The present Emperor is the ninth of the Tsing dynasty who has reigned in China. Tsing means Pure, and was taken by the Manchus as a distinctive term for their new dynasty, alluding to the purity of justice they intended to maintain in their sway. Some of the founders of the ancient dynasties derived their dynastic name from their patrimonial estates, as Sung, Han, Chau, etc., but the later ones have adopted names like Yuen, or ‘Original,’ Ming, or ‘Illustrious,’ etc., which indicate their vanity.
The present monarch is still a minor, and the affairs of government are nominally under the direction of the Empress-dowager, who held the same office during the minority of his predecessor, Tungchí. The surname of the reigning family is Gioro, or ‘Golden,’ derived from their ancestral chief, Aisin Gioro, whom they feign to have been the son of a divine virgin. They are the lineal descendants of the Kin, a rude race which drove out the Chinese rulers and occupied the northern provinces about 1130, making Peking their capital for many years. On the approach of the Mongols they were chased away to the east, and retained only a nominal independence; changing their name from Nüchih to Manjurs, they gradually increased in numbers, but did not assume any real importance until they became masters of China. The acknowledged founder of the reigning house was the chief Hien-tsu (1583-1615), whose actual descendants are collectively designated Tsung-shih, or ‘Imperial Clan.’ The second Emperor further limited the Clan by giving to each of his twenty-four sons a personal name of two characters, the first of which, Yun, was the same for all of them. For the succeeding generations he ordered a series of characters to be used by all the members of each, so that through all their ramifications the first name would show their position. Kanghí’s own name was Hiuen, then followed Yun, Hung, Yung, Mien, Yih, and Tsai, the last and present sovereigns being both named Tsai. All who bear this name are direct descendants of Kanghí. Since the application of these seven generation names, eight more have been selected for future use by imperial scions.
In order still further to distinguish those most nearly allied in blood, as sons, nephews, etc., it is required that the second names of each family always consist of characters under the same radical. Thus Kiaking and his brothers wrote their first names Yung, and under the radical gun for the second; Taukwang and his brothers and cousins Mien, and under the radical heart. For some unexplained reason the radicals silk and gold, chosen for the second names of the next two generations, were altered to words and water. This peculiarity is easily represented in the Chinese characters; a comparison can be made in English with the supposed names of a family of sons, as Louis Edward, Louis Edwin, Louis Edwy, Louis Edgar, etc., the word Louis answering to Mien, and the syllable Ed to the radical heart.
The present Emperor’s personal name is Tsai-tien, and, like those of his predecessors, is deemed to be too sacred to be spoken, or the characters to be written in the common form. The same reverence is observed for the names after death, so that twelve characters have been altered since the Manchu monarchs began to reign; Hiuen-wa, which was the personal name of Kanghí, has become permanently altered in its formation. The present sovereign was born August 15, 1871, and on January 12, 1875, succeeded his cousin Tsaishun, who died without issue—the first instance in the Gioro family for nearly three centuries. At this time there was some delay as to which of his cousins should succeed to the dragon throne, when the united council of the princes was led by the mother of the deceased Emperor to adopt her nephew, the son of Prince Chun. The little fellow was sent for at night to be immediately saluted as hwangtí, and ere long brought in before them, cross and sleepy as he was, to begin his reign under the style of Kwangsü, or ‘Illustrious Succession.’
THE KWOH HAO AND MIAO HAO.
This title is called a kwoh hao, or national designation, and answers more nearly to the name that a new Pope takes with the tiara than to anything else in western lands. It is the expression of the idea which the monarch wishes to associate with his reign, and is the name by which he is known to his subjects during his life. It has been called a period by some writers, but while it is not strictly his name, yet period is not so correct as reign. Usage has made it equivalent in foreign books to the personal name, and it is plainer to say the Emperor Taukwang than the period Taukwang or the reign Taukwang, or still more than to write, as Wade has done, “the Emperor Mien-Ning, the style of whose reign was Tau Kwang;” or than Legge has done, to say, “the Emperor Pattern, of the period Yungching.” In such cases it is not worth the trouble to attempt strict accuracy in a matter so entirely unlike western usages.
The use of the kwoh hao began with Wăn-tí, of the Han dynasty,[223] B.C. 179, and has continued ever since. Some of the early monarchs changed their kwoh hao many times during their reigns; Kao-tsung (A.D. 650-684), for example, had thirteen in a régime of thirty-four years, which induced historians to employ the miao hao, or ancestral name, as more suitable and less liable to confusion. The reason for thus investing the sovereign with a title different from his real name is not fully apparent, but arose probably out of the vanity of the monarch, who wished thus to glorify himself by a high-sounding title, and make his own name somewhat ineffable at the same time. The custom was adopted in Japan about A.D. 645, and is practised in Corea and Annam.
CORONATION PROCLAMATION OF TAUKWANG.
When a monarch ascends the throne, or as it is expressed in Chinese, “when he receives from Heaven and revolving nature the government of the world,” he issues an inaugural proclamation. There is not much change in the wording of these papers, and an extract from the one issued in 1821 will exhibit the practice on such occasions:
“Our Ta Tsing dynasty has received the most substantial indication of Heaven’s kind care. Our ancestors, Taitsu and Taitsung, began to lay the vast foundation [of our Empire]; and Shítsu became the sole monarch of China. Our sacred ancestor Kanghí, the Emperor Yungching, the glory of his age, and Kienlung, the eminent in honor, all abounded in virtue, were divine in martial prowess, consolidated the glory of the Empire, and moulded the whole to peaceful harmony.