For the first time in the annals of the Ching dynasty, the throne was now left without a direct heir. As it is the office of the son and heir to perform regularly the ancestral worship, it is necessary that if there should be no son, the heir should be, if possible, of a later generation than the deceased. In the present instance this was impossible, and it was necessary therefore that the lot should fall on one of the cousins of the late emperor. Tsai-teen, the son of the Prince of Chun, a child not quite four years old, was chosen to fill the vacant throne, and the title conferred upon him was Kuang Su or “an inheritance of glory.”
Scarcely had the proclamation gone forth of the assumption of the imperial title by Kuang Su, when news reached the English legation at Peking of the murder at Manwyne, in the province of Yun-nan, of Mr. Margary, an officer in the consular service who had been dispatched to meet an expedition sent by the Indian government, under the command of Colonel Horace Browne, to discover a route from Birmah into the south-western provinces of China. In accordance with conventional practice, the Chinese government, on being called to account for this outrage, attempted to lay it to the charge of brigands. But the evidence which Sir Thomas Wade was able to adduce proved too strong to be ignored even by the Peking mandarins, and eventually they signed a convention in which they practically acknowledged their blood guiltiness, under the terms of which some fresh commercial privileges were granted, and an indemnity was paid.
At the same time a Chinese nobleman was sent to England to make apology, and to establish an embassy on a permanent footing at the court of St. James. Since that time the Chinese empire has been at peace with all foreign powers until the eruptions of the recent months. There have been some narrow escapes from war with the European countries holding possessions on the southern Chinese border, but serious results have not followed. Ministers have been maintained in China by the western nations, and by China in the western capitals.
Under the child Kuang Su, who came to the throne in 1875, we have seen the completion of Chinese re-conquests in Central Asia and the restoration of Kuldja by the Russians. For many years the progressive party in the nation’s councils, under the leadership of Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chihli, gradually appeared to gain ground, amply posted as the court of Peking was in the affairs of western countries. Even the old conservative party, of which the successful and the aged general Tso Tsung-tang was the representative, has vastly modified its tone in the last twenty years.
It is true that the short experimental line of railway which had been laid down between Shanghai and Wusung was objected to, and finally got rid of by the Chinese government; but the reason for this apparently retrograde step arose out of the not very scrupulous means employed by the promoters of the scheme, and out of the very natural dislike of an independent state to be forced into innovations for which it may not be altogether prepared. Since that time several telegraph lines have been constructed, beginning with the first one between Peking and Shanghai, which formed the final connecting link between the capital of the Chinese empire and the western civilized world. The freedom of residence has been greatly extended to foreigners living in China. Travel has become safer, and popular hatred towards foreigners not as apparent. Slow as it has been to take effect, nevertheless the influence of closer association with western civilization has made its impress on the Chinese nation, and the extreme conservatism in many details has been compelled to waver. The stories of the war which are to follow will indicate much of the characteristics of the later day history of the empire.
THE CHINESE EMPIRE.
Origin of the Name of China, and What the Chinese Call their Own Country—Dependencies of the Empire—China and the United States in Comparison—Their Many Physical Similarities—Mountains and Plains—The Fertile Soil—Provinces of China—Rivers and Lakes—Climate—Fauna and Flora—Industries of the People—Commerce with Foreign Nations—The Cities of China—Forms of Government and Administration.
Until recent years the word China was unknown in the empire which we call by that name, but of late it has become more familiar to the Chinese, and in certain regions they are in fact adopting it for their own use, owing to the frequency with which they hear it from the foreigners with whom they are doing business. The name was no doubt introduced in Europe and America from the nations of Central Asia who speak of the Chinese by various names derived from that of the powerful Ching family, who held sway many centuries ago. The names which the Chinese use in speaking of themselves are various. The most common one is Chung Kwo, the “Middle Kingdom.” This term grew up in the feudal period as a name for the royal domain in the midst of the other states, or for those states as a whole in the midst of the uncivilized countries around them. The assumption of universal sovereignty, of being the geographical center of the world, and also the center of light and civilization that have been so injurious to the nation, appear in several of the most ancient names. In the oldest classical writings the country is called the Flowery Kingdom, flowery presenting the idea of beautiful, cultivated, and refined. The terms Heavenly Flowery Kingdom, and Heavenly Dynasty are sometimes used, the word heavenly presenting the Chinese idea that the empire is established by the authority of heaven, and that the emperor rules by divine right. This title has given rise to the contemptuous epithet applied to the race by the Europeans, “The Celestials.”
The Chinese empire, consisting of China proper and Manchooria, with its dependencies of Mongolia, I-li and Thibet, embraces a vast territory in eastern and central Asia, only inferior in extent to the dominions of Great Britain and Russia. The dependencies are not colonies but subject territories; and China proper itself indeed, has been a subject territory of Manchooria since 1644.