"The Imperial Government has already demonstrated its firm intention to follow the policy of the open door.' . . . As to the ports now opened or hereafter to be opened to foreign commerce by the Chinese Government, ... the Imperial Government has no intention whatever of claiming any privileges for its own subjects to the exclusion of other foreigners." The other Powers also assented. But it was all in vain. Matters had already gone too far, and, beside, the Chinese knew well enough that the Powers were not to be trusted beyond the limits of self-interest. Some of the Chinese, it is true, had the intelligence to see that changes were inevitable, and the result was the development of a Reform Party among the Chinese themselves. It was not large, but it included some influential men, though, unfortunately, their zeal was not always tempered by discretion. The war with Japan powerfully aided them. True, many of the Chinese do not yet know that there was such a war, for news travels slowly in a land whose railway and telegraph lines, newspapers and post-offices are yet few, and whose average inhabitant has never been twenty miles from the village in which he was born. But some who did know realized that Japan had won by the aid of Western methods. An eagerness to acquire those methods resulted. Missionaries were besieged by Chinese who wished to learn English. Modern books were given a wide circulation. Several of the influential advisers of the Emperor became students of Occidental science and political economy. In five years, 1893-1898, the book sales of one society-that for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese-leaped from $817 to $18,457, while every mission press was run to its utmost capacity to supply the new demands. A powerful exponent of the new ideas appeared in the great Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung. He wrote a book, entitled "China's Only Hope," exposing the causes of China's weakness and advocating radical reforms. The book was printed by the Tsung-li Yamen, and by royal command copies were sent to the high officials of the Empire. Big yellow posters advertised it from the walls of leading cities, and in a short time a million copies were sold. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that "this book made more history in a shorter time than any other modern piece of literature, that it astonished a kingdom, convulsed an Empire and brought on a war." The Reform Party urged the young Emperor to use the imperial power for the advancement of his people. He yielded to the pressure and became an eager and diligent student of the Western learning and methods. In the opening months of the year 1898, he bought no less than 129 foreign books, including a Bible and several scientific works, besides maps, globes, and wind and current charts. Nor did he stop with this, but with the ardour of a new convert issued the now famous reform edicts, which, if they could have been carried into effect, would have revolutionized China and started her on the high road to national greatness. These memorable decrees have been summarized as follows: 1. Establishing a university at Peking. 2. Sending imperial clansmen to study European and American Gov ernments. 3. Encouraging art, science and modern agriculture. 4. Expressing the willingness of the Emperor to hear the objections of the conservatives to progress and reform. 5. Abolishing the literary essay as a prominent part of the Government examinations. 6. Censuring those who attempted to delay the establishment of the Peking Imperial University. 7. Directing that the construction of the Lu Han railway be carried on with more vigour. 8. Advising the adoption of Western arms and drill for all the Tartar troops. 9. Ordering the establishment of agricultural schools in the provinces to teach improved methods of agriculture. 10. Ordering the introduction of patent and copyright laws. II. Ordering the Board of War and the Foreign Office to report on the reform of the military examinations. 12. Offering special rewards to inventors and authors. 13. Ordering officials to encourage trade and assist merchants. 14. Ordering the foundation of school boards in every city in the Empire. 15. Establishing a Bureau of Mines and Railroads. 16. Encouraging journalists to write on all political subjects. 17. Establishing naval academies and training ships. 18. Summoning the ministers and provincial authorities to assist the Emperor in his work of reform. 19. Directing that schools be founded in connection with all the Chinese legations in foreign countries for the benefit of the children of Chinese in those countries. 20. Establishing commercial bureaus in Shanghai for the encouragement of trade. 21. Abolishing six useless Boards in Peking. 22. Granting the right to memorialize the Throne by sealed memorials. 23. Dismissing two presidents and four vice-presidents of the Board of Rites for disobeying the Emperor's orders that memorials should be presented to him unopened. 24. Abolishing the governorships of Hupeh, Kwang-tung and Yun-nan as a useless expense to the country. 25. Establishing schools for instruction in the preparation of tea and silk. 26. Abolishing the slow courier posts in favour of the Imperial Customs' Post. 27. Approving a system of budgets as in Western countries. The But, alas, it is disastrous to try to "hustle the East." Chinese are phlegmatic and will endure much, but this was a little too much. Myriads of scholars and officials, who saw their hopes and positions jeopardized by the new tests, protested with all the virulence of the silversmiths of Ephesus, and all the conservatism of China rallied to their support. Meantime, the Yellow River, aptly named "China's Sorrow," again overflowed its banks, devastating a region 100 miles long and varying from twenty-five to fifty miles wide. Three hundred villages were swept away and 1,000,000 people made homeless. Famine and pestilence speedily followed, so that the whole catastrophe assumed appalling proportions. Even American communities are apt to become reckless and riotous in time of calamity, and in China this tendency of human nature was intensified by a superstition which led the people to believe that the disaster was due to the baleful influence of the foreigners, or that it was a punishment for their failure to resist them, while in the farther north a drought led to equally superstitious fury against "the foreign devils." The virile and resolute Empress-Dowager headed the reaction against the headlong progressiveness of the young Emperor. September 22, 1898, the world was startled by an Imperial Decree which read in part as follows: "Her Imperial Majesty the Empress-Dowager, Tze Hsi, since the first years of the reign of the late Emperor Tung Chih down to our present reign, has twice ably filled the regency of the Empire, and never did her Majesty fail in happily bringing to a successful issue even the most difficult problems of government. In all things we have ever placed the interests of our Empire before those of others, and, looking back at her Majesty's successful handiwork, we are now led to beseech, for a third time, for this assistance from her Imperial majesty, so that we may benefit from her wise and kindly advice in all matters of State. Having now obtained her Majesty's gracious consent, we truly consider this to be a great boon both to ourselves as well as to the people of our Empire. Hence we now command that from henceforth, commencing with this morning, the affairs of State shall be transacted in the ordinary Throne Hall, and that to-morrow (23rd) we shall, at the head of the Princes and Nobles and Ministers of our Court, attend in full dress in the Ching-cheng Throne Hall, to pay ceremonial obeisance to her Imperial Majesty the EmpressDowager. Let the Board of Rites draw up for our perusal the ceremonies to be observed on the above occasion."! The youthful son of Toanwong was appointed heir to the throne and the ambitious father immediately proceeded to use his enhanced prestige to set the Empire in a blaze. 1 Pott, "The Outbreak in China," pp. 56, 57. T XVII THE BOXER UPRISING HE now famous Boxers were members of two of the secret societies which have long flourished in China, To the Chinese they are known as League of United Patriots, Great Sword Society, Righteous Harmony Fists' Association and kindred names. Originally, they were hostile to the foreign Manchu dynasty. When Germany made the murder of two Roman Catholic missionaries a pretext for pushing her political ambitions, the Boxers naturally arrayed themselves against them. As the champions of the national spirit against the foreigners, the membership rapidly increased. Supernatural power was claimed. Temples were converted into meeting-places, and soon excited men were drilling in every village. The real ruler of China at this time, as all the world knows, was the Empress Dowager, who has been characterized as "the only man in China." At any rate, she is a woman of extraordinary force of character. She was astute enough to encourage the Boxers, and thus turn one of the most troublesome foes of the Manchu throne against the common enemy, the foreigner. Under her influence, the depredations of the Boxers, which were at first confined to the Shantung Province, spread with the swiftness of a prairie fire, until in the spring of 1900 the most important provinces of the Empire were ablaze and the legations in Peking were closely besieged. In the heat of the conflict and under the agonizing strain of anxiety for imperilled loved ones, many hard things were said and written about the officials who allied themselves with the Boxers. But Sir Robert Hart, who personally knew them and |