tinguished literate was found with courage to denounce the disturbance of the line of descent which left Tung Che without a son to perform the ancestral rites, and to commit suicide by way of emphasising and expiating his protest. But all passed without external disturbance; and the august ladies entered upon a second Regency which lasted-in the case of Tze An, till her death in 1881, and in the case of her still surviving colleague, till Kwang Su came of age, in 1889. Chinese names are a weariness to the European flesh, and the interest of Chinese dynastic episodes to the European, reader is in inverse ratio to their importance at Peking. The interests of Great Britain in the Far East are, however, considerable; and it is because these may be considerably affected by ambitions which disregard every canon of Chinese propriety that I have ventured to recall the leading features of a story which finds its sequel in the incidents of the last two months. Some may have been puzzled by the stress laid, in recent telegrams from China, on the adoption of an heir to the throne who is to rank as heir to Tung Che. Having discovered the key to that riddle, we shall find that we have obtained the key to much else that may have seemed obscure in recent intrigues. The Empress-Dowager retired, avowedly, from the Regency on Kwang Su's coming of age, in 1889; but her continued influence was repeatedly made manifest in edicts which the Emperor admitted having received her instructions to issue or endorse. DowagerEmpresses are traditionally a Power, in Peking. We find, for instance, the Emperor Tao Kwang, who was by no means a fainéant, paying extraordinary respect to the lady who occupied that position in his day; and the tradition of prolonged tutelage would combine with the prestige of position to give exceptional influence to an able, determined, and ambitious woman like Tze-hsi. It would be superfluous to recapitulate at length the circumstances of the Emperor's revolt against that influence, and practical supersession, in 1898; nor need we attempt to ascertain the precise measure of his individual capacity and force. What is certain is that he stood for reform, and that the Empress-Dowager stands for reaction. He had surrounded himself with reforming advisers, and had issued a number of edicts designed to get the State-carriage out of the ancient ruts into which it had sunk. Such attempts have excited antagonism enough, upon occasion, in the comparatively young countries of the West. They excited something akin to horror among moss-grown scholars who saw their venerable curriculum in danger of change; among Palace creatures and Placemen who saw their sinecures in danger; and among the whole host of Permanent Officials who saw their perquisites and the stereotyped routine of things likely to be thrown into the crucible. The Emperor was backed by thousands of the younger literati, mandarins, and mer chants in the provinces, and by some of the highest officials in the Empire. But the coup d'état was effected in Peking, where the reactionaries practically held the field. All that they wanted was a leader; and ignorance of the forces really at work combined with personal fears and personal ambition to throw the Empress-Dowager into their hands. On the 22nd September she openly seized the reins of power, in pursuance of an edict issued in the Emperor's name declaring his lack of capacity and begging her to resume the guidance of affairs. Six of the men who had prominently supported him in his schemes of reform were put to death without form of trial. Kang Yu-wei, the most prominent of all, escaped to Hong-Kong, and thence to Japan; leaving behind him, however, an open letter addressed to the Foreign Ministers, in which certain unamiable characteristics that have been ascribed to the Empress are frankly catalogued. She is compared, more sinicâ, to the Empress Wu, who also succeeded in keeping her son in tutelage, and keeping hold of power during a long and licentious life.1 She is charged with having tried to corrupt the Emperor, and with having poisoned her former colleague, the Empress-Dowager of Hien Fung, and her daughter-in-law, the Empress-Dowager of Tung Che. She is charac terised as an Usurper, having deposed an Emperor who was full of brightness and promise; and is told that she is, after all, but a concubine-relict of Hien Fung "whom, by her acts, she made die of spleen and indignation." Chang Yin-huan, who had been in England twelve months before as Special Envoy at the Queen's Jubilee, was banished to Turkestan, having been hardly saved from death, it is believed, by the interposition of H.B.M. Minister. High provincial (1) The Empress Wu Tsi-tien, who flourished during the greater part of the seventh eentury, was originally a concubine of the Emperor Tai-tsung (A.D. 627–50), one of the most famous sovereigns in Chinese history. It was during his reign that the Nestorians came to China, and were allowed to set up the famous monument which stands to this day at Singan, the capital of Shense. He was succeeded by & Son, Kao-tsung, whose indolence and incapacity were more romarkable by contrast with the vigour of his predecessor, but whose reign derived notoriety from the extraordinary career of Wu Tsi-tien. Wu, who had entered the harem of Tai-tsung at the age of fourteen, is said to have retired to a Buddhist convent at his death; but Kao-tsung, who had seen and been fascinated by her, brought her back to the Palace, where she soon succeeded in gaining absolute control. Aspiring to the position of Empress, she accomplished her purpose by strangling her own child and charging the crime against the actual Empress, who was tried, degraded, imprisoned, and eventually died. Installed in her stead, Wu gradually engrossed the management of affairs, which she son, Chung-tsung; but Wu displaced him in favour of his brother; herself retaining the reins of power till she was displaced in her old age by a Palace conspiracy, dying at last at eighty-one. A bigoted Buddhist, she allowed Christianity, which Tai-tsung had tolerated, to be slandered and persecuted. Accused of murdering all who opposed her will, and of gratifying her pride by assuming semi-divine titles, the example of her reign has been held up as striking evidence of the evil of allowing women to meddle in politics. officials guilty of progressive tendencies were displaced right and left, and their places filled by Manchus and reactionaries. It was frankly anticipated, at the time, that a drama which opened with such amenities would be consummated by Kwang Su's death; but an explosion of remonstrance from the Provinces combined with representations by H.B.M. Minister of the evil impression that would be produced by such an event to arrest the design. He was allowed to live, under close tutelage and control, and the Empress Tse-hsi has ruled openly in his stead. Having turned the tables on her adversaries, and recovered the power which those who have once tasted it are reputed to love, the Empress might have been content; though even she might grow weary of combating the hostility to her régime which centres round the personality of Kwang Su. But the reactionary clique was not happy. All was safe for the moment; but their mistress is advanced in years, and what would happen at her death? If the Emperor regained power, there would be a fresh era of reform; and not of reform only, but of revenge, perhaps, for wrongs suffered and indignities imposed. So a fresh combination was devised. The promise of adopting a posthumous son to Tung Che had never been fulfilled, as Kwang Su has not fulfilled his share by providing the child. It was consistent, under these circumstances, to propose that one should be selected from among the younger members of the Imperial Clan. A son (adopted or otherwise) of Tung Che would stand out as heir to the Throne, and a whole vista of possibilities was opened up! On the 23rd January, 1900, accordingly, the Peking Gazette contained the following decree : "The Grand Secretariat is hereby commanded to transmit our instructions to the following persons:-Pu Wei, Prince of Kung, 1st Order; Princes Tsai Lien and Tsai Ying, 3rd Order; and Duke Tsai Lan; also the members of the Grand Secretariat, Lord Chamberlain, Ministers of the Presence, Grand Council, Board of Comptrollers-General of the Imperial Household Department, the Manchu and Chinese Presidents of the Six Boards and Nine Ministries, and the Heads of the Imperial Academy and Library. The above-named are hereby commanded to assemble in the Palace to-morrow morning and await further instructions." The object was to choose-or sanction the predetermined choice of a child who should be given as heir to Tung Che; and it is part of the irony of things that the result was announced (as follows) in the Emperor's own name "While yet in our infancy we were by grace of the Emperor Tung Che chosen to succeed him in the heavy responsibilities of Head of the whole Empire, and when His Majesty died we sought day and night to be deserving of such kindness by energy and faithfulness in our duties. We were also indebted to the EmpressDowager, who taught and cherished us assiduously, and to her we owe our safety to the present day. Now, be it also known that when we were selected to the Throne it was then agreed that if ever we should have a son that son should be VOL. LXVII. N.S. 3 s proclaimed heir to the Throne. But ever since last year (1898) we have been constantly ill, and it was for this reason that, in the 8th month of that year (the date of the coup d'état), the Empress-Dowager graciously acceded to our urgent prayers, and took over the reins of government in order to instruct us in our duties. A year has now passed, and still we find ourselves an invalid; but ever keeping in our mind that we do not belong to the direct line of succession, and that, for the sake of the safety of the Empire of our ancestors, a legal heir should be selected to the Throne, we again prayed the Empress-Dowager to carefully choose from amongst the members of the Imperial Clan such an one; and this she has done in the person of Pu Chun, son of Tsai Yi, Prince Tuan. "We hereby command accordingly (he continues) that Pu Chun,1 the son of Tsai Yi, Prince Tuan, be made heir to the late Emperor Tung Che." Now the bearing of these utterances depends, like those of Captain Bunsby, on the application of them. The meaning read into them by all China seems to have been that the Empress intended to depose Kwang Su, make Pu Chun Emperor, and constitute herself Regent during the new minority. The anticipation evoked an outburst of loyalty to Kwang Su which surprised those who had doubted the existence of any public opinion among the Chinese. Kin Lienshan, district manager of the Imperial Telegraphs-whose name seems destined to come into notoriety along with that of Kang Yuwei-promptly despatched, on behalf of 1,231 literati and gentry of Shanghai and the neighbourhood, a telegram to the Princes and Ministers of the Tsungli-Yamen, in the following terms: "When we received the edict of the 24th inst., in which the Emperor proposed to abdicate on account of illness, we were amazed; and the mandarins, gentry, and merchants from all the provinces residing in Shanghai became full of anxiety, and discussed the matter everywhere in the streets. We, therefore, wire to you to beg of you to be loyal and faithful, and, on behalf of the nation, to implore the Emperor not to think of abdicating, even though he should be unwell; so that the Empress-Dowager, at her advanced age, may not have the extra burden of ruling a distracted Empire, and so that the spirits of our ancestors may be at rest, and the people live in peace." It was said that a number of the officials and gentry of Hupeh had taken similar action; and that the chief military officials at Nanking had protested to the Viceroy that they acknowledged only Kwang Su, and offered to take active measure on his behalf. It is significant, at any rate, "that a proclamation purporting to emanate (1) There may be a certain academic interest in noting that the new heir is a greatgrandson of the Emperor Tao Kwang. Prince Tuan is a son of Prince Tun, who was a brother of the Emperor Hien Fung and of Prince Chun (the father of Kwang Su): of his would be eligible for adoption to either of the two.-The reigning family have, he is of the same generation, therefore, as Tung Che and Kwang Su, and any son however, a still clearer method of exhibiting the genealogical sequence. The children of a given generation have all the same appellative. The sons of Kiaking, for instance, Tung Che and Kwang Su were both Tsai, Any and the sons of the Tsai are all Pu. from one Hsu, who declares himself to be secretly ordered by the Emperor Kwang Su to "call on patriotic men to exterminate evil people," was widely distributed in Hankow. "The Emperor had (it is declared), ever since he held the reins of government, done his utmost to perform his duty, and the people are satisfied.. Recently he was forced to abdicate the throne by a number of treasonable men, who fascinated the Empress-Dowager. . . . On seeing that the Empress-Dowager is tyrannising over the people, and giving away the territory to Russia, (Hsu) wished, long ago, to ask the Emperor's permission to clear off the evil people near him, but hesitated to do so lest the matter should leak out." Now, however, as all know that the Empress really intends to depose him without ground, "it is time to swear that we are not standing under the sun with her and her villains." A committee representing 80,000 Chinese residents in Siam telegraphed from Bangkok : "We, the loyal subjects of H.I.M. Kuang Hsu in Siam, learn with sorrowful surprise that an attempt is being made by certain traitors at Peking to destroy by poison our beloved Sovereign, and we would hereby warn Your Excellencies [i.e., the Ministers of the Tsung li Yamen], that, should our Emperor be murdered or deposed, an Army of Revenge from Siam alone will immediately return to China for the sole purpose of serving out justice to the two arch traitors, Prince Ching and Kang Yi, whom we deem the chief authors of all the sorrows and troubles of our beloved Emperor. We feel certain that the inhabitants of the length and breadth of the homeland will rejoice to help us in removing these traitors and their partisans for ever from the Government." It is less surprising, perhaps, that Chinese residing in the Straits Settlements,1 in Australia, and in California should have protested with equal emphasis against the deposition of a monarch whose only offence had been the advocacy of reforms which they had learned to appreciate and admire. Such an explosion of remonstrance seems to have caused astonishment, as well as alarm and anger, at Peking. But the Empress was shrewd enough to perceive reason for pause. Instead of deposing the Emperor, she requested the Board of Ceremonies to decide upon a fitting manner of observing his birthday, and acquiesced in a demand by the Foreign Ministers to be allowed to pay him their compliments on Chinese New Year's Day (Feb. 19). But she turned her rage against the Reform Party, who are held responsible for the opposition. The first victim selected was Kin Lienshan, whose arrest and execution were ordered-whether for signing, (1) The Chinese at Singapore telegraphed to the Tsungli-Yamen: "Urge upon the Empress-Dowager the absolute necessity of sparing the Emperor's life, or else the Chinese here will gladly sacrifice their lives;" and to the British, American, and Japanese Ministers at Peking, individually: "All Chinese communities beg you to use your influence to protect Kwang Su's life." Forty-six protests, in all, are said to have reached Peking within a few days. |