Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/311

Rh anti-foreign riots and the destruction of churches became ominous in those provinces. By June, with the connivance of Tsai-i and other high officials, the Boxers entered Peking and on the 11th of that month unruly Kansu soldiers, who earlier had been brought in to guard the city, killed a secretary of the Japanese Legation. The foreign ministers took steps to guard the Legation Quarter and asked the assistance of their governments for troops. On the 17th the Allied Forces took the Taku forts. On the 19th the Empress Hsiao-ch'in and Tsai-i overruled all opposition, and a manifesto was issued asked all foreign envoys to leave Peking within twenty-four hours under the escort of Chinese troops. On the following day the German Minister, Baron von Kettler, was murdered by soldiers who had Tsai-i's orders to kill any foreigner at sight. Thus began the siege of the foreign communities in Peking. One group of 473 foreign civilians, some 400 guards, and several thousand Chinese converts and servants barricaded themselves inside the Legation Quarter, and a similar but smaller group defended itself in the Pei T'ang 北堂, the Catholic Cathedral, in another part of the city. Rioters burned and pillaged in many places—not even the homes of princes and high officials were spared. In Shansi province more than a hundred foreigners were killed and many others, including Chinese Christians, suffered cruelly. That the ravages did not spread to central and south China was due chiefly to the efforts of intelligent officials like, and. On August 14, the Allied Relief Expedition entered Peking and the siege of the Legations and the Cathedral was lifted.

Very early the next morning the Empress Dowager fled from the capital with the Emperor, a few officials, and servants. After many deprivations the party reached Taiyuan, Shansi, on September 10; and Sian, Shensi, on October 26. On the way a number of edicts were issued in the name of the Emperor in which he and his officials were made to take the blame for the disasters that had overtaken the Empire. Thus did Empress Hsiao-ch'in clear herself of responsibility and cannily prepare for return to power when the time was ripe. The Court remained at Sian for more than a year, entrusting to Li Hung-chang and to I-k'uang the difficult task of negotiating with the Powers. There was little these representatives could do except to agree to the demands incorporated in a protocol signed on September 7, 1901. While still at Sian the Empress Dowager began to issue decrees—in reply to demands of Liu K'un-i and Chang Chih-tung—looking toward various political and social reforms. Her belated interest in these matters may properly be interpreted as gestures to win the approval of foreigners and the support of the governors.

On January 7, 1902 the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and their entourage returned to Peking. Her attitude toward foreigners was now one of gratitude for having spared her from deserved humiliation and for allowing her to return to power. She gave many receptions to foreign diplomats and their wives, to missionaries and tourists, and soon won many friends by her cordial and charming manner. The reforms in government which she decreed were now essentially those which the Emperor had sought in 1898. The most far-reaching of these was the abolition of the old style examinations in 1905; others concerned the establishment of modern schools and the sending of a few students abroad for study, particularly in Japan. A decree was issued allowing inter-marriage between Manchus and Chinese, but when a Cabinet was formed in 1906 it was composed of nine bannermen and only four Chinese, thus actually very little was done to mitigate the growing animosity between the two races.

On November 14, 1908 Emperor Tê-tsung died, and on the following day the Empress Dowager who had dominated his entire career, also died. Before her death she named as the next emperor, P'u-i (see under ), son of Emperor Tê-tsung's brother, Tsai-fêng (see under ). He was to carry on the line of both Mu-tsung and Tê-tsung, but as he was then only three sui, Tsai-fêng was appointed Prince Regent. The posthumous name, Hsiao-chin Hsien Huang-hou was given the Empress Dowager, and her remains were buried in the Eastern Mausoleum. Her tablet was placed in the Imperial Ancestral Hall. The close proximity of the deaths of Empress Hsiao-ch'in and Emperor Tê-tsung gave rise to many suspicions as to the manner of the latter's decease. Whether he died a natural death, or was murdered, has never been determined.

Hsiao-ch'in's appointment of Tsai-fêng as regent, and his son as heir to the throne, was not made out of consideration for the security of the dynasty or the welfare of the Empire. Tsai-fêng was lacking in nearly every quality necessary to a Prince Regent, as shown by his inability to restrain his brothers and other high princes 299