Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/308

Rh of acts which led to the overthrow of the regency.

About this time a censor memorialized, recommending that Empress Hsiao-chên should become regent to rule with the assistance not only of the eight men then in power but with the help of one or two princes closely related by blood to the deceased emperor. On September 14, 1861 the eight co-regents drafted a decree rebuking the censor and reminding him that precedents of the dynasty forbade the elevation of an empress to supreme control of the Empire. The Empresses, of course, disapproved this draft decree, and for some time refused to impress their seals upon it; but the co-regents forced them to do so by holding up all matters of state until it was issued. The Dowager Empresses summoned, husband of Hsiao-ch'in's sister, to an audience in Jehol, but the co-regents refused to report his arrival, compelling him to wait outside the Palace, though he had come all the way from Peking. Finally, with the help of a eunuch, I-huan obtained the audience at which it seems a plan was drafted for the removal of the eight co-regents. The necessary military support came from General Shêng-pao (see under ) who on September 17 or 18 published a memorial denouncing the eight co-regents. Soon after, a date was set for the return of the Court to Peking and also for the transfer of Emperor Wên-tsung's remains to that city. The Court left Jehol on October 26 and entered the capital five days later. Immediately a decree was issued blaming the regents for having brought on the calamitous war with the Allied Forces in 1860; for having wrongly counselled Emperor Wên-tsung to remain at Jehol, and so contributing to his death; and for having forced the Empresses to issue the edict condemning the above-mentioned censor. Seven regents who had returned to Peking were arrested by I-hsin, and the eight,, who was escorting the deceased emperor's coffin, was arrested north of Peking by a detachment of cavalry under I-huan. On November 8, Su-shun was beheaded and the other seven regents were punished (see under ). The Dowager Empresses, Hsiao-chên and Hsiao-ch'in, formed a joint regency, known as Ch'ui-lien t'ing-chêng 垂簾聽政 ("Listening from behind Screens to Reports on Governmental Affairs"). I-hsin was made Prince Counselor (議政王) to advise the regents on all state affairs. At this time Hsiao-ch'in had very little power, but was included in the regency, probably because her knowledge of written Chinese was useful to the senior Dowager Empress.

I-hsin was deprived of his special status in 1865, and thereafter the regency of the Dowager Empresses increased in power. By entrusting military powers to such able Chinese as, and , the campaigns against the Taipings and other rebels were carried to a victorious conclusion. The Taiping Rebellion was crushed in 1864, the bandits of the northern provinces were pacified in 1868 (see under ), and the Muslim uprising in Yunnan and Kweichow was put down in 1873 (see under ). International affairs were entrusted to I-hsin, Wên-hsiang and other members of the Tsung-li Yamen (see under ). The gradual Westernization of China began at this time with the establishment of schools of foreign languages at Canton, Shanghai and Peking; the opening of a Navy Yard at Foochow; the creation of arsenals at Shanghai, Nanking and other cities; and the formation of a modern Customs Service, with the help of foreign experts. The Russian occupation of Ili in 1870 (see under and ) and the Japanese invasion of Formosa in 1874 (see under ) were events that strained relations with foreign countries, but in general the successes of the regency caused the T'ung chih reign-period to be known in history as one of national revival (中興).

As Empress Hsiao-chên was neither able nor ambitious, Empress Hsiao-ch'in gradually assumed more responsibility in appointing officials to important posts and in determining national policies. She won the loyalty of these officials and through them controlled the state. Inside the Palace she ruled through her favorite eunuchs. The execution of her chief eunuch, An Tê-hai, in 1869 (see under ), was a set-back to her authority, and she suspected I-hsin and Hsiao-chên of plotting his downfall and death. She is said to have turned against Hsiao-chên for alienating the affections of Tsai-ch'un and for siding with the latter in his choice of a wife. Being his mother, Hsiao-ch'in naturally regarded the selection of a daughter-in-law as her own prerogative. After Tsai-ch'un's marriage to Empress Hsiao-chê (see under ) in 1872 and the termination of the regency in 1873, he was still bound by the rules of filial piety to obey his mother, with the result that her control over state affairs continued almost unabated. Rumors arose that 296