Page:The Spirit of the Chinese People.djvu/42

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VIII

of Religion and Militarism, of the priest and soldier which have caused them so much trouble and bloodshed, they will have to come to China to get this, what I have called the Religion of good citizenship.

In short what I want to call the attention of the people of Europe and America to, just at this moment when civilisation seems to be threatened with bankruptcy, is that there is an invaluable and hitherto unsuspected asset of civilisation here in China. The asset of civilisation is not the trade, the railway, the mineral weath, gold, silver, iron or coal in this country. The asset of civilisation of the world to-day, I want to say here, is the Chinaman,—the unspoilt real Chinaman with his Religion of good citizenship. The real Chinaman, I say, is an invaluable asset of civilisation, because he is a person who costs the world little or nothing to keep him in order. Indeed I would like here to warn the people of Europe and America not to destroy this invaluable asset of civilisation, not to change and spoil the real Chinaman as they are now trying to do with their New Learning. If the people of Europe and America succeed in destroying the real Chinaman, the Chinese type of humanity; succeed in transforming the real Chinaman into a European or American, i.e., to say, a person who will require a priest or soldier to keep him in order, then surely they will increase the burden either of Religion or of Militarism of the world,—this last item at this moment already becoming a danger and menace to civilisation and humanity. But on the other hand, suppose one could by