enfeebled by sickness, the Emperor had gradually fallen under the
domination of the Prince Yi (Tsai Yüan) with whom were associated, as
Grand Councillors, the Prince Tuan Hua and the Imperial Clansman Su
Shun. These three, recognising that the Emperor’s end was near and that
a Regency would be necessary, determined on securing the power for
themselves. Prince Yi was nominally the leader of this conspiracy, but
its instigator and leading spirit was Su Shun. Tuan Hua, whose family
title was Prince Cheng, was the head of one of the eight princely
Manchu families, descended in the direct line from Nurhachu’s brother.
Su Shun was foster-brother to this Prince. In his youth he was a
conspicuous figure in the capital, famous for his Mohawk tendencies, a
wild blade, addicted to hawking and riotous living. He had originally
been recommended to the notice of the Emperor by the two Princes and
soon won his way into the dissolute monarch’s confidence and goodwill.
From a junior post in the Board of Revenue, he rose rapidly, becoming
eventually an Assistant Grand Secretary, in which capacity he attained
an unenviable reputation for avarice and cruelty. He had made himself
hated and feared by persuading the Emperor to order the decapitation of
his chief, the Grand Secretary Po Chun,[4] on the pretext that he had
shown favouritism as Chief Examiner for the Metropolitan Degree,—the real
reason being that he had offended the two Princes by his uncompromising
honesty and blunt speech. It was at this period that he first came
into conflict with the young Yehonala, who, dreading the man’s growing
influence with the Emperor, endeavoured to counteract it, and at the same
time to save the life of the Grand Secretary; she failed in the attempt,
and Su Shun’s position became the stronger for her failure. All those who
opposed him were speedily banished or degraded. The Court was terrified,
especially when it was realised that Yehonala was out of favour, and Su
Shun took care to give them real and frequent cause for alarm. At his
instance, all the Secretaries of the Board of Revenue were cashiered on
a charge of making illicit profits by cornering the cash market. The
charge was possibly well-founded, since such proceedings are part of a
Metropolitan official’s recognised means of subsistence, but coming from
the notoriously corrupt Su Shun, it was purely vindictive, as was shown
by his subsequent action; for upon this charge he obtained the arrest of
over a hundred notables and rich merchants whom he kept in custody of
no gentle kind until they had ransomed themselves with enormous sums.
Thus was founded the great fortune which enabled him to conspire with
the Princes Yi and Cheng[5] for the supreme power, and which led him
eventually to his ruin. To this day, many of his millions lie in the
Palace vaults, to which they were carried after his impeachment and
death—millions carefully hoarded by Tzŭ Hsi and buried during the Court’s
flight and exile in 1900.
It was chiefly because of the advice of Su Shun that the Emperor fled his
capital at the approach of the Allies, in spite of the urgent appeals
of Yehonala and the Grand Council. By his advice also most of the high
officials and Metropolitan Ministers were prevented from accompanying the
Court, by which means the conspirators were able to exercise steadily
increasing influence over the Emperor, and to prevent other advice
reaching him. It was only the supreme courage and intelligent grasp of
the situation shown by Yehonala, that frustrated the conspiracy at its
most critical moment. Immediately after the death of the Emperor, and
while the plotters were still undecided as to their final plans, she sent
an urgent message secretly to Prince Kung which brought him with all
speed to Jehol, where, by the help of Jung Lu and other loyal servants,
she put into execution the bold plan which defeated the conspiracy and
placed her at the head of China’s government. On the day when, the game
hopelessly lost, the usurping Regents found themselves in Yehonala’s
hands and heard her order their summary trial by the Court of the
Imperial Clan, Su Shun turned to his colleagues and bitterly reproached
them. “Had you but taken my advice and slain this woman,” he said, “we
should not have been in this plight to-day.”
To return, however, to the beginning of the conspiracy. At the outset,
the object of Prince Yi was to alienate the Emperor from the influence of
his favourite concubine, Yehonala. With this object they informed him of
the intrigue which, by common report, she was carrying on with the young
Officer of the Guards, Jung Lu, then a handsome athletic man of about
twenty-five. The Empress Consort they regarded as a negligible factor,
whose good-natured and colourless personality took little interest in
the politics of the day; but if their plot was to succeed, Yehonala
must either be dismissed from the Court for good and all, or, at the
very least, she must be temporarily relegated to the “Cold Palace,”
as is called the place where insubordinate or disgraced concubines
are isolated. They knew that, however successful their plans at Jehol,
there must always be danger in the event of the Emperor returning to
Peking, where access to his person is not possible at all times for
officials (even those nearest to the Throne), whereas Yehonala would be
in a position, with the help of her eunuchs, to recover his favour and
her power. Emphasising, therefore, the alleged misconduct of the young
concubine, they quoted the precedent of a certain Empress Consort of
Ch’ien-Lung who, for less grievous disrespect (shown to the Emperor’s
mother), was imprisoned for life. Thus, by inventions and suggestions,
they so worked on the sick man’s mind that he finally consented to
have Yehonala’s infant son, the Heir Apparent, removed from her care,
and authorised the child’s being handed over to the wife of Prince Yi,
who was summoned to the hunting-lodge Palace for that purpose. At the
same time, the conspirators thought it well to denounce Prince Kung
to the Emperor, his brother, accusing him of treachery, of conniving
with the foreigners against the Throne, and of abusing his powers as
Plenipotentiary. Prince Yi had been for years Prince Kung’s sworn enemy.
The further intentions of the conspirators, instigated by Su Shun, were
to massacre all Europeans in the capital and to put to death, or at least
imprison for life, the Emperor’s brothers. Accordingly they drafted in
advance the Decrees necessary to justify and explain these measures,
intending to publish them immediately after the Emperor’s death, which
was now imminent. But here an unforeseen obstacle presented itself,
the first of many created for them by the far-seeing intelligence of
Yehonala; for they found that she had somehow managed to possess herself
of the special seal, which inviolable custom requires to be affixed to
the first Edict of a new reign, in proof of validity of succession,—a
seal, in the personal custody of the Emperor, which bears the characters
meaning “lawfully transmitted authority.” Without this seal, any Decrees
which the usurpers might issue would lack something of legal finality
and, according to Chinese ideas, their subsequent cancellation would be
justifiable. But Prince Yi did not feel himself strong enough to risk a
crisis by accusing her or taking overt steps to gain possession of it.
Angry with his favourite concubine by reason of the reports of her
intimacy with Jung Lu, and his sickness ever increasing, the Emperor
lingered on in Jehol all the summer of that year, his duty in the
ancestral sacrifices at Peking being taken by Prince Kung. On the 4th
of the 6th Moon, the day before his thirtieth birthday, he issued the
following Decree in reply to a Memorial by the Court of Astronomers,
which had announced an auspicious conjunction of the stars for the
occasion:—
“Last month the Astronomers announced the appearance of a comet
in the north-west, which intimation we received as a solemn
warning of the impending wrath of Heaven. Now they memorialise
saying that the stars are in favourable conjunction, which is
doubtless a true statement, in no way inspired by their desire
to please us. But since we came to the Throne, we have steadily
refused to pay any attention to auspicious omens, and this with
good reason, in view of the ever-increasing rebellions in the
south and the generally pitiable condition of our people. May
the present auspicious conjunction of the stars portend the
dawning of a happier day, and may heaven permit a speedy end
to the rebellion. In token of our sincerity, we desire that
the Astronomical Court shall refrain from reporting to the
Chronicler’s Office the present favourable omen for inclusion
in the annals of our reign, so that there may be ascribed to us
the merit of a devout and sober mind.”
On the following morning the Emperor received the congratulations of his
Court in a pavilion of the Palace grounds, but Yehonala was excluded from
this ceremony. This was His Majesty’s last appearance in public; from
this date his illness became rapidly worse.
On the 7th of the 7th Moon Yehonala contrived to despatch a secret
courier to Prince Kung at Peking, informing him of the critical condition
of his brother and urging him to send with all haste a detachment
of the Banner Corps to which the Yehonala clan belonged. Events now
moved swiftly. On the 16th, the Grand Councillors and Ministers of the
Presence, all adherents of Tsai Yüan’s faction, entered the Emperor’s
bedroom and, after excluding the Empress Consort and the concubines,
persuaded the Emperor to sign Decrees appointing Tsai Yüan, Tuan Hua and
Su Shun to be Co-Regents upon his decease, with full powers. Yehonala was
to be expressly forbidden from exercising any form of control over the
Heir Apparent. As the necessary seal of State had been taken by Yehonala
and could not be found, these proceedings were irregular. At dawn on
the following day the Emperor died, and forthwith appeared the usual
valedictory Decree, prepared in advance by the conspirators, whereby
Tsai Yüan was appointed to be Chief Regent, Prince Kung and the Empress
Consort being entirely ignored.
In the name of the new Emperor, then a child of five, a Decree was
issued, announcing his succession, but it was observed to violate
all constitutional precedent in that it omitted the proper laudatory
references to the Imperial Consort. On the following day, however, the
Regents, fearing to precipitate matters, rectified the omission in an
Edict which conferred the rank of Empress Dowager both on the Empress
Consort and on Yehonala. The chroniclers aver that the reason for this
step lay in the Regents’ recognition of Yehonala’s undoubted popularity
with the troops (all Manchus) at Jehol, an argument that weighed more
heavily with them than her rights as mother of the Heir Apparent. They
hoped to rid themselves of this condition of affairs after the Court’s
return to Peking, but dared not risk internal dissensions by having her
removed until their positions had been made secure at the capital. That
they intended to remove her was subsequently proved; it was evident
that their position would never be secure so long as her ambitious and
magnetic personality remained a factor of the situation: but it was
necessary, in the first instance, to ascertain the effect of the Regency
at Peking and in the provinces.
Tsai Yüan’s next move was to publish Decrees, in the names of the Joint
Regents, by virtue of which they assumed charge of the Heir Apparent
and by which the title of “Chien Kuo” (practically equivalent to
Dictator) was conferred on the Chief Regent, a title heretofore reserved
exclusively for brothers or uncles of the Emperor.
When the news reached Peking, a flood of Memorials burst from the
Censorate and high officials. The child Emperor was implored to confer
the Regency upon the two Empresses, or, as the Chinese text has it, to
“administer the Government with suspended curtain.”[6] Prince Kung and
the Emperor’s other brothers were at this time in secret correspondence
with Yehonala, whom they, like the Censorate, had already recognised as
the master-mind of the Forbidden City. They urged her to do all in her
power to expedite the departure of the funeral cortège for the capital.
To secure this end, it was necessary to proceed with the greatest caution
and diplomacy, for several of the late Emperor’s wives had been won over
to the side of the usurpers, who could also count on a certain number
of the Manchu bodyguard, their own clansmen. The influence of Su Shun’s
great fortune was also no inconsiderable factor in the situation. The
man was personally unpopular with the people of Peking, because of his
abuse of power and too frequent connection with speculations in bank-note
issues and cash, which cost the citizens dear, but his vaults were known
to be full to over-flowing, and there is no city in the world where
money buys more political supporters than in Peking. Su Shun’s career has
had its counterpart, in everything except its sanguinary dénouement, in
the capital to-day.
[Illustration: HER MAJESTY TZŬ HSI IN THE YEAR 1903.]
At the moment the position of the Emperor’s family was prejudiced, and
the aims of the conspirators assisted, by the political situation. With
the capital occupied by foreign troops, and many of the provinces in the
throes of a great rebellion, the people might be expected to welcome a
change of rulers, and the ripe experience of the usurping Regents in all
matters of State was undeniable. But the virile and untiring energies of
Yehonala, ably supported by Jung Lu and other faithful followers, soon
put a new complexion on affairs, and the situation was further modified
in her favour by the success of her nominee, the Commander-in-Chief,
Tseng Kuo-fan, in capturing the city of An-ch’ing (in Anhui) from the
rebels, a victory that was regarded as of good augury to her cause.
Thereafter her courage and diplomacy enabled her to play off one opponent
against another, gaining time and friends until the conspirators’
chance was gone. Her own aims and ambitions, which had been voiced by
her friends in the Censorate, were, however, to some extent impeded by
the fact that a House-law of the Dynasty forbids the administration of
the Government by an Empress Dowager, while there were quite recent
precedents for a Regency by a Board, in the cases of the Emperors
Shun-Chih and K’ang-Hsi. In neither of these instances had the Empress
Tai-Tsung had any voice in the Government. The precedent for Boards of
official Regents had, however, come to be recognised as inauspicious,
because the several Regents of K’ang-Hsi’s minority had either been
banished or compelled to commit suicide. It is probable, too, that Prince
Kung, in instigating and supporting the claims of the Empresses, failed
to appreciate Yehonala’s strength of character, and believed that a
women’s Regency would leave the supreme power in his own hands.
A Manchu, who accompanied the flight to Jehol, describing his
experiences, lays stress upon Yehonala’s unfailing courage and personal
charm of manner, to which was due her popularity with the Imperial Guards
and her eventual triumph. At the most critical period of the conspiracy
she was careful to avoid precipitating a conflict or arousing the
suspicions of the usurpers by openly conferring with Jung Lu, and she
employed as her confidential intermediary the eunuch An Te-hai (of whom
more will be heard later). By means of this man daily reports were safely
despatched to Prince Kung at Peking, and, in the meanwhile, Yehonala
affected an attitude of calm indifference, treating Prince Yi with a
studied deference which lulled his suspicions.
On the 11th of the 8th Moon, the Board of Regents, after meeting to
discuss the situation, issued a Decree condemning in strong terms a
proposal put forward in a Memorial by the Censor, Tung Yüan-ch’un, that
the two Empresses should be appointed Co-Regents, and referring to the
death-bed Decree of the late Emperor as their own warrant of authority.
At the same time they announced, in the name of the young Emperor, that
the funeral cortège would start on its journey to the capital on the
second day of the next Moon. This was the step for which Yehonala had
been working and waiting. As Ministers of the Presence, the Regents were
perforce obliged to accompany the coffin throughout the entire journey
(some 150 miles) to the capital, and the great weight of the catafalque,
borne by one hundred and twenty men, would necessarily render the rate
of progress very slow through the stony defiles of the hills. Resting
places would have to be provided at stages of about fifteen miles along
the route to shelter the Imperial remains and the attendant officials
by night, so that the Regents might count on a journey of ten days at
least, and longer in the event of bad weather. To the Empresses, the
slow progress of the cortège was a matter of vital advantage, inasmuch
as they were not to take part in the procession, and, travelling ahead
of it, could reach the capital in five days with swift chair-bearers.
Dynastic custom and Court etiquette prescribe that upon the departure of
the funeral procession, the new Emperor and the consorts of the deceased
sovereign should offer prayers and libations, and should then press on
so as to be ready to perform similar acts of reverence on meeting the
cortège at its destination. Yehonala thus found herself in a position of
great strategic advantage, being enabled to reach the capital well in
advance of her enemies, and she speedily laid her plans with Prince Kung
to give them a warm reception.
Tsai Yüan and his colleagues were well aware that they were placed at
grave disadvantage in having to remain behind the young Empress, with
every prospect of serious trouble ahead; they, therefore, decided to
have Yehonala and the Empress Consort assassinated on the road, and to
that end gave orders that they should be escorted by the Chief Regent’s
personal bodyguard. Had it not been for Jung Lu, who got wind of the
plot, the Dowagers would assuredly never have reached the capital alive.
Acting with the promptitude which Yehonala inspired, he deserted the
funeral cortège by night with a considerable following of his own men,
and hastened on to the protection of the Empresses, overtaking them
before they reached Ku-pei K’ou, at the end of the pass from the plains
into Mongolia, which was the spot where the assassination was to have
taken place.
Heavy rains had fallen just after the departure of the procession from
Jehol. The roads became impassable, and the Empresses were compelled to
seek shelter in the Long Mountain gorge, where no sort of accommodation
had been provided. The cortège was then ten miles in their rear.
Yehonala, mindful ever of the proprieties, sent back several men of her
escort with a dutiful enquiry, in the name of her colleague and herself,
as to the safety of the Imperial coffin. The reply, in the form of an
Edict by Prince Yi and his Co-Regents, reported that the catafalque had
reached the first resting place in safety; whereupon Yehonala, asserting
as of right the prerogatives of supreme authority, donated to the bearers
a thousand taels from her Privy Purse in recognition of their arduous
services. Prince Yi, knowing full well that his own danger was increasing
every hour, and would continue so long as the Empresses remained free to
work against him, nevertheless played bravely the part prescribed for
him, conforming in the grand manner to the traditions of his position.
He forwarded a Memorial to the Empresses, humbly thanking them for their
solicitude for the Emperor’s remains. Yehonala, in reply, praised him for
his faithful devotion to duty. Thus, on the road to Death, they played
at Etiquette. Both these documents are filed in the Dynastic records
and afford remarkable evidence of the supreme importance which Chinese
and Manchus alike attach to forms and the written word even at the most
critical moments. Similar instances could be cited at the height of the
Boxer chaos.
The rains having ceased, the Empresses were able to proceed on their
journey, and having come safely through the hill passes under Jung Lu’s
protection, they were free from further danger of ambush. They reached
Peking on the 29th of the 9th Moon, three full days’ journey ahead of the
procession. Immediately upon their arrival a secret Council was held, at
which were present the Emperor’s brothers, together with the Ministers
and Imperial clansmen known to be loyal to their cause. Long and
anxiously did they confer. Although the Empress Mother was in possession
of the seal of legitimate succession, there was no known precedent for
so drastic a step as the summary, and possibly violent, arrest of high
officers of State convoying the Imperial coffin. Such a course, it was
felt, would be regarded as disrespectful to the late Emperor and an
inauspicious opening to the new reign. The consensus of opinion was,
therefore, on the side of slow and cautious measures, and it was decided
thus to proceed, conforming to all the outward observances of dynastic
tradition. The coffin once arrived, the first step would be to deprive
the Regents of their usurped authority; the rest would follow.
The cortège was due to arrive at the north-west gate of the city on
the morning of the 2nd of the 10th Moon, and on the previous evening
Prince Kung posted a large force of troops at this point to prevent any
attempt at a _coup de main_ by Tsai Yüan’s followers. The boy Emperor,
accompanied by the Empresses Dowager, came out to meet the coffin as it
approached the city, and with him were the late Emperor’s brothers and a
great following of officials. As the catafalque passed through the gate,
the Imperial party knelt and performed the prescribed acts of reverence.
Before the coffin came the Imperial insignia, and behind it a large
body of Manchu cavalry. Prince Yi and his Co-Regents, having performed
their duty in bringing the coffin safely to the city, next proceeded, as
required by custom, to make formal report in person to the young Emperor,
upon fulfilment of their charge. For this purpose they were received
in a large marquee erected just inside the city gate. Both Empresses
were present, together with the late Emperor’s brothers and the Grand
Secretaries Kuei Liang and Chou Tsu-p’ei.
Yehonala, calmly assuming, as was her wont, the principal _rôle_ and all
attributes of authority, opened the proceedings by informing Prince Yi
that the Empress Consort and she herself were grateful to him and to his
colleagues for the services which they had rendered as Regents and Grand
Councillors, of which duties they were now relieved. Prince Yi, putting
a bold face on it, replied that he himself was Chief Regent, legally
appointed, that the Empresses had no power to divest him of authority
properly conferred by the late Emperor, and that, during the minority of
the new Emperor, neither she herself nor any other person was entitled to
attend audience without his express permission.
“We shall see about that,” said Yehonala, and forthwith gave orders
to the attendant guards to place the three Regents under arrest. The
Imperial party then hastened to the Palace to be ready to meet the coffin
upon its arrival at the main entrance to the Forbidden City, for, however
acute the crisis, the dead take precedence of the living in China. The
deposed Regents quietly followed. All hope of escape or resistance was
out of the question, for the streets were lined with troops faithful to
Yehonala’s cause. Her triumph was complete, essentially a triumph of
mind over matter. It was her first taste of the pomp and circumstance of
supreme power.
Forthwith the Empresses proceeded to regularise their position by issuing
the following Decree, which bore the Great Seal of “Lawfully transmitted
authority”:—
“Last year the coasts of our Empire were disturbed and our
capital was in danger, misfortunes entirely due to the
mismanagement of affairs by the Princes and Ministers to whom
they had been entrusted. Prince Yi (Tsai Yüan) in particular
and his colleagues failed to deal satisfactorily with the
peace negotiations, and sought to lessen their responsibility
by their treacherous arrest of the British emissaries, thus
involving China in charges of bad faith. In consequence of
these their acts, the Summer Palace was eventually sacked by
the British and French troops and the Emperor was forced,
greatly against his will, to seek refuge in Jehol.