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The Problem of China by Earl Bertrand Arthur William 3rd Russell
page 41 of 254 (16%)
and his son-in-law was watching beside his coffin, a singular incident
occurred. Although the sage had spent his life teaching that miracles
are impossible, the coffin rose and remained suspended three feet above
the ground. The pious son-in-law was horrified. "O my revered
father-in-law," he prayed, "do not destroy my faith that miracles are
impossible." Whereupon the coffin slowly descended to earth again, and
the son-in-law's faith revived.]

[Footnote 22: Translated by the Bureau of Economic Information, Peking,
1920.]

[Footnote 23: Op. cit. p. 233.]




CHAPTER III

CHINA AND THE WESTERN POWERS


In order to understand the international position of China, some facts
concerning its nineteenth-century history are indispensable. China was
for many ages the supreme empire of the Far East, embracing a vast and
fertile area, inhabited by an industrious and civilized people.
Aristocracy, in our sense of the word, came to an end before the
beginning of the Christian era, and government was in the hands of
officials chosen for their proficiency in writing in a dead language, as
in England. Intercourse with the West was spasmodic and chiefly
religious. In the early centuries of the Christian era, Buddhism was
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