Gems of Chinese Literature/Chang Chih-tung-In Praise of the Manchus
For the past two hundred and fifty years, the officials and people within the boundaries of the Four Seas, daily marching between high Heaven and Mother Earth, have been nourished in their growth by unremitting care, down to the present day. If we compare the history of China for the past two thousand years with the histories of western countries for the past fifty years, have their governments shown the generosity, the charity of heart, the loyalty, the sincerity of ours? Although China is neither rich nor strong, nevertheless all her people, rich, noble, poor, and humble alike, can pass their days in comfort, and rejoice that they were born into this world. Now although the countries of the west are flourishing, the sorrows of the masses, their sufferings, and the poison of wrongs, which press them on all sides without redress, cause them to watch their opportunity for breaking out and murdering their sovereign or assassinating a Minister, examples of which deeds are recorded every year. Thus we know that their form of government is most certainly not equal to that we have here in China.
