China, AncientTeacher

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Just came across this insightful piece by John Nevius in the Chinese Recorder (Vol. 23, Nov. 1892), about why China, the ancient Teacher, had such a hard time becoming a pupil.

China a Teacher. -- From time immemorial China has been the recognized teacher of all the nations around her and the pupil of none. She may well be excused for claiming a respect which for centuries all her neighbors have accorded to her. In this respect she stands in striking contrast to Japan. Japan is accustomed to take the place of learner, having largely derived her literary culture and even her language from China. This accounts for the rapidity with which she has received foreign ideas and institutions. China would fain continue in the belief that there is no knowledge worth knowing which she does not already possess. This vis inertia which resists change and progress, is all the greater, because her immense population is, and has been for ages, homogeneous in race and culture. It is not strange that China clings tenaciously to institutions which have stood the test of millenniums and given to her such a marvelous degree of national prosperity. Can we wonder that she listens with suspicion to any suggestion of change, especially that she should regard with apprehension a new teaching confessedly exclusive and revolutionary? Serious as the obstacles above presented are, it should be added, by way of encouragement, that the Chinese are by no means unimpressible. They are as enthusiastic as any race to receive truth when apprehended. In fact, there are as many Christians in China at the present time as in Japan, and probably as many more who are heartily in favor of adopting Western sciences and arts. The fact that Japan is undergoing a rapid and complete transformation, while China as a whole is yet unmoved, though due partly, no doubt, to difference of race, is to be referred, I believe, principally to the tenfold resistance of a tenfold greater population, and also to the peculiar historical precedents and traditions alluded to above.
Dr. John L. Nevius. Chinese Recorder, Vol. 23, Nov. 1892, Pp. 513,514

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