Population
Another result of the constitutional government of China has been the steady increase and spread of its population. The Chinese have not been divided into tribes and clans, whose chief employment has been to wage war against, and to exterminate, one another. Principally occupied in the peaceful engagements of agriculture and commerce, or seeking celebrity by literaiy attainments, the increase of the people has had fewer checks than in most nations. As to the number of inhabitants at present contained in the whole empire, we are unable, to speak with certainty. About the year 1850,
Estimate of 1850.
Estimate of 1884.
- 8 „
10 Population of China.
Dr. Gutzlafif stated the population of Chinese Tartary and Thibet to be as follows: —
Manchuria ...
Mongolia ...
Sungaria
Thibet
Total dependencies ..
We do not know the data from which Dr. Gutzlaff derived his statistics. Since then Russia has absorbed no small part of Manchuria, but so many Chinese have emigrated into what remains, that the population may still be eight millions. The statement about the population of Mongolia was certainly too large. It is, perhaps, impossible to arrive at accuracy with regard to some of these regions, as It would be no easy matter to make a correct census of migratory Tartar hordes Inhabiting the vast steppes of Central and Northern Asia. But, surely, we should follow them In spirit; our hearts should be moved with Christ-like compassion, when we think of them “scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd;” and our whole souls should cry to the great Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers to seek these lost ones, that they may be saved.
As to China Proper we have fuller Information. Without going over much that has been written on the subject, we may mention that In the first edition of this book we accepted the then generally assumed population of China at 400 millions. While this estimate was, perhaps, not very exesslve thirty years ago, the rebellions, famines, and pestilences, which have since devastated in turn every province of the empire, have made previous estimates utterly unreliable. Moreover, the well-known effect of excessive opium-smoking (which latterly has attained to alarming proportions) on the number and vitality of the smoker’s offspring, cannot be overlooked in estimating the present population of China. We do not wish to overstate the case, and to attempt to make China’s need appear greater than It really Is; and therefore, for our present purpose, accepting a recent, well-supported estimate of 250 millions as the basis of our calculations, assume China Proper to have 227 millions of people. If any object to this as too low, then our argument becomes all the stronger; If accepted as approximately correct, the need will still be seen to be one of overwhelming magnitude. Those specially Interested in the question of the population of China, are referred for fuller information to the papers on the subject In the Appendix.
Compared tvith England.
We proceed, then, on the assumption that the present population
of the empire is 250 millions. How immense is this number! what mind
can grasp it? We speak lightly of millions, and with very little realisation
of what the vast numbers mean. If a railway train could go twelve hours
without stopping to relieve the driver or to take in water, and were to travel
during the twelve hours at the uniform rate of thirty miles an hour, it would
make 360 miles a day. Seven years and a half of such travel, without a single
day’s intermission, would not accomplish one million miles; and had a tram
commenced to travel at this rate on the first day of the Christian era, ana
continued every day since without intermission, each day completing its quota
of 360 miles, it would not yet have nearly accomplished 250 millions of miles.
England and Wales,
25,968,000.
5 ^■^■^■■■^■^■^H
K ^■^■^■^■^■^■^H
So inconceivably great a number is 250 millions, and yet this is the number of souls in China. Two hundred and fifty millions! Ten times the population of densely peopled England; or nearly sixty-seven times that of Scotland. Were the subjects of the court of Pekin marshalled in single file, allowing one yard between man and man, they would encircle the globe more than seven times at its equator. Were they to march past the spectator at the rate of thirty miles a day, they would move on and on, day after day, week after week, month after month; and over seventeen years and a quarter would elapse before the last individual passed by. Of this vast multitude, it is estimated that 22,000 are communicants in connection with Protestant missions in China. What portion of the seventeen years would it take for theni to pass by? Little more than half a day would suffice! Two days and a half would permit all the attendants on Christian worship in China to pass by, while seventeen years would be required by the heathen. Mournful and impressive fact — such is the proportion of those who are journeying heavenward to those
The Death Rate,
whose dark and Christless lives, if not speedily enlightened, must end in dark and Christless deaths, and — after death the judgment! Two hundred and fifty millions! an army whose numbers no finite mind can fully grasp. The number is inconceivable — the view is appalling!
Among so vast a population the number of deaths continually occurring is necessarily very great. At a very moderate computation it cannot be under 22,800 per diem, or nearly 1,000 per hour. That we may better realise what these figures represent, let us compare them with the populations of some of our well-known English towns: —
Canterbury has a population of
Crewe
Eastbourne
Gravesend
Kidderminster
Leamington
Luton
Peterborough
Torquay
TuNBRiDGE Wells
None of these towns are small ones, yet the daily mortality in China would almost blot out the largest of them, and 104 days the whole! Think of it! Let the reader realise it if he can, for the thought is overwhelming. And can the Christians of England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes are perishing — perishing for lack of knowledge — for lack of that knowledge which England possesses so richly, which has made England what England is, and has made us what we are? What does the Master teach us? Is it not that if one sheep out of a hundred be lost, we are to leave the ninety and nine and seek that one? But here the proportions are almost. reversed, and we stay at home with the one sheep, and take no heed to the ninety and nine perishing ones! Christian brethren, think of the imperative command of our great Captain and Leader, “Go, go ye, into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature;” think of the millions upon millions of poor benighted China to whom no loving follower of the self-renouncing One has “brought good tidings of good,” or “published salvation,” and weigh well the fearful words: “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest. Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?”
Having thus noticed the spiritual destitution of China, let us now briefly review the efforts which have been made to introduce Christianity into this vast empire.
It is exceedingly probable that even during the first century of the Christian era the gospel was preached in China. On this point we have no authentic information; but the traditions that have been handed down are probably based on facts. It is, however, well known that the Nestorians established themselves there in the 7th century, and for some time propagated their tenets under the sanction of the reigning emperors. They continued to exert some in5.uence until the 13th or 14th century, and traces of them appear as late as the 15th century. It is probable that the form of Christianity introduced by them was from the first considerably corrupted; and as far as we can learn, the light they did possess became gradually more and more enfeebled, till there was too little life left to resist persecution or opposition from adverse rulers.