8.21. 21. Of the Empire of China.
Before I conclude this book, I shall answer an objection that may be
made to the foregoing doctrine.
Our missionaries inform us that the government of the vast empire of
China is admirable, and that it has a proper mixture of fear, honour,
and virtue. Consequently I must have given an idle distinction in
establishing the principles of the three governments.
But I cannot conceive what this honour can be among a people who act
only through fear of being bastinadoed.
[31]
Again, our merchants are far from giving us any such accounts of the
virtue so much talked of by the missionaries; we need only consult them
in relation to the robberies and extortions of the mandarins.
[32]
I likewise appeal to another unexceptional witness, the great Lord Anson.
Besides, Father Perennin's letters concerning the emperor's
proceedings against some of the princes of the blood
[33]
who had incurred his displeasure by their conversion, plainly show us a settled
plan of tyranny, and barbarities committed by rule, that is, in cold
blood.
We have likewise Monsieur de Mairan's, and the same Father
Perennin's, letters on the government of China. I find therefore that
after a few proper questions and answers the whole mystery is unfolded.
Might not our missionaries have been deceived by an appearance of
order? Might not they have been struck with that constant exercise of a
single person's will — an exercise by which they themselves are
governed, and which they are so pleased to find in the courts of the
Indian princes; because as they go thither only in order to introduce
great changes, it is much easier to persuade those princes that there
are no bounds to their power, than to convince the people that there are
none to their submission.
[34]
In fine, there is frequently some kind of truth even in errors
themselves. It may be owing to particular and, perhaps, very
extraordinary circumstances that the Chinese government is not so
corrupt as one might naturally expect. The climate and some other
physical causes may, in that country, have had so strong an influence on
their morals as in some measure to produce wonders.
The climate of China is surprisingly favourable to the propagation
of the human species.
[35]
The women are the most prolific in the whole
world. The most barbarous tyranny can put no stop to the progress of
propagation. The prince cannot say there like Pharaoh, "Let us deal
wisely with them, lest they multiply." He would be rather reduced to
Nero's wish, that mankind had all but one head. In spite of tyranny,
China by the force of its climate will be ever populous, and triumph
over the tyrannical oppressor.
China, like all other countries that live chiefly upon rice, is
subject to frequent famines. When the people are ready to starve, they
disperse in order to seek for nourishment; in consequence of which,
gangs of robbers are formed on every side. Most of them are extirpated
in their very infancy; others swell, and are likewise suppressed. And
yet in so great a number of such distant provinces, some band or other
may happen to meet with success. In that case they maintain their
ground, strengthen their party, form themselves into a military body,
march up to the capital, and place their leader on the throne.
From the very nature of things, a bad administration is here
immediately punished. The want of subsistence in so populous a country
produces sudden disorders. The reason why the redress of abuses in other
countries is attended with such difficulty is because their effects are
not immediately felt; the prince is not informed in so sudden and
sensible a manner as in China.
The Emperor of China is not taught like our princes that if he
governs ill he will be less happy in the other life, less powerful and
less opulent in this. He knows that if his government be not just he
will be stripped both of empire and life.
As China grows every day more populous, notwithstanding the exposing
of children,
[36]
the inhabitants are incessantly employed in tilling the
lands for their subsistence. This requires a very extraordinary
attention in the government. It is their perpetual concern that every
man should have it in his power to work, without the apprehension of
being deprived of the fruits of his labour. Consequently this is not so
much a civil as a domestic government.
Such has been the origin of those regulations which have been so
greatly extolled. They wanted to make the laws reign in conjunction with
despotic power; but whatever is joined to the latter loses all its
force. In vain did this arbitrary sway, labouring under its own
inconveniences, desire to be fettered; it armed itself with its chains,
and has become still more terrible.
China is therefore a despotic state, whose principle is fear.
Perhaps in the earliest dynasties, when the empire had not so large an
extent, the government might have deviated a little from this spirit;
but the case is otherwise at present.
Footnotes
[31]
"It is the cudgel that governs China," says Father Du Halde,
"Disc. de la Chine," ii, p. 134.
[32]
Among others, De Lange's account.
[33]
Of the Family of Sourniama, "Edifying Letters," coll. xviii.
[34]
See in Father Du Halde how the missionaries availed themselves
of the authority of Canhi to silence the mandarins, who constantly
declared that by the laws of the country no foreign worship could be
established in the empire.
[35]
See "Lettres persanes,"210.
[36]
See the order of Tsongtou for tilling the land, in the "Edifying
Letters," coll. xxi.
