The National tribune., 1900-07-19
WASHINGTON c.

reigning Emperor, in 1860, died! He Is
variously said to have come to his end
from excessive debauchery, of a broken
heart over the internal dissentions of his
Empire. and-poison! Who shall say
which is right? The walls of the Imperial
Palace are thick, and the voice of truth is
low when regulated by Imperial diplo-
macy.
With the Endorsement and aid OF Hsieu
Fungs brother Prince Kung, a Board OF
Regency, which temporarily existed after
the Emperors death. was summarily dis
posed of-its members exiled or permitted
to commit suicide-and Tsu isis son pro-
claimed Emperor, with the title of Tuns
Chi, and under the joint regency of the
Empress Dowager. then Tsu An. and the
Empress Mother Tsu Tsi. That was 40
years ago, and except for one or two
short intcrmissions, permitted rather than
submitted to, by this indomitable woman,
Tsu Isl. now Isl An, Empress Dowager,
has been the ruling spirit of China and
its four hundred millions of souls.
Tung Chi grew to manhood, and in 1877:
was married with pomp and ceremony, to
Manchu princess. A few months later
the Government was formally turned over
to him, and the Regent Empresses retired
from official life. Briefly only it proved
however, for the Emperor, who had given
evidence for some time before the end OF
the Refency, Of being afflicted with that
in China's Imperial City-most alarming
malady, will of his own, could no longer
conceal its depredatiOns. His health
failed so rapidly that he could barely issue
the royal edict asking the Dowager En-
presses to resume control of the Govern
ment when, a month afterward, in Janu-
ary, 1875, he returned to heaven" as his
sorrowing subjects were plOuSly informed.
His wife, who was about to become n
mother, was naturally grief-stricken, and
soon followed her husband. probably from
the same cause, which made him. accord
ing. to Imperial Chinese, "a guest on
high"
The choice of successor to Tung Chi
was made in Kwang Shu, n child of three
years, and n nephew of Usieu Gung, with
again the two Empresses at the head OF
affairs. This choice cannot be explained
by outsiders, for Kwang Shu. rs first
cousin to Tung Chi, belonged to the same
generation, and his selection. therefore,
defed one of the most inviolate rules of
the Chinese Empire, that which through
ancestral succession permits the sacred
rite of ancestral worship.
Six years afterwards, in 1881, the Sc
nior Regent, who had begun to be less
persona grata to her junior colleague than
formerly, suffered sudden and fatal at
tack of heart failure, and Tsu Isl became.
DOwager Empress in sole and complete
authority. Her way had been difficult but
she had been equal to it. Kwang Shn
who is described as an amiable and fairly
intelligent young prince, became interested
in the liberal and progressive policy of his
chief advisers, his father, Prince Chung
and the Marquis Tseng, and the Empress
fOresaw trouble for herself if these tenden-
cies were not checked. At the proper mo-
ment, therefore, after apparent acquies-
cence in their reform plans, the fortunate
Empress was once more assisted by cir
cumstances, for both Chung and Tsene
died, few months apart. With these en-
lightened and influential statesmen out of
the way, it was not difficult by the aid OF
her longtime favOrite and confidential ad-
wiser, Ii Hung Chang, to keep in virtual
authority even after her nominal retire
ment when Kwang Shu attained his ma
jority. 1t is very recent history how the
young Emperor's health, following too ac-
tive pursuit of his reform policy. began to
fail, and the Empress for the third time
in the four decades in which she, ha.
played fast and loose with the Chinese
Imperial throne, found it once more in her
possession
So to the present crisis comes the his
years she has schcmed and plotted and in
trigued in a hot-bed of schemers and plot
ters and intriguers.
What will be the end, too, of it all?
Has this grim old woman played her last
card, or, keen and reSourceful as she is,
does she mediate another stroke of her
matchless, if merciless, diplomacy?
Whatever comes, she has written her
self forever in the history of the world as
one Of its most extraordinary and terrible
characters.