Some 130 miles by sea down the west coast of India, south from Bombay, lies the little district headquarters of Ratnagiri. The name means “the hill of jewels.” On the highest point of land, within the civil station proper, there is an imposing stone residence of some thirty rooms, including a detached section of private quarters. This structure, now utilized as a dwelling by the Collector of Ratnagiri, was for some 25 years the home of King Thebaw and his two Queens. Except for Kipling's famous song, Thebaw and Su Paya Lat and Su Paya Gale (who were sisters to each other and half-sisters to the King) would have been almost forgotten. They were after all but tinsel rulers of an unstable throne.

It is not customary to associate Japan with the Crimean War yet there is a very real connection. When the Russo-Turkish conflict expanded into a general European struggle it made out of the North Pacific and the seas around Japan a new arena of friction. Until March of 1854 the fighting had been confined to the Black Sea and the Near East, but with the entrance of Great Britain and France into the war on the side of Turkey the Asiatic colonies and commercial settlements of Russia were brought within the scope of hostilities. Europe, however, continued to remain the major sphere of battle, which fact tended to eclipse the significance of events that were taking place in and around Japan. Historical treatment of the period of the Crimean War has naturally dealt with these more important phases, ignoring almost entirely the Far East.

Just a century ago, in 1843, Ralph Waldo Emerson read for the first time a complete translation of “The Four Books” of the Chinese classics, copying many sentences from them in his “Journals.” Many of these quota-tions reappear in his later “Works”—and almost every volume contained one or two illustrative sayings taken from the Chinese classics. The greater part of these entries in his journals are in an appreciative tone, and his quotations from them in the “Essays” are mostly used to confirm his own beliefs.

Kuo Mo-Jo was born about 1893 in Chia-ting (now Lo-shan), Szechwan. After graduating from high school in Chia-ting and studying for half a year in a college in Ch'eng-tu, he went to Japan to study medicine. While there he married a Japanese nurse. His main interest was in literature and writing, so on returning to China he became one of the co-founders of the Ch'uang-tsao She (Creative Society), a Shanghai group interested in new literary movements. Before the opening of the Northern Expedition in 1926 he was Dean of Arts at Chungshan University in Canton. When the Northern Expedition began he held the position of Chief of the Propaganda Division of the Political Department of the expedition and concurrently Secretary-General of the Provisional Headquarters.

It is easy to follow some of the popular misconceptions current in certain quarters of the western public and say or write something in the nature of the following:

In practice … the law is never invoked, and not being called upon to act, the officials take no steps, even when the facts are well known, the subject of gossip on all sides, and the offender and his would-be bride living at hand within easy reach. No one wants the law and its officers poking their noses into private business. … If manslaughter was done, a reluctant government would be forced to take action, but it is fairly plain that no one expects this to happen. Thus in civil disputes, and even in criminal cases where the motive is not robbery or banditry, the government remains passive and the law is allowed to slumber. The Chinese government, whatever the theory of the reformers, is in practice still actuated by the Taoist principle of “non-action,” preferring to leave the people to govern themselves which they do very well, and which is all they ask.

One of the fortunes of war has been the flight from Europe and Asia to the United States of numberless things of value, among them certain Chinese books and manuscripts belonging to the National Library of Peiping. The latter were deposited for safe keeping in the Library of Congress in the autumn of 1941. One very considerable item in this group is the Ming shih-lu or Veritable records of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), which the Library of Congress and Columbia University have been permitted to reproduce in micro-film.

In the Official Gazette [Kampô] for last April 18 [1941] were published the determined population figures (resulting) from the national census which was conducted on October 1, 1940.

In the latter half of the first century A.D. a Chinese scholar picked up his brush and began to compile historical records. A political indiscretion prematurely terminated his labors, but he gave twenty years of his life to the task. The result of his work is one of a group of compilations that constitute part of the world's most remarkable historical literature. The scholar was Pan Ku (32–92 A.D.), and the work that consumed much of his life is known as the Han shu, i.e., Han documents, or Documents of the [former] Han dynasty.

One would hardly expect extreme political theories like anarchism to be popular in Japan, where there is a strong tradition of obedience to political authority, and where those in control of the government do not hesitate to use police power to check what they consider to be “dangerous thoughts.” In fact had it not been for the famous Taigyaku Jiken or the high treason incident in 1910, anarchism might have been relegated to obscurity, having made but an imperceptible ripple in die course of Japanese thought. As a result of this incident, however, there are probably not many among the older generation in Japan today who have not heard about Kōtoku Shūsui, the leader.

By the end of September, when General Headquarters were finally moved to the Kiangsi area, the center of fighting had of course moved to Kiangsi. Part of the General Political Department went with them. The troops that came from all quarters to join up with us were very numerous, and as a rule the first thing that such troops requested was that political workers be sent to them. In the eyes of the old-fashioned war-lords of that time “political work” had become a necessary insignia of the Revolutionary Army, like the unfurling of the bluc-sky-white-sun flag. They did not have the slightest idea of the real meaning of political work, but they were well aware that the main point of difference between the organization of the Southern Army and that of the Northern Army lay in the presence or absence of this kind of work. When the Southern Army, which had an organization of this kind, was victorious, they concluded that this sort of thing was an excellent means of strengthening troops; and therefore political work became a favored child for a period. The troops which came from all quarters to ally themselves with us being many, the workers that we sent out to various places were also many. Before long all the propaganda workers in the propaganda battalion over which Hu Kung-mien had charge were sent away, and [Hu] Kung-mien himself could not escape being sent to Kiangsi.

Many of the stores in and around Peiping (Peking) keep very full and complete accounts, recording in separate books the purchases and sales of the commodities in which they deal, their silver-copper exchange transactions, the expenditures for food purchased for their employees, their sundry purchases and their expenditures for wages. These account books have been looked on as valuable records and many of the stores have preserved them for many years. Some of the books have been lost through the years, but in many instances it is still possible to secure a relatively complete set of accounts covering from 100 to 150 years.

Early on the morning of September 1 we set out from Chih-fang for Wu-ch'ang. Breakfast need not be mentioned. We were unable to purchase even any scraps that might fill our mouths and bellies. We had not been travelling long when we noticed a temple on a high piece of land among the fields. We then left the main road and walked in the direction of the temple, thinking to seek a little food there. [Li] Han-chün was with us too; Chan Ta-pei had gone on ahead by himself in the sedan-chair. I do not remember the name of the temple. When we arrived there, we found that it was only a ruined one; there was not the shadow of even a beggar.

The night of the fifth had been decided on for another large-scale attempt to climb the wall. On account of the previous attempt at scaling the wall, the ladders of the peasant families in the vicinity of Nan-hu had already been requisitioned to the point where none was left; and an even greater number would be required for this attempt. Moreover, from our experience on the previous occasion, when because of going late we had incurred defeat, this time it was imperative that we commence operations sooner. Consequently, as early as the afternoon of the fourth we sent men to the vicinity of Hsien-ning to requisition ladders. Management of this business was as before in the hands of the General Political Department. Already on the morning of the fifth ladders were streaming in and being heaped up in the south drill ground, and again everyone gave himself over to tying them together. The tied ones were then carried outside the college gate and piled up.