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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[43872]
No. 1.
1188 [December 16.] || JAN 09
SECTION 2.
(No. 525.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 16.)
Peking, November 24, 1908. THOUGH many of the Decrees which have been issued in the first week of the infant Emperor's reign have little bearing on foreign relations, it has occurred to me that in the singularly abnormal circumstances a rapid review of those which have not been inclosed in my preceding despatch may be of some interest.
A
The irregularity of Kuang Hsu's succession was explained fully in Sir Thomas Wade's despatch No. 14 of the 19th January, 1875, and it will be sufficient to recall that His Majesty's death without offspring left his predecessor, Tung-chih, also heirless. Decree of the Empress Dowager, dated the 14th November, ordained that the present Emperor, her grand-nephew, should by adoption continue the line of Tung-chih, her son, as well as that of Kuang Hsü, her nephew.
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Following the death of Kuang Hsü it became necessary to designate his widow the Empress Dowager," and to make room for this the title of her aunt was exalted to that of "August Empress Dowager" by a Decree of the Emperor issued on the 15th November, On the same day Decrees of the August Empress Dowager appeared, handing over the reins of government to the Prince Regent, and appointing four Imperial Princes and four high officers of the Central Government, amongst who were the two Presidents of the Wai-wu Pu, Na-tung and Yuan Shih-k'ai, to superintend the funeral of Kuang Hsü. The significance of Her Majesty's act of devolution was disclosed in a later Decree of the 15th November-the last executive utterance apart from the traditional valedictory Edict-in which it was plainly indicated that she felt herself at death's door, and desired that Kuang Hsü's widow should, in a measure, take her place in the future conduct of the government.
The Emperor's Decrees of this day were mere formal documents altering the mode of writing the second Chinese ideograph of his personal name in accordance with the national taboo, and absolving the chief officers of State employed outside the capital from the sacred duty of paying the last mark of respect to the remains of Kuang Hsü.
The Empress Dowager's death brought forth, on the 16th November, regulation Decrees appointing the same number of Princes and statesmen as in the case of Kuang Hsu to attend to the obsequies of Her Majesty, and also relieving the high provincial officials from the obligation to come to Court. To these were added two Decrees ordering the strictest guard to be kept ou the Palace gates and forbidding any one to sleep in the precincts except the officers and servants on duty, these precautions being no doubt invoked by persistent rumours of the presence of revolutionaries in Peking. Members of the Empress Dowager's own family were commanded to wear full mourning for 100 days, the period of national mourning being twenty-seven days only.
A eulogy of Kuung Hsu was issued in a Decree of the 17th November, in which the principal achievements of his reign are enumerated, ending in the preparation for a constitutional Government, and orders are given for the composition of a suitable dynastic title. Other Decrees commanded Prince P'u-lan and Chrên Pi, President of the Board of Communications, to select a site for Kuang Hsü's tomb in either the East or West Mausolea of the Imperial Family, and, after ancient precedents, degraded the physicians who were treating Ilis Majesty up to his death.
The most important Decree of the 19th announced the style of the new reign, Hsian-t'ung, which will not come into general use till the beginning of the new Chinese year, all documents being until then dated in the 34th year of Kuang Hsii.
The style usually has some dynastic meaning apart from the sense of the characters, and I am informed by Chinese that in this case the ideograph "Hsian" is probably part of the dynastic title of Hsien-fêng, the present Emperor's grandfather, and “* tung" may be translated "succession or "line."
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Two Decrees dealt with the question of mourning, the Princes and Ministers urging
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