"Olaf Stapledon - Light and the Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stapledon Olaf)

communist propaganda both in their own country and in the North by ardent appeals to Chinese nationalism. The result was that
after a while the nationalists seized power in the North. There followed a solemn act of union between the North and South
Chinese states. And thus was created the formidable Chinese financial-military dictatorship.

While the Russian Empire was busy digesting America and Africa, the Chinese would-be empire was consolidating itself
throughout eastern Asia. In the north, Japan, Korea, Manchuria and Mongolia, in the south, Assam, Siam, Burma and the East
Indies, were one by one brought within the new empire. Tibet, which had formerly been part of the ancient Chinese Empire, was
able to main' a precarious independence by playing off each of its formidable neighbours against the other.

The period of human history that I have been describing may seem to have been one in which the will for darkness triumphed,
but in fact it was not. It was merely as I have said, a phase in the long age of balance between the light and the dark. Neither of
the two empires that now competed for mastery over the planet was wholly reactionary. In each great group of peoples a large
part of the population, perhaps the majority, still believed in friendliness and reasonableness, and tried to practice them. When the
sacrifice was not too great, they even succeeded. In personal contacts the form and often the spirit of Christian behaviour or of
the ancient Chinese morality were still evident. Even in indirect social relations liberal impulses sometimes triumphed. Moreover
in, both empires an active minority worked vigorously for the light, urging humane conduct and propagating the idea of a just
social order in which all might find fulfilment. In fact on both sides the more intelligent of the adherents of the light confidently
looked forward to a great and glorious Change, if not in the near future, at least in the lifetime of their children. Even the rulers
themselves, the military-political groups which controlled the two empires, believed sincerely not indeed in radical change, but in
their mission to rule the world and lead it to a vaguely conceived Utopia of discipline and martial virtue. In neither empire was
there at this time the ruthless lust for power and delight in cruelty which had for a' while dominated Germany. Between the rulers
of the two empires there was an ambiguous relationship. Though each desired to conquer the other by diplomacy or war, and
though to each the social ideas and the forms of social behaviour propagated by the other were repugnant, yet, both agreed in
regarding something else as more repugnant, namely the overthrow of their own state by their own progressive minority.
Consequently their policy was guided not only by fluctuations in their power in relation to the enemy but also by the strength or
weakness of their own progressives. Sincerely, and sometimes even with sincere reluctance, they used the plea of external danger
to enforce stricter discipline at home. Yet at times when social upheaval seemed imminent they would not scruple to ask the
external enemy to ease his pressure for a while. And invariably the request was granted; for neither of the ruling groups wished to
see its opponents overthrown in revolution.

iv. THE RISE OF TIBET

The life and death struggle which at last broke out between the empires of Russia and China centred upon Tibet. More important,
it was seemingly in Tibet that the balance between the will for darkness and the will for the light was finally destroyed. It is




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necessary therefore to examine the fortunes of the Tibetans in some detail.

Although their lofty, secluded, and mainly arid land had formerly been an outpost of the ancient Chinese Empire, it had always
maintained a measure of independence. During China's long struggle with Japan this independence had become absolute, and
henceforth the clerical oligarchy of Tibet maintained its freedom by playing off Russia and China against one another. Within the
Tibetan frontiers there was a constant struggle between the secret propagandists of Russia and those of China, but the Tibetan