Canton province, which was
largely settled by Chinese adventurers sailing down the coast from
the Yangtsze and intermarrying with Annamese and the older
autochthonous races, has a population-mass possessing very
distinct characteristics, which sharply conflict with Northern
traits. Fuhkien province is not only as diversified but speaks a
dialect which is virtually a foreign language. And so on North and
West of the Yangtsze it is the same story, temperamental
differences of the highest political importance being everywhere
in evidence and leading to perpetual bickerings and jealousies.
For although Chinese civilization resembles in one great
particular the Mahommedan religion, in that it accepts without
question all adherents irrespective of racial origin, POLITICALLY
the effect of this regionalism has been such that up to very
recent times the Central Government has been almost as much a
foreign government in the eyes of many provinces as the government
of Japan. Money alone formed the bond of union; so long as
questions of taxation were not involved, Peking was as far removed
from daily life as the planet Mars.
As we are now able to see very clearly, fifty years ago--that is
at the time of the Taiping Rebellion--the old power and spell of
the National Capital as a military centre had really vanished.
Though in ancient days horsemen armed with bows and lances could
sweep like a tornado over the land, levelling everything save the
walled cities, in the Nineteenth Century such methods had become
impossible.
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