The Influence of Physical Environment on the History T and Character of the Chinese People BY FRANK JOHNSON GOODNOW, LL. D. HERE is probably no section of the world whose geographical conditions have had a more potent influence over its history and over the character of the people than that part of Asia which we speak of as China. China lies about ten degrees farther south than the territory of the United States. Its position has an important influence upon the occupation and characteristics of the people, because it gives them a longer season and is much more favorable to agriculture than would be a situation, with its accompanying climate, as far north as the United States. A glance at the map of China (see page 625) shows that the mountain systems are different from those in the United States. Whereas in the United States the mountains run generally from north to south, in China they run from east to west. The result is that nearly all the rivers, being obliged to follow the contour of the land, rise in central Asia, in the highlands of the Himalaya Mountains, and flow east into some gulf of the Pacific Ocean. The most important of these rivers are the Yellow to the north, the Yangtze in the center, and the West, which empties into the sea at Canton. Fed as they are by melting snows, these rivers are subject, particularly in the case of the Yangtze, to periodical inundations which are quite similar to the inundations that we associate with the valley of the Nile. The silt which comes with these inundations has had a tendency, particularly in the valley of the Yangtze, to keep up the fertility of the soil, notwithstanding the great demands which are made upon it.† *An address before the National Geographic Society. See, also, "Farmers Since the Days of Noah," by Adam Warwick, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for April, 1927. China has what is known as a monsoon climate. The prevailing winds, except during the monsoon, come from the arid district of Central Asia known as Mongolia and Turkestan. TWO COUNTRIES IN ONE When the monsoon is not blowing from the south the prevailing wind is a west or northwest wind, which naturally brings no moisture with it. The climate, therefore, during the winter is extremely dry. There is practically no rain, particularly in northern China, from the end of August until along in April. The big rains begin about July, when the monsoon breaks, with the result that the period of the greatest heat is the period in which the rain is concentrated. This coincidence of rain and heat makes possible very intensified agriculture, quite different from that which we find in most other parts of the world. The fact that the rivers run from west to east has intensified, because of the absence of water communication between north and south, the natural differences based on varying conditions of climate. During the history of China we find, therefore, that there has generally been a political division into the north and south. Within the last 250 years, since the coming to the throne of the Manchu dynasty, overthrown 15 years ago, these two divisions have been united, but the history of China shows that that union of north and south has been the exception rather than the rule. The geographical and topographical situation of China has had two important results: first, a country which is probably more favorably situated than almost any other part of the world for the production of purely agricultural products; and, second, a frequent political division into a north and a south China. It is interesting to compare China from this point of view THE HOKEY-POKEY MAN POPULARIZES A FOREIGN DAINTY The Chinese hardly know the use of milk; hence the soda fountain and ice-cream parlor do not exist, except for such primitive types as this in a few of the larger cities which have felt Western influence. The vender does a brisk trade with the Peking youngsters, and can also supply the grown-ups with other "soft-drink" aids against the summer heat, such as bottled soda, cold fruit juices of his own concoction, and ice-cold watermelon. with the United States. For the most part, our most important rivers run south, with the result that the differences due to climate have been overcome by the ease of communication along the great waterways. CHINA DEPENDS SOLELY UPON THE In going about the streets of the cities and in the country districts of China, one is impressed with the fact that the economic basis of Chinese life is vegetable rather than mineral, metallic, or animal; that is, the things which we construct of metals are, for the most part, in China made of some vegetable material. For example, the fork which is used for the purpose of pitching hay is a three-pronged implement, made by training a tree so that there will be three main branches. The other branches are lopped off and the fork is cut, and you have the thing ready for use. I do not think I ever saw on a Chinese farm a metallic, iron or steel pitchfork. In the same way the rakes which are used in China are made of bamboo, split, twisted, and bent out laterally and then over so that the teeth will rake up what is required (see page 655). FIELDS SUPPLY FUEL AND CLOTHING Metal is used in extremely sparing quantities. I was very much interested in looking at the construction of the vehicle which is in most common use in the north of China-that is, the Peking cart (pages 650, 708). The axle is made of wood and there are four staples of steel driven in at the outer and inner ends. Instead of using a metallic box, as we do, inside of the hub, there is a mere ring of steel at either end of the hub, which then will revolve upon the staples placed in the wooden axle. This principle of reliance upon vegetable materials may be observed throughout Chinese life. The people generally, even where there is coal, as in the north, make use of the waste of their fields for the purpose of fuel. In the winter or in the autumn, just before the cold weather sets in, the children may be seen armed with bamboo rakes, scraping and raking the fields to get together every wisp of straw or hay or of any vegetable material that will serve for fuel. Under those conditions it may be imagined that the northern Chinese cannot afford to keep their houses very warm. I was speaking once to a Chinese about this. He said: "Yes, you Europeans live in your houses. We live in our clothes. When it gets cold we put on another suit, and if it gets colder we put on still another" (see pages 661 and 664). In the winter in China, one may count by the high collars that come up about the neck the number of suits which are put on for the purpose of keeping warm. A physician once told me that he wanted to examine a Chinese, and before he was able to get to his skin he had to take off 14 suits of clothes! These garments, too, are made almost entirely of vegetable material—that is, of cotton. The Chinese believe that human life is more valuable than any other kind of life, and generally the production of human life is so excessive that there is no food available with which to feed any animals except the scavengers, such as pigs. The result is there is no animal product out of which clothes can be made. Clothes cannot be made of wool because there are no sheep, as there is no fodder to feed the sheep; shoes cannot be made of leather because there are not enough animals to supply this material. Such being the facts, the demands upon the fields are tremendous; but Chinese civilization is so nicely adjusted to those conditions that almost everything that the Chinese uses, the products that he needs, are those which are susceptible of indefinite reproduction by ordinary agricultural processes, or are substances of which he has an inexhaustible supply, like stone and clay. ALL INDUSTRY POORLY DEVELOPED EXCEPT AGRICULTURE That fact has had an extremely important effect on Chinese life. It explains a great deal that at first sight is a bit puzzling. In the first place, the carrying on of the agricultural processes, in which by far the great majority of Chinese people are engaged, does not call for any high degree of social coöperation. The land, as a general thing, is held in small parcels. It is cultivated either by single individuals or by the members of one family. Industry other than agricultural is so poorly developed that there is no call for a high degree of social coöperation, which is necessary in countries based on Western ideas, where great reliance is placed upon the metals and minerals. Compare Chinese life with our life. We are accustomed to speak of our time as the age of iron and coal. To exploit iron and coal successfully requires a high degree of social coöperation-such a concern, for example, as the United States Steel Corporation, with its thousands and hundreds of thousands of stockholders. That sort of thing the agricultural Chinese do not need. The agricultural character of Chinese civilization and the fine adaptation of DELIVERING ICE IN NORTH CHINA IS A WARM JOB This coolie divests himself of all superfluous apparel as he trundles his heavy cakes of ice on a wheelbarrow through the streets of Tsingtao, Shantung Province. Chinese life to the agricultural character of the country explain in part at least the duration of Chinese life. When we have exhausted our coal and iron, the economic bases of our civilization, China can carry on indefinitely the same civilization which she has at present. The balance the equilibrium-is absolutely established between the kind of life. that the Chinese have and the conditions which underlie that life. We often speak of China as having the oldest civilization in the world, but we seldom appreciate the full significance of the statement. I once met a Chinese by the name of Kung, who was the 76th lineal descendant of the elder brother of Confucius, and Confucius lived in the years from 550 to 479 B. C. That is about as old a family as one could find anywhere, and it is a family whose pedigree is absolutely unimpeachable. The name Confucius is a Latinized form of the words Kung-fu-tze, meaning Master Kung. In the family temple on the Shantung estate of the Kung family can be seen the tablets of all the ancestors of the family from 550 B. C. down to the present time. I might say further that Confucius considered, when he lived, that he belonged to a reasonably old family; he traced his ancestry back somewhere between 700 and 1,000 years. CHINESE CIVILIZATION UNAFFECTED BY OUTSIDE INFLUENCES Chinese civilization is not only old, but it has been unbroken as compared with ours. Our civilization, of course, finds its basis in that of Greece and Rome; but with the fall of the Roman Empire and its conquest by the Germans, and with the influence that came in from Asia through Christianity, ours, the Greek or Roman civilization, was greatly modified. None of those things happened in the case of China, which has had somewhat the same problems to meet and has been subjected to somewhat similar influences. by which she might have been modified. But she has been able to resist them. For example, she has had on her northern borders a savage people, the Mongols, who bear very much the same relation to China |