XXI
The Death of Kuang Hsu and the Empress Dowager
Who knows whether the Dowager Empress will ever repose in the magnificent tomb she has built for herself at such a cost, or whether a new dynasty may not rifle its riches to embellish its own? Tze-Hsi is growing old! According to nature's immutable law her faculties must soon fail her; her iron will must bend and her far-seeing eye grow dim, and after her who will resist the tide of foreign aggression and stem the torrent of inward revolt?—Lady Susan Townley in "My Chinese Note Book."
XXI
THE DEATH OF KUANG HSU AND THE EMPRESS DOWAGER
During mid-November of 1908 the Forbidden City of Peking was a blind stage before which an expectant world sat as an audience. It had not long to wait, for on the fifteenth and sixteenth it learned that Kuang Hsu and the Empress Dowager, less than twenty-four hours apart, had taken "the fairy ride and ascended upon the dragon to be guests on high." The world looked on in awe. It expected a demonstration if not a revolution but nothing of the kind happened. But on the other hand one of the most difficult diplomatic problems of her history was solved in a quiet and peaceable, if not a statesman-like way, by the aged Dowager and her officials, and China once more had upon her throne an emperor, though only a child, about whose succession there was no question. And all this was done with less commotion than is caused by the election of a mayor in New York or Chicago, which may or may not be to the credit of an absolute monarchy over a republican form of government.
The world has speculated a good deal as to what happened in the Forbidden City of Peking during the early half of November. Will the curious world ever know? Whether it will or not remains for the future to determine. We have, however, the edicts issued to the foreign legations at Peking and with these at the present we must be content. From them we learn that it was the Empress Dowager and not Kuang Hsu who appointed Prince Chun as Regent, and that this appointment was made—or at least announced—twenty-four hours before the death of the Emperor.
On the thirteenth of November the foreign diplomatic representatives received the following edict from the great Dowager through the regular channel of the Foreign Office of which Prince Ching was the president:
"It is the excellent will of Tze-hsi-kuan-yu-k'ang- i-chao-yu-chuang-ch'eng-shou-kung-ch'in-hsien-chung-hsi, the great Empress Dowager that Tsai Feng, Prince of Chun, be appointed Prince Regent (She Chang-wang)."