No one knows whether the population of China is increasing or
diminishing, whether people in general have large or small families, or
any of the other facts that vital statistics are designed to elucidate.
What is said on these subjects, however dogmatic, is no more than
guess-work. Even the population of Peking is unknown. It is said to be
about 900,000, but it may be anywhere between 800,000 and a million. As
for the population of the Chinese Empire, it is probably safe to assume
that it is between three and four hundred millions, and somewhat likely
that it is below three hundred and fifty millions. Very little indeed
can be said with confidence as to the population of China in former
times; so little that, on the whole, authors who give statistics are to
be distrusted.
There are certain broad features of the traditional Chinese civilization
which give it its distinctive character. I should be inclined to select
as the most important: (1) The use of ideograms instead of an alphabet
in writing; (2) The substitution of the Confucian ethic for religion
among the educated classes; (3) government by literati chosen by
examination instead of by a hereditary aristocracy. The family system
distinguishes traditional China from modern Europe, but represents a
stage which most other civilizations have passed through, and which is
therefore not distinctively Chinese; the three characteristics which I
have enumerated, on the other hand, distinguish China from all other
countries of past times.
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