k."

XXI

THE DEATH OF KUANG HSU AND THE EMPRESS DOWAGER

During mid-November of 1908 the Forbidden City of Peking was a blind
stage before which an expectant world sat as an audience. It had not
long to wait, for on the fifteenth and sixteenth it learned that Kuang
Hsu and the Empress Dowager, less than twenty-four hours apart, had
taken "the fairy ride and ascended upon the dragon to be guests on
high." The world looked on in awe. It expected a demonstration if not a
revolution but nothing of the kind happened. But on the other hand one
of the most difficult diplomatic problems of her history was solved in
a quiet and peaceable, if not a statesman-like way, by the aged Dowager
and her officials, and China once more had upon her throne an emperor,
though only a child, about whose succession there was no question. And
all this was done with less commotion than is caused by the election of
a mayor in New York or Chicago, which may or may not be to the credit
of an absolute monarchy over a republican form of government.

The world has speculated a good deal as to what happened in the
Forbidden City of Peking during the early half of November. Will the
curious world ever know? Whether it will or not remains for the future
to determine. We have, however, the edicts issued to the foreign
legations at Peking and with these at the present we must be content.
From them we learn that it was the Empress Dowager and not Kuang Hsu
who appointed Prince Chun as Regent, and that this appointment was
made--or at least announced--twenty-four hours before the death of the
Emperor.

On the thirteenth of November the foreign diplomatic representatives
received the following edict from the great Dowager through the regular
channel of the Foreign Office of which Prince Ching was the president:

"It is the excellent will of Tze-hsi-kuan-yu-k'ang-
i-chao-yu-chuang-ch'eng-shou-kung-ch'in-hsien-chung-hsi, the great
Empress Dowager that Tsai Feng, Prince of Chun, be appointed Prince
Regent (She Chang-wang)."

The above edict was soon followed by another which stated that "Pu I,
the son of Tsai Feng, should be reared in the palace and taught in the
imperial schoolroom," an indication that he was to be the next emperor,
and that Tsai Feng and not Kuang Hsu was to occupy the throne, and all
this by the "excellent will" of the Empress Dowager.

On the morning of the fourteenth the following edict came from the
Emperor himself:

"F