That the Chinese appreciate the picturesque, both in situation and in architecture, is shown in this picture.
Kang Yi was sent on a mission southward through all the provinces to extort money to raise more armies, as well as to feel the pulse of the people in regard to, and encourage them in, their anti-foreign tendencies. Li Ping Heng was sent to examine and report on all the defenses of the Yangtze valley, as well as to denounce any official of progressive tendencies. Yu Hsien was to succeed the latter as Governor of Shantung, and to sow in that province the seeds of disorder and riot that yielded such a bitter crop when they ripened; just as only a poorly-organized, semi-patriotic, but fully looting society could do—an organization that was to be called the I Ho Ch’uan or Boxer organization.
This programme has been fully carried out, and what the result has been will be described in part only (as we in the north only know part) in the following chapters.
CHAPTER II
YU HSIEN APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF SHANTUNG, REMOVED BY BRITISH DEMANDS, ONLY TO BE REWARDED—YUAN-SHIH KAI SUCCEEDS HIM—CAUSES OF HATRED OF CONVERTS BY PEOPLE AND BOXERS—THE BOXERS AND THEIR TENETS—THE EMPRESS CONSULTS ASTROLOGERS
HSU CHING CHENG
Ex-minister to Germany, member of Tsung-li-yamen. Beheaded Aug. 9, for favoring peace.