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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Court Life in China, by Isaac Taylor Headland
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Court Life in China
+
+Author: Isaac Taylor Headland
+
+Posting Date: September 13, 2008 [EBook #523]
+Release Date: May, 1996
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COURT LIFE IN CHINA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Keller.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+COURT LIFE IN CHINA
+
+THE CAPITAL
+
+ITS OFFICIALS AND PEOPLE
+
+
+By
+
+ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND
+
+Professor in the Peking University
+
+
+
+
+ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND'S THREE BOOKS THAT "LINK EAST AND WEST"
+
+  Court Life in China: The Capital Its Officials and People.
+  The Chinese Boy and Girl
+  Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Until within the past ten years a study of Chinese court life would
+have been an impossibility. The Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and the
+court ladies were shut up within the Forbidden City, away from a world
+they were anxious to see, and which was equally anxious to see them.
+Then the Emperor instituted reform, the Empress Dowager came out from
+behind the screen, and the court entered into social relations with
+Europeans.
+
+For twenty years and more Mrs. Headland has been physician to the
+family of the Empress Dowager's mother, the Empress' sister, and many
+of the princesses and high official ladies in Peking. She has visited
+them in a social as well as a professional way, has taken with her her
+friends, to whom the princesses have shown many favours, and they have
+themselves been constant callers at our home. It is to my wife,
+therefore, that I am indebted for much of the information contained in
+this book.
+
+There are many who have thought that the Empress Dowager has been
+misrepresented. The world has based its judgment of her character upon
+her greatest mistake, her participation in the Boxer movement, which
+seems unjust, and has closed its eyes to the tremendous reforms which
+only her mind could conceive and her hand carry out. The great Chinese
+officials to a man recognized in her a mistress of every situation; the
+foreigners who have come into most intimate contact with her, voice her
+praise; while her hostile critics are confined for the most part to
+those who have never known her. It was for this reason that a more
+thorough study of her life was undertaken.
+
+It has also been thought that the Emperor has been misunderstood, being
+overestimated by some, and underestimated by others, and this because
+of his peculiar type of mind and character. That he was unusual, no one
+will deny; that he was the originator of many of China's greatest
+reform measures, is equally true; but that he lacked the power to
+execute what he conceived, and the ability to select great statesmen to
+assist him, seems to have been his chief shortcoming.
+
+To my wife for her help in the preparation of this volume, and to my
+father-in-law, Mr. William Sinclair, M. A., for his suggestions, I am
+under many obligations.
+
+          I. T. H.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--HER EARLY LIFE
+    II.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--HER YEARS OF TRAINING
+   III.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A RULER
+    IV.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A REACTIONIST
+     V.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A REFORMER
+    VI.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS AN ARTIST
+   VII.  THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A WOMAN
+  VIII.  KUANG HSU--HIS SELF DEVELOPMENT
+    IX.  KUANG HSU--AS EMPEROR AND REFORMER
+     X.  KUANG HSU--AS A PRISONER
+    XI.  PRINCE CHUN--THE REGENT
+   XII.  THE HOME OF THE COURT--THE FORBIDDEN CITY
+  XIII.  THE LADIES OF THE COURT
+   XIV.  THE PRINCESSES--THEIR SCHOOLS
+    XV.  THE CHINESE LADIES OF RANK
+   XVI.  THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE WOMAN
+  XVII.  THE CHINESE LADIES--THEIR ILLS
+ XVIII.  THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF A DOWAGER PRINCESS
+   XIX.  CHINESE PRINCES AND OFFICIALS
+    XX.  PEKING--THE CITY OF THE COURT
+   XXI.  THE DEATH OF KUANG HSU AND THE EMPRESS DOWAGER
+  XXII.  THE COURT AND THE NEW EDUCATION
+
+
+
+I
+
+The Empress Dowager--Her Early Life
+
+All the period since 1861 should be rightly recorded as the reign of
+Tze Hsi An, a more eventful period than all the two hundred and
+forty-four reigns that had preceded her three usurpations. It began
+after a conquering army had made terms of peace in her capital, and
+with the Tai-ping rebellion in full swing of success....
+
+Those few who have looked upon the countenance of the Dowager describe
+her as a tall, erect, fine-looking woman of distinguished and imperious
+bearing, with pronounced Tartar features, the eye of an eagle, and the
+voice of determined authority and absolute command.--Eliza Ruhamah
+Scidmore in "China, The Long-Lived Empire."
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--HER EARLY LIFE
+
+One day when one of the princesses was calling at our home in Peking, I
+inquired of her where the Empress Dowager was born. She gazed at me for
+a moment with a queer expression wreathing her features, as she finally
+said with just the faintest shadow of a smile: "We never talk about the
+early history of Her Majesty." I smiled in return and continued: "I
+have been told that she was born in a small house, in a narrow street
+inside of the east gate of the Tartar city--the gate blown up by the
+Japanese when they entered Peking in 1900." The princess nodded. "I
+have also heard that her father's name was Chao, and that he was a
+small military official (she nodded again) who was afterwards beheaded
+for some neglect of duty." To this the visitor also nodded assent.
+
+A few days later several well-educated young Chinese ladies, daughters
+of one of the most distinguished scholars in Peking, were calling on my
+wife, and again I pursued my inquiries. "Do you know anything about the
+early life of the Empress Dowager?" I asked of the eldest. She
+hesitated a moment, with that same blank expression I had seen on the
+face of the princess, and then answered very deliberately,--"Yes,
+everybody knows, but nobody talks about it." And this is, no doubt, the
+reason why the early life of the greatest woman of the Mongol race,
+and, as some who knew her best think, the most remarkable woman of the
+nineteenth century, has ever been shrouded in mystery. Whether the
+Empress desired thus to efface all knowledge of her childhood by
+refusing to allow it to be talked about, I do not know, but I said to
+myself: "What everybody knows, I can know," and I proceeded to find out.
+
+I discovered that she was one of a family of several brothers and
+sisters and born about 1834; that the financial condition of her
+parents was such that when a child she had to help in caring for the
+younger children, carrying them on her back, as girls do in China, and
+amusing them with such simple toys as are hawked about the streets or
+sold in the shops for a cash or two apiece; that she and her brothers
+and little sisters amused themselves with such games as blind man's
+buff, prisoner's base, kicking marbles and flying kites in company with
+the other children of their neighbourhood. During these early years she
+was as fond of the puppet plays, trained mice shows, bear shows, and
+"Punch and Judy" as she was in later years of the theatrical
+performances with which she entertained her visitors at the palace. She
+was compelled to run errands for her mother, going to the shops, as
+occasion required, for the daily supply of oils, onions, garlic, and
+other vegetables that constituted the larger portion of their food. I
+found out also that there is not the slightest foundation for the story
+that in her childhood she was sold as a slave and taken to the south of
+China.
+
+The outdoor life she led, the games she played, and the work she was
+forced to do in the absence of household servants, gave to the little
+girl a well-developed body, a strong constitution and a fund of
+experience and information which can be obtained in no other way. She
+was one of the great middle class. She knew the troubles and trials of
+the poor. She had felt the pangs of hunger. She could sympathize with
+the millions of ambitious girls struggling to be freed from the
+trammels of ignorance and the age-old customs of the past--a combat
+which was the more real because it must be carried on in silence. And
+who can say that it was not the struggles and privations of her own
+childhood which led to the wish in her last years that "the girls of my
+empire may be educated"?
+
+When little Miss Chao had reached the age of  fourteen or fifteen she
+was taken by her parents to an office in the northern part of the
+imperial city of Peking where her name, age, personal appearance, and
+estimated degree of intelligence and potential ability were registered,
+as is done in the case of all the daughters of the Manchu people. The
+reason for this singular proceeding is that when the time comes for the
+selection of a wife or a concubine for the Emperor, or the choosing of
+serving girls for the palace, those in charge of these matters will
+know where they can be obtained.
+
+This custom is not considered an unalloyed blessing by the Manchu
+people, and many of them would gladly avoid registering their daughters
+if only they dared. But the rule is compulsory, and every one belonging
+to the eight Banners or companies into which the Manchus are divided
+must have their daughters registered. Their aversion to this custom is
+well illustrated in the following incident:
+
+In one of the girls' schools in Peking there was a beautiful child, the
+daughter of a Manchu woman whose husband was dead. One day this widow
+came to the principal of the school and said: "A summons has come from
+the court for the girls of our clan to appear before the officials that
+a certain number may be chosen and sent into the palace as serving
+girls." "When is she to appear?" inquired the teacher. "On the
+sixteenth," answered the mother. "I suppose you are anxious that she
+should be one of the fortunate ones," said the teacher, "though I
+should be sorry to lose her from the school." "On the contrary," said
+the mother, "I should be distressed if she were chosen, and have come
+to consult with you as to whether we might not hire a substitute." The
+teacher expressed surprise and asked her why. "When our daughters are
+taken into the palace," answered the mother, "they are dead to us until
+they are twenty-five, when they are allowed to return home. If they are
+incompetent or dull they are often severely punished. They may contract
+disease and die, and their death is not even announced to us; while if
+they prove themselves efficient and win the approval of the authorities
+they are retained in the palace and we may never see them or hear from
+them again."
+
+At first the teacher was inclined to favour the hiring of a substitute,
+but on further consideration concluded that it would be contrary to the
+law, and advised that the girl be allowed to go. The mother, however,
+was so anxious to prevent her being chosen that she sent her with
+uncombed hair, soiled clothes and a dirty face, that she might appear
+as unattractive as possible.
+
+The prospects for a concubine are even less promising than for a
+serving maid, as when she once enters the palace she has little if any
+hope of ever leaving it. She is neither mistress nor servant, wife nor
+slave, she is but one of a hundred buds in a garden of roses which have
+little if any prospect of ever blooming or being plucked for the court
+bouquet. When, therefore, the gates of the Forbidden City close behind
+the young girls who are taken in as concubines of an emperor they shut
+out an attractive, busy, beautiful world, filled with men and women,
+boys and girls, homes and children, green fields and rich harvests, and
+confine them within the narrow limits of one square mile of brick-paved
+earth, surrounded by a wall twenty-five feet high and thirty feet
+thick, in which there is but one solitary man who is neither father,
+brother, husband nor friend to them, and whom they may never even see.
+
+When therefore the time came for the selection of concubines for the
+Emperor Hsien Feng, and our little Miss Chao was taken into the palace,
+her parents, like many others, had every reason to consider it a piece
+of ill-fortune which had visited their home. The future was veiled from
+them. The Forbidden City, surrounded by its great crenelated wall, may
+have seemed more like a prison than like a palace. True, they had other
+children, and she was "only a girl, but even girls are a small
+blessing," as they tell us in their proverbs. She had grown old enough
+to be useful in the home, and they no doubt had cherished plans of
+betrothing her to the son of some merchant or official who would add
+wealth or honour to their family. Neither father nor mother, brother
+nor sister, could have conceived of the potential power, honour and
+even glory, that were wrapped up in that girl, and that were finally to
+come to them as a family, as well as to many of them as individuals.
+Their wildest dreams at that time could not have pictured themselves
+dukes and princesses, with their daughters as empresses, duchesses, or
+ladies-in-waiting in the palace. But such it proved to be.
+
+
+
+II
+
+The Empress Dowager--Her Years of Training
+
+  The kindness of the Empress is as boundless as the sea.
+  Her person too is holy, she is like a deity.
+  With boldness, from seclusion, she ascends the Dragon Throne,
+  And saves her suffering country from a fate we dare not own.
+        --"Yuan Fan," Translated by I. T. C.
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--HER YEARS OF TRAINING
+
+The year our little Miss Chao entered the palace was a memorable one in
+the history of China. The Tai-ping rebellion, which had begun in the
+south some three years earlier (1850), had established its capital at
+Nanking, on the Yangtse River, and had sent its "long-haired" rebels
+north on an expedition of conquest, the ultimate aim of which was
+Peking. By the end of the year 1853 they had arrived within one hundred
+miles of the capital, conquering everything before them, and leaving
+devastation and destruction in their wake.
+
+Their success had been extraordinary. Starting in the southwest with an
+army of ten thousand men they had eighty thousand when they arrived
+before the walls of Nanking. They were an undisciplined horde, without
+commissariat, without drilled military leaders, but with such reckless
+daring and bravery that the imperial troops were paralyzed with fear
+and never dared to meet them in the open field. Thousands of common
+thieves and robbers flocked to their standards with every new conquest,
+impelled by no higher motive than that of pillage and gain. Rumours
+became rife in every village and hamlet, and as they neared the capital
+the wildest tales were told in every nook and corner of the city, from
+the palace of the young Emperor in the Forbidden City to the mat shed
+of the meanest beggar beneath the city wall.
+
+My wife says: "I remember just after going to China, sitting one
+evening on a kang, or brick bed, with Yin-ma, an old nurse, our only
+light being a wick floating in a dish of oil. Yin-ma was about the age
+of the Empress Dowager, but, unlike Her Majesty, her locks were
+snow-white. When I entered the dimly lighted room she was sitting in
+the midst of a group of women and girls--patients in the hospital--who
+listened with bated breath as she told them of the horrors of the
+Tai-ping rebellion.
+
+"'Why!' said the old nurse, 'all that the rebels had to do on their way
+to Peking, was to cut out as many paper soldiers as they wanted, put
+them in boxes, and breathe upon them when they met the imperial troops,
+and they were transformed into such fierce warriors that no one was
+able to withstand them. Then when the battle was over and they had come
+off victors they only needed to breathe upon them again, when they were
+changed into paper images and packed in their boxes, requiring neither
+food nor clothing. Indeed the spirits of the rebels were everywhere,
+and no matter who cut out paper troops they could change them into real
+soldiers.'
+
+"'But, Yin-ma, you do not believe those superstitions, do you?'
+
+"'These are not superstitions, doctor, these are facts, which everybody
+believed in those days, and it was not safe for a woman to be seen with
+scissors and paper, lest her neighbours report that she was cutting out
+troops for the rebels. The country was filled with all kinds of
+rumours, and every one had to be very careful of all their conduct, and
+of everything they said, lest they be arrested for sympathizing with
+the enemy.'
+
+"'But, Yin-ma, did you ever see any of these paper images transformed
+into soldiers?'
+
+"'No, I never did myself, but there was an old woman lived near our
+place, who was said to be in sympathy with the rebels. One night my
+father saw soldiers going into her house and when he had followed them
+he could find nothing but paper images. You may not have anything of
+this kind happen in America, but very many people saw them in those
+terrible days of pillage and bloodshed here.'"
+
+Such stories are common in all parts of China during every period of
+rebellion, war, riot or disturbance of any kind. The people go about
+with fear on their faces, and horror in their voices, telling each
+other in undertones of what some one, somewhere, is said to have seen
+or heard. Nor are these superstitions confined to the common people.
+Many of the better classes believe them and are filled with fear.
+
+As the Tai-ping rebellion broke out when Miss Chao was about fifteen or
+sixteen years of age, she would hear these stories for two or three
+years before she entered the palace. After she had been taken into the
+Forbidden City she would continue to hear them, brought in by the
+eunuchs and circulated not only among all the women of the palace, but
+among their own associates as well, and here they would take on a more
+mysterious and alarming aspect to these people shut away from the
+world, as ghost stories become more terrifying when told in the dim
+twilight. May this not account in some measure for the attitude assumed
+by the Empress Dowager towards the Boxer superstitions of 1900, and
+their pretentions to be able at will to call to their aid legions of
+spirit-soldiers, while at the same time they were themselves
+invulnerable to the bullets of their enemies?
+
+It was when Miss Chao was ten years old that the conflict known as the
+Opium War was brought to an end. It has been said that when the Emperor
+was asked to sanction the importation of opium, he answered, "I will
+never legalize a traffic that will be an injury to my people," but
+whether this be true or not, it is admitted by all that the central
+government was strongly opposed to the sale and use of the drug within
+its domains. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the first time
+the Chinese came into collision with European governments was over a
+matter of this kind, and it is to the credit of the Chinese
+commissioner when the twenty thousand chests of opium, over which the
+dispute arose, were handed over to him, he mixed it with quicklime in
+huge vats that it might be utterly destroyed rather than be an injury
+to his people. They may have exhibited an ignorance of international
+law, they may have manifested an unwise contempt for the foreigner, but
+it remains a fact of history that they were ready to suffer great
+financial loss rather than get revenue from the ruin of their subjects,
+and that England went to war for the purpose of securing indemnity for
+the opium destroyed.
+
+The common name for opium among the Chinese is yang yen--foreign
+tobacco, and my wife says: "When calling at the Chinese homes, I have
+frequently been offered the opium-pipe, and when I refused it the
+ladies expressed surprise, saying that they were under the impression
+that all foreigners used it."
+
+What now were the results of the Opium War as viewed from the
+standpoint of the Chinese people, and what impression would it make
+upon them as a whole? Great Britain demanded an indemnity of
+$21,000,000, the cession to them of Hongkong, an island on the southern
+coast, and the opening of five ports to British trade. China lost her
+standing as suzerain among the peoples of the Orient and got her first
+glimpse of the White Peril from the West.
+
+Although the Empress Dowager was but a child of ten at this time she
+would receive her first impression of the foreigner, which was that he
+was a pirate who had come to carry away their wealth, to filch from
+them their land, and to overrun their country. He became a veritable
+bugaboo to men, women and children alike, and this impression was
+crystallized in the expression yang huei, "foreign devil," which is the
+only term among a large proportion of the Chinese by which the
+foreigner is known. One day when walking on the street in Peking I met
+a woman with a child of two years in her arms, and as I passed them,
+the child patted its mother on the cheek and said in an
+undertone,--"The foreign devil's coming," which led the frightened
+mother to cover its eyes with her hand that it might not be injured by
+the sight.
+
+On one occasion a friend was travelling through the country when a
+Chinese gentleman, dressed in silk and wearing an official hat, called
+on him at the inn where he was stopping and with a profound bow
+addressed him as "Old Mr. Foreign Devil."
+
+My wife says that: "Not infrequently when I have been called for the
+first time to the homes of the better classes I have seen the children
+run into the house from the outer court exclaiming,--'The devil
+doctor's coming.' Indeed, I have heard the women use this term in
+speaking of me to my assistant until I objected, when they asked with
+surprise,--'Doesn't she like to be called foreign devil?'" And so the
+Empress Dowager's first impression of the foreigner would be that of a
+devil.
+
+Colonel Denby tells us that "A Frenchman and his wife were carried off
+from Tonquin by bandits who took refuge in China. The Chinese
+government was asked to rescue these prisoners and restore them to
+liberty. China sent a brigade of troops, who pursued the bandits to
+their den and recovered the prisoners. The French government thanked
+the Chinese government for its assistance, and bestowed the decoration
+of the Legion of Honour on the brigade commander, and then shortly
+afterwards demanded the payment of an enormous indemnity for the
+outrage on the ground that China had delayed to effect the rescue. The
+Chinese were aghast, but they paid the money."
+
+This incident does not stand alone, but is one of a number of similar
+experiences which the Chinese government had in her relation with the
+powers of Europe, and which have been reported by such writers as
+Holcomb, Beresford, Gorst Colquhoun and others in trying to account for
+the feelings the Chinese have towards us, all of which was embodied in
+the years of training of our little concubine.
+
+It should be remembered that many concubines are selected whom the
+Emperor never takes the trouble to see. After being taken in, their
+temper and disposition are carefully noted, their faithfulness in the
+duties assigned them, their diligence in the performance of their
+tasks, their kindness to their inferiors, their treatment of their
+equals, and their politeness and obedience to their superiors, and upon
+all these things, with many others, as we shall see, their promotion
+will finally depend.
+
+When Miss Chao entered the palace, like most girls of her class or
+station in life, she was uneducated. She may have studied the small
+"Classic for Girls" in which she learned:
+
+"You should rise from bed as early in the morning as the sun, Nor
+retire at evening's closing till your work is wholly done."
+
+Or, further, she may have been told,
+
+  When the wheel of life's at fifteen,
+  Or when twenty years have passed,
+  As a girl with home and kindred these will surely be your last;
+  While expert in all employments that compose a woman's life,
+  You should study as a daughter all the duties of a wife."
+
+Or she may have read the "Filial Piety Classic for Girls" in which she
+learned the importance of the attitude she assumed towards those who
+were in authority over her, but certain it is she was not educated.
+
+She had, however, what was better than education--a disposition to
+learn. And so when she had the good fortune,--or shall we say
+misfortune,--for as we have seen it is variously regarded by Chinese
+parents to be taken into the palace, she found there educated eunuchs
+who were set aside as teachers of the imperial harem. She was bright,
+attractive, and I think I may add without fear of contradiction, very
+ambitious, and this in no bad sense. She devoted herself to her studies
+with such energy and diligence as not only to attract the attention of
+the teacher, but to make herself a fair scholar, a good penman, and an
+exceptional painter, and it was not long until, from among all the
+concubines, she had gained the attention and won the admiration--and
+shall we say affection--not only of the Empress, but of the Emperor
+himself, and she was selected as the first concubine or kuei fei, and
+from that time until the death of the Empress the two women were the
+staunchest of friends.
+
+The new favourite had been a healthy and vigorous girl, with plenty of
+outdoor life in childhood, and it was not long before she became the
+happy mother of Hsien Feng's only son. She was thenceforward known as
+the Empress-mother. In a short time she was raised to the position of
+wife, and given the title of Western Empress, as the other was known as
+the Eastern, from which time the two women were equal in rank, and, in
+the eyes of the world, equal in power.
+
+The first Empress was a pampered daughter of wealth, neither vigorous
+of body nor strong of mind, caring nothing for political power if only
+she might have ease and comfort, and there is nothing that exhibits the
+Empress Dowager's real greatness more convincingly than the fact that
+she was able to live for thirty years the more fortunate mother of her
+country's ruler, and, in power, the mistress of her superior, without
+arousing the latter's envy, jealousy, anger, or enmity. Let any woman
+who reads this imagine, if she can, herself placed in the position of
+either of these ladies without being inclined to despise the less
+fortunate, ease-loving Empress if she be the dowager, or hating the
+more powerful dowager if she be the Empress. Such a state of affairs as
+these two women lived in for more than a quarter of a century is almost
+if not entirely unique in history.
+
+Perhaps the incident which made most impression upon her was one which
+happened in 1860 and is recorded in history as the Arrow War. A few
+years before a number of Chinese, who owned a boat called the Arrow,
+had it registered in Hongkong and hence were allowed to sail under the
+British flag. There is no question I think but that these Chinese were
+committing acts of piracy, and as this was one of the causes of
+disturbance on that southern coast for centuries past, the viceroy
+decided to rid the country of this pest. Nine days after the time for
+which the boat had been registered, but while it continued unlawfully
+to float the British colours, the viceroy seized the boat, imprisoned
+all her crew, and dragged down the British flag. This was an insult
+which Great Britain could not or would not brook and so the viceroy was
+ordered to release the prisoners, all of whom were Chinese subjects, on
+penalty of being blown up in his own yamen if he refused.
+
+Frightened at the threat, and remembering the result of the former war,
+the viceroy sent the prisoners to the consulate in chains without
+proper apologies for his insult to the flag. This angered the consul
+and he returned them to the viceroy, who promptly cut off their heads
+without so much as the semblance of a trial, and Britain, anxious, as
+she was, to have every door of the Chinese empire opened to foreign
+trade, found in this another pretext for war. We do not pretend to
+argue that this was not the best thing for China and for the world, but
+it can only be considered so from the bitter medicine, and corporal
+punishment point of view, neither of which are agreeable to either the
+patient or the pupil.
+
+Britain went to war. The viceroy was taken a prisoner to India, whence
+he never returned. As though ashamed to enter upon a second unprovoked
+and unjust war alone, she invited France, Russia, and America to join
+her. France was quite ready to do so in the hope of strengthening her
+position in Indo-China, and with nothing more than the murder of a
+missionary in Kuangsi as a pretext she put a body of troops in the
+field large enough to enable her to checkmate England, or humiliate
+China as the exigencies of the occasion, and her own interests, might
+demand. America and Russia having no cause for war, no wrongs to
+redress, and no desire for territory, refused to join her in sending
+troops, but gave her such sympathy and support as would enable her to
+bring about a more satisfactory arrangement of China's foreign
+relations--that is more satisfactory to themselves regardless of the
+wishes, though not perhaps the interests, of China.
+
+We know how the British and French marched upon Peking in 1860; how the
+summer palace was left a heap of ruins as a punishment for the murder
+of a company of men under a flag of truce; and how the Emperor Hsien
+Feng, with his wife, and the mother of his only son, our Empress
+Dowager, were compelled to flee for the first time before a foreign
+invader. Their refuge was Jehol, a fortified town, in a wild and rugged
+mountain pass, on the borders of China and Tartary, a hundred miles
+northeast of Peking. At this place the Emperor died, whether of
+disease, chagrin, or of a broken heart--or of all combined, it is
+impossible to say, and the Empress-mother was left AN EXILE AND A
+WIDOW, with the capital and the throne for the first time at the mercy
+of the Western barbarian.
+
+This was the beginning of two important phases of the Empress Dowager's
+life--her affliction and her power, and her greatness is exhibited as
+well by the way in which she bore the one as by the way in which she
+wielded the other. In most cases a woman would have been so overcome by
+sorrow at the loss of her husband, as to have forgotten the affairs of
+state, or to have placed them for the time in the hands of others. Not
+so with this great woman. Prince Kung the brother of Hsien Feng, had
+been left in Peking to arrange a treaty with the Europeans, which he
+succeeded in doing to the satisfaction of both the Chinese and the
+foreigners.
+
+On the death of the Emperor, a regency was organized by two of the
+princes, which did not include Prince Kung, and disregarded both of the
+dowagers, and it seemed as though Prince Kung was doomed. His
+father-in-law, however, the old statesman who had signed the treaties,
+urged him to be the first to get the ear of the two women on their
+return to the capital. This he did, and as it seemed evident that the
+regency and the council had been organized for the express purpose of
+tyrannizing over the Empresses and the child, they were at once
+arrested, the leader beheaded, and the others condemned to exile or to
+suicide. The child had been placed upon the throne as "good-luck," but
+now a new regency was formed, consisting of the two dowagers, with
+Prince Kung as joint regent, and the title of the reign was changed to
+Tung Chih or "joint government." Thus ended the Empress Dowager's years
+of training.
+
+
+
+III
+
+The Empress Dowager--As a Ruler
+
+That a Manchu woman who had had such narrow opportunities of obtaining
+a knowledge of things as they really are, in distinction from the
+tissue of shams which constitute the warp and the woof of an Oriental
+Palace, should have been able to hold her own in every situation, and
+never be crushed by the opposing forces about her, is a phenomenon in
+itself only to be explained by due recognition of the influence of
+individual qualities in a ruler even in the semi-absolutism of
+China.--Arthur H. Smith in "China in Convulsion."
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A RULER
+
+In considering the policy pursued by the Empress-mother after her
+accession to the regency, one cannot but feel that she was fully aware
+of the fact that she had been the wife of an emperor, and was the
+mother of the heir, of a decaying house. Of the 218 years that her
+dynasty had been in power, 120 had been occupied by the reigns of two
+emperors, and only seven monarchs had sat upon the throne, a smaller
+number than ever ruled during the same period in all Chinese history.
+These two Emperors, Kang Hsi and Chien Lung, the second and fourth, had
+each reigned for sixty years, the most brilliant period of the "Great
+Pure Dynasty," unless we except the last six years of the Empress
+Dowager's regency. The other ninety-eight years saw five rulers rise
+and pass away, each one becoming weaker than his predecessor both in
+character and in physique, until with the death of her son, Tung Chih,
+the dynasty was left without a direct heir.
+
+The decay of the imperial house, the encroachments of the foreigner,
+and the opposition of the native Chinese to the rule of the Manchus,
+awoke the Empress Dowager to a realization of the fact that a stronger
+hand than that of her husband must be at the helm if the dynasty of her
+people were to be preserved. "It may be said with emphasis," says
+Colonel Denby, who was for thirteen years minister to China, "that the
+Empress Dowager has been the first of her race to apprehend the problem
+of the relation of China to the outer world, and to make use of this
+relation to strengthen her dynasty and to promote material progress."
+She was fortunate in having Prince Kung associated with her in the
+regency, a man tall, handsome and dignified, and the greatest statesman
+that has come from the royal house since the time of Chien Lung.
+
+Here appears one of the chief characteristics of the Empress Dowager as
+a ruler--her ability to choose the greatest statesmen, the wisest
+advisers, the safest leaders, and the best guides, from the great mass
+of Chinese officials, whether progressive or conservative. Prince Kung
+was for forty years the leading figure of the Chinese capital outside
+of the Forbidden City. He appeared first, at the age of twenty-six, as
+a member of the commission that tried the minister who failed to make
+good his promise to induce Lord Elgin and his men-of-war to withdraw
+from Tientsin in 1858. The following year he was made a member of the
+Colonial Board that controlled the affairs of the "outer Barbarians,"
+and a year later was left in Peking, when the court fled, to arrange a
+treaty of peace with the victorious British and French after they had
+taken the capital. "In these trying circumstances," says Professor
+Giles, "the tact and resource of Prince Kung won the admiration of his
+opponents," and when the Foreign Office was formed in 1861, it began
+with the Prince as its first president, a position which he continued
+to hold for many years.
+
+It was he, as we have seen, who succeeded in outwitting and
+overthrowing the self-constituted regency on the death of his brother
+Hsien Feng, and, with the Empress Dowager, seated her infant son upon
+the throne, with the two Empresses and himself as joint regents. This
+condition continued for some years, with the senior Empress exercising
+no authority, and Prince Kung continually growing in power. The
+arrangement seemed satisfactory to all but one--the Empress-mother. To
+her it appeared as though he were fast becoming the government, and she
+and the Empress were as rapidly receding into the background, while in
+reality the design had been to make him "joint regent" with them. In
+all the receptions of the officials by the court, Prince Kung alone
+could see them face to face, while the ladies were compelled to remain
+behind a screen, listening to the deliberations but without taking any
+part therein, other than by such suggestions as they might make.
+
+Being the visible head of the government, and the only avenue to
+positions of preferment, he would naturally be flattered by the Chinese
+officials. This led him to assume an air of importance which
+consciously or unconsciously he carried into the presence of their
+Majesties, and one morning he awoke to find himself stripped of all his
+rank and power, and confined and guarded a prisoner in his palace, by a
+joint decree from the two Empresses accusing him of "lack of respect
+for their Majesties." The deposed Prince at once begged their
+forgiveness, whereupon all his honours were restored with their
+accompanying dignities, but none of his former power as joint regent,
+and thus the first obstacle to her reestablishment of the dynasty was
+eliminated by the Empress-mother. To show Prince Kung, however, that
+they bore him no ill will, the Empresses adopted his daughter as their
+own, raising her to the rank of an imperial princess, and though the
+Prince has long since passed away his daughter still lives, and next to
+the Empress Dowager has been the leading figure in court circles during
+the past ten years' association with the foreigners.
+
+During her son's minority, after the dismissal of Prince Kung as joint
+regent, the Empress-mother year by year took a more active part in the
+affairs of state, while the Empress as gradually sank into the
+background. She was far-sighted. Having but one son, and knowing the
+uncertainty of life, she originated a plan to secure the succession to
+her family. To this end she arranged for the marriage of her younger
+sister to her husband's younger brother commonly known as the Seventh
+Prince, in the hope that from this union there might come a son who
+would be a worthy occupant of the dragon throne in case her own son
+died without issue. She felt that the country needed a great central
+figure capable of inspiring confidence and banishing uncertainty, a
+strong, well-balanced, broad-minded, self-abnegating chief executive,
+and she proposed to furnish one. Whether she would succeed or not must
+be left to the future to reveal, but the one great task set by destiny
+for her to accomplish was to prepare the mind of a worthy successor to
+meet openly and intelligently the problems which had been too vast, too
+new and too complicated for her predecessors, if not for herself, to
+solve.
+
+When her son was seventeen years old he was married to Alute, a young
+Manchu lady of one of the best families in Peking and was nominally
+given the reins of power, though as a matter of fact the supreme
+control of affairs was still in the hands of his more powerful mother.
+The ministers of the European countries, England, France, Germany,
+Russia and the United States, now resident at Peking, thought this a
+good time for bringing up the matter of an audience with the new ruler,
+and after a long discussion with Prince Kung and the Empress-mother,
+the matter was arranged without the ceremony of prostration which all
+previous rulers had demanded.
+
+The married life of this young couple was a short one. Three years
+after their wedding ceremonies the young monarch contracted smallpox
+and died without issue, and was followed shortly afterwards by his
+young wife who heeded literally the instruction of one of their female
+teachers in her duty to her husband to
+
+  Share his joy as well as sorrow, riches, poverty or guilt,
+  And in death be buried with him, as in life you shared his guilt.
+
+That her nearest relatives did not believe, as has often been
+suggested, that there was any "foul play" in regard to her death, is
+evident from the fact that her father continued to hold office until
+the time of the Boxer uprising, at which time he followed the fleeing
+court as far as Paotingfu, where having heard that the capital was in
+the hands of the hated foreigners, he sent word back to his family that
+he would neither eat the foreigners' bread nor drink their water, but
+would prefer to die by his own hand. When his family received this
+message they commanded their servants to dig a great pit in their own
+court in which they all lay and ordered the coolies to bury them. This
+they at first refused to do, but they were finally prevailed upon, and
+thus perished all the male members of her father's household except one
+child that was rescued and carried away by a faithful nurse.
+
+When Tung Chih died there was a formidable party in the palace opposed
+to the two dowagers, anxious to oust them and their party and place
+upon the throne a dissolute son of Prince Kung. But it would require a
+master mind from the outside to learn of the death of her son and
+select and proclaim a successor quicker than the Empress Dowager
+herself could do so from the inside. She first sent a secret messenger
+to Li Hung-chang whom she had appointed viceroy of the metropolitan
+province at Tientsin eighty miles away, informing him of the illness of
+her son and urging him to come to Peking with his troops post-haste and
+be ready to prevent any disturbance in case of his death and the
+announcement of a successor.
+
+When Li Hung-chang received her orders, he began at once to put them
+into execution. Taking with him four thousand of his most reliable
+Anhui men, all well-armed horse, foot and artillery, he made a secret
+forced march to Peking. The distance of eighty miles was covered in
+thirty-six hours and he planned to arrive at midnight. Exactly on the
+hour Li and his picked guard were admitted, and in dead silence they
+marched into the Forbidden City. Every man had in his mouth a wooden
+bit to prevent talking, while the metal trappings of the horses were
+muffled to deaden all sound. When they arrived at the forbidden
+precincts, the Manchu Bannermen on guard at the various city gates were
+replaced by Li's Anhui braves, and as the Empress Dowager had sent
+eunuchs to point out the palace troops which were doubtful or that had
+openly declared for the conspirators, these were at once disarmed,
+bound and sent to prison. The artillery were ordered to guard the gates
+of the Forbidden City, the cavalry to patrol the grounds, and the
+foot-soldiers to pick up any stray conspirators that could be found. A
+strong detachment was stationed so as to surround the Empress Dowager
+and the child whom she had selected as a successor to her son, and when
+the morning sun rose bright and clear over the Forbidden City the
+surprise of the conspirators who had slept the night away was complete.
+Of the disaffected that remained, some were put in prison and others
+sent into perpetual exile to the Amoor beyond their native borders, and
+when the Empress Dowager announced the death of her son, she proclaimed
+the son of her sister, Kuang Hsu, as his successor, with herself and
+the Empress as regents during his minority. When everything was
+settled, Li folded his tent like the Arab, and stole away as silently
+as he had come.
+
+The wisdom and greatness of the Empress Dowager were thus manifested in
+binding to the throne the greatest men not only in the capital but in
+the provinces. Li Hung-chang had won his title to greatness during the
+Tai-ping rebellion, for his part in the final extinction of which he
+was ennobled as an Earl. From this time onward she placed him in the
+highest positions of honour and power within sufficient proximity to
+the capital to have his services within easy reach. For twenty-four
+years he was kept as viceroy of the metropolitan province of Chihli,
+with the largest and best drilled army at his command that China had
+ever had, and yet during all this time he realized that he was watched
+with the eyes of an eagle lest he manifest any signs of rebellion,
+while his nephew was kept in the capital as a hostage for his good
+conduct. Once and again when he had reached the zenith of his power, or
+had been feted by foreign potentates enough to turn the head of a
+bronze Buddha, his yellow jacket and peacock feather were kindly but
+firmly removed to remind him that there was a power in Peking on whom
+he was dependent.
+
+Li Hung-chang's greatness made him many enemies. Those whom he
+defeated, those whom he would not or could not help, those whom he
+punished or put out of office, and those whose enmity was the result of
+jealousy. When the war with Japan closed and the Chinese government
+sent Chang Yin-huan to negotiate a treaty of peace, the Japanese
+refused to accept him, nor were they willing to take up the matter
+until "Li Hung-chang was appointed envoy, chiefly because of his great
+influence over the government, and the respect in which he was held by
+the people." We all know how he went, how he was shot in the face by a
+Japanese fanatic, the ball lodging under the left eye, where it
+remained a memento which he carried to the grave. We all know how he
+recovered from the wound, and how because of his sufferings he was able
+to negotiate a better treaty than he could otherwise have done. Then he
+returned home, and only "the friendship of the Empress and his own
+personal sufferings saved his life," says Colonel Denby, for "the new
+treaty was urgently denounced in China" by carping critics who would
+not have been recognized as envoys by their Japanese enemies.
+
+In 1896 he was appointed to attend the coronation of the Czar at
+Moscow, and thence continued his trip around the world. Never before
+nor since has a Chinese statesman or even a prince been feted as he was
+in every country through which he passed. When he was about to start,
+at his request I had a round fan painted for him, with a map of the
+Eastern hemisphere on one side and the Western on the other, on which
+all the steamship lines and railroads over which he was to travel were
+clearly marked, with all the ports and cities at which he expected to
+stop. He was photographed with Gladstone, and hailed as the "Bismarck
+of the East," but when he returned to Peking, for no reason but
+jealousy, "he was treated as an extinct volcano." The Empress Dowager
+invited him to the Summer Palace where he was shown about the place by
+the eunuchs, treated to tea and pipes, and led into pavilions where
+only Her Majesty was allowed to enter, and then denounced to the Board
+of Punishments who were against him to a man. And now this Grand
+Secretary whom kings and courts had honoured, whom emperors and
+presidents had feted, and our own government had spent thirty thousand
+dollars in entertaining, was once more stripped of his yellow jacket
+and peacock feather, and fined the half of a year's salary as a member
+of the Foreign Office, which was the amusing sum of forty-five taels or
+about thirty-five dollars gold, and it was said in Peking at the time
+that only the intercession of the Empress Dowager saved him from
+imprisonment or further disgrace.
+
+During the whole regency of the Empress Dowager only two men have
+occupied the position of President of the Grand Council--Prince Kung
+and Prince Ching. While the former was degraded many times and had his
+honours all taken from him, the latter "has kept himself on top of a
+rolling log for thirty years" without losing any of the honours which
+were originally conferred upon him. The same is true of Chang
+Chih-tung, Liu Kun-yi and Wang Wen-shao, three great viceroys and Grand
+Secretaries whom the Empress Dowager has never allowed to be without an
+important office, but whom she has never degraded. Need we ask the
+reason why? The answer is not far to seek. They were the most eminent
+progressive officials she had in her empire, but none of them were
+great enough to be a menace to her dynasty, and hence need not be
+reminded that there was a power above them which by a stroke of her pen
+could transfer them from stars in the official firmament to dandelions
+in the grass. Not so with Yuan Shih-kai--but we will speak of him in
+another chapter.
+
+All the great officials thus far mentioned have belonged to the
+progressive rather than the conservative party, all of them the
+favourites of the Empress Dowager, placed in positions of influence and
+kept in office by her, all of them working for progress and reform, and
+yet she has been constantly spoken of by European writers as a
+reactionary. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as we shall see.
+Nevertheless she kept some of the great conservative officials in
+office either as viceroys or Grand Secretaries that she might be able
+to hear both sides of all important questions.
+
+One of these conservatives was Jung Lu, the father-in-law of the
+present Regent. When she placed Yuan Shih-kai in charge of the army of
+north China, she also appointed Jung Lu as Governor-General of the
+metropolitan province of Chihli. One was a progressive, the other a
+conservative. Neither could make any important move without the
+knowledge and consent of the other. Whether the Empress Dowager foresaw
+the danger that was likely to arise, we do not know, but she provided
+against it. We refer to the occasion when in 1898 the Emperor ordered
+Yuan Shih-kai to bring his troops to Peking, guard the Empress Dowager
+a prisoner in the Summer Palace, and protect him in his efforts at
+reform. The story belongs in another chapter, but we refer to it here
+to show how the Empress Dowager played one official against another,
+and one party against another, to prevent any such calamity or
+surprise. It would have been impossible for Yuan Shih-kai to have taken
+his troops to Peking for any purpose without first informing his
+superior officer Jung Lu unless he put him to death, much less to have
+gone on such a mission as that of imprisoning as important a personage
+as the Empress Dowager, to whom they were both indebted for their
+office.
+
+Another instance of the way in which the Empress Dowager played one
+party against another was the appointment of Prince Tuan as a member of
+the Foreign Office. After his son had been selected as the
+heir-apparent it seemed to the Empress Dowager that for his own
+education and development he should be made to come in contact with the
+foreigners. Most of the foreigners considered the appointment
+objectionable on account of the "Prince's anti-foreign tendencies. But
+to my mind," says Sir Robert Hart, "it was a good one; the Empress
+Dowager had probably said to the Prince, 'You and your party pull one
+way, Prince Ching and his another--what am I to do between you? You,
+however, are the father of the future Emperor, and have your son's
+interests to take care of; you are also head of the Boxers and chief of
+the Peking Field Force, and ought therefore to know what can and what
+cannot be done. I therefore appoint you to the yamen; do what you
+consider most expedient, and take care that the throne of your
+ancestors descends untarnished to your son, and their empire
+undiminished! yours is the power,--yours the responsibility--and yours
+the chief interests!' I can imagine the Empress Dowager taking this
+line with the Prince, and, inasmuch as various ministers who had been
+very anti-foreign before entering the yamen had turned round and
+behaved very sensibly afterwards, I felt sure that responsibility and
+actual personal dealings with foreigners would be a good experience and
+a useful education for this Prince, and that he would eventually be one
+of the sturdiest supporters of progress and good relations."
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The Empress Dowager--As a Reactionist
+
+The most interesting personage in China during the past thirty years
+has been and still is without doubt the lady whom we style the Empress
+Dowager. The character of the Empress's rule can only be judged by what
+it was during the regency, when she was at the head of every movement
+that partook of the character of reform. Foreign diplomacy has failed,
+for want of a definite centre of volition and sensation to act upon. It
+had no fulcrum for its lever. Hence only force has ever succeeded in
+China. With a woman like the Empress might it not be possible really to
+transact business?--Blackwood's Magazine.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A REACTIONIST
+
+It was between November 1, 1897, and April 16, 1898, that Germany,
+Russia, France and England wrested from the weak hands of the Emperor
+Kuang Hsu the four best ports in the Chinese empire, leaving China
+without a place to rendezvous a fleet. The whole empire was aroused to
+indignation, and even in our Christian schools, every essay, oration,
+dialogue or debate was a discussion of some phase of the subject, "How
+to reform and strengthen China." The students all thought, the young
+reformers all thought, and the foreigners all thought that Kuang Hsu
+had struck the right track. The great Chinese officials, however, were
+in doubt, and it was because of their doubt--progressives as well as
+conservatives--that the Empress Dowager was again called to the throne.
+
+Now may I request the enemies of the Empress Dowager to ask themselves
+what they would have done if they had been placed at the head of their
+own government when it was thus being filched from them? You say she
+was anti-foreign--would you have been very much in love with Germany,
+Russia, France and England under those circumstances? That she acted
+unwisely in placing herself in the hands of the conservatives and
+allying herself with the superstitious Boxers, we must all frankly
+admit. But what would you have done? Might you not--I do not say you
+would with your intelligence--but might you not have been induced to
+have clutched at as great a log as the patriotic Boxers seemed to
+present, if you had been as near drowning as she was?
+
+"It is generally supposed," says one of her critics, "that Kang Yu-wei
+suggested to the Emperor, that if he would render his own position
+secure, he must retire the Empress Dowager, and decapitate Jung Lu." If
+that be true, and I think it very reasonable, the condition must have
+been desperate, when the reformers had to begin killing the greatest of
+their opponents, and imprisoning those who had given them their power,
+though neither of these at that time had raised a hand against them.
+Have you noticed how ready we are to forgive those on our side for
+doing that for which we would bitterly condemn our opponents? The same
+people who condemn the Empress Dowager for beheading the six young
+reformers stand ready to forgive Kuang Hsu for ordering the
+decapitation of Jung Lu, and the imprisonment of his foster-mother.
+
+There were two powerful factions in Peking, the progressives, headed by
+Prince Ching; and the conservatives, headed by Jung Lu. Now the Empress
+Dowager may have reasoned thus: "The progressives and reformers have
+had their day. They have tried their plans and they have failed. The
+only result they have secured is peace--but peace always at the expense
+of territory. Now I propose to try another plan. I will part with no
+more ports, and I will resist to the death every encroachment." She
+therefore took up Li Ping-heng, who had been deposed from the
+governorship of Shantung at the time of the murder of the German
+missionaries, and appointed him Generalissimo of the forces of the
+Yangtse, where he no doubt promised to resist to the last all
+encroachments of the foreigners in that part of the empire while Jung
+Lu was retained in Peking as head of all the forces of the province of
+Chihli and the Northern Squadron. She then appointed Kang Yi, another
+conservative, equally as anti-foreign as Li Ping-heng, to inspect the
+fortifications and garrisons of the empire, and to raise an immense sum
+of money for the depleted treasury. In his visits to the southern
+provinces, Kang Yi at this time raised not less than two million taels,
+which was no doubt spent in the purchase of guns and ammunition and
+other preparations for war. Yu Hsien, another equally conservative
+Manchu, she appointed Governor of Shantung to succeed Li Ping-heng, and
+it is to him the whole Boxer uprising is due. Moreover when he, at the
+repeated requests of the foreigners, was removed from Shantung, she
+received him in audience at Peking, conferred upon him additional
+honours and appointed him Governor of the adjoining province of Shansi,
+where, and under whose jurisdiction, almost all the massacres were
+committed. Indeed Yu Hsien may be considered the whole Boxer movement,
+for this seems to have been his plan for getting rid of the foreigners.
+
+But while thus allying herself with the conservatives, the Empress
+Dowager did not cut herself off from the progressives. Li Hung-chang
+was appointed Viceroy of Kuangtung, Yuan Shih-kai Governor of Shantung
+and Tuan Fang of Shensi while Liu Kun-yi, Chang Chih-tung, and Kuei
+Chun were kept at their posts, so that she had all the greatest men of
+both parties once more in her service. Then she began sending out
+edicts, retracting those issued by Kuang Hsu, and what could be more
+considerate of the feelings of the Emperor, or more diplomatic as a
+state paper than the following, issued in the name of Kuang Hsu,
+September 26, 1898.
+
+"Our real desire was to make away with superfluous posts for the sake
+of economy: whereas, on the contrary, we find rumours flying abroad
+that we intended to change wholesale the customs of the empire, and, in
+consequence, innumerable impossible suggestions of reform have been
+presented to us. If we allowed this to go on, none of us would know to
+what pass matters would come. Hence, unless we hasten to put our
+present wishes clearly before all, we greatly fear that the petty yamen
+officials and their underlings will put their own construction on what
+commands have gone before, and create a ferment in the midst of the
+usual calm of the people. This will indeed be contrary to our desire,
+and put our reforms for strengthening and enriching our empire to
+naught.
+
+"We therefore hereby command that the Supervisorate of Instruction and
+other five minor Courts and Boards, which were recently abolished by us
+and their duties amalgamated with other Boards for the sake of economy,
+etc., be forthwith restored to their original state and duties, because
+we have learned that the process of amalgamation contains many
+difficulties and will require too much labour. We think, therefore, it
+is best that these offices be not abolished at all, there being no
+actual necessity for doing this. As for the provincial bureaus and
+official posts ordered to be abolished, the work in this connection can
+go on as usual, and the viceroys and governors are exhorted to work
+earnestly and diligently in the above duty. Again as to the edict
+ordering the establishment of an official newspaper, the Chinese
+Progress, and the privilege granted to all scholars and commoners to
+memorialize us on reforms, etc., this was issued in order that a way
+might be opened by which we could come into touch with our subjects,
+high and low. But as we have also given extra liberty to our censors
+and high officers to report to us on all matters pertaining to the
+people and their government, any reforms necessary, suggested by these
+officers, will be attended to at once by us. Hence we consider that our
+former edict allowing all persons to report to us is, for obvious
+reasons, superfluous, with the present legitimate machinery at hand.
+And we now command that the privilege be withdrawn, and only the proper
+officers be permitted to report to us as to what is going on in our
+empire. As for the newspaper Chinese Progress, it is really of no use
+to the government, while, on the other hand, it will excite the masses
+to evil; hence we command the said paper to be suppressed.
+
+"With regard to the proposed Peking University and the middle schools
+in the provincial capitals, they may go on as usual, as they are a
+nursery for the perfection of true ability and talents. But with
+reference to the lower schools in the sub-prefectures and districts
+there need be no compulsion, full liberty being given to the people
+thereof to do what they please in this connection. As for the
+unofficial Buddhist, Taoist, and memorial temples which were ordered to
+be turned into district schools, etc., so long as these institutions
+have not broken the laws by any improper conduct of the inmates, or the
+deities worshipped in them are not of the seditious kind, they are
+hereby excused from the edict above noted. At the present moment, when
+the country is undergoing a crisis of danger and difficulty, we must be
+careful of what may be done, or what may not, and select only such
+measures as may be really of benefit to the empire."
+
+I submit the above edict to the reader requesting him to study it, and,
+if necessary to its understanding, to copy it, and see if the Empress
+Dowager has not preserved the best there is in it, viz., "the Peking
+University, and the middle schools in the provincial capitals," "full
+liberty being given to the people with reference to the lower schools
+in the sub-prefectures and districts to do as they please." How much
+oil would be cast on how many troubled waters can only be realized by
+the unfortunate priests and dismissed officials and people upon whom
+"there need be no compulsion"!
+
+Three days after the foregoing, on September 29th, she issued another
+edict purporting to come from the Emperor, ordering the punishment of
+Kang Yu-wei and others of his confreres. Now, if it is true that Kang
+Yu-wei advised the Emperor to behead Jung Lu and imprison the Empress
+Dowager, for no cause whatsoever, how would you have been inclined to
+treat him supposing you had been in her place? The decree says:
+
+"All know that we try to rule this empire by our filial piety towards
+the Empress Dowager; but Kang Yu-wei's doctrines have always been
+opposed to the ancient Confucian tenets. Owing, however, to the ability
+shown by the said Kang Yu-wei in modern and practical matters, we
+sought to take advantage of it by appointing him a secretary of the
+Foreign Office, and subsequently ordered him to Shanghai to direct the
+management of the official newspaper there. Instead of this, however,
+he dared to remain in Peking pursuing his nefarious designs against the
+dynasty, and had it not been for the protection given by the spirits of
+our ancestors he certainly would have succeeded. Kang Yu-wei is
+therefore the arch conspirator, and his chief assistant is Liang
+Chi-tsao, M. A., and they are both to be immediately arrested and
+punished for the crime of rebellion. The other principal conspirators,
+namely, the Censor Yang Shen-hsin, Kang Kuang-jen--the brother of Kang
+Yu-wei--and the four secretaries of the Tsungli Yamen, Tan Sze-tung,
+Liu Hsin, Yang Jui, and Liu Kuang-ti, we immediately ordered to be
+arrested and imprisoned by the Board of Punishments: but fearing that
+if any delay ensued in sentencing them they would endeavour to entangle
+a number of others, we accordingly commanded yesterday (September 28th)
+their immediate execution, so as to close the matter entirely and
+prevent further troubles."
+
+This with the execution of one or two other officials is the greatest
+crime that can be laid at the door of the Empress Dowager--great enough
+in all conscience--yet not to be compared to those of "good Queen Bess."
+
+We now come to what is said to have been a secret edict issued by the
+Empress Dowager to her viceroys, governors, Tartar generals and the
+commanders-in-chief of the provinces, dated November 21, 1899. And this
+I regard as one of the greatest and most daring things that great woman
+ever undertook.
+
+After the Empress Dowager had taken the throne, Italy, following the
+example set by the other powers, demanded the cession of Sanmen Bay in
+the province of Chekiang. But she found a different ruler on the
+throne, and to her great surprise, as well as that of every one else,
+China returned a stubborn refusal. Moreover, she began to prepare to
+resist the demand, and it soon became evident that to obtain it, Italy
+must go to war. This she had not the stomach for and so the demand was
+withdrawn. This explanation will go far towards helping us to
+understand the following secret edict of November 21st, to which I have
+already referred.
+
+"Our empire is now labouring under great difficulties which are
+becoming daily more and more serious. The various Powers cast upon us
+looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavours
+to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories. They think
+that China, having neither money nor troops, would never venture to go
+to war with them. They fail to understand, however, that there are
+certain things that this empire can never consent to, and that, if
+hardly pressed upon, we have no alternative but to rely upon the
+justice of our cause, the knowledge of which in our breasts strengthens
+our resolves and steels us to present a united front against our
+aggressors. No one can guarantee, under such circumstances, who will be
+the victor and who the vanquished in the end. But there is an evil
+habit which has become almost a custom among our viceroys and governors
+which, however, must be eradicated at all costs. For instance, whenever
+these high officials have had on their hands cases of international
+dispute, all their actions seem to be guided by the belief in their
+breasts that such cases would eventually be 'amicably arranged.' These
+words seem never to be out of their thoughts: hence, when matters do
+come to a crisis, they, of course, find themselves utterly unprepared
+to resist any hostile aggressions on the part of the foreigner. We,
+indeed, consider this the most serious failure in the duty which the
+highest provincial authorities owe to the throne, and we now find it
+incumbent upon ourselves to censure such conduct in the most severe
+terms.
+
+"It is our special command, therefore, that should any high official
+find himself so hard pressed by circumstances that nothing short of war
+would settle matters, he is expected to set himself resolutely to work
+out his duty to this end. Or, perhaps, it would be that war has already
+actually been declared; under such circumstances there is no possible
+chance of the imperial government consenting to an immediate conference
+for the restoration of peace. It behooves, therefore, that our
+viceroys, governors, and commanders-in-chief throughout the whole
+empire unite forces and act together without distinction or
+particularizing of jurisdictions so as to present a combined front to
+the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their officers and soldiers in
+person to fight for the preservation of their homes and native soil
+from the encroaching footsteps of the foreign aggressor. Never should
+the word 'Peace' fall from the mouths of our high officials, nor should
+they even allow it to rest for a moment within their breasts. With such
+a country as ours, with her vast area, stretching out several tens of
+thousands of li, her immense natural resources, and her hundreds of
+millions of inhabitants, if only each and all of you would prove his
+loyalty to his Emperor and love of country, what, indeed, is there to
+fear from any invader? Let no one think of making peace, but let each
+strive to preserve from destruction and spoliation his ancestral home
+and graves from the ruthless hands of the invader."
+
+One of her critics, referring to the last sentence of the above edict,
+asks: "Do not these words throw down the gauntlet?" And we answer, yes.
+Did not the thirteen colonies throw down the gauntlet to England for
+less cause? Did not Japan throw down the gauntlet to Russia for less
+cause than the Empress Dowager had for desiring that "each strive TO
+PRESERVE FROM DESTRUCTION AND SPOLIATION HIS ANCESTRAL HOME AND
+GRAVES"? It was not for conquest but for self-preservation the Empress
+Dowager was ready to go to war; not for glory but for home; not against
+a taunting neighbour, but against a "ruthless invader." Her unwisdom
+did not consist in her being ready to go to war, but in allowing
+herself to be allied to, and depend upon, the superstitious rabble of
+Boxers, and to believe that her "hundreds of millions" of undisciplined
+"inhabitants" could withstand the thousands or tens of thousands of
+well-drilled, well-led, intelligent soldiers from the West.
+
+That she was ready to go to war rather than weakly yield to the demands
+for territory from the European powers is further evidenced by the
+following edict issued by the Tsungli Yamen to the viceroys and
+governors:
+
+"This yamen has received the special commands of her Imperial Majesty
+the Empress Dowager, and his Imperial Majesty the Emperor, to grant you
+full power and liberty to resist by force of arms all aggressions upon
+your several jurisdictions, proclaiming a state of war, if necessary,
+without first asking instructions from Peking; for this loss of time
+may be fatal to your security, and enable the enemy to make good his
+footing against your forces."
+
+In order to strengthen her position she appointed two commissioners
+whom she sent to Japan in the hope of forming a secret defensive
+alliance with that nation against the White Peril from the West. For
+once, however, she made a mistake in the selection of her men, for
+these commissioners, unlike what we usually find the yellow man,
+revealed too much of the important mission on which they were bent, and
+were recalled in disgrace, and the treaty came to naught.
+
+
+
+V
+
+The Empress Dowager--As a Reformer
+
+Taught by the failure of a reaction on which she had staked her life
+and her throne, the Dowager has become a convert to the policy of
+progress. She has, in fact, outstripped her nephew. "Long may she
+live!" "Late may she rule us!" During her lifetime she may be counted
+on to carry forward the cause she has so ardently espoused. She grasps
+the reins with a firm hand; and her courage is such that she does not
+hesitate to drive the chariot of state over many a new and untried
+road. She knows she can rely on the support of her viceroys--men of her
+own appointment. She knows too that the spirit of reform is abroad in
+the land, and that the heart of the people is with her.--W. A. P.
+Martin in "The Awakening of China."
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A REFORMER
+
+In June, 1902, soon after the return of the court from Hsian to Peking,
+a company of ladies from the various legations in Peking who had
+received invitations to an audience and a banquet with the Empress
+Dowager were asked to meet at one of the legations for the purpose of
+consultation. The meeting was unusual. Many of those who were present
+had no higher motive than the ordinary tourist who goes sightseeing.
+With the exception of one or two who had been in once before, none of
+these ladies had ever been present at an audience. Several of them
+however had passed through the Boxer siege of 1900, had witnessed the
+guns from the wall of the Imperial City pouring shot and shell into the
+British legation, where they were confined during those eight memorable
+weeks of June, July and August, and had come out with their hearts
+filled with resentment. One of them had received a decoration from her
+government for her bravery in standing beside her husband on the
+fortifications when buildings were crumbling and walls falling, and her
+husband was buried by an exploding mine, and then vomited out unhurt by
+a second explosion. Among the number were several recent arrivals in
+Peking who had had none of these bitter experiences, but had heard much
+of the Empress Dowager, and above all things else they were anxious to
+see her whom they called the "She Dragon."
+
+The presiding officer had been longest in Peking, and as doyen of these
+diplomatic ladies, she acted as chairman of the meeting. The first
+question to be decided was the mode of conveyance to the "Forbidden
+City." Without much discussion it was decided to use the sedan chair,
+as being the most dignified, and used only by Chinese ladies of rank.
+The chairman then called for an expression of opinion as to the method
+of procedure in presentation to the throne. One suggested that they
+have no ceremony about it, but all go up to the throne together, for in
+this way none would take precedence, but all would have an equal
+opportunity of satisfying their curiosity and scrutinizing this female
+dragon ad libitum. Another said: "It will be broiling hot on that June
+day, and it will be better to keep at a safe distance from her, with
+plenty of guards to protect us, or we may be broiled in more senses
+than one." The chairman looked worried at these suggestions, but still
+kept her dignity and her equilibrium. Then a mild voice suggested that
+it was customary in all audiences for those presented to courtesy to
+the one on the throne. "Courtesy!" broke in an indignant voice, "it
+would be more appropriate for her to prostrate herself at our feet and
+beg us to forgive her for trying to shoot us, than for us to courtesy
+to her." It was finally decided, however, that the same formalities be
+observed as were followed by the ministers when received at court. I
+give these incidents to show the temper that prevailed among the
+members of some of the legations at Peking at the time of this first
+audience.
+
+"When a few days later we followed the long line of richly-robed
+princesses into the audience-hall, all this was changed. As we looked
+at the Empress Dowager seated upon her throne on a raised dais, with
+the Emperor to her left and members of the Grand Council kneeling
+beside her, and these dignified, stately princesses courtesying until
+their knees touched the floor, we forgot the resentful feeling
+expressed in the meeting a few days before, and, awed by her majestic
+bearing and surroundings, we involuntarily gave the three courtesies
+required from those entering the imperial presence. We could not but
+feel that this stately woman who sat upon the throne was every inch an
+empress. In her hands rested the weal or woe of one-third of the human
+race. Her brilliant black eyes seemed to read our thoughts. Indeed she
+prides herself upon the fact that at a glance she can read the
+character of every one that appears before her."
+
+After the ladies had taken their position in order of their rank, the
+doyen presented their good wishes to Her Majesty, which was replied to
+by a few gracious words from the throne. Each lady's name was then
+announced and as she was formally presented she ascended the dais, and
+as she courtesied, the Empress Dowager extended her hand which she
+took, and then passed to the left to be introduced in a similar way to
+the Emperor.
+
+It was thus she began her reforms in the customs of the court, which up
+to this time had kept her ever behind the screen, compelled to wield
+the sceptre from her place of concealment, equally shut out from the
+eyes of the world and blind to the needs of her people. Up to her time
+the people and the nation were the slaves of age-old customs, but
+before the power of her personality rites and ceremonies became the
+servants of the people. In the words of the poet she seemed to feel that
+
+                           "Rules
+           Are well; but never fear to break
+           The scaffolding of other souls;
+           It was not meant for thee to mount,
+           Though it may serve thee."
+
+
+Without taking away from the Emperor the credit of introducing the
+railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, the new system of education,
+and many other reforms, we must still admit that it was the
+personality, power and statesmanship of the Empress Dowager that
+brought about the realization of his dreams. The movement towards
+female education as described in another chapter must ever be placed to
+the credit of this great woman. From the time she came from behind the
+screen, and allowed her portrait to be painted, the freedom of woman
+was assured.
+
+One day when calling at the American legation I was shown two large
+photographs of Her Majesty. One some three feet square was to be sent
+to President Roosevelt, the other was a gift to Major Conger. Similar
+photographs had been sent to all the ministers and rulers represented
+at Peking, and I said to myself: "The Empress Dowager is shrewd. She
+knows that false pictures of her have gone forth. She knows that the
+painted portrait is not a good likeness, and so she proposes to have
+genuine pictures in the possession of all civilized governments." This
+shrewdness was not necessarily native on her part, but was engendered
+by the arguments that had been used by those who induced her to be the
+first Chinese monarch to have her portrait painted by a foreign artist.
+
+A few years ago the Empress Dowager had a dream, which, like every act
+of hers, was greater than any of those of her brilliant nephew. This
+dream was to give a constitution to China. Of course, if this were done
+it would have to be by the Manchus, as the government was theirs, and
+any radical changes that were made would have to be made by the people
+in power. The Empress Dowager, however, wanted the honour of this move
+to reflect upon herself, and hoped to be able to bring it to a
+successful issue during her lifetime.
+
+There was strenuous opposition, and this most vigorous in the party in
+which she had placed herself when she dethroned Kuang Hsu. The
+conservatives regarded this as the wildest venture that had yet been
+made, and were ready to use all their influence to prevent it;
+nevertheless the Empress Dowager called to her aid the greatest and
+most progressive of the Manchus, the Viceroy Tuan Fang, and appointed
+him head of a commission which she proposed to send on a tour of the
+world to examine carefully the various forms of government, with the
+purpose of advising her, on their return, as to the possibility of
+giving a constitution to China.
+
+A special train was provided to take the commission from Peking to
+Tientsin. It was drawn up at the station just outside the gate in front
+of the Emperor's palace. The commission had entered the car, and the
+narrow hall or aisle along the side was crowded with those who had come
+to see them off, when, BANG, there was an explosion, the side of the
+car was blown out, several were injured, including slight wounds to
+some of the members of the commission, and the man carrying the bomb
+was blown into an unrecognizable mass. For a few days the city was in
+an uproar. Guards were placed at all the gates, especially those
+leading to the palace, and every possible effort was made to identify
+the nihilist. But as all efforts failed, and nothing further transpired
+to indicate that he had accomplices, the commission separated and
+departing individually without display, reunited at Tientsin and
+started on their tour of inspection.
+
+This commission was splendidly entertained wherever it went, given
+every possible opportunity to examine the constitutions of the
+countries through which it passed, and on its return to Peking the
+report of the trip was published in one hundred and twenty volumes, the
+most important item of which was that a constitution, modelled after
+that of Japan, should be given to China at as early a date as possible.
+
+The leader of this expedition, His Excellency the Viceroy Tuan Fang, is
+one of the greatest, if not the greatest living Manchu statesman. Like
+Yuan Shih-kai, during the Boxer uprising, he protected all the
+foreigners within his domains. That he appreciates the work done by
+Americans in the opening up of China is evidenced by a statement made
+in his address at the Waldorf Astoria, in February, 1906, in which he
+said:
+
+"We take pleasure this evening in bearing testimony to the part taken
+by American missionaries in promoting the progress of the Chinese
+people. They have borne the light of Western civilization into every
+nook and corner of the empire. They have rendered inestimable service
+to China by the laborious task of translating into the Chinese language
+religious and scientific works of the West. They help us to bring
+happiness and comfort to the poor and the suffering, by the
+establishment of hospitals and schools. The awakening of China, which
+now seems to be at hand, may be traced in no small measure to the
+influence of the missionary. For this service you will find China not
+ungrateful."
+
+Some may think that this was simply a sentiment expressed on this
+particular occasion because he happened to be surrounded by secretaries
+and others interested in this cause. That this is not the case is
+further indicated by the fact that since that time he has on two
+separate occasions attended the commencement exercises of the Nanking
+University, on one of which he addressed the students as follows:
+
+"This is the second time I have attended the commencement exercises of
+your school. I appreciate the good order I find here. I rejoice at the
+evidences I see of your knowledge of the proprieties, the depth of your
+learning, and the character of the students of this institution. I am
+deeply grateful to the president and faculty for the goodness
+manifested to these my people. I have seen evidences of it in every
+detail. It is my hope that when these graduates go out into the world,
+they will remember the love of their teachers, and will practice that
+virtue in their dealing with others. The fundamental principle of all
+great teachers whether of the East or the West is love, and it remains
+for you, young gentlemen, to practice this virtue. Thus your knowledge
+will be practical and your talents useful."
+
+I have given these quotations as evidences of the breadth of the man
+whom the Empress Dowager selected as the head of this commission. It is
+not generally known, however, that Duke Tse, another important member
+of this commission, is married to a sister of the young Empress
+Yehonala, and consequently a niece of the Empress Dowager. Such
+relations existed between Her Majesty and the viceroy, as ruler and
+subject, that it would be impossible for him to give her the intimate
+account of their trip that a relative could give. It would be equally
+impossible, with all her other duties, to wade through a report such as
+they published after their return of one hundred and twenty volumes.
+But it would be a delight to call in this nephew-in-law, and have him
+sit or kneel, and may we not believe she allowed him to sit? and give
+her a full and intimate account of the trip and the countries through
+which they passed. She was anxious that this constitution should be
+given to the people before she passed away. This, however, could not
+be. Whether it will be adopted within the time allotted is a question
+which the future alone can answer.
+
+The next great reform undertaken by the Empress Dowager was her crusade
+against opium. The importance of this can only be estimated when we
+consider the prevalence of the use of the drug throughout the empire.
+The Chinese tell us that thirty to forty per cent. of the adult
+population are addicted to the use of the drug.
+
+One day while walking along the street in Peking, I passed a gateway
+from which there came an odour that was not only offensive but
+sickening. I went on a little distance further and entered one of the
+best curio shops of the city, and going into the back room, I found the
+odour of the street emphasized tenfold, as one of the employees of the
+firm had just finished his smoke. I left this shop and went to another
+where the proprietor had entirely ruined his business by his use of the
+drug, and it was about this time that the Empress Dowager issued the
+following edict:
+
+"Since the first prohibition of opium, almost the whole of China has
+been flooded with the poison. Smokers of opium have wasted their time,
+neglected their employment, ruined their constitutions, and
+impoverished their households. For several decades therefore China has
+presented a spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness. To merely
+mention the matter, arouses our indignation. The court has now
+determined to make China powerful, and to this end we urge our people
+to reformation in this respect.
+
+"We, therefore, decree that within a limit of ten years this injurious
+filth shall be completely swept away. We further order the Council of
+State to consider means of prohibition both of growing the poppy and
+smoking the opium."
+
+The Council of State at once drew up regulations designed to carry out
+this decree. They were among others:
+
+That all opium-smokers be required to report and take out a license.
+
+Officials using the drug were divided into two classes. Young men must
+be cured of the habit within six months, while for old men no limit was
+fixed. But both classes, while under treatment, must furnish
+satisfactory substitutes, at their own expense, to attend to the duties
+of their office.
+
+All opium dens must be closed within six months, after which time no
+opium-pipes nor lamps may be either made or sold. Though shops for the
+sale of the drug may continue for ten years, the limit of the traffic.
+
+The government promises to provide medicine for the cure of the habit,
+and encourages the formation of anti-opium societies, but will not
+allow these societies to discuss other political matters.
+
+Next to China Great Britain is the party most affected by this movement
+towards reform. When this edict was issued Great Britain was shipping
+annually fifty thousand chests of opium to the Chinese market, but at
+once agreed that if China was sincere in her desire for reform, and cut
+off her own domestic productions at the rate of ten per cent. per
+annum, she would decrease her trade at a similar rate. It is
+unfortunate that the Empress Dowager should have died before this
+reform had been carried to a successful culmination, but whatever may
+be the result of the movement the fact and the credit of its initiation
+will ever belong to her.
+
+Such are some of the special reform measures instituted by the Empress
+Dowager, but in addition to these she has seen to it that the Emperor's
+efforts to establish a Board of Railroads, a Board of Mines,
+educational institutions on the plans of those of the West, should all
+be carried out. She has not only done away with the old system of
+examinations, but has introduced a new scheme by which all those who
+have graduated from American or European colleges may obtain Chinese
+degrees and be entitled to hold office under the government, by passing
+satisfactory examinations, not a small part of which is the diploma or
+diplomas which they hold. Such an examination has already been held and
+a large number of Western graduates, most of them Christian, were given
+the Chu-jen or Han-lin degrees.
+
+
+
+VI
+
+The Empress Dowager--As an Artist
+
+There is no genre that the Chinese artist has not attempted. They have
+treated in turn mythological, religious and historical subjects of
+every kind; they have painted scenes of daily familiar life, as well as
+those inspired by poetry and romance; sketched still life, landscapes
+and portraits. Their highest achievements, perhaps, have been in
+landscapes, which reveal a passionate love for nature, and show with
+how delicate a charm, how sincere and lively a poetic feeling, they
+have interpreted its every aspect. They have excelled too at all
+periods in the painting of animals and birds, especially of birds and
+flying insects in conjunction with flowers.--S. W. Bushell in "Chinese
+Art."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS AN ARTIST
+
+One day the head eunuch from the palace of the Princess Shun called at
+our home to ask Mrs. Headland to go and see the Princess. While sitting
+in my study and looking at the Chinese paintings hanging on the wall,
+two of which were from the brush of Her Majesty, he remarked:
+
+"You are fond of Chinese art?"
+
+"I am indeed fond of it," I answered.
+
+"I notice you have some pictures painted by the Old Buddha," he
+continued, referring to the Empress Dowager by a name by which she is
+popularly known in Peking.
+
+"Yes, I have seven pictures from her brush," I answered.
+
+"Do you happen to have any from the brush of the Lady Miao, her
+painting teacher?" he inquired.
+
+"I am sorry to say I have not," I replied. "I have tried repeatedly to
+secure one, but thus far have failed. I have inquired at all the best
+stores on Liu Li Chang, the great curio street, but they have none, and
+cannot tell me where I can find one."
+
+"No, you cannot get them in the stores; she does not paint for the
+trade," he explained.
+
+"I am sorry," I continued, "for I should like very much to get one. I
+am told she is a very good artist."
+
+"Oh, yes, she paints very well," he went on in a careless way. "She
+lives over near our palace. We have a good many of her paintings. They
+are very easily gotten."
+
+"It may be easy for you to get them," I replied, "but it is no small
+task for me."
+
+"If you want some," he volunteered, "I'll get some for you."
+
+"That would be very kind of you," I answered, "but how would you
+undertake to get them?"
+
+"Oh, I would just steal a few and bring them over to you."
+
+It is hardly necessary to assure my readers as I did him that I could
+not approve of this method of obtaining paintings from the Lady Miao's
+brush. However he must have told the Princess of my desire, for the
+next time Mrs. Headland called at the palace the Princess entertained
+her by showing her a number of paintings by the Lady Miao, together
+with others from the brush of the Empress Dowager.
+
+"And these are really the work of Her Majesty?" said Mrs. Headland with
+a rising inflection.
+
+"Yes, indeed," replied the Princess. "I watched her at work on them.
+They are genuine."
+
+It was some weeks thereafter that Mrs. Headland was again invited to
+call and see the Princess, and to her surprise she was introduced to
+the Lady Miao, with whom and the Princess she spent a very pleasant
+social hour or two. When she was about to leave, the Princess, who is
+the youngest sister of the Empress Yehonala, brought out a picture of a
+cock about to catch a beetle, which she said she had asked Lady Miao to
+paint, and which she begged Mrs. Headland to receive as a present from
+the artist and herself.
+
+During the conversation Mrs. Headland remarked that the Empress Dowager
+must have begun her study of art many years ago.
+
+"Yes," said Lady Miao. "We were both young when she began. Shortly
+after she was taken into the palace she began the study of books, and
+partly as a diversion, but largely out of her love for art, she took up
+the brush. She studied the old masters as they have been reproduced by
+woodcuts in books, and from the paintings that have been preserved in
+the palace collection, and soon she exhibited rare talent. I was then a
+young woman, my brothers were artists, my husband had passed away, and
+I was ordered to appear in the palace and work with her."
+
+"You are a Chinese, are you not, Lady Miao?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, "and as it has not been customary for Chinese
+ladies to appear at court during the present dynasty, I was allowed to
+unbind my feet, comb my hair in the Manchu style, and wear the gowns of
+her people."
+
+"And did you go into the palace every day?"
+
+"When I was young I did. Ten Thousand Years"--another method of
+speaking of the Empress Dowager--"was very enthusiastic over her art
+work in those days, and often we spent a large part of the day either
+with our brushes, or studying the history of art, the examples in the
+books, or the works of the old masters in the gallery. One of her
+favourite presents to her friends, as you probably know, is a picture
+from her own brush, decorated with the impress of her great jade seal,
+the date, and an appropriate poem by one of the members of the College
+of Inscriptions. And no presents that she ever gives are prized more
+highly by the recipients than these paintings."
+
+I had seen pictures painted by Her Majesty decorating the walls of the
+palaces of several of the princes, as well as the homes of a number of
+my official friends. Some of them I thought very attractive, and they
+seemed to be well done. They were highly prized by their owners, but I
+was anxious to know what the Lady Miao thought of her ability as an
+artist, and so I asked:
+
+"Do you consider the Empress Dowager a good painter?"
+
+"The Empress Dowager is a great woman," she answered. "Of course, as an
+artist, she is an amateur rather than a professional. Had she devoted
+herself wholly to art, hers would have been one of the great names
+among our artists. She wields her brush with a power and precision
+which only genius added to practice can give. She has a keen
+appreciation of art, and it is a pity that the cares of state might not
+have been borne by others, leaving her free to develop her instinct for
+art."
+
+The Empress Dowager kept eighteen court painters, selected from among
+the best artists of the country, and appointed by herself, whose whole
+duty it was to paint for her. They were divided into three groups, and
+each group of six persons was required to be on duty ten days of each
+month. As I was deeply interested in the study of Chinese art I became
+intimately acquainted with most of the court painters and knew the
+character of their work. The head of this group was Mr. Kuan. I called
+on him one day, knowing that he was not well enough to be on duty in
+the palace, and I found him hard at work. Like the small boy who told
+his mother that he was too sick to go to school but not sick enough to
+go to bed, so he assured me that his troubles were not such as to
+prevent his working, but only such as make it impossible for him to
+appear at court. Incidentally I learned that the drain on his purse
+from the squeezes to the eunuchs aggravated his disease.
+
+"When Her Majesty excused me from appearing at the palace," he
+explained, "she required that I paint for her a minimum of sixty
+pictures a year, to be sent in about the time of the leading feasts.
+These she decorates with her seals, and with appropriate sentiments
+written by members of the College of Inscriptions, and she gives them,
+as she gives her own, as presents during the feasts." Mr. Kuan and I
+became intimate friends and he painted three pictures which he
+presented to me for my collection.
+
+One day another of the court painters came to call on me and during the
+conversation told me that he was painting a picture of the Empress
+Dowager as the goddess of mercy. Up to that time I had not been
+accustomed to think of her as a goddess of mercy, but he told me that
+she not infrequently copied the gospel of that goddess with her own
+pen, had her portrait painted in the form of the goddess which she used
+as a frontispiece, bound the whole up in yellow silk or satin and gave
+it as a present to her favourite officials. Of course I thought at once
+of my collection of paintings, and said:
+
+"How much I should like to have a picture of the Empress Dowager as the
+goddess of mercy!"
+
+"I'll paint one for you," said he.
+
+All this conversation I soon discovered was only a diplomatic
+preliminary to what he had really come to tell me, which was that he
+had been eating fish in the palace a few days before, and had swallowed
+a fish-bone which had unfortunately stuck in his throat. He said that
+the court physicians had given him medicine to dissolve the fish-bone,
+but it had not been effective; he therefore wondered whether one of the
+physicians of my honourable country could remove it. I took him to my
+friend Dr. Hopkins who lived near by, and told him of the dilemma. The
+doctor set him down in front of the window, had him open his mouth,
+looked into his throat where he saw a small red spot, and with a pair
+of tweezers removed the offending fish-bone. And had it not been for
+this service on the part of Dr. Hopkins, I am afraid I should never
+have received the promised picture, for he hesitated as to the
+propriety of him, a court painter, doing pictures of Her Majesty for
+his friends. However as he often thereafter found it necessary to call
+Mrs. Headland to minister to his wife and children he came to the
+conclusion that it was proper for him to do so, and one day he brought
+me the picture.
+
+The Empress Dowager not only loved to be painted as the goddess of
+mercy, but she clothed herself in the garments suitable to that deity,
+dressed certain ladies of the court as her attendants, with the head
+eunuch Li Lien-ying as their protector, ordered the court artists to
+paint appropriate foreground and background and then called young Yu,
+her court photographer, to snap his camera and allow Old Sol the great
+artist of the universe with a pencil of his light to paint her as she
+was.
+
+One day while visiting a curio store on Liu Li Chang, the great book
+street of Peking, my attention was called by the dealer to four small
+paintings of peach blossoms in black and white, from the brush of the
+Empress Dowager. These pictures had been in the panels of the partition
+between two of the rooms of Her Majesty's apartments in the Summer
+Palace, and so I considered myself fortunate in securing them.
+
+"You notice," said he, "that each section of these branches must be
+drawn by a single stroke of the brush. This is no easy task. She must
+be able to ink her brush in such a way as to give a clear outline of
+the limb, and at the same time to produce such shading as she may
+desire. Should her outline be defective, she dare not retouch it;
+should her shading be too heavy or insufficient, she cannot take from
+it and she may not add to it, as this would make it defective in the
+matter of calligraphy. A stroke once placed upon her paper, for they
+are done on paper, is there forever. This style of work is among the
+most difficult in Chinese art."
+
+After securing these paintings, I showed them to a number of the best
+artists of the present day in Peking, and they all pronounced them good
+specimens of plum blossom work in monochrome, and they agreed with Lady
+Miao, that if the Empress Dowager had given her whole time to painting
+she would have passed into history as one of the great artists of the
+present dynasty.
+
+One day when one of her court painters called I showed him these
+pictures. He agreed with all the others as to the quality of her brush
+work, but called my attention to a diamond shaped twining of the
+branches in one of them.
+
+"That," said he, "is proof positive that it is her work."
+
+"Why?" I inquired.
+
+"Because a professional artist would never twine the twigs in that
+fashion."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"They would not do it," he replied. "It is not artistic."
+
+"And why do not her friends call her attention to this fact?" I
+inquired.
+
+"Who would do it?" was his counter question.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+The Empress Dowager--As a Woman
+
+The first audience given by Her Imperial Majesty to the seven ladies of
+the Diplomatic Corps was sought and urged by the foreign ministers.
+After the troubles of 1900 and the return of the court, Her Majesty
+assumed a different attitude, and, of her own accord, issued many
+invitations for audiences, and these invitations were accepted. Then
+followed my tiffin to the court princesses and their tiffin in return.
+This opened the way for other princesses and wives of high officials to
+call, receive calls, to entertain and be entertained. In many cases
+arrangements were made through our mutual friend Mrs. Headland, an
+accepted physician and beloved friend of many of the higher Chinese
+families; and through her innate tact, broad thought, and great love
+for the good she may do, I have been able to come into personal touch
+with many of these Chinese ladies.--Mrs. E. H. Conger in "Letters from
+China".
+
+
+VII
+
+THE EMPRESS DOWAGER-AS A WOMAN
+
+Although the great Dowager has passed away, it may be interesting to
+know something about her life and character as a woman as those saw her
+who came in contact with her in public and private audiences. In order
+to appreciate how quick she was to adopt foreign customs, let me give
+in some detail the difference in her table decorations at the earlier
+and later audiences as they have been related by my wife.
+
+"At the close of the formalities of our introduction to the Empress
+Dowager and the Emperor at one of the first audiences, we, with the
+ladies of the court, repaired to the banqueting hall. After we were
+seated, each with a princess beside her, the great Dowager appeared. We
+rose and remained standing while she took her place at the head of the
+table, with the Emperor standing at her left a little distance behind
+her. As she sat down she requested us to be seated, though the
+princesses and the Emperor all remained standing, it being improper for
+them to sit in the presence of Her Majesty. Long-robed eunuchs then
+appeared with an elaborate Chinese banquet, and the one who served the
+Empress Dowager always knelt when presenting her with a dish.
+
+"After we had eaten for some little time, the doyen asked if the
+princesses might not be seated. The Empress Dowager first turned to the
+Emperor, and said, 'Your Majesty, please be seated'; then turning to
+the princesses and waving her hand, she told them to sit down. They sat
+down in a timid, rather uncomfortable way on the edge of the chair, but
+did not presume to touch any of the food.
+
+"The conversation ran upon various topics, and, among others, the Boxer
+troubles. One of the ladies wore a badge. The Empress Dowager noticing
+it, asked what it meant.
+
+"'Your Majesty,' was the reply, 'this was presented to me by my Emperor
+because I was wounded in the Boxer insurrection.'
+
+"The Empress Dowager took the hands of this lady in both her own, and
+as the tears stood in her eyes, she said:
+
+"'I deeply regret all that occurred during those troublous times. The
+Boxers for a time overpowered the government, and even brought their
+guns in and placed them on the walls of the palace. Such a thing shall
+never occur again.'
+
+"The table was covered with brilliantly coloured oilcloth, and was
+without tablecloth or napkins properly so called, but we used as
+napkins square, coloured bits of calico about the size of a large
+bandana handkerchief. There were no flowers, the table decorations
+consisting of large stands of cakes and fruit. I speak of this because
+it was all changed at future audiences, when the table was spread with
+snow-white cloths, and smiled with its load of most gorgeous flowers.
+Especially was this true after the luncheons given to the princesses
+and ladies of the court by Mrs. Conger at the American legation,
+showing that the eyes of these ladies were open to receive whatever
+suggestions might come to them even in so small a matter as the
+spreading and decoration of a table. The banquets thereafter were made
+up of alternating courses of Chinese and foreign food.
+
+"With but one exception, the Empress Dowager thereafter never appeared
+at table with her guests. But at the close of the formal audiences,
+after descending from the throne, and speaking to those whom she had
+formerly met, she requested her guests to enter the banquet hall and
+enjoy the feast with the princesses, saying that the customs of her
+country forbade their being seated or partaking of food if she were
+present. After the banquet, however, the Empress Dowager always
+appeared and conversed cordially with her guests.
+
+"Her failure to appear at table may have been influenced by the
+following incident: One of the leading lady guests, anxious, no doubt,
+to obtain a unique curio, requested the Empress Dowager to present her
+with the bowl from which Her Majesty was eating--a bowl which was
+different from those used by her guests, as the dishes from which her
+food was served were never the same as those used by others at the
+table!
+
+"After an instant's hesitation she turned to a eunuch and said:
+
+"'We cannot give her one bowl [the Chinese custom being always to give
+things in pairs]; go and prepare her two.'
+
+"Then, turning to her guests, she continued apologetically:
+
+"'I should be glad to give bowls to each of you, but the Foreign Office
+has requested me not to give presents at this audience.' It had been
+her custom to give each of her guests some small gift with her own
+hands and afterwards to send presents by her eunuchs to their homes.
+
+"On another occasion the lady referred to above took an ornament from a
+cabinet and was carrying it away when the person in charge of these
+things requested that it be restored, saying that she was responsible
+for everything in the room and would be punished if anything were
+missing.
+
+"The above incidents do not stand alone. It was not uncommon for some
+of the Continental guests, in the presence of the court ladies, to make
+uncomplimentary remarks about the food, which was Chinese, and often
+not very palatable to the foreigner. These remarks, of course, were not
+supposed to be understood, though the Empress Dowager always had her
+own interpreter at table. One often felt that some of these ladies, in
+their efforts to see all and get all, forgot what was due their own
+country as well as their imperial hostess.
+
+"One can understand the enormity of such an offense in a court the
+etiquette of which is so exacting that none of her own subjects ever
+dared appear in her presence until they had been properly instructed in
+court etiquette in the 'Board of Rites,' a course of instruction which
+may extend over a period of from a week to six months. These breaches
+of politeness on the part of these foreign ladies may have been
+overlooked by Her Majesty and the princesses, but, if so, it was on the
+old belief that all outside of China were barbarians.
+
+"All the ladies who attended these audiences, however, were not of this
+character. There were those who realized the importance of those
+occasions in the opening up of China, and were scrupulous in their
+efforts to conform to the most exacting customs of the court. And who
+can doubt that the warm friendship which the Empress Dowager conceived
+for Mrs. Conger, the wife of our American minister, who did more than
+any other person ever did, or ever can do, towards the opening up of
+the Chinese court to the people of the West, was because of her
+appreciation of the fact that Mrs. Conger was anxious to show the
+Empress Dowager the honour due to her position.
+
+"It was in her private audiences that this great woman's tact,
+womanliness, fascination and charm as a hostess appeared. Taking her
+guest by the hand, she would ask in the most solicitous way whether we
+were not tired with our journey to the palace; she would deplore the
+heat in summer or the cold in winter; she would express her anxiety
+lest the refreshments might not have been to our taste; she would tell
+us in the sincerest accents that it was a propitious fate that had made
+our paths meet; and she would charm each of her guests, even though
+they had been formerly prejudiced against her, with little separate
+attentions, which exhibited her complete power as a hostess.
+
+"When opportunity offered, she was always anxious to learn of foreign
+ways and institutions. On one occasion while in the theatre, she called
+me to her side, and, giving me a chair, inquired at length into the
+system of female education in America.
+
+"'I have heard,' she said, 'that in your honourable country all the
+girls are taught to read.'
+
+"'Quite so, Your Majesty.'
+
+"'And are they taught the same branches of study as the boys?'
+
+"'In the public schools they are.'
+
+"'I wish very much that the girls in China might also be taught, but
+the people have great difficulty in educating their boys.'
+
+"I then explained in a few words our public-school system, to which she
+replied:
+
+"'The taxes in China are so heavy at present that it would be
+impossible to add another expense such as this would be.'
+
+"It was not long thereafter, however, before an edict was issued
+commending female education, and at the present time hundreds of girls'
+schools have been established by private persons both in Peking and
+throughout the empire.
+
+"On another occasion, while the ladies were having refreshments, the
+Empress Dowager requested me to come to her private apartments, and
+while we two were alone together, with only a eunuch standing by
+fanning with a large peacock-feather fan, she asked me to tell her
+about the church. It was apparent from the beginning of her
+conversation that she made no distinction between Roman Catholics and
+Protestants, calling them all the Chiao. I explained to her that the
+object of the church was the intellectual, moral, and spiritual
+development of the people, making them both better sons and better
+subjects.
+
+"Few women are more superstitious than the Empress Dowager. Her whole
+life was influenced by her belief in fate, charms, good and evil
+spirits, gods and demons.
+
+"When it was first proposed that she have her portrait painted for the
+St. Louis Exposition, she was dumfounded. After a long conversation,
+however, in which Mrs. Conger explained that portraits of many of the
+rulers of Europe would be there, including a portrait of Queen
+Victoria, and that such a painting would in a way counteract the false
+pictures of her that had gone abroad, she said that she would consult
+with Prince Ching about the matter. This looked very much as though it
+had been tabled. Not long thereafter, however, she sent word to Mrs.
+Conger, asking that Miss Carl be invited to come to Peking and paint
+her portrait.
+
+"We all know how this portrait had to be begun on an auspicious day;
+how a railroad had to be built to the Foreign Office rather than have
+the portrait carried out on men's shoulders, as though she were dead;
+how she celebrated her seventieth birthday when she was sixty-nine, to
+defeat the gods and prevent their bringing such a calamity during the
+celebration as had occurred when she was sixty, when the Japanese war
+disturbed her festivities. On her clothes she wore the ideographs for
+'Long Life and 'Happiness,' and most of the presents she gave were
+emblematic of some good fortune. Her palace was decorated with great
+plates of apples, which by a play on words mean 'Peace,' and with
+plates of peaches, which mean 'Longevity.' On her person she wore
+charms, one of which she took from her neck and placed on the neck of
+Mrs. Conger when she was about to leave China, saying that she hoped it
+might protect her during her journey across the ocean, as it had
+protected herself during her wanderings in 1900, and she would not
+allow any one to appear in her presence who had any semblance of
+mourning about her clothing.
+
+"It is a well-known fact that no Manchu woman ever binds her feet, and
+the Empress Dowager was as much opposed to foot-binding as any other
+living woman. Nevertheless, she would not allow a subject to presume to
+suggest to her ways in which she should interfere in the social customs
+of the Chinese, as one of her subjects did. This lady was the wife of a
+Chinese minister to a foreign country, and had adopted both for herself
+and her daughters the most ultra style of European dress. She one day
+said to Her Majesty, 'The bound feet of the Chinese woman make us the
+laughing-stock of the world.'
+
+"'I have heard,' said the Empress Dowager, 'that the foreigners have a
+custom which is not above reproach, and now since there are no
+outsiders here, I should like to see what the foreign ladies use in
+binding their waist.'
+
+"The lady was very stout, and had the appearance of an hour-glass, and
+turning to her daughter, a tall and slender maiden, she said:
+
+"'Daughter, you show Her Majesty.'
+
+"The young lady demurred until finally the Empress Dowager said:
+
+"'Do you not realize that a request coming from me is the same as a
+command?'
+
+"After having had her curiosity satisfied, she sent for the Grand
+Secretary and ordered that proper Manchu outfits be secured for the
+lady's daughters, saying:
+
+"'It is truly pathetic what foreign women have to endure. They are
+bound up with steel bars until they can scarcely breathe. Pitiable!
+Pitiable!'
+
+"The following day this young lady did not appear at court, and the
+Empress Dowager asked her mother the reason of her absence.
+
+"'She is ill to-day,' the mother replied.
+
+"'I am not surprised,' replied Her Majesty, 'for it must require some
+time after the bandages have been removed before she can again compress
+herself into the same proportions,' indicating that the Empress Dowager
+supposed that foreign women slept with their waists bound, just as the
+Chinese women do with their feet."
+
+The first winter I spent in China, twenty years ago, was one of great
+excitement in Peking. The time of the regency of the Empress Dowager
+for the boy-emperor had ended. I have explained how a prince is not
+allowed to marry a princess because she is his relative, or even a
+commoner his cousin for the same reason. That is the rule. But rules
+were made to be broken, and when the time came for Kuang Hsu's
+betrothal the Empress Dowager decided to marry this son of her sister
+to the daughter of her brother. It mattered not that the young man was
+opposed to the match and wanted another for his wife. The Empress
+Dowager had set her heart upon this union, and she would not allow her
+plans to be frustrated, so an edict was issued that all people should
+remain within their homes on a certain night, for the bride was to be
+taken in her red chair from her father's home to the palace. So that in
+this as in all other things her will was law for all those about her.
+
+She was a bit below the average height, but she wore shoes, in the
+centre of whose soles there were--heels, shall we call them?--six
+inches high. These, together with her Manchu garments, which hang from
+the shoulders, gave her a tall and stately appearance and made her
+seem, as she was, every inch an empress. Her figure was perfect, her
+carriage quick and graceful, and she lacked nothing physically to make
+her a splendid type of womanhood and ruler. Her features were more
+vivacious and pleasing than they were really beautiful; her complexion
+was of an olive tint, and her face illumined by orbs of jet half hidden
+by dark lashes, behind which lurked the smiles of favour or the
+lightning flashes of anger.
+
+When seated upon the throne she was majesty itself, but the moment she
+stepped down from the august seat, and took ones hand in both of hers,
+saying with the most amiable of smiles: "What a kind fate it is that
+has allowed you to come and see me again. I hope you are not over-weary
+with the long journey," one felt that she was, above all, a woman, a
+companion, a friend--yet for all that the mistress of every situation,
+whether diplomatic, business, or social.
+
+I wish her mental characteristics could be described as completely as
+Japanese and other photographers have given us pictures of her person.
+But perhaps if this were possible she would seem less interesting. And
+it may be that in the relation of these few incidents of her career
+there may have been revealed something of the patriotism, the
+statesmanship, the imperious will, and the ambitions that brought about
+the reestablishment and the continuation of the dynasty of her people.
+We have seen how the enemies of her country fell before her sword.
+Dangerous statesmen fell before her pen, and if they were fortunate
+enough to rise again with all their honour it was to be divested of all
+their former power. Every obstacle in her path was overcome either by
+diplomacy or by force.
+
+The Empress Dowager has no double in Chinese history, if indeed in the
+history of the world. She not only guided the ship of state during the
+last half century, but she guided it well, and put into operation all
+the greatest reforms that have ever been thought of by Chinese
+statesmen. Compared with her own people, she stands head and shoulders
+above any other woman of the Mongol race. And what shall we say of her
+compared with the great women of other races? In strength of character
+and ability she will certainly not suffer in any comparison that can be
+made. We cannot, therefore, help admiring that young girl, who formerly
+ran errands for her mother who, being made the concubine of an emperor,
+became the mother of an emperor, the wife of an emperor, the maker of
+an emperor, the dethroner of an emperor, and the ruler of China for
+nearly half a century--all this in a land where woman has no standing
+or power. Is it too much to say that she was the greatest woman of the
+last half century?
+
+
+
+VII
+
+Kuang Hsu--His Self-Development
+
+The Emperor Kuang Hsu is slight and delicate, almost childish in
+appearance, of pale olive complexion, and with great, melancholy eyes.
+There is a gentleness in his expression that speaks rather of dreaming
+than of the power to turn dreams into acts. It is strange to find a
+personality so etherial among the descendants of the Mongol hordes; yet
+the Emperor Kuaug Hsu might sit as a model for some Oriental saint on
+the threshold of the highest beatitude.--Charles Johnston in "The
+Crisis in China."
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+KUANG HSU--HIS SELF-DEVELOPMENT
+
+On the night that the son of the Empress Dowager "ascended upon the
+dragon to be a guest on high," two sedan chairs were borne out of the
+west gate of the Forbidden City, through the Imperial City, and into
+the western part of the Tartar City, in one of which sat the senior
+Empress and in the other the Empress-mother. The streets were dimly
+lighted, but the chairs, each carried by four bearers, were preceded
+and followed by outriders bearing large silk lanterns in which were
+tallow-candles, while a heavy cart with relays of bearers brought up
+the rear. The errand upon which they were bent was an important
+one--the making of an emperor--for by the death of Tung Chih, the
+throne, for the first time in the history of the dynasty, was left
+without an heir. Their destination was the home of the Seventh Prince,
+the younger brother of their husband, to whom as we have already said
+the Empress Dowager had succeeded in marrying her younger sister, who
+was at that time the happy mother of two sons.
+
+She took the elder of these, a not very sturdy boy of three years and
+more, from his comfortable bed to make him emperor, and one can imagine
+they hear him whining with a half-sleepy yawn: "I don't want to be
+emperor. I want to sleep." But she bundled little Tsai Tien up in
+comfortable wraps, took him out of a happy home, from a loving father
+and mother, and a jolly little baby brother,--out of a big beautiful
+world, where he would have freedom to go and come at will, toys to play
+with, children to contend with him in games, and everything in a home
+of wealth that is dear to the heart of a child. And for what? She
+folded him in her arms, adopted him as her own son, and carried him
+into the Forbidden--and no doubt to him forbidding--City, where his
+world was one mile square, without freedom, without another child
+within its great bare walls, where he was the one lone, solitary man
+among thousands of eunuchs and women. The next morning when the
+imperial clan assembled to condole with her on the death of her son,
+she bore little Tsai Tien into their midst declaring: "Here is your
+emperor."
+
+At that time there were situated on Legation Street, in Peking, two
+foreign stores that had been opened without the consent of the Chinese
+government, for in those days the capital had not been opened to
+foreign trade. As the stores were small, and in such close proximity to
+the various legations, the most of whose supplies they furnished, they
+seem to have been too unimportant to attract official attention, though
+they were destined to have a mighty influence on the future of China.
+One of them was kept by a Dane, who sold foreign toys, notions,
+dry-goods and groceries such as might please the Chinese or be of use
+to the scanty European population of the great capital. By chance some
+of the eunuchs from the imperial palace, wandering about the city in
+search of something to please little Tsai Tien, dropped into this store
+on Legation Street and bought some of these foreign toys for his infant
+Majesty.
+
+They had already ransacked the city for Chinese toys. They had gone to
+every fair, visited every toy-shop, called upon every private dealer,
+and paid high prices for samples of their best work made especially for
+the royal child. There were crowing cocks and cackling hens; barking
+dogs and crying infants; music balls and music carts; horns, drums,
+diabolos and tops; there were gingham dogs and calico cats; camels,
+elephants and fierce tigers; and a thousand other toys, if only he had
+had other children to share them with him. But none of them pleased
+him. They lacked that subtile something which was necessary to minister
+to the peculiar genius of the child.
+
+Among the foreign toys there were some in which there was concealed a
+secret spring which seemed to impart life to the otherwise dead
+plaything. Wind them up and they would move of their own energy. This
+was what the boy needed,--something to appeal to that machine-loving
+disposition which nature had given him, and Budge and Toddy were never
+more curious to know "what made the wheels go round" than was little
+Tsai Tien. He played with them as toys until overcome by curiosity,
+when, like many another child, he tore them apart and discovered the
+secret spring. This was as much of a revelation to the eunuchs as to
+the child, and they went and bought other toys of a more curious
+pattern, and a more intricate design, and it was not long until, at the
+instigation of the enterprising Dane, the toy-shops of Europe were
+manufacturing playthings specially designed to please the almond-eyed
+baby Emperor in the yellow-tiled palace in Peking.
+
+As the child grew the business of the Dane shopkeeper increased. His
+stock became larger and more varied, and Tsai Tien continued to be a
+profitable customer. There were music boxes and music carts--real music
+carts, not like those from the Chinese shops,--trains of cars, wheeled
+boats, striking clocks and Swiss watches which, when the stem was
+pulled, would strike the hour or half or quarter, and all these were
+bought in turn by the eunuchs and taken into the palace. As the Emperor
+grew to boyhood the Danish shopkeeper supplied toys suitable to his
+years from his inexhaustible shelves, until all the most intricate and
+wonderful toys of Europe, suitable for a boy, had passed through the
+hands of Kuang Hsu,--"continued brilliancy," as his name implied--and
+he seemed to be making good the meaning of his name.
+
+We would not lead any one to believe that Kuang Hsu was an ideal child.
+He was not. If we may credit the reports that came from the palace in
+those days, he had a temper of his own. If he were denied anything he
+wanted, he would lie down on his baby back on the dirty ground and kick
+and scream and literally "raise the dust" until he got it. My wife
+tells me that not infrequently when she called at the Chinese homes,
+and they set before her a dish of which she was especially fond, and
+she had eaten of it as much as she thought she ought, the ladies would
+ask in a good-natured way in reply to some of her remarks about her
+voracious appetite, "Shall we get down and knock our heads on the
+floor, and beg you not to eat too much, and make yourself sick, like
+the eunuchs do to the Emperor?" There is nothing to wonder at that
+Kuang Hsu, without parental restraint, and fawned upon by cringing
+eunuchs and serving maids, should have been a spoiled child; the wonder
+is that he was not worse than he was.
+
+One day in 1901 while the court was absent at Hsian, and the front gate
+of the Forbidden City was guarded by our "boys in blue," I obtained a
+pass and visited the imperial palace. The apartments of the Emperor
+consisted of a series of one-story Chinese buildings, with paper
+windows around a large central pane of glass, tile roof and brick
+floor. The east part of the building appeared to be the living-room,
+about twenty by twenty-five feet. The window on the south side extended
+the entire length of the room, and was filled with clocks from end to
+end. There were clocks of every description from the finest French
+cloisonne to the most intricate cuckoo clocks from which a bird hopped
+forth to announce the hour, and each ticking its own time regardless of
+every other. Tables were placed in various parts of the room, on each
+of which were one, two or three clocks. Swiss watches of the most
+curious and unique designs hung about the walls. Two sofas sat back to
+back in the centre of the room, and a beautiful little gilt desk on
+which was the most wonderful of all his clocks, with several large
+foreign chairs upholstered in plush and velvet, completed the
+furniture. I sat down in one of these chairs to rest, for it was a hot
+summer day, and immediately there proceeded from beneath me sweet
+strains of music from a box concealed beneath the cushion. It was not
+only a surprise, it was soothing and restful; and I was prepared to see
+an electric fan pop out of somewhere and fan me to sleep. It was really
+an Oriental fairy tale of an apartment.
+
+As Kuang Hsu grew to boyhood he heard that out in this great wonderful
+world, which he had never seen except with the eyes of a child, there
+was a method of sending messages to distant cities and provinces with
+the rapidity of a flash of lightning. For centuries he and his
+ancestors had been sending their edicts, and their Peking Gazette or
+court newspaper--the oldest journal in the world--by runner, or relays
+of post horses, and the possibility of sending them by a lightning
+flash appealed to him. He believed in doing things, and, as we shall
+see later, he wanted to do them as rapidly as they could be done. He
+therefore ordered that a telegraph outfit be secured for him, which he
+"played with" as he had done with his most ingenious toys, and the
+telegraph was soon established for court use throughout the empire.
+
+One day a number of officials came to us at the Peking University and
+in the course of a conversation they said:
+
+"The Emperor has heard that the foreigners have invented a talk box. Is
+that true?"
+
+"Quite true," we replied, "and as we have one in the physical
+laboratory of the college we will let you see it."
+
+We had one of the old Edison phonographs which worked with a pedal, and
+looked very much like a sewing-machine, and we took them to the
+laboratory, allowed one of them to talk into it, and then set the
+machine to repeating what had been told it. The officials were
+delighted and it was not long until they again appeared and insisted on
+buying it as a present for the Emperor, for in this way better than any
+other they might hope to obtain official recognition and position.
+
+The Emperor then heard that the foreigners had invented a "fire-wheel
+cart," but whether he had ever been informed that they had built a
+small railroad at Wu-Sung near Shanghai, and that the Chinese had
+bought it, and then torn it up and thrown it into the river we cannot
+say. There are many things the officials and people do which never
+reach the imperial ears. However that may be, when Kuang Hsu heard of
+the railroad and the carts that were run by fire, he wanted one, and he
+would not be satisfied until they had built a narrow gauge railroad
+along the west shore of the lotus lake in the Forbidden City, and the
+factories of Europe had made two small cars and an engine on which he
+could take the court ladies for a ride on this unusual merry-go-round.
+The road and the cars and the engine were still there when I visited
+the Forbidden City in 1901, but they were carried away to Europe by
+some of the allies as precious bits of loot, before the court returned.
+
+Not long after he had heard of the railroads, he was told that the
+foreigners also had "fire-wheel boats." Of course he wanted some, and
+as I crossed the beautiful marble bridge that spans the lotus lake, I
+saw anchored near by three small steam launches which had evidently
+been used a good deal. I saw similar launches in the lake at the Summer
+Palace, and was told that in the play days of his boyhood, Kuang Hsu
+would have these launches hitched to the imperial barges and take the
+ladies of the court for pleasure trips about the lake in the cool of
+the summer evenings, as the Empress Dowager did her foreign visitors in
+later times.
+
+The Emperor in those days was on the lookout for everything foreign
+that was of a mechanical nature. Indeed every invention interested him.
+In this respect he was diametrically opposite to the genius of the
+whole Chinese people. Their faces had ever been turned backward, and
+their highest hopes were that they might approximate the golden ages of
+the past, and be equal in virtue to their ancestors. This feeling was
+so strong that a hundred years before he mounted the throne, his
+forefather, Chien Lung, when he had completed his cycle of sixty years
+as a ruler, vacated in favour of his son lest he should reign longer
+than his grandfather. Kuang Hsu was therefore the first occupant of the
+dragon throne whose face was turned to the future, and whose chief aim
+was to possess and to master every method that had enabled the peoples
+of the West to humiliate his people.
+
+When he heard that the foreigners had a method of talking to a distance
+of ten, twenty, fifty or five hundred miles, he did not say like the
+old farmer is reported to have said,--"It caint be trew, because my son
+John kin holler as loud as any man in all this country, an' he caint be
+heerd mor'n two miles." Kuang Hsu believed it, and at once ordered that
+a telephone be secured for him.
+
+In 1894 the Christian women of China decided to present a New Testament
+to the Empress Dowager on her sixtieth birthday which occurred the
+following year. New type was prepared, the finest foreign paper
+secured, and the book was made after the best style of the printer's
+art, with gilt borders, gilt edges, and bound in silver of an embossed
+bamboo pattern and encased in a silver box. It was then enclosed in a
+red plush box,--red being the colour indicating happiness,--which was
+in turn encased in a beautifully carved teak-wood box, and this was
+enclosed in an ordinary box and taken by the English and American
+ministers to the Foreign Office to be sent in to Her Majesty.
+
+The next day the Emperor sent to the American Bible Society for copies
+of the Old and New Testaments, such as were being sold to his people. A
+few days thereafter a Chinese friend--a horticulturist and gardener who
+went daily to the palace with flowers and vegetables--came to me in
+confidence as though bearing an important secret, and said:
+
+"Something of unusual importance is taking place in the palace."
+
+"Indeed?" said I; "what makes you think so?"
+
+"Heretofore when I have gone into the palace," said he, "the eunuchs
+have treated me with indifference. Yesterday they sat down and talked
+in a most familiar and friendly way, asking me all about Christianity.
+I told them what I could and they continued their conversation until
+long after noon. I finally became so hungry that I arose to come home.
+They urged me to stay, bringing in a feast, and inviting me to dine
+with them, and they kept me there till evening. One of them told me
+that the Emperor is studying the Gospel of Luke."
+
+"How does he know that?" I inquired.
+
+"That is what I asked him," he answered, "and he told me that he is one
+of the Emperor's private servants, and that His Majesty has a part of
+the Gospel copied in large characters on a sheet of paper each day,
+which he spreads out on the table before him, and this eunuch, standing
+behind his chair, can read what he is studying."
+
+On further inquiry I discovered that there was no other way that the
+eunuch could have learned about the Gospel, except in the way
+indicated. This man was invited to dine with the eunuchs day after day
+until he had told them all he knew about Christianity, after which they
+requested him to bring in the pastor of the church of which he was a
+member, and who was one of my former pupils, to dine with them and tell
+them more about the Gospel. The pastor hesitated to accept the
+invitation, but as it was repeated day after day, he finally
+accompanied the horticulturist.
+
+When offered wine at dinner the pastor refused it, at which the eunuch
+remarked: "Oh, yes, I have heard that you Christians do not drink
+wine," and like a polite host, the wine was put aside and none was
+drunk at the dinner. During the afternoon they took their guests to
+visit some of the imperial buildings, advanced the sum of three hundred
+dollars to the horticulturist to enlarge his plant, and gave various
+presents to the pastor.
+
+It must not be inferred from this that the Emperor was becoming a
+Christian. Very far from it, though the interest he took in the
+Christian doctrine set the people to studying about it, not only in
+Peking but throughout many of the provinces, as was indicated at the
+time by the number of Christian books sold. As early as 1891 he issued
+a strong edict ordering the protection of the missionaries in which he
+made the following statement: "The religions of the West have for their
+object the inculcation of virtue, and, though our people become
+converted, they continue to be Chinese subjects. There is no reason why
+there should not be harmony between the people and the adherents of
+foreign religions." The Chinese reported that he sometimes examined the
+eunuchs, lining them up in classes and catechising them from the books
+read.
+
+One day three of the eunuchs called on me with this same
+horticulturist, for the purpose no doubt of seeing a foreigner, and to
+get a glimpse of the home in which he lived. One of them was younger
+than the other two and above the average intelligence of his class. A
+few days later the horticulturist told me a story which illustrates a
+phase of the Emperor's character which we have already hinted at--his
+impulsive nature and ungovernable temper. He had ordered a number of
+the eunuchs to appear before him, all of whom except this young man
+were unable to come, because engaged in other duties. When the eunuch
+got down on his hands and knees to kotow or knock his head to His
+Majesty, the latter kicked him in the mouth, cutting his lip and
+otherwise injuring him, and my informant added:
+
+"What kind of a man is that to govern a country, a man who punishes
+those who obey his orders?" Indeed there was a good deal of feeling
+among the Chinese at that time that the Empress Dowager ought to punish
+the Emperor as a good mother does a bad child, though in the light of
+all the other things he did, he was to be pitied more than blamed for a
+disposition thus inherited and developed.
+
+It was about this time he began the study of English. He ordered that
+two teachers be appointed, and contrary to all former customs he
+allowed them to sit rather than kneel while they taught him. At the
+time they were selected I was exchanging lessons in English for Chinese
+with the grandson of one of these teachers, and learned a good deal
+about the progress the young man was making. He was in such a hurry to
+begin that he could not wait to send to England or America for books,
+and so the officials visited the various schools and missions in search
+of proper primers for a beginner. When they visited us we made a
+thorough search and finally Dr. Marcus L. Taft discovered an
+attractively illustrated primer which he had taken to China with him
+for his little daughter Frances, and this was sent to Kuang Hsu.
+
+One day a eunuch called on me saying that the Emperor had learned that
+the various institutions of learning, educational associations, tract
+and other societies had published a number of books in Chinese which
+they had translated from the European languages. I was at that time the
+custodian of two or three of these societies and had a great variety of
+Chinese books in my possession. I therefore sent him copies of our
+astronomy, geology, zoology, physiology and various other scientific
+books which I was at that time teaching in the university.
+
+The next day he called again, accompanied by a coolie who brought me a
+present of a ham cooked at the imperial kitchen, together with boxes of
+fruit and cakes, which, not being a man of large appetite, I thanked
+him for, tipped the coolie, and after he had gone, turned them over to
+our servants, who assured me that imperial meat was very palatable. Day
+after day for six weeks this eunuch visited me, and would never leave
+until I had found some new book for His Majesty. They might be
+literary, scientific or religious works, and he made no distinction
+between the books of any sect or society, institution or body, but with
+an equal zeal he sought them all. I was sometimes reduced to a sheet
+tract, and finally I was forced to take my wife's Chinese medical books
+out of her private library and send them in to the Emperor. I learned
+that other eunuchs were visiting other persons in charge of  other
+books, and that at this time Kuang Hsu bought every book that had been
+translated from any European language and published in the Chinese.
+
+One day the eunuch saw my wife's bicycle standing on the veranda and
+said:
+
+"What kind of a cart is that?"
+
+"That is a self-moving cart," I answered.
+
+"How do you ride it?" he inquired.
+
+I took the bicycle off the veranda, rode about the court a time or two,
+while he gazed at me with open mouth, and when I stopped he ejaculated:
+
+"That's queer; why doesn't it fall down?"
+
+"When a thing's moving," I answered, "it can't fall down," which might
+apply to other things than bicycles.
+
+The next day when he called he said:
+
+"The Emperor would like that bicycle," and my wife allowed him to take
+it in to Kuang Hsu, and it was not long thereafter until it was
+reported that the Emperor had been trying to ride the bicycle, that his
+queue had become entangled in the rear wheel, and that he had had a not
+very royal tumble, and had given it up,--as many another one has done.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+Kuang Hsu--As Emperor and Reformer
+
+In 1891 the present Emperor Kuang Hsu issued a very strong edict
+commanding good treatment of the missionaries. He therein made the
+following statement: "The religions of the West have for their object
+the inculcation of virtue, and, though our people become converted,
+they continue to be Chinese subjects. There is no reason why there
+should not be harmony between the people and the adherents of foreign
+religions."--Hon. Charles Denby in "China and Her People."
+
+
+
+IX
+
+KUANG HSU--AS EMPEROR AND REFORMER
+
+AS a man, there are few characters in Chinese history that are more
+interesting than Kuang Hsu. He had all the caprices of genius with
+their corresponding weakness and strength. He could wield a pen with
+the vigour of a Caesar, threaten his greatest viceroys, dismiss his
+leading conservative officials, introduce the most sweeping and
+far-reaching reforms that have ever been thought of by the Chinese
+people, and then run from a woman as though the very devil was after
+him.
+
+He has been variously rated as a genius, an imbecile and a fool. Let us
+grant that he was not brilliant. Let us rate him as an imbecile, and
+then let us try to account for his having brought into the palace every
+ingenious toy and every wonderful and useful invention and discovery of
+the past twenty or thirty years with the exception of the X-rays and
+liquid air. Let us try to explain why it was that an imbecile would
+purchase every book that had been printed in the Chinese language,
+concerning foreign subjects of learning, up to the time when he was
+dethroned. Let us tell why it was that an imbecile would study all
+those foreign books without help, without an assistant, without a
+teacher, for three years, from the time he bought them in 1895 till
+1898, before he began issuing the most remarkable series of edicts that
+have ever come from the pen of an Oriental monarch in the same length
+of time. And let us explain how it was that an imbecile could embody in
+his edicts of two or three months all the important principles that
+were necessary to launch the great reforms of the past ten years.
+
+I doubt if any Chinese monarch has ever had a more far-reaching
+influence over the minds of the young men of the empire than Kuang Hsu
+had from 1895 till 1898. The preparation for this influence had been
+going on for twenty or thirty years previously in the educational
+institutions established by the missions and the government. From these
+schools there had gone out a great number of young men who had taken
+positions in all departments of business, and many of the state, and
+revealed to the officials as well as to many of the people the power of
+foreign education. An imperial college had been established by the
+customs service for the special education of young men for diplomatic
+and other positions, from which there had gone out young men who were
+the representatives of the government as consuls or ministers in the
+various countries of Europe and America.
+
+The fever for reading the same books that Kuang Hsu had read was so
+great as to tax to the utmost the presses of the port cities to supply
+the demand, and the leaders of some of the publication societies feared
+that a condition had arisen for which they were unprepared. Books
+written by such men as Drs. Allen, Mateer, Martin, Williams and Legge
+were brought out in pirated photographic reproductions by the bookshops
+of Shanghai and sold for one-tenth the cost of the original work.
+Authors, to protect themselves, compelled the pirates to deliver over
+the stereotype plates they had made on penalty of being brought before
+the officials in litigation if they refused. But during the three years
+the Emperor had been studying these foreign books, hundreds of
+thousands of young scholars all over the empire had been doing the
+same, preparing themselves for whatever emergency the studies of the
+young Emperor might bring about.
+
+One day during the early spring a young Chinese reformer came to me to
+get a list of the best newspapers and periodicals published in both
+England and America. I inquired the reason for this strange move, and
+he said:
+
+"The young Chinese reformers in Peking have organized a Reform Club.
+Some of them read and speak English, others French, others German and
+still others Russian, and we are providing ourselves with all the
+leading periodicals of these various countries that we may read and
+study them. We have rented a building, prepared rooms, and propose to
+have a club where we can assemble whenever we have leisure, for
+conversation, discussion, reading, lectures or whatever will best
+contribute to the ends we have in view."
+
+"And what are those ends?" I inquired.
+
+"The bringing about of a new regime in China," he answered. "Our recent
+defeat by the Japanese has shown us that unless some radical changes
+are made we must take a second place among the peoples of the Orient."
+
+"This is a new move in Peking, is it not?"
+
+"New in Peking," he answered, "but not new in the empire. Reform clubs
+are being organized in all the great cities and capitals. In Hsian,
+books have been purchased by all classes from the governor of the
+province down to the humblest scholar, and the aristocracy have
+organized classes, and are inviting the foreigners to lecture to them.
+Every one, except a few of the oldest conservative scholars, are
+discarding their Confucian theories and reconstructing their ideas in
+view of present day problems. There is an intellectual fermentation now
+going on from which a new China is certain to be evolved, and we
+propose to be ready for it when it comes."
+
+The leader of this reform party was Kang Yu-wei, a young Cantonese, who
+had made a thorough study of the reforms of Peter the Great in Russia,
+and the more recent reforms in Japan, the history of which he had
+prepared in two volumes which he sent to the Emperor. He had made a
+reputation for himself in his native place as a "Modern Sage and
+Reformer," was hailed as a "young Confucius," was appointed a
+third-class secretary in the Board of Works, and as the Emperor and he
+had been studying on the same lines, Kang, through the influence of the
+brother of the chief concubine, was introduced to His Majesty. He had a
+three hours' conference with the Foreign Office, in which he urged that
+China should imitate Japan, and that the old conservative ministers and
+viceroys should be replaced by young men imbued with Western ideas, who
+might confer with the Emperor daily in regard to all kinds of reform
+measures.
+
+This interview was reported to Kuang Hsu by Prince Kung and Jung Lu,
+who both being old, and one of them the greatest of the conservatives,
+could hardly be expected to approve of his theories. Kang, however, was
+asked to embody his suggestions in a memorial, was later given an
+audience with the Emperor, and finally called into the palace to assist
+him in the reforms he had already undertaken. And if Kang Yu-wei had
+been as great a statesman as he was reformer, Kuang Hsu might never
+have been deposed.
+
+The crisis came during the summer of 1898. I had taken my family to the
+seashore to spend our summer vacation. A young Chinese scholar--a
+Hanlin--who had been studying in the university for some years, and
+with whom I was translating a work on psychology, had gone with me. He
+took the Peking Gazette, which he read daily, and commented upon with
+more or less interest, until June 23d, when an edict was issued
+abolishing the literary essay of the old regime as a part of the
+government examination, and substituting therefor various branches of
+the new learning. "We have been compelled to issue this decree," said
+the Emperor, "because our examinations have reached the lowest ebb, and
+we see no remedy for these matters except to change entirely the old
+methods for a new course of competition."
+
+"What do you think of that?" I asked the Hanlin.
+
+"The greatest step that has ever yet been taken," he replied.
+
+This Hanlin was not a radical reformer, but one of a long line of
+officials who were deeply interested in the preservation of their
+country which had weathered the storms of so many centuries,--storms
+which had wrecked Assyria, Babylonia, Media, Egypt, Greece and Rome,
+while China, though growing but little, had still lived. He was one of
+those progressive statesmen who have always been found among a strong
+minority in the Middle Kingdom.
+
+The Peking Gazette continued to come daily bringing with it the
+following twenty-seven decrees in a little more than twice that many
+days. I will give an epitome of the decrees that the reader at a glance
+may see what the Emperor undertook to do. Summarized they are as
+follows:
+
+1. The establishment of a university at Peking.
+
+2. The sending of imperial clansmen to foreign countries to study the
+forms and conditions of European and American government.
+
+3. The encouragement of the arts, sciences and modern agriculture.
+
+4. The Emperor expressed himself as willing to hear the objections of
+the conservatives to progress and reform.
+
+5. Abolished the literary essay as a prominent part of the governmental
+examinations.
+
+6. Censured those who attempted to delay the establishment of the
+Peking Imperial University.
+
+7. Urged that the Lu-Han railway should be prosecuted with more vigour
+and expedition.
+
+8. Advised the adoption of Western arms and drill for all the Tartar
+troops.
+
+9. Ordered the establishment of agricultural schools in all the
+provinces to teach the farmers improved methods of agriculture.
+
+10. Ordered the introduction of patent and copyright laws.
+
+11. The Board of War and Foreign Office were ordered to report on the
+reform of the military examinations.
+
+12. Special rewards were offered to inventors and authors.
+
+13. The officials were ordered to encourage trade and assist merchants.
+
+14. School boards were ordered established in every city in the empire.
+
+15. Bureaus of Mines and Railroads were established.
+
+16. Journalists were encouraged to write on all political subjects.
+
+17. Naval academies and training-ships were ordered.
+
+18. The ministers and provincial authorities were called upon to
+assist--nay, were begged to make some effort to understand what he was
+trying to do and help him in his efforts at reform.
+
+19. Schools were ordered in connection with all the Chinese legations
+in foreign countries for the benefit of the children of Chinese in
+those places.
+
+20. Commercial bureaus were ordered in Shanghai for the encouragement
+of trade.
+
+21. Six useless Boards in Peking were abolished.
+
+22. The right to memorialize the throne in sealed memorials was granted
+to all who desired to do so.
+
+23. Two presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board of Rites were
+dismissed for disobeying the Emperor's orders that memorials should be
+allowed to come to him unopened.
+
+24. The governorships of Hupeh, Kuangtung, and Yunnan were abolished as
+being a useless expense to the country.
+
+25. Schools of instruction in the preparation of tea and silk were
+ordered established.
+
+26. The slow courier posts were abolished in favour of the Imperial
+Customs Post.
+
+27. A system of budgets as in Western countries was approved.
+
+I have given these decrees in this epitomized form so that all those
+who are interested in the character of this reform movement in China
+may understand something of the influence the young Emperor's study had
+had upon him. Grant that they followed one another in too close
+proximity, yet still it must be admitted by every careful student of
+them, that there is not one that would not have been of the greatest
+possible benefit to the country if they had been put into operation. If
+the Emperor had been allowed to proceed, making them all as effective
+as he did the Imperial University, and if the ministers and provincial
+authorities had responded to his call, and had made "some effort to
+understand what he was trying to do," China might have by this time
+been close upon the heels of Japan in the adoption of Western ideas.
+
+As the edicts continued to come out in such quick succession my Hanlin
+friend became alarmed. He came to me one day after the Emperor had
+censured the officials for trying to delay the establishment of the
+Imperial University and said:
+
+"I must return to Peking."
+
+"Why return so soon?" I inquired.
+
+"There is going to be trouble if the Emperor continues his reform at
+this rate of speed," he answered.
+
+It was when the Emperor had issued the sixth of his twenty-seven
+decrees that this young Chinese statesman made this observation. If his
+most intimate advisers had had the perspicuity to have foreseen the
+final outcome of such precipitance might they not have advised the
+Emperor to have proceeded more deliberately? When one remembers how
+China had been worsted by Japan, how all her prestige was swept away,
+how, from having been the parent of the Oriental family of nations, a
+desirable friend or a dangerous enemy, she was stripped of all her
+glory, and left a helpless giant with neither strength nor power, one
+can easily understand the eagerness of this boy of twenty-seven to
+restore her to the pedestal from which she had been ruthlessly torn.
+
+Another reason for his haste may be found in the seizure of his
+territory by the European powers. A few months before he began his
+reforms two German priests were murdered by an irresponsible mob in the
+province of Shantung. With this as an excuse Germany landed a battalion
+of marines at Kiaochou, a port of that province, which she took with
+fifty miles of the surrounding territory. As though this were not
+enough, she demanded the right to build all the railroads and open all
+the mines in the entire province, and compelled the Chinese to pay an
+indemnity to the families of the murdered priests and rebuild the
+church and houses the mob had destroyed. China appealed to Russia who
+had promised to protect her against all invaders. Instead of coming to
+her aid, however, Russia demanded a similar cession of Port Arthur,
+Talienwan and the surrounding territory which she had refused to allow
+Japan to retain two years before. Not to be outdone by the others,
+France demanded and received a similar strip of territory at
+Kuang-chou-wan; and England found that Wei-hai-wei would be
+indispensable as a kennel from which she could guard the Russian bear
+on the opposite shore, but why she should have found it necessary also
+to demand from China four hundred miles of land and water around
+Hongkong was no doubt difficult for Kuang Hsu to understand.
+
+When the Empress Dowager turned over the reins of government to her
+nephew she did it very much as a father would place the reins in the
+hands of a child whom he was teaching to drive an important vehicle on
+a dangerous road--she sat behind him still holding the reins. Among the
+things reserved were that he should kotow to her once every five days
+whether she were in Peking or at the Summer Place, and she reserved
+such seals of office as made it necessary for all the highest officials
+to come and express their obligations to her at the same time they came
+to thank the Emperor. While Kuang Hsu may have been reconciled to the
+performance of these duties at eighteen, they became irksome at
+twenty-seven and he demanded and received full liberty in the affairs
+of state.
+
+We have seen how he used his liberty,--not wisely, perhaps, as a
+reformer, and yet the reformation of China can never be written without
+giving the credit of its inception to Kuang Hsu. He was very different
+from Hsien Feng, the husband of the Empress Dowager, before whose death
+we are told "the whole administrative power was vested in the hands of
+a council of eight, whilst he himself spent his time in ways that were
+by no means consistent with those that ought to have characterized the
+ruler of a great and powerful nation." Whatever else may be said of
+Kuang Hsu, he cannot be accused of indolence, extravagance, or
+indifference to the welfare of his country or his people.
+
+Appreciating the difficulty of securing an expression of opinion from
+those opposed to his views, and thus getting both sides of the
+question, in his fourth edict he requested the conservatives to send in
+their objections to his schemes for progress and reform, and then as if
+to get the broadest possible expression of opinion he adopted a
+Shanghai journal called Chinese Progress as the official organ of the
+government. But lest this be insufficient, in his twenty-second edict
+he gave the right to all officials to address the throne in sealed
+memorials.
+
+There was at this time a third-class secretary of the Board of Rites
+named Wang Chao who sent in a memorial in which he advocated:
+
+1. The abolition of the queue.
+
+2. The changing of the Chinese style of dress to that of the West.
+
+3. The adoption of Christianity as a state religion.
+
+4. A prospective national parliament.
+
+5. A journey to Japan by the Emperor and Empress Dowager.
+
+The Board of Rites opened and read this memorial, and, astounded at its
+boldness, they summoned the offender before them, and ordered him to
+withdraw his paper. This he refused to do and the two presidents and
+four vice-presidents of the Board accompanied it with a counter
+memorial denouncing him to the Emperor as a man who was making
+narrow-minded and wild suggestions to His Majesty.
+
+Partly because they had opened and read the memorial and partly because
+of their effort to prevent freedom of speech, Kuang Hsu issued another
+edict explaining why he had invited sealed memorials, and censuring
+them for explaining to him what was narrow-minded and wild, as if he
+lacked the intelligence to grasp that feature of the paper. He then
+turned them all over to the Board of Civil Office ordering that body to
+decide upon a suitable punishment for their offense, and assuring them
+that if they made it too mild, his righteous wrath would fall upon
+them. The latter decided that they be degraded three steps and removed
+to posts befitting their lowered rank, but the Emperor revised the
+sentence and dismissed them all from office, and this was the beginning
+of his downfall.
+
+The Empress Dowager had been spending the hot season at the Summer
+Palace, and during the two months and more that the Emperor had been
+struggling with his reform measures, she gave no indication, either by
+word or deed, that she was opposed to anything that he had done. And I
+think that all her acts, from that time till the close of the Boxer
+insurrection, can be explained without placing her in opposition to his
+theories of progress and reform.
+
+So long as the Emperor devoted himself to the creation of new offices
+he found little active opposition on the part of the conservatives,
+while the reformers did everything in their power to encourage him. The
+extent of the movement it is not easy to estimate. It opened up the
+intensely anti-foreign province of Hupeh, and transformed it into a
+section where railroads were to be built connecting the north with the
+south. It opened up the great mining province of Shansi and the lumber
+regions of Manchuria. It started railroads which are now lines of trade
+for the whole empire.
+
+When he issued the fifth edict substituting Western science for the
+literary essay in the great examinations, letters and telegrams began
+to pour in upon us at the Peking University from all parts of the
+empire, asking us to reserve room for the senders in the school. Their
+tuition was enclosed in their letters, and among those who came were
+the grandson of the Emperor's tutor, graduates of various degrees, men
+of rank, and the sons of wealthy gentlemen who had not yet obtained
+degrees. Numerous requests came to our graduates to teach English in
+official families, one being employed to teach the grandson of Li
+Hung-chang, and another the sons of a relative of the royal family.
+
+But when his reforms led the Emperor to dispense with useless offices,
+as in his twenty-first, twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth edicts, for the
+purpose of retrenchment, and to dismiss recalcitrant officials for
+disobedience to his commands, a howl arose which was heard throughout
+the empire. The six members of the Board of Rites dismissed in edict
+twenty-three, with certain sympathizers to give them face, went to the
+Empress Dowager at the Summer Palace, represented to her that the boy
+whom she had placed upon the throne was steering the ship of state to
+certain destruction, and begged that she would come and once more take
+the helm. She listened to them with the attention and deference for
+which she has always been famed, and then dismissed them without any
+intimation as to what her course would be.
+
+When the Emperor heard what they were doing, he sent a courier
+post-haste to call Yuan Shih-kai for an interview at the palace. When
+Yuan came, he ordered him to return to Tien-tsin, dispose of his
+superior officer, the Governor-General Jung Lu, and bring the army
+corps of 12,500 troops of which he was in charge to Peking, surround
+the Summer Palace, preventing any one from going in or coming out, thus
+making the Empress Dowager a prisoner, and allowing him to go on with
+his work of reform.
+
+It is just here that we see the difference in the statesmanship of the
+Empress Dowager and the Emperor. When she appointed these two
+officials, one a liberal in charge of the army, she placed the other, a
+conservative, as his superior officer, so that one could not move
+without the knowledge and consent of the other, thus forestalling just
+such an order as this. To obey this order of the boy Emperor, Yuan must
+commit two great crimes, murder and treason, the one on a superior
+officer, and the other against her who had appointed him to office and
+who had been the ruler of the country for thirty-seven years, either of
+which would have been sufficient to have execrated him not only in the
+eyes of his own people but of history and of the world. Nay more, had
+he obeyed this order, the conservatives would have raised the cry of
+rebellion, and an army ten times greater than he could have mustered,
+would have crushed Yuan and his little company of 12,500 men, on the
+plea that he was about to take the throne.
+
+Yuan then did the only wise thing he could have done. He went to Jung
+Lu, without whose consent he had no right to move, showed him the
+order, and asked for his commands. Jung Lu told him to leave the order
+with him, and as soon as Yuan had departed he took the train for
+Peking, called on Prince Ching, and they two went to the Summer Palace
+and showed the order to Her Majesty, suggesting to her that it might be
+well for her to come into the city and give him a few lessons in
+government.
+
+As the Empress Dowager had been behaving herself so circumspectly
+during all the summer months, allowing the Emperor to test himself as a
+ruler, one can scarcely blame her for not wanting to be bottled up in
+the Summer Palace when she had done nothing to deserve it. When
+therefore this second delegation of officials, consisting of the two
+highest in rank in the empire, came to request her to once more take
+charge of the government, she called her sedan chair and started for
+the capital. She went without an army, but was accompanied by those of
+her palace eunuchs on whom she could implicitly depend, and enough of
+them to overcome those of the Emperor in case there should be trouble.
+That force was necessary is evident from the fact that she condemned to
+death a number of his servants after she had taken the throne.
+
+When the Emperor heard that she was coming he sent a messenger with
+letters urging Kang Yu-wei to flee, and to devise some means for saving
+the situation, while he attempted to find refuge for himself in the
+foreign legations. This however he failed to do, but was taken by the
+Empress Dowager, and his career as a ruler ended, and his life as a
+prisoner began.
+
+
+
+X
+
+Kuang Hsu--As a Prisoner
+
+Kuang Hsu deserves a place in history as the prize iconoclast. He sent
+a cold shiver down the spine of the literati by declaring that a man's
+fitness for office should not depend upon his ability to write a poem,
+or upon the elegance of his penmanship. This was too much. The literati
+argued that at the rate at which the Emperor was going, it might be
+expected that he would do away with chop-sticks and dispense with the
+queue.--Rounsevelle Wildman in "China's Open Door."
+
+
+X
+
+KUANG HSU--AS A PRISONER
+
+The year that Kuang Hsu ascended the throne a great calamity occurred
+in Peking. The Temple of Heaven--the greatest of the imperial temples,
+the one at which the Emperor announces his accession, confesses his
+sins, prays and gives thanks for an abundant harvest, was struck by
+lightning and burned to the ground. When the Emperor worships here it
+is as the representative of the people, the high priest of the nation,
+and his prayers are offered for his country and not for himself. There
+are no idols in this temple, and his prayers go up to Shang-ti the
+Supreme Being "by whom kings reign and princes decree justice." When
+therefore instead of giving rain Heaven sent down a fiery bolt to
+destroy the temple at which the Son of Heaven prays, the people were
+struck with dismay.
+
+The pale faces of the women, the apprehensive noddings of the men, and
+the hushed voices of our old Confucian teachers as they spoke of the
+matter, indicated the concern with which they viewed it. Here was a boy
+who had been placed upon the throne by a woman; he was the same
+generation as the Emperor who had preceded him, and hence could not
+worship him as his ancestor. It augured ill both for the Emperor and
+the empire, and so the boy Emperor began his reign in the midst of evil
+forebodings.
+
+During the nine years that Kuang Hsu had nominal control of affairs a
+series of dire calamities befell the empire. Famines as the result of
+drought, floods from the overflow of "China's Sorrow," war with Japan,
+filching of territory by the European countries, while editorials
+appeared daily in the English papers of the port cities to the effect
+that China was to be divided up among the powers. Then too Kuang Hsu
+was childless and there was no hope of his giving an heir to the throne.
+
+Times and seasons have their meanings for the Chinese. Anything
+inauspicious happening on New Year's day is indicative of calamity. Mr.
+Chen, a friend of mine, had become a Christian contrary to his mother's
+wishes. When his first child was born it was a girl, born on New Year's
+day. His mother shook her head, looked distressed, and said that
+nothing but calamity would come to his home. His second child was a
+boy, but the old woman shook her head again and sighed saying that it
+would take more than one boy to avert the calamity of ones first baby
+being a girl born on New Year's day, and it was not until he had five
+boys in succession that she was finally convinced.
+
+There was an eclipse of the sun on New Year's day of 1898 which
+foreboded calamity to the Emperor. During the summer of this year he
+began his great reform, and in September the Empress Dowager took
+control of the affairs of state and Kuang Hsu was put in prison, never
+again to occupy the throne. His prison was his winter palace, where,
+for many months, he was confined in a gilded cage of a house, on a
+small island, with the Empress Dowager's eunuchs to guard him. These
+were changed daily lest they might sympathize with their unhappy
+monarch and devise some means for his liberation. Each day when the
+guard was changed, the drawbridge connecting the island with the
+mainland was removed, leaving the Emperor to wander about in the court
+of his palace-prison, or sit on the southern terrace where it
+overlooked the lotus lake, waiting, hoping and perhaps expecting that
+his last appeal to Kang Yu-wei in which he said: "My heart is filled
+with a great sorrow which pen and ink cannot describe; you must go
+abroad at once and without a moment's delay devise some means to save
+me," might bring forth some fruit.
+
+Whether this confinement interfered with the health of the Emperor or
+not it is impossible to say, but from the first he was made to pose as
+an invalid. As his failing health was constantly referred to in the
+Peking Gazette, the foreigners began to fear that it was the intention
+to dispose of the Emperor, and such pressure was brought to bear on the
+government as led them to allow the physician attached to the French
+legation to enter the palace and make an examination of His Majesty. He
+found nothing that fresh air and exercise would not remedy and assured
+the government that there was no cause for alarm, and from that time we
+heard nothing more of his precarious condition.
+
+One day not long after the coup d'etat a eunuch came rushing into our
+compound, his face scratched and bleeding, and knocking his head on the
+ground before me, begged me to save his life.
+
+"What is the matter?" I inquired.
+
+"Oh! let me join the church!" he pleaded.
+
+"What do you want to join the church for?" I asked.
+
+"To save my life," he answered.
+
+"But what is this all about?" I urged, raising him to his feet.
+
+"You know the eunuch who came to you to buy books," he said.
+
+I assured him that I knew him.
+
+"Well," he continued, "I am a friend of his. The Empress Dowager has
+banished him, burned all the books he bought for the Emperor, and I am
+in danger of losing my head. Let me join the church, and thus save my
+life."
+
+All I could do was to inform him that this was not the business of the
+church, and after further conversation he left and I never saw him
+again.
+
+Day after day as the Emperor received the Peking Gazette on his lonely
+island he saw one after another of his coveted reforms vanish like mist
+before the pen of his august aunt. Nor was this all, for often the
+rescinding edicts appeared under his own name, and by the New Year,
+when he was brought forth to receive the foreign ministers accredited
+to his court, scarcely anything remained of all his reforms but the
+Peking University and the provincial and other schools. It is not to be
+wondered at therefore that he was reticent and despondent. What
+promises of good behaviour it was necessary for him to make before he
+was even allowed this much liberty, it is useless for us to conjecture.
+
+Following this audience the Empress Dowager, who up to this time had
+been seen by no foreigner except Prince Henry of Prussia, decided to
+receive the wives of the foreign ministers. Her motives for this new
+move it is impossible to determine. It may have been to ascertain how
+the foreign governments would treat her who had been reported to have
+calmly ousted "their great and good friend the Emperor," to whom their
+ministers were accredited. Or it may have been that she hoped by this
+stroke of diplomacy to gain some measure of recognition as head of the
+government. She would at least see how she was regarded.
+
+The audience was an unqualified success. The seven ladies received were
+charmed by the gracious manner of their imperial hostess, who assured
+them each as she touched her lips to the tea which she presented to
+them that "we are all one family," and up to that period of her life
+there was nothing to indicate that she did not feel that the sentiment
+she expressed was true. Up to the time of the coup d'etat, as Dr.
+Martin says, "she herself was noted for progressive ideas." "It will
+not be denied by any one," says Colonel Denby, "that the improvement
+and progress" described in his first volume, "are mainly due to the
+will and power of the Empress Regent. To her own people, up to this
+period in her career, she was kind and merciful, and to foreigners she
+was just." From the time of her return to the capital after their
+flight in 1900 till the time of her death she became one of the
+greatest reformers, if not the greatest, that has ever sat upon the
+dragon throne. One cannot but wish therefore in the interests of
+sentiment that it were possible to overlook many things she did from
+1898 to 1900, which in the interests of truth it will be impossible to
+disregard. Nevertheless we should remember that she was driven to these
+things by the filching of her territory by the foreigners, and by the
+false pretentions of the superstitious Boxers and their leaders, and in
+the hope of preserving her country.
+
+Her first act after imprisoning Kuang Hsu was to offer a large reward
+for his adviser Kang Yu-wei either alive or dead. Failing to get him,
+"she seized his younger brother Kang Kuang-jen, and with five other
+noble and patriotic young men of ability and high promise, he was
+beheaded September 28th, while protesting that though they might easily
+be slain, multitudes of others would arise to take their places." One
+of my young Chinese friends who watched this procession on its way to
+the execution grounds told me that,--
+
+"The scene was impossible to describe. These five young reformers,"
+after expressing the sentiments quoted above from Dr. Smith, "reviled
+the Empress Dowager and the conservatives in the most blood-curdling
+manner."
+
+I have already spoken of Wang Chao the secretary of the Board of Rites
+who presented the memorial which caused the dismissal of the six
+officials of that body, and, indirectly, the fall of the Emperor. Some
+time before writing this petition he called at our home requesting Mrs.
+Headland to go and see his mother who was ill. When his mother
+recovered he sent her to Shanghai, and at the time of the coup d'etat
+he failed to get out of the city and went into hiding. Some days
+afterwards a closed cart drove up to our home and to our astonishment
+he stepped forth. We expressed our surprise that he was still in
+Peking, and asked:
+
+"Has the Empress Dowager ceased prosecuting her search for you
+reformers?"
+
+"Not yet," he answered.
+
+"And what is she doing?" we inquired.
+
+"Killing some, banishing others, driving many away from the capital,
+while still others are going into self-imposed exile."
+
+"Does the Emperor know anything about this?" we inquired.
+
+"No doubt," he replied. "Everybody knows it, why not he?"
+
+"That will make his imprisonment all the harder to bear," we suggested.
+
+"Quite right," he answered.
+
+"There is general alarm in the city that the Emperor himself will be
+disposed of; what do you think about it?"
+
+"Who can tell? He has not a friend in the palace except the first
+concubine, and, I am told, that she like himself is kept in close
+confinement. The Empress stands by her aunt, the Empress Dowager, while
+the eunuchs now are all her tools. The officials who go into the palace
+to audiences are all conservative and hence against him, though I
+suppose they never see him."
+
+"Do you suppose he ever sees the edicts issued in his name?"
+
+"Not at all. They are made by the conservatives and the Empress Dowager
+and issued without his knowledge."
+
+"And what do you propose to do?" we inquired.
+
+"I shall leave for Shanghai as soon as I can safely do so," he replied.
+
+Before the year had passed the Empress Dowager had been induced or
+compelled to select a new Emperor. We cannot believe that she did it of
+her own free will, and for several reasons. First, the child selected
+was the son and the grandson of ultra conservative princes, and we
+cannot but believe that as she had placed herself in the hands of the
+conservative party, it was their selection rather than hers. Second, it
+must have been a humiliation to her ever since she discovered that her
+nephew, whom she had selected and placed upon the throne in order to
+keep the succession in her own family, being the same generation as her
+son who had died, could not worship him as his ancestor, and hence
+could not legally occupy the throne, though as a matter of fact such a
+condition is not unknown in Chinese history.
+
+But if her humiliation was great, that of our boy-prisoner was still
+greater, for he was compelled to witness an edict, proclaimed in his
+own name, which made him say that as there was no hope of his having a
+child of his own to succeed him, he had requested the Empress Dowager
+to select a suitable person who should be proclaimed as the successor
+of Tung Chih, his predecessor, thus turning himself out of the imperial
+line. That this could not have been her choice is evidenced, further,
+by the fact that just as soon as she had once more regained her power,
+she surrounded herself with progressive officials, turned out all the
+great conservatives except Jung Lu, and dispossessing the son of Prince
+Tuan, at the time of her death selected her sister's grandchild and
+proclaimed him successor to her son and heir to the Emperor Kuang Hsu,
+in the following edict:
+
+"Inasmuch as the Emperor Tung Chih had no issue, on the fifth day of
+the twelfth moon of that reign (January 12, 1875) an edict was
+promulgated to the effect that if the late Emperor Kuang Hsu should
+have a son, the said Prince should carry on the succession as the heir
+of Tung Chih. But now the late Emperor has ascended upon the dragon to
+be a guest on high, leaving no son, and there is no course open but to
+appoint Pu I, the son of Tsai Feng, the Prince Regent, as the successor
+to Tung Chih, and also as heir to the Emperor Kuang Hsu," which is
+quite in keeping with the conduct and character of the Empress Dowager
+all her life except those two bad years.
+
+During the days and weeks following the dispossession of Kuang Hsu of
+the throne, in 1899 many decrees appeared which signified that at no
+distant date he would be superseded by the son of Prince Tuan. The
+foreign ministers began again to look grave. They spoke openly of their
+fear that Kuang Hsu's days were numbered. They pressed their desire for
+the usual New Year's audience, and once more the imprisoned monarch was
+brought forth and made to sit upon the throne and receive them. But
+when the ladies asked for an audience they were refused, the Empress
+Dowager being too busy with affairs of state. She was at that time
+seriously considering whether or not the government should cast in its
+lot with the Boxers and drive all the foreigners with all their
+productions into the eastern sea.
+
+One of the princesses told Mrs. Headland that before coming to a
+decision the Empress Dowager called the hereditary and imperial princes
+into the palace to consult with them as to what they would better do.
+She met them all face to face, the Emperor and Prince Tuan standing
+near the throne. She explained to them the ravages of the foreigners,
+how they were gradually taking one piece after another of Chinese
+territory.
+
+"And now," she continued, "we have these patriotic braves who claim to
+be impervious to swords and bullets; what shall we do? Shall we cast in
+our lot with their millions and drive all these foreigners out of China
+or not?"
+
+Prince Tuan, as father of the heir-apparent, uneducated, superstitious
+and ignorant of all foreign affairs, then spoke. He said:
+
+"I have seen the Boxers drilling, I have heard their incantations, and
+I believe that they will be able to effect this much desired end. They
+will either kill the foreigners or drive them out of the country and no
+more will dare to come, and thus we will be rid of them."
+
+The hereditary princes were then asked for an expression of opinion.
+The majority of them knew little of foreigners and foreign countries,
+and as Prince Tuan, the father of the future Emperor, had expressed
+himself so strongly, they hesitated to offer an adverse opinion. But
+when it came to Prince Su, a man of strong character, widely versed in
+foreign affairs, and of independent thought, he opposed the measure
+most vigorously.
+
+"Who," he asked, "are these Boxers? Who are their leaders? How can
+they, a mere rabble, hope to vanquish the armies of foreign nations?"
+
+Prince Tuan answered that "by their incantations they were able to
+produce heaven-sent soldiers."
+
+Prince Su denounced such superstition as childish. But when after
+further argument between him and Prince Tuan the Empress Dowager
+assured him that she had had them in the palace and had witnessed their
+prowess, he said no more.
+
+The imperial princes were then consulted, but seeing how Prince Su had
+fared they were either in favour of the measure or non-committal.
+Finally the Empress Dowager appealed to Prince Ching who, more
+diplomatic than the younger princes, answered:
+
+"I consider it a most dangerous undertaking, and I would advise against
+it. But if Your Majesty decides to cast in your lot with the Boxers I
+will do all in my power to further your wishes."
+
+It is not a matter of wonder therefore that the Empress Dowager should
+be led into such a foolish measure as the Boxer movement, when the
+Prince who had been president of the Foreign Office for twenty-five
+years could so weakly acquiesce in such an undertaking.
+
+"The Emperor," said the Princess, "was not asked for an expression of
+his opinion on this occasion, but when he saw that the Boxer leaders
+had won the day he burst into tears and left the room."
+
+Similar meetings were held in the palace on two other occasions, when
+the Emperor implored that they make no attempt to fight all the foreign
+nations, for said he, "the foreigners are stronger than we, both in
+money and in arms, while their soldiers are much better drilled and
+equipped in every way. If we undertake this and fail as we are sure to
+do, it will be impossible to make peace with the foreigners and our
+country will be divided up amongst them." His pleadings, however, were
+disregarded, and after the meeting was over, he had to return to his
+little island, where for eight weeks he was compelled to sit listening
+to the rattling guns, booming cannons and bursting firecrackers, for
+the Boxers seemed to hope to exterminate the foreigners by noise. He
+must have felt from the books he had studied that it could only result
+in disaster to his own people.
+
+When the allies reached Peking and the Boxers capitulated the Emperor
+was taken out of his prison and compelled to flee with the court.
+
+"What do you think of your bullet-proof Boxers now?" one can imagine
+they hear him saying to his august aunt, as he sees her cutting off her
+long finger nails, dressing herself in blue cotton garments, and
+climbing into a common street cart as an ordinary servant. "Wouldn't it
+have been better to have taken my advice and that of Hsu Ching-cheng
+and Yuan Chang instead of having put them to death for endeavouring in
+their earnestness to save the country? What about your old conservative
+friends? Can they be depended upon as pillars of state?" Or some other
+"I-told-you-so" language of this kind.
+
+From their exile in Hsian decrees continued to be issued in his name,
+and when affairs began to be adjusted, and the allies insisted on
+setting aside forever the pretentions of the anti-foreign Prince Tuan
+and his son, banishing the former to perpetual exile, our hopes ran
+high that the Emperor would be restored to his throne. But to our
+disappointment the framers of the Protocol contented themselves with
+the clause that: "Rational intercourse shall be permitted with the
+Emperor as in Western countries," and with the return of the court in
+1902 he was still a prisoner.
+
+Every one who has written about audiences with the Empress Dowager
+tells how "the Emperor was seated near, though a little below her," but
+they never tell why. The reason is not far to seek. The world must not
+know that he was a prisoner in the palace. They must see him near the
+throne, but they may not speak to him. The addresses of the ministers
+were passed to her by her kneeling statesmen, and it was they who
+replied. No notice was taken of the Emperor though he seemed to be in
+excellent health. The Empress Dowager however still relieved him of the
+burdens of the government, and continued to "teach him how to govern."
+
+"I have seen the Emperor many times," Mrs. Headland tells me, "and have
+spent many hours in his presence, and every time we were in the palace
+the Emperor accompanied the Empress Dowager--not by her side but a few
+steps behind her. When she sat, he always remained standing a few paces
+in the rear, and never presumed to sit unless asked by her to do so. He
+was a lonely person, with his delicate, well-bred features and his
+simple dark robes, and in the midst of these fawning eunuchs, brilliant
+court ladies, and bejewelled Empress Dowager he was an inconspicuous
+figure. No minister of state touched forehead to floor as he spoke in
+hushed and trembling voice to him, no obsequious eunuchs knelt when
+coming into his presence; but on the contrary I have again and again
+seen him crowded against the wall by these cringing servants of Her
+Majesty.
+
+"One day while we were in the palace a pompous eunuch had stepped
+before the Emperor quite obliterating him. I saw Kuang Hsu put his
+hands on the large man's shoulders, and quietly turn him around, that
+he might see before whom he stood. There were no signs of anger on his
+face, but rather a gentle, pathetic smile as he looked up at the big
+servant. I expected to see him fall upon his knees before the Emperor,
+but instead, he only moved a few inches to the left, and remained still
+in front of His Majesty. Never when in the palace have I seen a knee
+bend to the Emperor, except that of the foreigner when greeting him or
+bidding him farewell. This was the more noticeable as statesmen and
+eunuchs alike fell upon their knees every time they spoke to the
+Empress Dowager.
+
+"The first time I saw him his great, pathetic, wistful eyes followed me
+for days. I could not forget them, and I determined that if I ever had
+opportunity I would say a few words to him letting him know that the
+world was resting in hope of his carrying out the great reforms he had
+instituted. But he was so carefully guarded and kept under such strict
+surveillance that I never found an opportunity to speak to him. Nor did
+he ever speak to the visitors, court ladies, the Empress Dowager, or
+attendants during all the hours we remained.
+
+"One of the ministers told me that one day after an audience, when the
+Empress Dowager and the Emperor had stepped down from the dais, Her
+Majesty was engaged in conversation with one of his colleagues, and as
+the Emperor stood near by, he made some remark to him. Immediately the
+Empress Dowager turned from the one to whom she had been talking and
+made answer for the Emperor.
+
+"On one occasion when there were but four of us in the palace, and we
+were all comfortably seated, the Emperor standing a few paces behind
+the Empress Dowager, she began discussing the Boxer movement, lamenting
+the loss of her long finger nails, and various good-luck gourds of
+which she was fond. The Emperor, probably becoming weary of a
+conversation in which he had no part, quietly withdrew by a side
+entrance to the theatre which was playing at the time. For some moments
+the Empress Dowager did not notice his absence, but the instant she
+discovered he was gone, a look of anxiety overspread her features, and
+she turned to the head eunuch, Li Lien-ying, and in an authoritative
+tone asked: 'Where is the Emperor?' There was a scurry among the
+eunuchs, and they were sent hither and thither to inquire. After a few
+moments they returned, saying that he was in the theatre. The look of
+anxiety passed from her face as a cloud passes from before the sun--and
+several of the eunuchs remained at the theatre.
+
+"I am told that at times the Empress Dowager invites the Emperor to
+dine with her, and on such occasions he is forced to kneel at the table
+at which she is seated, eating only what she gives him. It is an honour
+which he does not covet, but which he dare not decline for fear of
+giving offense."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+Prince Chun--The Regent
+
+Prince Chun the Regent of China gave a remarkable luncheon at the
+Winter Palace to-day to the foreign envoys who gathered here to attend
+the funeral ceremonies of the late Emperor Kuang Hsu. The repast was
+served in foreign style. Among the Chinese present were Prince Ching,
+former president of the Board of Foreign Affairs and now adviser to the
+Naval Department; Prince Tsai Chen, a son of Prince Ching, who was at
+one time president of the Board of Commerce; Prince Su, chief of the
+Naval Department; and Liaing Tung-yen, president of the Board of
+Foreign Affairs. After the entertainment the envoys expressed
+themselves as unusually impressed with the personality of the
+Regent.--Daily Press.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+PRINCE CHUN--THE REGENT
+
+The selection of Prince Chun as Regent for the Chinese empire during
+the minority of his son, Pu I, the new Emperor, would seem to be the
+wisest choice that could be made at the present time. In the first
+place, he is the younger brother of Kuang Hsu, the late Emperor, and
+was in sympathy with all the reforms the latter undertook to introduce
+in 1898. If Kuang Hsu had chosen his successor, having no son of his
+own, there is no reason why he should not have selected Pu I to occupy
+the throne, with Prince Chun as Regent, for there is no other prince in
+whom he could have reposed greater confidence of having all his reform
+measures carried to a successful issue; and a brother with whom he had
+always lived in sympathy would be more likely to continue his policy
+than any one else.
+
+But, in the second place, as we may suppose, Prince Chun was selected
+by the Empress Dowager, whatever the edicts issued, and will thus have
+the confidence of the party of which she has been the leader. It is
+quite wrong to suppose that this is the conservative party, or even a
+conservative party. China has both reform and conservative parties,
+but, in addition to these, she has many wise men and great officials
+who are neither radical reformers nor ultra-conservatives. It was these
+men with whom the Empress Dowager allied herself after the Boxer
+troubles of 1900.
+
+These men were Li Hung-chang, Chang Chih-tung, Yuan Shih-kai, Prince
+Ching, and others, and it is they who, in ten years, with the Empress
+Dowager, put into operation, in a statesmanlike way, all the reforms
+that Kuang Hsu, with his hot-headed young radical advisers, attempted
+to force upon the country in as many weeks. There is every reason to
+believe that Prince Chun, the present Regent, has the support of all
+the wiser and better element of the Reform party, as well as those
+great men who have been successful in tiding China over the ten most
+difficult years of her history, while the ultra-conservatives at this
+late date are too few or too weak to deserve serious consideration. We,
+therefore, think that the choice of Pu I as Emperor, with Prince Chun
+as Regent, whether by the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, or both, was,
+all things considered, the best selection that could have been made.
+
+Prince Chun is the son of the Seventh Prince, the nephew of the Emperor
+Hsien Feng and the Empress Dowager, and grandson of the Emperor Tao
+Kuang. He has a fine face, clear eye, firm mouth, with a tendency to
+reticence. He carries himself very straight, and while below the
+average in height, is every inch a prince. He is dignified,
+intelligent, and, though not loquacious, never at a loss for a topic of
+conversation. He is not inclined to small talk, but when among men of
+his own rank, he does not hesitate to indulge in bits of humour.
+
+This was rather amusingly illustrated at a dinner given by the late
+Major Conger, American minister to China. Major and Mrs. Conger
+introduced many innovations into the social life of Peking, and none
+more important than the dinners and luncheons given to the princes and
+high officials, and also to the princesses and ladies of the court. In
+1904, I was invited to dine with Major Conger and help entertain Prince
+Chun, Prince Pu Lun, Prince Ching, Governor Hu, Na T'ung, and a number
+of other princes and officials of high rank. I sat between Prince Chun
+and Governor Hu. Having met them both on several former occasions, I
+was not a stranger to either of them, and as they were well acquainted
+with each other, though one was a Manchu prince and the other a Chinese
+official, conversation was easy and natural.
+
+We talked, of course, in Chinese only, of the improvements and
+advantages that railroads bring to a country, for Governor Hu, among
+other things, was the superintendent of the Imperial Railways of north
+China. This led us to speak of the relative comforts of travel by land
+and by sea, for Prince Chun had gone half round the world and back. We
+listened to the American minister toasting the young Emperor of China,
+his princes, and his subjects; and then to Prince Ching toasting the
+young President of the United States, his officials, and his people, in
+a most dignified and eloquent manner. And then as the buzz of
+conversation went round the table again, and perhaps because of their
+having spoken of the YOUNG Emperor and the young President, I turned to
+Governor Hu, who had an unusually long, white beard which reached
+almost to his waist as he sat at table, and said:
+
+"Your Excellency, what is your honourable age?"
+
+"I was seventy years old my last birthday," he replied.
+
+"And he is still as strong as either of us young men," said I, turning
+to Prince Chun.
+
+"Oh, yes," said the Prince; "he is good for ten years yet, and by that
+time he can use his beard as an apron."
+
+"It is an ill wind that blows no one good," says the proverb, and this
+was never more forcibly illustrated than in the case of the death of
+the lamented Baron von Kettler. Had it not been for this unfortunate
+occurrence, Prince Chun would not have been sent to Germany to convey
+the apologies of the Chinese government to the German Emperor, and he
+would thus never have had the opportunity of a trip to Europe; and the
+world might once more have beheld a regent on the dragon throne who had
+never seen anything a hundred miles from his own capital.
+
+Prince Chun started on this journey with such a retinue as only the
+Chinese government can furnish. He had educated foreign physicians and
+interpreters, and, like the great Viceroy Li Hung-chang, he had a round
+fan with the Eastern hemisphere painted on one side and the Western on
+the other, and the route he was to travel distinctly outlined on both,
+with all the places he was to pass through, or to stop at on the trip,
+plainly marked. He was intelligent enough to observe everything of
+importance in the ports through which he passed, and it was interesting
+to hear him tell of the things he had seen, and his characterization of
+some of the people he had visited.
+
+"What did Your Highness think of the relative characteristics of the
+Germans and the French, as you saw them?" I asked him at the same
+dinner.
+
+"The people in Berlin," said he, "get up early in the morning and go to
+their business, while the people in Paris get up in the evening and go
+to the theatre."
+
+This may have been a bit exaggerated, but it indicated that the Prince
+did not travel, as many do on their first trip, with his mouth open and
+his eyes closed.
+
+After his return to Peking he purchased a brougham, as did most of the
+other leading officials and princes at the close of the Boxer troubles,
+and driving about in this carriage, he has been a familiar figure from
+that time until the present. As straws show the direction of the wind,
+these incidents ought to indicate that Prince Chun will not be a
+conservative to the detriment of his government, or to the hindrance of
+Chinas progress.
+
+It is a well-known fact that the Empress Dowager, in addition to her
+other duties, took charge of the arrangement of the marriages of all
+her nieces and nephews. One of her favourite Manchu officials, and
+indeed one of the greatest Manchus of recent years, though very
+conservative, and hence little associated with foreigners, was Jung Lu.
+As the affianced bride of Prince Chun had drowned herself in a well
+during the Boxer troubles, the Empress Dowager engaged him to the
+daughter of the lady who had been Jung Lu's first concubine, but who,
+as his consort was dead, was raised to the position of wife.
+
+"This Lady Jung," says Mrs. Headland, "is some forty years of age, very
+pretty, talkative, and vivacious, and she told me with a good deal of
+pride, on one occasion, of the engagement of her son to the sixth
+daughter of Prince Ching. And then with equal enthusiasm she told me
+how her daughter had been married to Prince Chun, 'which of course
+relates me with the two most powerful families of the empire.'
+
+"I have met the Princess Chun on several occasions at the audiences in
+the palace, at luncheons with Mrs. Conger, at a feast with the Imperial
+Princess, at a tea with the Princess Tsai Chen, and at the palaces of
+many of the princesses. She is a very quiet little woman, and looked
+almost infantile as she gazed at one with her big, black eyes. She is
+very circumspect in her movements, and with such a mother and father as
+she had, I should think may be very brilliant. Naturally she had to be
+specially dignified and sedate at these public functions, as she and
+the Imperial Princess were the only ones belonging to the old imperial
+household, the descendants of Tao Kuang, who were intimately associated
+with the Empress Dowager's court. She is small, but pretty, and, as I
+have indicated, quiet and reticent. She was fond of her father, and
+naturally fond of the Empress Dowager, who selected her as a wife for
+her favourite nephew, Prince Chun, to whom she promised the succession
+at the time of their marriage. After her father's death, and while she
+was in mourning, she was invited into the palace by the Empress
+Dowager, where she appeared wearing blue shoes, the colour used in
+second mourning.
+
+"'Why do you wear blue shoes?' asked Her Majesty.
+
+"'On account of the death of my father,' replied the Princess.
+
+"'And do you mourn over your dead father more than you rejoice over
+being in the presence of your living ruler?' the Empress Dowager
+inquired.
+
+"It is unnecessary to add that the Princess 'changed the blue shoes for
+red ones while she remained in the palace, so careful has the Empress
+Dowager always been of the respect due to her dignity and position."
+
+Having promised the regency to Prince Chun, we may infer that the
+Empress Dowager would do all in her power to prepare him to occupy the
+position with credit to himself, and in the hope that he would continue
+the policy which she has followed during the last ten years. Whenever,
+therefore, opportunity offered for a prince to represent the government
+at any public function with which foreigners were connected, Prince
+Chun was asked or appointed to attend. I have said that it was the
+murder of the German minister, Baron von Kettler, that gave Prince Chun
+his opportunity to see the world. And just here I might add that an
+account of the massacre of Von Kettler, sent from Canton, was published
+in a New York paper three days before it occurred. This indicates that
+his death had been premeditated and ordered by some high
+authorities,--perhaps Prince Tuan or Prince Chuang, Boxer
+leaders,--because the Germans had taken the port of Kiaochou, and had
+compelled the Chinese government to promise to allow them to open all
+the mines and build all the railroads in the province of Shantung.
+
+After the Boxer troubles were settled, the Germans, at the expense of
+the Chinese government, erected a large stone memorial arch on the spot
+where Von Kettler fell. At its dedication, members of the diplomatic
+corps of all the legations in Peking were present, including ladies and
+children, together with a large number of Chinese officials
+representing the city, the government, and the Foreign Office, and
+Prince Chun was selected to pour the sacrificial wine. He did it with
+all the dignity of a prince, however much he may or may not have
+enjoyed it. On this occasion he used one of the ancient, three-legged,
+sacrificial wine-cups, which he held in both hands, while Na Tung,
+President of the Foreign Office, poured the wine into the cup from a
+tankard of a very beautiful and unique design. It is the only occasion
+on which I have seen the Prince when he did not seem to enjoy what he
+was doing. I ought to add just here that I have heard the Chinese refer
+to this arch as the monument erected by the Chinese government in
+memory of the man who murdered Baron von Kettler!
+
+It is a well-known fact that the Boxers destroyed all buildings that
+had any indication of a foreign style of architecture, whether they
+belonged to Chinese or foreigner, Christian or non-Christian, legation,
+merchant, or missionary. In the rebuilding of the Peking legations,
+missions, and educational institutions, there were naturally a large
+number of dedicatory services. Many of the Chinese officials attended
+them, but I shall refer to only one or two at which I remember meeting
+Prince Chun. I believe it was the design of the Empress Dowager, as
+soon as she had decided upon him as the Regent, to give him as liberal
+an education in foreign affairs as the facilities in Peking would allow.
+
+For many years the Methodist mission had tried to secure funds from
+America to erect a hospital and medical school in connection with the
+mission and the Peking University. This they found to be impossible,
+and finally Dr. N. S. Hopkins of Massachusetts, who was in charge of
+that work, consulted with his brother and brother-in-law, who
+subscribed the funds and built the institution. This act of benevolence
+on the part of Dr. Hopkins and his friends appealed to the Chinese
+sense of generosity, and when the building was completed, a large
+number of Chinese officials, together with Prince Chun and Prince Pu
+Lun, were present at its dedication. A number of addresses were made by
+such men as Major Conger, the American minister, Bishop Moore, Na Tung,
+Governor Hu, General Chiang, and others of the older representatives,
+in which they expressed their appreciation of the generosity which
+prompted a man like Dr. Hopkins to give not only himself, but his
+money, for the education of the Chinese youth and the healing of their
+poor. And I might add that Dr. Hopkins is physician to many of the
+princes and officials in Peking at the present time.
+
+During this reconstruction, a number of the colleges of north China
+united to form a union educational institution. One part of this scheme
+was a union medical college, situated on the Ha-ta-men great street not
+a hundred yards north of the Von Kettler memorial arch. To the erection
+of this building the wealthy officials of Peking subscribed liberally,
+and the Empress Dowager sent her check for 11,000 taels, equal to
+$9,000 in American gold, and appointed Prince Chun to represent the
+Chinese government at its dedication. At this meeting Sir Robert Hart
+made an address on behalf of the foreigners, and Na Tung on behalf of
+the Chinese. Although Prince Chun took no public part in the exercises,
+he privately expressed his gratification at seeing the completion of
+such an up-to-date hospital and medical school in the Chinese capital.
+
+I have given these incidents in the life of Prince Chun to show that he
+has had facilities for knowing the world better than any other Chinese
+monarch or regent that has ever sat upon the dragon throne, and that he
+has grasped the opportunities as they came to him. He has been
+intimately associated with the diplomatic life of the various
+legations, which is perhaps the most important knowledge he has
+acquired in dealing with foreign affairs, as these ministers are the
+channels through which he must come in contact with foreign
+governments. He has been present at the dedication of a number of
+missionary educational institutions, and hence from personal contact he
+will have some comprehension of the animus and work of missions and the
+character of the men engaged in that work. He may have as a councillor,
+if he so desires, the Prince Pu Lun, who has had a trip around the
+world, with the best possible facilities for seeing Japan, America,
+Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, and who has been in even
+more intimate contact with the diplomats and other foreigners than has
+Prince Chun himself. My wife and I have dined with him and the Princess
+both at the American legation and at his own palace, and when we left
+China, they came together in their brougham to bid us good-bye, a thing
+which could not have happened a few years ago, and an indication of how
+wide open the doors in China are now standing.
+
+On the whole, therefore, Prince Chun begins his regency with a brighter
+outlook for his foreign relations than any other ruler China has ever
+had. What shall we say of his Chinese relations? Being the brother of
+Kuang Hsu, and himself a progressive young man, he ought to have the
+support of the Reform party, and being the choice of the Empress
+Dowager, he will have the support of the great progressive officials
+who have had the conduct of affairs for the last quarter of a century
+and more, and especially for the past ten years, since the Emperor
+Kuang Hsu was deposed.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+The Home of the Court--The Forbidden City
+
+The innermost enclosure is the Forbidden City and contains the palace
+and its surrounding buildings. The wall is less solid and high than the
+city wall, is covered with bright yellow tiles, and surrounded by a
+deep, wide moat. Two gates on the east and west afford access to the
+interior of this habitation of the Emperor, as well as the space and
+rooms appertaining, which furnish lodgment to the guard defending the
+approach to the dragon's throne.--S. Wells Williams in "The Middle
+Kingdom."
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE HOME OF THE COURT--THE FORBIDDEN CITY
+
+During the past ten years, since the dethronement of the late Emperor
+Kuang Hsu, I have often been asked by Europeans visiting Peking:
+
+"What would happen if the Emperor should die?"
+
+"They would put a new Emperor on the throne," was my invariable answer.
+They usually followed this with another question:
+
+"What would happen if the Empress Dowager should die?"
+
+"In that case the Emperor, of course, would again resume the throne," I
+always replied without hesitation. But during those ten years, not one
+of my friends ever thought to propound the question, nor did I have the
+wit to ask myself:
+
+"What would happen if the Emperor and the Empress Dowager should both
+suddenly snap the frail cord of life at or about the same time?"
+
+Had such a question come to me, I confess I should not have known how
+to answer it. It is a problem that probably never presented itself to
+any one outside of that mysterious Forbidden City, or the equally
+mysterious spectres that come and go through its half-open gates in the
+darkness of the early morning. There are three parties to whom it may
+have come again and again, and to whom we may perhaps be indebted both
+for the problem and the solution.
+
+When the deaths of both of their Imperial Majesties were announced at
+the same time, the news also came that the Japanese suspected that
+there had been foul play. With them, however, it was only suspicion;
+none of them, so far as I know, ever undertook to analyze the matter or
+unravel the mystery. There is no doubt a reasonable explanation, but we
+must go for it to the Forbidden City, the most mysterious royal
+dwelling in the world, where white men have never gone except by
+invitation from the throne, save on one occasion.
+
+In 1901, while the court was in hiding at Hsianfu, the city to which
+they fled when the allies entered Peking, the western half of the
+Forbidden City was thrown open to the public, the only condition being
+that said public have a certificate which would serve as a pass to the
+American boys in blue who guarded the Wu men, or front gate. I was
+fortunate enough to have that pass.
+
+My first move was to get a Chinese photographer--the best I could find
+in the city--to go with me and take pictures of everything I wanted as
+well as anything else that suited his fancy.
+
+The city of Peking is regularly laid out. Towards the south is the
+Chinese city, fifteen miles in circumference. To the north is a square,
+four miles on each side, and containing sixteen square miles. In the
+centre of this square, enclosed by a beautifully crenelated wall thirty
+feet thick at the bottom, twenty feet thick at the top and twenty-five
+feet high, surrounded by a moat one hundred feet wide, is the Forbidden
+City, occupying less than one-half a square mile. In this city there
+dwells but one male human being, the Emperor, who is called the
+"solitary man."
+
+There is a gate in the centre of each of the four sides, that on the
+south, the Wu men, being the front gate, through which the Emperor
+alone is allowed to pass. The back gate, guarded by the Japanese during
+the occupation, is for the Empress Dowager, the Empress and the women
+of the court, while the side gates are for the officials, merchants or
+others who may have business in the palace.
+
+Through the centre of this city, from south to north, is a passageway
+about three hundred feet wide, across which, at intervals of two
+hundred yards, they have erected large buildings, such as the imperial
+examination hall, the hall in which the Emperor receives his bride, the
+imperial library, the imperial kitchen, and others of a like nature,
+all covered with yellow titles, and known to tourists, who see them
+from the Tartar City wall, as the palace buildings. These, however, are
+not the buildings in which the royal family live. They are the places
+where for the past five hundred years all those great diplomatic
+measures--and dark deeds--of the Chinese emperors and their great
+officials have been transacted between midnight and daylight.
+
+If you will go with me at midnight to the great gate which leads from
+the Tartar to the Chinese city--the Chien men--you will hear the
+wailing creak of its hinges as it swings open, and in a few moments the
+air will be filled with the rumbling of carts and the clatter of the
+feet of the mules on the stone pavement, as they take the officials
+into the audiences with their ruler. If you will remain with me there
+till a little before daylight you will see them, like silent spectres,
+sitting tailor-fashion on the bottom of their springless carts,
+returning to their homes, but you will ask in vain for any information
+as to the business they have transacted. "They love darkness rather
+than light," not perhaps "because their deeds are evil," but because it
+has been the custom of the country from time immemorial.
+
+Immediately to the north of this row of imperial palace buildings, and
+just outside the north gate, there is an artificial mound called Coal
+Hill, made of the dirt which was removed to make the Lotus Lakes. It is
+said that in this hill there is buried coal enough to last the city in
+time of siege. This, however, was not the primary design of the hill.
+It has a more mysterious meaning. There have always been spirits in the
+earth, in the air, in every tree and well and stream. And in China it
+has ever been found necessary to locate a house, a city or even a
+cemetery in such surroundings as to protect them from the entrance of
+evil spirits. "Coal Hill," therefore, was placed to the north of these
+imperial palace buildings to protect them from the evil spirits of the
+cold, bleak north.
+
+Just inside of that north gate there is a beautiful garden, with
+rockeries and arbours, flowering plants and limpid artificial streams
+gurgling over equally artificial pebbles, though withal making a
+beautiful sight and a cool shade in the hot summer days. In the east
+side of this garden there is a small imperial shrine having four doors
+at the four points of the compass. In front of each of these doors
+there is a large cypress-tree, some of them five hundred years old,
+which were split up from the root some seven or eight feet, and planted
+with the two halves three feet apart, making a living arch through
+which the worshipper must pass as he enters the temple. To the north of
+the garden and east of the back gate there is a most beautiful Buddhist
+temple, in which only the members of the imperial family are allowed to
+worship, in front of which there is also a living arch like those
+described above, as may also be found before the imperial temples in
+the Summer Palace. This is one of the most unique and mysterious
+features of temple worship I have found anywhere in China, and no
+amount of questioning ever brought me any explanation of its meaning.
+
+Now if you will go with me to the top of Coal Hill I will point out to
+you the buildings in which their Majesties have lived. There are six
+parallel rows of buildings, facing the south, each behind the other, in
+the northwest quarter of this Forbidden City, protected from the evil
+spirits of the north by the dagoba on Prospect Hill.
+
+Perhaps you would like to go with me into these homes of their
+Majesties--or, as a woman's home is always more interesting than the
+den of a man, let me take you through the private apartments of the
+greatest woman of her race--the late Empress Dowager. She occupied
+three of these rows of buildings. The first was her drawing-room and
+library, the second her dining-room and sleeping apartments, and the
+third her kitchen.
+
+One was strangely impressed by what he saw here. There was no gorgeous
+display of Oriental colouring, but there was beauty of a peculiarly
+penetrating quality--and yet a homelike beauty.
+
+No description that can be written of it will ever do it justice. Not
+until one can see and appreciate the paintings of the old Chinese
+masters of five hundred years ago hanging upon the walls, the beautiful
+pieces of the best porcelain of the time of Kang Hsi and Chien Lung,
+made especially for the palace, arranged in their natural surroundings,
+on exquisitely carved Chinese tables and brackets, the gorgeously
+embroided silk portieres over the doorways, and the matchless
+tapestries which only the Chinese could weave for their greatest
+rulers, can we appreciate the beauty, the richness, and the refined
+elegance of the private apartments of the great Dowager.
+
+I went into her sleeping apartments. Others also entered there, sat
+upon her couch, and had their friends photograph them. I could not
+allow myself to do so. I stood silent, with head uncovered as I gazed
+with wonder and admiration at the bed, with its magnificently
+embroidered curtains hanging from the ceiling to the floor, its
+yellow-satin mattress ten feet in length and its great round, hard
+pillow, with the delicate silk spreads turned back as though it were
+prepared for Her Majesty's return. On the opposite side of the room
+there was a brick kang bed, such as we find in the homes of all the
+Chinese of the north, where her maids slept, or sat like silent ghosts
+while the only woman that ever ruled over one-third of the human race
+took her rest. The furnishings were rich but simple. No plants, no
+intricate carvings to catch the dust, nothing but the two beds and a
+small table, with a few simple and soothing wall decorations, and the
+monotonous tick-tock of a great clock to lull her to sleep.
+
+If Shakespeare could say with an English monarch in his mind, "Uneasy
+lies the head that wears a crown," we might repeat it with added
+emphasis of Tze Hsi. For forty years she had to rise at midnight,
+winter as well as summer, and go into the dark, dreary, cold halls of
+the palace, lighted much of the time with nothing but tallow dips, and
+heated only with brass braziers filled with charcoal, and there sit
+behind a screen where she could see no one, and no one could see her,
+and listen to the reports of those who came to these dark audiences.
+Then she must, in conjunction with them, compose edicts which were sent
+out to the Peking Gazette, the oldest and poorest newspaper in the
+world, to be carved on blocks, and printed, and then sent by courier to
+every official in the empire. Ruling over a conquered race, she must
+always be watching out for signs of discontent and rebellion; being
+herself the daughter of a poor man, and beginning as only the concubine
+of an emperor, and he but a weak character, she must be alert for
+dissatisfaction on the part of the princes who might have some title to
+the throne. She must watch the governors in the distant provinces and
+the viceroys who are in charge of great armies, that they do not direct
+them against instead of in defense of the throne.
+
+When her husband died while a fugitive two hundred miles from her
+palace, she must see to it that her three-year-old child was placed
+upon the throne with her own hand at the helm, and when he died she
+must also be ready with a successor, who would give her another lease
+of office. Even when he became of age and took the throne she must
+watch over him like a guardian, to prevent his bringing down upon their
+own heads the structure which she had builded. Nay, more, when it
+became necessary for her to dethrone him and rule in his name,
+banishing his friends and pacifying his enemies, keeping him a prisoner
+in his palace, it required a courage that was titanic to do so. But she
+never flinched, though we may suppose that many of her poorest
+subjects, who could sleep from dark till daylight with nothing but a
+brick for a pillow, might have rested more peacefully than she.
+
+She had a myriad of other duties to perform. She was the mother-in-law
+of that imperial household, with the Emperor, the Empress, sixty
+concubines, two thousand eunuchs, and any number of court ladies and
+maid-servants. Their expenses were enormous and she must keep her eye
+on every detail. The food they ate was similar to that used by all the
+Chinese people. I happen to know this, because one of her eunuchs who
+visited me frequently to ask my assistance in a matter which he had
+undertaken for the Emperor, often brought me various kinds of meat, or
+other delicacies of a like nature, from the imperial kitchens.
+
+I want you to visit three of the imperial temples in these beautiful
+palace grounds. The first is a tall, three-story building at the head
+of that magnificent Lotus Lake. In it there stands a Buddhist deity
+with one thousand heads and one thousand arms and hands. Standing upon
+the ground floor its head reaches almost to the roof. Its body, face
+and arms are as white as snow. There is nothing else in the
+building--nothing but this mild-faced Buddhist divinity for that
+brilliant, black-eyed ruler of Chinas millions to worship.
+
+Standing near by is another building of far greater beauty. It is faced
+all over with encaustic tiles, each made at the kiln a thousand miles
+away, for the particular place it was to occupy. Each one fits without
+a flaw, a suggestion to American architects on Chinese architecture.
+
+The second of these temples stands to the west of the Coal Hill,
+immediately to the north of the homes of their Majesties. One day while
+passing through the forbidden grounds I came upon this temple from the
+rear. In the dome of one of the buildings is a circular space some ten
+feet in diameter, carved and gilded in the form of two magnificent
+dragons after the fabled pearl. It is to this place the Emperor goes in
+time of drought to confess his sins, for he confesses to the gods that
+the drought is all his doing, and to pray for forgiveness, and for rain
+to enrich the thirsty land. The towers on the corners of the wall of
+the Forbidden City are the same style of architecture as the small
+pavilion in the front court of this temple.
+
+Now as the buds of spring are bursting and the eaves on the
+mulberry-trees are beginning to develop, will you go with the Empress
+Dowager or the Empress into a temple on Prospect Hill, between the Coal
+Hill and the Lotus Lake, where she offers sacrifices to the god of the
+silkworm and prays for a prosperous year on the work of that little
+insect? Above it stands one of the most hideous bronze deities I have
+ever seen--male and naked--in a beautiful little shrine, every tile of
+which is made in the form of a Buddha's head. During the occupation
+tourists were allowed to visit this place freely, and their desire for
+curios overcoming their discretion, they knocked the heads off these
+tiles until, when the place was closed, there was not a single tile
+which had not been defaced.
+
+One other building in the Forbidden City is worthy of our attention. It
+is the art gallery. It is not generally known that China is the parent
+of all Oriental art. We know something of the art of Japan but little
+about that of China. And yet the best Japanese artists have never hoped
+for anything better than to equal their Chinese teacher. In this art
+gallery there are stored away the finest specimens of the old masters
+for ten centuries or more, together with portraits of all the noted
+emperors. Among these portraits we may now find two of the Empress
+Dowager, one painted by Miss Carl, and another by Mr. Vos, a well-known
+American portrait painter.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+The Ladies of the Court
+
+I love to talk with my people of their Majesties, the princesses, and
+the Chinese ladies, as I have seen and known them. Your friendship I
+will always remember. Her Majesty, your imperial sister, found a warm
+place in my heart and is treasured there. Please extend to the Imperial
+Princess my cordial greetings and to the other princesses my best of
+good wishes.--Mrs. E. H. Conger, in a letter to the Princess Shun.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE LADIES OF THE COURT
+
+The leading figure of the court is Yehonala, wife of the late Emperor
+Kuang Hsu. She has always been called the Young Empress, but is now the
+Empress Dowager. After the great Dowager was made the concubine of
+Hsien Feng, she succeeded in arranging a marriage, as we have seen,
+between her younger sister and the younger brother of her husband, the
+Seventh Prince, as he was called, father of Kuang Hsu and the present
+regent.
+
+The world knows how, in order to keep the succession in her own family,
+she took the son of this younger sister, when her own son the Emperor
+Tung Chih died, and made him the Emperor Kuang Hsu when he was but
+little more than three years of age. When the time came for him to wed,
+she arranged that he should marry his cousin, Yehonala, the daughter of
+her favourite brother, Duke Kuei. This Kuang Hsu was not inclined to
+do, as his affections seem to have been centred on another. The great
+Dowager, however, insisted upon it, and he finally made her Empress,
+and to satisfy,--or shall we say appease him?--she allowed him to take
+as his first concubine the lady he wanted as his wife; and it was
+currently reported in court circles that when Yehonala came into his
+presence he not infrequently kicked off his shoe at her, a bit of
+conduct that is quite in keeping with the temper usually attributed to
+Kuang Hsu during those early years. This may perhaps explain why she
+stood by the great Dowager through all the troublous times of 1898 and
+1900, in spite of the fact that her imperial aunt had taken her
+husband's throne.
+
+Mrs. Headland tells me that "Yehonala is not at all beautiful, though
+she has a sad, gentle face. She is rather stooped, extremely thin, her
+face long and sallow, and her teeth very much decayed. Gentle in
+disposition, she is without self-assertion, and if at any of the
+audiences we were to greet her she would return the greeting, but would
+never venture a remark. At the audiences given to the ladies she was
+always present, but never in the immediate vicinity of either the
+Empress Dowager or the Emperor. She would sometimes come inside the
+great hall where they were, but she always stood in some inconspicuous
+place in the rear, with her waiting women about her, and as soon as she
+could do so without attracting attention, she would withdraw into the
+court or to some other room. In the summer-time we sometimes saw her
+with her servants wandering aimlessly about the court. She had the
+appearance of a gentle, quiet, kindly person who was always afraid of
+intruding and had no place or part in anything. And now she is the
+Empress Dowager! It seems a travesty on the English language to call
+this kindly, gentle soul by the same title that we have been accustomed
+to use in speaking of the woman who has just passed away."
+
+My wife tells me that,--"A number of years ago I was called to see Mrs.
+Chang Hsu who was suffering from a nervous breakdown due to worry and
+sleeplessness. On inquiry I discovered that her two daughters had been
+taken into the palace as concubines of the Emperor Kuang Hsu. Her
+friends feared a mental breakdown, and begged me to do all I could for
+her. She took me by the hand, pulled me down on the brick bed beside
+her, and told me in a pathetic way how both of her daughters had been
+taken from her in a single day.
+
+"'But they have been taken into the palace,' I urged, to try to comfort
+her, 'and I have heard that the Emperor is very fond of your eldest
+daughter, and wanted to make her his empress.'
+
+"'Quite right,' she replied, 'but what consolation is there in that?
+They are only concubines, and once in the palace they are dead to me.
+No matter what they suffer, I can never see them or offer them a word
+of comfort. I am afraid of the court intrigues, and they are only
+children and cannot understand the duplicity of court life--I fear for
+them, I fear for them,' and she swayed back and forth on her brick bed.
+
+"Time, however, the great healer with a little medicine and sympathy to
+quiet her nerves, brought about a speedy recovery, though in the end
+her fears proved all too true."
+
+In 1897 the brother of this first concubine met Kang Yu-wei in the
+south, and became one of his disciples. Upon his return to Peking,
+knowing of the Emperor's desire for reform, and his affection for his
+sister, he found means of communicating with her about the young
+reformer.
+
+At the time of the coup d'etat, and the imprisonment of the Emperor,
+this first concubine was degraded and imprisoned on the ground of
+having been the means of introducing Kang Yu-wei to the notice of the
+Emperor, and thus interfering in state affairs. She continued in
+solitary confinement from that time until the flight of the court in
+1900 when in their haste to get away from the allies she was overlooked
+and left in the palace. When she discovered that she was alone with the
+eunuchs, fearing that she might become a victim to the foreign
+soldiers, she took her life by jumping into a well. On the return of
+the court in 1902, the Empress Dowager bestowed upon her posthumous
+honours, in recognition of her conduct in thus taking her life and
+protecting her virtue.
+
+Some conception of the haste and disorder with which the court left the
+capital on that memorable August morning may be gleaned from the fact
+that her sister was also overlooked and with a eunuch fled on foot in
+the wake of the departing court. She was overtaken by Prince Chuang who
+was returning in his chair from the palace, where, with Prince Ching,
+he had been to inform their Majesties that the allies were in
+possession of the city. The eunuch, recognizing him, called his
+attention to the fleeing concubine, who, when he had alighted and
+greeted her, begged him to find her a cart that she might follow the
+court. Presently a dilapidated vehicle came by in which sat an old man.
+The Prince ordered him to give the cart to the concubine and sent her
+to his palace where a proper conveyance was secured, and she overtook
+the court at the Nankow pass.
+
+At the audiences, this concubine was always in company with the Empress
+Yehonala, standing at her left. She, however, lacked both the beauty
+and intelligence of her sister.
+
+The ladies of the court, who were constantly associated with the
+Empress Dowager as her ladies in waiting, are first, the Imperial
+Princess, the daughter of the late Prince Kung, the sixth brother of
+the Empress Dowager's husband. Out of friendship for her father, the
+Empress Dowagers adopted her as their daughter, giving her all the
+rights, privileges and titles of the daughter of an empress. She is the
+only one in the empire who is entitled to ride in a yellow chair such
+as is used by the Empress Dowager, the Emperor or Empress. The highest
+of the princes--even Prince Ching himself--has to descend from his
+chair if he meet her. Yet when this lady is in the palace, no matter
+how she may be suffering, she dare not sit down in the presence of Her
+Majesty.
+
+"One day when we were in the palace," says Mrs. Headland, "the Imperial
+Princess was suffering from such a severe attack of lumbago, that she
+could scarcely stand. I suggested to her that she retire to the rear of
+the room, behind some of the pillars and rest a while.
+
+"'I dare not do that,' she replied; 'we have no such a custom in
+China.'"
+
+She is austere in manner, plain in appearance, dignified in bearing,
+about sixty-five years of age, and is noted for her accomplishment in
+making the most graceful courtesy of any lady in the court.
+
+During the Boxer troubles and the occupation, her palace was plundered
+and very much injured, and she escaped in her stocking feet through a
+side door. At the first luncheon given at her palace thereafter, she
+apologized for its desolate appearance, saying that it had been looted
+by the Boxers, though we knew it had been looted by the allies. At
+later luncheons, however, she had procured such ornaments as restored
+in some measure its original beauty and grandeur, though none of these
+dismantled palaces will regain their former splendour for many years to
+come.
+
+Next to the Imperial Princess are the two sisters of Yehonala, one of
+whom is married to Duke Tse, who was head of the commission that made
+the tour of the world to inquire as to the best form of government to
+be adopted by China in her efforts at renovation and reform. It is not
+too much to suppose that it was because the Duke was married to the
+Empress Dowager's niece that he was made the head of this commission,
+which after its return advised the adoption of a constitution. The
+other sister is the wife of Prince Shun, and is the opposite of the
+Empress. She is stout, but beautiful. She has always been the favourite
+niece of the Empress Dowager, appeared at all the functions, and though
+very sedate when foreign ladies were present at an audience, I was told
+by the Chinese that when the imperial family were alone together she
+was the life of the company. She would even stand behind the Empress
+Dowager's chair "making such grimaces," the Chinese expressed it, as to
+make it almost impossible for the others to retain their equilibrium.
+As she was the youngest of the three sisters, and because of her happy
+disposition, the Chinese nicknamed her hsiao kuniang, "the little
+girl." These three sisters are all childless.
+
+The Princess Shun and Princess Tsai Chen, only daughter-in-law of
+Prince Ching, herself the daughter of a viceroy, were very congenial,
+and the most intimate friends of all those in court circles. The latter
+is beautiful, brilliant, quick, tactful, and graceful. Of all the
+ladies of the court she is the most witty and, with Princess Shun, the
+most interesting. These two more than any others made the court ladies
+easy to entertain at all public functions, for they were full of
+enthusiasm and tried to help things along. They seemed to feel that
+they were personally responsible for the success of the audience or the
+luncheon as a social undertaking.
+
+Lady Yuan is one of two of these court ladies who dwelt with the
+Empress Dowager in the palace, the other being Prince Ching's fourth
+daughter. She is a niece by marriage of the Empress Dowager, though she
+really was never married. The nephew of the Empress Dowager, to whom
+she was engaged, though she had never seen him, died before they were
+married. After his death, but before his funeral, she dressed herself
+as a widow, and in a chair covered with white sackcloth went to his
+home, where she performed the ceremonies proper for a widow, which
+entitled her to take her position as his wife. Such an act is regarded
+as very meritorious in the eyes of the Chinese, and no women are more
+highly honoured than those who have given themselves in this way to a
+life of chastity.
+
+The second of these ladies who remained in the palace with the Empress
+Dowager is the fourth daughter of Prince Ching. Married to the son of a
+viceroy, their wedded life lasted only a few months. She was taken into
+the palace, and being a widow, she neither wears bright colours nor
+uses cosmetics. She is a fine scholar, very devout, and spends much of
+her time in studying the Buddhist classics. She is considered the most
+beautiful of the court ladies.
+
+The Empress Dowager took charge of most of the domestic matters of all
+her relatives, taking into the palace and associating with her as court
+ladies some who were widowed in their youth, and keeping constantly
+with her only those whom she has elevated to positions of rank, or
+members of her own family. Nor was she too busy with state affairs to
+stop and settle domestic quarrels.
+
+Among the court ladies there was one who was married to a prince of the
+second order. Her husband is still living, but as they were not
+congenial in their wedded life, the Empress Dowager made herself a kind
+of foster-mother to the Princess and banished her husband to Mongolia,
+an incident which reveals to us another phase of the great Dowager's
+character--that of dealing with fractious husbands.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+The Princesses--Their Schools
+
+The position accorded to woman in Chinese society is strictly a
+domestic one, and, as is the case in other Eastern countries, she is
+denied the liberty which threatens to attain such amazing proportions
+in the West. There is no reason to suppose that woman in China is
+treated worse than elsewhere; but people can of course paint her
+condition just as fancy seizes them. They are rarely admitted into the
+domestic surroundings of Chinese homes, therefore there is nothing to
+curb the imagination. The truth is that just as much may be said on one
+side as on the other. Domestic happiness is in China--as everywhere
+else the world over--a lottery. The parents invariably select partners
+in marriage for their sons and daughters, and sometimes make as great
+blunders as the young people would if left to themselves.--Harold E.
+Gorst in "China."
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE PRINCESSES--THEIR SCHOOLS[1]
+
+[1] Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book.
+
+One day while making a professional call on the Princess Su our
+conversation turned to female education in China. I was deeply
+interested in the subject, and was aware that the Prince had
+established a school for the education of his daughters and the women
+of his palace, and was naturally pleased when the Princess asked:
+
+"Would you care to visit our school when it is in session?"
+
+"Nothing would please me more," I answered. "When may I do so?"
+
+"Could you come to-morrow morning?" she inquired.
+
+"With pleasure; at what time?"
+
+"I will send my cart for you."
+
+The following morning the Prince's cart appeared. It was lined with
+fur, upholstered in satin, furnished with cushions, and encircled by a
+red band which indicated the rank of its owner. A venerable eunuch, the
+head of the palace servants, preceded it as an outrider, and assisted
+me in mounting and dismounting, while the driver in red-tasselled hat
+walked decorously by the side.
+
+The school occupies a large court in the palace grounds. Another
+evidence of Western influence in the same court is a large two-story
+house of foreign architecture where the Prince receives his guests.
+Prince Su was the first to have this foreign reception hall, but he has
+been followed in this respect by other officials and princes as well as
+by the Empress Dowager.
+
+"This is not unlike our foreign compounds," I remarked to the Princess
+as we entered the court.
+
+"Yes," she replied, "the Prince does not care to have the court paved,
+but prefers to have it sodded and filled with flowers and shrubs."
+
+The school building was evidently designed for that purpose, being
+light and airy with the whole southern exposure made into windows, and
+covered with a thin white paper which gives a soft, restful light and
+shuts out the glare of the sun. The floor is covered with a heavy rope
+matting while the walls are hung with botanical, zoological and other
+charts. Besides the usual furniture for a well-equipped schoolroom, it
+was heated with a foreign stove, had glass cases for their embroidery
+and drawing materials, and a good American organ to direct them in
+singing, dancing and calisthenics.
+
+I arrived at recess. The Princess took me into the teacher's den, which
+was cut off from the main room by a beautifully carved screen. Here I
+was introduced to the Japanese lady teacher and served with tea. She
+spoke no English and but little Chinese, and the embarrassment of our
+effort to converse was only relieved by the ringing of the bell for
+school. The pupils, consisting of the secondary wives and daughters of
+the Prince, his son's wife, and the wives and daughters of his dead
+brother who make their home with him, entered in an orderly way and
+took their seats. When the teacher came into the room the ladies all
+arose and remained standing until she took her place before her desk
+and made a low bow to which they all responded in unison. This is the
+custom in all of the schools I have visited. Even where the
+superintendent is Chinese, the pupils stand and make a low Japanese bow
+at the beginning and close of each recitation.
+
+"How long has the school been in session?" I asked the Princess.
+
+"Three and a half months," she replied.
+
+"And they have done all this embroidery and painting in that time?"
+
+"They have, and in addition have pursued their Western studies," she
+explained.
+
+In arithmetic the teacher placed the examples on the board, the pupils
+worked them on their slates, after which each was called upon for an
+explanation, which she gave in Japanese. While this class was reciting
+the Prince came in and asked if we might not have calisthenics,
+evidently thinking that I would enjoy the drill more than the
+mathematics. It was interesting to see those Manchu ladies stand and go
+through a thorough physical drill to the tune of a lively march on a
+foreign organ. The Japanese are masters in matters of physical drill,
+and in the schools I have visited I have been pleased at the quiet
+dignity, and the reserve force and sweetness of their Japanese
+teachers. The precision and unanimity with which orders were executed
+both surprised and delighted me. Everything about these schools was
+good except the singing, which was excruciatingly poor. The Chinese
+have naturally clear, sweet voices, with a tendency to a minor tone,
+which, with proper training, admit of fair development. But the
+Japanese teacher dragged and sang in a nasal tone, in which the pupils
+followed her, evidently thinking it was proper Western music. I was
+rather amused to see the younger pupils go through a dignified dance or
+march to the familiar strains of "Shall we gather at the river," which
+the eldest daughter played on the organ.
+
+"The young ladies do not comb their hair in the regular Manchu style,"
+I observed to the Princess.
+
+"No," she answered, "we do not think that best. It is not very
+convenient, and so we have them dress it in the small coil on top of
+the head as you see. Neither do we allow them to wear flowers in their
+hair, nor to paint or powder, or wear shoes with centre elevations on
+the soles. We try to give them the greatest possible convenience and
+comfort."
+
+They were proud of their bits of crocheting and embroidery, each of
+which was marked with the name of the person who did it and the date
+when it was completed. Many of them were made of pretty silk thread in
+a very intricate pattern, though I admired their drawing and painting
+still more.
+
+"Of what does their course of study consist?" I asked the Princess.
+
+She went to the wall and took down a neat gilt frame which contained
+their curriculum, and which she asked her eldest daughter to copy for
+me. They had five studies each day, six days of the week, Sunday being
+a holiday. They began with arithmetic, followed it up with Japanese
+language, needlework, music and calisthenics, then took Chinese
+language, drawing, and Chinese history with the writing of the
+ideographs of their own language, which was one of the most difficult
+tasks they had to perform. The dignified way in which the pupils
+conducted themselves, the respect which they showed their teacher, and
+the way in which they went about their work, delighted me. The
+discipline it gave them, the self-respect it engendered, and the power
+of acquisition that came with it were worth more perhaps than the
+knowledge they acquired, useful as that information must have been.
+
+The Princess Ka-la-chin, the fifth sister of Prince Su, is married to
+the Mongolian Prince Ka-la. It is a rule among the Manchus that no
+prince can marry a princess of their own people, but like the Emperor
+himself, must seek their wives from among the untitled. These ladies
+after their marriage are raised to the rank of their husbands. It is
+the same with the daughters of a prince. Their husbands must come from
+among the people, but unlike the princes they cannot raise them to
+their own rank, and so their children have no place in the imperial
+clan. Many of the princesses therefore prefer to marry Mongolian
+princes, by which they retain their rank as well as that of their
+children.
+
+Naturally a marriage of this kind brings changes into the life of the
+princess. She has been brought up in a palace in the capital, lives on
+Chinese food, and is not inured to hardships. When she marries a Mongol
+prince, she is taken to the Mongolian plains, is not infrequently
+compelled to live in a tent, and her food consists largely of milk,
+butter, cheese and meat, most of which are an abomination to the
+Chinese. They especially loathe butter and cheese, and not infrequently
+speak of the foreigner smelling like the Mongol--an odour which they
+say is the result of these two articles of diet.
+
+Prince Su's fifth sister was fortunate in being married to a Mongol
+prince who was not a nomad. He had established a sort of village
+capital of his possessions, the chief feature of which was his own
+palace. Here he lives during the summers and part of the winters;
+though once in three years he is compelled to spend at least three
+months in his palace in Peking when he comes to do homage to the
+Emperor.
+
+During one of these visits to Peking the Princess sent for me to come
+to her palace. I naturally supposed she was ill, and so took with me my
+medical outfit, but her first greeting was:
+
+"I am not ill, nor is any member of my family, but I wanted to see you
+to have a talk with you about foreign countries."
+
+She had prepared elaborate refreshments, and while we sat eating, she
+directed the conversation towards mines and mining, and then said:
+
+"My husband, the Prince, is very much interested in this subject, and
+believes that there are rich stores of ore on his principality in
+Mongolia."
+
+"Indeed, that is very interesting," I answered.
+
+"You know, of course, it is a rule," she went on to say, "that no
+prince of the realm is allowed to go more than a few miles from the
+capital without special permission from the throne."
+
+"No, I was not aware of that fact."
+
+She then went on to say that her husband was anxious to attend the St.
+Louis Exposition, and study this subject in America, but so long as
+these hindrances remained it was impossible for him to do so. She then
+said:
+
+"I am very much interested in the educational system of your honourable
+country, and especially in your method of conducting girls' schools."
+
+"Would you not like to come and visit our girls' high school?" I asked.
+
+"I should be delighted," she replied.
+
+This she did, and before leaving the capital she sent for a Japanese
+lady teacher whom she took with her to her Mongolian home, where she
+established a school for Mongolian girls.
+
+In this school she had a regular system of rules, which did not tally
+with the undisciplined methods of the Mongolians, and it was amusing to
+hear her tell how it was often necessary for the Prince to go about in
+the morning and wake up the girls in order to get them into school at
+nine o'clock.
+
+The next time she came to Peking she brought with her seventeen of her
+brightest girls to see the sights of the city and visit some of the
+girls' schools, both Christian and non-Christian. Everything was new to
+them and it was interesting to hear their remarks as I showed them
+through our home and our high school. When the Princess returned to
+Mongolia she took with her a cultured young Chinese lady of unusual
+literary attainments to teach the Chinese classics in the school. This
+is the only school I have known that was established by a Manchu
+princess, for Mongolian girls, and taught by Chinese and Japanese
+teachers. This young lady was the daughter of the president of the
+Board of Rites, head examiner for literary degrees for all China, and
+was himself a chuang yuan, or graduate of the highest standing. Before
+going, this Chinese teacher had small bound feet, but she had not been
+long on the plains before she unbound her feet, dressed herself in
+suitable clothing, and went with the Princess and the Japanese teacher
+for a horseback ride across the plains in the early morning, a thing
+which a Chinese lady, under ordinary circumstances, is never known to
+do. The school is still growing in size and usefulness.
+
+Prince Su's third sister is married to a commoner, but as is usual with
+these ladies who marry beneath their own rank, she retains her maiden
+title of Third Princess, by which she is always addressed.
+
+"How did you obtain your education?" I once asked her.
+
+"During my childhood," she answered, "my mother was opposed to having
+her daughters learn to read, but like most wealthy families, she had
+old men come into the palace to read stories or recite poetry for our
+entertainment. I not infrequently followed the old men out, bought the
+books from which they read, and then bribed some of the eunuchs to
+teach me to read them. In this way I obtained a fair knowledge of the
+Chinese character."
+
+She is as deeply interested in the new educational movement among girls
+as is her sister. When this desire for Western education began, she
+organized a school, in which she has eighty girls or more, taken from
+various grades of society, whom she and some of her friends, in
+addition to employing teachers and providing the school-rooms, gave a
+good part of their time to teaching the Chinese classics, while a
+Japanese lady taught them calisthenics and the rudiments of Western
+mathematics.
+
+She is aggressively pro-foreign, and is ready to do anything that will
+contribute to the success of the new educational movement, and the
+freedom of the Chinese woman. On one occasion when the Chinese in
+Peking undertook to raise a fund for famine relief, they called a large
+public meeting to which men and women were alike invited, the first
+meeting of the kind ever held in Peking. Such a gathering could not
+have occurred before the Boxer rebellion. The Third Princess, having
+promised to help provide the programme, took a number of her girls, and
+on a large rostrum, had them go through their calisthenic exercises for
+the entertainment of the audience. On another occasion she took all her
+girls to a private box at a Chinese circus, where men and women
+acrobats and horseback riders performed in a ring not unlike that of
+our own circus riders. In this circus small-footed women rode horseback
+as well as the women in our own circus, and one woman with bound feet
+lay down on her back, balanced a cart-wheel, weighing at least a
+hundred pounds, on her feet, whirling it rapidly all the time, and then
+after it stopped she continued to hold it while two women and a child
+climbed on top. The Princess was determined to allow her girls to have
+all the advantages the city afforded.
+
+At the school of this Third Princess I once attended a unique memorial
+service. A lady of Hang Chou, finding it impossible to secure
+sufficient money by ordinary methods for the support of a school that
+she had established, cut a deep gash in her arm and then sat in the
+temple court during the day of the fair, with a board beside her on
+which was inscribed the explanation of her unusual conduct. This
+brought her in some three hundred ounces of silver with which she
+provided for her school the first year. When it was exhausted and she
+could get no more, she wrote letters to the officials of her province,
+in which she asked for subscriptions and urged the importance of female
+education, to which she said she was willing to give her life. To her
+appeal the officials paid no heed, and she finally wrote other letters
+renewing her request for help to establish the school, after which she
+committed suicide. The letters were sent, and later published in the
+local and general newspapers. Memorial services were held in various
+parts of the empire at all of which funds were gathered not only for
+her school but for establishing other schools throughout the provinces.
+
+The school of the Third Princess at which this service was held was
+profusely decorated. Chinese flags floated over the gates and
+door-ways. Beautifully written scrolls, telling the reason for the
+service and lauding the virtues of the lady, covered the walls of the
+schoolroom. At the second entrance there was a table at which sat a
+scribe who took our name and address and gave us a copy of the "order
+of exercises." Here we were met by the Third Princess, who conducted us
+into the main hall. Opposite the doorway was hung a portrait of the
+lady, wreathed in artificial flowers, and painted by a Chinese artist.
+A table stood before it on which was a plate of fragrant quinces,
+candles, and burning incense, giving it the appearance of a shrine.
+Pots of flowers were arranged about the room, which was unusually clean
+and beautiful. The Chinese guests bowed three times before the picture
+on entering the room, which I thought a very pretty ceremony.
+
+The girls of this school, to the number of about sixty, appeared in
+blue uniform, courtesying to the guests. Sixteen other girls' schools
+of Peking were represented either by teachers or pupils or both. One of
+the boys' schools came en masse, dressed in military uniform, led by a
+band, and a drillmaster with a sword dangling at his side. Addresses
+were made by both ladies and gentlemen, chief among whom were the Third
+Princess and the editress of the Woman's Daily Newspaper, the only
+woman's daily at that time in the world, who urged the importance of
+the establishment and endowment of schools for the education of girls
+throughout the empire.
+
+
+
+XV
+
+The Chinese Ladies of Rank
+
+  Though your husband may be wealthy,
+  You should never be profuse;
+  There should always be a limit
+  To the things you eat and use.
+  If your husband should be needy,
+  You should gladly share the same,
+  And be diligent and thrifty,
+  And no other people blame.
+        --"The Primer for Girls," Translated by I. T. H.
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE CHINESE LADIES OF RANK[2]
+
+[2] Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book.
+
+The Manchu lady's ideal of beauty is dignity, and to this both her
+deportment and her costume contribute in a well-nigh equal degree. Her
+hair, put up on silver or jade jewelled hairpins, decorated with many
+flowers, is very heavy, and easily tilted to one side or the other if
+not carried with the utmost sedateness. Her long garments, reaching
+from her shoulders to the floor, give to her tall figure an added
+height, and the central elevation of from four to six inches to the
+soles of her daintily embroidered slippers, compel her to stand erect
+and walk slowly and majestically. She laughs but little, seldom jests,
+but preserves a serious air in whatever she does.
+
+The Chinese lady, on the contrary, aspires to be petite, winsome,
+affable and helpless. She laughs much, enjoys a joke, and is always
+good-natured and chatty.
+
+One of their poets thus describes a noted beauty:
+
+  "At one moment with tears her bright eyes would be swimming,
+  The next with mischief and fun they'd be brimming.
+  Thousands of sonnets were written in praise of them,
+  Li Po wrote a song for each separate phase of them.
+
+  "Bashfully, swimmingly, pleadingly, scoffingly,
+  Temptingly, languidly, lovingly, laughingly,
+  Witchingly, roguishly, playfully, naughtily,
+  Willfully, waywardly, meltingly, haughtily,
+  Gleamed the eyes of Yang Kuei Fei.
+
+  "Her ruby lips and peach-bloom cheeks,
+  Would match the rose in hue,
+  If one were kissed the other speaks,
+  With blushes, kiss me too."
+
+
+She combs her hair in a neat coil on the back of her head, uses few
+flowers, but instead prefers profuse decorations of pearls. Her upper
+garment extends but little below her knees, and her lower garment is an
+accordion-plaited skirt, from beneath which the pointed toes of her
+small bound feet appear as she walks or sways on her "golden lilies,"
+as if she were a flower blown by the wind, to which the Chinese love to
+compare her. Her waist is a "willow waist" in poetry, and her "golden
+lilies," as her tiny feet are often called, are not more than two or
+three inches long--so small that it not infrequently requires the
+assistance of a servant or two to help her to walk at all. And though
+she may not need them she affects to be so helpless as to require their
+aid.
+
+Until very recently education was discouraged rather than sought by the
+Manchu lady. Many of the princesses could not read the simplest book
+nor write a letter to a friend, but depended upon educated eunuchs to
+perform these services for them. The Chinese lady on the contrary can
+usually read and write with ease, and the education of some of them is
+equal to that of a Hanlin.
+
+Socially the ladies of these two classes never meet. Their husbands may
+be of equal rank and well known to each other in official life, but the
+ladies have no wish to meet each other. One day while the granddaughter
+of one of the Chinese Grand Secretaries was calling upon me, the
+sisters of Prince Ching and Prince Su were announced. When they entered
+I introduced them. The dignity of the two princesses when presented led
+me to fear that we would have a cold time together. I explained who my
+Chinese lady friend was, and they answered in a formal way (wai t ou
+tou jen te, li to'u k'e pu jen te) "the gentlemen of our respective
+households are well acquainted, not so the ladies," but the ice did not
+melt. For a time I did my best to find a topic of mutual interest, but
+it was like trying to mix oil and water. I was about to give up in
+despair when my little Chinese friend, observing the dilemma in which I
+was placed, and the effort I was making to relieve the situation, threw
+herself into the conversation with such vigour and vivacity, and
+suggested topics of such interest to the others as to charm these
+reserved princesses, and it was not long until they were talking
+together in a most animated way.
+
+One of the Manchu ladies expressed regret at the falling of her hair
+and the fact that she was getting bald. "Why," said my little Chinese
+friend, "after a severe illness not long since, I lost all my hair, but
+I received a prescription from a friend which restored it all, and just
+look at the result," she continued turning her pretty head with its
+great coils of shiny black hair. "I will be delighted to let you have
+it." The Manchu princesses finally rose to depart, and in their
+leave-taking, they were as cordial to my little Chinese friend, who had
+made herself so agreeable, as they were to me, for which I shall ever
+be grateful.
+
+After they had gone I asked:
+
+"Why is it that the Manchu and Chinese ladies do not intermingle in a
+social way?"
+
+"The cause dates back to the beginning of the Manchu dynasty," she
+responded. "When the Chinese men adopted the Manchu style of wearing
+the queue, it was stipulated that they should not interfere with the
+style of the woman's dress, and that no Chinese should be taken to the
+palace as concubines or slaves to the Emperor. We have therefore always
+held ourselves aloof from the Manchus. Our men did this to protect us,
+and as a result no Chinese lady has ever been received at court,
+except, of course, the painting teacher of the Empress Dowager, who,
+before she could enter the palace, was compelled to unbind her feet,
+adopt the Manchu style of dress and take a Manchu name."
+
+"Is not the Empress Dowager very much opposed to foot-binding? Why has
+she not forbidden it?"
+
+"She has issued edicts recommending them to give it up, but to forbid
+it is beyond her power. That would be interfering with the Chinese
+ladies' dress."
+
+"Do the Manchus consider themselves superior to the Chinese?"
+
+"It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. Have you never noticed
+that in his edicts the Emperor speaks of his Manchu slaves and his
+Chinese subjects?"
+
+Among my lady friends is one whose father died when she was a child,
+and she was brought up in the home of her grandfather who was himself a
+viceroy. She had always been accustomed to every luxury that wealth
+could buy. Clothed in the richest embroidered silks and satins,
+decorated with the rarest pearls and precious stones, she had serving
+women and slave girls to wait upon her, and humour her every whim. One
+day when we were talking of the Boxer insurrection she told me the
+following story:
+
+"Some years ago," she said, "my steward brought me a slave girl whom he
+had bought from her father on the street. She was a bright intelligent
+and obedient little girl, and I soon became very fond of her. She told
+me one day that her grandmother was a Christian, and that she had been
+baptized and attended a Christian school. Her father, however, was an
+opium-smoker, and had pawned everything he had, and finally when her
+grandmother was absent had taken her and sold her to get money to buy
+opium. She asked me to send a messenger to her grandmother and tell her
+that she had a good home.
+
+"I was delighted to do so for I knew the old woman would be distressed
+lest the child had been sold to a life of shame, or had found a cruel
+mistress. Unfortunately, however, my messenger could find no trace of
+the grandmother, as the neighbours informed him that she had left
+shortly after the disappearance of the child.
+
+"As the years passed the child grew into womanhood. She was very
+capable, kind and thoughtful for others and I learned to depend upon
+her in many ways. She was very devoted to me, and sought to please me
+in every way she could. She always spoke of herself as a Christian and
+refused to worship our gods. When the Boxer troubles began I took my
+house-servants and went to my grandfather's home thinking that the
+Boxers would not dare disturb the households of such great officials as
+the viceroys. But I soon found that they respected no one who had
+liberal tendencies.
+
+"One day there was a proclamation posted to the effect that all
+Christians were to be turned over to them, and that any one found
+concealing a Christian would themselves be put to death. My grandmother
+came to my apartments and wanted me to send my slave girl to the
+Boxers. We talked about it for some time but I steadfastly refused.
+When the Boxers had procured all they could by that method they
+announced that they were about to make a house-to-house search, and any
+household harbouring Christians would be annihilated."
+
+"But how would they know that your slave was a Christian?" I inquired.
+
+"Have you not heard," she asked, "that the Boxers claimed that after
+going through certain incantations, they could see a cross upon the
+forehead of any who had been baptized?"
+
+"And did you believe they could?"
+
+"I did then but I do not now. Indeed we all did. My grandmother came to
+me and positively forbade me to keep the slave in her home. After she
+had gone the girl came and knelt at my feet and begged me to save her!
+How could I send her out to death when she had been so kind and
+faithful to me? I finally decided upon a plan to save her. I determined
+to flee with her to the home of an uncle who lived in a town a hundred
+miles or more from Peking, where I hoped the Boxers were less powerful
+than they were at the capital.
+
+"This uncle was the lieutenant-governor of the province and had always
+been very fond of me, and I knew if I could reach him I should win his
+sympathy and his aid. But how was this to be done? All travellers were
+suspected, searched and examined. For two women to be travelling alone,
+when the country was in such a state of unrest, could not but bring
+upon themselves suspicion, and should we be searched, the cross upon
+the forehead would surely be found, and we would be condemned to the
+cruel tortures in which the Boxers were said to delight.
+
+"After much thought and planning the only possible method seemed to be
+to flee as beggars. You know women beggars are found upon the roads at
+all times and they excite little suspicion. Then in the hot summer it
+is not uncommon for them to wrap their head and forehead in a piece of
+cloth to protect them from the fierce rays of the sun. In this way I
+hoped to conceal the cross from observation in case we came into the
+presence of the Boxers. We confided our plans to a couple of the women
+servants whom we could trust, and asked them to procure proper outfits
+for us. They did so, and oh! what dirty old rags they were. The
+servants wept as they took off and folded up my silk garments and clad
+me in this beggar's garb."
+
+"But your skin is so soft and fair, not at all like the skin of a woman
+exposed to the sun; and your black, shiny hair is not at all rusty and
+dirty like the hair of a beggar woman. I should think these facts would
+have caused your detection," I urged.
+
+"That was easily remedied. We stained our faces, necks, hands and arms,
+and we took down our hair and literally rolled it in dust which the
+servants brought from the street. Oh! but it was nasty! such an odour!
+It was only the saving of the life of that faithful slave that could
+have induced me to do it. I had to take off my little slippers and wrap
+my feet in dirty rags such as beggars wear. We could take but a little
+copper cash with us. To be seen with silver or gold would have at once
+brought suspicion upon us, while bank-notes were useless in those days.
+
+"In the early morning, before any one was astir we were let out of a
+back gate. It was the first time I had ever walked on the street. I had
+always been accustomed to going in my closed cart with outriders and
+servants. I shrank from staring eyes, and thought every glance was
+suspicious. My slave was more timid than I and so I must take the
+initiative. I had been accustomed to seeing street beggars from behind
+the screened windows of my cart ever since I was a child and so I knew
+how I ought to act, but at first it was difficult indeed. Soon,
+however, we learned to play our part, though it seems now like a
+hideous dream. We kept on towards the great gate through which we
+passed out of the city on to the highway which led to our destination.
+
+"The first time we met a Boxer procession my knees knocked together in
+my fear of detection but they passed by without giving us a glance. We
+met them often after this, and before we finished our journey I learned
+to doubt their claim to detect Christians by the sign of the cross.
+
+"We ate at the roadside booths, slept often in a gateway or by the side
+of a wall under the open sky, and after several days' wandering, we
+reached the yamen of my uncle. But we dare not enter and reveal our
+identity, lest we implicate them, for we found the Boxers strong
+everywhere, and even the officials feared their prowess. We hung about
+the yamen begging in such a way as not to arouse suspicion, until an
+old servant who had been in the family for many years, and whom I knew
+well, came upon the street. I followed him begging until we were out of
+earshot of others, and then told him in a singsong, whining tone, such
+as beggars use, who I was and why I was there, and asked him to let my
+uncle know, and said that if they would open the small gate in the
+evening we would be near and could enter unobserved.
+
+"At first he could not believe it was I, for by this time we indeed
+looked like veritable beggars, but he was finally convinced and
+promised to tell my uncle. After nightfall he opened the gate and led
+us in by a back passage to my aunt's apartments where she and my uncle
+were waiting for me. They both burst into tears as they beheld my
+plight. Two old serving women, who had been many years in the family,
+helped us to change our clothes and gave us a bath and food. My feet
+had suffered the most. They were swollen and ulcerated and the dirty
+rags and dust adhering to the sores had left them in a wretched
+condition. It took many baths before we were clean, and weeks before my
+feet were healed.
+
+"We remained with my uncle until the close of the Boxer trouble, and
+until my grandfather's return from Hsian where he had gone with the
+Empress Dowager and the court, and then I came back to Peking."
+
+"Your grandmother must have felt ashamed when she heard how hard it had
+gone with you," I remarked.
+
+"We never mentioned the matter when talking together. That was a time
+when every one was for himself. Death stared us all in the face."
+
+"Where is your slave girl now? I should like to see her," I remarked.
+
+"After the troubles were over I married her to a young man of my
+uncle's household. I will send for her and bring her to see you."
+
+She did so. I found she had forgotten much of what she had learned of
+Christianity, but she remembered that there was but one God and that
+Jesus Christ was His Son to whom alone she should pray. She also
+remembered that as a small child she had been baptized, and that in
+school she had been taught that "we should love one another"; this was
+about the extent of her Gospel, but it had touched the heart of her
+charming little mistress and had saved her life.
+
+There were sometimes amusing things happened when these Chinese ladies
+called. My husband among other things taught astronomy in the
+university. He had a small telescope with which he and the students
+often examined the planets, and they were especially interested in
+Jupiter and his moons. One evening, contrary to her custom, this same
+friend was calling after dark, and when the students had finished with
+Jupiter and his moons, my husband invited us to view them, as they were
+especially clear on that particular evening.
+
+After she had looked at them for a while, and as my husband was closing
+up the telescope, she exclaimed: "That is the kind of an instrument
+that some foreigners sent as a present to my grandfather while he was
+viceroy, but it was larger than this one."
+
+"And did he use it?" asked my husband.
+
+"No, we did not know what it was for. Besides my grandfather was too
+busy with the affairs of the government to try to understand it."
+
+"And where is it now?" asked Mr. Headland, thinking that the viceroy
+might be willing to donate it to the college.
+
+"I do not know," she answered. "The servants thought it was a pump and
+tried to pump water with it, but it would not work. It is probably
+among the junk in some of the back rooms."
+
+"I wonder if we could not find it and fix it up," my husband persisted.
+
+"I am afraid not," she answered. "The last I saw of it, the servants
+had taken the glass out of the small end and were using it to look at
+insects on the bed."
+
+One day when one of my friends came to call I said to her: "It is a
+long time since I have seen you. Have you been out of the city?"
+
+"Yes, I have been spending some months with my father-in-law, the
+viceroy of the Canton provinces. His wife has died, and I have returned
+to Peking to get him a concubine."
+
+"How old is he?" I inquired.
+
+"Seventy-two years," she replied.
+
+"And how will you undertake to secure a concubine for such an old man?"
+
+"I shall probably buy one."
+
+A few weeks afterwards she called again having with her a good-looking
+young woman of about seventeen, her hair beautifully combed, her face
+powdered and painted, and clothed in rich silk and satin garments, whom
+she introduced as the young lady procured for her father-in-law. She
+explained that she had bought her from a poor country family for three
+hundred and fifty ounces of silver.
+
+"Don't you think it is cruel for parents to sell their daughters in
+this way?" I asked.
+
+"Perhaps," she answered. "But with the money they received for her,
+they can buy land enough to furnish them a good support all their life.
+She will always have rich food, fine clothing and an easy time, with
+nothing to do but enjoy herself, while if she had remained at home she
+must have married some poor man who might or might not have treated her
+well, and for whom she would have to work like a slave. Now she is
+nominally a slave with nothing to do and with every comfort, in
+addition to what she has done for her family."
+
+While we were having tea she asked to see Mr. Headland, as many of the
+older of my friends did. I invited him in, and as he entered the
+dining-room the young woman stepped out into the hall.
+
+My friend greeted my husband, and with a mysterious nod of her head in
+the direction of the young woman she said: "Chiu shih na ke,--that's
+it."
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+The Social Life of the Chinese Woman
+
+The manners and customs of the Chinese, and their social
+characteristics, have employed many pens and many tongues, and will
+continue to furnish all inexhaustible field for students of sociology,
+of religion, of philosophy, of civilization, for centuries to come.
+Such studies, however, scarcely touch the province of the practical, at
+least as yet, for one principal reason--that the subject is so vast,
+the data are so infinite, as to overwhelm the student rather than
+assist him in sound generalizations.--A. R. Colquhoun in "China in
+Transformation."
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE WOMAN
+
+The home life of a people is too sacred to be touched except by the
+hand of friendship. Our doors are closed to strangers, locked to
+enemies, and opened only to those of our own race who are in harmony
+and sympathy with us. What then shall we say when people of an alien
+race come seeking admission? They must bring some social
+distinction,--letters of introduction, or an ability to help us in ways
+in which we cannot help ourselves.
+
+In the case of a people as exclusive as the Chinese this is especially
+true, so that with the exception of one or two women physicians and the
+wife of one of our diplomats no one has ever been admitted in a social
+as well as professional way to the women's apartments of the homes of
+the better class of the Chinese people.
+
+A Chinese home is different from our own. It is composed of many
+one-story buildings, around open courts, one behind the other, and
+sometimes covers several acres of ground. Then it is divided into men's
+and women's apartments, the men receiving their friends in theirs and
+the women likewise receiving their friends by a side gate in their own
+apartments, which are at the rear of the dwelling. A wealthy man
+usually, in addition to his wife, has one or more concubines, and each
+of these ladies has an apartment of her own for herself and her
+children,--though all the children of all the concubines reckon as
+belonging to the first wife.
+
+I have heard Sir Robert Hart tell an amusing incident which occurred in
+Peking. He said that the Chinese minister appointed to the court of
+Saint James came to call on him before setting out upon his journey.
+After conversing for some time he said:
+
+"I should be glad to see Lady Hart. I believe it is customary in
+calling on a foreign gentleman to see his lady, is it not?"
+
+"It is," said Sir Robert, "and I should be delighted to have you see
+her, but Lady Hart was in England with our children, and has not been
+here for twenty years."
+
+"Ah, indeed, then perhaps I might see your second wife."
+
+"That you might, if I had one. But the customs of our country do not
+allow us to have a second wife. Indeed they would imprison us if we
+were to have two wives."
+
+"How singular," said the official with a nod of his head. "You do not
+appreciate the advantages of this custom of ours."
+
+That there are advantages in this custom from the Chinese point of
+view, I have no doubt. But from certain things I have heard I fear
+there are disadvantages as well. One day the head eunuch from the
+palace of one of the leading princes in Peking came to ask my wife, who
+was their physician, to go to see some of the women or children who
+were ill. It was drawing near to the New Year festival and, of course,
+they had their own absorbing topics of conversation in the servants'
+courts. I said to him:
+
+"The Prince has a good many children, has he not?"
+
+"Twenty-three," he answered.
+
+"How many concubines has he?" I inquired.
+
+"Three," he replied, "but he expects to take on two more after the
+holidays."
+
+"Doesn't it cause trouble in a family for a man to have so many women
+about? I should think they would be jealous of each other."
+
+"Ah," said he, with a wave of his hand and a shake of his head, "that
+is a topic that is difficult to discuss. Naturally if this woman sees
+him taking to that woman, this one is going to eat vinegar."
+
+They do "eat vinegar," but perhaps as little of it as any people who
+live in the way in which they live, for the Chinese have organized
+their home life as nearly on a governmental basis as any people in the
+world.
+
+In addition to the wife and concubines, each son when he marries brings
+his wife home to a parental court, and all these sisters-in-law, or
+daughters-in-law add so much to the complications of living, for each
+must have her own retinue of servants.
+
+Young people in China are all engaged by their parents without their
+knowledge or consent. This was very unsatisfactory to the young people
+of the old regime, and it is being modified in the new. One day one of
+my students in discussing this matter said to me:
+
+"Our method of getting a wife is very much better than either the old
+Chinese method or your foreign method."
+
+"How is that?" I asked.
+
+"Well," said he, "according to the old Chinese custom a man could never
+see his wife until she was brought to his house. But we can see the
+girls in public meetings, we have sisters in the girls' school, they
+have brothers in the college, and when we go home during vacation we
+can learn all about each other."
+
+"But how do you consider it better than our method?" I persisted.
+
+"Why, you see, when you have found the girl you want, you have to go
+and get her yourself, while we can send a middleman to do it for us."
+
+I still argued that by our method we could become better acquainted
+with the young lady.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that is true; but doesn't it make you awfully mad if
+you ask a lady to marry you and she refuses?" and it must be confessed
+that this was a difficult question to answer without compromising one's
+self.
+
+The rigour of the old regime was apparently modified by giving the
+young lady a chance to refuse. About ten days before the marriage, two
+ladies are selected by the mother of the young man to carry a peculiar
+ornament made of ebony and jade, or jade alone, or red lacquer, to the
+home of the prospective bride. This ornament is called the ju yi, which
+means "According to my wishes." If the lady receives it into her own
+hands it signifies her willingness to become his bride; if she rejects
+it, the negotiations are at an end, though I have never heard of a girl
+who refused the ju yi.[3]
+
+Very erroneous ideas of the life and occupations of the Chinese ladies
+of the noble and official classes are held by those not conversant with
+their home life. The Chinese woman is commonly regarded as little
+better than a secluded slave, who whiles away the tedious hours at an
+embroidery frame, where with her needle she works those delicate and
+intricate pieces of embroidery for which she is famous throughout the
+world. In reality, a Chinese lady has little time to give to such work.
+Her life is full of the most exacting social duties. Few American
+ladies in the whirl of society in Washington or New York have more
+social functions to attend or duties to perform. I have often been
+present in the evening when the head eunuch brought to the ruling lady
+of the home (and the head of the home in China is the woman, not the
+man) an ebony tablet on which was written in red ink the list of social
+functions the ladies were to attend the following day.
+
+She would select from the list such as she and her unmarried daughters
+could attend,--the daughters always going with their mother and not
+with their sisters-in-law,--then she would apportion the other
+engagements to her daughters-in-law, who would attend them in her stead.
+
+The Chinese lady in Peking sleeps upon a brick bed, one half of the
+room being built up a foot and a half above the floor, with flues
+running through it; and in the winter a fire is built under the bed, so
+that, instead of having one hot brick in her bed, she has a hundred.
+She rises about eight. She has a large number of women servants, a few
+slave girls, and if she belongs to the family of a prince, she has
+several eunuchs, these latter to do the heavy work about the household.
+Each servant has her own special duties, and resents being asked to
+perform those of another. When my lady awakes a servant brings her a
+cup of hot tea and a cake made of wheat or rice flour. After eating
+this a slave girl presents her with a tiny pipe with a long stem from
+which she takes a few whiffs. Two servants then appear with a large
+polished brass basin of very hot water, towels, soaps, preparations of
+honey to be used on her face and hands while they are still warm and
+moist from the bathing. After the bath they remove the things and
+disappear, and two other women take their places, with a tray on which
+are combs, brushes, hair-pomades, and the framework and accessories
+needed for combing her hair. Then begins a long and tedious operation
+that may continue for two hours. Finally the hair is ready for the
+ornaments, jewels and flowers which are brought by another servant on a
+large tray. The mistress selects the ones she wishes, placing them in
+her hair with her own hands.
+
+Some of these flowers are exquisite. The Chinese are expert at making
+artificial flowers which are true to nature in every detail. Often
+above the flower a beautiful butterfly is poised on a delicate spring,
+and looks so natural that it is easy to be deceived into believing it
+to be alive. When the jasmine is in bloom beautiful creations are made
+of these tiny flowers by means of standards from which protrude fine
+wires on which the flowers are strung in the shape of butterflies or
+other symbols, and the flowers massed in this way make a very effective
+ornament. With the exception of the jasmine the flowers used in the
+hair are all artificial, though natural flowers are worn in
+season--roses in summer, orchids in late summer, and chrysanthemums in
+autumn.
+
+The prevailing idea with the Chinese ladies is that the foreign woman
+does not comb her hair. I have often heard my friends apologizing to
+ladies whom they have brought to see me for the first time, and on whom
+they wanted me to make a good impression, by saying:
+
+"You must not mind her hair; she is really so busy she has no time to
+comb it. All her time is spent in acts of benevolence."
+
+At the first audience when the Empress Dowager received the foreign
+ladies, she presented each of them with two boxes of combs, one ivory
+inlaid with gold, the other ordinary hard wood, and the set was
+complete even to the fine comb. One cannot but wonder if Her Majesty
+had not heard of the untidy locks of the foreign woman, which she
+attributed to a lack of proper combs.
+
+After the hair has been properly combed and ornamented, cosmetics of
+white and carmine are brought for the face and neck. The Manchu lady
+uses these in great profusion, her Chinese sister more sparingly. No
+Chinese lady, unless a widow or a woman past sixty, is supposed to
+appear in the presence of her family without a full coating of powder
+and paint. A lady one day complained to me of difficulty in lifting her
+eyelids, and consulted me as to the reason.
+
+"Perhaps," said I, "they are partially paralyzed by the lead in your
+cosmetics. Wash off the paint and see if the nerves do not recover
+their tone."
+
+"But," said she, "I would not dare appear in the presence of my husband
+or family without paint and powder; it would not be respectable."
+
+The final touch to the face is the deep carmine spot on the lower lip.
+
+The robing then begins. And what beautiful robes they are! the softest
+silks, over which are worn in summer the most delicate of embroidered
+grenadines, or in winter, rich satins lined with costly furs, each
+season calling for a certain number and kind. She then decorates
+herself with her jewels,--earrings, bracelets, beads, rings, charms,
+embroidered bags holding the betel-nut, and the tiny mirror in its
+embroidered case with silk tassels. When these are hung on the buttons
+of her dress her outfit is complete, and she arises from her couch a
+wonderful creation, from her glossy head, with every hair in place, to
+the toe of her tiny embroidered slipper. But it has taken the time of a
+half-dozen servants for three hours to get these results.
+
+To one accustomed to the Chinese or Manchu mode of dress, she appears
+very beautiful. The rich array of colours, the embroidered gowns, and
+the bright head-dress, make a striking picture. Often as the ladies of
+a home or palace came out on the veranda to greet me, or bid me adieu,
+I have been impressed with their wonderful beauty, to which our own
+dull colours, and cloth goods, suffer greatly in comparison, and I
+could not blame these good ladies for looking upon our toilets with
+more or less disdain.
+
+It is now after eleven o'clock and her breakfast is ready to be served
+in another room. Word that the leading lady of the household is about
+to appear is sent to the other apartments. Hurried finishing touches
+are given to toilets, for all daughters, daughters-in-law and
+grandchildren must be ready to receive her in the outer room when she
+appears leaning on the arms of two eunuchs if she is a princess, or on
+two stout serving women if a Chinese.
+
+According to her rank, each one in turn takes a step towards her and
+gives a low courtesy in which the left knee touches the floor. Even the
+children go through this same formality. All are gaily dressed, with
+hair bedecked and faces painted like her own. She inclines her head but
+slightly. These are the members of her household over whom she has
+sway--her little realm. While her mother-in-law lived she was under the
+same rigorous rule.
+
+In China where there are so many women in the home it is necessary to
+have a head--one who without dispute rules with autocratic sway. This
+is the mother-in-law. When she dies the first wife takes her place as
+head of the family. A concubine may be the favourite of the husband. He
+may give her fine apartments to live in, many servants to wait on her,
+and every luxury he can afford; but there his power ends. The first
+wife is head of the household, is legally mother of all the children
+born to any or all of the concubines her husband possesses. The
+children all call her mother, and the inferior wives recognize her as
+their mistress. She and her daughters, and daughters-in-law, attend
+social functions, receive friends, extend hospitality; but the
+concubines have no place in this, unless by her permission. When the
+time comes for selecting wives for her sons, it is the first wife who
+does it, although she may be childless herself. It is to her the brides
+of these sons are brought, and to her all deference is due. In rare
+cases, where the concubine has had the good fortune to supply the heir
+to the throne or to a princely family, she is raised to the position of
+empress or princess. But this is seldom done, and is usually remembered
+against the woman. She is never received with the same feeling as if
+she had been first wife.
+
+One day I was asked to go to a palace to see a concubine who was ill.
+In such cases I always went directly to the Princess, and she took me
+to see the sick one. As we entered the room there was a nurse standing
+with a child in her arms, and the Princess called my attention to a
+blemish on its face.
+
+"Can it be removed?" she asked.
+
+I looked at it and, seeing that it would require but a minor operation,
+told her it could.
+
+While attending to the patient, the nurse, fearing that the child would
+be hurt, left the room and another entered with another child.
+
+"Now," said the Princess when we had finished with the patient, "we
+will attend to the child." And she called the woman to her.
+
+"But," said the woman, "this is not the child."
+
+"There," said the Princess, "you see I do not know my own children."
+
+But I left our friend receiving the morning salutations of her
+household. These over, she dismisses them to their own apartments,
+where each mother sits down with her own children to her morning meal,
+waited on by her own servants. If there are still unmarried daughters,
+they remain with their mother; if none, she eats alone.
+
+Since Peking is in the same latitude as Philadelphia my lady has the
+same kinds of fruit--apples, peaches, pears, apricots, the most
+delicious grapes, and persimmons as large as the biggest tomato you
+ever saw; indeed, the Chinese call the tomato the western red
+persimmon. She has mutton from the Mongolian sheep (the finest I have
+ever eaten), beef, pork or lamb; chicken, goose or duck; hare, pheasant
+or deer, or fish of whatever kind she may choose. Of course these are
+all prepared after the Chinese style, and be it said to the credit of
+their cooks that our children are always ready to leave our own table
+to partake of Chinese food.
+
+After her meal she lingers for a few minutes over her cup of tea and
+her pipe. In the meantime her cart or sedan chair is prepared. Her
+outriders are ready with their horses; the eunuchs, women and slave
+girls who are to attend her, don their proper clothing and prepare the
+changes of raiment needed for the various functions of the day. One
+takes a basin and towels, another powder and rouge-boxes, another the
+pipe and embroidered tobacco pouch, not even forgetting the silver
+cuspidor, all of which will be needed. When she eats, a servant gives
+her a napkin to spread over her gown; after she has finished, another
+brings a basin of hot water, from which a towel is wrung with which she
+gently wipes her mouth and hands. Another brings her a glass of water,
+or she washes out her mouth with tea, and finally with the little
+mirror and rouge-box, while she still sits at table, she touches up her
+face with powder and she puts the paint upon her lip if it has
+disappeared.
+
+When ready to start, her cart or chair is drawn up as close as possible
+to the gate of the women's apartments. A screen of blue silk eighteen
+or twenty feet long and six feet high, fastened to two wooden
+standards, is held by eunuchs to screen her while she enters the cart.
+The chair can be used only by princesses or wives of viceroys or
+members of the Grand Council. But whether chair or cart it is lined and
+cushioned with scarlet satin in summer, and in winter with fur. It is
+an accomplishment to enter a cart gracefully, but years of practice
+enable her to do so, and as soon as she is seated in Buddhist fashion,
+the curtain is dropped; her attendant seats herself cross-legged in
+front; several male servants rush up, seize the shafts of the cart,
+place the mule between them, fasten the buckles (it reminds one of the
+fire department), the driver takes his place at the lines, two other
+male servants take hold of the sides of the mule's bridle, and all is
+in readiness to start. Female servants and slave girls crowd into other
+carts, outriders mount their mules, and the cavalcade starts with my
+lady's cart ahead.
+
+As they pass along the streets they are remarked upon by all
+foot-passengers, and as they near their destination, a courier on
+horseback spurs up his steed, makes a wild dash forward, leaps from his
+horse, and announces to the gate-keeper that the Princess will soon
+arrive. The news is at once taken to the servants of the women's
+apartments, where the name is given to a eunuch, who bears it to his
+mistress.
+
+In the meantime the party has arrived. The mule is unhitched, cart
+drawn to the gate, screen spread, servant descends from front, and the
+Princess with the help of a couple of eunuchs is escorted through a
+long covered walk into the court, where the ladies of the household are
+waiting on the veranda to receive her. As she enters the gateway the
+hostess begins slowly to descend the steps. The others follow, and they
+meet in the centre of the court. Low courtesies are made by each and
+formal inquiries as to each other's health. There is a short stop and
+certain formalities before the guest will ascend the steps ahead of the
+hostess. The same occurs again on entering the reception hall, and
+taking the seat of honour. The luckless foreigner sometimes makes the
+mistake of conceding to her guest's modesty and allows her to take a
+lower seat, which is a grievous offense, and she is only pardoned on
+the plea that she is an outside barbarian, and does not understand the
+rules of polite society.
+
+After she is seated tea is served, and servants bring in trays of
+sweetmeats, fruit, nuts, dried melon seeds, candied fruits and small
+cakes. One of these nuts is unique. It is an "English walnut" in which,
+after the outer hull is removed, the shell is self-cracked, and folds
+back in places so that the kernel appears. While partaking of these
+delicacies the object of the visit is announced, which is that her son
+is to be married on a certain date. Of course official announcements
+will be sent later, but she wishes to ask if her hostess will act as
+one of her representatives to carry the ju yi to the young lady's home.
+
+After the ladies have chatted for a time about the latest official
+appointments, some court gossip, the latest fashion in robe
+ornamentation, and the newspaper news at home and abroad--for the
+Chinese have ten or a dozen newspapers in Peking, among which is the
+first woman's daily in the world--the hostess invites her guest to see
+her garden. They pass through a gateway into a court in which are great
+trees, shrubbery, fish-ponds spanned by marble bridges, covered walks,
+beautiful rockeries, wisteria vines laden with long clusters of
+blossoms, summer-houses, miniature mountains, and flowers of all
+kinds--a dream of beauty and loveliness. After returning to the house
+another cup of tea is served, and the guest rises to leave. But before
+doing so her servants bring in a bundle of clothing, and there in the
+presence of her hostess her outer robes are changed for others of a
+more official character.
+
+Her next call is at the birthday celebration of the mother of one of
+the highest officials in the capital. I was present when she arrived.
+Instead of entering by the front gate, she went by a private entrance
+directly to the apartments of her hostess. Many guests (all gentlemen)
+were assembled in the front court, which was covered by a mat pavilion
+and converted into a theatre. The court was several feet lower than the
+adjoining house, the front windows of which were all removed and it was
+used for the accommodation of the lady guests. On the walls of the
+temporary structure hung red satin and silk banners on which were
+pinned ideographs cut out of gold foil or black velvet, expressive of
+beautiful sentiments and good wishes for many happy returns of the day.
+The Emperor, wishing to do this official honour, has informed him that
+on his mother's birthday an imperial present will be sent her which is
+a greater compliment than if sent to the official himself.
+
+It was a gala scene. Fresh guests arrived every minute. The ladies in
+their most graceful and dignified courtesies were constantly bending as
+other guests were announced, while the gentlemen, with low bows and
+each shaking his own hands, received their friends. The clothes of the
+men, though of a more sombre hue, were richer in texture than those of
+the women. Heavy silks and satins, embroidered with dragons in gold
+thread, indicated that this one was a member of the imperial clan,
+while others equally rich were worn by the other gentlemen, each
+embroidered with the insignia of his rank. Hats adorned with red
+tassels, peacock feathers in jade holders, and the button denoting the
+rank of the wearer, were worn by all, as it would be a breach of
+etiquette to remove the hat in the presence of one's host.
+
+It would also be bad form for the gentlemen to raise their eyes to
+where the ladies were seated; just as the latter, who must look over
+the heads of the men to view the theatre, would not be caught allowing
+their eyes to dwell upon any one. But no doubt these gentle little
+ladies have their own curiosity, and some means of finding out who's
+who among that court full of dragon-draped pillars of state; for I have
+never failed to receive a ready answer when I inquired as to the name
+of some handsome or distinguished-looking guest whose identity I wished
+to learn.
+
+The theatre goes on interminably. Like my lady, they change their
+clothes, and the scenery, in full view of the audience. The plays are
+mostly historical, the women's parts being taken by men, as women are
+not allowed to go on the stage. One daring company, in imitation of the
+foreign custom, had a woman take one of the parts; but a special order
+from the viceroy put the company out of commission, and the leader in
+prison.
+
+The guests were not expected to sit quietly watching the play, but
+moved about greeting each other and chatting at will. Servants brought
+tea and sweetmeats and finally a banquet was served. Near the close of
+the feast it was announced that the imperial present was coming, and
+the members of the household disappeared. The deep boom of the drums
+and the honk of the great horns were heard distinctly as they entered
+the street, and soon the yellow imperial chair, with its thirty-six
+bearers in the royal livery, moved slowly towards us between two rows
+of the male members of the household who had gone out and were kneeling
+on both sides of the street, knocking their heads as the chair passed
+them. The great gates were thrown open and there in the gateway the
+female members of the family knelt and kotowed as the chair passed by.
+
+The presents were taken into a room specially prepared for their
+reception. The head imperial eunuch placed them in position, and, with
+a low obeisance, departed, the richer by several hundred ounces of
+silver. The gentlemen guests were first invited to view these tokens of
+imperial favour. In order of their rank they entered, prostrating
+themselves before them. Later we ladies were invited into the room,
+where the Chinese all kotowed. What now were these wonderful gifts
+before which these men and women of rank and noble birth were falling
+upon their faces?
+
+They were two squares of red paper, eighteen inches across, printed in
+outline of the imperial dragon, on which the characters for long life
+and happiness were written with the imperial pen; and a small yellow
+satin box in which sat a little gold Buddha not more than an inch in
+height! It was the thought, not the value, which elicited all this
+appreciation.
+
+Shall we go with this busy little princess to another festal occasion?
+I was with her again. It was at the home of the sister of one of the
+sweetest little princesses in the whole empire. Her baby was a month
+old and she was celebrating what they call the full month feast.
+Instead, however, of having the usual feasting and theatricals, the
+mother, who, for days after her child was born, lay at death's door,
+sent out invitations to her friends to come and fast and give thanks to
+the gods for sparing her life.
+
+Though the child was a month old the mother was too wan and weak to
+leave her couch. She was dressed, however, in festal robes, and
+received her guests with many gracious words and apologies. Of course
+only ladies were present. The great covered court was converted into a
+large shrine. One could imagine they were looking into the main hall of
+a temple, only that everything was so clean and beautiful. From the
+centre of the shrine a Goddess of Mercy looked down complacently upon
+the array of fruit, nuts, sweetmeats and cakes spread out before her.
+Many candles in their tall candlesticks were burning on every side.
+Before her was a great bronze incense-burner, from which many sticks of
+incense sent out their fragrant odour on the air. As each guest passed
+through the court, she took a stick from the pile, lit it, and, with a
+word of prayer, added it to the number.
+
+After the guests had all arrived a princess--sister of the
+hostess--accompanied by two of the leading guests, descended into the
+paved court and took her place before the altar. Deep-toned bells were
+touched by small boys whose shaven heads and priestly robes denoted
+that they, like little Samuel, were being brought up within the courts
+of the temple. The Princess took a great bunch of incense in her two
+hands, one of her attendants lit it with a torch prepared for that
+purpose, the flame and smoke ascended amid the deep tones of the bells,
+as she prostrated herself before the goddess. She looked like a
+beautiful fairy herself as she stood with the flaming bunch of incense
+held high above her head. Three times she prostrated herself and nine
+times she bent forward, fulfilling all the requirements of the law.
+
+At the close of this ceremony the ladies were invited to partake of a
+feast prepared wholly of vegetables and vegetable oils. It requires
+much more skill to prepare such a feast than when meat and animal oils
+are used. The food furnished interesting topics for discussion. Most of
+it was prepared by various temples, each being celebrated for some
+particular dish, which it was asked to provide for the occasion.
+
+It is not uncommon for a Chinese lady to take upon herself a vow in
+which she promises the gods to observe certain days of each month as
+fast days, on condition that they restore to health a mother, father,
+husband or child. No matter what banquet she attends she need only
+mention to her hostess that she has a vow and she is made the chief
+guest, helping others but eating nothing herself. After this full month
+feast the baby was seen, its presents admired, the last cup of tea
+drunk, the farewells said, and we all returned home.
+
+
+[3] The remainder of the chapter is from Mrs. Headland's note-book.
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+The Chinese Ladies--Their Ills
+
+  My home is girdled by a limpid stream,
+  And there in summer days life's movements pause,
+  Save where some swallow flits from beam to beam,
+  And the wild sea-gull near and nearer draws.
+
+  The good wife rules a paper board for chess;
+  The children beat a fish-hook out of wire;
+  My ailments call for physic more or less,
+  What else should this poor frame of mine require?
+        --"Tu Fu," Translated.
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+THE CHINESE LADIES--THEIR ILLS[4]
+
+[4] Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book.
+
+One day a eunuch dashed into the back gate of our compound in Peking,
+rode up to the door of the library, dismounted from his horse, and
+handed a letter in a red envelope to the house servant who met him on
+the steps.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the boy.
+
+"The Princess is ill," replied the servant.
+
+"What Princess?" further inquired the boy.
+
+"Our Princess," was the reply.
+
+"Oh, you are from the palace near the west gate?"
+
+"Yes," and the boy and the servant continued their conversation until
+the former had learned all that the letter contained, whereupon he
+brought me the message.
+
+I opened the letter, written in the Chinese ideographs, and called the
+messenger in.
+
+"Is the Princess very ill?" I inquired.
+
+"Not very," he answered, "but she has been indisposed for several days."
+
+"When does she want me to go?" I inquired, for I had long ago learned
+that a few inquiries often brought out interesting and valuable
+information.
+
+"At once," he answered; "the cart will be here in a few minutes."
+
+By the time I had made ready my medical outfit the cart had arrived. It
+was very much like a great Saratoga trunk on two wheels. It was without
+seat and without springs, but filled with thick cushions, and as I had
+learned to sit tailor fashion it was not entirely uncomfortable to ride
+in. It had gauze curtains in summer, and was lined with quilted silk or
+fur in winter, and was a comfortable conveyance.
+
+When I reached the palace I was met by the head eunuch, who conducted
+me at once to the apartments of the Princess. Her reception room was
+handsomely furnished with rich, carved, teak-wood furniture after the
+Manchu fashion, with one or two large, comfortable, leather-covered
+easy chairs of foreign make. Clocks sat upon the tables and
+window-sills, and fine Swiss watches hung on the walls. Beautiful jade
+and other rich Chinese ornaments were arranged in a tasteful way about
+the room. On the wall hung a picture painted by the Empress Dowager, a
+gift to the Prince on his birthday.
+
+After a moment's waiting the Princess appeared attended by her women
+and slave girls.
+
+"I beg your pardon for not having my hair properly dressed," she said,
+as she took my hands in hers, the custom of these Manchu princesses and
+even the Empress Dowager herself, in greeting foreign ladies. "I
+welcome you back to Peking after your summer vacation."
+
+When the usual salutations had been passed she told me her trouble and
+I gave her the proper medicine, with minute instructions as to how to
+take it, which I also repeated to her women.
+
+"The cause of my illness," she explained, "is over-fatigue. I had to be
+present at court on the eighth of the eighth month and I became very
+tired from standing all day."
+
+"But could you not sit down?" I asked.
+
+"Not in the presence of the Empress Dowager," she replied.
+
+"Of course, I know you could not sit down in the presence of Her
+Majesty, but could you not withdraw and rest a while?" I inquired.
+
+"Not that day. It was a busy and tiresome day for us all," she replied.
+
+While we were talking the young Princess, her son's wife, came in and
+greeted her mother-in-law in a formal but kindly way, and gave her
+hands to me just as the Princess had done. She remained standing all
+the time she was in the room, as did four of the secondary princesses
+or wives of her husband. They were all beautifully dressed, but they
+are beneath the Princess in rank, and so must stand in her presence. If
+the Prince's mother had come in, as she often did when I was there, the
+Princess would have to stand and wait on her. All Manchu families are
+very particular in this respect.
+
+"You will be interested," said the Princess, "in one phase of our visit
+to the palace." Then turning to one of her women she said: "Bring me
+those two pairs of shoes."
+
+"These," she explained, "are like some made by my mother-in-law and
+myself as presents for the Empress Dowager. On the eighth of the eighth
+month we have a feast, when the ladies of the royal household are
+invited into the palace, and our custom is for each of us to present
+Her Majesty with a pair of shoes."
+
+The shoes were daintily embroidered, though not so pretty as some I
+have seen the Empress Dowager wear. Some of her shoes are decorated
+with beautiful pearls and others are covered with precious stones.
+
+"The Empress Dowager," continued the Princess, "is very vain of her
+small feet; though," she continued, as she put her own foot out,
+encased in the daintiest little embroidered slipper of light-blue
+satin, "it is not so small as my own."
+
+It seemed very human to hear this delicate little Princess make a
+remark of this kind. Of course, both she and the Empress Dowager have
+natural feet.
+
+It was late in the afternoon, some months after my visit to the
+Princess, that a very different call came for my services.
+
+The boy came in and told me that a man wanted me to go to see his wife,
+who lived in the southern city outside the Ha-ta gate. It has always
+been my custom never to refuse any one whether they be rich or poor,
+and so I told him to call a cart.
+
+It was in midwinter and a bitter cold night, the room was without fire
+and yet there was a child of three or four toddling about upon the kang
+or brick bed whose only garment was a long coat.
+
+"You should put a pair of trousers on that child," I said, "or it will
+catch cold and I will soon have to come again."
+
+"Yes," they said, "we will put trousers on it."
+
+"You had better do it at once," I insisted.
+
+"Yes," they continued, "we will see that it is dressed."
+
+After attending to the woman, and again urging them to dress the child,
+I wrapped my warm cloak around me and started home, though I could not
+forget the child.
+
+"It is a cold night," I said to the driver as we started on our way.
+
+"Yes," he answered, "there will be some uncomfortable people in the
+city to-night."
+
+"In that house we just left," I continued, for I could not banish the
+child from my thoughts, "there was a little child playing on the bed
+without a shred of trousers on."
+
+"Quite right," said he; "they pawned the trousers of that child to get
+money to pay me for taking you to see the sick woman."
+
+"To pay you!" said I, with indignation, and yet with admiration for the
+character of the people for whom I was giving my services--"to pay you!
+Then drive right back and give them their money and tell them to go and
+redeem those trousers and put them on the child!"
+
+"The city gate will be closed before we can reach it if I return," said
+he, "and we will not be able to get in to-night."
+
+"No matter about that," I insisted, "go back and give them the money."
+
+He turned around with many mutterings, lashed up his mule at the top of
+his speed, gave them the money, and then started on a gallop for the
+city gate. It was a rough ride in that springless cart over the rutty
+roads. But my house seemed warmer that night and my bed seemed softer
+after I had paid the carter myself.
+
+Among my friends and patients none are more interesting than the Misses
+Hsu. They are very intelligent, and after I had become well acquainted
+with them I said to them one day:
+
+"How is it that you have done such wide reading?"
+
+"You know, of course," they said, "that our father is a chuang yuan."
+
+I asked them the meaning of a chuang yuan. Then I learned that under
+the Chinese system a great many students enter the examinations, and
+those who secure their degree are called hsiu tsai; a year or two later
+these are examined again, and those who pass are given the degree of
+chu jen; once more these latter are examined and the successful
+candidates are called chin shih, and are then ready for official
+position. They continue to study, however, and are allowed to go into
+the palace, where they are examined in the presence of the Emperor, and
+those who pass are called han lin, or forest of pencils. Once in three
+years these han lins are examined and one is allowed to obtain a
+degree--he is a chuang yuan.
+
+Out of four hundred million people but one is allowed this degree once
+in three years.
+
+"Your father must be a very great scholar," I remarked.
+
+"He has always been a diligent student," they answered, modestly.
+
+"What is his given name?" I inquired, one day.
+
+"If you will give me a pencil I will write it for you; we never speak
+the given name of our father in China," said the eldest, and she wrote
+it down.
+
+"How many sisters are there in your family--eight, are there not?"
+
+"Yes. You know, of course, that number five was engaged when a child of
+six to the son of Li Hung-chang."
+
+"No, I was not aware of the fact; and were they married?"
+
+"No, they were never married. The young man died before they were old
+enough to wed. When word of his death was brought to her, child that
+she was, she went to our mother and told her she must never engage her
+to any one else, as she meant to live and die the widow of this boy."
+
+"And did she go to Li Hung-chang's home?"
+
+"No, the old Viceroy wanted to take her to his home, build a suite of
+rooms for her, and treat her as his daughter-in-law, but our parents
+objected because she was so young. The Viceroy loved her very much, and
+his eyes often filled with tears as he spoke of her and the son who had
+passed away. When the Viceroy died she wanted to go and kotow at his
+funeral, and all his family except the eldest son were anxious to have
+her do so, and thus be recognized as one of the family. But this son
+objected, and though Lady Li knocked her head on the coffin until it
+bled he would not yield, lest she might want her portion."
+
+"And what has become of your sister? How is it that I have never seen
+her?"
+
+"She withdrew to a small court, where she has lived with none but her
+women servants, not even seeing our father or brothers, and not
+allowing a male servant to go near her. And she will not permit the
+word Li to be spoken in her presence."
+
+"And what does she do?" I asked. "How does she employ herself?"
+
+"Studying, reading, painting, and embroidery. When young Li refused to
+allow her to attend his father's funeral her sense of self-respect was
+outraged and she cut off her hair and threatened to commit suicide. She
+often fasts for a week, and has tried on several occasions to take her
+own life."
+
+I asked them if they did not fear that she might succeed finally in
+this attempt to kill herself.
+
+"Yes, we have constant apprehensions. But then, what if she did? It
+would only emphasize her virtue."
+
+It was some months after the young ladies told me what I have just
+related that they called, for they had taken up the study of English
+and I had agreed to help them a bit.
+
+"How is your sister?" I inquired, for the sad fate of this young girl
+weighed like a burden on my heart.
+
+"She fasted more than usual during the early summer, but she bathed
+daily and changed her clothes, dressing herself in her most beautiful
+garments. She had not been sleeping well for some time, and one day she
+ordered her women to leave her and not return until they were called.
+They remained away until a married sister and a sister-in-law-a niece
+of Li Hung-chang--called and wanted to see her. We went to her room but
+found it locked. We knocked but received no answer. We finally punched
+a hole through the paper window and saw her sitting on her brick bed,
+her head bolstered up with cushions and her eyes closed. We supposed
+she was sleeping, but on forcing open the door we found that she had
+gone to join her boy husband, though her colour and appearance was that
+of a living person."
+
+"And are you sure she had not swooned?"
+
+"She remained in this condition for twenty-two hours without pulse or
+heart beat, and so we put her in her casket."
+
+I could not but feel sad that I had not been in the city, and had had
+an opportunity to help them to ascertain whether her life had really
+gone out. But the girls seemed proud of the distinction of having had a
+sister of such consummate virtue. Numerous embroidered scrolls and
+laudatory inscriptions were sent her from friends of the Li family as
+well as of their own, and it is expected that the throne will order a
+memorial arch erected to her memory.
+
+On another occasion I was requested to go to the palace of one of the
+princes. The fourth Princess, a beautiful little child of five, was ill
+with diphtheria, and the first greeting of the mother as I went in was
+that she "was homesick to see me." The child had been ill for several
+days before they sent for me, and I told them at once that the case was
+dangerous. I wanted to do all I could for them and at the same time
+protect my own children from the danger of infection. After the first
+treatment with antitoxin she seemed to rally, her throat cleared up,
+but I soon found that the poison had pervaded her entire system, and so
+I stayed with her day and night.
+
+I found that the child had contracted the disease from another about
+her own age, who was both her playmate and her slave. It is the custom
+among the wealthy to purchase for each daughter a companion who plays
+with her as a child, becomes a companion in youth and her maid when she
+marries. These slaves are usually treated well, and when this one
+became ill the members of the family visited her often, taking her such
+dainties as might tempt her appetite. As a result I had to administer
+antitoxin to eight of the younger members of the household, so careless
+had they been about the spread of this disease; indeed I have found
+that the isolation of patients suffering from contagious diseases is
+wholly unknown in China.
+
+One of the most attractive of all my Chinese lady friends and patients
+is the niece of the great Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, the daughter of his
+brother, Li Han-chang, who is himself a viceroy. I have been her
+physician for eighteen years or more and hence have become intimately
+acquainted with her. She has visited me very often in my home and, of
+all the women I have ever known, of any race or people, I have never
+met one whom I thought more cultured or refined than she. This may seem
+a strange statement, but the quiet dignity that she manifested on all
+occasions and her charming manners are not often met with. I have never
+felt on entering a drawing-room such an atmosphere of refinement as
+seemed to surround her.
+
+That the Chinese take very kindly to foreign medicine there is no
+doubt, though it is sometimes amusing how they go back to their own
+native methods.
+
+One day my husband brought home a physiological chart about the size of
+an ordinary man. It was covered with black spots and I asked him the
+reason for them.
+
+"That is what I asked the dealer from whom I bought it," he replied,
+"and he told me that those spots indicate where the needle can be
+inserted in treatment by acupuncture without killing the patient."
+
+When a Chinese is ill the doctor generally concludes that the only way
+to cure him is to stick a long needle into him and let out the pain or
+set up counter irritation. If the patient dies it is evident he stuck
+the needle into the wrong spot. And this chart has been made up from
+millions of experiments during the past two or three thousand years
+from patients who have died or recovered.
+
+This was practically illustrated by a woman who was brought to the
+hospital. Having had pain in the knee she sent for a Chinese physician
+who concluded that the only method of relieving her was by acupuncture.
+He therefore inserted a needle which unfortunately pierced the synovial
+sac causing inflammation which finally resulted in complete destruction
+of the joint. Such cases are not infrequent both among adults and
+children in all grades of society, due to this method of treatment.
+
+One day I was called to see a lady who was in immediate need of
+surgical treatment. She had three sons who were in high official
+positions in the palace, and if their mother died they would have to
+withdraw from official life and go into mourning for three years. When
+men are thus compelled to resign the new incumbent is not inclined to
+restore the office when the period of mourning is over. They were
+therefore doubly anxious to have their mother recover. They had tried
+all kinds of Chinese physicians and finally sent for me.
+
+I explained the nature of the operation necessary, and gave them every
+reason to hope for a speedy recovery, while without surgical treatment
+she must surely die. They consented and the operation was successful.
+She recovered rapidly for a few days until I regarded her as
+practically out of danger. But one day when I called I found her bathed
+in perspiration, shaking with fear, weeping and depressed. Her wound
+was in an excellent condition and I could find no reason for her
+despondency. I cheered her up, laughed and talked with her, gave her
+such articles of diet as she craved, and left her happy. The next day I
+again found her in the same nervous condition.
+
+"Something is wrong with your mother of which you have not told me," I
+said to her son.
+
+"Before we sent for you," he said, "we had called a spirit doctor, who
+went into a sort of trance, claimed to have descended into the spirit
+world where he saw them making a coffin which he said my mother would
+occupy before the fifteenth of the month. It is because that time is
+approaching that she is filled with fear."
+
+I talked with the lady, showed her how her wound was healing,
+encouraged her to rest easy until the fifteenth, when I would spend the
+day with her, after which she immediately began gaining strength and
+soon recovered.
+
+At another time I was called to see the wife of the president of the
+Board of Punishments. I found an operation necessary. The next day I
+found the patient delirious with a fever, and asked the husband if my
+directions had been followed.
+
+"I assure you they have," he answered. "But the cause of the fever is
+this: Last evening while the servants were taking their meal she was
+left alone for a short time. While they were absent, her sister who
+lived on this street, a short distance from here, committed suicide.
+When the servant discovered it she ran directly to my wife's room, and
+told her of the tragedy. My wife began to tremble, had a severe chill,
+and soon became delirious. I suspect that her sister's spirit
+accompanied the servant and entered my wife."
+
+In spite of this explanation I cleaned and dressed the wound and left
+her more comfortable. The next morning she was somewhat better, without
+fever and in her right mind.
+
+"What kind of a night did she have?" I asked her husband.
+
+"Oh, very good," he answered. "I managed to get the spirit out of her."
+
+"How did you do it?" I inquired.
+
+"Soon after you left yesterday, I dressed myself in my official
+garments, came into my wife's apartments, and asked the spirit if it
+would not like to go with me to the yamen, adding that we would have
+some interesting cases to settle. I felt a strange sensation come over
+me and I knew the spirit had entered me. I got into my cart, drove down
+to the home of my sister-in-law, went in where the corpse lay, and told
+the spirit that it would be a disgrace to have a woman at the Board of
+Punishments. 'This is your place,' I said, in an angry voice; 'get out
+of me and stay where you belong.' I felt the spirit leaving me, my
+fingers became stiff and I felt faint. I had only been at the Board a
+short time when they sent a servant to tell me that my wife was quiet
+and sleeping. When I returned in the evening the fever was gone and she
+was rational."
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+The Funeral Ceremonies of a Dowager Princess
+
+There are five degrees of mourning, as follows:--For parents,
+grandparents and great-grandparents; for brothers and sisters; for
+uncles and aunts; and for distant relatives. In the first sackcloth
+without hem or border; in the second with hem or border; in the third,
+fourth and fifth, pieces of sackcloth on parts of the dress. When
+sackcloth is worn, after the third interval of seven days is over the
+mourners can cast it off, and wear plain colours, such as white, gray,
+black and blue. For a parent the period is nominally three years, but
+really twenty-seven months, during all which time no silk can be worn;
+during this time officials have to resign their appointments, and
+retire from public life.--Dyer Ball in "Things Chinese."
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF A DOWAGER PRINCESS[5]
+
+[5] Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book.
+
+
+One day I received a large sheet of white paper on which was written in
+Chinese characters the announcement of the death of the Dowager
+Princess Su, and inviting me to the "third-day exercises." The real
+meaning of this "chieh san" I did not comprehend, but I knew that those
+who were invited sent presents of cakes or fruit, or baskets of paper
+flowers, incense, gold and silver ingots made of paper, or rolls of
+paper silk, all of which were intended for the use of the spirit of the
+departed. The paper presents were all burned on the evening of the
+third day, while the spirit feasted upon the flavour of the fruit and
+cakes.
+
+As I did not feel that it was appropriate for me to send these things,
+I had a beautiful wreath of white chrysanthemum flowers made, and sent
+that instead. While I appreciated the invitation, I thought it was
+probably given only as a matter of form, and that I was not expected to
+attend the exercises, and so I sent my Chinese maid with the wreath,
+saying that as I did not understand their customs I would not go.
+
+It was not long until the maid returned saying that they were anxious
+to have me come, that under no circumstances must I refuse, as they
+wished me to see their funeral ceremonies. The Princess sent her cart
+for me, and according to the Chinese custom, I took my maid seated upon
+the front, and set out for Prince Su's palace. As we neared our
+destination we passed numerous carts and chairs of princes who had been
+at the palace to pay their respects. The street leading off the great
+thoroughfare was filled with carts, chairs, servants and outriders, but
+the utmost order prevailed. There were scores of soldiers and special
+police, the latter dressed in long garments of gray with a short jacket
+of white on the breast of which was his number in black. These gray and
+white uniforms were mourning colours, and were given by the Prince.
+
+As we entered the gate we saw white-robed servants everywhere, each
+with a sober face and a dignified bearing, waiting to be of use. My
+name was announced and two servants stepped out from the crowd, clothed
+from head to feet in white sackcloth, one presenting his arm to help me
+through the court, as though I were a bound-footed woman, and the other
+led the way. We were taken by a roundabout path, through numerous
+courts and passages, the front being reserved for the male guests, and
+were finally ushered into a room filled with white-robed women
+servants, who with one accord bent their knee in a low courtesy.
+
+We were there met by the first and third Princesses, daughters of the
+Dowager who had just passed away. They were dressed in white, their
+hair being put up in the Manchu fashion. Instead of the jewels and
+bright flowers, however, it was crossed and recrossed with bands of
+white folded sackcloth. As these two ladies were married daughters, and
+had left this home, their sackcloth was not so coarse as that of the
+daughters-in-law and granddaughters who dwelt in the palace. It was
+they who received the guests and conducted them into the room where the
+mourners were kneeling.
+
+As the white door screen was raised I saw two rows of white-robed
+figures kneeling on the floor, and as I entered they all bent forward
+and touched their head to the ground, giving forth as they did it a
+low, wailing chant.
+
+Not knowing their customs I went up and stooped over, speaking first to
+the Princess and then to the ladies as best I could. I afterwards
+watched the other lady visitors and saw that they put their right hand
+up near their head as our soldiers salute, and courtesied to the
+Princess, her daughter-in-law and her eldest daughter. They then went
+over to a little table on which was a silver sacrificial set,
+consisting of a wine tankard, a great bowl, and a number of tiny cups
+holding but two tablespoonfuls. They took the cup in its little saucer,
+and, facing the beautiful canopied catafalque where the Dowager
+Princess was lying in state, they raised the cup as high as their head
+three times, emptying and refilling it each time. The mourners
+prostrated themselves and gave forth a mournful wail each time the cup
+was poured, after which the visitor arose and came over to where we
+were, and the ceremony was over.
+
+The third daughter of the late Dowager seemed to regard me as her
+special friend and guest, and insisted on my coming over to a white
+curtain that separated us from the view of the gentlemen, and from
+there I watched the proceedings of princes and officials who went
+through a similar ceremony. There was this difference with them,
+however, as they entered through the great canopied court, they were
+conducted by white-robed servants directly to the altar, and there
+kneeling, they made their obeisance to the spirit of the departed,
+after which they went into the room where the Prince and the other male
+descendants of the dead Dowager were kneeling and prostrating
+themselves.
+
+There was a heavy yellow curtain over the door that led into the
+sacrificial hall, and when the servants from without announced a
+visitor, this curtain was drawn aside, and as the guest and a flood of
+light entered, the mourners began their wailing which they continued
+until he had departed. These visitors remained but a moment, while the
+ladies who were there were all near relatives, and were dressed either
+entirely or partially in sackcloth.
+
+The room in which these ladies knelt was draped in white. The cushions
+were all covered with white, and all porcelain and other decorations
+had been removed. The floor was covered with a heavy rope matting, on
+which the ladies knelt--all except the Princess, for whom was prepared
+a small dark blue felt cushion. The Princess knelt at the northwest
+corner of the room, directly in front of the curtain which separated
+them from the sacrificial hall. Several of the very near male relatives
+entered and gave the low Manchu courtesy to the Princess, the son's
+wife, and the eldest daughter, though none of the other kneeling ladies
+were recognized. They left immediately without, so far as I noticed,
+raising their eyes.
+
+The Prince, his sons and the other mourners in the men's room were
+clothed in white fur, and the servants too, who stood in the
+sacrificial hall, and at intervals along the way towards the hall, wore
+white fur coats instead of sackcloth.
+
+To the left of the Princess there knelt in succession all the secondary
+wives of Prince Su, and if I mistake not there were five of these
+concubines. Behind the Princess knelt her son's wife--the future
+Princess Su, and on her left, the daughters and granddaughters of the
+Prince knelt in succession. The Princess and secondary princesses had
+bands of sackcloth wound around their heads, though their hair hung
+down their backs in two long braids, and as I had never seen these
+princesses except when clothed in beautifully embroidered satin
+garments, with hair put up in elaborate coiffures, decked with jewels
+and flowers, and faces painted and powdered in the proper Manchu
+fashion, it was not easy to recognize them in these white-robed,
+yellow-faced women, with hair hanging down their backs.
+
+The grandson's wife and granddaughters, on the other hand, had their
+hair combed, but the long hairpin was of silver instead of jade or
+gold, and instead of being decorated with jewels and flowers, and a red
+cord, it was crossed and recrossed with bands of folded sackcloth an
+inch and a half in width. It was neat and very effective--the black
+hair and white cloth making a pretty contrast to the Western eye,
+though it would probably not be so considered by the Chinese.
+
+After I had watched them for a few moments I said to the princess who
+accompanied me:
+
+"I must not intrude upon your time longer; you have been very kind to
+allow me to witness all these interesting customs."
+
+"Oh, but you must not go now," she insisted; "you must remain and see
+the arrival of the priests, and the burning of the paper houses, goods,
+chattels, and images on the great street. I want you to understand all
+our customs, and this is the greatest and most interesting day of the
+funeral ceremonies."
+
+I urged that I ought not to intrude myself upon them at this time.
+
+"No, no," she said, "you must not say that. It is not intrusion; you
+must stay and dine with us this evening."
+
+When I still insisted upon going she said that if I went they would
+feel that I did not care for them, and she was so persistent that I
+consented to remain if the maid might be sent home to the children,
+which they at once arranged for.
+
+In the interval between the arrival of male guests, the ladies took me
+out into a large canopied court to see the decorations, and into the
+sacrificial hall. These ceremonies were all conducted in the house and
+court which the Dowager Princess had occupied, and where I had often
+gone to see her when she wanted to thank me for some medical attention
+I had given her children or grandchildren.
+
+As we passed through the great gate, I noticed that the court was
+covered with a mat pavilion making a room about one hundred and fifty
+feet square, lighted by great squares of glass near the top, and
+decorated with banners of rich brocade silks or satins, of sober
+colours, blue, gray or white, on which were texts extolling the virtues
+of the late Dowager or her family. These were the gifts of friends, who
+had been coming and would continue to come for days if not weeks.
+
+At the north end as one came in at the gate was a gallery running the
+whole length of the northern court, fitted up with special hangings
+which separated it into different compartments. Many elegant banners
+and decorations gave it a striking effect. This was the place where the
+priests, who had not yet arrived, were to say their prayers day and
+night until the funeral ceremonies were over.
+
+Directly in front of the catafalque, in the gallery, there was a table
+on which I afterwards saw the priests place a silver vessel which the
+head priest carried, and the others regarded with much solemnity.
+
+From the gateway leading into the sacrificial hall the floor of the
+court had been raised even with the door of the house and the gate, a
+height of about five feet, and forty feet wide, and was covered with
+the same kind of rope matting that was on the floors. On the canopied
+verandas there were stacks of cakes, incense, fruit and money. These
+were the most novel sights I have ever seen in China. They were ten or
+twelve feet high. They were a very pretty sight, and it required some
+scrutiny to discover that they were made of cakes and fruit. How they
+were able to build them thus, tier upon tier, and prevent their falling
+when they were touched is beyond my comprehension. What magic there is
+in it I do not know.
+
+As one entered the door of the sacrificial hall, towering above
+everything else, was the great catafalque, draped in cloth of gold, and
+in front of it were stacks of these sacrificial cakes. Near them there
+was a table on which there were great white, square candles, five
+inches or more in diameter, the four sides of which were stamped with
+figures of fairies and immortals. On this table there were also various
+savoury dishes, together with cakes and fruit, prepared to feed the
+spirit of the dead. In front of this table again there was another
+about a foot high on which were placed the sacrificial wine vessels,
+and before which the guests knelt. As we entered I saw the gentlemen
+kneeling to the left, while the ladies, separated from them by white
+curtains, were kneeling to the right.
+
+After we had seen the various customs without, I was taken into the
+dining-room, where I sat down with the young Princess and her two
+aunts, daughters of the Dowager. They were very kind and polite, and
+did all in their power to make me feel at home. We were attended by
+white-robed eunuchs, who knelt when they spoke to the Princess. There
+was such a lot of them.
+
+"How many servants do you use ordinarily?" I asked the eldest daughter.
+
+"About four hundred," she replied.
+
+I thought of the task of robing four hundred servants in new white
+sackcloth, and attending to all the other things that I had seen, in
+the forty-eight hours since the death of the Dowager Princess. Even the
+bread, instead of being dotted with red as it is ordinarily, was dotted
+with black!
+
+As we were finishing our supper we heard the horns of the priests and
+went to see them arrive. Prince Su, and the other male members of the
+family, went out to the door to receive them, but we remained within.
+They first went to the gallery, then the head priest came down into the
+sacrificial hall and made nine prostrations before the catafalque,
+without, however, pouring or offering wine. After each third
+prostration he stood up and raised his clasped hands to a level with
+his eyes. They then began their weird music, standing on the two sides
+of the raised platform between the gate and the house, thus allowing a
+passageway between them for the guests.
+
+The Princess told me that they were about to form a procession to go to
+the great street. I therefore took my leave in order that I might
+precede them and see the procession arrive, and witness the burning of
+the presents for the spirit.
+
+When I arrived on the great street I there beheld a paper cart and
+horses which were intended to transport the spirit to the eastern
+heaven. There was a sedan chair for her use after her arrival, numerous
+servants, money, silk, and a beautiful, big house for her to dwell in,
+all made of paper. I had not long to wait for the procession, which was
+headed by the priests playing mournful, wailing music on large and
+small horns and drums. The priests were followed by the mourners and
+their friends. When they arrived at the place of the burning, the
+mourners prostrated themselves upon white cushions before the paper
+furnishings amid the shrieks of the instruments, the wailing of the
+hired mourners, and the petitions of the priests for the spirits to
+assist the departed on her way.
+
+While this was going on, fire was applied to various parts of the paper
+pile, and in a moment a great flame sprang up into the air--a flame
+that could be seen from miles around, and in less time than it takes to
+tell it the whole was a heap of glowing ashes, the mourners had
+departed, and the little street children were stirring it up with long
+sticks.
+
+The first three days after death, the spirit is supposed to visit the
+different temples, going, as it were, from official court to official
+court receiving judgment, and cards of merit or demerit to take with
+it, for the deeds done in the body. On the third day it returns to say
+farewell to the home, and then leaves for its long journey, and all
+this paper furniture is sent on ahead.
+
+They continue forty-nine days of prayers by the priests, alternating
+three days by the Buddhists, three by the Lamas, and three by the
+Taoists, after which the Buddhists take their turn again. Everything
+else remains much as I have described it. The family, servants,
+everybody in mourning, and all business put aside to make way for this
+ceremony of mourning, mourning, mourning, when they ought to be
+rejoicing, for the poor old Princess had been a paralytic for years and
+was far better out of her misery.
+
+The Princess frequently sent her cart for me during these days. Once
+when I was going through the court where there were vast quantities of
+things to be burned for the spirit, all made of paper, I noticed some
+that were so natural that I was unable to distinguish between them and
+the real things. Especially was this true of the furniture and flowers
+like that which had been in her apartments. There were great ebony
+chairs with fantastically marked marble seats, cabinets, and all the
+furniture necessary for her use. Among these things I noticed on the
+table a pack of cards and a set of dice, of which she had been very
+fond, and a chair like the one in which the eunuchs had carried the
+crippled old Princess about the court, and I said to the young Princess
+who accompanied me:
+
+"You do not think your grandmother will require these things in the
+spirit world, do you?"
+
+"Perhaps not," she replied, "but she enjoyed her cards and dice, and
+the chair was such a necessity, that, whether she needs them or not, it
+is a comfort to us to get and send her everything she liked while she
+lived, and it helps us bear our sorrows."
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+Chinese Princes and Officials
+
+In any estimate of the forces which lead and control public opinion in
+China, everywhere from the knot of peasants in the hamlet to the
+highest officers of state and the Emperor himself, the literati, or
+educated class, must be given a prominent position. They form an
+immense body, increased each year by the government examinations. They
+are at the head of the social order. Every civil officer in the empire
+must be chosen from their number. They constitute the basis of an
+elaborate system of civil service, well equipped with checks and
+balances which, if corrected and brought into touch with modern life
+and thought, would easily command the admiration of the world.--Chester
+Holcomb in "The Real Chinese Question."
+
+
+XIX
+
+CHINESE PRINCES AND OFFICIALS
+
+One day while the head eunuch from the palace of one of the leading
+princes in Peking was sitting in my study he said:
+
+"It is drawing near to the New Year. Do you celebrate the New Year in
+your honourable country?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "though not quite the same as you do here."
+
+"Do you fire off crackers?"
+
+"Yes, in the matter of firecrackers, we celebrate very much the same as
+you do."
+
+"And do you settle up all your debts as we do here?"
+
+"I am afraid we do not. That is not a part of our New Year celebration."
+
+"Our Prince is going to take on two more concubines this New Year," he
+volunteered.
+
+"Ah, indeed, I thought he had three concubines already."
+
+"So he does, but he is entitled to five."
+
+"I should think it would make trouble in a family for one man to have
+so many women," I ventured.
+
+He waved his hand in that peculiar way the Chinese have of saying,
+don't mention it, as he answered:
+
+"That is a difficult matter to discuss. Naturally if this woman sees
+the Prince talking to that one, this one is going to eat vinegar,"
+which gives us a glimpse of some of the domestic difficulties in
+Chinese high life. However it is a fact worth remembering that the
+Manchu prince does not receive his full stipend from the government
+until he has five concubines, each of whom is the mother of a son.
+
+The leading princes of the new regime are Ching, Su, and Pu-lun. Prince
+Ching has been the leader of the Manchus ever since the downfall of
+Prince Kung. He has held almost every office it was in the power of the
+Empress Dowager to give, "though disliked by the Emperor." He was made
+president of the Tsung-li Yamen in 1884, and from that time until the
+present has never been degraded, or in any way lost the imperial
+favour. He is small in stature, has none of the elements of the great
+man that characterized Li Hung-chang and Chang Chih-tung, or Prince
+Kung, but he has always been characterized by that diplomacy which has
+kept him one of the most useful officials in close connection with the
+Empress Dowager. It is to his credit moreover that the legations were
+preserved from the Boxers in the siege of 1900.
+
+Prince Su is the only one of the eight hereditary princes who holds any
+office that brings him into intimate contact with the foreigners.
+During the Boxer siege he gave his palace for the use of the native
+Christians, and at the close was made collector of the customs duties
+(octoroi) at the city gates. Never had there been any one in charge of
+this post who turned in as large proportion of the total collections as
+he. This excited the jealousy of the other officials, and they said to
+each other: "If Prince Su is allowed to hold this position for any
+length of time there will never be anything in it for any one else."
+They therefore sought for a ground of accusation, and they found it, in
+the eyes of the conservatives, in the fact that he rode in a foreign
+carriage, built himself a house after the foreign style of
+architecture, furnished it with foreign furniture, employed an
+Englishman to teach his boys, and as we have seen opened a school for
+the women and girls of his family. He therefore lost his position, but
+it is to the credit of Prince Chun, the new Regent, and his progressive
+policy, that Prince Su has been made chief of the naval department, of
+which Prince Ching is only an adviser.
+
+The most important person among either princes or officials that has
+been connected with the new regime is Yuan Shih-kai. He was born in the
+province of Honan, that province south of the Yellow River which is
+almost annually flooded by that great muddy stream which is called
+"China's Sorrow." As a boy he was a diligent student of the Chinese
+classics and of such foreign books as had been translated into the
+Chinese language, but he has never studied a foreign tongue nor visited
+a foreign country. Here then rests the first element of his
+greatness--that without any knowledge of foreign language, foreign law,
+foreign literature, science of government, or the history of progress
+and of civilization, he has occupied the highest and most responsible
+positions in the gift of the empire, has steered the ship of state on a
+straight course between the shoals of conservatism on the one hand and
+radical reform on the other until he has brought her near to the
+harbour of a safe progressive policy.
+
+He has always been what the Chinese call the tu-ti or pupil of Li
+Hung-chang, and it may be that it was from him he learned his
+statecraft. Certain it is that he always basked in the favour of the
+great Viceroy, and it may be that he had more or less influence with
+him in his earlier appointments, for he rose rapidly and in spite of
+all other officials.
+
+On his return from Korea he was made a judge. He was then put in charge
+of the army of the metropolitan province, and with the assistance of
+German officers he succeeded in drilling 12,500 troops after the
+European fashion.
+
+It was about this time that the Emperor conceived the plan of
+instituting and carrying out one of the most stupendous reforms that
+has ever been undertaken in human government--that of transforming four
+thousand years of conservatism of four hundred millions of people in
+the short space of a few months.
+
+Given: A people who cannot make a nail, to build a railroad.
+
+Given: A people who dare not plow a deep furrow for fear of disturbing
+the spirits of the place, to open gold, silver, iron and coal mines.
+
+Given: A people who in 4,000 years did not have the genius to develop a
+decent high school, to open a university in the capital of every
+province.
+
+These are three of the score or more of equally difficult problems that
+the Emperor undertook to solve in twice as many days. In order to the
+solution of these problems there was organized in Peking a Reform Party
+of hot-headed, radical young scholars not one of whom has ever turned
+out to be a statesman. They were brilliant young men, many of them, but
+they so lost their heads in their enthusiasm for reform that they
+forgot that their government was in the hands of the same old
+conservative leaders under whom it had been for forty centuries.
+
+They introduced into the palace as the private adviser of the Emperor,
+Kang Yu-wei, as we have already shown, to whom was thus offered one of
+the greatest opportunities that was ever given to a human being--that
+of being the leader in this great reform. He was hailed as a young
+Confucius, but his popularity was short-lived, for he so lacked all
+statesmanship as to allow the young Emperor to issue twenty-seven
+edicts, disposing of twenty-seven difficult problems such as I have
+given above in about twice that many days, and it is this hot-headed
+and unstatesman-like young "Confucius" who now calls Yuan Shih-kai an
+opportunist and a traitor because he did not enter into the following
+plot.
+
+After the Emperor had dismissed two conservative vice-presidents of a
+Board, two governors of provinces, and a half dozen other useless
+conservative leaders, they plotted to overthrow him by appealing to the
+ambition of the Empress Dowager and induce her to dethrone him and
+again assume the reins of government. They argued that "he was her
+adopted son, it was she who had placed him on the throne, and she was
+therefore responsible for his mistakes." They complimented her on "the
+wisdom which she had manifested, and the statesmanship she had
+exhibited" during the thirty years and more of her regency. To all
+which she listened with a greedy ear, but still she made no move.
+
+During this time were the Emperor and his young "Confucius" idle? By no
+means. They had hatched a counterplot, and had decided that what they
+could not do by moral suasion and statesmanship they would do by force,
+and so they sent an order to Yuan Shih-kai, who as we have said had
+drilled and was in charge of 12,500 of the best troops in the empire,
+urging him to "hasten to the capital at once, place the Empress Dowager
+under guard in the Summer Palace so that she may not be allowed to
+interfere in the affairs of the government, and protect him in his
+reform measures."
+
+The Emperor knew that nothing could be done without the command of the
+army which was largely in the hands of a great conservative friend of
+the Empress Dowager (Jung Lu) the father-in-law of the present Regent.
+Yuan was in charge of an army corps of 12,500 troops, but for him to
+have taken them even at the command of the Emperor, without informing
+his superior officer, would have meant the loss of his head at once.
+The first thing then for him to do was to take this order to Jung Lu.
+Yuan was in favour of reform, though he may not have approved of the
+Emperor's methods. Jung Lu hastened to Prince Ching and they two sped
+to the Empress Dowager in the Summer Palace where they laid the whole
+matter before her. She hurried to Peking, boldly faced and denounced
+the Emperor, took from him his seal of state, and confined him a
+prisoner in the Winter Palace. Kang Yu-wei, the young "Confucius,"
+fled, but the Empress Dowager seized his brother and five other
+patriotic young reformers, and ordered them beheaded on the public
+execution grounds in Peking.
+
+Naturally the Empress Dowager approved of the "wise and statesmanlike
+methods" of Yuan in thus protecting instead of imprisoning her, and
+thus placing the reins of government once more in her hands, and she
+appointed him Junior Vice-President of the Board of Works, and when she
+was compelled to remove the Governor of Shantung who had organized the
+Boxer Society, she appointed Yuan Acting Governor in his stead. "Yuan,"
+says Arthur H. Smith, was "a man of a wholly different stripe" from the
+one removed, and "if left to himself he would speedily have
+exterminated the whole Boxer brood, but being hampered by 'confidential
+instructions' from the palace, he could do little but issue poetical
+proclamations, and revile his subordinates for failure to do their
+duty."
+
+When Yuan was made Governor of Shantung a number of the Boxer leaders
+called upon him expecting to find in him a sympathizer worthy of his
+predecessor. They told him of their great powers and possibilities, and
+of how they were proof against the spears, swords and bullets of their
+enemies. Yuan listened to them with patience and interest, and invited
+them to dine with him and other official friends in the near future.
+
+During the dinner the Governor directed the conversation towards the
+Boxer leaders and their prowess, and led them once more to relate to
+all his friends their powers of resistance. He fed them well, and after
+the dinner was over he suggested that they give an exhibition of their
+wonderful powers to the friends whom he had invited. This they could
+not well refuse to do after the braggadocio way in which they had
+talked, and so the Governor lined them up, called forth a number of his
+best marksmen, and proceeded with the exhibition, and it is unnecessary
+to add that if the Empress Dowager had invited Yuan to the meeting with
+the princes when they discussed the advisability of joining the Boxers
+on account of a belief in their supernatural powers, she might have
+been spared the humiliation of 1900.
+
+We shall soon see that Yuan cared no more for the "confidential
+instructions" of the Empress Dowager, when his statesmanship was
+involved, than for the orders of the Emperor. His business was to
+govern and protect the people of his province, and thanks to his wise
+statesmanship and strong character "there was not only no foreigner
+killed during the troubled season of anxiety and flight" of 1900, and
+"comparatively little of the suffering elsewhere so common."
+
+And now we come to another plot which indicates the character of Yuan
+and two other great viceroys, Chang Chih-tung, now Grand Secretary, and
+Liu Kun-yi, Viceroy of the Yangtse-kiang provinces. It is a well-known
+fact that during the Boxer rebellion the Empress Dowager was so
+influenced by the promises of the Boxers to drive out all the
+foreigners that she sent out some very unwise edicts that they should
+be massacred in the provinces. Yuan and his two confreres secretly
+stipulated that if the foreign men of war would keep away from the
+ports of their provinces they would maintain peace and protect the
+foreigners no matter what orders came from the throne. So that when
+these confidential instructions came from the palace to massacre the
+foreigners, in order to gain time they pretended to believe that no
+such orders could have come from the throne. They must be forgeries of
+the Boxers. They therefore refused to believe them until they had sent
+their own special messenger all the way to Peking to get the edict from
+the hands of Her Majesty and bring it to them in their provinces. This
+messenger was also secretly instructed to find out what the contents of
+the edict were, and if it was contrary to the desires of the Governor,
+he was to dilly-dally on the way home until the Boxer trouble was ended
+or until the foreigners had all been removed from the territory. And it
+was such conduct as this on the part of three Chinese and one Manchu
+viceroys that saved China from being divided up among the Powers in
+1900, a fact which the Empress Dowager was not slow to understand and
+reward.
+
+In 1900 Yuan was made Governor of the Shantung province, and the court
+was compelled to flee to Hsian. It was while the court was thus in
+hiding that an incident occurred which indicates the fertility of the
+Empress Dowager and the elasticity of all Chinese social customs.
+Governor Yuan's mother died. In a case of this kind customs dictate,
+and the rules of filial affection demand, that a man shall resign all
+his official positions and go into mourning for a period of three
+years. Yuan therefore sent his resignation to the Empress Dowager,
+while "weeping tears of blood."
+
+The country was of course in desperate straits and could ill afford to
+lose, for three years, for a mere sentiment, the services of one of her
+greatest and most powerful statesmen. However much he may have
+regretted to give up such a brilliant career which was just well begun,
+Yuan no doubt expected to do so. What was his surprise therefore to
+receive from Her Majesty a message of condolence in which she praised
+his mother in the highest terms for having given the world such a
+brilliant and able son. Under the circumstances, however, it would be
+impossible to accept his resignation as his services to the country
+just at this juncture were indispensable. She would, however, appoint a
+substitute to go into mourning for him, and this with the knowledge
+that she had borne a son whose services were so necessary to the safety
+of the government and the country, would be a sufficient comfort to the
+spirit of his departed mother, and Yuan was forced to continue in his
+official position as Governor of the province without the intermission
+of a single day of mourning. Such is the elasticity and adaptability of
+the unchanging laws and customs of the Oriental when in the hands of a
+master--or a mistress--like Her Majesty the Empress Dowager.
+
+One can imagine that in proportion as the Empress Dowager was pleased
+with the statesmanship manifested by Yuan Shih-kai in unintentionally
+reseating her upon the throne, in a like proportion the Emperor would
+be dissatisfied with it as being the cause of his dethronement. This
+was not, however, against Yuan alone but against the father-in-law of
+the present Regent and even Prince Ching as well. During the whole ten
+years, from 1898 until his death, while he was a prisoner "his heart
+boiled with wrath" against those who had been the cause of his downfall.
+
+It was not until the Boxer troubles of 1900 were over, and Yuan, by the
+masterly way in which he had disregarded the imperial edicts, had
+protected and preserved the lives of all the foreigners in his
+province, keeping peace the while, that honours began to be heaped upon
+him. And this not without reason as we shall proceed to show.
+
+In 1901 he was made Governor-General of the metropolitan province, and
+Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. In 1902 he was decorated with the
+Yellow Jacket, placed in charge of the affairs of the Northern Railway,
+and consulting minister to counsel the government. Wherever he was he
+gave as much attention to the city government as to that of the
+province or the nation, and in spite of his having no foreign education
+himself, he began building up a system of public schools in his
+province like which there is nothing else in the whole of China. Let us
+remember also that during ail this time there was suspended over his
+head, from the palace, a sword of Damocles which was liable to fall at
+any time. But we will explain that further on as it is the last act of
+the drama.
+
+When Yuan went to Tientsin as Viceroy of the metropolitan province he
+found there Dr. C. D. Tenny, the president of the Tientsin University
+which had been begun by Li Hung-chang some ten or a dozen years before.
+It had a good course of study and was turning out a large number of
+young graduates for whom there ought to be a better future than that of
+interpreters in the various business houses of that and other cities.
+He therefore called Dr. Tenny to him and inquired particularly about
+the system of public school education throughout the United States.
+
+"What is to prevent our putting into operation such a system throughout
+this province?" asked the Viceroy.
+
+"Nothing," answered Dr. Tenny, "except to be willing to submit to the
+conditions."
+
+"And what are those conditions?" asked His Excellency.
+
+"They are that you open schools in every important town, place in them
+well-educated, competent teachers, whom you are willing to pay a salary
+equal to what they may reasonably expect to get if they enter business."
+
+"May I ask if you would be willing to undertake the development of such
+a system?" he asked further.
+
+"On one condition," answered Dr. Tenny.
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"That you allow me to open a school wherever I think there should be
+one, call my teachers from whatsoever source I please to call them, pay
+them whatever salary I think they deserve, sending all the bills to
+Your Excellency, and you pay them without question."
+
+The Viceroy had known Dr. Tenny for years, had always had the most
+implicit confidence both in his ability and his honesty, and so,
+lightening up his duties in the Tientsin and Paotingfu Universities, he
+commissioned him to establish what may be termed the first public
+school system of education on modern lines in the whole empire. This
+one act, if he had done no other, was reason enough for a wise regent
+to have continued him in office even though he "had rheumatism of the
+leg." But it may be that there are extenuating circumstances in this
+act of the Regent as we shall point out later.
+
+There is one phase of the Boxer uprising that I have never yet seen
+properly represented in any book or magazine. We all know how the
+ministers of the various European governments with their wives and
+children, the customs officials, missionaries, business men, and
+tourists who happened to be in Peking at the time, with all the Chinese
+Christians, were confined in the British legation and Prince Su's
+palace. We know how they barricaded their defense. We know how they
+were fired upon day and night for six weeks by the Boxer leaders and
+the army of the conservatives under the leadership of their general,
+Tung Fu-hsiang. But the thing which we do not know, or at least which
+has not been adequately told, is the most interesting secret plot of
+the liberal progressives, under the leadership of "Prince Ching and
+others," to thwart the Empress Dowager and the Boxer leaders, the
+conservatives and their army, and protect the most noted company of
+prisoners that have ever been confined in a legation quarter. The plot
+was this:
+
+When Prince Ching and his progressive associates in Peking discovered
+that they could not vote down the Boxer princes, they dared not openly
+oppose them, but they secretly decided that the representatives of the
+Powers must not be massacred else the doom of China was sealed. When
+they discovered that Yuan Shih-kai and the other great viceroys had
+decided by stratagem to foil the Boxers even though they must set all
+the imperial edicts at naught, they decided, for the sake of the
+protection of the legations and the preservation of the empire, that
+they would do the same. They secretly sent supplies of food to the
+besieged, which the latter feared to use lest they be poisoned. But
+more than that they kept their own armies in Peking as a guard and as a
+final resort in case there was danger of the legation being overcome,
+and as a matter of fact there were regular pitched battles between the
+troops of Prince Ching and his associates and those of the Boxer
+leader, Tung Fu-hsiang. Had the Boxers finally succeeded, Yuan Shih-kai
+and Prince Ching and their associates would have lost their heads, but
+as the Boxers failed it was they who went to their graves by the short
+process of the executioner's knife.
+
+So Yuan was between two fires. He had disobeyed the commands of the
+Emperor in not coming to Peking and had therefore incurred his
+displeasure and caused his downfall. He had disobeyed the Empress
+Dowager in not putting to death the foreigners in his province, and if
+the Boxers were successful he would surely lose his head on that
+account. The Boxers, however, were not successful and as his
+disobedience had helped to save the empire, Yuan, so long as the
+Dowager remained in power, was safe.
+
+But a day of reckoning must inevitably come. The Empress Dowager was an
+old woman, the Emperor was a young man. In all human probabilities she
+would be the first to die, while his only hope was in her outliving the
+Emperor, who had sworn vengeance on all those who had been instrumental
+in his imprisonment.
+
+I have a friend in Peking who is also a friend of one of the greatest
+Chinese officials. This official has gone into the palace daily for a
+dozen years past and knows every plot and counterplot that has been
+hatched in that nest of seclusion during all that time, though he has
+been implicated in none of them. He has held the highest positions in
+the gift of the empire without ever once having been degraded. One day
+when he was in the palace the Emperor unburdened his heart to him,
+thinking that what he said would never reach the ears of his enemies.
+
+"You have no idea," said the Emperor, "what I suffer here."
+
+"Indeed?" was the only reply of the official.
+
+"Yes," continued the Emperor, "I am not allowed to speak to any one
+from outside. I am without power, without companions, and even the
+eunuchs act as though they are under no obligations to respect me. The
+position of the lowest servant in the palace is more desirable than
+mine." Then lowering his voice he continued, "But there is a day of
+reckoning to come. The Empress Dowager cannot live forever, and if ever
+I get my throne again I will see to it that those who put me here will
+suffer as I have done."
+
+It is not unlikely that this conversation of the Emperor reached the
+ears of Yuan Shih-kai. Walls have ears in China. Everything has ears,
+and every part of nature has a tongue. If so, here was the occasion for
+the last plot in the drama of the Emperor's life, and next to the last
+in the official life of Yuan Shih-kai.
+
+The problem is to so manipulate the laws of nature as to prevent the
+Emperor outliving the Empress Dowager, and not allow the world to know
+that you have been trifling with occult forces. He must die a natural
+death, a death which is above suspicion. He must not die one day after
+the Empress Dowager as that would create talk. And he ought to die some
+time before her. The death fuse is one which often burns very much
+longer than we expect--was it not one of the English kings who said "I
+fear I am a very long time a-dying, gentlemen"--and sometimes it burns
+out sooner than is intended. There were two imperial death fuses
+burning at the same time in that Forbidden City of Peking. The Empress
+Dowager had "had a stroke." Hers was undoubtedly nature's own work. But
+the enemies of Yuan Shih-kai tell us that the Emperor had "had a
+Chinese doctor," to whom the great Viceroy paid $33,000 for his
+services. We are told that the Empress Dowager in reality died first
+and then the Emperor, though the Emperor's death was first announced,
+and the next day that of the Dowager.
+
+What then are we to infer? That the Emperor was poisoned? Let it be so.
+That is what the Japanese believed at the time. But who did it? Most
+assuredly no one man. One might have employed a Chinese physician for
+him, but the last man whose physician the Emperor would have accepted
+would have been Yuan Shih-kai's. Had you or I been ill would we have
+allowed the man who was the cause of our fall to select our physician?
+But granted that Yuan Shih-kai did employ his physician, and that his
+death was the result of slow poisoning, could Yuan Shih-kai have so
+manipulated Prince Ching, the Regent (who is the late Emperor's
+brother), the ladies of the court, and all those thousands of eunuchs,
+to remain silent as to the death of the Empress Dowager until he had
+completed the slow process on His Majesty? No! If the Emperor was
+poisoned--and the world believes he was--there are a number of others
+whose skirts are as badly stained as those of the great Viceroy, or
+long ere this his body would have been sent home a headless corpse
+instead of with "rheumatism of the leg."
+
+What then is the explanation? It may be this, that the court, and the
+officials as a whole, felt that the Emperor was an unsafe person to
+resume the throne, and that it were better that one man should perish
+than that the whole regime should be upset. They even refused to allow
+a foreign physician to go in to see him, saying that of his own free
+will he had turned again to the Chinese, all of which indicates that it
+was not the plot of any one man.
+
+Why then should Yuan Shih-kai have been made the scapegoat of the court
+and the officials, and branded as a murderer in the face of the whole
+world? That may be another plot. The radical reformers, followers of
+Kang Yu-wei, have been making such a hubbub about the matter ever since
+the death of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager that somebody had to
+be punished. They said that Yuan had been a traitor to the cause of
+reform, that he had not only betrayed his sovereign in 1898, but that
+now he had encompassed his death.
+
+Now to satisfy these enemies, the Prince Regent may have decided that
+the best thing to do was to dismiss Yuan for a time. I think that the
+trivial excuse he gives for doing so favours my theory--with
+"rheumatism of the leg," to which is added, "Thus our clemency is
+manifest"--a sentence which may be severe or may mean nothing, and when
+the storm has blown over and the sky is clear again, Yuan may be once
+more brought to the front as Li Hung-chang and others have been in the
+past. Which is a consummation, I think, devoutly to be wished.
+
+
+
+XX
+
+Peking--The City of the Court
+
+The position of Peking at the present time is one of peculiar interest,
+for all the different forces that are now at work to make or mar China
+issue from, or converge towards, the capital. There, on the dragon
+throne, beside, or rather above, the powerless and unhappy Emperor, the
+father of his people and their god, sits the astute and ever-watchful
+lady whose word is law to Emperor, minister and clown alike. There
+dwell the heads of the government boards, the leaders of the Manchu
+aristocracy, and the great political parties, the drafters of new
+constitutions and imperial decrees, and the keen-witted diplomatists
+who know so well how to play against European antagonists the great
+game of international chess.--R. F. Johnston in "From Peking to
+Mandelay."
+
+
+
+XX
+
+PEKING--THE CITY OF THE COURT
+
+In the place where Peking now stands there has been a city for three
+thousand years. Five centuries before Christ it was the capital of a
+small state, but was destroyed three centuries later by the builder of
+the great wall. It was soon rebuilt, however, and has continued from
+that time until the present, with varied fortunes, as the capital of a
+state, the chief city of a department, or the dwelling-place of the
+court.
+
+It is the greatest and best preserved walled city in the empire, if not
+in the world. The Tartar City is sixteen miles in circumference,
+surrounded by a wall sixty feet thick at the bottom, fifty feet thick
+at the top and forty feet high, with six feet of balustrade on the
+outside, beautifully crenelated and loopholed, and in a good state of
+preservation. The streets are sixty feet wide,--or even more in
+places,--well macadamized, and lit with electric light. The chief mode
+of conveyance is the 'ricksha, though carriages may be hired by the
+week, day or hour at various livery stables in proximity to the hotels,
+which, by the way, furnish as good accommodation to their guests as the
+hotels of other Oriental cities.
+
+In the centre of the Tartar City is the Imperial City, eight miles in
+circumference, encircled by a wall six feet thick and fifteen feet
+high, pierced by four gates at the points of the compass; and in the
+centre of this again is the Forbidden City, occupying less than half a
+square mile, the home of the court.
+
+Fairs are held, at various temples, fourteen days of every month,
+distributed in such a way as to bring them almost on alternate days,
+while at certain times there are two fairs on the same day. It is a
+mistake to suppose that the Chinese women in the capital are very much
+secluded. They may be seen on the streets at almost any time, while the
+temple courts and adjacent streets, on fair days, are crowded with
+women and girls, dressed in the most gorgeous colours, their hair
+decorated with all kinds of artificial flowers, followed by little boys
+and girls as gaily dressed as themselves. Here they find all kinds of
+toys, curios, and articles of general use, from a top to a broom, from
+bits of jade or other precious stones, to a snuff bottle hollowed out
+of a solid quartz crystal, or a market basket or a dust-pan made of
+reeds.
+
+Peking being the city of the court, and the headquarters of many of the
+greatest officials, is the receptacle of the finest products of the
+oldest and greatest non-Christian people the world has ever known.
+China easily leads the world in the making of porcelain, the best of
+which has always gone to Peking for use in the palace, and so we can
+find here the best products of every reign from the time of Kang Hsi,
+as well as those of the former dynasties, to that of Kuang Hsu and the
+Empress Dowager. The same is true of her brass and bronze
+incense-burners and images, her wood and ivory carvings, her beautiful
+embroideries, her magnificent tapestries, and her paintings by old
+masters of six or eight hundred years ago. Here we can find the finest
+Oriental rugs, in a good state of preservation, with the "tone" that
+only age can give, made long before the time of Washington.
+
+There is no better market for fine bits of embroidery, mandarin coats,
+and all the better products of needle, silk and floss, of which the
+Chinese have been masters for centuries, than the city of the court.
+The population consists largely of great officials and their families,
+whose cast-off clothing, toned down by the use of years, often without
+a blemish or a spot, finds its way into the hands of dealers. The
+finest furs,--seal, otter, squirrel, sable and ermine,--are brought
+from Siberia, Manchuria and elsewhere, for the officials and the court,
+and can be secured for less than half what they would cost in America.
+Pearls, of which the Chinese ladies and the court are more fond than of
+diamonds, may be found in abundance in all the bazars, which are many,
+and judging from the way they are purchased by tourists, are both
+cheaper and better than elsewhere.
+
+The Chinese have little appreciation of diamonds as jewelry. On one
+occasion there was offered to me a beautiful ring containing a large
+sapphire encircled by twenty diamonds. When I offered the dealer less
+than he asked for it, he said: "No, rather than sell it for that price,
+I will tear it apart, and sell the diamonds separately for drill-points
+to the tinkers who mend dishes. I can make more from it in that way,
+only I dislike to spoil the ring." The Empress Dowager during her late
+years, and many of the ladies and gentlemen of the more progressive
+type, affected, whether genuinely or not, an appreciation of the
+diamond as a piece of jewelry, especially in the form of rings, though
+coloured stones, polished, but not cut, have always been more popular
+with the Chinese. The turquoise, the emerald, the sapphire, the ruby
+and the other precious stones with colour have, therefore, always
+graced the tables of the bazars in the capital, while the diamond until
+very recently was relegated to the point of the tinker's drill.
+
+There is another method of bringing bits of their ancient handiwork to
+the capital which most of those living in Peking, even, know nothing
+about. A company, whose headquarters is at an inn, called the Hsing
+Lung Tien, sends agents all over the empire, to purchase and bring to
+them everything in the nature of a curio, whether porcelain, painting,
+embroidery, pottery or even an ancient tile or inkstone, which they
+then, at public auction, sell to the dealers. The sale is at noon each
+day. The first time I visited it was with a friend from Iowa who was
+anxious to get some unique bits of porcelain. The auctioneer does not
+"cry" the wares. Neither buyer nor seller says a word. Nobody knows
+what anybody else has offered. The goods are passed out of a closed
+room from a high window where the crowd can see them, and then each one
+wanting them tries to be first in securing the hand of the auctioneer,
+which is ensconced in his long sleeve, where, by squeezing his fingers,
+they tell him how much they will give for the particular piece. It is
+the only real case of "talking in the sleeve" I have ever seen, and
+each piece is sold to the first person offering a fair profit on the
+money invested, though he might get much more by allowing them to bid
+against each other.
+
+Among the attractive sights in Peking, none are quite so interesting as
+the places where His Majesty worships, and of these the most beautiful
+in architecture, the grandest in conception, and the one laid out on
+the most magnificent scale, is the Temple of Heaven.
+
+Think of six hundred and forty acres of valuable city property being
+set aside for the grounds of a single temple, as compared with the way
+our own great churches are crowded into small city lots of scarcely as
+many square feet, and over-shadowed by great business blocks costing a
+hundred times as much, and we can get some conception of the
+magnificence of the scale on which this temple is laid out. A large
+part of the grounds is covered with cedars, many of which are not less
+than five hundred years old, while other parts are used to pasture a
+flock of black cattle from which they select the sacrifice for a burnt
+offering. The grounds are not well kept like those of our own parks and
+churches, but the original conception of a temple on such a large scale
+is worthy of a great people.
+
+The worship at this temple is the most important of all the religious
+observances of the empire, and constitutes a most interesting remnant
+of the ancient monotheistic cultus which prevailed in China before the
+rationalism of Confucius and the polytheistic superstition of Buddhism
+predominated among the people. While the ceremonies of the sacrifices
+are very complicated, they are kept with the strictest severity. The
+chief of these is at the winter solstice. On December 21st the Emperor
+goes in a sedan chair, covered with yellow silk, and carried by
+thirty-two men, preceded by a band of musicians, and followed by an
+immense retinue of princes and officials on horseback. He first goes to
+the tablet-chapel, where he offers incense to Shang Ti, the God above,
+and to his ancestors, with three kneelings and nine prostrations. Then
+going to the great altar he inspects the offerings, after which he
+repairs to the Palace of Abstinence, where he spends the night in
+fasting and prayer. The next morning at 5:45 A. M. he dons his
+sacrificial robes, proceeds to the open altar, where he kneels and
+burns incense, offers a prayer to Shang Ti, and incense to his
+ancestors whose shrines and tablets are arranged on the northeast and
+northwest portions of the altar.
+
+There are two altars in the temple, a quarter of a mile apart, the
+covered and the open altar, and this latter is one of the grandest
+religious conceptions of the human mind. It is a triple circular marble
+terrace, 210 feet wide at the base, 150 feet in the middle, and ninety
+feet at the top, ascended at the points of the compass by three flights
+of nine steps each. A circular stone is in the centre of the top,
+around which are nine stones in the first circle, eighteen in the
+second, twenty-seven in the third, etc., and eighty-one in the ninth,
+or last circle. The Emperor kneels on the circular stone, surrounded by
+the circles of stones, then by the circles of the terraces, and finally
+by the horizon, and thus seems to himself and his retinue to be in the
+centre of the universe, his only walls being the skies, and his only
+covering, the shining dome.
+
+There are no images of any kind connected with the temple or the
+worship, the only offerings being a bullock, the various productions of
+the soil, and a cylindrical piece of jade about a foot long, formerly
+used as a symbol of sovereignty. Twelve bundles of cloth are offered to
+Heaven, and only one to each of the emperors, and to the sun and moon.
+The bullocks must be two years old, the best of their kind, without
+blemish, and while they were formerly killed by the Emperor they are
+now slaughtered by an official appointed for that purpose.
+
+The covered altar is, I think, the most beautiful piece of architecture
+in China. It is smaller than the one already described but has erected
+upon it a lofty, circular triple-roofed temple ninety-nine feet in
+height, roofed with blue tiles, the eaves painted in brilliant colours
+and protected from the birds by a wire netting. In the centre,
+immediately in front of the altar, is a circular stone, as in the open
+altar. The ceiling is covered with gilded dragons in high relief, and
+the whole is supported by immense pillars. It was this building that
+was struck by lightning in 1890, but it was restored during the ten
+years that followed. Being made the camp of the British during the
+occupation of 1900, it received some small injuries from curio seekers,
+but none of any consequence. The Sikh soldiers who died during this
+period were cremated in the furnace connected with the open altar.
+
+The Chinese have been an agricultural people for thirty centuries or
+more, and this characteristic is embodied in the Temple of Agriculture,
+which occupies a park of not less than three hundred and twenty acres
+of city property opposite the Temple of Heaven. It has four great
+altars, with their adjacent halls, to the spirits of Heaven, Earth, the
+Year, and the Ancestral Husbandman, Shen Nung, to whom the temple is
+dedicated. It was used as the camp of the American soldiers in 1900,
+and was well cared for. At one time some of the soldiers upset one of
+the urns, and when it was reported to the officer in command, the whole
+company was called out and the urn properly replaced, after which the
+men were lectured on the matter of injuring any property belonging to
+the temple.
+
+There are several large plots of ground in this enclosure, one of which
+the Emperor ploughs, while another is marked "City Magistrate," another
+"Prefect," and on these bits of land the "five kinds of grain" are
+sown. One cannot view these imperial temples without being impressed
+with the potential greatness of a people who do things on such a
+magnificent scale. But one, at the same time, also feels that these
+temples, and the great Oriental religions which inspire and support
+them have failed in a measure to accomplish their design, which ought
+to be to educate and develop the people. This they can hardly be said
+to have done, especially if we consider their condition in their lack
+of all phases of scientific development, for as the sciences stand
+to-day they are all the product of the Christian peoples.
+
+There are three other imperial temples on the same large scale as those
+just described. The Temple of the Sun east of the city, that of the
+Moon on the west, and that of the Earth on the north, though it must be
+confessed that the worship at these has been allowed to lapse. In the
+Tartar City there are two others, the Lama Temple and the Confucian
+Temple, in the former of which there is a statue of Buddha seventy-five
+feet high, and from thirteen to fifteen hundred priests who worship
+daily at his shrine. This statue is made of stucco, over a framework,
+and not of wood as some have told us, and as the guide will assure us
+at the present day. One can ascend to a level with its head by several
+flights of stairs, where a lamp is lit when the Emperor visits the
+temple. In the east wing of this same building is a prayer-wheel, which
+reaches up through several successive stories, and is kept in motion
+while the Emperor is present.
+
+In the east side buildings there are a few interesting, though in some
+cases very disgusting idols, such for instance as those illustrating
+the creation, but over these draperies have been thrown during recent
+years, which make them a trifle more respectable.
+
+The temple is very imposing. At the entrance there are two large arches
+covered with yellow tiles, from which a broad paved court leads to the
+front gate, on the two sides of which are the residences of the Lamas
+or Mongol priests. At the hour of prayer, which is about nine o'clock,
+they may be seen going in crowds, clothed in yellow robes, to the
+various halls of worship where they chant their prayers.
+
+Very different from this is the Confucian Temple only a quarter of a
+mile away. Here we find neither priest nor idol--nothing but a small
+board tablet to "Confucius, the teacher of ten thousand ages" with
+those of his most faithful and worthy disciples. In the court on each
+side are rows of buildings--that on the east containing the tablets of
+seventy-eight virtuous men; that on the west the tablets of fifty-four
+learned men; eighty-six of these were pupils of the Sage, while the
+remainder were men who accepted his teachings. No Taoists, however
+learned; no Buddhists, however pure; no original thinkers, however
+great may have been their following, are allowed a place here. It is a
+Temple of Fame for Confucianists alone.
+
+I have been in this temple when a whole bullock, the skin and entrails
+having been removed, was kneeling upon a table facing the tablet of the
+Sage, while sheep and pigs were similarly arranged facing the tablets
+of his disciples.
+
+For twenty-four centuries China has had Taoism preached within her
+dominions; for twenty-three centuries she has worshipped at the shrine
+of Confucius; for eighteen centuries she has had Buddhism, and for
+twelve centuries Mohammedanism: and during all this time if we believe
+the statements of her own people, she has slept. Does it not therefore
+seem significant, that less than a century after the Gospel of Jesus
+Christ had been preached to her people, and the Bible circulated freely
+throughout her dominions, she opened her court to the world, began to
+build railroads, open mines, erect educational institutions, adopt the
+telegraph and the telephone, and step into line with the industrial
+methods of the most progressive nations of the Western world?
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+The Death of Kuang Hsu and the Empress Dowager
+
+Who knows whether the Dowager Empress will ever repose in the
+magnificent tomb she has built for herself at such a cost, or whether a
+new dynasty may not rifle its riches to embellish its own? Tze-Hsi is
+growing old! According to nature's immutable law her faculties must
+soon fail her; her iron will must bend and her far-seeing eye grow dim,
+and after her who will resist the tide of foreign aggression and stem
+the torrent of inward revolt?--Lady Susan Townley in "My Chinese Note
+Book."
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+THE DEATH OF KUANG HSU AND THE EMPRESS DOWAGER
+
+During mid-November of 1908 the Forbidden City of Peking was a blind
+stage before which an expectant world sat as an audience. It had not
+long to wait, for on the fifteenth and sixteenth it learned that Kuang
+Hsu and the Empress Dowager, less than twenty-four hours apart, had
+taken "the fairy ride and ascended upon the dragon to be guests on
+high." The world looked on in awe. It expected a demonstration if not a
+revolution but nothing of the kind happened. But on the other hand one
+of the most difficult diplomatic problems of her history was solved in
+a quiet and peaceable, if not a statesman-like way, by the aged Dowager
+and her officials, and China once more had upon her throne an emperor,
+though only a child, about whose succession there was no question. And
+all this was done with less commotion than is caused by the election of
+a mayor in New York or Chicago, which may or may not be to the credit
+of an absolute monarchy over a republican form of government.
+
+The world has speculated a good deal as to what happened in the
+Forbidden City of Peking during the early half of November. Will the
+curious world ever know? Whether it will or not remains for the future
+to determine. We have, however, the edicts issued to the foreign
+legations at Peking and with these at the present we must be content.
+From them we learn that it was the Empress Dowager and not Kuang Hsu
+who appointed Prince Chun as Regent, and that this appointment was
+made--or at least announced--twenty-four hours before the death of the
+Emperor.
+
+On the thirteenth of November the foreign diplomatic representatives
+received the following edict from the great Dowager through the regular
+channel of the Foreign Office of which Prince Ching was the president:
+
+
+"It is the excellent will of Tze-hsi-kuan-yu-k'ang-
+i-chao-yu-chuang-ch'eng-shou-kung-ch'in-hsien-chung-hsi, the great
+Empress Dowager that Tsai Feng, Prince of Chun, be appointed Prince
+Regent (She Chang-wang)."
+
+
+The above edict was soon followed by another which stated that "Pu I,
+the son of Tsai Feng, should be reared in the palace and taught in the
+imperial schoolroom," an indication that he was to be the next emperor,
+and that Tsai Feng and not Kuang Hsu was to occupy the throne, and all
+this by the "excellent will" of the Empress Dowager.
+
+On the morning of the fourteenth the following edict came from the
+Emperor himself:
+
+"From the beginning of August of last year, our health has been poor.
+We formerly ordered the Tartar generals, viceroys, and governors of
+every province to recommend physicians of ability. Thereupon the
+viceroys of Chihli, the Liang Kiang, Hu Kiang, Kiangsu and Chekiang
+recommended and sent forward Chen Ping-chun, Tsao Yuen-wang, Lu
+Yung-ping, Chow Ching-tao, Tu Chung-chun, Shih Huan, and Chang
+Pang-nien, who came to Peking and treated us. But their prescriptions
+have given no relief. Now the negative and positive elements (Yin-Yang)
+are both failing. There are ailments both external and internal, and
+the breath is stopped up, the stomach rebellious, the back and legs
+painful, appetite failing. On moving, the breath fails and there is
+coughing and panting. Besides, we have chills and fever, cannot sleep,
+and experience a general failure of bodily strength which is hard to
+bear.
+
+"Our heart is very impatient and now the Tartar generals, viceroys, and
+governors of every province are ordered to select capable physicians,
+regardless of the official rank, and to send them quickly to Peking to
+await summons to give medical aid. If any can show beneficial results
+he will receive extraordinary rewards, and the Tartar generals,
+viceroys, and governors who recommend them will receive special grace.
+Let this be published."
+
+This was followed on the same day by the following edict:
+
+"Inasmuch as the Emperor Tung Chih had no issue, on the fifth day of
+the twelfth moon of that reign (January 12, 1875) an edict was
+promulgated to the effect that if the late Emperor Kuang Hsu should
+have a son, the said prince should carry on the succession as the heir
+of Tung Chih. But now the late Emperor has ascended upon the dragon to
+be a guest on high, leaving no son, and there is no course open but to
+appoint Pu I, the son of Tsai Feng, the Prince Regent, as the successor
+to Tung Chih and also as heir to the Emperor Kuang Hsu."
+
+The next day--the fifteenth--another edict, purporting to come from
+little Pu I, but transcribed by Prince Ching, was sent out to the
+diplomatic body and to the world. It is as follows:
+
+"I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that on the 21st day of
+the 10th moon [Nov. 14, 1908] at the yu-ke [5-7 P. M.] the late Emperor
+ascended on the dragon to be a guest on high. We have received the
+command of Tze-hsi, etc., the Great Empress Dowager to enter on the
+succession as Emperor. We lamented to Earth and Heaven. We stretched
+out our hands, wailing our insufficiency. Prostrate we reflect on how
+the late Emperor occupied the Imperial Throne for thirty-four years,
+reverently following the customs of his ancestors, receiving the
+gracious instruction of the Empress Dowager, exerting himself to the
+utmost, not failing one day to revere Heaven and observe the laws of
+his ancestors, devoting himself with diligence to the affairs of
+government and loving the people, appointing the virtuous to office,
+changing the laws of the land to make the country powerful, considering
+new methods of government which arouse the admiration of both Chinese
+and foreigners. All who have blood and breath cannot but mourn and be
+moved to the extreme point. We weep tears of blood and beat upon our
+heart. How can we bear to express our feelings!
+
+"But we think upon our heavy responsibility and our weakness, and we
+must depend upon the great and small civil and military officials of
+Peking and the provinces to show public spirit and patriotism, and aid
+in the government. The viceroys and governors should harmonize the
+people and arrange carefully methods of government to comfort the
+spirit of the late Emperor in heaven. This is our earnest expectation."
+
+On the sixteenth day of November, three days  after she had appointed
+the regent, and two days after she had appointed Pu I, the diplomatic
+representatives received the following from Prince Ching:
+
+"Your Excellency:
+
+"I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that we have reverently
+received the following testamentary statement of Her Imperial Majesty
+Tze-hsi, etc., the Great Empress Dowager:
+
+"'Although of scanty merit, I received the command of His Majesty the
+Emperor Wen Tsung-hsien (the posthumous title of Hsien Feng) to occupy
+a throne prepared for me in the palace. When the Emperor Mu Tsung I
+(Tung Chih) as a child succeeded to the throne, violence and confusion
+prevailed. It was a critical period of suppression by force.
+"Long-hairs" (Tai-ping rebels) and the "twisted turbans" (Nien Fei)
+were in rebellion. The Mohammedans and the aborigines had commenced to
+make trouble. There were many disturbances along the seacoast. The
+people were destitute. Ulcers and sores met the eye on every side.
+Cooperating with the Empress Dowager Hsiao Chen-hsien, I supported and
+taught the Emperor and toiled day and night. According to the
+instructions contained in the testamentary counsels of the Emperor Wen
+Tsung-hsien (Hsien Feng) I urged on the officials of Peking and the
+provinces and all the military commanders, determining the policy to be
+followed, diligently searching the right way of governing, choosing the
+upright for official positions, rescuing from calamity and pitying the
+people, and so obtained the protection of Heaven, gaining peace and
+tranquillity instead of distress and danger. Then the Emperor Mu Tsung
+I (Tung Chih) departed this life and the late Emperor succeeded to the
+throne. The times became still harder and the people in still greater
+straits, sorrow within and calamity without, confusion and noise; I had
+no recourse but to give instruction in government once more.
+
+"'The year before last the preparatory measures for the institution of
+constitutional government were published. This year the time limits for
+the measures preparatory to constitutional government have been
+promulgated. Attending to these myriad affairs the strength of my heart
+has been exhausted. Fortunately my constitution was originally strong
+and up to the present I have stood the strain. Unexpectedly from the
+summer and autumn of this year I have been ill and have not been able
+to assist in the multitudinous affairs of government with tranquillity.
+Appetite and the power to sleep have gone. This has continued for a
+long time until my strength is exhausted and I have not dared to rest
+for even a day. On the 21st of this moon [November 14th] came the
+sorrow of the death of the late Emperor, and I was unable to control
+myself, so that my illness increased till I was unable to rise from my
+bed. I look back upon our fifty years of sorrow and trouble. I have
+been continually in a state of high tension without a moment's respite.
+Now a reform in the method of government has been commenced and there
+begins to be a clue to follow. The Emperor now succeeding to the throne
+is in his infancy. All depends upon his instruction and guidance. The
+Prince Regent and all the officials of Peking and the provinces should
+exert themselves to strengthen the foundations of our empire. Let the
+Emperor now succeedings to the throne make his country's affairs of
+first importance and moderate his sorrow, diligently attending to his
+studies so that he may in future illustrate the instruction which he
+has received. This is my devout hope. Let the mourning period be for
+twenty-seven days only. Let this be proclaimed to the empire that all
+may know.'"
+
+Still one more edict was necessary to complete this remarkable list,
+and this was sent to the legations on the 17th of November. It is as
+follows:
+
+"I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that on the 22d of the
+moon [November 15, 1908] I reverently received the following edict:
+
+"We received in our early childhood the love and care of Tze-hsi, etc.,
+the Great Empress Dowager. Our gratitude is boundless. We have received
+the command to succeed to the throne and we fully expected that the
+gentle Empress Dowager would be vigorous and reach a hundred years so
+that we might be cherished and made glad and reverently receive her
+instructions so that our government might be established and the state
+made firm. But her toil by day and night gradually weakened her.
+Medicine was constantly administered in the hope that she might
+recover. Contrary to our hopes, on the 21st day of the moon [November
+14th] at the wei-k'o [1-3 P.M.] she took the fairy ride and ascended to
+the far country. We cried out and mourned how frantically! We learn
+from her testamentary statement that the period of full mourning is to
+be limited to twenty-seven days. We certainly cannot be satisfied with
+this. Full mourning must be worn for one hundred days and half mourning
+for twenty-seven months, by which our grief may be partly expressed.
+The order to restrain grief so that the affairs of the empire may be of
+first importance we dare not disregard, as it is her parting command.
+We will strive to be temperate so as to comfort the spirit of the late
+Empress in Heaven."
+
+We call attention to the fact that according to the fourth of these
+edicts the death of the Emperor is put at from 5 to 7 P. M on the
+evening of the 14th of November, while that of the Empress Dowager is
+from 1 to 3 P. M. of the same day at least two hours earlier, and that
+in her last edict she is made to speak of the death of Kuang Hsu.
+Whether these dates have become mixed in crossing to America we have
+not been able to ascertain, though we think it more than likely that
+her death occurred on November 15th instead of the 14th.
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+The Court and the New Education
+
+Abolish the eight-legged essay. Let the new learning be the test of
+scholarship, but include the classics, history, geography and
+government of China in the examinations. The true essay will then come
+out. If so desired, the eight-legged essay can be studied at home; but
+why trouble the school with them, and at the same time waste time and
+strength that can be expended in something more profitable?--Chang
+Chih-tung in "China's Only Hope."
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE COURT AND THE NEW EDUCATION
+
+The changes in the attitude of the court towards a new educational
+system began, as do many great undertakings, in a very simple way. We
+have already shown how the eunuchs secured all kinds of foreign
+mechanical toys to entertain the baby Emperor Kuang Hsu; how these were
+supplemented in his boyhood by ingenious clocks and watches; how he
+became interested in the telegraph, the telephone, steam cars,
+steamboats, electric light and steam heat, and how he had them first
+brought into the palace and then established throughout the empire: and
+how he had the phonograph, graphophone, cinematograph, bicycle, and
+indeed all the useful and unique inventions of modern times brought in
+for his entertainment.
+
+He then began the study of English. When in 1894 a New Testament was
+sent to the Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday,
+he at once secured from the American Bible Society a copy of the
+complete Bible for himself. He began studying the Gospel of Luke. This
+gave him a taste for foreign literature and he sent his eunuchs to the
+various book depositories and bought every book that had been
+translated from the European languages into the Chinese. To these he
+bent all his energies and it soon became noised abroad that the Emperor
+was studying foreign books and was about to embrace the Christian
+faith. This continued from 1894 till 1898, during which time his
+example was followed by tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars
+throughout the empire, and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book
+"China's Only Hope" which, being sent to the young Emperor, led him to
+enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which may be
+considered the adoption of a new educational system.
+
+But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been praised
+without stint for his leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality
+was it not simply an effort on the part of the young man to make China
+strong enough to resist the incursions of the European powers? Germany
+had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken
+Formosa, Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, France had taken
+Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was anxious to have a slice of his
+territory, while all the English papers in the port cities were talking
+of China being divided up amongst the Powers, and it was these things
+which led the Emperor to enter upon his work of reform.
+
+In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out an edict to the effect
+that: "Our scholars are now without solid and practical education; our
+artisans are without scientific instructors; when compared with other
+countries WE SOON SEE HOW WEAK WE ARE. DOES ANY ONE THINK THAT OUR
+TROOPS ARE AS WELL DRILLED OR AS WELL LED AS THOSE OF THE FOREIGN
+ARMIES? OR THAT WE CAN SUCCESSFULLY STAND AGAINST THEM? Changes must be
+made to accord with the necessities of the times.... Keeping in mind
+the morals of the sages and wise men, we must make them the basis on
+which to build newer and better structures. WE MUST SUBSTITUTE MODERN
+ARMS AND WESTERN ORGANIZATION FOR OUR OLD REGIME; WE MUST SELECT OUR
+MILITARY OFFICERS ACCORDING TO WESTERN METHODS OF MILITARY EDUCATION;
+we must establish elementary and high schools, colleges and
+universities, in accordance with those of foreign countries; we must
+abolish the Wen-chang (literary essay) and obtain a knowledge of
+ancient and modern world-history, a right conception of the present-day
+state of affairs, with special reference to the governments and
+institutions of the countries of the five great continents; and we must
+understand their arts and sciences."
+
+The effect of this edict was to cause hundreds of thousands of young
+aspirants for office to put aside the classics and unite in
+establishing reform clubs in many of the provincial capitals, open
+ports, and prefectural cities. Book depots were opened for the sale of
+the same kind of literature the Emperor had been studying, magazines
+and newspapers were issued and circulated in great numbers, lectures
+were delivered and libraries established, and students flocked to the
+mission schools ready to study anything the course contained, literary,
+scientific or religious. Christians and pastors were even invited into
+the palace by the eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. But the
+matter that gave the deepest concern to the boy in the palace was: "How
+can we so strengthen ourselves that we will be able to resist the White
+Peril from Europe?"
+
+Among the important edicts issued in the establishment of the new
+education was the one of June 11, 1898, in which he ordered that "a
+great central university be established at Peking," the funds for which
+were provided by the government. Among other things he said: "Let all
+take advantage of the opportunities for the new education thus open to
+them, so that in time we may have many who will be competent to help us
+in the stupendous task of putting our country on a level with the
+strongest of the western powers." It was not wisdom the young man was
+after for the sake of wisdom, but he wanted knowledge because knowledge
+was power, and at that time it was the particular kind of power that
+was necessary to save China from utter destruction.
+
+On the 26th of the same month he censured the princes and ministers who
+were lax in reporting upon this edict, and ordered them to do so at
+once, and it was not long until a favourable report was given and, for
+the first time in the history of the empire, a great university was
+launched by the government, destined, may we not hope, to accomplish
+the end the ambitious boy Emperor had in view.
+
+Kuang Hsu was aware that a single institution was not sufficient to
+accomplish that end. On July 10th therefore he ordered that "schools
+and colleges be established in all the provincial capitals,
+prefectoral, departmental and district cities, and allowed the viceroys
+and governors but two months to report upon the number of colleges and
+free schools within their provinces," saying that "all must be changed
+into practical schools for the teaching of Chinese literature, and
+Western learning and become feeders to the Peking Imperial University."
+He ordered further that all memorial and other temples that had been
+erected by the people but which were not recorded in the list of the
+Board of Rites or of Sacrificial Worship, were to be turned into
+schools and colleges for the propagation of Western learning, a thought
+which was quite in harmony with that advocated by Chang Chih-tung. The
+funds for carrying on this work, and the establishment of these
+schools, were to be provided for by the China Merchants' Steamship
+Company, the Telegraph Company and the Lottery at Canton.
+
+On August 4th he ordered that numerous preparatory schools be
+established in Peking as special feeders to the university; and on the
+9th appointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as Head of the Faculty and approved
+the site suggested for the university by Sun Chia-nai, the president.
+On the 16th he authorized the establishment of a Bureau for
+"translating into Chinese Western works on science, arts and
+literature, and textbooks for use in schools and colleges"; and on the
+19th he abolished the "Palace examinations for Hanlins as useless,
+superficial and obsolete," thus severing the last cord that bound them
+to the old regime.
+
+What, now, was the Empress Dowager doing while Kuang Hsu was issuing
+all these reform edicts, which, we are told, were so contrary to all
+her reactionary principles? Why did she not stretch forth her hand and
+prevent them? She was spending the hot months at the Summer Palace,
+fifteen miles away, without offering either advice, objection or
+hindrance, and it was not until two delegations of officials and
+princes had appeared before her and plead with her to come and take
+control of affairs and thus save them from being ousted or beheaded,
+and herself from imprisonment, did she consent to come. By thus taking
+the throne she virtually placed herself in the hands of the
+conservative party, and all his reform measures, except that of the
+Peking University and provincial schools, were, for the time,
+countermanded, and the Boxers were allowed to test their strength with
+the allied Powers.
+
+Passing over the two bad years of the Empress Dowager, which we have
+treated in another chapter, we find her again, after the failure of the
+Boxer uprising, and the return of the court to Peking, reissuing the
+same style of edicts that had gone out from the pen of Kuang Hsu. On
+August 29, 1901, she ordered "the abolition of essays on the Chinese
+classics in examinations for literary degrees, and substituted therefor
+essays and articles on some phase of modern affairs, Western laws or
+political economy. This same procedure is to be followed in examination
+of candidates for office."
+
+And now notice another phase of this same edict. "The old methods of
+gaining military degrees by trial of strength with stone weights,
+agility with the sword, or marksmanship with the bow on foot or on
+horseback, ARE OF NO USE TO MEN IN THE ARMY, WHERE STRATEGY AND
+MILITARY SCIENCE ARE THE SINE QUA NON TO OFFICE, and hence they should
+be done away with forever." It is, as it was with Kuang Hsu, the
+strengthening of the army she has in mind in her first efforts at
+reform, that she may be able to back up with war-ships and cannon, if
+necessary, her refusal to allow Italy or any other European power to
+filch, without reason or excuse, the territory of her ancestors.
+
+September 12, 1901, she issued another edict commanding that "all the
+colleges in the empire should be turned into schools of Western
+learning; each provincial capital should have a university like that in
+Peking, whilst all the schools in the prefectures and districts are to
+be schools or colleges of the second or third class," neither more nor
+less than a restatement of the edict of July 10, 1898, as issued by the
+deposed Emperor, except that she confined it to the schools without
+taking the temples.
+
+September 17, 1901, she ordered "the viceroys and governors of other
+provinces to follow the example of Liu Kun-yi of Liang Kiang, Chang
+Chih-tung of Hukuang, and Kuei Chun (Manchu) of Szechuan, in sending
+young men of scholastic promise abroad to study any branch of Western
+science or art best suited to their tastes, that in time they may
+return to China and place the fruits of their knowledge at the service
+of the empire." Such were some of the edicts issued by the Emperor and
+the Empress Dowager in their efforts to launch this new system of
+education which was to transform the old China into a strong and sturdy
+youth. What now were the results?
+
+The Imperial College in Shansi was opened with 300 students all of whom
+had already taken the Chinese degree of Bachelor of Arts. It had both
+Chinese and foreign departments, and after the students had completed
+the first, they were allowed to pass on to the second, which had six
+foreign professors who held diplomas from Western colleges or
+universities, and a staff of six translators of university textbooks
+into Chinese, superintended by a foreigner. In 1901-2 ten provinces,
+under the wise leadership of the Empress Dowager, opened colleges for
+the support of which they raised not less than $400,000.
+
+The following are some of the questions given at the triennial
+examinations of these two years in six southern provinces:
+
+1. "As Chinese and Western laws differ, and Western people will not
+submit to Chinese punishments, what ought to be done that China, like
+other nations, may be mistress in her own country?"
+
+2. "What are the Western sources of economic prosperity, and as China
+is now so poor, what should she do?"
+
+3. "According to international law has any one a right to interfere
+with the internal affairs of any foreign country?"
+
+4. "State the advantages of constructing railways in Shantung."
+
+5. "Of what importance is the study of chemistry to the agriculturist?"
+
+While Yuan Shih-kai was Governor of Shantung he induced Dr. W. M. Hayes
+to resign the presidency of the Presbyterian College at Teng Choufu and
+accept the presidency of the new government college at Chinanfu the
+capital of the province. Dr. Hayes drew up a working plan of grammar
+and high schools for Shantung which were to be feeders to this
+provincial college. This was approved by the Governor, and embodied in
+a memorial to the throne, copies of which the Empress Dowager sent to
+the governors and viceroys of all the provinces declaring it to be a
+law, and ordering the "viceroys, governors and literary chancellors to
+see that it was obeyed."
+
+Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shih-kai soon split upon a regulation which the
+Governor thought it best to introduce, viz., "That the Chinese
+professors shall, on the first and fifteenth of each month, conduct
+their classes in reverential sacrifice to the Most Holy Confucius, and
+to all the former worthies and scholars of the provinces." Dr. Hayes
+and his Christian teachers withdrew, and it was not long until those
+who professed Christianity were excused from this rite, while the
+Christian physicians who taught in the Peking Imperial University were
+allowed to dispense with the queue and wear foreign clothes, as being
+both more convenient and more sanitary.
+
+When Governor Yuan was made viceroy of Chihli, he requested Dr. C. D.
+Tenny to draw up and put into operation a similar schedule for the
+metropolitan province. This was done on a very much enlarged scale, and
+at present (1909) "the Chihli province alone has nine thousand schools,
+all of which are aiming at Western education; while in the empire as a
+whole there are not less than forty thousand schools, colleges and
+universities," representing one phase of the educational changes that
+have been brought about in China during the last dozen years.
+
+The changes in the new education among women promise to be even more
+sweeping than those among men. Dr. Martin, expressing the sentiments
+then in vogue, said, as far back as 1877, "that not one in ten thousand
+women could read." In 1893 I began studying the subject, and was led at
+once to doubt the statement. The Chinese in an offhand way will agree
+with Dr. Martin. But I found that it was a Chinese woman who wrote the
+first book that was ever written in any language for the instruction of
+girls, and that the Chinese for many years have had "Four Books for
+Girls" corresponding to the "Four Books" of the old regime, and that
+they were printed in large editions, and have been read by the better
+class of people in almost every family. In every company of women that
+came to call on my wife from 1894 to 1900, there was at least one if
+not more who had read these books, while the Empress Dowager herself
+was a brilliant example of what a woman of the old regime could do.
+Where the desire for education was so great among women, that as soon
+as it became possible to do so, she launched the first woman's daily
+newspaper that was published anywhere in the world, with a woman as an
+editor, we may be sure that there was more than one in ten thousand
+during the old regime that could read. What therefore may we expect in
+this new regime where women are ready to sacrifice their lives rather
+than that the school which they are undertaking to establish shall be a
+failure?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Court Life in China, by Isaac Taylor Headland
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