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