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THE ANXIOUS SIDE OF THE SITUATION.
(Daily Press, 3rd August.) There still seems to be a vast amount of uncertainty with regard to the movements of the Chinese Imperial Court. On the one hand we hear of preparations going on for the return of the Imperial family from Hsianfu to Peking, and on the other hand emphatic contradictions are given to these preparations, which, it is said, are only being made in order to throw dust into the eyes of the Foreign Ministers. The route to be taken by the refugee Court on its return journey to the capital has been discussed, and is given as follows by one of the Chinese papers: To proceed by land from Hsianfu to Linyuankou, a district under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng, in Honan; thence by boat across the Yellow River to its left bank, and from that point by land again to Taokou, in the district of Tsinhsien; from thence by boat to Techou, on the Wei river, Shantung, at its junction with the Grand Canal; from Techou by the Grand Canal to Tientsin, and from thence by railway to Peking. It is also stated that five steam launches are to be purchased to tow the barges of the Imperial party, both up the Wei river and on the Grand Canal, and orders have been given to prepare the large yamen of the Tribute Grain Transport Tao'ai in Techou as a temporary palace for their Majesties the Emperor KWANG HSU and the Empress Dowager, in case they should, by reason of unpropitious weather, or other causes, be compelled to call a halt there. This sounds all very plain and straightforward, but it does not follow that the Court will proceed to commence this journey. To any person it would mean a somewhat wearisome piece of travel, and to the luxury-loving inmates of the Imperial Court it no doubt seems really painful and even perilous adventure, however modified by the resources of the Government. If it be true, as reported, that much sickness now prevails at Hsianfu owing to the intense heat and that the Emperor and the Empress Dowager are among the sufferers, it is possible that Her Majesty may become impressed with the desirability of making a move; but it is most probable that, if any move is intended, it will not be in the direction of Peking.
[August 10, 1901.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
afraid. He says, and says truly, that they whose ancestral worship forms the ground- should not have been denounced unless it work of family existence, the succession of was intended to follow up such denunciation | a brother, or even of a member of the same and make the punishment fit the crime, for generation, seems little short of sacrilege; as they are now the irreconcileable enemies of manifestly the offerings to the manes must the foreigner and are resolved, if possible, partake of the nature of succession, and to procure his expulsion from the soil of the from the very nature of the case, the brother Central Kingdom. If we may credit this or the full cousin of any degree is excluded. authority, the outrages of last year are In the family cult of the Imperial clan, this nothing compared to what is now impend- fact is emphasised so as to be apparent on ing, and that unless the Empress Dowager the surface, by giving each horizontal line a aud her creatures are precluded from taking special title. In the ordinary Chinese part in the Government of China, aud un- family this is to a considerable extent con- less the Emperor KWANG Hsu is invested cealed by the priority given to the surname ; with real power, enabling him to rule as amongst the Manchus, where the family or well as reign, then a repetition of the clan name does not appear in the ordinary horrors of last year, but on a larger scale, appellation of the individual, the first may be looked for. Our contemporary is character of the individual name at once not given to cry "Wolf!" out of pure proclaims his position in the genealogical mischief, for it is conducted with a due chart. sense of responsibility and a well-known Thus the Emperor Tao Kwang's name dislike of sensationalism. It is in earnest was MIN NING, and his sons, as well in asking that these warnings, well intended as all others of the same generation, in any case, should not be curtly dismissed counting from the founder of the family,
08 their without examination being made into their bore
prenomen the charac- bona fides. We trust that this warning, ter 1. He was succeeded by his more than once repeated, will be carefully
fourth son, I CHO 奕泞. He had hecded, and that the Ministers will not again be trapped inside the walls of the besides eight other sons, all of whom bore capital, where they would stand less chance the prenoinen I, and any of whom was probably of a rescue
than on the last equally eligible. But besides his sons, any occasion.
grandson of the preceeding Emperor KIA K'ING also bore the prenomen I, and in default of an unobjectionable son, the others with the like prenomen I would be perfectly eligible.
THE IMPERIAL SUCCESSION.
(Daily Press, 5th August.) Recent advices from the North are not
satisfactory; and it may well be that the work of reconstruction may yet have to be taken in hand by the Powers. Indeed, as affairs have turned out, it would almost seem that the complacency of the foreigu nations has been carried too far, and we shall have at this eleventh hour to under- take the work which might have been better accomplished at the beginning. Most people are of the opinion that the only hope for China consists in restoring to his rightful position the dispossessed Emperor, KWANG Hsu, and ouce for all doing away with the regency of the Empress Dowager, to whose initiative the present impasse is mainly due; but here the unfortunate fact that the Emperor is without an heir doubtless inter feres, while every day shows the inadvisabi- lity of recognising the youth Pu Chus, who According to several native authorities, has been named by the Dowager as his the Imperial Government have no intention successor. If, as has been stated, Pu CHUN whatever of returning to Peking, and the has been spirited away by his ruffianly Foreign Ministers are simply repeating the father, Prince TUAN, this inadvisability is folly of last year, in shutting their eyes to still further accentuated. The youth, who the signs of the times. Our Shanghai was born in the year 1886, and is therefore morning contemporary, who is usually well fifteen years of age, has already developed posted, quotes a communication received traits of character which prove him to be from a correspondent who signs himself unfitted in every way for the post. He is 'An Anxious Student of the Situation," in undoubtedly a bad boy, and to this natural which the most pessimistic tone is adopted, unfittedness for the high post he has been and apparently not without adequate reason.
under the thumb of his father, whose evil Briefly summarised, this writer's views deeds are the common talk of Peking. The are to the following effect. The organisation situation is, however, one of unusual difficulty, of the Lienchung Hui (the Allied Villagers) aud the more so that in a matter affecting in Chihli is proceeding in such a manner as so closely the affairs of the Empire we have to cause considerable alarm. It seems that to take account of Chinese methods of this conspiracy is wide-spread, and that it thought, and respect what indeed to us will therefore assume formidable propor- may seem mere prejudices, but which to the tions so soon as the conspirators are ready. Chinese mind have a deeper import. Lately They are keeping quiet for moment, but we have spoken of the causes which have great preparations are going on, and when ¦ saved the Chinese as a nation from those the time is ripe there will be a descent upon evils of contested sucession which at all the walls of the capital, and a simultanenges in Asia have been at the root of un- ous rising within. This writer points outnumbered troubles. According to the rules that the three notorious "Tigers," who which prevail from Constantinople to the were then, and still are, the obedient tools of borders of China, the theory is that the the Empress Dowager, viz., Prince TUAN, | crown should go to the fittest; and in all YUNG LU, and TUNG FUHSIANG, are still safe from the consequences of their misdeeds, and none dares attempt to make them
ages the brother has been preferred to the son, especially when it has happened that the latter is of tender years. To the Chinese,
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But I CHEO in his turn bad but one son, who took the prenomen of the generation, and was called TSAI SHUN, and in due course, while yet of tender years, succeeded as the Emperor T'UNG CHI. It became necessary then to establish a regency, and the most energetic, the mother, the concubine
of the regency,
Emperor's own
Tzs'HI, from the first became the impelling force. When the Emperor came to man's estate, and showed some symptoms of the independence of spirit that had actuated his ancestors, he was suddenly taken ill, and died; but the announcement of his death was delayed till someone_convenient was found to put in his place. For personal reasons, only known to the Dowager, the infant son of I HWAN seventh son of TAO Kwano, but who was also a Tsai, TSAI TIEN, was selected, and placed on the throne with the Nienhao of KWAno Hsu.
"The
How the intrusion of a Trai, who was unable de facto to perform the necessary sacrificial rites to the shale of the unhappy boy Emperor, was received by the official classes in China we learn from the touching story of the death of the Censor Wu K'oru, whose last memorial, sealed by his voluntary death, appeared in the Peking Gazette of the time. Wu K'oru had twice before in the pursuit of what appeared to him the path of duty jeopardised his life by too freely commenting on affairs of state. remaining years he had yet to run were wholly the gift of his Majesty [Tvxo-oni] a few years since; in that he did not die after committing three deadly sins, and had a life restored to him for which he did not nue.' The life so restored to him be determined to devote to the Emperor who had pardoned him, but his Majesty, while' still young and without a son, was taken away, and ʼn son of Prince I Hwax [Prinos ↓ |CH'ʊx] was chosen Emperor in his stend, but adopted as sọn to Hinx Faxo, so leav- ing Tuxo Car without an heir to continue the sacrifices to his manes. The story `is beautiful in its simplicity and devotion. Wu asked for and obtained permission to attend at his dishonoured master's funeral, and determined that on its completion he
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