How strange that among all this large number of
politicians and scholars, who are as numerous as the trees in the
forest and the perch in the stream, should have failed for all
these years to notice these simple points; and now suddenly make a
fetish of them because they have come out of the mouth of a
foreigner. Is it because no one except a foreign doctor can
discover such facts? Why even a humble learner like myself, though
not so learned even to the extent of one ten-thousandth part of
his knowledge, more than ten years ago anticipated what the good
doctor has said; and I said much more and in much more
comprehensive terms. I have no desire to talk about my work, but
let my readers glance through the copies of the Hsin Min Tsung
Pao, Yin Ping Shih Wen Chi, the "Fight between Constitutional
Advocates" and "Revolutionary Advocates," the "Question of the
Building of the New China," etc., etc. My regret is that my eyes
are not blue and my hair not brown, and hence my words were not
acceptable to the nation!
III. RES JUDICATA
I do not say that the merits or otherwise of the republican system
should not be discussed, but the time for such a discussion has
passed. The most opportune time for such a discussion was in 1911
when the Revolution had just begun; but since then further
discussions should not be tolerated. There might have been some
excuse if this subject had been brought up for discussion when the
second revolution broke out at Hukow on the Yangtsze river or
before the President was formally inaugurated, or before the
Powers formally recognized the Republic; but the excuse even then
would have been a weak one.
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