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 reestablishment 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.