had drafted with her own pen an explanatory decree for the edification
of the foreign Powers, recounting how the Throne had been led into its
present unpleasant situation. It is interesting to note that, ten days
before, she had offered rewards for the heads of foreigners in Peking
and had sent orders to Yü Hsien to kill every foreigner in Shansi, which
he did. But Tzŭ Hsi had studied her classics and knew from her own
experience how easily dissension and jealousies could be created among
the barbarians.
“Owing to a succession of most unfortunate circumstances,
rapidly and confusedly following each other, we are utterly at
a loss to account for the situation which has brought about
hostilities between China and the Powers. Our representatives
abroad are separated from us by wide seas, and besides have no
special knowledge of the facts, and they are therefore unable
to explain to the respective Foreign Offices the real state of
the Chinese Government’s feelings. We therefore desire now to
place before you the following detailed statement of the facts.
“In the Provinces of Chihli and Shantung there has arisen
a certain class of disorderly characters who, in their
respective villages, have been wont to practise the use of the
quarter-staff and pugilism, combining these exercises with
certain magic arts and incantations. Owing to the failure of
the local Magistrates to detect and stop these proceedings,
the result has been that gradually a state of unrest has
shown itself throughout that region until, all of a sudden,
the Boxer movement assumed serious proportions. They spread
even to Peking, where they were regarded as possessed of
supernatural powers, so that they gained vast numbers of
followers and universal sympathy. Following in their train the
disorderly people of the lower sort raised a cry of ‘Death to
the Christians!’ following upon which, in the middle of the
5th Moon, they proceeded to carry their words into deeds, and
to slaughter the converts. The churches were burned, the whole
city was in an uproar, and the population passed completely out
of our control.
“When the first rumours of the coming disaster were noised
abroad, the Legations asked our consent to bring up special
guards, which consent, in view of the special necessities
of the case, was readily given. In all some five hundred
foreign troops came to Peking, which in itself shows plainly
the friendly disposition of the Throne towards all foreign
nations. Under ordinary circumstances the foreign Legations
and their guards do not come in contact with the local Chinese
authorities, and have no relations with them, friendly or
otherwise; but since the arrival of these troops, the soldiers
have not confined themselves to the duty of protecting the
Legations, but have gone upon the city walls and have even
patrolled the outlying parts of the capital, with the result
that shots have been exchanged and blood has been shed.
Indeed, so great are the liberties which they have taken in
the course of their walks abroad, that on one occasion they
actually endeavoured to force their way into the Forbidden
City, which, however, they failed to do. For these reasons
great and widespread indignation has been excited against them,
and evil-doers have seized the opportunity to commit deeds
of slaughter and arson, waxing daily bolder. At this stage
the Powers endeavoured to bring up[102] reinforcements from
Tientsin, but these were cut to pieces on their journey from
the sea, and the attempt was perforce abandoned. By this time
the rebels in the two provinces had become so intermingled with
the people that it was impossible to identify them. The Throne
was by no means averse to give orders for their suppression,
but had we acted with undue haste, the result might have been a
general conflagration, and our efforts to protect the Legations
might have ended in a dire calamity. If we had proceeded to
destroy the rebels in the two provinces, no single missionary
or native Christian would have been left alive in either, so
that we had to proceed cautiously in this dilemma.
“Under these circumstances we were compelled to suggest the
temporary withdrawal of the Legations to Tientsin, and we were
proceeding to make the necessary arrangements to this end when
the German Minister was unfortunately murdered one morning on
his way to the Tsungli Yamên. This incident placed the rebel
leaders in a desperate position, like that of the man who
rides a tiger and who hesitates whether it be more dangerous
for him to continue his ride or to jump off. It became then
inexpedient that the proposed withdrawal of the Legations to
Tientsin should proceed. All we could do we did, which was to
enforce urgent measures for the due protection of the Legations
in every emergency. To our dismay, on the 16th ultimo, certain
foreign naval officers from the squadron outside Taku had an
interview with the Commandant of the forts, demanding their
surrender, and adding that, if their demand were refused, they
would take them by force on the following day. The Commandant
was naturally unable to betray the trust confided to him, and
the foreigners accordingly bombarded the forts and captured
them after a vigorous resistance. A state of war has thus been
created, but it is none of our doing; besides, how could China
be so utterly foolish, conscious as she is of her weakness, as
to declare war on the whole world at once? How could she hope
to succeed by using the services of untrained bandits for any
such a purpose? This must be obvious to the Powers.
“The above is an accurate statement of our situation,
explaining the measures unavoidably forced upon China to meet
the situation. Our representatives abroad must carefully
explain the tenor of this decree to the Governments to which
they are accredited. We are still instructing our military
Commanders to protect the Legations, and can only do our best.
In the meantime you, our Ministers, must carry on your duties
as usual, and not pose as disinterested spectators.”
Supplementing this Decree, the Empress, possibly instigated by some of
the master-minds of the Grand Council, proceeded to prepare the way for a
time-honoured, and invariably successful, device of Chinese statecraft,
namely, the creation of dissension and jealousy between the Powers, and
to this end she addressed telegrams to the Emperor of Russia, Queen
Victoria, the Emperor of Japan, and other rulers. It is typical of the
infantile _naïveté_ of Chinese officials in such matters of foreign
policy, that copies of these extraordinary messages, intended solely to
mislead public opinion abroad, should have been sent in to the (still
besieged) Legations with the cards of Prince Ch’ing, and the Ministers
of the Tsungli Yamên.[103] It is certain that these artless telegrams,
as well as the conciliatory instructions subsequently sent to China’s
representatives abroad, were but the outward and visible signs of Tzŭ
Hsi’s inward and spiritual misgivings caused by the fall of the Taku
Forts, the capture of the native city of Tientsin, and the massing of the
armies of the Allies for the advance on her capital. If possible, she
would therefore make friends in advance among the humane, and invariably
gullible, sovereigns of Europe, making good use of her knowledge of their
little weaknesses in matters of foreign policy, and be ready to pose in
due course as the innocent victim of circumstance and fate. But “in the
profound seclusion of her Palace” she continued to hope against hope for
the Boxers’ promised victories and the fall of the Legations which she
was so carefully “protecting.”
And here let us briefly digress. Students of modern Chinese history,
desirous of applying its latest lessons to future uses, will no doubt
observe, that in advising the Throne either for peace or war, all
Chinese and Manchu officials (no matter how good or bad from our point
of view, how brave or cowardly, how honest or corrupt) agree and unite
in frankly confessing to their hatred of the foreigner and all his
works. This sentiment, loudly proclaimed by the simple-minded braggart
Boxers, is politely re-echoed by the _literati_, and voiced with equal
candour by the picked men of the Government, men like Yuan Shih-k’ai,
Jung Lu, and Liu K’un-yi. Those who pose as the friends of foreigners
merely advocate dissimulation as a matter of expediency. The thought
should give us pause, not only in accepting at their current value the
posturings and pronouncements of the _monde diplomatique_ at Peking, and
the reassurances given as to our excellent relations with such-and-such
officials, but it should also lead us to consider what are the causes,
in us or in them, which produce so constant and so deep a hatred? If we
study the Memorials of high Chinese officials for the past fifty years,
the same unpleasant feature presents itself at every turn. We may meet
with exceptional cases, here and there, like Yüan Ch’ang, who will
profess respect for the European, but even his respect will be qualified
and never go to the length of intimate friendship. Our perennial
gullibility, that faculty which makes the Chinese classical “allurements”
invariably successful with the foreigner, accounts, no doubt, to some
extent for the Chinese official’s contempt for our intelligence, and
for our failure to learn by experience. It is fairly certain that the
Boxers of to-morrow will be pooh-poohed (if not applauded) in advance
by our Chinese Secretariats, as they were in 1900. But for the Chinese
official’s unchanging hostility towards us, no such explanation offers,
and it is perhaps, therefore, most satisfactory to our _amour propre_ to
assume that his attitude is dictated by feelings similar to those which
inspired Demetrius of the Ephesians, ostensibly fearful for the cult of
Diana, but in reality disturbed for his own livelihood.
To return. The following are translations of the telegrams sent under
date 3rd July, by order of the Empress Dowager, to the Emperor of Russia,
Queen Victoria, and the Emperor of Japan. The text of those which were
sent at the same time to the Presidents of the French and American
Republics, and which were dated, curiously enough, on the 19th of June
(the Taku Forts fell on the 16th), have been published in Monsieur
Cordier’s most accurate and painstaking work, _Les Relations de la
Chine_, Vol. III.
Telegram dated 3rd July:—
“To the Emperor of Russia:—Greeting to your Majesty! For over
two hundred and fifty years our neighbouring Empires have
enjoyed unbroken relations of friendship, more cordial than
those existing between any other Powers.
“Recent ill-feeling created between converts to Christianity
and the rest of our people have afforded an opportunity to
evil-disposed persons and rebels to create disturbances,
and the result has been that the foreign Powers have been
led to believe that the Throne itself is a party to their
proceedings and is hostile to Christianity. Your Majesty’s
representative at my Court (M. de Giers) has actually requested
our Foreign Office to suppress the rebellion and thus to allay
the suspicions of the Powers. But at the time that he made
this request, Peking was thoroughly infested with rebels, who
had stirred up the people and gained for themselves no small
prestige. Not only our soldiery but the mass of the people were
burning for revenge against those who practised the foreign
religion, and even certain Princes of our Imperial Clan joined
in the movement, declaring that there was no room in the
Celestial Kingdom for Christianity and the ancient religions
of the soil. My chief anxiety has been lest any precipitate
action on the part of the Government might lead to some dire
catastrophe (_i.e._, the destruction of the Legations), and
I feared, too, that the anti-foreign movement might break
out simultaneously at the Treaty Ports in the South, which
would have made the position hopeless. I was doing my utmost
to find a way out of the dilemma when the foreign Powers,
evidently failing to realise the difficulties of our situation,
precipitated matters by the bombardment and capture of the
Taku Forts: now we are confronted with all the dire calamities
of war, and the confusion in our Empire is greater than ever
before. Amongst all the Powers, none has enjoyed such friendly
relations with China as Russia. On a former occasion I deputed
Li Hung-chang to proceed to your Majesty’s capital as my
special Envoy; he drew up on our behalf and concluded with your
country a secret Treaty of Alliance, which is duly recorded in
the Imperial Archives.
“And now that China has incurred the enmity of the civilised
world by stress of circumstances beyond our power to control,
I must perforce rely upon your country to act as intermediary
and peacemaker on our behalf. I now make this earnest and
sincere appeal to your Majesty, begging that you may be
pleased to come forward as arbitrator, and thus to relieve
the difficulties of our situation. We await with anxiety your
gracious reply.”
On the same day the Empress Dowager addressed Her Majesty Queen Victoria
in a telegram which was sent in the Emperor’s name and forwarded through
the Chinese Minister in London. Its text runs as follows:—
“To your Majesty, greeting!—In all the dealings of England with
the Empire of China, since first relations were established
between us, there has never been any idea of territorial
aggrandisement on the part of Great Britain, but only a keen
desire to promote the interests of her trade. Reflecting on
the fact that our country is now plunged into a dreadful
condition of warfare, we bear in mind that a large proportion
of China’s trade, seventy or eighty per cent., is done with
England: moreover, your Customs duties are the lightest in the
world, and few restrictions are made at your sea-ports in the
matter of foreign importations; for these reasons our amicable
relations with British merchants at our Treaty Ports have
continued unbroken for the last half century, to our mutual
benefit.
“But a sudden change has now occurred and general suspicion
has been created against us. We would therefore ask you
now to consider that if, by any conceivable combination of
circumstances, the independence of our Empire should be lost,
and the Powers unite to carry out their long plotted schemes
to possess themselves of our territory, the results to your
country’s interests would be disastrous and fatal to your
trade. At this moment our Empire is striving to the utmost to
raise an army and funds sufficient for its protection; in the
meanwhile we rely upon your good services to act as mediator,
and now anxiously await your decision.”
Again, in the name of the Emperor and through the Chinese Minister at
Tokio, the following message was addressed to the Emperor of Japan:—
“To your Majesty, greeting!—The Empires of China and Japan
hang together, even as the lips and the teeth, and the
relations existing between them have always been sympathetic.
Last month we were plunged in deep grief when we learned of
the murder of the Chancellor of your Legation in Peking; we
were about to arrest and punish the culprits when the Powers,
unnecessarily suspicious of our motives, seized the Taku Forts,
and we found ourselves involved in all the horrors of war. In
face of the existing situation, it appears to us that at the
present time the Continents of Europe and Asia are opposed
to each other, marshalling their forces for a conflict of
irreconcilable ambitions; everything therefore depends upon our
two Asiatic Empires standing firm together at this juncture.
The earth-hungry Powers of the West, whose tigerish eyes of
greed are fixed in our direction, will certainly not confine
their attention to China. In the event of our Empire being
broken up, Japan in her turn will assuredly be hard pressed
to maintain her independence. The community of our interests
renders it clearly imperative that at this crisis we should
disregard all trifling causes of discord, and consider only the
requirements of the situation, as comrade nations. We rely upon
your Majesty to come forward as arbitrator, and anxiously await
your gracious reply to this appeal.”
These remarkable effusions have been inscribed in the annals of the
Dynasty, by order of Her Majesty, those same annals from which all
her Boxer Edicts have been solemnly expunged for purposes of historic
accuracy. One cannot but hope that, in process of time, consideration of
facts like these may cure European diplomacy and officialdom generally of
its unreasoning reverence for the Chinese written character, a species of
fetish-worship imbibed from the native pundit and aggravated by the sense
of importance which knowledge of this ancient language so frequently
confers.
These Imperial messages throw into strong relief the elementary
simplicity of China’s foreign policy, a quality which foreigners
frequently misunderstand, in the general belief that the Oriental mind
conceals great depths of subtlety and secret information. Looking at
these documents in the light of the known facts of China’s political
situation at that moment, and stripping them of all artificial glamour,
it becomes almost inconceivable that any Government should publish to
the world and file in its archives such puerile productions. But it
is frequently the case that this very kindergarten element in Chinese
politics is a stumbling-block to the elaborate and highly specialised
machinery of European diplomacy, and that, being at a loss how to deal
with the suspiciously transparent artifices of the elderly children of
the Waiwupu, the foreigner excuses and consoles himself by attributing
to them occult faculties and resources of a very high order. If one
must be continually worsted, it is perhaps not unwise to attribute to
one’s adversary the qualities of Macchiavelli, Talleyrand and Metternich
combined. As far as British interests are concerned, one of the chief
lessons emphasised by the events of the past ten years in China is, that
the reform of our diplomatic machinery (and particularly of the Consular
service) is urgently needed, a reform for which more than one British
Minister has vainly pleaded in Downing Street.
XX
THE FLIGHT FROM PEKING AND THE COURT IN EXILE
The diarist, Ching Shan, has described in detail the flight of the
Empress Dowager and Emperor from Peking, before dawn, on the morning of
the 15th August. From an account of the Court’s journey, subsequently
written by the Grand Secretary, Wang Wen-shao, to friends in Chekiang,
and published in one of the vernacular papers of Shanghai, we obtain
valuable corroboration of the diarist’s accuracy, together with much
interesting information.
Wang Wen-shao overtook their Majesties at Huai-lai on the 18th August;
for the past three days they had suffered dangers and hardships
innumerable. On the evening of the 19th they had stopped at Kuanshih
(seventy _li_ from Peking), where they slept in the Mosque. There the
Mahommedan trading firm of “Tung Kuang yü” (the well-known contractors
for the hire of pack animals for the northern caravan trade) had supplied
them with the best of the poor food available—coarse flour, vegetables,
and millet porridge—and had provided mule litters for the next stage of
the journey. As the troops of the escort had been ordered to remain at
some distance behind, so long as there was any risk of pursuit by the
Allies’ cavalry, their Majesties’ arrival was unannounced, and their
identity unsuspected. As they descended from their carts, travel-stained,
weary, and distressed, they were surrounded by a large crowd of refugee
idlers and villagers, eager for news from the capital. An eye-witness of
the scene has reported that, looking nervously about him, the Emperor
said, “We have to thank the Boxers for this,” whereupon the Old Buddha,
undaunted even at the height of her misfortunes, bade him be silent.
Next day they travelled, by mule litter, ninety _li_ (thirty-two miles),
and spent the night at Ch’a-Tao, just beyond the Great Wall. Here no
preparations of any kind had been made for their reception, and they
suffered much hardship, sleeping on the brick platform (_k’ang_) without
any adequate bedding. But the Magistrate of Yen-Ch’ing chou had been
able to find a blue sedan-chair for Her Majesty, who had thus travelled
part of the day in greater comfort. Also at midday, stopping to eat at
Chü-yung kuan, Li Lien-ying, the chief eunuch, had obtained a few tea
cups from the villagers.
On the 16th they travelled from Ch’a-Tao to Huai-lai, a hard stage
of fifty _li_. Some of the officials and Chamberlains of the Court
now joined their Majesties, so that the party consisted of seventeen
carts, in addition to the Old Buddha’s palanquin and the Emperor’s mule
litter. As the _cortège_ advanced, and the news of their flight was
spread abroad, rumours began to be circulated that they were pretenders,
personating the Son of Heaven and the Old Buddha, rumours due, no doubt,
to the fact that Her Majesty was still wearing her hair in the Chinese
manner, and that her clothes were the common ones in which she had
escaped from the Forbidden City. In spite of these rumours the Magistrate
of Huai-lai, a Hupeh man (Wu Yung), had received no intimation of their
Majesties’ coming, and, when the Imperial party, accompanied by an
enormous crowd, entered his Yamên, he had no time to put on his official
robes, but rushed down to receive them as he was. After prostrating
himself, he wanted to clear out the noisy and inquisitive rabble, but
the Old Buddha forbade him, saying, “Not so; let them crowd around us
as much as they like. It amuses me to see these honest country folk.”
Here, after three days of coarse fare, the Empress Dowager rejoiced once
more in a meal of birds’-nest soup and sharks’ fins, presented by the
Magistrate, who also furnished her with an outfit of woman’s clothing and
suits for the Emperor and the Heir Apparent, for all of which he received
Her Majesty’s repeated and grateful thanks.
It was here, at Huai-lai, while the Court was taking a day’s rest, that
Wang Wen-shao came up with them. He was cordially, even affectionately,
greeted by the Old Buddha, who condoled with him on the hardships to
which he had been exposed, and insisted on his sharing her birds’-nest
soup, which, she said, he would surely enjoy as much as she had done
after so many and great privations. She rebuked the Emperor for not
greeting the aged Councillor with warm thanks for his touching devotion
to the Throne.
From Huai-lai, Prince Ch’ing was ordered to return to Peking to negotiate
terms of peace with the Allies. Knowing the difficulties of this task, he
went reluctantly; before leaving he had a long audience with Her Majesty,
who assured him of her complete confidence in his ability to make terms,
and bade him adopt a policy similar to that of Prince Kung in 1860.
Wang Wen-shao’s account of the first part of the Court’s journey is
sufficiently interesting to justify textual reproduction.
“Their Majesties fled from the palace at the dawn of day in
common carts. It was only after their arrival at Kuanshih that
they were provided with litters. The Emperor and Prince P’u Lun
rode on one cart until their arrival at Huai-lai, where the
District Magistrate furnished a palanquin, and later on, at
Hsüan-hua, four large sedan chairs were found for the Imperial
party. It was at this point that the Emperor’s Consort overtook
their Majesties.