 And it's people of the peaceful sea in the lands and lives it touches, their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story presented by the National Broadcasting Company as a public service and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This broadcast series comes to you as another feature of the NBC Inter-American University of the Air with drama of the past and present and commentary by Owen Lathamore, authority on the Pacific and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. China is China. For 50 years China has been a victim of Japanese aggression. For six years China has successfully fought Japan. With the avalanche of events in the Pacific since Pearl Harbor, China has become more important to us than ever before. To win the war in the Pacific, we must have the friendship and the help of China. But China is not only great because she has successfully fought Japan for six years, nor because of her 450 million people. China is great because of her history and her culture. Six hundred years ago, a traveler returned from China with tales of such wonder. Our benefit is your return, Marco. You honor us beyond what we deserve. Where we are your friends and relatives in whom better could be feast than you. But for our diligence and proving that we are not imposters, you further ego on all Venice would have turned us away. For 16 years, 26 years you were gone. How could we know you? Even my own relative here, Gian, refused to admit us to our own house. Oh, but your clothes were coarse and tattered. And the Marco Polo I last saw was not more than a boy. Gian regarded us with suspicion and the dogs barked at us. I should not have recognized you. Your father, Nicolo, and your uncle, Mafio, looked like wayfarers. That we all are. No, no, no, no. Such splendor is those crimson robes you wear. We of Venice have never seen. Ah, they come from the court of Kubla Khan, a court more wondrous than that of the doges of Venice. Kubla Khan, in the borrowed land of China you visited, yes. They are gifts to my father, my uncle and me. Crimson robes of velvet and damasque and satin thought to riches. China possesses riches greater than any land we saw in the 26 years of our absence. For currency they use paper money. Paper money? Money made of paper? Yes, Federico. Even our city of Venice here, a trading and banking city, is not so far advanced. Oh, but your money made of paper? I do not understand, Marco Polo. It is printed in the city of Canvalu. They print pieces of different sizes, each of which has a different value. Of these, the smallest pass for a half a ton watt. The next size for a Venetian silver cloak and so on. Some are for two, three, and even as far as ten Byzantium gold. Oh, but Marco Polo will tradesmen accept this paper currency? Yes, Gian. It is circulated in every part of the great Khan's dominions. All his Majesty's armies are paid with this currency, which is to them the same as if it was gold or silver. Money made of paper. Oh, and far off China, mechanical devices superior to ours are not lacking. Water clocks are found on bridges. Astronomical instruments are in constant use. And valuable minerals are mined. One of these minerals is a sort of black stone which they burn. A black stone that burns? Yes, and it gives off an uncommon amount of heat. The Chinese dig it out of the mountains and burn it like firewood. If you supply the fire with these stones at night, you will find them still a light in the morning. Well, perhaps they are not stones at all. Ah, the earth is rich. And from it come not only these black stones, but here. Look, you here. You cut open the seams of your old garment. Those are where the garments you wore when you came to my house and tattered. The same. You have something hidden in the seams and the pleats. Look, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, emeralds, and pearls. You bought these jewels from far away China? Oh, it must be a land of surpassing wealth and wonder. More wondrous than this world has ever dreamed. More wondrous than this world has ever dreamed. Marco Polo returned to Venice from China in 1295, nearly 200 years before Columbus came to America. China then was far ahead of Europe. For China has the oldest living civilization on earth. Egypt and Greece and Rome rose before the birth of Christ but fell. China has lived 5,000 years. So the Chinese built the Great Wall of China, the greatest continuous fortification ever erected. So the Chinese built the Grand Canal, the longest artificial waterway in the world. So the Chinese built peaking with corks, palates, gardens, marble bridges. Discovery's invention flowed from China to the rest of the world by Camel Caravan. 200 years before Christ, Camel Caravan, laden with silk, crossed the deserts from China through Turkestan, through Persia to the shores of the Mediterranean, and on to the powerful Empire of Rome. By Camel Caravan over this long, long road, then the two mightiest empires in the world were linked. The making of silk is known to the Chinese alone. By the time the silk of this Caravan reaches Rome, it will be worth its weight in gold. China manufactured silk for 1,000 years before craftsmen and other lambs learned to make it. China gave the world tea. China gave the world porcelain. And China gave the world a product which has become a keystone of civilization. In AD 105, a Chinese artisan named Sailun reported to his emperors, for every day purposes, silk is too expensive for writing, and bamboo is too heavy. Thus, I have contrived to make this product of tree bark, hem, rags, and fishnet. So range, have you succeeded? Here, Your Majesty, is some of it, paper. You made this? Are you able to write on it? Yes, writing on it is very easy. Here is a piece with writing on it. Delicate to the touch. It's strong. I'm able to make as much of this paper as I have supplied. Excellent. With this paper, it will be... Sailun put paper within the reach of all, from king to commoner. Without this cheap paper, printing could hardly have come into general use. And printing, too, China gave to the world. This Buddhist sacred text I dedicate for free general distribution in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of my parents, sign Wang Qi. They, an expert, examines this world's oldest existing printed book and says... This book, beautifully printed in Chinese characters, was published in the year 1868 by Wang Qi. It was done in black printing in which a single block of wood is engraved for each page of the book printed. 173 years later, in 1041, another Chinese, Qin Shen, invented separate movable type. The famous Gutenberg Bible was printed in Europe in 1456. So, you see, China was printing with movable type 400 years before the rest of the world and with black printing, 150 years before that. Printing and paper. Both gifts of China to the world. Up to the year 1800, more books were printed in China than in the entire rest of the world put together. From China also came gunpowder. In 1232, when the Mongols laid seeds to the north China city of Kaifeng, the defending Chinese hurled explosives upon them. They're not second with panic. Order them back. Do they like their flume for their lives from the heavens breaking thunder? Order them back. Dad? World gunpowder. Without gunpowder, modern war would be impossible. But so also would be great construction projects like the Panama Canal and Boulder Dam. China gave the world luscious fruits, the peach and the apricot, the grapefruit and the lemon. China gave the world the chrysanthemum, the tea rose, the camellia. And China set an example for all the world in the realms of literature, art, philosophy, and government. That attracted the European world to China in the 18th century. So self-sufficient was China that at the time of the American Revolution her emperor Chen Lung wrote this message to King George III of England. Our celestial empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no products within its own borders. There is therefore no need to import the products of outside barbarians. But now on the eastern coast of North America, a new nation was taking form. A nation of rugged, enterprising builders and trainers. On George Washington's 52nd birthday, February 22nd, 1784, this nation made its humble entrance into the Pacific. Then the main cells and the opposite cancels. This is the Empress of China, a 360 ton privateer under sail for Canton, South China. Yankees making the 13,000 mile passage from the newest nation on earth to the oldest. Yankees sailing a vessel hardly larger than a cockle shell whose strange, mysterious Canton, the only Chinese port open to the western world. Will you go with me, sir? Yes, I did, Shaw. I will be making port tomorrow. There are several things with you as a supercar goer should know in carrying on your commerce with the people. I know they regard us with suspicion, sir. More than that, Shaw. They will not treat you as an equal. They believe they are the only true and civilized people on earth. And Shaw, we are here for commerce. I understand, sir. We are here to bring back their teas and silk. Keep that in mind and all your transactions. Will you go with me, sir? No, I'll send one of them in. But remember, we are the first vessel of the United States to visit China. Your success or failure in dealing with the merchants will largely set the policy of our future. We can't leave this part of ground here in the waterfront. We're foreigners here, remember? That's their role. But this here isn't much more than a meter. That's one quarter of a mile square. After six months of tea, they can find us to applaud a quarter of a mile square. We'll land it all. This is the only port in China open to foreigners. Canton here? Yes, Canton. And this is the only season in the year when landing is permitted. Winner. We might just as well as steed aboard ship. Cold and wet here. They're not anxious to see us. They feel they're doing us a favor. That's why we must deal with a kohang. A kohang? That's a special body of Chinese merchants. Captain says they're respectable men and intelligent and they're exact encounters. Don't come along. This is no pleasure. You don't even have time to look. Well, we have an appointment. A kohang, a punctual. They value themselves on maintaining a fair character. Well, the captain says we can be none the worse for watching us. The relationship between China and the West was changing. The first Westerners sailed to China for luxury goods. Tea, silk, and porcelain. The British dominated the China trade until the beginning of the 19th century. Then down the ways of New England shipyards slid a new and formidable type of sailing vessel. The American clipper, into the keel and ribs and masts of these swiftest of crafts, went the sturdy and stalwart timber of the forests of Maine. Across the seas they went. The tea clippers, the China clippers challenging Britain for the trade of China. A remarkable change was taking place in Britain and America. Perhaps the most notable development in all the history of mankind. The Industrial Revolution. Within the space of a few years, man's ways of working, thinking, and living were changed. Our graves invented the spinning geni. Artwright invented the spinning machine. What invented the steam engine? Artwright invented the spinning loom. Whitney invented the cotton gen. The effects of the Industrial Revolution spread throughout the world and made themselves felt in China. Britain and America competed for the China trade, but no longer for the luxury goods, tea, silk, and porcelain to bring back to the West. The rivalry now was the selling of the products of the Industrial Revolution to China's millions. China resisted, but we insisted. We demanded they open their markets to western goods, especially cotton textiles. By the early 1800s? It's not only our clipper ships, it's our products. Your Yankees have offset a disadvantage. There, we've taken half the Kentown trade. You'll not have it long. We British merchants have demanded the privilege of free trade. We've been hamstrung by the limitations of the East India Company, but now the king has taken measures to correct that. His Majesty is guaranteeing protection to any British merchant. And what do you reckon that's going to mean? Nothing to your Yankees. To us, it will mean that we will no longer deal with the Kohang, but directly... That Chinese will never agree to that. His Majesty has already sent representations for the Emperor and Peking into the Viceroy here in Kentown. This means that in the future... One other factor complicated the situation. Along with their manufactured goods, British merchants sought to sell opium brought from India. Free trade meant the unrestricted selling of these products to the Chinese, prohibited by the government of China. The tension grew. The Chinese stood firm. Incidents ensued and violence flared. Hey, hey, John Chinaman. Come on, get into this doorway. You want to get shot? I've only tried to get home. Be generous out there. Have you ever broken out all along the coast? Yes, I know. You don't seem to be very thankful that I pulled you out of the way of those bullets. If you were not here, it would not have been necessary. Hey, look, I'm American. This war is with the British. You are neutral, as the French are neutral. But you are here for the same thing as the British. You will participate in the concession they hope to ring from us. Oh, no. Now look, we're here to give you the benefit of all the advances we've made. Why, it's just horse sense to see business. The Treaty of 1842 became the western world's foot in the door in China. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain. Five Chinese ports were opened to the western world. Canton, Amoy, Fuchiao, Ningpo, and Shanghai. The Chinese agreed to treat the British as equals. And extra-territorial rights were established. The year after the treaty, the United States requested and got the same extra-territorial rights. And soon after, other nations secured the same rights. The Opium War marked the beginning of the gunboat policy. The policy of western powers protecting their interests in China with gunboats. The Opium War marked also the decline of enlightened China. 1842 was satisfactory neither to the western powers nor to the Chinese. The westerners said, What does it grant us? The Chinese don't permit us to travel in the interior. The treaty didn't grant us enough. And the Chinese said, The treaty was extracted from us by force. It granted too much. And we will not regard the foreign barbarians as equals. The treaty said nothing about opium. And the traffic in the drug continues in defiance of the prohibitions of the Chinese government. 16 years of troubled truce. The western powers pushing for greater concession. The Chinese resisting. And then again, violence flared. The French have joined the British against the Chinese in the driving with all power on the capital. The British and French have taken Canton, Canton. And today they took the Chinese capital Peking. The Chinese have asked for terms. Those Chinese had nothing to fight with. They had to give up. With each year, weakened China suffered ever mounting pressure from the outside world. Russia sees part of Chinese Pakistan. Japan sees the Luchu island. France sees authority over Britain. And next up a Burma. Japan attacked China. And China ceded Japan for Moser and the Pescadoras islands. China had been forced at the point of a gun to yield trading ports to the westerners. Had been forced to permit traveling in her interior. Now the westerners closed in on her. As wolves closed in on their leader once they find him weak. One by one, her outlying provinces were seized. And now the interior she had so zealously defended was divided into spheres of interest. Germany claims Shantung as its sphere of interest. France claims Yunnan province as its sphere of interest. Britain claims the ancient valley as its sphere of interest. Rivalry for the prizes of China ran high among the encroaching westerners. And the man in the streets said, Far right in those spheres my foot. You know what those spheres of interest mean, don't you? If China is partitioned those are the parts those powers are going to grab. Intellectual leaders in China became alive to the faith that the system and cries for reform echoed throughout the land. Extremists rose. The empress Dowager seized power. Ordered all foreigners thrown out once and for all. Again, violence flared. A boxer rebellion. Guns thundered through China's great cities. The westerners against the Chinese secret society, the patriotic union of fifths. Blood and sorrow and suffering and death. And when the last gun was stilled. China is at the mercy of the western powers. They prostrate as the 19th century drew to a close. A head lay a new century. A head lay new struggles to achieve two things. To free their country from foreign control. And to build within their country a government representing the people. To clarify these spectacular events. And to tell the meaning behind them. The national broadcasting company presents Owen Lathamore. Authority on the Pacific, who for many years lived in China. And director of the school of international relations, Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Lathamore. China has the oldest living civilization in the world. The ability to read and write for instance is one of the fundamental necessities of a high civilization. Now, in spite of the fact that they had a system of writing for more than 20,000 years, the percentage of people in China who can't read and write is much higher than the percentage in a new country like America. That's true of course, but why is it true? Well, one very important reason is that China has never had a machine industry. The Chinese did all their work by human labor. People who do all their work with their own muscles don't have time left over for education. You can check this by looking at Europe and Russia. Before the Napoleonic wars and the industrial revolution, the percentage of illiteracy and ignorance was as high in Europe as it is today in China. Before the Russian Revolution and the mechanizing of the Soviet Union under the five year plan, the percentage was just as high in Russia. We completely safely assume that as industrial mechanization in China approaches the standards of America, Europe and the Soviet Union, the Chinese will also catch up with us in the numbers of people who can read and write. Then look at it from the other side. What actual advantage is it to the Chinese that they have such an old civilization? There is this very real advantage. The values of culture and being civilized have existed in China so long and so continuously that they have soaked right through the whole people. Even the poorest Chinese with no education is likely to have the bearing and consciousness of being a civilized man. Even if he knows the history of his country and his native region only by legend and folklore instead of reading, still he knows it, usually a surprising amount of it. And he sets great store by things like personal dignity, self-respect and respect for others. This means if you stop to think about it, that he has the instincts and behavior of an educated man even when he is not educated. And this can compare you for a national characteristic in which the Chinese probably outrank any people in the world. I mean the ability to absorb education. It has been my experience and the experience of many others that the average Chinese needs no incentives to education. All he needs is the opportunity. If we combine the two things I have been talking about, the lack of mechanization and the hunger and aptitude for education we can state a very interesting theory. Namely, that the future progress of China is likely to be amazingly rapid because China's lack of certain things is fully matched by China's potential ability to learn how to make and use those very things. Once more we can check this by our own history. One of the stories Marco Polo brought back from China was that the Chinese had a kind of mineral, a kind of stone which you can burn. That mineral is coal. It is one of the most everyday things in our modern life. But in Marco Polo's time the people of Europe weren't much interested in it. The Chinese burned coal because they were short of wood but the Europeans had plenty of wood. Coal was not much used in Europe until industry began to develop. When iron began to be made in really large quantities coal became a convenience. They began to use coal after they had burned up most of their forest. They called it for a long time stone coal to distinguish it from charcoal which was the old standard fuel of industry. And then when the steam engine came along coal became a necessity instead of just a convenience. The point you see is that a civilization, a way of life, is a complex. What you add to it must fit into the complex otherwise it is just an ornament of material. When the Europeans heard from Marco Polo about coal it was just a curiosity. But when European life as a complex in all its manifold activities had reached the point at which industrialism was the next logical development then the whole of European economy began to change. That was the industrial revolution. Then back to China we can check again. The old and highly developed civilization had many means rigidly opposed to everything that could be learned from the West. Within a few years of seeing the first steam ships the Chinese began to experiment with the idea of themselves. They did not treat it just as a curiosity the way Marco Polo's Europe treated coal. Machinery and steam power were things that could logically fit into the complex of Chinese culture. In fact it was not any backwardness of the Chinese which disturbed industrial progress in the 19th century. So much a military and political control by the western countries of which America was one. The system of unportraities imposed on China by force a hundred years ago gave the western countries the power to turn the economic life of China to their own profit. They used this power most recently. Under foreign flags in foreign concessions in China paying no taxes to the Chinese government foreign industry and trade were able to defy Chinese competition. The shackles were fastened on China even more firmly after the Boxer rebellion. It is only now as a consequence of their long and successful stand against the Pan that the Chinese have broken the shackles. As a result after the war they will for the first time have a chance to show how well they can adapt the mechanical power of the western world to their own civilization making it possible for that civilization to become available to the whole people in education and in training. The result will be that in 20 years at most China will be able to catch up with nearly 200 years of European and American history. Thank you Mr. Vathemore. You have just heard the third program of the new series The Pacific Story. Next week at this same time over most of these stations the fourth will be broadcast. The new China with drama of the past and present and commentary by Orrin Vathemore director of the school of international relations Johns Hopkins University. You may secure an illuminating handbook of the Pacific Story which gives background information on each program in this series with suggested further reading. This program is available for 25 cents in coins to cover cost of printing and mailing. Address the University of California Press Berkeley, California. The address again the University of California Press Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The musical score is composed and conducted by Charles Dent. Your narrator, Art Gilmour. This program has been presented by the International American University of the Air by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network. This is the National Broadcasting Company.