Part 21

“We have read the Memorial of Li Tuan-fen. This official has enjoyed our special favour; nevertheless, it was he who recommended to our notice that base traitor, K’ang Yu-wei, and he repeated his recommendations at more than one subsequent audience. His present action in admitting his guilt after the conspiracy has been exposed indicates a certain amount of low cunning on his part, which makes it quite impossible for us to treat him with further leniency. He is therefore to be cashiered forthwith and banished to the New Dominion, where he will be kept under close observation by the local authorities.”[63]

The whole episode and correspondence are strongly suggestive of the sport of a cat with a mouse.

By this time the violent measures of the reactionary party had aroused a storm of indignation in the South, where societies were being organised in support of His Majesty Kuang-Hsü. Newspapers published in the foreign settlements at Shanghai repeated daily the wildest and bitterest denunciations against Her Majesty and Jung Lu, the latter being specially singled out for attack. The writers of these articles, evidently inspired by the fugitive reform leaders, declared that the movement in Peking was essentially anti-Chinese, and that it would undoubtedly end in the appointment of Manchus to all important posts in the Empire. On the other hand, anti-foreign disturbances were fomented in several provinces by those who believed that the Empress Dowager would be gratified by these manifestations of public feeling. This state of affairs was undoubtedly fraught with serious danger, to which the attention of the Empress Dowager was drawn in a very plain-spoken Memorial by a Censor and Imperial Clansman named Hui Chang.

The memorialist congratulated the Throne upon the energetic and successful suppression of K’ang Yu-wei’s treason, an achievement which would redound for ever to the fame of the Old Buddha. He then referred to the position of affairs in South China as follows:—

“Of late many rumours have been in circulation, due to the fact that the criminals executed by order of the Throne are all Chinese, and your Majesties are therefore accused of desiring to promote the interests of Manchus at the expense of your Chinese subjects. Although it should be well known and recognised that our dynasty has never held the balance unevenly between Manchus and Chinese, yet the followers of K’ang Yu-wei are undoubtedly taking advantage of these rumours, and the result threatens the State with danger.”

The writer, after referring to the general futility of Edicts, then advised that special honours should be accorded to a few selected Chinese of undoubted loyalty and orthodoxy, by which means public opinion would be reassured. He justly observed that, if those who had been guilty of high treason had been made to suffer the penalty, those who had been consistently loyal should be suitably rewarded. He advised that all those who, during the past few months, had sent in Memorials denouncing the reform movement and rebuking the corrupt tendencies of the so-called new scholarship, should be advanced in the public service. Finally, he made the significant observation, that loyalty and patriotism when displayed by Chinese subjects are of greater value to the integrity of the Empire than these virtues when displayed by Manchus, an indication of statecraft likely to appeal to the acute intelligence of the Old Buddha. The Empress Dowager’s reply, while ostensibly in the nature of a rebuke, was marked by unusual evasiveness on the subject actually at issue. She laid stress only on the strict impartiality of the Throne’s decision, professing to be animated by feelings of abstract justice, and to be free from all manner of prejudice, whether against Manchus or Chinese. The Memorialist was, however, shortly afterwards promoted, and as a proof of her impartiality, the Empress Dowager proceeded, on the same day, to dismiss half-a-dozen high officials, one of whom was a Manchu; and on the ground that Jung Lu himself had recommended one of the reformers for employment, she ordered that he too be referred to the Board of Civil Appointments for the determination of a suitable penalty. This was merely “saving face.”

Stirred, as usual, to activity by anything in the nature of criticism, Her Majesty now issued Decrees in rapid succession. One of these declared the necessity for adequate protection of foreigners in the interior and for the Legations in Peking; another took the form of a homily to the Provincial Authorities in regard to the selection of subordinate officials. A third called for advice from the Provincial Viceroys and Governors, but they were told, at the same time, to avoid criticising on party grounds because “the Throne was fully aware of the motives which usually inspire such attacks.”

Subsequently, the Empress Dowager took occasion in a homily on the whole art of government, to place on record a defence of her policy as head of the Manchus in China. The following extract from this Decree is worth quoting:—

“The test of good government has always been the absence of rebellion; a State which takes adequate measures for self-defence can never be in serious danger. By the accumulated wisdom of six successive Sovereigns, our dynasty has succeeded in establishing a system of government, based on absolute justice and benevolence, which approaches very nearly to perfection. It has been our pleasure to grant immediate relief in times of flood and famine. When rivers burst their banks, our first thought has ever been the safety of our people. Never have we resorted to conscription, or to the levying of _corvées_. We have always excluded Chinese women from service as subordinates in the Palace. Surely such evidences of benevolent solicitude merit the hearty co-operation of all our subjects, and entitle us to expect that all our people, high and low, should peacefully pursue their business in life, so that all men, even the humblest labourers, may enjoy the blessings of peace. Is it any wonder then, that our soul is vexed when abominable treachery and the preaching of rebellion have been permitted to exist and to be spread broad-cast; when high officials, lacking all proper principles, have dared to recommend traitors to the Throne, in furtherance of their own evil designs? When we think of these things, our righteous indignation almost overwhelms us; nevertheless, we have granted a general amnesty, and will enquire no further into these base plottings.”

The Decree concluded with the usual exhortation to the official class, and an appeal for the exercise of ideal virtue.

Her Majesty’s next step was to reinstate certain leading reactionaries, whom the Emperor had recently dismissed, notably Hsü Ying-kuei, who had denounced the reformer Wang Chao. The Emperor’s party was now completely broken up, and he was left without supporters or friends in Peking. The Manchu Treasurer of Kansuh (Tseng Ho) was the last high official to speak in favour of the reform movement, or rather of one of its chief advocates, and, by so doing, to bring down upon him the wrath of the Old Buddha. The Memorial which brought about his summary dismissal from office, never again to be re-employed, referred in terms of regret to the disgrace of Weng T’ung-ho, the Emperor’s tutor.

Her Majesty next turned her attention to the provinces, and administered a severe rebuke to Liu K’un-yi, who, on grounds of ill-health, had asked to be relieved of the Nanking Viceroyalty. Her Majesty, reminding him in the classical phraseology of the high favours showered upon him by the Throne, directed him to abstain from frivolous excuses and to continue in the performance of his duties, exercising more diligence therein, and more care in his selection of subordinate officials.

The audacity of Weng T’ung-ho continued to rankle sorely in Her Majesty’s mind, and to allow him to continue to live in honourable retirement in his native place without loss of rank or other punishment was not in accordance with her ideas of fitness; nor was it likely that Jung Lu, who had always borne a grudge against the Imperial tutor, would do anything to mitigate her wrath against him. In a Decree, issued in the name of the Emperor, she once more vented her spite on this aged and inoffensive scholar, in a manner highly characteristic of her temperament. The Edict is sufficiently interesting to justify the following quotation:—

“When Weng T’ung-ho acted as our Imperial tutor, his method of instruction left much to be desired; he never succeeded in explaining the inner meaning of classical or historical subjects, but would spend his time endeavouring to gain our favour and distract our attention by showing us curios and pictures. He would endeavour also to ascertain our views on current events and matters of policy by discussing questions of general contemporary interest. During the war with Japan, for instance, he would at one time profess to advocate peace, and again he would be all for war, and finally he even advised us to flee from our capital. He had a habit of exaggerating facts in order to make them coincide with his own views, and the result of the foolish and wrongful performance of his duties is now to be seen in a situation almost irreparable. In the spring of last year he was all in favour of reform, and secretly recommended to us K’ang Yu-wei as a man whose ability, he said, exceeded his own one hundred fold. We, being anxious above all things to strengthen our Empire at a time of national danger, reluctantly yielded to K’ang Yu-wei’s advice in regard to reform. He, however, took advantage of our complaisance to plot treason. For this Weng T’ung-ho is primarily to blame, and his guilt is too great to be overlooked. Besides this, he has incurred our displeasure in several other ways; for instance, he would allow himself to show annoyance if we disagreed with his recommendations, and would even attempt to browbeat us. At such times his language was most improper, and the recollection of his bullying propensities remains in our mind most unpleasantly. In a previous Decree we ordered him to vacate his post and return to his native place, but for his many offences this in itself is no adequate punishment. We now order that he be cashiered, never again to be re-employed, and that henceforth he be held under close supervision of the local authorities and prohibited from creating trouble, as a warning to all double-minded officials for the future.”[64]

Weng T’ung-ho lived in his family home (Chang Shu in Kiangsu) until June, 1904, beloved and respected by all who knew him. He was by no means a nonentity like most of the aged officials near the Throne, but rather a person of considerable force of character, and after his dismissal lived always in the hope that he might yet return to serve the Emperor and the cause of reform upon the death of the Old Buddha. Meanwhile, he became a source of considerable trouble and anxiety to the District Magistrate of his native place, as he made it his practice to call on that official three times a month, and, in the guise of a suppliant, to address him, thus, on his knees: “You have orders from the Throne secretly to keep watch over my conduct, and I therefore now attend, as in duty bound, to assist you in carrying out these orders.” As the Magistrate could never be certain that the once all-powerful Grand Secretary might not return to power, his own position was evidently one of considerable embarrassment, especially as the Weng family was the most important of the whole neighbourhood. In the intervals of baiting local officials, the Grand Secretary spent his time in scholarly retirement, and a volume of the letters written by him at this period has since been published; they show the man in a most attractive light, as a scholar and a poet; his light and easy style, combined with a tendency to mysticism and philosophic speculation, has always been highly appreciated by the _literati_. As his fortune had not been taken from him, his old age was probably happier in his native place than had it been exposed to the intrigues and hard work of official life at the Capital; and he died in the enjoyment of a reputation for patriotism and intelligence which extended far beyond his native province, and which, since his death, has greatly increased.

The Empress Dowager, realising that the loyalty of the _literati_ had been greatly shaken by the Emperor’s abolition of the old system of classical studies and public examinations, proceeded to reverse His Majesty’s decision in a Decree which thoroughly delighted the Conservative Party. Scholars throughout the country praised it in unmeasured terms, as a striking example of the Old Buddha’s acute reasoning powers. To a certain extent it may be admitted that the new system of examinations introduced by the Emperor had led, at the outset, to abuses which were absent under the old classical system, where the anonymity of candidates was a cardinal principle. Her Majesty dealt with the question as follows:—

“The ancient system whereby our Dynasty has selected the scholars at public examinations by means of essays taken from the Four Books, is based on the principle that the foundation of all education lies in expounding the fundamental doctrines of our national Sages and the Standard Commentaries on the Confucian doctrine. For over two centuries this system has worked most satisfactorily, and it is only quite lately that certain meretricious tendencies have sprung up in connection therewith, and that candidates at these examinations have succeeded in obtaining degrees by the use of parrot-like repetitions and empty catch-words. The fault has been wrongly attributed to the system; it is in reality due to incapable examiners, who have allowed these abuses to creep in. Critics have failed to realise the truth in this matter, and have allowed themselves to abuse the system, going as far as to assert that the classical subjects in themselves are of no practical value. They forget that the classical essays set at these examinations are merely a first stage, a test for entrance upon an official career, and that, if the candidate is really a man of ability, the fact that he has been made to compose verses in accordance with the time-honoured methods of the T’ang and Sung dynasties will never prevent him from making his way in the world. But should he be a man in whom there exists already a tendency towards rash and unorthodox principles, it may safely be said that to set him essays on subjects of contemporary interest for the purposes of this examination would only serve to aggravate the evil and further to demoralise his nature. For these reasons, therefore, I now definitely decree that, for the future, the old system shall be restored, and that public examinations shall henceforward consist of themes and extracts from the Classics. A special examination for students of political economy, lately authorised, has been shown to be productive of evil, and is therefore abolished. It is the wish of the Throne that these public examinations shall be in reality a sound test of merit. Examiners and candidates alike should avoid meretricious adornments of style, and endeavour to conform strictly to the classical models. We desire, of course, that studies of a practical nature should be continued, but these had best be conducted under the guidance of local officials. It is certainly desirable that agriculture, and the promotion of industrial and commercial enterprises, should be placed on a more effective basis of organisation, but owing to difficulties of inter-communication and voluminous correspondence, it is inadvisable that these matters should be centralised at Peking. Let Bureaux be established at the various provincial capitals, and let a beginning be made at Tientsin, as a test case and an example for the rest of the Empire. The Peking Bureau is hereby abolished.”

_Souvent femme varie_, and the mind of Tzŭ Hsi never ran consistently for long in the same groove. Anxious always as to her popularity with all parties in the State, and with a view to adjusting that nice equilibrium of conflicting forces which constituted the pride of her statecraft and the strength of her rule, we find her next issuing a Decree which set forth the principles by which she professed to be guided. This Decree reflects a certain amount of anxiety and a doubt as to whether the punishment inflicted on the leading reformers might not be severely criticised by the outside world. Her Majesty therefore decrees:—

“From times of remote antiquity it has always been recognised that the perfect Government is that which is based on consistent maintenance of the doctrines of the Sages, but, in practice, the exigencies of any particular crisis must always justify modification of these principles, so that there can be no such thing as final and absolute adherence to any particular principle or method. Recently there have been introduced certain energetic measures of reform intended to put an end to the many and increasing abuses which admittedly exist all over the Empire; but certain evil-disposed persons have made these reforms the excuse for a revolutionary movement. These we have punished, so that the flood of treason and rebellion has been stemmed. This does not mean, however, that we shall fail to initiate and enforce all such measures, whether of a liberal or conservative nature, as may be necessary in the interest and for the welfare of our subjects. Was ever any man deterred from eating for fear lest a mouthful should choke him? There can surely be no real misapprehension in the public mind in the face of all the Decrees which we have issued on this subject, but we regret to note a marked lack of coherent opinion on the subject amongst our official advisers, for, at the time when these treasonable schemes were rife, we received scarcely any Memorials alluding to this national danger, and no suggestions for meeting it. It was only when the plot had been discovered and suppressed that certain attempts were made to acquire merit by those who thought they had fathomed the motives which had actuated our action. These misguided persons overlooked the important fact that it is the public interest, and the public interest only, which guides the policy of the Throne in matters of administration. The path we pursue is that of the just mean, diverging neither to right nor left. Once more would we admonish you, our officials throughout the Empire, bidding you purify your hearts and get rid, once and for all, of these false distinctions between reaction and reform. Let your Memorials consider only the needs of each day and each case as they come, and cease to submit haphazard schemes on the chance of their meeting with our personal approval.”

Her Majesty next turned her attention to the necessities and distressing condition of her people at large, and ordered that measures should once more be taken to prevent the constant destruction of life and property by the Yellow River in Shantung Province. She was under no delusion as to the nature of the measures taken in the part to remedy “China’s Sorrow” which, from time immemorial has been the happy hunting ground of peculating officialdom; nor could she expect that her stereotyped exhortations to virtue in this matter would afford her subjects any particular gratification. Her Majesty alluded to the fact that “frequent repairs to the banks of the Yellow River had not appeared to produce any permanent results,” but the remedy which she applied, viz., a consultation between the Grand Council and the various Ministries with the Censorate, was not very reassuring. Nor was her subsequent decision to send Li Hung-chang, to estimate on the spot the sum required for the construction of effective river conservancy works, calculated to convince the public of the sincerity of her benevolent intentions.

As in the days immediately following her first assumption of power after the overthrow of the Tsai Yüan conspiracy in 1861, the Empress Dowager at this period displayed remarkable activity in every direction, as is shown by the number of her Decrees at this period. After dealing with the Yellow River, she turned her attention to another permanent and crying evil, which for centuries has weighed heavily upon the lower classes of the Chinese people, viz., the interminable delay and heavy cost of legal proceedings and the hardships thus inflicted on all who may be compelled to seek justice at the hands of Chinese officials.

Her Majesty, in her Edict on the subject, showed a very close knowledge of the abuses with which, indeed, all Chinese are fully acquainted, but which official documents usually ignore. It is no doubt largely to her frankness in cases of this kind that the Old Buddha’s widespread reputation for good nature and tender-heartedness may be ascribed. Throughout the country, but especially in the north, it has always been the opinion of the peasantry and of the merchant class, that the Old Buddha was, if anything, too tender-hearted, and that her extreme mildness of disposition, though no doubt laudable, was on many occasions a source of danger. To her untimely “benevolence” the populace in Peking in 1900 undoubtedly ascribed the fact that the foreigners and native Christians were not massacred _en masse_ before the arrival of the relief expedition. In this Decree on the subject of lawsuits, Her Majesty states that she has recently learned that legal proceedings are frequently hung up for several months at a time, and that innocent persons have been detained in custody for indefinite periods pending enquiry.

“Every sort of extortion is apparently practised in these courts, and their gaolers deliberately obstruct the hearing of cases unless they are heavily bribed. But if one member of a family is thrown into prison, it is evident that his whole household must suffer. Who would willingly enter upon legal proceedings, unless suffering from injustice too grievous to be borne, when the myrmidons of the law are able thus to ill-treat claimants? At the root of the whole evil lies the fact that the magistrates wilfully delay their business, being deaf to the needs of the people. From our hearts we pity them, and we now decree that regulations shall at once be drawn up for the expediting of outstanding cases. Any delay in this matter will involve heavy penalties.”

Again, another Edict thus reflects the benevolence of the “Divine Mother” and her desire to conciliate public opinion:—