The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-22
The Oriental Review


narration Of the reign Of monarch
could be Of more contemporary inter.
est than Is this Of Tzu Hsi. the late
Dowager Empress OF China-China
Under the Empress Dowager, by J.
o. Bland and =. Backhouse O.. r.
Lippincott Co. Philadelphia, $500 nett
the narrative Of that remarkable
woman who during many years Of
change and turmoil was the dea ex
machina Of what the civilized world
has for years considered, and i'm fact
still must consider as a world of mys-
terry, the Middle Kingdom, with the
vassal states and peoples WHICH form
a more or less integral part of it,
Unknowing, it is but natural that the
people of the Occident, during the
many years of her reign, should have
no more true conception of what this
wonderful Tzu Hsi called affection
ately by her people The Old Buddha
really was than of Kublai, or even
of rulers as near our own time as
the Tudor queens of England.
The fiction about her that has found
its way into print would fill volumes
She has been held up as a mirror of
all the virtues, and as a monster of
depravity. Clearly threading their
way through masses of lies and mac
curacies, the authors of this fascin
ating story of a Medieval Empress
translated into the latter part Of the
Nineteenth Century, have done their
work wonderfully well in presenting
to us what is evidently a true picture
of the greatest of all the daughters
of the strong Yehonala clan of the
conquering Manchus. Not born to
the purple, and making her first en-
trance into the Chinese Court and
the Forbidden City at seventeen as
but a concubine, the Concubine vi of
the Emperor Hsien-Feng; at the age
of twenty-five she had already so inn
pressed her marvellous intellect upon
all of those mysterious human forces
from Emperor down, which really rule
China, that despite the subtitle intrigues
of powerful enemies, and notwith-
standing that a barbarian foe (the
English and French) had seized Pc
king (1S60), she was able to grasp
the reins of power. And these reins
she not only never permitted, during
all those years from 1850 until the
day of her death to slip from her
hands, but dying, she was still able.
to see that they were safely held by
her own, the Yehonala clan, in the
face of the strongest possible protest
of the Manchu Iron-Capped Princes
of the elder royal line.
That the child, Hsuan T'ung, is to-
day Emperor of a country of 100000
900 of people, and that his father,
Prince Chu'un, is Regent, is due to
her and her alone. 1t is an interest
ing story this of The Old Buddha, and
one that is likely to change and mod
ify many of the views of Western
WIlLGTS DIS W Onlllcts n lluhlbCA "
the most interesting of the DEGREES OF
the years of her sway, during the
reigns Of her husband, the Emperor
Hsien-Feng of her son, the Emperor
T'ung- Chih, and of her nephew, the
Emperor Kuang- Hsu, are to be found
in the work, and there is a mass 81
material bearing upon every year OF
her power. The true story Of the Box
err trouble is for the first time prob !
ably correctly told, from the inside;
and the common sense strength of her
one intimate, devoted friend, Yung
Lu. during all of her reign, and par
ticularly during the Boxer troubles
is clearly shown. China Under the
Empress Dowager is a work of excep
tional historical value, and yet the
authors have succeeding in making 1t
as entertaining as a novel, 1t mas
many illustrations and, portraits OF
great personages besides several, in
GLIDING Miss Carls of the great EN-
press. The clear light it sheds upon
the China of today makes it Of the
very first Importance. In the clos
ing chapter of the work we read:
Frequent reference has been made
to the extravaganza and licentious
display of Tzu Hsi's Court during the
years of the first Regency. The re-
monstrances of the Censors on the
subject were so numerous and out
spoken, so circumstantial in their
charges, as to leave little room for
doubt that the Empress deserves their
indignant condemnation. All the rec
ords of that period, and particularly
from 1862 to 1869, point to the evil
and steadily increasing influence OF
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