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. He was
born in the province of Honan, that province south of the Yellow
River which is almost annually flooded by that great muddy stream
which is called "China's Sorrow." As a boy he was a diligent
student of the Chinese classics and of such foreign books as had
been translated into the Chinese language, but he has never
studied a foreign tongue nor visited a foreign country. Here then
rests the first element of his greatness--that without any
knowledge of foreign language, foreign law, foreign literature,
science of government, or the history of progress and of
civilization, he has occupied the highest and most responsible
positions in the gift of the empire, has steered the ship of
state on a straight course between the shoals of conservatism on
the one hand and radical reform on the other until he has brought
her near to the harbour of a safe progressive policy.
He has always been what the Chinese call the tu-ti or pupil of Li
Hung-chang, and it may be that it was from him he learned his
statecraft. Certain it is that he always basked in the favour of
the great Viceroy, and it may be that he had more or less
influence with him in his earlier appointments, for he rose
rapidly and in spite of all other officials.
On his return from Korea he was made a judge. He was then put in
charge of the army of the metropolitan province, and with the
assistance of German officers he succeeded in drilling 12,500
troops after the European fashion
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