Part 36

At the crossing of the Yellow River, which took place in beautiful weather, she sacrificed to the River God, in expiation and thanksgiving. The local officials had constructed a magnificent barge, in the form of a dragon, upon which she and the ladies of the Court crossed the stream. It was noticed from this point onwards that wherever foreigners happened to be amongst the spectators of the Imperial cortège, she made a point of showing them particular attention and civility, and before her arrival in Peking she issued a Decree commanding that Europeans should not be prevented from watching the procession upon her arrival, and this in spite of the fact that, in accordance with the usual custom, the Legations had issued notices forbidding their nationals to appear in the streets during the passage of the Imperial cortège. Everything indicated, in fact, that Her Majesty now desired to conciliate the European Powers by all possible means, and if it be borne in mind that it was part of her deliberate policy thus to ingratiate herself with foreigners as a means of furthering her own future policy, her actions lose nothing of interest, while they gain something from the humorous point of view.

On crossing the borders of the Province of Chihli, Her Majesty issued a Decree, couched in almost effusive terms of friendliness, proclaiming that the Emperor would receive the foreign Ministers in audience immediately upon his return to the Palace, and that the reception would take place in the central Throne Hall of the sacred enclosure. Chinese, reading this Decree, and ignorant of the terms of the Peace Protocol which provided for this particular concession to the barbarian, would naturally regard it as a spontaneous mark of the Imperial clemency and goodwill. In the same Edict Her Majesty proclaimed her intention of receiving the Ministers’ wives in person, intimating that she cherished most pleasant memories of past friendly intercourse with them. Here, again, we note fulfilment of a plan, deliberately conceived and formed upon the best classical models, “for dealing with strong and savage people.”

At noon on the 6th of January, 1902, the Imperial party arrived by special train at the temporary station which had been erected close to the Southern walls of Peking, and adjoining the old terminus at Ma-chia pu. Large pavilions, handsomely decorated, had been erected near the station, in which the Old Buddha and the Emperor were to be received; they were furnished with a throne of gold lacquer, cloisonné altar vessels and many valuable pieces of porcelain. Several hundreds of the highest metropolitan officials were in attendance, and a special place had been provided for foreigners. As the long train of over thirty carriages drew up at the station, the keen face of the Old Buddha was seen anxiously scanning her surroundings from one of the windows of her car. With her were the young Empress and the Princess Imperial, while the chief eunuch, Li Lien-ying, was in attendance. Recognising Her Majesty, every official fell upon his knees, whilst Chi Lu, chief officer of the Household, officiously shouted to the foreigners to remove their hats (which they had already done). The first to emerge from the train was the chief eunuch, who proceeded forthwith to check the long list of provincial tribute and treasure, mountainous loads of baggage which had travelled with the Court from the start and under Her Majesty’s close personal supervision. After the eunuch came the Emperor, evidently extremely nervous, who, at a sign from Her Majesty, hurried into his sedan-chair and was swiftly borne away, without a word or a sign of recognition to any of the officials in attendance. After his departure, the Empress came out and stood upon the platform at the end of her carriage. “Quite a number of foreigners are here, I see,” she was heard to observe. She saluted them in accordance with the etiquette observed by Chinese women—bowing and raising her crossed hands. Prince Ch’ing then advanced to greet Her Majesty, and with him Wang Wen-shao (who had succeeded Li Hung-chang as Peace Plenipotentiary). They invited Her Majesty to enter her chair: “There is no hurry,” she replied. She stood for some five minutes in full view of the crowd, talking energetically with the bystanders, and looking extremely well and youthful for her age, until the chief eunuch returned and handed her the list of baggage and treasure, which she scanned with close attention and then returned to him with an expression of satisfaction.

After this, at the request of the Viceroy of Chihli (Yüan Shih-k’ai), the foreign manager and engineer of the railway were presented to her, and received her thanks for the satisfactory arrangements made throughout the journey. She then entered her chair, a larger and finer conveyance than that supplied to the Emperor, and was borne away towards the Palace; by her side ran one of her favourite eunuchs repeatedly calling Her Majesty’s attention to objects of interest. Whenever foreigners were in sight he would inform Her Majesty of the fact, and by one he was heard distinctly to say: “Look! Old Buddha, look quickly at that foreign devil,” whereupon the Empress smiled and bowed most affably. Passing through the Southern gate of the Chinese city, her bearers carried her straight to the large enceinte of the Tartar city wall at the Ch’ienmen, where stands the shrine dedicated to the tutelary God of the Manchus. Here crowds of foreigners were in waiting on the wall. Looking down on the courtyard towards the shrine, they saw the Old Buddha leave her chair and fall upon her knees to burn incense before the image of the God of War, whilst several Taoist priests chanted the ritual. Rising she next looked up towards the foreigners, smiling and bowing, before she was carried away through the gate into the precincts of the Forbidden City. No sooner had she reached the inner palace (the Ning Shou kung) at about 2 P.M., than she commanded the eunuchs to commence digging up the treasure which had been buried there at the time of her flight; she was gratified beyond measure to find that it had indeed remained untouched.

Next, with an eye not only upon her future relations with foreigners but also on public opinion throughout the Empire, she issued a Decree conferring posthumous honours on the “Pearl concubine,” who, as it will be remembered, was thrown down a well by her orders on the morning of the Court’s flight from the Palace. In this Decree Her Majesty praises the virtue and admirable courage of the dead woman, which “led her virtuously to commit suicide when unable to catch up the Court on its departure,” unwilling as she was to witness the destruction and pollution of the ancestral shrines. Her trustworthy conduct was therefore rewarded by the granting of a posthumous title and by promotion of one step in rank in the Imperial harem. The Decree was generally regarded as fulfilling all reasonable requirements of atonement towards the deceased, for in China the dead yet live and move in a shadowy, but none the less real, hierarchy. Alive, a “Pearl concubine” more or less counted for little when weighed against the needs of the Old Buddha’s policies; once dead, however, her spirit must needs be conciliated and compensated.

Many Europeans who had witnessed the arrival of the Empress Dowager, remained at the railway station to see the unloading of her long baggage train, a most interesting and instructive sight. First were discharged the yellow chairs of the young Empress and the Princess Imperial, and four green chairs with yellow borders for the principal concubines; the other ladies of the Court followed in official carts, two to each vehicle. There were about ninety of them altogether, and the arrangements for their conveyance were accompanied by no little noise and confusion, the loquacity of some of the elder ladies being most noticeable. After their departure the attention of the eunuchs and minor officials was directed to the huge pile of the Empress Dowager’s personal baggage, which included her cooking utensils and household articles in daily use. This operation, as well as the removal of a very large quantity of bullion, (every case of which was marked with the name of the province or city that had sent it as tribute), was for a time superintended by the Grand Council. But as the work was enough to last for several hours, it was not long before, led by Jung Lu, they entered their chairs and left for the City. It was noticed that Jung Lu seemed very infirm, and was supported as he walked by two attendants of almost gigantic stature.

From Cheng-ting fu to Pao-ting fu, and thence to Peking, the Court travelled, for the first time in its history, by train. The following description of the journey is reprinted, by kind permission of the editor of _The Times_, from an article published in that paper in March, 1902. It shows an interesting side of the Empress Dowager’s character, that of the thrifty mistress of her goods and chattels, and gives a clear-cut impression of that vigorous personality which devoted the same close attention to details of transport and domestic economy as to niceties of Court ceremonial or historical precedents on vital questions of State; characteristics which inevitably suggest a marked resemblance between the Old Buddha and _le petit Caporal_.

“Early on December 31st the Court arrived at Cheng-ting fu, escorted by a large body of cavalry and accompanied by an enormous suite of officials, eunuchs and servants. The baggage was carried by a train of carts, estimated by an eye-witness at three thousand. The eunuchs numbered between three and four hundred, and of cooks and other kitchen servants there were almost as many. To provide accommodation for such a mass of people was impossible, especially as all the best quarters in the town had already been occupied by the high officials who, with their retainers, had come from the north to welcome the Empress Dowager on her return. For three days the Court rested in Cheng-ting fu, during which time the scene was one of indescribable confusion; baggage, stacked haphazard, filled every available corner, eunuchs and servants camping around and upon it, stolidly enduring much physical discomfort with the apathy peculiar to Asiatics. Yet, so great was the cold (on the night of January 1st the thermometer stood at two degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero) that many of these wayfarers gave way to lamentations and tears. Officials of the lower and middle grades, unable to obtain a lodging, were compelled to pass these days in such makeshift shelter as they could find in the vicinity of the railway station, where swarmed a mob of undisciplined soldiery. On the second night a fire broke out in the stables of the Imperial residence, which, though eventually checked before much damage was done, added greatly to the general disorder, and might well have had serious results in the absence of all organisation and control. The definite announcement of the Court’s intention to leave for Pao-ting fu on the 3rd of January was received with unmistakable relief by the hungry, motley crowd which represented the pomp and pride of Asia’s greatest Empire.

“From the Yellow River to the railway terminus at Cheng-ting fu—a distance of about two hundred and fifty miles—the ever-growing Imperial procession had travelled almost continuously in chairs, litters, carts, and on horse-back, affording a spectacle which recalled in many of its chief characteristics those of Europe’s mediæval pageantry as described by Scott. Every Manchu Prince had a retinue of horsemen varying from thirty to a hundred in number; along the frost-bound, uneven tracks which serve for roads in Northern China, an unending stream of laden waggons creaked and groaned through the short winter’s day, and on, guided by soldier torch-bearers, through bitter nights to the appointed stopping places. But for the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, with the Chief Eunuch and the ladies of the Court, there was easy journeying and a way literally made smooth. Throughout its entire distance the road over which the Imperial palanquins were borne had been converted into a smooth, even surface of shining clay, soft and noiseless under foot; not only had every stone been removed, but as the procession approached gangs of men were employed in brushing the surface with feather brooms. At intervals of about ten miles well-appointed rest-houses had been built, where all manner of food was prepared. The cost of this King’s highway, quite useless, of course, for the ordinary traffic of the country, was stated by a native contractor to amount roughly to fifty Mexican dollars for every eight yards—say £1,000 a mile—the clay having to be carried in some places from a great distance. As an example of the lavish expenditure of the Court and its officials, in a land where squalor is a pervading feature, this is typical.

“The hour for leaving Cheng-ting fu was fixed by the Empress Dowager at 9.30 A.M. on January 3rd. It is significant of the character of this remarkable woman, now in her sixty-seventh year, that even in matters of detail she leaves nothing to chance, nothing to others; the long arm of her unquestioned authority reaches from the Throne literally to the servants’ quarters. Without creating any impression of fussiness, she makes a distinctly feminine personality felt, and the master-mind which has guided the destinies of China for the last forty years by no means disdains to concern itself in minor questions of household commissariat and transport. It is impossible not to reflect what such a woman might have been, what she might have done for her people, had there come into her life some accident or influence to show her, in their true light, the corruption, dishonesty, and cold-blooded cruelty of her reign.

“The departure of the Court by a special train, long since prepared for its reception by the Belgian railway authorities and Sheng Hsüan-huai, was fixed for 9.30 A.M. in accordance with Her Majesty’s orders; that Imperial and imperious lady, however, made her appearance at the station at seven o’clock, accompanied by the young Empress, the Imperial concubine, and the ladies-in-waiting. The Emperor had preceded her, and upon her arrival knelt on the platform to perform respectful obeisance, in the presence of an interested crowd. The next two hours were spent by the Empress, who showed no signs of fatigue, in supervision of the arrangements for despatching the vast accumulation of her personal baggage, and in holding informal audiences with various high dignitaries, military and civil, on the platform. Amongst others she sent for M. Jadot, and spent some time in friendly conversation with him, expressing great satisfaction at the excellent arrangements made for her comfort, and pleasure at exchanging the sedan chair for her luxuriously-appointed drawing-room car. She took pains to impress upon the engineer-in-chief the importance which she attached to keeping the Court’s baggage and effects within reach, evincing on this subject much determination of a good-humoured kind.

“Eventually, after the despatch of four freight trains, her mind was relieved of this anxiety, but it was to be clearly understood that the same personal supervision would be exercised at Pao-ting fu, for in no circumstances could the impedimenta be sent on in advance to Peking. There is a touch of feminine nature in this incident which can hardly fail to bring the Empress Dowager into some degree of kinship with her fellow-women in other lands; there is also an implied reflection on the honesty of persons in attendance on the Court which is not without significance.

“The scene upon the platform was one of remarkable interest. In utter subversion of all accepted ideas in regard to the seclusion and privacy in which the Chinese Court is supposed to live, move, and have its being, there was on this occasion—and indeed throughout the journey—no sign of either attempt or wish to guard Their Majesties from observation and intrusion. The crowd, quietly inquisitive, but showing no inclination to demonstration of any sort, came and went at its pleasure; Yüan Shih-kai’s braves, who to the number of about a thousand travelled to Peking as the Empress Dowager’s bodyguard, crowded around the Imperial party, invading even their railway carriages. While the ruler of the Empire held audience with some of its highest officials, none of their retainers were employed, as might have been expected, in keeping the people at a respectful distance; the scene, in fact, bore striking testimony to that democratic side of the Chinese character which cannot but impress itself on every foreign visitor to a Viceroy’s or magistrate’s yamên; in the present instance, however, it must have been, for all concerned, a new and remarkable experience.

“To the native spectators, the ladies of the Court with their eunuch attendants were as much objects of interest as the foreign railway officials; the Imperial concubine, ‘Chin’ (or ‘Lustrous’) Kuei fei, a lively young person of pleasing appearance, attracting much attention. This lady, gaily clad and with lavishly painted face, bestowed upon everything connected with the train an amount of attention which augurs well for the future of railway enterprise in China, running from car to car and chatting volubly with the ladies-in-waiting. All the ladies of the Court wore pearls in profusion—those of the Empress being particularly fine—and all smoked cigarettes in place of the time-honoured water-pipe. Herein again, for the optimistically inclined, may be found a harbinger of progress. During the Empress Dowager’s audiences, lasting sometimes over a quarter of an hour at a time, the Emperor stood close at her side; invariably silent, generally listless, though his expression when animated is described as conveying an impression of remarkable intelligence. The young Empress has good features, marred, in European eyes, by excessive use of paint; she, too, appeared to be melancholy, and showed but little interest in her surroundings. The Emperor and both Empresses were simply dressed in quiet coloured silks.

“The special train in which, punctually at 9.30 A.M., the rulers of China left for their capital consisted of a locomotive and twenty-one carriages, arranged in the following order:—Nine freight cars laden with servants, sedan chairs, carts, mules, &c.; a guard’s van, for employés of the railway; two first-class carriages (Imperial Princes); Emperor’s special carriage; first-class carriage for high officials in attendance (Jung Lu, Yüan Shih-k’ai, General Sung Ch’ing, Lu Ch’uan-lin, Governor Ts’en of Shansi, Ministers of the Household, and others); Empress Dowager’s special carriage; special carriages of the young Empress and the Imperial concubine; two second-class carriages, for eunuchs in attendance; first-class carriage for the Chief Eunuch, and the ‘Service’ carriage of M. Jadot.

“The special carriages had been prepared at great expense under instructions issued by the Director-General of Railways, Sheng. Those of the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and his consort, were luxuriously furnished with costly curios and upholstered in Imperial yellow silk; each had its throne, divan, and reception room. Heavy window curtains had been thoughtfully provided in the carriages intended for the ladies’ use; they were not required, however, as none of the party showed any desire for privacy during the entire journey. While travelling, the carriage of the Empress Dowager was the general rendezvous of all the ladies, attended by their eunuchs, the Empress Dowager spending much of the time in conversation with the Chief Eunuch—of somewhat notorious character—and the Emperor.

“The Empress Dowager possesses in a marked degree a characteristic frequently observed in masterful natures: she is extremely superstitious. The soothsayers and astrologers of the Court at Peking enjoy no sinecure; on the other hand, more attention is paid to their advice than that which the average memorialist obtains, and the position of necromancer to the Throne is not unprofitable. On the present occasion the sages-in-ordinary had fixed the auspicious hour for the Sovereign’s return to Peking at 2 P.M. on January 7th; M. Jadot was accordingly requested to make the necessary arrangements to this end, and the Empress Dowager repeatedly impressed upon him the importance which she attached to reaching the Yung-ting gate of the city at that particular hour. To do this, as the engineer-in-chief pointed out, would entail starting from Pao-ting-fu at 7 A.M., but the determined ruler of China was not to be put off by any such considerations. At 6 A.M. this wonderful woman arrived at the station; it was freezing hard, and the sand storm was raging violently; soldiers bearing lanterns and torches led the way for the chair-bearers, since the day had not yet dawned. The scene in all its details appeals powerfully to the imagination. Once more the baggage question monopolised the Empress Dowager’s attention; her last freight train, laden with spoils of the southern provinces, preceded the Imperial train by only twenty minutes. It will be realised that the august lady’s requirements in the matter of personal supervision of her property added responsibility of a most serious kind to the cares—at no time light—of the railway staff.

“An incident occurred at Pao-ting fu which throws a strong side-light upon the Empress Dowager’s character. The high Chinese officials above mentioned, who travelled in the first-class carriage between the Emperor’s special car and that of the Empress, finding themselves somewhat pressed for space, consulted the railway officials and obtained another first-class compartment, which was accordingly added to the train. Her Majesty immediately noticing this, called for explanations, which failed to meet with her approval. The extra carriage was removed forthwith, Yüan Shih-k’ai and his colleagues being reluctantly compelled to resume their uncomfortably crowded quarters; to these Her Majesty paid a visit of inspection before leaving the station, making enquiries as to the travellers’ comfort, and expressing complete satisfaction at the arrangements generally.