. The awakening of China . act opens with the coup detat of theEmpress Dowager, and terminates with the captureof Peking by the combined forces of the civilisedworld. Instead of attempting, even in outline, a narrativeof events, it will be more useful to direct attention tothe springs of action. It should be borne in mindthat the Emperor is the adopted son of the DowagerEmpress. After the death of her own son, Tung-chi,who occupied the throne for eleven years under ajoint regency of two empresses, his mother cast aboutfor some one to adopt in his stead. With motivesnot difficult to divine she
. The awakening of China . act opens with the coup detat of theEmpress Dowager, and terminates with the captureof Peking by the combined forces of the civilisedworld. Instead of attempting, even in outline, a narrativeof events, it will be more useful to direct attention tothe springs of action. It should be borne in mindthat the Emperor is the adopted son of the DowagerEmpress. After the death of her own son, Tung-chi,who occupied the throne for eleven years under ajoint regency of two empresses, his mother cast aboutfor some one to adopt in his stead. With motivesnot difficult to divine she chose among her nephewsan mfant of three sttmmers, and gave him the titleKwangsu, Illustrious Successor. When he wasold enough to be entrusted with the reins of govern-ment, she made a feint of laying down her power, indeference to custom. Yet she exacted of the imperialyouth that he visit her at her country palace and throwhimself at her feet once in five days—proof enoughthat she kept her hand on the helm, thotigh she. THE BOXER WAR 173 mitted her nephew to pose as steersman. She her-self was noted for progressive ideas; and it was notstrange that the young man, tmder the influence ofKang Yuwei, backed by enlightened viceroys, shouldgo beyond his adoptive mother. Within three yearsfrom the close of the war he had proclaimed a succes-sion of new measures which amounted to a reversalof the old policy; nor is it likely that she disapprovedof any of them, until the six ministers of the Board ofRites, the guardians of a sort of Levitical law, be-sought her to save the empire from the horrors of arevolution. For her to command was to be obeyed. The viceroyswere her appointees; and she knew they would standby her to a man. The Emperor, thotigh nominallyindependent, was not emancipated from the obliga-tions of filial duty, which were the more binding ashaving been created by her voluntary choice. Therewas no likelihood that he would offer serious resistance;and it was certain that
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