Abstract
MR. LITTLE recently undertook a two months' journey from Shanghai, the metropolis of the Chinese coast, to Chung-King, the commercial metropolis of Western China. The present volume consists of the journal kept during his travels, and an admirable journal it is, full of the results of careful and minute observation, and written in a fresh, lively, and entertaining style. Few travellers, with the exception of “the ubiquitous missionary,” have ascended to the highest navigable point of the Yang-tse, the only road of intercommunication between the eastern and western districts of the Chinese Empire. Most readers, therefore, will find in this book much that is new to them about the Chinese people and their country. There are many vivid descriptions of the varied scenery through which Mr. Little passed, and his notes on industries, social customs, and popular religious ideas are invariably interesting and suggestive. Upon the whole, he has no very exalted opinion of the intellectual and moral qualities of the Chinese, and he is not disposed to believe that the empire, under the influence of Western ideas, is about to enter upon a new and momentous stage of political and social development. Everywhere he found the bureaucracy intensely conservative, and bitterly prejudiced against foreigners. They are willing enough to adopt superior mechanical appliances, so far as implements of war are concerned; but in all other matters they prefer to move along the old lines, which, having been good enough for their forefathers, must, they think, be good enough for themselves.
Through the Yang-tse Gorges.
By A. J. Little (London: Sampson Low, 1888.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 37, 556 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/037556b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037556b0