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. Book depots were opened for
the sale of the same kind of literature the Emperor had been
studying, magazines and newspapers were issued and circulated in
great numbers, lectures were delivered and libraries established,
and students flocked to the mission schools ready to study
anything the course contained, literary, scientific or religious.
Christians and pastors were even invited into the palace by the
eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. But the matter that gave
the deepest concern to the boy in the palace was: "How can we so
strengthen ourselves that we will be able to resist the White
Peril from Europe?"
Among the important edicts issued in the establishment of the new
education was the one of June 11, 1898, in which he ordered that
"a great central university be established at Peking," the funds
for which were provided by the government. Among other things he
said: "Let all take advantage of the opportunities for the new
education thus open to them, so that in time we may have many who
will be competent to help us in the stupendous task of putting
our country on a level with the strongest of the western powers."
It was not wisdom the young man was after for the sake of wisdom,
but he wanted knowledge because knowledge was power, and at that
time it was the particular kind of power that was necessary to
save China from utter destruction.
On the 26th of the same month he censured the princes and
ministers who were lax in reporting upon this edict, and ordered
them to do so at once, and it was not long until a favourable
report was given and, for the first time in the history of the
empire, a great university was launched by the government,
destined, may we not hope, to accomplish the end the ambitious
boy Emperor had in view
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