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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



COURT LIFE IN CHINA 
THE CAPITAL 
ITS OFFICIALS AND PEOPLE

By ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND Professor in the Peking University




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 reeestablishment
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 is 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]


[3] The remainder of the chapter is from Mrs. Headland's
note-book.


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.



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 Uni-
versities, 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 "Chinas 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?