, which have opium 鸦片 problems of their own to deal with, but also the curious attitude 态度 of a certain British colony, amounting almost to what might be called an opium 鸦片 panic 恐慌, on that occasion when the Oriental drug 药物 found its way near enough home to menace 威胁 British subjects and British children.

 

WEIGHING OPIUM IN A GOVERNMENT FACTORY 工厂, INDIA

 

The men who administer 管理 the government of India have a chronically 慢性 difficult job on their hands. In order to keep it on their hands they have got to please 请;讨人喜欢 the British public; and that is not so easy as it perhaps sounds. It would apparently please both the government and the public if the whole opium 鸦片 question could be thrown after the twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 chests of Canton—into the sea 3. But the British public is hard-headed, and proud 自豪的 of it; and the spectacle 场面；眼镜 of the magnificent 华丽的, panoplied government of India gone bankrupt 破产者, or so embarrassed 阻碍 as to be calling upon the Home government for aid 援助, would not please 3 it at all. Of the two evils, debauching China or gravely 坟墓；严重的 impairing 妨害 the finances 金融 of India, there has been reason to believe that it would prefer 更喜欢 debauching China. That, at least, is what successive 连续 governments of Britain and of India seem to have concluded 得出结论. It has seemed wiser 明智的；聪明的 to endure 忍受 a known quantity 4 of abuse 滥用 for sticking 棍；粘贴 to opium 鸦片 than to risk 危险 the cold British scorn 鄙视 for the bankrupt 破产者; and, accordingly 于是, the Indian government with the approval 批准；同意；赞成 of one Home government after another, has stuck 棍；粘贴:stick to opium 鸦片. The only alter‧native 替代 course, that of developing a new, healthy 健康 source 资源 of revenue 收入 to sup‧plant SUP‧植物；种 opium 鸦片, the unhealthy 不良, would involve real ideas and an immense 7 amount of trouble; and these two things are only less abhorrent to the administrative 行政的 mind than political annihilation itself 本身.

But there came a time, not so long ago, when a wave 波浪 of “anti 抗-opium 鸦片” feeling swept over England, and the British public suddenly became very hard to please. Parliament agreed that the idea of a government opium 鸦片 monopoly 垄断 in India was “morally indefensible,” and even went so far as to send out a “ Royal 王国的 Commission 佣金” to investigate 调查 the whole question. Now this commission 佣金, after travelling twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 miles, asking twenty 二十-eight 八 thou‧sand 千 questions, and publishing 发布 two thou‧sand 千 pages ( double 双的 columns 柱, close print 印刷) of evidence 证据, arrived at some remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 conclusions 结论. “Opium,” says the Royal Commission 佣金, “is harmful 有害, harm‧less 无害, or even beneficial 有利, according to the measure and discretion 慎重 with which it is used.... It is [in India] the universal 普遍的 house‧hold 家庭 remedy 治疗法.... It is extensively administered 管理 to infants 婴儿, and the practice does not appear, to any appreciable extent, injurious.... It does not appear responsible for any disease 3 peculiar to itself 本身.” As to the traffic 交通 with China, the Commission 佣金 states—“Responsibility 责任 mainly lies with the Chinese government.” And, finally (which seems to bring out the pith of the matter), “In the present circumstances 环境 the revenue 收入 derived 派生 from opium 鸦片 is indispensable 不可缺少 for carrying on with efficiency 效率 the government of India.”

To one familiar 熟悉的 with this extraordinary summing 和-up of the evidence 证据, it seems hardly surprising that the Rt. Hon. John Morley, the present Secretary of State for India, should have said in Parliament (May, 1906)—“I do not wish to speak in disparagement of the Commission 佣金, but some‧how 某种方法 or other its findings have failed to satisfy 使满意 public opinion in this country and to ease 轻松 the consciences 良心 of those who have taken up the matter.”

The methods 方法 employed by a Royal 4 Commission 佣金 which could arrive at such remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 conclusions 结论 could hardly fail to be interesting. The Government opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 was a scandal 丑闻. Parliament was on record against it. There was simply nothing to be said for opium 鸦片 or for the opium 鸦片 monopoly 垄断. It was “morally indefensible”—officially so. It was agreed that the Indian government should be “ urged 催促” to cease 停止 to grant 发放 licenses 执照 for the cultivation 9 of the poppy 罂粟 and for the sale of opium 鸦片 in British India. This was interesting—even gratifying 取悦. There was but one obstacle 障碍 in the way of putting an end to the whole business; and that obstacle 障碍 was, in some inexplicable way, this same British government. The opium 鸦片 monopoly 垄断, morally indefensible or not, seemed to be going serenely 安详 and steadily on. If the Indian government was urged in the matter, there was no record of it.

Two years passed. Mr. Gladstone, the great prime 主要 minister 3, deplored 痛惜 the opium 鸦片 evil—and took pains not to stop or limit it. Like the House of Peers in the Napoleonic wars, he “did nothing in particular—and did it very well.” So the vigilant crusaders came at the government again. In June, 1893, Mr. Alfred Webb moved a resolution 解析度 which (so ran the hopes of these crusaders) the most nearly Christian government could not resist 抵抗 or evade 逃避. Sure of the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 majority 多数, the new resolution 解析度, “having regard to the opinion expressed by the vote of this House on the 10th of April, 1891, that the system by which the Indian opium 鸦片 revenue 收入 is raised is morally indefensible,... and recognizing that the people of India ought 应当 not to be called upon to bear the cost involved in this change of policy,” demanded that “a Royal 5 Commission 佣金 should be appointed ... to report as to (1) What retrenchments and reforms 改革 can be effected in the military 军事 and civil 国内 expenditures 支出 of India; (2) By what means Indian resources 资源 can be best developed; and (3) What, if any, temporary 临时 assistance 帮助 from the British Exchequer would be required in order to meet any deficit 赤字 of revenue 收入 which would be occasioned by the suppression 抑制 of the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通.”

The crusaders had under‧estimate 低估 the parliamentary 议会 skill 技能 of Mr. Gladstone. He promptly moved a counter resolution 解析度, proposing that “this House press on the Government of India to continue their policy of greatly diminishing 减少 the cultivation of the poppy 罂粟 and the production and sale of opium 鸦片, and demanding a Royal Commission 佣金 to report as to (1) Whether the growth of the poppy 罂粟 and the manufacture and sale of opium 鸦片 in British India should be prohibited 禁止.... (4) The effect on the finances 金融 of India of the prohibition 禁令 ... taking into consideration 考虑 (a) the amount of compensation 赔偿金 pay‧able 应付; (b) the cost of the necessary preventive 预防 measures; (c) the loss of revenue 收入.... (5) The disposition 性格 of the people of India in regard to (a) the use of opium 鸦片 for non 非-medical purposes; (b) their willingness 愿意 to bear in whole or in part the cost of prohibitive measures.”

Mr. Gladstone’s resolution 解析度 looked, to the unthinking, like an anti 抗-opium 鸦片 document 文件. He doubt‧less 毫无疑问， meant that it should, for in his task 任务 of maintaining 保持 the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 he had to work through an anti 抗-opium 鸦片 majority 多数. Mr. Webb’s resolution 解析度, starting from the assumption 假设 that the government was committed 承诺 to sup‧press 压制 the traffic 交通, called for a commission 佣金 merely to arrange the necessary details. Mr. Gladstone’s resolution 解析度 raised the whole question again, and instructed 指导 the commission 佣金 not only to call particular attention to the cost of prohibition 禁令 (the shrewd 精明 premier 总理 knew his public!), not only to find out if the victims 受害者 of opium 鸦片 in India wished to continue the habit, but also threw throw the whole burden 负荷，重负 of cost on the poverty 贫穷-stricken people of India—which he knew perfectly well they could not bear. The original 原版的 resolution 解析度 had sprung out of a moral outcry 喊叫 against the China trade. Mr. Gladstone, in beginning again at the beginning, ignored 忽视 the China trade and the effects of opium 鸦片 on the Chinese.

But more interesting, if less significant 重大 than this attitude 态度, was the suggestion 建议 that the Indian government “continue their policy of greatly diminishing 减少 the cultivation of the poppy 罂粟.” Now this suggestion conveyed 传达 an impression 印象 that was either true or false 虚伪的. Either the Indian government was putting down opium 鸦片 or it was not. In either event, if Mr. Gladstone was not fully 充分 informed, it was his own fault 缺点, for the machinery 机器 of government was in his hands. The best way to straighten 变直 out this tangle 纠纷 would seem to be to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 the report of Mr. Gladstone’s commission 佣金. This commission 佣金, on its arrival 到达 in India, found no trace 跟踪 of a policy of sup‧press 压制 the trade. Sir David Balfour, the head of the Indian Finance 金融 Department, said to the commission 佣金: “I was not aware 知道的 that that was the policy of the Home government until the statement 声明 was made.... The policy has been for some time to sell about the same amount every year, neither diminishing 减少 that amount nor increasing 增加 it. I should say decidedly 果断地, that at present our desire is to obtain 获得 the maximum 最大值 revenue 收入 from the opium 鸦片 consumed 消耗 in India.” As regarded the China trade, Sir David added: “We will not largely increase the cultivation because we shall be attacked if we do so.” And this—“We have adopted a middle course and preserved 保护；保持原状 the status 状态 quo with reference 参考 to the China trade.”

Mr. Gladstone’s resolution 解析度 was adopted by 184 votes to 105, the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 crusaders voting against it. And the Royal Commission 佣金, with instructions 指令 not, as had been intended 意欲, to arrange the details of a plan for stopping the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通, but with instructions 指令 to consider whether it would pay to stop it, and if not, whether the people of India could be made to stand the loss, started out on its rather hope‧less 绝望 journey 4.

One thing the crusaders had succeeded in accomplishing—they had forced the government to send a commission 佣金 to India. They had got one or two of their number on the body. The commission 佣金 would have to hear the evidence 证据, would be forced to air the situation thoroughly, showing a paternal 父亲的 government not only manufacturing opium 鸦片 for the China trade, but actually, since 1891, manufacturing pills 丸 of opium 鸦片 mixed with spices 香料 for the children and infants of India. If the Indian government, now at last brought to an accounting, wished to keep the opium 鸦片 business going, they could do two things—they could see that the “right” sort of evidence 证据 was given to the commission 佣金, and they could try to influence the commission 佣金 directly. They adopted both courses; though it appears now, to one who goes over the attitude 态度 of the majority 多数 of the commission 佣金 and especially of Lord Brassey, the chair‧man 主席, as shown in the records, that little direct influence was necessary. Lord Brassey and his majority 多数 were pro 亲-opium 鸦片, through and through. The Home government had seen to that.

The problem, then, of the administrators 管理员 of the Indian government and of this pro 亲-opium 鸦片 commission 佣金 was to defend 3 a “morally indefensible” condition of affairs in order to maintain 保持 the revenue 收入 of the Indian government. It was a problem neither easy nor pleasant 可爱的.

The Viceroy of India was Lord Lansdowne. He went at the problem with shrewdness and determination 决心. His attitude 态度 was precisely 精确地 what one has learned to expect in the viceroys of India. A later viceroy, Lord Curzon, has spoken speak with infinite 无穷 scorn 鄙视 of the “opium 鸦片 faddists.” Lord Lansdowne approached the business in the same spirit. He began by sending a telegram 电报 from his government to the British Secretary of State for India, which contained the following pass‧age 通道: “We shall be prepared to suggest non 非-official witnesses 目击；目击者, who will give independent 独立 evidence 证据, but we cannot under‧take 承担 to specially search 搜寻 for witnesses who will give evidence 证据 against opium 鸦片. We presume 假设 this will be done by the Anti-Opium Society.” This mess‧age 信息 had been sent send in August, 1893, but it was not made public until the 18th of the following November. On November 20th Lord Lansdowne sent send a letter to Lord Brassey, “which,” says Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M. P., in his minority 少数民族 report, “was passed around among the members [of the commission 佣金] for perusal. It contained a statement 声明 in favour of the existing opium 鸦片 system, and against interference 干涉 with that system as likely to lead to serious trouble. This appeared to me a departure 离开 from the judicial 司法 attitude 态度 which might have been expected from Her Majesty’s representatives.”

From this Mr. Wilson goes on, in his report, to lay lie bare 光秃秃的 the methods 方法 of the Indian government in preparing evidence 证据 for the commission 佣金. To say that these methods 方法 show a departure 离开 from the expected “judicial 司法 attitude 态度” is to speak with great moderation 适度. It is not necessary, I think, to weary 厌倦 the reader with the details of these extended operations. That is not the purpose of this writing. It should be enough to say that Lord Lansdowne and his Indian government ordered that all evidence 证据 should be submitted 给 to the commission 佣金 through their offices; that only pro 亲-opium 鸦片 evidence 证据 was submitted; that a government official travelled with the commission 佣金 and openly worked up the evidence 证据 in advance; that the minority 少数民族 members were hindered 阻碍 and hampered 阻碍 in their attempts at real investigation 调查, and were shadowed 阴影 by detectives 侦探 when they travelled independently 独立地 in the opium 鸦片-producing regions 地区; and, finally, that Lord Brassey abruptly 突然 closed the report of the commission 佣金 without giving the minority 少数民族 members an opportunity to discuss 讨论 it in detail. The result of these methods 方法 was precisely 精确地 what might have been expected. Opium was declared a mild 温柔的 and harm‧less 无害 stimulant for all ages. No home, in short, was complete without it.

There is an answer to the report of the Royal Commission 佣金 on opium 鸦片 more telling than can be found in speeches 演说 or in minority 少数民族 reports. In an earlier article we examined into the beginnings of opium 鸦片. We saw how it is grown and manufactured; how it passes out of the hands of the British government into the currents of trade; how it is carried along on these currents—small quantities of it washing 洗 up in passing the Straits and the Malay Archipelago—to China; how it blends 混合 at the Chinese ports 港口 in the flood 洪水 of the new native-grown opium 鸦片 and divides among the trade currents of that great empire 7 until every province 省 receives its supply of the “foreign dirt 泥土.” Now let us follow it farther far; for it does not stop there.

The Chinese are great traders 商人 and great travellers. The weight 重量 of the national 国民 misery presses them out into whatever new regions 地区 promise a reward 报酬 for industry. They swarmed 一群 over the Pacific to America in a yellow cloud 云 until America, in sheer self-defense, barred them out. They swarmed 一群 south‧ward 南方‧病房 to Australia until Australia closed the doors on them. They swarm 一群 to-day into the Philippines and into Malaysia. In the Straits Settlement 沉降, in a total population of a little over half a million, more than half (282,000) are Chinese. When America would build the Panama Canal 运河, her first impulse 冲动 is to import 进口 the cheap 便宜的 Chinese labourer, who is always so eager 渴望的 to come. When Britain took over the Transvaal she imported 进口 70,000 Chinese labourers. And where the Chinese travel, opium 鸦片 travels too.

The real answer to the Royal Commission 佣金 on opium 鸦片 should be found in the attitude 态度 of these countries which have had to face the opium 鸦片 problem along with the Chinese problem. Let us include in the list Japan, a country which has had a remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 opportunity to view the opium 鸦片 menace 威胁 at short range. What Japan thinks about opium 鸦片, what Australia and the Transvaal and the United States think, what the Philippines think, is more to the point than any first-hand statements 声明 of a magazine 杂志 reporter. We will take Japan first. Does Japan think that opium 鸦片 is invaluable 无价 as a general house‧hold 家庭 remedy 治疗法? Does Japan think that opium 鸦片 is good for children?

Here is what the Philippine Opium Commission 佣金, whose 谁的 report is accepted to-day as the most authoritative 权威性 survey 调查 of the opium 鸦片 situation, has to say about opium 鸦片 in Japan:

“Japan, which is a non 非-Christian country, is the only country visited by the committee where the opium 鸦片 question is dealt with in the purely 纯的 moral and social aspect 方面.... Legislation 立法 is enacted 制定 without the distraction 娱乐 of commercial motives 动机 and interest.... No surer testimony 见证 to the reality 现实 of the evil effects of opium 鸦片 can be found than the horror 恐怖 with which China’s next-door neighbour views it.... The Japanese to a man fear opium 鸦片 as we fear the cobra or the rattle‧snake 霸王鞭‧蛇, and they despise 讨厌 its victims 受害者. There has been no moment in the nation’s history when the people have wavered 动摇 in their uncompromising attitude 态度 towards the drug 药物 and its use, so that an instinctive hatred 仇恨 possesses them. China’s curse 4 has been Japan’s warning 警告, and a warning heeded 注意. An opium 鸦片 user in Japan would be socially a leper.

“The opium 鸦片 law of Japan forbids 禁止 the importation, the possession 所有物, and the use of the drug 药物, except as a medicine 4; and it is kept to the letter in a population of 47,000,000, of whom perhaps 25,000 are Chinese. So rigid 死板 are the provisions 规定 of the law that it is sometimes, especially in interior 室内 towns, almost impossible to secure 安全 opium 鸦片 or its alkaloids in cases of medical necessity 必须.... The government is determined to keep the opium 鸦片 habit strictly con‧fine 局限 to what they deem 认为 to be its legitimate 合法 use, which use even, they seem to think, is dangerous 危险 enough to require special safe‧guard 保障.

“Certain persons are authorized 授权 by the head official of each district to manufacture and prepare opium 鸦片 for medicinal purposes.... That which is up to the required standard (in quality) is sold sell to the government: and that which falls short is destroyed. The accepted opium 鸦片 is sealed 封上，海豹 in proper receptacles and sold sell to a selected 选择 number of whole‧sale 批发 dealers (apothecaries) who in turn provide physicians 医师 and retail 零售 dealers with the drug 药物 for medicinal uses only. It can reach the patient for whose 谁的 relief 宽慰 it is desired only through the prescription 处方 of the attending 出席 physician 医师. The records of those who thus use opium 鸦片 in any of its various forms must be preserved for ten 十 years.

“The people not merely obey 服从 the law, but they are proud 自豪的 of it; they would not have it altered 改变 if they could. It is the law of the government, but it is the law of the people also.... Apparently, the vigilance of the police is such that even when opium 鸦片 is successfully 顺利 smuggled 走私 in, it cannot be smoked without detect‧ion 发现. The pungent fumes 烟 of cooked 烹调 opium 鸦片 are unmistakable 明白的, and betray 背叛 the user almost inevitably 必将.... There is an instance 例 on record where a couple of Japanese lads 小伙子 in North Formosa experimented with opium 鸦片 just for a lark; and though they were guilty 有罪的；内疚的 only on this occasion, they were detected 发现，察觉，看出, arrested 逮捕, and punished.”

That is what Japan thinks about opium 鸦片.

The conclusions 结论 of this Philippine Commission 佣金 formed the basis of the new opium 鸦片 prohibition 禁令 in the Philippines, which went into effect March 行军；三月 1, 1908. The plan is a modification 修改 of the Japanese system of dealing with the evil.

Australia and New Zealand have also been forced to face the opium 鸦片 problem. New Zealand, by an act of 1901, amended 修改 in 1903, prohibits 禁止 the traffic 交通, and makes offenders 犯罪分子 liable 容易 to a penalty 罚款 not exceeding 超过 $2,500 (£500) for each offense 进攻. In the Australian Federal 联邦 Parliament the question was brought to an issue two or three years ago. Petitions bearing 200,000 signatures 签名 were presented to the parliament 议会, and in response 响应 a law was enacted 制定 absolutely prohibiting 禁止 the importation of opium 鸦片, except for medicinal uses, after January 1, 1906. All the state governments of Australia lose revenue 收入 by this prohibition 禁令. The voice of the Australian people was apparently expressed in the Federal 联邦 Parliament by Hon. V. L. Solomon, who said: “In the cities of the Southern 南部的 States any‧body 任何人 going to the opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 would see hundreds 百 of apparently respect‧able 可敬 Europeans indulging 放纵 in this horrible 可怕 habit. It is a hundred‧fold 百‧折叠 more damaging 损害, both physically 物理 and morally, than the indulgence 放纵 in alcoholic 酒精 liquors 酒.”

That is what Australia and New Zealand think about opium 鸦片.

The attitude 态度 of the United States is thus described by the Philippine Commission 佣金: “It is not perhaps generally known that in the only instance 例 where America has made official utterances 发声 relative to the use of opium 鸦片 in the East, she has spoken speak with no uncertain 不确定 voice. By treaty 条约 with China in 1880, and again in 1903, no American bottoms are allowed to carry opium 鸦片 in Chinese waters. This ... is due to a recognition 认识 that the use of opium 鸦片 is an evil for which no financial 金融 gain can compensate 补偿, and which America will not allow her citizens to encourage 鼓励 even passively 被动.” By the terms of this treaty 条约, citizens of the United States are forbidden 禁止:forbid to “import 进口 opium 鸦片 into any of the open ports 港口 of China, or transport 运输 from one open port 港口 to any other open port 港口, or to buy and sell opium 鸦片 in any of the open ports 港口 of China. This absolute 绝对的 prohibition 禁令 ... extends 延伸 to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either power, to foreign vessels employed by them, or to vessels owned by the citizens or subjects of either power and employed by other persons for the transportation of opium 鸦片.” Thus the United States is flatly on record as forbidding her citizens to engage 从事, in any way whatever, in the Chinese opium 鸦片 traffic 交通.

The last item 项目 of expert 专家 evidence 证据 which I shall present from the countries most deeply concerned in the opium 鸦片 question is from that British colony, the Transvaal. Were the subject less grim 严峻, it would be difficult to rest‧rain 抑制 a smile over this bit of evidence 证据—it is so human, and so humorous 幽默. For a century and more, Anglo-Indian officials have been kept busy 忙碌的 explaining that opium 鸦片 is a heaven 4-sent send blessing 祝福 to man‧kind 人类. It is quite possible that many of them have come to believe the words they have repeated so often. Why not? China was a long way off—and India certainly did need the money. The poor official had to please the sovereign 君主 people back home, one way or another. If a choice 选择 between evils seemed necessary, was he to blame 指责? We must try not to be too hard on the government official. Perhaps opium 鸦片 was good for children. Keep your blind 失明的 eye to the telescope 望远镜 and you can imagine anything you like.

 

WHERE THE CHINAMAN TRAVELS, OPIUM TRAVELS TOO
A Consignment of Opium from China to the United States, Photographed in the Custom 3 House, San Francisco

 

The situation was given its grimly 严峻 humorous 幽默 twist 扭成一束 when the monster 怪物 opium 鸦片 began to invade 入侵 regions 地区 nearer home. It came into the Transvaal after the Boer War, along with those 70,000 Chinese labourers. The result can only be described as an opium 鸦片 panic 恐慌. I quote 引用, regarding it, from that “Memorandum Concerning Indo-Chinese Opium Trade,” which was prepared for the debate 辩论 in Parliament during May, 1906:

“The Transvaal offers a striking illustration 插图 of the old pro‧verb 亲‧动词 as to chickens coming home to roost.

“On the 6th of September, 1905, Sir George Farrar moved the adjournment of the Legislative Council at Pretoria, to call attention to ‘the enormous 巨大 quantity 5 of opium 鸦片’ finding its way into the Transvaal. He urged that ‘measures should be taken for the immediate stopping of the traffic 交通.’ On 6th October, an ordinance 条例 was issued, restricting 限制 the importation of opium 鸦片 to registered 寄存器 chemists 化学家, only, according to regulations 规 to be prescribed 规定 by permits by the lieutenant 陆军中尉-governor—under a penalty 罚款 not exceeding 超过 £500 ($2,500), or imprisonment 徒刑 not exceeding 超过 six months.

“Any person in possession 所有物 of such substance 物质 ... except for medicinal purposes, unless 3 under a permit, is liable 容易 to similar 类似 penalties 罚款. Stringent rights of search 3 are given to police, con‧stable 警官, under certain circumstances 环境, without even the necessity 必须 of a written authority 权威.

“The under-secretary for the colonies 侨民 has also stated, ‘that the Chinese Labour Importation Ordinance, 1904, has been amended 修改 to penalize 惩罚 the possession by, and supply to, Chinese labourers of opium 鸦片.’”

Apparently opium 鸦片 is not good for the children of South Africa. That it would be good (to get still nearer home) for the children and infants of Great Britain, is an idea so monstrous 滔天, so horrible 可怕, that I hardly dare 敢 suggest it. No one, I think, would go so far as to say that the Royal Commission 佣金 would have reached those same extraordinary conclusions 结论 had the problem lain lie in Great Britain instead of in far-off India and China. Walk about, of a sunny 晴朗 after‧noon 下午, in Kensington Gardens. Watch the ruddy, healthy 健康 children sailing their boats in the Round Pond, or playing in the long grass 草 where the sheep 羊 are nibbling, or running merrily along the well-kept borders of the Serpentine. They are splendid 5 youngsters 青少年, these little Britishers. Their skins 皮 are tanned 黄褐色, their eyes are clear, their little bodies are compactly 紧凑 knit 针织. Each child has its watchful nurse 护士. What would the mothers say if His Majesty’s Most Excellent 卓越的 Government should under‧take 承担 the manufacture and distribution of attractive 有魅力的 little pills 丸 of opium 鸦片 and spices 香料 for these children, and should defend its course not only on the ground that “the practice does not appear to any appreciable extent injurious,” but also on the ground that “the revenue 收入 obtained 获得 is indispensable 不可缺少 for carrying on the government with efficiency 效率”?

What would these British mothers say? It is a fair question. The “conservative 保守” pro 亲-opiumist is always ready with an answer to this question. He claims that it is not fair. He maintains 保持 that the Oriental is different from the Occidental— racially. Opium, he says, has no such marked effect on the Chinaman as it has on the Englishman, no such marked effect on the Chinese infant 婴儿 as it has on the British infant. I have met meet this “conservative 保守” pro 亲-opiumist many times on coasting 海岸 and river steamers 汽船 and in treaty 条约 port 港口 hotels. I have been one of a group about a rusty 生疏 little stove 炉 in a German-kept hostelry where this question was thrashed 鞭打 out. Your “conservative 保守” is so cock 公鸡-sure about it that he grows, in the heat of his argument 论据, almost triumphant 凯. At first I thought that perhaps he might be partially 部分 right. One man’s meat 肉 is occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时 another man’s poison 毒药. The Chinese differ 不同 from us in so many ways that possibly they might have a greater capacity 容量 to with‧stand 经受 the ravages 蹂躏 of opium 鸦片.

It was partly to answer this question that I went to China. I did not leave China until I had arrived at an answer that seemed convincing 说服. If, in presenting the facts in these columns 柱, the picture I have been painting of China’s problem should verge 边缘 on the painful 痛苦, that, I am afraid 害怕的, will be the fault 缺点 of the facts. It is a picture of the hugest 巨大 empire in the whole world, fighting a curse 5 which has all but mastered 主人；硕士 it, turning for aid 援助, in sheer despair 绝望, to the government, that has brought it to the edge 3 of ruin. Strange to say, this British government, as it is to-day constituted 构成，组成，被视作, would apparently like to help. But, across the path 小路 of assistance 帮助 stands, like a grotesque 奇怪的, inhuman dragon 龙,—the Indian Revenue 收入.

 

 

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VIII

THE POSITION OF GREAT BRITAIN

An observant correspondent 通信者 recently wrote from Shanghai to a New York news‧paper 报纸: “China has missed 错过；想念 catching the fire of the West in the manner of Japan, and has lain idle 无意义的 and supine while neighbour and foreigner despoiled her. Her statesman‧ship 政治家‧船 has been languid and irresolute, and her armies slow and spirit‧less 精神‧少 in the field. Observers who know China, and are familiar 熟悉的 at the same time with the symptoms of opium 鸦片, say that it is as if the list‧less 清单‧少 symptoms of the drug 药物 were to be seen in the very nation itself 本身. Many conclude 得出结论 that the military 军事 and political inertia 惯性 of the Chinese is due to the special prevalence 流行 of the opium 鸦片 habit among the two classes of Chinamen directly responsible: both the soldiers and the scholars 学者, among whom all the civil 国内 and political posts 邮件 are held in monopoly 垄断, are notoriously 臭名昭著 addicted 瘾君子 to opium 鸦片.”

The point which these chapters 章节 should make clear is that opium 鸦片 is the evil thing which is not only holding China back but is also actually threatening 威胁:threat to bring about the most complete demoralization and decadence that any large portion 一部分；一份 of the world has ever experienced. It is evident 明显, in this day of extended trade interests, that such a paralysis 麻痹 of the hugest 巨大 and the most industrious of the great races would amount to a world- disaster 灾难，大祸. Already the United States is suffering from the weakness 弱点 of the Chinese government in Manchuria, which permits Japan to control in the Manchurian province 省 and to discriminate 辨析 against American trade. This discrimination 区别 would appear to have been one strong reason for the sailing of the battle‧ship 与…作战‧船 fleet 舰队 to the Pacific. If this relatively small result of China’s weakness 弱点 and inertia 惯性 can arouse 引起 great nations and can play a part in the moving of great fleets 舰队, it is not difficult to imagine the world- importance 重要性 of a complete break‧down 分解. Every great Western nation has a trade or territorial 领土的 footing in China to defend and maintain 保持. Every great Western nation is watching the complicated Chinese situation with sleep‧less 睡‧少 eyes. Such a break‧down 分解 might quite possibly mean the unconditional 无条件的 surrender 投降 of China’s destiny 命运 into the hands of Japan; which, with Japan’s growing desire to dominate 支配 the Pacific, and with it the world, might quite possibly mean the rapid 快速的 approach of the great international conflict 冲突.

We have seen, in the course of these chapters 章节, that China appears to be almost completely in the grasp 把握 of her master 主人；硕士-vice. The opium 鸦片 curse in China is a dreadful 可怕 example of the economic waste 浪费 of evil. It has not only lowered the vitality 活力, and therefore the efficiency 效率 of men, women, and children in all walks of life, but it has also crowded the healthier 健康 crops off the land, usurped no small part of the industrial 产业 life, turned the balance of trade against China, plunged 跳水 her into wars, loaded 负荷 her with indemnity charges, taken away part of her territory 疆土，领域, and made her the plundering 掠夺 ground of the nations. She has been compelled 迫使 to look indolently on while Japan, alight 落 with the fire of progress, has raised her brown head proudly among the peoples of the West. So China has at last been driven drive to make a desperate 殊死 stand against the encroachments of the curse which is wrecking 破坏；使遇难 her. The fight is on to-day. It is plain that China is sincere 真诚的; she must be sincere 4, because her only hope lies in conquering 征服 opium 鸦片. She has turned for help to Great Britain, for Britain’s Indian government developed the opium 鸦片 trade (“for purposes of foreign commerce only”) and continues to-day to pour 淋；倒 a flood 洪水 of the drug 药物 into the channels 渠道 of Chinese trade. Once China thought to crowd 人群；拥挤 out the Indian product by producing the drug 药物 her‧self 她自己, as a preliminary 初步 to controlling the traffic 交通, but she has never been able to develop a grade 年级 of opium 鸦片 that can compete 竞赛 with the brown paste 粘贴；面团 from the Ganges Valley.

This summing 和 up brings us to a consideration 考虑 of two questions which must be considered sooner or later by the people of the civilized 使文明 world:

1. Can China hope to conquer 征服 the opium 鸦片 curse without the help of Great Britain?

2. What is Great Britain doing to help her?

In attempting to work out the answer to these questions, we must think of them simply as practical 3 problems bearing on the trade, the territorial 领土的 development, and the military 军事 and naval 海 power of the nations. We must try for the present to ignore 忽视 the mere moral and ethical 合乎道德的 suggestions 建议 which the questions arouse 引起.

First, then: can China, single-handed, possibly succeed 成功 in this fight, now going on, against the slow paralysis 麻痹 of opium 鸦片?

China is not a nation in the sense in which we ordinarily 普通的 use the word. If we picture to ourselves 我们自己 the countries of Europe, with their different languages and different customs drawn draw together into a loose 松的 confederation under the government of a conquering race, we shall have some small concept‧ion 概念 of what this Chinese “nation” really is. The peoples of these different European countries are all Caucasians; the different peoples of China are all Mongolians. These Chinese people speak eighteen 十八 or twenty 二十 “languages,” each divided into almost innumerable 无数 dialects 方言 and sub 子-dialects 方言. They are governed by Manchu, or Tartar, conquerors who spring from a different stock, wear different costumes 服装, and speak, among themselves, a language wholly 全 different from any of the eighteen 十八 or twenty 二十 native tongues.

In making this diversity 多样 clear, it is necessary only to cite 举例 a few illustrations 插图. There is not even a standard of currency 钱 in China. Each province 省 or group of provinces 省 has its own standard tael, differing 不同 greatly in value from the tael which may be the basis of value in the next province 省 or group. There is no government coin‧age 硬币‧年龄 whatever. All the mints 薄荷 are privately owned and are run for profit in supplying the local demand for currency, and the basis of this currency is the Mexican dollar, a foreign unit. They make dollar bills in Honan Province 省. I went into Chili Province 省 and offered some of these Honan bills in exchange 交换 for purchases 采购. The merchants merely looked at them and shook 摇晃:shake their heads. “Tientsin dollar have got?” was the question. So the money of a community or a province 省 is simply a local commodity 商品 and has either a lower value or no value else‧where 在别处, for the simple reason that the average Chinaman knows only his local money and will accept no other. The diversity 多样 of language is as easily observed as the diversity 多样 of coin‧age 硬币‧年龄. On the wharves at Shanghai you can hear a Canton Chinaman and a Shanghai Chinaman talking together in pidgin English, their only means of communication 通讯. When I was travelling in the Northwest, I was accosted in French one day by a Chinese station-agent, on the Shansi Railroad, who frankly 坦率地说 said that he was led to speak to me, a foreigner, by the fact that he was a “foreigner” too. With his blue gown 袍 and his black pig‧tail 猪‧尾, he looked to me no different from the other natives; but he told me that he found the language and customs of Shansi “difficult,” and that he sometimes grew grow home‧sick 家‧病；恶心 for his native city in the South.

That the Chinese of different provinces 省 really regard one another as foreigners 外国人 may be illustrated 说明 by the fact that, during the Boxer troubles about Tientsin, it was a common occurrence 发生 for the northern soldiers to shoot down indiscriminately with the white men any Cantonese who appeared within rifle 步枪-shot shoot.

This diversity 多样, probably a result of the cost and difficulty of travel, is a factor 因子 in the immense inertia 惯性 which hinders 阻碍 all progress in China. People who differ 不同 in coin‧age 硬币‧年龄, language, and customs, who have never been taught teach to “think imperially 帝国” or in terms other than those of the village or city, cannot easily be led into coöperation on a large scale 规模. It is difficult enough, Heaven 5 knows, to effect any real change in the government of an American city or state, or of the nation, let alone effecting any real changes in the habits of men. Witness 目击；目击者 our own struggle against graft 接枝. Witness also the vast 广大 struggle against the liquor 酒 traffic 交通 now going on in a score 得分了 of our states. Even in this land of ours, which is so new that there has hardly been time to form traditions 传统; which is alert 警报 to the value of changes and quick to leap 飞跃 in the direction of progress; which is essentially 基本的 homogeneous 同质 in structure 结构体, with but one language, innumerable 无数 daily 每日的 newspapers, and a close net‧work 网 of fast 快的, comfort‧able 舒服；自在 rail‧way 铁路 trains to keep the various communities in touch with the prevailing 战胜 idea of the moment, how easy do we find it to wipe 擦 out race-track 小路 gambling 赌, say, or to make our insurance 保险 laws really effective, or to check the corrupt 腐败 practices of corporations 公司, or to establish 建立 the principle 原理 of local municipal 市政 owner‧ship 物主身份? To put it in still another light, how easy do we find it to bring about a change which the great majority 多数 of us agree would be for the better, such as making over the costly, cumbersome 笨重 express business into a government parcels 包袱 post 邮件?

But there are large money interests which would suffer by such reforms 改革, you say? True; and there are large money interests suffering by the opium 鸦片 reforms 改革 in China, relatively as large as any money interests we have in this country. The opium 鸦片 reforms 改革 affect 影响 the large and the small farmers, the manufacturers 生产厂家, the transportation companies, the bankers 银行家, the commission 佣金 men, the hundreds 百 of thou‧sand 千 of shop‧keeper 店主, and the government revenues 收入, for the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 is an almost inextricable strand 缕 in the fabric 布 of Chinese commerce. In addition 加成 to these bewildering 困惑 complications 复杂化 of the problem, there is the discouraging 不鼓励 inertia 惯性 to over‧come 战胜 of a land which, far from being alert 警报 and active, is sunk 淹没:sink in the lethargy of ancient 古代的 local custom.

No, in putting down her master 主人；硕士-vice, China must not only overcome all the familiar 3 economic difficulties that tend 照料 to block 块 reform 改革 everywhere, but, in addition 加成, must find a way to rouse 唤醒 and energize 通电 the most backward 向后的 and (outside of the age-old grooves 槽 of conduct 进行 and government) the most unmanageable empire in the world.

On what element 元件 in her population must China rely 依靠 to put this huge 巨大 reform 改革 into effect? On the officials, or mandarins, who carry out the govern‧mental 政府 edicts in every province 省, administer 管理 Chinese justice 3, and control the military 军事 and finances 金融. But of these officials, more than ninety 九十 per cent. have been known to be opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者, and fully 充分 fifty 五十 per cent. have been financially 经济 interested in the trade.

Still another obstacle 障碍 blocking reform 改革 is the powerful 强大 example and wide‧spread 广泛 influence of the treaty 条约 ports 港口. Perhaps the white race is “superior 优越” to the yellow; I shall not dispute 争议 that notion 概念 here. But one fact which I know personally 亲自 is that every one of the treaty 条约 ports 港口, where the white men rule, including the British crown 王冠 colony of Hongkong, chose last year to maintain 保持 its opium 鸦片 revenue 收入 regard‧less 而不管 of the protests 抗议 of the Chinese officials.

Putting down opium 鸦片 in China would appear to be a pretty 漂亮的 big job. The “vested 背心 interests,” yellow and white, are against a change; the personal 个人 habits of the officials themselves work against it; the British keep on pouring 淋；倒 in their Indian opium 鸦片; and by way of a positive 正 force on the affirmative 肯定 side of the question there would appear to be only the lethargy and impotence of a decadent, chaotic 混乱的 race. How would you like to tackle 滑车 a problem of this magnitude 大小, as Yuan Shi K’ai and Tong Shao-i have done? Try to organize a campaign 运动 in your home town against the bill-board nuisance 讨厌事; against corrupt 腐败 politics 政治; against drink or cigarettes 香烟，纸烟. Would it be easy to succeed 4? When you have thought over some of the difficulties that would block 块 you on every hand, multiply 乘 them by fifty 五十 thou‧sand 千 and then take off your hat 帽子 to Tong Shao-i and Yuan Shi K’ai. Personally 亲自, I think I should prefer 更喜欢 under‧take 承担 to stamp 邮票 out drink in Europe. I should know, of course, that it would be rather a difficult business, but still it would be easier than this Chinese pro‧position 主张.

So much for the difficulties of the problem. Suppose now we take a look at the results of the first year of the fight. There are no exact statistics to be had, but based as it is on personal 个人 travel and observation 意见, on reports of travelling officials, merchants, missionaries 传教士, and of other journalists 记者 who have been in regions 地区 which I did not reach, I think my estimate 估计 should be fairly accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的. Remember, this is a fight to a finish. If the Chinese government loses, opium 鸦片 will win.

The plan of the government, let me repeat 重复, is briefly 短时间地 as follows: First, the area under poppy 罂粟 cultivation is to be decreased 减少 about ten 十 per cent. each year, until that cultivation ceases 停止 altogether; and simultaneously 同时 the British government is to be requested to decrease 减少 the exportation of opium 鸦片 from India ten 十 per cent. each year. Second, all opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 or places where couches 长椅 or lamps are supplied for public smoking are to be closed at once under penalty 罚款 of confiscation. Third, all persons who purchase 采购 opium 鸦片 at sale shops are to be registered 寄存器, and the amount supplied to them to be diminished 减少 from month to month. Meantime 其时, the farmer is to be given all possible advice 劝告 and aid 援助 in the matter of substituting 替代 some other crop for the poppy 罂粟; opium 鸦片 cures and hospitals are to be established 建立 as widely as possible; and preachers 牧师 and lecturers 讲师 are to be sent send out to explain the dangers of opium 鸦片 to the illiterate 文盲 millions.

The central 中央 government at Peking started in by giving the high officials six months in which to change their habits. At the end of that period a large number were suspended 暂停 from office, including Prince Chuau and Prince Jui.

In one opium 鸦片 province 省, Shansi, we have seen that the enforcement was at the start effective. The evidence 证据, gathered 收集 with some difficulty from residents 居民 and travellers, from road‧side 路边 gossip 八卦, and from talks with officials, all went to show that the dens 巢穴 in all the leading cities were closed, that the manufacturers 生产厂家 of opium 鸦片 and its accessories 附件 were going out of business, and that the farmers were beginning to limit their crops.

The enforcements in the adjoining 毗 province 省, Chih-li 里, in which lies Peking, was also thoroughly effective at the start. The opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 in all the large cities were closed during the spring, and the restaurants and disorderly houses which had formerly served opium 鸦片 to their customers surrendered 投降 their lamps and implements 实行. Through‧out 始终 the other provinces 省 north of the Yangtse River, while there was evidence 证据 of a fairly consistent 一贯 attempt to enforce 执行 the new regulations 规, the results were not altogether satisfying 使满意. Along the central 中央 and southern 南部的 coast, from Shanghai to Canton, the enforcement was effective in about half the important centers of population. In Canton, or Kwangtung Province 省, the prohibition 禁令 was practically complete.

The real test of the prohibition 禁令 movement 运动 is to come in the great interior 室内 provinces 省 of the South, Yunnan and Kweichou, and in the huge 巨大 western province 省 of Sze-chuan. It is in these regions 地区 that opium 鸦片 has had its strongest grip 握 on the people, and where the financial 金融 and agricultural 农业的 phases 相 of the problems are most acute 急性. All observers 观察者 recognized that it was unfair 不公平 to expect immediate and complete prohibition 禁令 in these regions 地区, where opium 鸦片-growing is quite as grave 坟墓；严重的 a question as opium 鸦片-smoking. The beginning of the enforcement in Sze-chuan seems to have been cautious 小心的 but sincere 5. In this one province 省 the share of the imperial 帝国 tax on opium 鸦片 alone, over and above local needs, amounts to more than $2,000,000 ( gold 金), and, thanks to the constant 不变 demands of the foreign powers for their “indemnity” money, the imperial 帝国 government is hardly in a position to forego 放弃 its demands on the provinces 省. But recognizing that a new revenue 收入 must be built up to sup‧plant SUP‧植物；种 the old, the three new opium 鸦片 commissioners 专员 of Sze-chuan have begun by preparing addresses explaining the evils of opium 鸦片, and sending out “public orators” to deliver 3 them to the people. They have also used the local newspapers extensively for their educational 教育性 work; and they have sent send out the provincial 省级 police to make lists of all opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者, post 邮件 their names on the outside of their houses, and make certain that they will be debarred from all public employment 雇用 and from posts of honour. The chief commissioner 专员, Tso, declares 宣布 that he will clear Chen-tu, the provincial 省级 capital, a city of 400,000 inhabitants 居民, of opium 鸦片 within four years; and no one seems to doubt that he will do it as effectively as he has cleared the streets of the beggars 乞丐 for which Chen-tu was formerly notorious 臭名昭著. When Mr. J. G. Alexander, of the British Anti-Opium Society, was in Chen-tu last year, this same Commissioner Tso called a mass 3-meeting for him, at which the native officials and gentry 绅 sat sit on the platform 6 with representatives of the missionary 传教士 societies, and ten 十 thou‧sand 千 Chinese crowded about to hear Mr. Alexander’s address 地址.

The most disappointing 使失望 region 地区 in the matter of the opium 鸦片 prohibition 禁令 is the upper 上面的 Yangtse Valley. In the lower valley, from Nanking down to Soochow and Shanghai (native city), the enforcement ranges from partial 局部 to complete. But in the upper 3 valley, from Nanking to Hankow and above, I could not find the slightest evidence 证据 of enforcement. At the river ports 港口 the dens 巢穴 were running openly, many of them with doors opening directly off the street and with smokers 抽烟者 visible 可以看见的；可视的 on the couches 长椅 within. The viceroy of the upper Yangtse provinces 省, Chang-chi-tung, “the Great Viceroy,” has been recognized for a generation 代 as one of China’s most advanced thinkers 思想家 and reformers 改革者. His book, “China’s Only Hope,” has been translated into many languages, and is recognized as the most eloquent 雄辩 analysis 分析 of China’s problems ever made by Chinese or Manchu. In it he is flatly on record against opium 鸦片. Indeed, when governor of Shansi, twenty 二十 odd 奇 years ago, this same official sent send out his soldiers to beat 打败 down the poppy 罂粟 crop. Yet it was in this vice‧royalty 副职的；副的‧王族成员 alone, among all the larger sub‧division 细分 of China, that there was no evidence 证据 whatever last year of an intention 意图 to enforce 执行 the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 edicts. The only explanation 说明 of this state of things seems to be that Chang-chi-tung is now a very old man, and that to a great extent he has lost lose his vigour and his grip 握 on his work. Whatever the reason, this fact has been used with telling effect in pro 亲-opium 鸦片 arguments 论据 in the British Parliament as an illustration 插图 of China’s “insincerity.”

The situation seems to sum 和 up about as follows: The prohibition 禁令 of opium 鸦片 was immediately effective over about one-quarter 3 of China, and partially 部分 effective over about two-thirds. This, it has seemed to me, considering the difficulty and immensity of the problem, is an extraordinary record. Every opium 鸦片 den 巢穴 actually closed in China represents a victory 胜利. Whether the dens 巢穴 will stay closed, after the first frenzy 发狂 of reform 改革 has passed, or whether the prohibition 禁令 movement 运动 will gain in strength and effectiveness 效用, time alone will tell. But there is an ancient 3 popular 3 saying in China to this effect, “Do not fear to go slowly; fear to stop.”

We have seen, then, that while the Chinese are fighting the opium 鸦片 evil earnestly, and in part effectively, they are still some little way short of conquering it. Also, we must not forget 3, that all reforms 改革 are strongest in their beginnings. The Chinese, no less than the rest of us, will take up a moral issue in a burst 爆裂 of enthusiasm 热情. But human beings 蜜蜂 cannot continue indefinitely 无限期 in a bursting 爆裂 condition. Reaction 反应 must always follow extraordinary exertion, and it is then that the habits of life regain 恢复 their ascendency. Remarkable 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 as this reform 改革 battle 与…作战 has been in its results, it certainly cannot show a complete, or even a half-complete, victory 胜利 over the brown drug 药物. And mean‧time 其时 the government of British India is pouring four-fifths of its immense opium 鸦片 production into China by way of Hongkong and the treaty 条约 ports 港口. It should be added, further, that while the various self-governing ports 港口, excepting Shanghai, have very recently been forced, one by one, to cover up at least the appearance of evil, the crown 4 colony of Hongkong, which is under the direct rule of Great Britain, is still clinging 依偎 doggedly to its opium 鸦片 revenues 收入. The whole miserable 悲惨的 business was summed 和 up thus in a recent speech 3 in the House of Commons: “The mischief 恶作剧 is in China; the money is in India.”

What is Great Britain doing to help China? His Majesty’s government has indulged 放纵 in a resolution 解析度 now and then, has expressed diplomatic 外交 “ sympathy 同情” with its yellow victims 受害者, and has even “urged” India in the matter, but is it really doing anything to help?

There are reasons why the world has a right to ask this question.

If China is to grow weaker 柔弱的, she must ultimately 最终 submit 给 to conquest 征服 by foreign powers. There are nine 九 or ten 十 of these powers which have some sort of a footing in China. No one of them trusts 信任 any one of the others, therefore each must be prepared to fight in defense of its own interests. It is not safe 3 to tempt 引诱 great commercial nations with a prize 奖赏 so rich as China; they might yield 屈服. Once this conquest, this “partition 划分,” sets in, there can result nothing but chaos 混沌 and world-wide trouble.

The trend 趋势 of events is to-day in the direction of this world-wide trouble. The only apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 way to head it off is to begin strengthening 加强 China to a point where she can defend her‧self 她自己 against conquest. The first step in this strengthening process is the putting down of opium 鸦片—there is no other first step. Before you can put down opium 鸦片, you have got to stop opium 鸦片 production in India. And therefore the Anglo-Indian opium 鸦片 business is not England’s business, but the world’s business. The world is to-day paying the cost of this highly expensive 昂贵的 luxury 豪华 along with China. Every sallow morphine victim 受害者 on the streets of San Francisco, Chicago, and New York is helping to pay for this government traffic 交通 in vice.

But is Great Britain planning to help China?

The government of the British empire is at present in the hands of the Liberal 自由主义的 party, which has within it a strong reform 改革 element 元件. From the Tory party nothing could be expected; it has always worshipped 崇拜 the Things that Are, and it has always defended 辩护 the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通. If either party is to work this change, it must be that one which now holds the reins 缰绳 of power. And yet, after generations 代 of fighting against the government opium 鸦片 industry on the part of all the reform 改革 organizations in England, after Parliament has twice 两次 been driven drive to vote a resolution 解析度 condemning 谴责 the traffic 交通, after generations 代 of statesmen, from Palmerston through Gladstone to John Morley, have held out assurances 保证 of a change, after the Chinese government, tired 使…疲惫 of waiting on England, has begun the struggle, this is the final 最后 concession 让步 on England’s part:

The British government has agreed to decrease 减少 the exportation of Indian opium 鸦片 about eight 八 per cent. per year during a trial period of three years, in order to see whether the cultivation of the poppy 罂粟 and the number of opium 鸦片-smokers 抽烟者 is lessened. Should such be the case, exportation to China will be further decreased gradually 逐步地.

The reader will observe here some very pretty 3 diplomatic 外交 juggling 变戏法. There is here none of the spirit which animated 活跃 the United States last year in proposing voluntarily 自行 to give up a consider‧able 大量 part of its indemnity money. The British government is yielding to a tremendous 巨大 popular clamour at home; but nothing more. Could a government offer less by way of carrying out the conviction 定罪 of a national 国民 parliament 议会 to the effect that “the methods 方法 by which our Indian opium 鸦片 revenues 收入 are derived 派生 are morally indefensible”? The English people are urging 催促 their government, the Chinese are diplomatically 外交 putting on pressure, the United States is organizing an international opium 鸦片 commission 佣金 on the ground that the nations which consume 消耗 Indian and Chinese opium 鸦片 have, willy-nilly 零, a finger 手指 in the pie 馅饼. And by way of response 响应 to this pressure the British government agrees to lessen 变少；减轻 very slightly its export 出口 for a few years, or until the pressure is removed 去掉 and the trade can slip 滑 back to normal 正常!

There are not even assurances 保证 that the agreement 协议 will be carried out. While this very agitation 搅动 has been going on, since these chapters 章节 began to appear in Success Magazine 杂志, the annual 全年 export 出口 of Bengal opium 鸦片 has increased (1906-1908) from 96,688 chests to 101,588 chests. And it is well to remember that after Mr. Gladstone, as prime 主要 minister, had given assurances 保证 of a “great reduction 减少” in the traffic 交通, the officials of India admitted that they had not heard of any such reduction.

A few months ago, the Government issued a “White Paper” containing the correspondence 对应 with China on the opium 鸦片 question, so that there is no dependence 依赖 on hear‧say 听到‧说 in this arraignment of the British attitude 态度. Let us glance 一瞥 at an excerpt 摘抄 or two from these official British letters. This, for example:

“The Chinese proposal 提议, on the other hand, which involves extinction 灭绝 of the import 进口 in nine 九 years, would commit 承诺 India irrevocably, and in advance of experience, to the complete suppression 抑制 of an important trade, and goes beyond the under‧lie 是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响 condition of the scheme 方案, that restriction 受限制的，受约束的 of import 进口 from abroad 到国外, and reduction 减少 of production in China, shall be brought pari passu into play.”

Not content 3 with this rather sordid expression 表现, His Majesty’s Government goes on to point out that, under existing treaties 条约, China cannot refuse 拒绝 to admit Indian opium 鸦片; that China cannot even increase the import 进口 duty 3 on Indian opium 鸦片 without the per‧mission 允许 of Great Britain; that before Great Britain will consider the question of permanently reducing her production China must prove that the number of her smokers 抽烟者 has diminished 减少; that the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 is to be continued at least for another ten 十 years; and then indulges 放纵 in this superb 高超 deliverance:

The proposed limitation 局限性 of the export 出口 to 60,000 chests from 1908 is thought to be a very substantial 大量的 reduction 4 on this figure, and the view of the Government of India is that such a standard ought 3 to satisfy 使满意 the Chinese Government for the present.

Even by their own estimate 估计, after taking out the proposed total decrease 4 of 15,300 chests in the Chinese trade, the Indian Government will, during the next three years, unload 卸下 more than 170,000 chests of opium 鸦片 on a race which it has brought to degradation 降解, which is to-day struggling to over‧come 战胜 demoralization, and which is appealing 上诉 to England and to the whole civilized world for aid 援助 in the unequal 不等 contest 比赛.

We must try to be fair to the gentlemen-officials who see the situation only in this curious half-light. “It is a practical question,” they say. “The law of trade is the balance-sheet. It is not our fault 缺点 as individuals that opium 鸦片, the commodity 商品, was launched 发射 out into the channels 渠道 of trade; but since it is now in those channels 渠道, the law of trade must rule, the balance-sheet must balance. Opium means $20,000,000 a year to the Indian Government—we cannot give it up.”

The real question would seem to be whether they can afford 买得起 to continue receiving this revenue 收入. Opium does not appear to be a very valuable 贵重的 commodity 商品 in India itself 本身. Just as in China, it degrades 降级 the people. The profits in production, for everybody but the government, are so small that the strong hand of the law has often, nowadays 现在, to be exerted 发挥 in order to keep the ryots (farmers) at the task 任务 of raising the poppy 罂粟. There are many thoughtful 周到 observers 观察者 of conditions in India who believe it would be highly “practical” to devote 奉献 the rich soil of the Ganges Valley to crops which have a sound economic value to the world.

But more than this, the opium 鸦片 programme saps 树液 India as it saps 树液 China. The position of the Englishman in India to-day is by no means so secure 安全 that he can afford 买得起 to indulge 放纵 in bad government. The spirit of democracy 民主 and socialism 社会主义 has already spread through Europe and has entered Asia. In Japan, trade-unions are striking for higher wages. In China and India, are already heard the mutterings 咕哝 of revolution 革命. The British government may yet have to settle up, in India as well as in China, for its opium 鸦片 policy. And when the day for settling up comes, it may perhaps be found that a higher balance-sheet than that which rules the government opium 鸦片 industry may force Great Britain to pay—and pay dear 亲爱的.

Yes, the world has some right to make demands of England in this matter. China can make no real progress in its struggle until the Indian production and exportation are flatly abolished 废除.

The situation has distinctly 历历 not grown better since the magazine 杂志 publication 出版物 of the first of these chapters 章节, a year ago. If the reader would like to have an idea of where Great Britain stands to-day on the opium 鸦片 business, he can do no better than to read the following excerpts 摘抄 from a speech made last spring by the Hon. Theodore C. Taylor, M. P., on his return from a journey 5 round the world, undertaken for the purpose of personally 亲自 investigating 调查 the opium 鸦片 problem.

First, this:

“We shall not begin to have the slightest right to ask that China should give proof 证明 of her genuineness about reform 改革 until we show more proof of our own genuineness about reform 改革, and until we sup‧press 压制 the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通 where we can. China has taken this difficult reform 改革 in hand. She has done much, but not everything. In Shanghai, Hongkong, and the Straits, we have done nothing at all. I want to say this morning, as pricking 刺 the bubble 泡沫 of our own Pharisaism, that from the point of view of reform 改革, the blackest opium 鸦片 spots 地点 in China are the spots under British rule.”

And then, in conclusion 结论, this:

“I am convinced 说服, and deeply convinced 说服, as every observant and thoughtful 周到 man is that knows anything of China, that China is a great coming power. I was talking to a fellow 同伴 member of the House of Commons who lately 近来 went to China, and went into bar‧rack 营房 and camps 营地 with the Chinese, and who made it his business to study Chinese military 军事 affairs, which generally excite 使兴奋 so much laughter 笑 outside China. He spent spend a good deal of time with the Chinese soldier 士兵. He said to me, as many other people have said to me, ‘The Chinaman is splendid 6 raw 生的 material as a soldier, and, if his officers would properly lead the Chinaman, he would follow and make the finest soldier 3 in the world, bar none.’ It will take China a long, long time to organize her‧self 她自己; it will take her a long time to organize her army and navy 海军; it will take a long time to get rid of the system of bribery 行贿 in China, which is one of the hindrances to putting down the opium 鸦片 traffic 交通; but, depend upon it, the time is coming, not perhaps very soon, but by and by—and nations have long memories 记忆—when those who are alive 活的；有生命的 to see the development of China will be very glad 高兴的 that, when China was weak 3 and we were strong, we, of our own motion 运动, without being made to, helped China to get away from this terrible 4 curse.”

 

 

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Appendix—A Letter from the Field

THE OPIUM CLIMAX IN SHANGHAI

Editor 编辑 “Success Magazine 杂志”:

It is fitting that in the columns 柱 of Success, a magazine 杂志 which has so recently investigated 调查 and so thoroughly and ably reported upon the opium 鸦片 curse in China, there should appear the account of a unique 独特 ceremony 典礼 held in the International Settlement 沉降 of Shanghai, illustrating 说明 in a striking manner the general feeling of the Chinese towards the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 movement 运动 and setting an example that will make its influence felt in the most remote 远程 provinces 省 of the empire. In response 响应 to liberal 自由主义的 advertising 做广告 there assembled 集合 in the spacious 宽敞 grounds of Chang Su Ho’s Gardens, on the afternoon 3 of Sunday, May 3, 1908, some two or three thou‧sand 千 of Shanghai’s leading Chinese business men, together with a goodly sprinkling 撒 of Europeans and Americans, to witness 目击；目击者 the destruction 破坏 of the opium 鸦片-pipes, lamps, etc., taken from the Nan Sun 太阳 Zin Opium Palace. In America, such a scene as this would have appeared little less than a farce 闹剧, but here the obvious 明显 earnestness of the Chinese, the great value of the property to be destroyed and the deep meaning of this sacrifice 牺牲, should have been sufficient 足够 to put the blush 脸红 of shame 羞愧 upon the cheeks 脸颊 of the Shanghai voters 选民 and councilmen, who, representing the most enlightened 开导 nations of the earth, have compromised 妥协 with the opium 鸦片 evil and permitted three-fourths of this nefarious business to linger 萦绕 in the “ Model 模型 Settlement 沉降” when it has been so summarily 总结，概要，摘要 dealt with by the native authorities 权威 through‧out 始终 the land.

Within a roped 粗绳-in, circular 圆形的 enclosure 圈占, marked by two large, yellow Dragon-Flags, were stacked 堆 the furnishings 陈设 of the Opium Palace, consisting 组成 of opium 鸦片 boxes 盒；耳光, pipes, lamps, tables, trays 盘子, etc., and as the spectators 观众 arrived the work of destruction 破坏 was going rapidly on. Two native blacksmiths were busily 忙碌的 engaged 从事 in splitting on an anvil the metal 金属 fittings from the pipes, and a brawny coolie, armed with a sledgehammer, was driving flat 平的；公寓 the artistic 艺术的 opium 鸦片 lamps as they were taken from the tables and placed on the ground before him. Meanwhile 同时 the pipes, mellowed 醇厚 and blackened 黩 by long use and many of them showing rare 罕见的 workman‧ship 工人‧船, were dipped 浸 into a large tin 锡 of kerosine and stacked 堆 in two piles 堆 on stone 石头 bases, to form the funeral 葬礼 pyre, while the center of each stack 堆 was filled in with kindling from the opium 鸦片 trays, similarly 同样地；相似地 soaked 浸泡 with oil 油. On one of the tables within the enclosure 圈占 were two small trays, each containing a complete smoking outfit 配备 and a written sheet of paper announcing 宣布 that these were the offerings of Mr. Lien Yue Ming, manager of the East Asiatic Dispensary, and Miss 错过；想念 Kua Kuei Yen, a singing girl, respectively 分别. Both these quondam smokers 抽烟者 sent send in their apparatus 仪器 to be burned 烧:burn, with a pledge 保证 that hence‧forth 今后 they would abstain from the use of the drug 药物.

During the preparations 制备 for the burning 烧, Mr. Sun 3 Ching Foong, a prominent 突出 business man, delivered a powerful 强大 exhortation on the opium 鸦片 evil to the enthusiastic 热情 multitude 苠 and introduced the leading speaker of the afternoon, Mr. Wong Ching Foo, representing the Committee of the Commercial Bazaar. Mr. Wong spoke speak in the Mandarin language and stated that all of China was looking to Shanghai for a lead in the matter of sup‧press 压制 opium 鸦片 and that it was with great pleasure 3 the committee had noticed the earnest 热心的 desire of the foreign Municipal Council (and he was not intending 意欲 to be sarcastic 讽刺的；挖苦的!) to assist 帮助；协助；援助 the Chinese in their endeavour to do away entirely with this traffic 交通. It was a very commend‧able 表彰‧能够的 effort, and he was sure the foreigners 外国人 there would agree that no effort on their part could be too strong to do away with this curse, which was not only under‧mine 破坏 the best intellects 智力 of China, but by the example of parents 父母 was affecting 影响 seriously the rising generation 代. To-day a gentle‧man 先生, who had been a smoker for twenty 二十-nine 九 years and had realized the great harm 损害 it had done him, was present, and had brought with him his opium 鸦片 utensils to be destroyed with those from the opium 鸦片 saloons 轿车 of French-town. The Nan Sun Zin Opium Palace, from which the pipes and other opium 鸦片 utensils had been brought for destruction 破坏, was the largest in Shanghai and, he had heard, the largest in China, patronized 宠幸 by the most not‧able 显着 people. The example of Shanghai was felt in Nanking, Peking, and all over China, for the young men who visited here took with them the report of the pleasures 愉快 they saw practiced in this settlement 沉降 and thus gave the natives different ideas. These young men often came here to see the wonderful 精彩 work accomplished 完成；实现；达到；做到 by foreigners 外国人, and it was not right that they should take this curse back with them. It had been originally 本来 intended to burn 烧 also the chairs 椅子 and tables from the palace 宫, but as this would make too large and dangerous 危险 a fire it had been decided to sell these and use the proceeds 继续 for the furtherance of the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 movement 运动.

Among the pipes were some for which $500 had been offered, but the Committee of the Commercial Bazaar had purchased 采购 the whole outfit 配备 to destroy 破坏, and they hoped to be able to buy up a good many more of the palaces 宫 and thus utterly 完全 destroy all traces 跟踪 of the opium 鸦片-smoking practice. Mr. Wong remarked that China had recently been under a cloud 云 and in Shanghai there had been protracted 拖长 rains 雨, but to-day it was fine and it was evident 明显 that heaven was looking down upon them and blessing their efforts. With heaven’s blessing they would be able to overcome 4 the curse and be even quicker than the Municipal Council in completely wiping out this abominable custom.

As the speeches were concluded 得出结论, the Chinese Volunteer 志愿者 Band 3 struck strike up a lively air and amid 际 the deafening din 吵闹 of crackers 饼干 and bombs 炸弹 a torch 火炬 was applied to the oil 3-soaked 浸泡 stacks 堆 of pipes which at once burned up fiercely. Extra 额外的 oil was thrown upon the flames 火焰 and the glass 玻璃 lamp 5-covers, bowls 碗, etc., were heaped 堆 upon the flames, thus completing a ceremony 典礼 full of earnestness and meaning.

It has come as a matter of great surprise to many sceptical foreigners 外国人 that the Chinese should be making such strenuous 费劲 efforts to do away with the opium 鸦片-smoking curse. Not a few have thrown cold water upon the scheme 方案, sneered 冷笑 at the Chinese in this endeavour, and doubted both their desire and ability 3 to sup‧press 压制 the sale of opium 鸦片. The Commercial Bazaar Committee, consisting 组成 of well-known Chinese business men, is not only seconding the Municipal Council in its gradual 渐进的 withdrawal 退出 of licenses 执照 in the foreign settlements 沉降 but has also accomplished the closing of many opium 鸦片 dens 巢穴 through its own efforts by bringing pressure to bear upon the owners 所有者 of the dens 巢穴. Already, many private individuals have given up their beloved 心爱 pipes and some dens 巢穴 have voluntarily 自行 closed. It has also been agreed by the Chinese concerned that all of the shops run by women are to cease 停止 the sale of opium 鸦片. This activity on the part of the Chinese themselves is a striking rebuke 训斥 to those who cast 投 suspicion 怀疑 upon the honesty 诚实 of purpose of both the Chinese government and people, refusing 拒绝 to immediately abolish 废除 the opium 鸦片 licenses 执照 in the foreign settlements 沉降 of Shanghai, despite 尽管 the appeals 上诉 from the American, British, and Japanese governments, the petitions 请愿 of the leading Chinese of the place and the general popularity 声望 of the anti 抗-opium 鸦片 movement 运动. Yielding to great pressure from all sides, the Shanghai Municipal Council did consent 同意 to introduce 提出 a resolution 解析度 upon this question before the Ratepayers Meeting to be held March 行军；三月 20th, but the concession 让步 made was small indeed compared with what was generally desired or what might be anticipated 预期 from the leading lights of “civilized and highly moral” nations. The resolution 解析度 was as follows:—

“Resolution 解析度 VI. That the number of licensed 执照 opium 鸦片 houses be reduced by one-quarter from July 1, 1908, or from such other early date and in such manner as may appear advisable 可取 to the Council for 1908-1909.”

While there was in this a definite 定 reduction 5 of one-fourth of the opium 鸦片-joints 共同的 in the settlement 沉降, there was nothing definite 定 as to any future policy, though the implication 意义 was that the houses would be all closed within a period of two years. In his speech introducing this resolution 解析度 before the ratepayers, the British chairman 3 of the council said, among other things, “I feel sure that every one of us has the greatest sympathy 同情 with the Chinese nation in its effort to dissipate 消散 the opium 鸦片 habit, but we are not unfamiliar 陌生 with Chinese official procedure 程序, and how far short actual administrative 行政的 results fall when compared with the official pronouncements 宣言 that precede 优于 them. It is impossible not to be sceptical as to the intentions of the Chinese government with regard to this matter, although on this occasion we quite recognize that many officials are sincere in their desire to eradicate 根除 the opium 鸦片 evil, and I am sure there is every intention 意图 on the part of this community to assist 帮助；协助；援助 them. Yet we know of no programme that they have drawn draw up to make this great reform 改革 possible, if indeed they have a programme.... The absence 缺席 of these, so to speak, first business essentials 基本的, on the part of the Chinese government, was among the reasons which led us to the view that the settlement 沉降 was called upon to do little more than continue its work of super‧vision 监督 over opium 鸦片 licenses 执照, and wait for the cessation 戒烟 of supplies of the drug 药物 to render 给予 that super‧vision 监督 unnecessary 不必要.... The advice 劝告 we have received from the British Government is, in brief 简要, that we should do more than keep pace 步伐，速度 with the native authorities 权威, we should be in advance of them and where possible encourage 鼓励 them to follow us.”

In the following quotations 行情 from a letter written by Dr. DuBose, of Soochow, President of the Anti-Opium League 联盟；联赛, to the municipal 市政 council, the attitude 态度 of the reformers 改革者 is clearly shown.

“The prohibition 禁令 of opium 鸦片-smoking is the greatest reformation 改革 the world has ever seen, and its benefits 效益 are already patent 专利. Let the ratepayers effectually second the efforts being made by the Chinese government to abolish 废除 the use of opium 鸦片 through‧out 始终 the empire.

“It has proved a peaceful 平静的 reformation 改革. In the cities and towns about one-half million dens 巢穴, at the expiration of six months, were closed promptly without resistance 抵抗 or complaint 抱怨. The government will grant 发放 all the necessary privileges 特权 of inspection 检查 to the municipal 市政 police in the prevention 预防 of illicit 非法的 smoking.

“The consumption 消费 of opium 鸦片 in the cities has fallen fall off thirty 三十 per cent.; in the towns fifty 五十 per cent.; while in the rural 乡村 districts in the eastern 4 and middle provinces 省 it is reduced to a minimum 最低限度. It is well for Shanghai to be allied with Soochow, Hangchow, and Nanking, and not to permit itself 本身 to be a refuge 避难所 for bad men.

“The Chinese merchants in the International Settlement 沉降 have sent send in earnest 热心的 appeals 上诉 to the Council on this question. As friends of China, might not the ratepayers give their appeals 上诉 a courteous consideration 考虑?

“The question of opium 鸦片 at the Annual 全年 Meeting commands world-wide attention and Saturday’s papers through‧out 始终 Christendom will bear record of and comment 评论 upon the action.

“To close the dens 巢穴 is right. Shanghai cannot afford 4 to be the black spot 地点 on Kiangsu’s map 地图. Opium delendum est.

“In behalf 代表 of the Anti-Opium League 联盟；联赛,
“Hampden C. DuBose, President.”

The appeals 上诉 from Great Britain, America, China, and Japan, like the petitions 请愿 of merchants, missionaries 传教士, and officials, were without effect. The “vested 背心 interests” carried the day, and a resolution 解析度, ordering the closing of the dens 巢穴 on or before the end of December, 1909, was lost lose by a vote of 128 to 189, the council, as usual, influencing and controlling the votes and carrying the original 原版的 motion 运动—the only concession 让步 it would grant 发放 to this gigantic 巨大 movement 运动.

Another surprise came to the cynical 愤世嫉俗的 foreigner, when, on April 18th, the whole of the opium 鸦片 licensees 执照 participated 参加 in a public drawing in the town hall, to decide by lottery 抽奖 which establishments should be shut 关闭 down on the 1st of July, numbering one-fourth of the total number, this method 方法 being adopted by the council to avoid 避开 any suspicion 怀疑 of partiality in the selection 选择. The keepers 管理人 of the dens 巢穴 cheerfully 乐意 acquiesced in the proposal 3, the sporting 运动 chance no doubt appealing 上诉 to the gambling 赌 spirit for which they are noted, and in the town hall this remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 drawing was held without any sign of disfavour or rowdyism. The keepers 管理人 of the Shanghai opium 鸦片 shops are no doubt thoroughly convinced 说服 that the feeling of the native community is entirely against the retention 保留 of these places and are ready to bow 弓 to the inevitable 必然. None of the trouble or rioting 暴动 feared by the Council, materialized 物质化, and it is certain that the entire list of licenses 执照 might have been immediately revoked 撤消 without disturbance 骚乱 of any kind—and without protest 抗议. Three hundred 百 and fifty 五十-nine 九 licenses 执照 thus cease 停止 with the end of June, and it is doubtful 疑, with the present spirit manifest 表现 in the Chinese, that such another drawing will be necessary at all. The funeral 葬礼 pyre of opium 鸦片-pipes, we trust 3, marks the end, or the immediate beginning of the end, of Shanghai’s reproach 责备, and it is distinctly 历历 to the credit 信用 of the 500,000 Chinese living within the jurisdiction 管辖权 of this foreign community, that they themselves are taking the lead in wiping out this stain 弄脏 on the “ Model 模型 Settlement 沉降”—doing what the foreigner dared not and the “vested 背心 interest” would not do.

Charles F. Gammon.

 

 

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