Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
heard more of the statement quoted above which passed unchallenged,
but not, one may be sure, uninvestigated.
The American system is in reality not foreign to the Philippines,
but it is the highest development, perfected by experience, of the
original plan under which the Philippines had prospered and progressed
until its benefits were wrongfully withheld from them. Filipino
leaders had been vainly asking Spain for the restoration of their
rights and the return to the system of the Laws of the Indies. At the
time when America came to the Islands there was among them no Rizal,
with a knowledge of history that would enable him to recognize that
they were getting what they had been wanting, who could rise superior
to the unimportant detail of under what name or how the good came as
long as it arrived, and whose prestige would have led his countrymen to
accept his decision. Some leaders had one qualification, some another,
a few combined two, but none had the three, for a country is seldom
favored with more than one surpassingly great man at one time.
CHAPTER II
Rizal's Chinese Ancestry
Clustered around the walls of Manila in the latter half of the
seventeenth century were little villages the names of which, in some
instances slightly changed, are the names of present districts. A
fashionable drive then was through the settlement of Filipinos in
Bagumbayan--the "new town" to which Lakandola's subjects had migrated
when Legaspi dispossessed them of their own "Maynila." With the
building of the moat this village disappeared, but the name remained,
and it is often used to denote the older Luneta, as well as the drive
leading to it.
Within the walls lived the Spanish rulers and the few other persons
that the fear and jealousy of the Spaniard allowed to come in. Some
were Filipinos who ministered to the needs of the Spaniards, but the
greater number were Sangleyes, or Chinese, "the mechanics in all trades
and excellent workmen," as an old Spanish chronicle says, continuing:
"It is true that the city could not be maintained or preserved without
the Sangleyes."
The Chinese conditions of these early days are worth recalling, for
influences strikingly similar to those which affected the life of Jose
Rizal in his native land were then at work. There were troubled times
in the ancient "Middle Kingdom," the earlier name of the corruption
of the Malay Tchina (China) by which we know it. The conquering
Manchus had placed their emperor on the throne so long occupied by
the native dynasty whose adherents had boastingly called themselves
"The Sons of Light." The former liberal and progressive government,
under which the people prospered, had grown corrupt and helpless,
and the country had yielded to the invaders and passed under the
terrible tyranny of the Tartars.
Yet there were true patriots among the Chinese who were neither
discouraged by these conditions nor blind to the real cause of their
misfortunes. They realized that the easy conquest of their country
and the utter disregard by their people of the bad government which
had preceded it, showed that something was wrong with themselves.
Too wise to exhaust their land by carrying on a hopeless war,
they sought rather to get a better government by deserving it,
and worked for the general enlightenment, believing that it would
offer the most effective opposition to oppression, for they knew well
that an intelligent people could not be kept enslaved. Furthermore,
they understood that, even if they were freed from foreign rule, the
change would be merely to another tyranny unless the darkness of the
whole people were dispelled. The few educated men among them would
inevitably tyrannize over the ignorant many sooner or later, and it
would be less easy to escape from the evils of such misrule, for the
opposition to it would be divided, while the strength of union would
oppose any foreign despotism. These true patriots were more concerned
about the welfare of their country than ambitious for themselves,
and they worked to prepare their countrymen for self-government by
teaching self-control and respect for the rights of others.
No public effort toward popular education can be made under a bad
government. Those opposed to Manchu rule knew of a secret society
that had long existed in spite of the laws against it, and they used
it as their model in organizing a new society to carry out their
purposes. Some of them were members of this Ke-Ming-Tong or Chinese
Freemasonry as it is called, and it was difficult for outsiders to
find out the differences between it and the new Heaven-Earth-Man
Brotherhood. The three parts to their name led the new brotherhood
later to be called the Triad Society, and they used a triangle for
their seal.
The initiates of the Triad were pledged to one another in a blood
compact to "depose the Tsing [Tartar] and restore the Ming [native
Chinese] dynasty." But really the society wanted only gradual reform
and was against any violent changes. It was at first evolutionary, but
later a section became dissatisfied and started another society. The
original brotherhood, however, kept on trying to educate its
members. It wanted them to realize that the dignity of manhood is
above that of rank or riches, and seeking to break down the barriers
of different languages and local prejudice, hoped to create an united
China efficient in its home government and respected in its foreign
relations.
* * * * *
It was the policy of Spain to rule by keeping the different elements
among her subjects embittered against one another. Consequently the
entire Chinese population of the Philippines had several times been
almost wiped out by the Spaniards assisted by the Filipinos and
resident Japanese. Although overcrowding was mainly the cause of
the Chinese immigration, the considerations already described seem
to have influenced the better class of emigrants who incorporated
themselves with the Filipinos from 1642 on through the eighteenth
century. Apparently these emigrants left their Chinese homes to avoid
the shaven crown and long braided queue that the Manchu conquerors
were imposing as a sign of submission--a practice recalled by
the recent wholesale cutting off of queues which marked the fall
of this same Manchu dynasty upon the establishment of the present
republic. The patriot Chinese in Manila retained the ancient style,
which somewhat resembled the way Koreans arrange their hair. Those who
became Christians cut the hair short and wore European hats, otherwise
using the clothing--blue cotton for the poor, silk for the richer--and
felt-soled shoes, still considered characteristically Chinese.
The reasons for the brutal treatment of the unhappy exiles and the
causes of the frequent accusation against them that they were intending
rebellion may be found in the fear that had been inspired by the
Chinese pirates, and the apprehension that the Chinese traders and
workmen would take away from the Filipinos their means of gaining a
livelihood. At times unjust suspicions drove some of the less patient
to take up arms in self-defense. Then many entirely innocent persons
would be massacred, while those who had not bought protection from
some powerful Spaniard would have their property pillaged by mobs that
protested excessive devotion to Spain and found their patriotism so
profitable that they were always eager to stir up trouble.
One of the last native Chinese emperors, not wishing that any of
his subjects should live outside his dominions, informed the Spanish
authorities that he considered the emigrants evil persons unworthy
of his interest. His Manchu successors had still more reason to be
careless of the fate of the Manila Chinese. They were consequently ill
treated with impunity, while the Japanese were "treated very cordially,
as they are a race that demand good treatment, and it is advisable
to do so for the friendly relations between the Islands and Japan,"
to quote the ancient history once more.
Pagan or Christian, a Chinaman's life in Manila then was not an
enviable one, though the Christians were slightly more secure. The
Chinese quarter was at first inside the city, but before long it became
a considerable district of several streets along Arroceros near the
present Botanical Garden. Thus the Chinese were under the guns of the
Bastion San Gabriel, which also commanded two other Chinese settlements
across the river in Tondo--Minondoc, or Binondo, and Baybay. They had
their own headmen, their own magistrates and their own prison, and no
outsiders were permitted among them. The Dominican Friars, who also
had a number of missionary stations in China, maintained a church and
a hospital for these Manila Chinese and established a settlement where
those who became Christians might live with their families. Writers
of that day suggest that sometimes conversions were prompted by the
desire to get married--which until 1898 could not be done outside the
Church--or to help the convert's business or to secure the protection
of an influential Spanish godfather, rather than by any changed belief.
Certainly two of these reasons did not influence the conversion of
Doctor Rizal's paternal ancestor, Lam-co (that is, "Lam, Esq."),
for this Chinese had a Chinese godfather and was not married till
many years later.
He was a native of the Chinchew district, where the Jesuits first, and
later the Dominicans, had had missions, and he perhaps knew something
of Christianity before leaving China. One of his church records
indicates his home more definitely, for it specifies Siongque, near
the great city, an agricultural community, and in China cultivation
of the soil is considered the most honorable employment. Curiously
enough, without conversion, the people of that region even to-day
consider themselves akin to the Christians. They believe in one god
and have characteristics distinguishing them from the Pagan Chinese,
possibly derived from some remote Mohammedan ancestors.
Lam-co's prestige among his own people, as shown by his leadership of
those who later settled with him in Binan, as well as the fact that
even after his residence in the country he was called to Manila to
act as godfather, suggests that he was above the ordinary standing,
and certainly not of the coolie class. This is bogne out by his
marrying the daughter of an educated Chinese, an alliance that was
not likely to have been made unless he was a person of some education,
and education is the Chinese test of social degree.
He was baptized in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday in June
of 1697. Lam-co's age was given in the record as thirty-five years,
and the names of his parents were given as Siang-co and Zun-nio. The
second syllables of these names are titles of a little more respect
than the ordinary "Mr." and "Mrs.," something like the Spanish Don
and Dona, but possibly the Dominican priest who kept the register
was not so careful in his use of Chinese words as a Chinese would
have been. Following the custom of the other converts on the same
occasion, Lam-co took the name Domingo, the Spanish for Sunday, in
honor of the day. The record of this baptism is still to be seen in
the records of the Parian church of San Gabriel, which are preserved
with the Binondo records, in Manila.
Chinchew, the capital of the district from which he came, was a
literary center and a town famed in Chinese history for its loyalty;
it was probably the great port Zeitung which so strongly impressed
the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, the first European to see China.
The city was said by later writers to be large and beautiful and to
contain half a million inhabitants, "candid, open and friendly people,
especially friendly and polite to foreigners." It was situated forty