Notes and Commentaries, on a Voyage to China, Chapter XXIII [pp. 532-543]

Notes and Commentaries, on a Voyage to China.
"'Still in the natural state men are all
equal in rights; if the people then do not
discover this important secret, and it is fitting
that the king or his ministers conceal it, they
do not abuse ignorance; they respect the
people as if they were informed; in this way
they avoid great evils. The tyranny of the
great arises from the ignorance of the little:
respect and ceremonials have limits; it is
necessary to obtain these by merit and never
through violence; force cannot fetter thought,
and in it alone consists the dignity of man.
"' Our fundamental law does not tolerate
hereditary nobility. What! should our leg islators constitute that an inheritance which
God has denied to man? If public usefulness is the only title in the eyes of reason
dwhich distinguishes citizens; if true honor
consists in the estimation of other men,
merited by toil and virtue; if an enlightened
government rewards him only who distin guishes himself in the service of his coun try; if consideration and respect are due to
the most excellent in virtue and talents,
what are the men who ought to be preferred
in society to the rest of its members? The
citizen is great only when he labors most
usefully for the benefit of the public.
ei It is education and not blood that makes
citizens and renders them worthy to be employed by the government: few would labor
to acquire merit and practice virtue, knowin g that their ancestral names were sufficient
to bring them honors and estate. Such are
the reasons for not having a hereditary nobility in our empire. Besides the imperial
family, that of Confucius alone enjoys this
preeminence, sustained with dignity through
a long period of twenty-three centuries.'
be t reated with the greatest care, and restore d the philosopher to his honors."*
Sp eaking in another place of hereditary
n ob ilit y amongst the Chinese, Andrade says:
" Among other thi ngs to-day I asked an aged
and learned C hinese wha t rea s on exists why
there should be no here ditary nobility in the
empire, excep t in the family of Confucius.
H e replied af ter the following manner.
"'Whatever separates-men in society is
injurious; on one hand pride, and on the
other envy, give rise to oppression and revolution; hereditary distinctions ar e immoral.
God did not di vide t he species into plebeians
and nobles; he nddowed it with moreorr less
valour, strength or weakness, reason or folly,
and seems to give worse children to the arrogantly proud than to common families.
"' Our progenitors were equal in rights;
n evertheless, some obta ined preeminence
through their wisdom and virtues. Then
each head of a family was its natural judge;
there was neither perj ury nor war; afterwards
an increased population brought crimes; it
became necessary to make laws and elect a
king to watch over their execution. Upon
the whole we are happy; either by the connexion of morality with the laws and government, or by not having among us hereditary distinctions, or through our kindly disposition for the human race.
' Carta, O-ut supra.
542
[SEPTE-413F,R,
{' Tienig-Tang, president of the tribunal
of justice, desired to be the first sacrifi
" There is no better criterion for appreciating the honors and titles conferred by monarchs, than the nobility of Siam. The king
bestows on his favorite elephants, titles equal
to those which distinguish the grandees of
his realm!"*
Andrade quotes from one of the sacred
books, Tao-Te-King, the doctrine followed by
the C hinese in relation to war:-," The most
inglorious peace is preferable to the most
brilliant success in war. Military victories
are as the flames of a devouring fire; those
* Andrade. Carta, lx'xi.