Lignum Vitae

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

lig'num vi'te (wood of life) the wood of a tree of the West Indies and Venezuela. It is of a brownish-green color. It is exceedingly hard, tough, and durable; and is much used for rulers, balls for bowling, pulley-sheaves, and the mortars used by chemists in which to grind substances with a pestle. Li Hung Chang (1823-1901), a distinguished Chinese statesman and diplomatist. He passed through the usual course of Chinese education, consisting largely of memorizing precepts and the writings of the learned. He is said to have outdistanced 15,000 competitors in his examination for admission to high government employ. He occupied almost every position in the government service from secretary of an official to prime minister of the empire. Unlike the typical Chinese officeholder, he was ever on the alert to learn new ideas--military, industrial, or commercial--from outsiders. From "Chinese" Gordon he learned many valuable ideas of military organization. He introduced machine shops, cotton mills, a bicycle factory, and telegraph lines. He caused coal mines to be opened and arsenals to be built. He had a number of coast defenses constructed and equipped with modern guns. He purchased a number of gunboats and ironclads. He authorized the construction of several railroads, and established schools diligently throughout the empire. He was without doubt the most intelligent, far-seeing, progressive statesman that China has produced within the last five centuries. His life was not without its ups and downs. He was the animating spirit in the war between China and Japan, in which the former was signally worsted. He had the mortification of negotiating the peace by which China retired from Korea and ceded Formosa to Japan. In his tour around the world General Grant was received by the Chinese statesman with great hospitality. A warm friendship existed between the two men. Personally Li Hung Chang has been criticized as crafty and disposed to feather his own nest. It is known that he owned an extensive system, practically a monopoly of the pawn shops of China, and that he died possessed of a large fortune. However that may be, it would be well for China if many such as he were to arise to conduct the "Flowery Kingdom" along the lines of progress in which her sister empire, Japan, has made such signal advance.