Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/68

 every relation between the Emperor and the subject is made to appear in the light of favours bestowed and received. Every edict is a benign mandate, which it is an honour, a privilege, an act of grace, to be permitted to obey. This theory extends even to the infliction of punishments. When, some years ago, the boy-Emperor T'ung Chih, in a fit of passion, thought proper to degrade his uncle from the first to the second degree of Imperial rank, the Prince humbly thanked His Majesty for permitting him still to exercise his function as a Grand Councillor. When reinstated on the following day, His Imperial Highness thanked the Emperor in still more grateful terms; and two days after, on the receipt of a bowl of bird's-nest soup, his gratitude could only find expression in a flood of tears. It may be doubted, however, whether the weeping of Prince Kung upon this affecting occasion was of a less ceremonial nature than the performance of hired women who wail and howl at funerals. The Imperial wish for the retirement of an official who is unpopular at Court is generally anticipated by the mandarin himself, who, in a memorial teeming with unpleasantly graphic details of some imaginary complaint, implores the Emperor to let him remain in private life, comparing his fidelity to that of a dog or a horse, and vowing that when his health is re-established he will be readier even than either of those useful animals to roll his head in the dust and die in his master's service. It is noteworthy that a refusal on the part of the Emperor to accede to similar requests is oftener the occasion of thanks than when His Majesty accedes. Only a short time ago the eminent statesman Pao-t'ing implored the Emperor in most moving terms to permit him to retire.