The Emperor was greatly incensed at Hsü Ying-ku’ei’s outspoken denunciation of K’ang Yu-wei, but could not as yet summon up courage to offend the Empress Dowager by dismissing from office one who enjoyed her favour and protection. Tzŭ Hsi perused both Memorials and was secretly impressed by Hsü’s warning in regard to the revolutionary tendencies of the reformers. From that day, though openly unopposed to reform, she became suspicious of K’ang’s influence over the Emperor, but preferred to bide her time, never doubting that, at a word from her, Kuang-Hsü would dismiss him. She gave a special audience to Wang Wen-shao, who had come from Tientsin after handing over the Chihli Viceroyalty to Jung Lu. Wang stoutly supported Hsü Ying-ku’ei’s attitude of caution in regard to several of the Emperor’s proposed measures. Following upon this audience, the Emperor issued a Decree permitting Hsü to retain his posts, but warning him to show more energy in future both at the Board of Rites and at the Tsungli Yamên. Hsü regarded this as a decided triumph, due to Tzŭ Hsi’s protection, and became more than ever opposed to innovations; this attitude was strengthened when Huai Ta Pu, his Manchu colleague at the Board of Rites and a first cousin of Tzŭ Hsi, came out as a strong supporter of the ultra-Conservatives.
The Emperor’s next Decree provided for the reorganisation of the effete Manchu troops of the Metropolitan Province and for the founding of colleges and high schools in the provinces, to correspond to the Peking University.
A reactionary Memorial by the Censor Wen T’i[53] charged his colleagues Sung Po-lu and Yang Shen-hsiu with making their personal jealousy of Hsü Ying-ku’ei an excuse for deluding the Emperor and setting him at variance with the Empress Dowager. This greatly angered His Majesty, who promptly had the offender dismissed from the Censorate for stirring up that very party strife which his Memorial professed to denounce. Wen T’i, thus rebuked, induced Huai Ta Pu to go out to the Summer Palace and endeavour to enlist the Old Buddha’s sympathy in his behalf. She, however, declined to move in the matter, having at the moment no specific ground of complaint against the Emperor and preferring to give the Progressives all the rope they wanted; but she caused Yü Lu, one of her old protégés, to be appointed to the Grand Council, and this official kept her regularly informed of everything that occurred in Peking. He belonged to the Kang Yi faction of extremists and disapproved of reform with all the dogged stupidity of his class. Later, in 1900, as Viceroy of Chihli, he rendered no little assistance to Kang Yi’s schemes for massacring all foreigners, and was a noted leader of the Boxer movement. With three reactionaries on the Council of the stamp of Kang Yi, Wang Wen-shao and Yü Lu, there was small chance of any genuine opportunity or honest purpose of reform, whatever the Emperor might choose to decree, but before the Conservatives could assume the offensive, they had to win over Tzŭ Hsi definitely and openly to their side, and with her Jung Lu.
At about this time Kuang-Hsü reprimanded another Censor for a trifling error in caligraphy, the incorrect writing of a character.[54] Nevertheless, a week later, a Decree was issued, clearly showing the influence of K’ang Yu-wei, in which it was ordered that caligraphy should no longer form a special subject at the public examinations. “In certain branches of the public service neat handwriting was no doubt of great value, but it would in future be made the subject of special examinations for the appointment of copyists.”
On the 8th day of the 6th Moon, a Decree ordered arrangements to be made for the publication of official Gazettes all over the Empire, and K’ang Yu-wei was placed in charge of the Head Office at Shanghai. These Gazettes were to be official newspapers, and their object was the extension of general knowledge. They were to receive Government subsidies; copies were to be regularly submitted for the Emperor’s perusal; opinions were to be freely expressed, and all abuses fearlessly exposed. K’ang Yu-wei was directed to draw up Press regulations in this sense.
On the 23rd of the 6th Moon, another vigorous Decree exhorted the official class to turn its attention seriously to reforms. Herein the Emperor declared that the procrastination hitherto displayed was most disheartening. “Stagnation,” said the Edict, “is the sign of grave internal sickness; hopeless abuses are bred from this palsied indifference. An earnest reformer like Ch’en Pao-chen, the Governor of Hupei, becomes a target for the violent abuse of officials and gentry. Henceforward I would have you all sympathise with my anxiety and work earnestly together, so that we may profit by our past reverses and provide for a brighter future.”
Another Decree ordered the institution of naval colleges as a step preliminary to the reconstruction of China’s fleet. Railway and mining bureaus were established in Peking, and the Cantonese reformer, Liang Ch’i-Ch’ao, was given charge of a Translation Department, to publish standard foreign works on political economy and natural science, a grant of one thousand taels per mensem being allowed to cover his expenses.
But an innovation more startling than all these, broke upon the upholders of the old régime in a Decree issued in response to a Memorial by Jung Lu, who was all in favour of reform in military matters. It was therein announced that the Emperor would escort the Empress Dowager by train to Tientsin on the 5th day of the 9th Moon, and there hold a review of the troops. The Conservatives were aghast at the idea of their Majesties travelling by train, but Tzŭ Hsi, who had always enjoyed riding on the miniature railway in the Winter Palace, was delighted at the prospect of so novel an excursion. But if Manchu propriety was shocked at this proposal, a still heavier blow was dealt it by the next Decree, which abolished a number of obsolete and useless Government offices and sinecures, fat jobs which, for generations, had maintained thousands of idlers in the enjoyment of lucrative squeezes, a burden on the State.
This Decree was loudly denounced as contrary to the traditions of the Manchu Dynasty, and from all sides came urgent appeals to the Old Buddha to protect the privileges of the ruling class, and to order its cancellation. Yet another bolt fell two days later, when all the high officials of the Board of Rites, including Hsü Ying-ku’ei and the Empress Dowager’s kinsman, Huai Ta Pu, were summarily cashiered for having suppressed a Memorial by the Secretary, Wang Chao. In this document it was suggested that the Emperor, in company with the Empress Dowager, should travel abroad, beginning with Japan and concluding with a tour in Europe. Realising that “the craft of Demetrius was in danger,” nearly all the Conservatives holding high office proceeded in a body to the Summer Palace and told the Empress Dowager that the only hope of saving the country lay in her resumption of the supreme power. The Old Buddha bade them wait—the sands were running out, but she was not yet ready to move.
K’ang Yu-wei, realising that there was danger ahead, took advantage of what he mistook for indecision on the part of Tzŭ Hsi to induce the Emperor to rebel against her authority. Once more he assured Kuang-Hsü that her professed sympathy for reform was all a sham, and that, on the contrary, it was she herself who was the chief obstacle to China’s awakening, her influence being really the prime factor in the country’s corruption and lethargy. Why should she be permitted to waste millions of Government funds yearly in the upkeep of her lavish establishment at the Summer Palace? He advised the Emperor by a coup de main to surround her residence, seize her person, and confine her for the rest of her days on a certain small island in the Winter Palace lake. Thereafter he should issue a Decree recounting her many misdeeds and proclaiming his intention never again to permit her to have any part in the Government. This conversation was held in a private apartment of the Palace, but there is every reason to believe that it was reported to Tzŭ Hsi by one of the eunuch spies employed by Li Lien-ying for that purpose. The Emperor foolishly allowed himself to be led into approval of this plot, but decided to await the Court’s proposed trip to Tientsin before putting it into execution. He knew that to ensure success for the scheme he must be able to command the services of the troops, and he realised that so long as Jung Lu was in command of the foreign-drilled forces of Chihli, he would never consent to their lifting a finger against his lifelong benefactress. Herein, in the Emperor’s opinion, lay the main obstacle that confronted him. The real danger, that lay in Tzŭ Hsi’s enormous personal influence and fertility of resource, he appears to have under-rated, mistaking her inaction for indecision.