My Life in China and America

sent him word, for he was at a distance from him, to join the Commission at Tientsin as soon as possible, for his services would be needed there. Wing, though hastening, arrived late on the scene and found the business concluded. But on receiving an account of the difficulties that had attended its transaction, and observing that the commissioners were conscious of their disadvantage in it, he perceived an auspicious occasion for making a stroke in behalf of his scheme, and he made the most of it. He restated his arguments, enforcing them by the illustration of the case at hand, and insisted with the utmost earnestness that there ought to be no delay. And this time he prevailed. The three friends of his idea being together and countenancing one another, then and there agreed that they would at once take action to have the thing he proposed done, and would cast their united influence with the Government in its favor. They kept their agreement. They set their names to a memorial recommending the education of a corps of young men abroad for the Government service and at the Government expense. This memorial they forwarded to Peking, where they backed it by all means in their power and to the effect that in the month of August, 1871, the measure recommended was adopted by the Imperial Government and a sum equal to $1,500,000 appropriated for its execution.

Mandarin Yung Wing was scarcely able to support the joy of his triumph. For two days, as he has told the writer, he could neither eat nor sleep. He walked on air, and he worshipped God. It was sixteen years after his return to China and twenty years after he set out for this goal that heaven had at last granted his prayer. To him the organization of the enterprise was principally committed. The feature of the long term of fifteen years resolved upon for the course of study and training to be pursued, is particularly due to him and reflects the size of the man, the type of his mind and character.

A school of candidates was at once opened at Shanghai from which the pupils were to be selected by competitive examination, and, as has been already stated, the first detachment of thirty arrived in the United States in 1872. The location of the Mission was also for him to determine. He might have procured its establishment in England, or France, or Germany; but as he himself had expressed it, the light that had enlightened him shone from America and from New England, and to America and New England he was resolved from the first this Mission should repair.

He was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Mission, receiving with the appointment his second promotion in rank, viz.⁠—to the Third or Blue Button grade. With him was associated, as co-commissioner, a venerable scholar and dignitary⁠—Chin Lan Pin by name⁠—who, however, remained in this country less than two years, yielding his place to a younger man, Ngau Ngoh Liang, wellborn, distinguished for learning, and a most agreeable gentleman.

The students of the Mission have thus far, with very few exceptions, exhibited excellent ability as scholars, and in many instances extraordinary ability, and with fewer exceptions still have been marked by their exemplary conduct. They have everywhere been most hospitably received. They are certainly worthy to be objects of the highest and most friendly interest to every Christian citizen of the United States.

Yung Wing was appointed, December 11, 1876, Associate Minister with his former colleague in the Educational Mission, Chin Lan Pin, to the United States, Peru and Spain. On this occasion he was again promoted in rank⁠—that is, to Second or Red Button grade, and invested with the title of Taotai (or Intendant) of the Province of Kiang Su.

He expects, on the now approaching arrival of Chin Lan Pin in the country, to take up his residence in Washington, yet not to relinquish the general superintendence of the institution which is so dear to him and has cost him so much, and in which are bound up his best patriotic hopes for his native land⁠—for he is a patriot from head to foot, in every fiber of his body. He loves the Chinese nation and believes in it, doubting not that there is before it a grand career worthy of its noble soil and of its august antiquity.

If it were the aim of the writer to magnify Yung Wing⁠—which it is not, but only to tell the story of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States⁠—there are many things more that might be related of him, all going to show him to be of the stuff that heroes are made of, and one of the most significant characters in modern civilization. But because to relate them would be aside from the purpose in hand, and also because it would grievously offend Yung Wing to have them published, they are passed by. It must be said, for the last word, that even in attributing to him so much credit of the Educational Mission itself, the share he allows himself is very far exceeded. He is accustomed to assign the chief honor of it to those three men of China who helped it so potently with their influence. Tsang Koh Fan died in 1871. His portrait hangs on the wall of the Mission House in Hartford; and the portraits of the other two are there also. The boys are taught to reverence these men as their benefactors. And they are worthy of reverence. Their names deserve to be remembered, and will be, and not alone in China. Yet undoubtedly had there been no Yung Wing, that illustrious good deed of theirs had never been performed.

Endnotes

1. The doctrine held by the Chinese in relation to the spirits or genii that rule over winds and waters, especially running streams and subterranean waters. This doctrine is universal and inveterate among the Chinese, and in a