Investing the Emperors with an authority with which they
were never really clothed save for ceremonial purposes
(principally perhaps because the Court was entirely withdrawn from
view and very insolent in its foreign intercourse) a conception of
High Mightiness was spread abroad reminiscent of the awe in which
Eighteenth Century nabobs spoke of the Great Mogul of India.
Chinese officials, quickly discovering that their easiest means of
defence against an irresistible pressure was to take refuge behind
the august name of the sovereign, played their role so
successfully that until 1900 it was generally believed by
Europeans that no other form of government than a despotism sans
phrase could be dreamed of. Finding that on the surface an
Imperial Decree enjoyed the majesty of an Ukaze of the Czar,
Europeans were ready enough to interpret as best suited their
enterprises something which they entirely failed to construe in
terms expressive of the negative nature of Chinese civilization;
and so it happened that though the government of China had become
no government at all from the moment that extraterritoriality
destroyed the theory of Imperial inviolability and infallibility,
the miracle of turning state negativism into an active governing
element continued to work after a fashion because of the disguise
which the immense distances afforded.
Adequately to explain the philosophy of distance in China, and
what it has meant historically, would require a whole volume to
itself; but it is sufficient for our purpose to indicate here
certain prime essentials.
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