.0' -^' ^M ^ %<^'^^''^ .\#|r^''« > " H>,c^ -i<^:- "'■ O^ s 0^ ^ '^^'^ >" ■%■ ^-^^ ^^:.' -^/.,^' :^ oo^ •^ a a ^ A - V 1 B i ' ' ^ t ;l ^^-^ -^^ c°^^->., '/-^^-X''"::>k:^:^^K°'"cP^'a::-'\ ->-. -^' -r- '^.^ »4 'Bhe Siege in Peking Dr. Martin's "Compendium of Information" j^ r;YCLE OF pATHAY or CKina, South and North •WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES BY W. A. P. MARTIN. D.D.. LL.D. President of the Imperial University of Peking With Seventy Illustrations, Map and Index, 8vo, Decorated Cloth, $2.00 "A scholarly epitome of the life and thought of the Chi- nese nation for upwards of four thousand years." — Phila- delphia Times. "Will add even to the specialists knowledge of Chinese character. A storehouse of facts and personal reminiscen- ces." — San Francisco Chronicle. "Nowhere can be found a more luminous sketch of Chi- nese history during the last four thousand years . . . With the actual political and social condition of the country." — New York Sun. "Earnestly to be commended for its liberality of view, wealth of information and clear knowledge." — Boston Beacon. FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York : 158 Fifth Ave. Chicago : 6j Washington St. Toronto : 154 Yonge St. DE. MARTIN IN SIEGE COSTCME, AS HE AKRIVEI NEW YORK CITY, OCTOBER 23RD, 1900. H6e siege: in PEKING CKinaL AgOLinst the World IBy an E,ye Witness W. A. P. MARTIN, D.D., LL.D. President of tKe Chinese Imperia-l Univer- sity; Author of Cycle of Ca.tha.y, Etc. NewYork ChicaLgo Toronto Fleming H. R^evell Compatny 1900 82^58 Library of Congreae Two Copies RECfivi^o DEC 1 1900 Copyright entry SECOND COPY Oelivvred to ORDER OIVISION DEC 10I90Q 2)577/ Copyright, 1900 by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY THE CAXTON PRESS NEW YORK. TO THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN ' WHO DIED IN DEFENCE OF THE LEGATIONS DURING THE SIEGE AND OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE RESCUE THIS VOLUME IS REVERENTLY INSCRIBED THE AUTHOR TO THE READER When I left China only a little over a month ago I had no intention of making a book. My friends, however, insist that I should put the ac- count of my experiences during the siege into a permanent form. To me it is painful, Infandum renovare dolorem. But the public, more imperi- ous than the Queen of Carthage, must be obeyed. On reaching New York in the actual costume which I wore during the siege, I called a boy to carry my packages, my son Newell having gone to the wrong station to meet me. As I was carrying a gun, the lad remarked : " You must have been hunting somewhere ? " " Yes," said I, " in Asia, beyond the sea." " What kind of game ? " he inquired. " Tigers," I replied — I ought to have said hysenas. He asked no further questions, and I added no explanation. The gentle reader will find the explanation in the following pages. 7 8 The Author to the Reader I have not had time to compare views with any one who has written on the subject, nor even to verify my dates, having depended solely on my memory, and dictated my text, with .all pos- sible rapidity, to a stenographer. Trusting the reader will regard favorably the following chapters, unkerftpt as they are, and that he will lay down the book with the convic- tion with which I have written it, namely: that in the events now going on in the Far East, great issues are at stake for the chfirch, the state, and the world. Audubon Park, New York, November 14, 1900 CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE The Eight Banners of the Allies and the Eight OF the Manchus 13 CHAPTER II The Emperor and the Reform Party . . .31 CHAPTER III The Empress Dowager and Her Clique . , 45 CHAPTER IV The Boxers and Their Allies .... 60 CHAPTER V Siege of the Legations in Peking • • • 73 CHAPTER VI Additional Incidents of the Siege . . 108 CHAPTER VII Rescue and Retribution 126 CHAPTER VIII Reconstruction 142 APPENDIX 171 wTrf MAI' OF THK CITY OF I'KKING lliO.M lllK K-l^ii. A |ilHl)S-KYK VIKW Ol- TIIK DIS Ti: liliKl) AHKA ILLUSTRATIONS The illustrations marked thus ( * ) are reproduced by the consent of Leslie's Weekly, and copyrighted by the Judge Publishing Company, iqoo Dr. Martin in Siege Costume . . Frontispiece As he arrived iii New York City, October 23, igoo. facing PAGE Gordon Hall, Tientsin * 13 The stately building which was the refuge of the Europeans during the recent Chinese outbreak, damaged during the bombardment. The Great Gate of Peking* .... 30 This tower was burned by the Boxers. The President and Foreign Members of the Faculty of the Imperial University . . 40 The second from the right is Professor James, who was murdered by the Boxers. The Pavilion Entrance to the British Legation * 73 Where all the Foreign Ministers, with their families, took refuge. Archway on Ha Ta Men Great Street . . 80 Scene of Baron Von Ketteler's murder. A Portion of the Wall of Peking Held by the Allies 84 Assault of the Relief Column . . . .105 On Outer Wall of Peking, from a Japanese painting. 12 Illustrations FACING PAGE A Chinese View of the Murder of the Japanese Chancelier no Regarded by them as an execution in th» presence of Chinese troops and Boxers. Li Hung Chang* 122 China's Greatest Statesman and Peace Commissioner. Pei Tang, the French Cathedral* . . . 125 Held by Roman Catholics until relieved by the Japanese. Colonel Liscum * 129 General Chaffee 129 The Central Moat, or Canal, in the Forbidden City* 139 The Empress Dowager of China* . . .149 The Dowager's Palace near Peking* . . . 149 Edwin H. Conger 164 United States Minister to China. MONSIGNOR FaVIER * 164 Catholic Bishop of Peking. Temple of Heaven in Peking* . . . .170 Occupied as a camp by the British soldiets. MAPS From the Pei-Ho to Peking* A bird's-eye view of the disturbed area in China. Map of the City of Peking* THE SIEGE IN PEKING CHAPTER I. THE EIGHT BANNERS OF THE ALLIES AND THE EIGHT OF THE MANCHUS Since the spring of this year the eyes of the world have been fixed on China as the theatre of a tremendous tragedy. Not only do Chinese and Tartar, prince and peasant, figure on the scene in court and camp, but many nations come on the stage in all the pomp of war. It was a magnificent spectacle, the gathering at the mouth of the Pei Ho of great navies from the ends of the earth — the storming of the Taku forts for the third time in forty years — the occupation of Tien Tsin after four weeks of continual con- flict, and the advance on Peking of a combined force under the banners of eight leading powers. Sixty years ago the British flag appeared alone in hostile array, with the result of a treaty made at Nanking^ opening five ports to trade, resi- 13 14 The Siege in Peking dence, and missionary enterpirise. Forty years ago the flags of Great Britain and France were united in an expedition, which opened the capital to the residence of foreign envoys, added greatly to the list of open ports, and opened up the whole country to the influence of Western ideas. Five years ago China was humbled in the dust by hitherto despised neigh- bors that had grown strong by the adoption of those ideas. The banner of the Rising Sun now appears along with those of seven great powers of the West, once more thundering at the gates of the Celestial Empire. All the world asks the meaning of this un- precedented movement. What motive could be so potent as to compel those powers to bury their political animosities and to unite in one expedition? The answer is in one word. Hu- manity. Humanity has been outraged, and every nation of the earth either sends a con- tingent to avenge the wrong or sympathizes with those that send. Had America, Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia sought for a classic motto to inscribe on their banners, they could hardly find a more fitting expression of the feeling that led them to merge their several aims and rival creeds in The Eight Banners 15 one common purpose than the famous line of Terence, " Homo sum et nihil htimani a me alienum puto," — I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me. Within the walls of Peking are cooped up the ministers of eleven nations (those above-named with the addition of Holland, Belgium, and Spain) along with their people to the number of a thousand men, women, and children, and menaced with the horrors of an indiscriminate slaughter. The besiegers were not, as they have been represented by Chinese diplomacy, a howling mob that had overpowered the imperial government, but an organized army under the orders of the government. Documentary evi- dence will be adduced in the sequel, amply suf- ficient to prove the complicity of the Chinese (I ought to say Manchu) Government. By mak- ing war on all who hold to principles of human progress, it has placed itself beyond the pale of civilization, and forfeited the respectable posi- tion which it formerly occupied among the na- tions of the earth. If history be ransacked in quest of a parallel for the siege of the legations, it will not be found in Mafeking or Ladysmith, for Christian was there pitted against Christian. They had only to lay l6 The Siege in Peking down their arms to insure the best of treatment. To find something akin in its savage barbarity you must go back to Lucknow, where a mixed muhitude shut up in the Residency were hold- ing out against fearful odds in expectation of relief by Havelock's Highlanders, resolved to perish of starvation rather than surrender, for the fate of Cawnpore stared them in the face. It adds point to this parallel to remember that the Tartar rulers of China are cousin german to the Great Mogul who headed the Sepoy Mutiny. It was some excuse for the King of Delhi that he was seeking to regain his throne. No such apology can be offered for the Empress Dowager of China. She has made war not without prov- ocation, but wholly unjustifiable, on all nations of the civilized world. Allying herself with the powers of darkness, she entered into a diabohcal conspiracy, and sanctioned unheard-of atrocities in order to keep her people in ignorance and to shield her family from the competition of su- perior Hght and knowledge. It is one more ex- hibition of the conflict of Ahriman and Ormuz, the eternal war between the spirit of darkness and the God of light. To understand the causes of this complicated struggle, and to forecast its outcome, it may not The Eight Banners 17 be amiss to give separate attention to some of the parties to the conflict, especially to those that emerge from the dark cloud that rests on the Far East — the Emperor and party of progress; the Empress Dowager, and the reactionaries, the Boxers, and their associates. Three motives have combined to bring about this astounding upheaval : Political jealousy, religious antagon- ism, and industrial competition. The first is ex- emplified in the action of the Tartars, who, being an alien race, have always shown themselves suspicious of everything which tends to augment the prestige of foreigners within their territory. The second, if a fetish superstition may be dig- nified by the name of religion, may be seen in the obscure origin of this Boxer propaganda. The third is shown in the progress of that secret so- ciety when, transformed into a political party, it destroyed the products of foreign machinery be- cause they interfered with the slow-going meth- ods of an ignorant people. If the reader be impatient for the harrowing incidents of the siege, he may skip a few of the ensuing chapters ; but there is reason to fear that he will not find the situation by any means as lucid as it might otherwise be made. (i Curiously enough, the Tartars of Peking, like l8 The Siege in Peking the Allied Powers, are ranged under eight ban- ners. From the beginning of their dynasty they have been known to the Chinese as Pachi — the eight banners — ever since they passed the great wall and marched on Peking two hundred and fifty-six years ago; nor is the number of their tribal divisions the only point of resemblance worthy of notice. The errand on which they first appeared before the gates of Peking was not unlike that of our eight nationalities, viz, : " Res- cue or Vengeance." In 1644 the city was invested by a horde of rebels led by a bloodthirsty wretch named Li Chuang. The Emperor, a Chinese of the House of Ming, knowing that resistance was hopeless, hanged himself on a hill overlooking his capital, after stabbing his daughter to the heart as a last proof of paternal affection. (How many fathers were prepared to give the same proof of affection in the extremity of our recent siege !) Wu San Kwei, a general in command on the frontier of Manchuria, hearing the fate of his master — learning, too, that his own family had fallen into the hands of the rebel chief — called on the Manchus to aid him in the expulsion of the usurper and the punishment of his crime. On the approach of the Tartars the rebels fled, but The Eight Banners 19 the Tartars, on being paid off, refused to retire. It was the old story of the ass that begged a primitive man to mount his back and drive a horned stag away from his pasture-field when, to his surprise, he found himself the slave of his ally. In this case the Tartar tribes were in the saddle. Why should they dismount simply be- cause the Chinese requested them to do so ? The tables are now turned. It is the Tartars who are chased away from the pasture-field. Foreign powers are in the saddle. Will the eight Powers whose banners now wave over the ruins of Peking be more easily satisfied? Will they withdraw at a sign from Li Hung Chang, and leave their work unfinished? In spite of diplomatic assurances to the contrary, similar conditions are sure to produce similar results. Some at least of the eight banners will be slow to abdicate their commanding position. They have put curb and bit in the mouth of the Chinese donkey, and, judging from present appearances, they are not unlikely to persist in riding the noble beast. This and other questions as to right and policy meet us on the threshold, but we are compelled to postpone their discussion while we ask the reader to follow the eight banners of the Man- 20 The Siege in Peking chus in their occupation of China. Not only is such retrospect essential to the comprehension of recent events, for more than one lesson which might be useful to our statesmen is to be gleaned from the experience of the Manchus. The first that suggests itself is the ease with which the Chinese may be subdued. The sec- ond is like unto it, viz., the facility with which they may be governed by a foreign power. Patient, industrious, and unwarlike, they were made to be ruled by others. As a matter of fact, they have actually been under the sway (more or less complete) of different hordes of Tartars for seven centuries out of the last fifteen. From 386 to 532 of our era an extensive region in Northern China was subjected to the house of Toba. From 907 to 1234 the Kin Tartars, or Golden horde, whom the Manchus claim as ancestors, held possession of the Northern Provinces. They were displaced by the Mongols of Genghis and Kublai Khan, who extended their power to the remotest bounds of the empire, and almost at the same time brought India beneath their yoke, constituting perhaps the most extended do- minion that had ever fallen to the lot of a single race. After an interval of one native dynasty the Manchus, as we have said, got possession of The Eight Banners 21 the throne, and they have held it from 1644 to 1900, a date which in all probability marks the end of their domination. Instances of invasion not ending in conquest are too numerous to mention. At the dawn of history we find the Chinese, like the Egyptians, harassed by Shepherd Kings from the North. The great Wall, over fifteen hundred miles in length, hugest of th^ works of man, was erected to keep them out as early as 240 B.C. When completed it was described by a historian as the " ruin of one generation, but a bulwark of safe- ty to all that were to follow." Would that op- timistic author have pronounced such an en- comium had he foreseen the many centuries of subjection to Tartar sway undergone by his peo- ple since that epoch ? To overrun portions of China has always been an easy task for those fierce nomads, but to re- tain their conquest required more than martial prowess. " I won the empire on horseback," said one of those conquerors to a statesman who besought him to encourage the milder arts. " Can you govern it on horseback ? " was the pregnant question that served for a reply. To secure permanence of possession it has al- ways been necessary for them to adopt the civ- 22 The Siege in Peking ilization (such as it is) of their Chinese subjects. By employing Chinese methods in their admin- istration they have in many instances achieved complete success. This is the second of the important lessons suggested by their history. The Manchus have done this more thoroughly than any of their predecessors, becoming per- haps more Chinese than the Chinese themselves ; for, while the Chinese have shown themselves accessible to new ideas, the Manchus, having espoused the civilization of China, have distinctly refused to exchange it for that of the West. Yet, despite the shocking reversion to barbarism which marks the close of their history, it may be safely affirmed that no native dynasty ever gov- erned the country with more wisdom. What they have been able to do, is it unwise for a European power to undertake ? Sir Michael Hicks-Beach is reported to have said in Parliament that " it would be madness for Great Britain to attempt the administration of any part of China." Has not British administration converted the colony of Hong-Kong from a barren rock into the richest emporium of the Far East ? Are not the Chinese, of all peoples, the easiest to govern, and are not the British confessedly the ablest The Eight Banners 23 administrators of foreign dependencies? As to the possibility of a foreign power governing China, the experiment of the Anglo-French Al- liance, which for a short time in i860 governed the province of Canton through native authori- ties, is highly instructive ; and the experience of the Manchus during two and a half centuries ought to be conclusive. Though but a handful in comparison with their present numbers, it took them, only seven years to bring all the Eighteen Provinces into subjection. Their sway began with a female Regent, as it appears not unlikely to terminate with a female Regency. The armies of the first Regent were conducted, and her Cabinet was controlled, by Amawang, a brother of her de- ceased husband. Her infant son, on ascending the throne in the first year of occupation, re- ceived the significant title of Shunchi, "the prosperous reign." Prosperous his reign cer- tainly was for his people, but his enjoyment of it was brief, as he died at the age of twenty-four. His son was the illustrious Kang Hi, who reigned sixty-one years, or a little more than a Chinese cycle, leaving behind him so great a reputation for wisdom and goodness that he was canonized by the title of " Sheng Tsu Jin " — 24 The Siege in Peking sage an'd benevolent. SucH was his avidity for knowledge that, while making himself mas- ter of the learning of the Middle Kingdom, he reached out after the sciences of the West, re- ceiving with honor at his Court the Roman Catholic missionaries, who a few years earlier had gone to China as pioneers of a higher science and a better faith. Not merely did he take les- sons in geometry and astronomy ; he appears to have been favorably disposed toward Christian- ity. Two things, however, inspired him with an aversion which he bequeathed to his successors. After having expressed an opinion as to the identity of Shang Ti, " the supreme ruler," with the Christians' God, and again as to the purely ceremonial character of ancestral worship, he had the mortification to see his views set aside by a decree of the Pope condemning the worship of ancestors as idolatrous and forbidding, as pagan, the use of the name Shang Ti, the God of the ancient sages. What was perhaps more try- ing to his pride, he learned that, in order to be- come a Christian, he must begin by acknowledg- ing the supremacy of the Pope. Is it surprising that his writings betray a growing alienation from the teachings of the missionaries? Those teachings are condemned in one of his Sixteen The Eight Banners 25 Maxims, a compend of orthodoxy committed to memory by Chinese school-boys. His son, Yung Cheng, became, as might be expected, a bitter persecutor of the new faith. Of Yung Cheng, who reigned thirteen years, nothing further needs to be said; though, hke Julian the Apostate, in spite of his character as a relentless persecutor, perhaps for that very reason, he enjoys the reputation of being a sovereign of exceptional ability. The son of Yung Cheng was Chien Lung, the Magnificent. Happy in the possession of a submissive empire, this monarch sought to ce- ment the ties between sovereign and subject by making frequent journeys to ascertain the state of his people. On such occasions he usually left an autograph poem (for he was no mean poet) inscribed on a granite slab to commemo- rate the visit. One of these effusions that I have seen at a Temple on the western hills may be rendered as follows : Why have I scaled this misty height, Why sought this mountain den ? I tread as on enchanted ground, UnHke the abode of men. Weird voices in the trees I hear, Weird visions see in air, 26 The Siege in Peking The whispering pines are living harps And fairy hands are there. Beneath my feet my realm I see As in a map unrolled. Above my head a canopy Bedecked with clouds of gold. When he had wielded the sceptre for a full cycle he abdicated, because, as he said, it would be unfilial to surpass his grandfather in the dura- tion of his reign. Did he not reflect how unfilial he had been in allowing himself to live longer than his father? Kia Ching, the next in order, held the throne only half as long, and left an unsavory name as a votary of pleasure. His son, Taou Kwang, reigned thirty years, treading in the footsteps of Kanghi, He it was who first attempted to suppress the growing vice of opium-smoking. When the loss of revenue was employed as an argument to deter him from his purpose he exclaimed, with virtuous indig- nation, " Heaven forbid that I should derive profit from the vices of my subjects." This good prince was unfortunate in the agent whom he selected to carry out his humane de- cree. The Viceroy Lin, haughty and overbear- ing, employed unjustifiable measures to obtain The Eight Banners 27 possession of the forbidden drug, giving just ground for reprisals on the part of Great Britain. To save himself the trouble of capturing the opium ships which lay beyond the harbor, he sur- rounded the whole foreign quarter at Canton with soldiery, and threatened the lives of all foreigners, without distinction of nationality, in case of refusal to surrender the drug. Sum- moned by the Superintendent of Trade to deliver up as the only means of escape, the merchants handed it over to the Queen's representative to be used as a ransom for the lives of the com- munity. Her Majesty was accordingly pledged to make good their loss. To punish this high- handed proceeding, and to exact the promised indemnity were the objects of Britain's first war with China, not at all to force the Chinese either to receive opium or to consume it. With antiquated arms, and destitute of dis- cipline, the Chinese troops were repeatedly vanquished. Had Sir Henry Pottinger pushed his campaign to Peking, instead of signing a treaty at Nanking, he might have taken posses- sion of the whole empire instead of the little island of Hong-Kong. The world would then have seen once more the spectacle of India and China united under the sceptre of a foreign race. 28 The Siege in Peking The shortest reign in the history of the dynasty was that of Hien Fung, who, ascending the throne in 1850, saw his capital in the power of foreigners at the end of a decade, and fled to Mongolia to find a grave. One of the wives who accompanied his flight was the now famous (or infamous) Dowager Empress. Her history comprehends the reign of her son, Tung Chi, thirteen years, and that of her adopted son, Kwang Su, twenty-six years. Both will be treated in a subsequent chapter. Suffice to say, that under the Manchus, the frequent collisions with foreign powers, ranging from local riots up to serious wars, are mainly attributable to the fact that they are themselves foreigners, having got the empire by force and treachery. They suspect other nations of a desire to supplant them. Commercial ports, as they believe, are established for this purpose; religion is propa- gated to gain the hearts of the natives ; schools and newspapers tend to render the Chinese dis- loyal. The privilege of carrying on these enter- prises, commercial and missionary, was extorted by force, and by force it ought to be revoked. This was the advice given by a Cabinet Minister to the unfortunate Hien Fung on his accession in 1850* The Eight Banners 29 " Let it be your aim," said an old counsellor —too old to learn anything new — " let it be your aim to re-establish the old restrictions all along the coast." At the beginning of his reign Hien Fung saw his southern capital seized by the Taiping rebels, a body of fanatics who professed a sort of mon- grel Christianity. Toward its end one of his arrogant Viceroys, by summarily executing a boat's crew who were sailing under the British flag, involved him in war with England and France. Is it not strange that up to the present time the Manchus have failed to learn the futility of their attempt to expel the hated foreigners? They had been beaten by England, later by Eng- land and France together, then by Japan unaided by other powers. Is it not astonishing that they should still plan a general massacre, which was certain to provoke the hostility of all nations? Sometimes we have seen a young bull, the mas- ter of a grazing herd, resent the intrusion of a locomotive on his pasture-grounds. He places himself on the track in an attitude of defiance, but when the train sweeps by all that remains of him is a mangled corpse. Barnum's Jumbo, power- ful as he was, perished miserably in making a 30 The Siege in Peking similar attempt. Thus has it happened to the Banner men of Manchuria. Swept away by the Eight Banners of the great Powers the Manchu Government hes prostrate, and appears to be crushed beyond a possibihty of reconstruction. In treating further of this conflict between darkness and hght we must draw a broad dis- tinction between the Chinese and their Manchu rulers. The former are misguided, the latter treacherous and implacable. Among the Man- chus, again, it is necessary to distinguish between a progressive Emperor and the anti-foreign Empress Dowager. The advisers of the former in the work of reform were exclusively Chinese. The instigators of the latter in her bloody reac- tion were chiefly Manchus. 3 I E^ ^ ^ o CHAPTER II THE EMPEROR AND THE REFORM PARTY In the young Emperor, now in the thirtieth year of his age, reposes the only hope for even a temporary restoration of the Manchu dynasty. With features as deHcate as those of a woman, and physical frame deficient in vigor, he pos- sesses a mind singularly acute and a heart capable of being moved by the wants of his peo- ple. He alone among the occupants of the Dragon Throne during the present dynasty has exhibited a sufficient breadth of comprehension and superiority to national prejudice to desire to accommodate his government to the new civ- ilization of the West. Stripped of power for be- ing an ardent patron of progress, he possesses a peculiar claim on our sympathy. Nor is he to be held in any degree responsible for the out- rages that have been perpetrated in his name. In fact he is rather to be regarded as himself the first victim on a long and sanguinary list. His predecessor, Tung Chi, only son of the 31 32 The Siege in Peking Dowager Empress, died at the age of eighteen in 1874. Too young to display independence of character, Tung Chi had been governed by his mother, not merely during his long minority, but she continued to exercise her influence over the policy of his government even after her Regency had been terminated by a formal proclamation. Nothing is so well adapted to perpetuate his memory as the manner of his death. In the win- ter of that year a transit of Venus was to take place. More than a century prior to that date Captain Cook had made his notable voyage to the South Sea for the purpose of observing a similar phenomenon with a view to ascertaining the sun's parallax. In 1874 two American as- tronomers. Professor Watson of Michigan and Professor Young of Princeton University, ap- peared in Peking for the same object — there be- ing no spot on the globe where it could be seen [with equal advantage, and no amount of pains being deemed too great to verify our standard for measuring the magnitudes of the universe. True to the calculated time a black spot was seen travelling across the disk of the sun. Two days later the Emperor succumbed to an attack of small-pox, or, as rumor had it, pox of a more loathsome description. Heaven had foreshad- The Emperor and the Reform Party 33 owed the event, said the people, for was not the sun the emblem of masculine Majesty? And did not the blot on the visage of Old Sol portend, or rather depict, the precise malady to which the Son of Heaven was destined to fall a victim? The popular mind became intensely excited, and the secretaries at our legation thought it advis- able to smuggle the astronomers and their in- struments out of the city in the gloaming of even- ing, with as much secrecy as possible. They had been seen erecting what looked like a battery, and mounting upon it something that had the ap- pearance of cannon, and aiming those long tubes at the emblem of Majesty. It was inevitable that the ignorant populace should hold them re- sponsible for the calamity which fell upon the Imperial house. To flatter the young man's mother the doctors of the Hanlin Academy composed for him an obituary record, which made him out to be a paragon of every virtue, proposing for his post- humous title the nam.e " E Hwang Te," mean- ing The Heroic Emperor. Yet no act in his short life has come to the knowledge oi the pub- lic which suggests the idea of heroism. The bereaved parent, resuming her Regency, cast about for a young prince to adopt, not as 34 l'^^^ Siege in Peking heir presumptive to the throne but as titular sovereign. Among the candidates available she naturally selected the youngest, like the lady who, on being asked why she had married so old a man, replied that she never had but two offers — both old — and she naturally chose the oldest. The infant chosen for this high dignity was a child of three years, the son of the Dowager's sister, and the seventh brother of Hien Fung. She gave him the reigning title of Kwang Su, mean- ing Illustrious Successor, and he is now in the twenty-sixth year of his reign. During one-half of that period she exercised a Regency on the ground of his immaturity, and now for a third time she assumes to exercise it on the ground of his incapacity. Well might he have merited his illustrious title had he been permitted to carry out his scheme of reform. In her earlier days his Imperial guardian was not herself such an enemy to progress as she afterward became. As a proof of liberal tenden- cies may we not cite the fact that the young Emperor was early set to the study of the Eng- lish language? Two of my students were se- lected for his instructors. Special lessons were compiled by them for his Majesty's use, and, in 'order to be sure of their correctness, those les- The Emperor and the Reform Party 35 sons were submitted to me. I might, therefore, plead guilty of having given some bias perhaps to the Imperial mind. Nothing is more prob- able than that he derived his first impulse in the direction of progress from his study of English. Yet the honor of having converted the ease-lov- ing student into an ardent reformer is due above all others to the Cantonese doctor, Kang Yu Wei. In Chinese scholarship the Emperor distin- guished himself by uncommon proficiency. How could it be otherwise when he had for his in- structors a dozen or more of the most eminent scholars of the empire ! Of these the best known was the Grand Secretary, Wung Tung Ho, who specially befriended Kang Yu Wei and recom- mended him to the Emperor as a " thousand times more clever than myself." A reform party is to be found in most coun- tries, and at all times. Whether it possesses in- fluence or not depends largely on the object toward which it is directed. In China the lead- ing aim of the reform party was to strengthen the country by the adoption of Western meth- ods. Unhappily, the Chinese in general were not convinced of their weakness — nor were they inclined to take institutions, the mushroom 36 The Siege in Peking growth of yesterday, in preference to those that bore the imprint of hoary antiquity. As early as the close of the first war with Eng- land in 1842 there were not a few Mandarins who advocated this policy on the principle, Fas est ab hoste doceri. For a time their efforts did not go beyond the compilation or translation of a few books, mostly historical or geographical, or both combined, with a view to acquainting China with the existence of other countries beyond her borders. One such collection, well known under the name of " Hai Kwo Tu Chi," a description of trans-oceanic nations, was made by the un- fortunate Viceroy Lin, who had provoked the war, and for having done so was sent into exile. Another, called " Ying Hwan Chi Lio," a de- scriptive history of the globe, was compiled by Su Ki Yu, the Governor of Fokien Province. So frank was this Governor in expressing his ad- miration for foreigners and their methods that the Government, deeming him an unfit man to be intrusted with the destinies of a Province, re- moved him from his post and sent him into pri- vate life. The information contained in his book he sets to the credit of the missionary, Abeel. Yet in rearranging his materials he occasionally dis- The Emperor and the Reform Party 37 plays a touch of originality, such as for example the statement that Rhode Island is noted for the possession of a " colossal statue so huge that it spans the harbor and allows ships to pass be- tween its legs." The defeat of China in a second war in i860 lifted this persecuted party into sudden prom- inence. Schools were established for the lan- guages and sciences of the West. Youths were sent abroad for education, and poor old Su Ki Yu, by way of compensation, was made a member of the Tsung Li Yamen, the newly organized Board of Foreign Afifairs. In recognition of his su- perior knowledge he was likewise appointed Director of the Tung Wen College, a school opened by the Foreign Board; dans le royaume des aveugles les borgnes sont rois. A work on the physical sciences which I prepared for the use of that school was printed at the expense of the Board, and sent forth with a laudatory preface from his pen. About the same time Dr. Yung Wing, of Can- ton, a graduate of Yale College, was charged with the supervision of a select body of youth to be educated at the fountain-heads of Western learning. They were sent to Hartford in suc- cessive relays, two or three hundred in all. 38 The Siege in Peking and continued there until they were finally recalled on suspicion of having learned too much. Foreign legations were now for the first time established in Peking, and exercised an educa- tional influence on the government. In this di- rection their first and perhaps their most im- portant result v/as to induce the Chinese to send legations to the West. Before venturing on a step so revolutionary they desired first to explore the ground. For this purpose they despatched to Europe and America the so-called " CEcumenical Embassy," headed by Anson Burlingame, who had been our first Minister to Peking. He was a man of broad views and marvellous magnetism, qualities which gave him an ascendancy over his diplomatic col- leagues, leading them to adopt at that early date a " co-operative policy," which greatly resembles that so successfully advocated to-day by Secre- tary Hay. He also attracted the statesmen of China, who selected him to initiate their diplo- matic intercourse with the Western world. In this embassy he was supported by two col- leagues, one a Manchu, the other a Chinese, and accompanied by a number of students, mostly Manchus from the Tungwen College, who were The Emperor and the Reform Party 39 sent abroad to complete such studies as they had begun in China. The reform movement had thus far been con- fined to the acquisition of knowledge. Nothing like reform in internal administration had been attempted. A sort of reconstruction of army and navy had, it is true, been commenced, accom- panied by the erection of arsenals and the pur- chase of munitions of war, but reform in any other sense was deemed a word of ill-omen. Their old institutions, like the Ark of the Cov- enant, were things too sacred to be touched. After the ill-starred war with Japan many of the leading Mandarins, especially the junior members of the HanHn Academy, became con- vinced that China required a thorough-going reformation. Reform clubs were openly estab- lished in the capital. Their members were the elite of the literati. A thrashing at the hands of a people whom they stigmatized as dwarfs and held in hereditary contempt produced tenfold as deep an impression as defeat by European powers. " Inferior to us in past ages," so rea- soned these reformers, " what could have ren- dered these Japanese so formidable ? What but the wholesale adoption of European methods, for which they have been so unjustly ridiculed. 40 The Siege in Peking Why should not China, laying aside her an- tipathy, follow in their footsteps ? " The ex- pression of this sentiment created alarm at a still conservative Court. The reform clubs were not openly suppressed, but they were placed under surveillance and their name changed. In time the work of reform was taken in hand by the Emperor himself, under the influence, as we have said, of Kang Yu Wei. It was pushed with a zeal which alarmed and astonished the empire. Innovations succeeded each other with startling rapidity. The civil service examinations were ordered to be revolutionized, a system of graded schools was to be created. The neglected chil- dren of the common people were to be gathered into schools, for the use of which the idol tem- ples were to be appropriated. Schools for min- ing, commerce, and agriculture were to be estab- lished, as well as middle and higher schools of the ordinary type. A new university was to crown this pagoda of many stages, in which the sons of the nobility were expected to acquire the science and the spirit of the modern world. The old test of fitness for office, consisting in elegance of penmanship and correctness of rhythm in es- says and sonnets, was to be set aside, and in its place rigorous examinations required in sciences « ^ 2 pq e W g !5 ^ S « (^ « ^ ^' g § O E3 ^ ^ £ 05