Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/57

 Chinese as that which is now working in England to keep Miss Helen Taylor out of Parliament, the inflexibility of its observance is justified by the infamous examples of female imperial profligacy which in two cases have disgraced the annals of China. The first occurred in the dynasty of Han, an epoch which is regarded by every good Chinese as one of the most glorious in the history of his country. The Emperor Kao Tsû, or Lofty Ancestor, having abdicated in favour of his son, who died soon afterwards, the Empress Dowager, Lü T'ai Hou, usurped the throne, and reigned wickedly and unjustly for eight years. Jealousy of a more youthful and beautiful rival, the Lady Ch'i, had, even in the lifetime of the Emperor, developed all that was evil in the nature of this woman; and it is related that her vengeance at length prompted her to cut off her rival's hands and feet, put out her eyes, render her deaf and dumb, and then throw her alive upon a dunghill, bidding her young son go and inspect for himself the "human sow." When, on the death of both the old and young Emperors—the latter of whom died a drivelling imbecile, in horror at his mother's crimes—she assumed full power in the state, her reign was a series of the most mischievous political intrigues, and her decease was hailed with deep and heartfelt satisfaction in all parts of her dominions. The other instance occurred in the time of the T'angs, the period when China was most brilliant, most luxurious, most cultured; the golden age of poets and courtiers, musicians and fair women; the time, in short, when China excelled in everything but domestic virtue and political strength. One of the inferior concubines of the reigning sovereign, the future Empress Wu, a woman of low birth, retired from court on the death of