t)S']fc3 
 
 (iiotmU Mnitteraitg Cihrarg 
 
 Stlfata, SS^cni lock 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLFAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 763.L69L77 
 
 Li Huna Chang :his life and times /by Mr 
 
 3 1924 023 144 730 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023144730 
 
LI HUNG -CHANG 
 
 ,HIS LIFE AND TIMES 
 
PHOTO, RUSSBX^L &. S UlSrS, HAKEH. 
 
 Li Hung Chang in 1896. 
 
LI HUNG- CHANG 
 
 HIS LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. ARCHIBALD LITTLE 
 
 Author of "Intimate China" 
 •' The Land of the Blue Gown " 
 "Marriage in China" "Out in China" 
 
 IVITH SEVERAL PORTRAITS, AND A MAP. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY. LIMITED 
 
 LONDON, PARIS. NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE 
 
 MCMIII.— ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 

 \A| \U% 
 
I^Birtratton. 
 
 TO MY DEAR HUSBAND, 
 
 IN OTJE DISTANT HOME IN WESTERN CHINA, 
 
 COUNTING UPON WHOSE CO-OPEEATION I DARED TO UNDERTAKE 
 
 THIS WORK, 
 
 AND WHOSE RICHLY-STORED MEMORT, 
 
 CALM JUDGMENT, 
 
 AND SUSTAINING SYMPATHY I HAVE MISSED MORE AND MORE 
 
 WHILB WRITING EACH SUCCESSIVE PAGE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE PAGS 
 
 I. Introduction— The Beginnings of Li Hung-chang 
 
 (1823—1851) 1 
 
 II. The Fiest Yeaes of the Taiping Eebellion (1851— 
 
 1862) 7 
 
 III. The Taiping Eebellion : The Episode of Buegevine 
 
 (1863) 15 
 
 IV. The Taiping Eebellion : The Bbteayal op Faith 
 
 (1863) 28 
 
 V. The End of the Taiping Eebellion : Li, Goedon, 
 
 and Chang (1863—1864) 3» 
 
 VI. The Afteemath of the Taiping Eebellion (1864 — 1868) 51 
 Vn. Peomotion to Chihli : Vagaeies of the Yellow 
 
 Eivee (1869—1873) 65 
 
 VIII. The Empeeoe Ttjng-Chih : His Maeeiage and Death 
 
 (1872—1875) 85 
 
 IX. Diplomatic Expeeiences (1873—1876) . . . .95 
 X. Chang Chih-tung, the Incoeeuptible . . . .110 
 
 XI. Things Domestic (1877—1881) 119 
 
 XII. Teeaties and Wae-Clouds (1879—1886) . . . .129 
 
 XIII. The Viceeoy's Mothee (1882—1883) . . . .143 
 
 XIV. MiNOE Affaies (1884—1887) 151 
 
 XV. Pbesonages and Peesonal Mattees (1887—1889) . . 157 
 
 XVI. The Visit of the Czaeevitch (1891) . . . .177 
 XVII. Puebly Peesonal 183 
 
 XVin. iNTEIGtTES AND TeOUBLES (1891—1894) . . . .198 
 
 XIX. The Japanese Wae (1894—1895) . . .214 
 
Ti LI EUNQ - CHANG. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XX. Pjeace Negotiations (1895) . . . .233 
 
 XXI. Li's Triumphal Peogeess (1896) 249 
 
 XXII. Coup de ThI;atee and Coup d'etat (1896—1899) . . 265 
 
 XXIII. The Boxee Outbeeak (1899—1901) 291 
 
 fXXIV. Peace : and Death (1900—1901) 310 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 A.— Memoeial or June 1st, 1880, by Chaug Chih-tung . . 333 
 B.— Indictment of December 5th, 1894, against Li Hung- 
 
 CHANG 341 
 
 C— Note 350 
 
 Index 351—356 
 
 PLATES. 
 
 Li Hung-chang in 1896 Front. 
 
 Li Hung-chang (1871) 72 
 
 Li Hung-chang's Wife 16i 
 
 Li Hung-chang (about 1896) 232 
 
 Li Hung-chang, with a Geoup of Opficees, 1900 . . . 312 
 Map of China After 356 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I DESIRE to express my deep obligations to Mr. Alexander 
 Michie's " The Englishman in China," and Professor Douglas's 
 " Li Hung Chang " in the Public Men of To-day Series ; 
 and yet more to the North China Herald, that rich store- 
 house of information on all matters connected with the Far 
 East ; and to other contemporary newspapers both foreign and 
 Chinese, the back numbers of which I have ransacked pain- 
 fully and toilsomely for many a long month, trying wherever 
 I could to reproduce the impressions of an eye-witness, or 
 at least of one who wrote at the time, as sure to be more 
 vivid than any carefuUy written after-account. Mr. W. C. 
 Howard's short sketch of the Taiping KebeUion has been 
 specially useful in this way, although I have taken for my 
 guide as to Li's life accounts specially written for me by his 
 own countrymen, whose names I da not give — any more than 
 those of the many gentlemen who have kindly supplied me 
 with much valuable information, and to whom I am indebted 
 for many a telling anecdote; because they have themselves 
 played no small part in the political events here touched 
 upon, and being still connected with China would probably 
 prefer to remain unknown. 
 
 The value of the tael has varied so greatly during Li 
 Hung-chang's long life, that as it would be impossible 
 for me to reproduce its exact value at different times I 
 
viii LI BUNG - GEANG. 
 
 have given all large money estimates in taels. With regard 
 to measurements, I have taken a mile as the equivalent of 
 ten Chinese li. 
 
 Although many more detailed accoimts may yet be 
 published of Li Hung-chang's financial enterprises and 
 diplomatic successes, yet the fact that I am unable to give 
 the secret history of these, having been in no wise implicated 
 in them, may perhaps the better quahfy me to write with 
 that strict impartiality which I have tried to observe, not 
 only about the man himself, but also of the friends and 
 surroimdings of one of the most brilliant figures of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 ALICIA BEWICKE LITTLE. 
 
 Pioneer Club, Geapton Street. 
 
LI HUNQ-CHANG: 
 
 HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. — THE BEGINNINGS OF LI HUNG-CHANG 
 (1823-1851). 
 
 "TTTRITING the biography of Li Hung-chang is writing 
 T T the history of the nineteenth century in China. Of 
 all the men who have crossed the world's stage in the 
 Far East during that eventful period he stands out as the one 
 prominent personaHty ; without whose agency no war was 
 undertaken nor treaty concluded — and during the period of 
 Li's lifetime China has been engaged in no fewer than six foreign 
 wars and in innumerable domestic rebellions. Li was indeed 
 the Grand Old Man of China, much as Gladstone was the 
 Grand Old Man of England, Bismarck of Germany, and Cavour 
 of Italy. In some ways Li occupied a greater place in China, 
 as well as in the eyes of all Europeans who had dealings with 
 China, than did even Gladstone in England ; for he was the 
 one man to whom the distracted Manchu Government inevit- 
 ably had recourse, each time that the crass ignorance of 
 the princes of the ruling Imperial House had brought the 
 country to the verge of ruin. He was also the one man 
 in China with whom foreign envoys found it possible to 
 engage in reasonable discussion. As he stood head and 
 shoulders above the masses of his countrymen in physical 
 stature, so he excelled them in mental calibre ; in his 
 perception of international policy and appreciation of his 
 country's true position in the world. That he is not in- 
 disputably acknowledged as a great man is in some measure 
 
 B 
 
2 LI EUNG-OHANO. 
 
 because the Chinese race is incapable of producing what we 
 esteem a great man, and that he is not more respected by 
 his countrymen is largely owing to the bitter enemies he 
 made by his distribution of patronage, to his reputed avarice, 
 and to the fact that, in wars into which his fellow officials 
 stumbled, and in negotiations, where he was called on, after 
 the event, to put things right, Li was unable, owing to 
 circumstances, to bring out his country as victor in any 
 one of the long series. 
 
 Thus it was that he earned the hatred and contempt of 
 many of his contemporaries, who saw in him only the 
 destroyer of his country's honour, much as large masses of 
 people at home regard Gladstone's rule as having aU but 
 proved the ruin of England. But Li never held the power 
 of action that is enjoyed by a Prime Minister even in a 
 country under representative government : he was but a link 
 in the chain of corrupt officialdom that has for centuries 
 been throttling the country, a chain which he could not 
 break without a bloody revolution, such as some of his 
 foreign admirers credited him with meditating at one time, 
 though of this design on the part of Li himself no evidence 
 whatever exists. On the contrary, distinguished loyalty to 
 the dynasty was conspicuous throughout his whole career ; 
 and that, standing out as he did as the foremost man of 
 his nation, he did not accomplish more for his country — so 
 that his name goes down to posterity rather as a clever 
 opportunist in politics than as what many at one time hoped 
 he would turn out, the saviour of his country — may be at 
 least in great measure attributable to the condition of China 
 herself; where deceit and corruption are deep-rooted, so that 
 no step can be taken without a bribe, and the higher the 
 official rank the greater the demands on the purse and the 
 heavier the " presents " that subordinates must make to 
 their superior to enable him to meet these demands. 
 
 Such as he was, Li Hung-chang was a striking product 
 of his age and country : for fifty years on end he served 
 his Government to the best of his capacity, from the time 
 when, as a young man, he aided his father to raise militia 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF LI SUNG-OHANG. 3 
 
 in his native province to repulse the Taiping rebels, to the 
 day when, on his death-bed in Peking, he strove to modify 
 the necessarily hard terms imposed upon his defeated country 
 by an indignant European convention. Such a career is 
 worthy of study if we care to gain an insight into the 
 workings of the most long-lived civilisation the world has 
 yet seen, and must be of perennial interest to the student 
 of human nature as well as to the philosophic historian 
 interested in watching the development of world-wide issues. 
 The study of Li's life and character should prove of practical 
 value to the statesman as well as of scientific interest to 
 the student. I have here sought to give an account of it 
 that may be of interest to the general reader. 
 
 When we in Europe think of Li Hung-chang, it is perhaps 
 in connection with the Taiping rebellion, during which we 
 dimly remember that he committed some act of treachery 
 against Gordon, which roused almost to madness the righteous 
 anger of the soldier whom the English people delight also 
 to honour as saint. Or we think of him as the Chinese 
 official, from whom aU company promoters and enterprising 
 adventurers generally have for years past tried to obtain conces- 
 sions in China, receiving sometimes only a rebuff for their pains ; 
 the man with whom all travelling members of Parliament 
 and other round-the-world men obtained interviews, writing 
 long paragraphs as to the extraordinary honour each in turn 
 maintained had been somewhat exceptionally granted — but by 
 whom they were, as a rule, rather themselves interviewed and 
 very successfully turned inside out. Then we recollect that, 
 after the Japanese War, Li was dismissed from office and had 
 all his honours taken away, because the Chinese had been 
 defeated ; that he was afterwards sent over to arrange terms 
 of peace and was shot at by some Japanese fanatic, thereby 
 being reinstated in favour in the world's eyes, at least as 
 far as Europe was concerned ; that he was next sent to 
 Moscow to offer congratulations on the occasion of the Tzar's 
 coronation, and thus himself became a round-the-world man ; 
 that he was treated with the highest honour each nation in 
 
4 LI aUNG-GSANa. 
 
 turn could heap upon him; and was then, to the surprise 
 of Europe, on his return, greeted with ignominy rather than 
 congratulation, and deprived of his yellow riding jacket as 
 well as of various other articles which we persist in associating 
 with his toilette, though they might better be described as 
 his decorations, like our own garter, collars, ribands, and clasps. 
 
 Then, possibly, we remember that he was sent as Viceroy 
 to Canton, till he suddenly declared he had received an 
 Imperial Edict from Peking — which we believed at that time 
 to be cut off from all telegraphic communication with the 
 rest of the world, just because the Diplomatic Corps there 
 shut up were thus cut off ; that he then came up to Shanghai, 
 where no one would call upon him, or acknowledge his authority 
 or be seen talking to him, till at last he set an arm-chair on 
 the pathway of the fashionable drive, and there, surrounded 
 by his suite, chatted with any passer-by who would con- 
 descend ; that he was then suddenly appointed, in conjunction 
 with " Prince Ching and others," to settle terms of peace with 
 almost all the nations of the civilised world ; and at length 
 somewhat fearfully set out upon his journey to Peking, the 
 last of all his many wanderings. For there, on Nov. 7, 1901, 
 aged seventy-eight, the " grand old man " of China, as he has 
 often been called, died, in harness to the end; killed, as all 
 agree, by over- worry and anxiety, though there is some little 
 difference in the accounts as to what caused the anxiety — of 
 what nature was the worry. 
 
 It is difficult to say whether the man in the street, when 
 he spoke of " good old Li," as he loved to call him, thought 
 of him as more than a grand old figurehead in the many 
 pageants of his European tour. And a grand old figurehead 
 Li Hung-chang certainly was. But it is interesting to notice 
 that, in a long biography published in a Chinese newspaper 
 on the occasion of his death, not one of the facts mentioned 
 above is even so much as alluded to, barring his appointment 
 as Viceroy of Canton. Curiously enough, the facts we 
 remember, because we find them interesting, the Chinese 
 newspaper writer thinks beneath notice ; whilst those he enu- 
 merates are somewhat of the dry-as-dust order. However, 
 
THE BEOmMNGS OF LI HUAO-OHANG. 5 
 
 for every personage a skeleton is required, and these last, 
 after all, form the skeleton of Li's life. But it is well to 
 begin with this reminder, that if we look at Li's career solely 
 from the European standpoint,;we must get it out of all drawing 
 
 Li was born in 1823, at Ho-fei in the Anhui proYince. 
 where he was also brought up. Like the eighteen provinces 
 of China proper, Anhui is divided into two parts by that grand 
 waterway the Yangtse River. A large portion of the province 
 is low-lying ground liable to be submerged in the summer 
 floods when the river, red-brown and swollen, spreads out 
 to a breadth of eight or ten miles, not quite as in the days 
 of Marco Polo, yet looking still, as he said, like a sea. 
 Anhui is chiefly remarkable for its cities, among them 
 Nganking, its capital (best known to English people as the 
 training centre of the China Inland Mission), and Wuhu, a 
 treaty port ; it is also remarkable for supplying more rice 
 in proportion to its area than any other province in China — 
 and also more holders of office ; but this last may be in some 
 measure thanks to the Li family. Li's father, at one 
 time Senior Secretary of the Board of Punishments, was, as 
 Li himself tells us, one of that great body of Literati, of whom 
 there are so many in China that they make quite a formidable 
 class; mostly unemployed, studious, disappointed men, of 
 keen critical faculties and smaU means ; not ready naturally 
 to welcome foreigners, especially foreigners eager to upset the 
 teachings of the great Confucius ; yet forming perhaps the 
 most worthy part of the nation; whom anyone wanting to 
 move the nation in any direction must first try to win. 
 
 Young Li was educated in the orthodox Chinese manner ; 
 and although he is reported to have had a reprehensible 
 predilection for play as a boy, he in due course obtained the 
 degree of Provincial graduate at Peking in 1845, became a 
 MetropoHtan graduate in 1848, and in 1851, the year of 
 our Great Exhibition, got the title " Released from Study." 
 Later he received that of Second-class Hanlin Compiler, and 
 ranked as one of the chief Chinese Compilers of a Pavilion of 
 the Imperial Palace 
 
6 LI RJJNG-GRANG, 
 
 In China literary excellence is the passport to all high 
 posts ; and an Oxford first-class man would be expected to 
 go out to war and, sitting in a tent or driving along in a 
 carriage with paper and pencil, to be able to direct Lord 
 Kitchener or any other mere general as to tactics as well as 
 strategy. After all, we do not now ourselves expect our 
 generals to ride in front of their armies on showy white 
 horses, waving their swords, as they used to do in pictures. 
 Our own War Office and Admiralty are not free from the 
 tendency to subordinate naval and military men to civilians ; 
 but in China, where the military profession is much looked 
 down upon, this is a peculiarly characteristic practice. 
 Accordingly, when an Imperial Edict declared that Tseng 
 Kwo-fan (father of the late popular minister at St. James's 
 who was known to us as the Marquis Tseng), the most 
 respected man in China of his time, wanted secretaries, the 
 brilliant young student Li was among those sent forth to 
 Anhui. Since he was himself an Anhui man, one cannot 
 help wondering whether some favouritism was not shown to 
 Li from the first ; for he must at once have found himself 
 among that host of friends and relatives who in after years, 
 when he had attained to the highest posts in the Empire, 
 became such a sore trouble to him with their constant 
 requests for patronage, that Li Han-chang, his elder brother, 
 is said to have been actually driven out of the province by 
 their importunity. Standing six foot four, with eyes about 
 whose brilliance men who knew him but shortly after still 
 speak enthusiastically, he must have presented a very fine 
 appearance at this time. He was not only tall, but for a 
 Chinese unusually athletic and active ; so that a local 
 newspaper described him as riding across country as well 
 as any Shanghai paperchase rider. 
 
 Seven months after this appointment Li was reported 
 favourably to the Throne for skilful management in dealing 
 with a portion of the Taiping rebellion ; with the result 
 that he was immediately promoted to the sixth degree in 
 rank, with the privilege of wearing the " blue plume " or 
 crow's feather — a satisfactory opening for his public career. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST YEARS OF THE TAIPING REBELLION (1851—1862). 
 
 In 1851, when Li Hung-chang was about twenty-eight, and 
 was still occupied with securing degrees, the great Taiping 
 rebellion broke out — ^a rebellion which was to devastate 
 China for over thirteen years with a destruction of human 
 life far exceeding that of the whole Thirty Years' War in 
 Germany, and which opened with the taking by the rebels 
 of Yung-ngan (i.e., the city of Eternal Peace). 
 
 It took its rise among the despised Hakka race of 
 Southern China, who, never binding their women's feet, 
 leave them able to work and thus set the men free to study. 
 
 Its originator. Hung Shu-chuen, afterwards known as 
 the Heavenly Prince, was born about thirty miles from 
 Canton, and even at fourteen was so remarkable for his 
 abilities that his teachers and relatives joined together to 
 pay for his further education. He was placed high at the 
 examinations, but for some reason was given a lesser rank 
 than that to which he was entitled. This made him sick with 
 grief, both the fact and the sickness having been predicted 
 to him beforehand by a Christian colporteur who gave him 
 some books. Looking through these, years afterwards, when 
 he had been for some time a village schoolmaster — a 
 position far more esteemed in China than it is with us — 
 and recalling the circumstances, he found the books to 
 consist largely of texts from the Bible, in which he discovered 
 an explanation of his own visions in his sickness six years 
 before. Thereupon he and his friends formed congregations 
 and became known by the name of the God- worshippers. In 
 1846 they obtained further religious instruction from a Mr. 
 Roberts, an American missionary in Canton ; but owing to 
 
8 LI SVN0-G3ANG. 
 
 jealousy on the part of the latter's Chinese assistant, they re- 
 turned home without much instruction, and began once again 
 to preach. A few months afterwards, whilst the congregation 
 of about five thousand were deep in prayer, two of the principal 
 teachers were overcome by what they believed to be a 
 Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and from that 
 time one spoke as the representative of our Father in Heaven, 
 the other as the Brother of Jesus. Adverse stress has been 
 laid upon this last expression, but how should a Chinese, 
 taught to consider himself the son of God and Jesus the Son 
 of God, possibly see any irreverence in calling himself the 
 brother of Jesus ? 
 
 With fierce and fanatical missionary zeal they at once 
 set to work to break up one of the most esteemed images in 
 the neighbourhood — would not many Europeans on their 
 first entrance into China wish to do likewise ? — destroyed the 
 vessels of spice and incense burning in front of it, were 
 arrested and imprisoned. By bribing the officials, one, Fung 
 Yun-san, was released ; the other died in prison through the 
 cruel treatment of his jailers. A clan fight broke out in 1850 
 between the Hakkas and the other local Chinese ; the Hakkas 
 took refuge with the God- worshippers, and all suffered much 
 persecution. Some were imprisoned, some died in jail ; Hung 
 Shli-chuen, warned that he was about to be arrested, took 
 refuge with Fung Yun-san among the mountains. There 
 they were blockaded by the soldiers, but sent messages to 
 their friends, the other God-worshippers, who routed the 
 soldiers, seized a market village near by surrounded by 
 creeks, and then, being short of provisions, were obhged to 
 fly during the night. 
 
 This in fact was the actual beginning. Gradually Hung 
 Shii-chuen proclaimed his intention to expel the alien 
 Manchu Dynasty, then as now ruling over China, and 
 to establish a native dynasty of universal peace — Tai ping. 
 He became Tien Wang, or Heavenly Prince ; Fung Yun-san, 
 Nan Wang or Southern Prince ; and Western, Northern and 
 Eastern Princes were also appointed. They determined to 
 adopt the old Chinese dress worn under the Ming, the last 
 
FIRST TEARS OF TEE TAIFINQ REBELLION. 9 
 
 Chinese Dynasty. For the Chinese connect dress very closely 
 with politics. So when there was some talk of dividing China 
 into spheres of influence, those in the Yangtse Valley were 
 always wondering what the English would make them wear ; 
 and so, after the Japanese defeat, that was again the great 
 question. The shaven front of the head and plaited pigtail 
 had been imposed upon them by the Manchus. The Taipings 
 at once discarded this and wore their hair long with hoods 
 over their heads and yellow silk jackets. The Triad Society 
 at first joined them, but, owing to one of the latter's leaders 
 being found out in defrauding the Treasury, they drew off. 
 Curiously enough, two women, reputed to be of great valour 
 joined the rebels from the first, each having about two 
 thousand men followers. 
 
 "When they had taken the city of Eternal Peace, the 
 Heavenly Prince issued a proclamation. " Oh, ye multitudes, 
 listen to our words. We conceive that the Empire belongs 
 to the Chinese, and not to the Tartars ; the food and raiment 
 found therein belong to the Chinese, and not to the Tartars ; 
 the men and women inhabiting this region are subjects and 
 children of the Chinese, and not of the Tartars. . . . Ever 
 since the Manchus spread their poisonous influence through 
 China, the vapour of corruption has defiled the Celestial 
 Throne ; the offensive odour has spread over the four seas ; 
 while the Chinese, with bowed heads and dejected spirits, 
 willingly became the servants of others. How strange it 
 is that there are no men in China ! " It then goes on 
 in the style of vituperation of low men of all countries, 
 accusing the Manchu-Tartars of being a crossbreed of a white 
 fox and a red dog; but it further adds that the Manchus 
 are only 100,000, while the Chinese number 50,000,000— which 
 certainly seems a reason against the latter being ruled by 
 the former, but is also a very different figure from the 
 400,000,000 with which we are in the habit of hearing 
 China credited. 
 
 The Taipings marched through Hunan Province, capturing 
 cities with hardly any opposition, until they besieged Chang 
 Sha, the provincial capital, and, trying to carry it by storm. 
 
10 LI RUNG-OHANG. 
 
 were beaten back each time. Then they crossed the great 
 Tungting Lake to Yochow, capturing a great number of 
 war junks carrying grain and treasure. Next down the 
 Yangtse, taking Hanyang and Hankow, then crossing over 
 and capturing Wuchang, the provincial capital of Hupeh, on 
 January 12, 1853. Delegates sent by the Shanghai Chamber 
 of Commerce describe the scene before this occurred : " The 
 abandonment was most complete ; not a house nor a shop 
 was opened ; and it became equally impossible to purchase 
 goods, to check quotations, or pursue inquiries." Sir Harry 
 Farkes gives a more dramatic account: — 
 
 Darkness fell upon crowds of the people, lying with their weep- 
 ing families and the dfebris of their property under the walls of 
 Wuchang, anxious only to escape from defences that should have 
 proved their protection. . . . The noise and cries attending their 
 embarkation continued throughout the night, but daylight brought 
 with it a stillness that was not less impressive than the previous 
 commotion. By that time all the fugitives had left the shore, and 
 the river, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with junks and 
 boats of every description, bearing slowly away up-stream the bulk 
 of the population of three cities, which a few days before we had 
 computed at 1,000,000 of souls. 
 
 Only Mr. W. C. Howard, who took part in the rebellion, 
 and rose to be Colonel of the 4th Chinese Regiment, mentions 
 that " the Governor and a large number of his staff and men " 
 fell in defence of Wuchang, the provincial capital of Hupeh, 
 only separated by the great river Yangtse from the well- 
 loQown great tea centre of Hankow, and for years the 
 residence of China's most learned Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, 
 known as the incorruptible. 
 
 Kiukiang was taken by the Taipings on February 18th, 
 1853, Nganking on February 25th, Wuhu on March 4th, and 
 on March 8th they arrived before the walls of Nanking ; 
 which they captured on March 19th by the explosion of a 
 well-laid mine under the north-east angle of the city wall, 
 making a large breach. Through this the Taipings rushed, 
 entering the city and paralysing the Imperialists, who 
 
FIRST TEABS OF TEE TAIPTNG REBELLION. 11 
 
 appeared to be unable to fight or flee, throwing themselves 
 on the ground before the rebels, and crying out " Prince, 
 Prince, spare us, spare us!" Over 30,000 are believed to 
 have been slaughtered there and then — the abject terror of 
 the Imperialists rendering this possible — as a reprisal for 
 their own indiscriminate slaughter of the Taipings. 
 
 Although well aware that every sin is really a stupidity, 
 this seems so great a blunder that one cannot help marvelling 
 over it; for if the Taipings had not killed all the quiet, 
 peaceable Chinese, they might gradually have attained to 
 empire over the whole race. Nor can we doubt that the 
 scenes he then saw impelled Admiral Sir James Hope to cast 
 the power of England on the side of the Imperialists, thus 
 leading to the eventual overthrow of the rebels. He had 
 not seen the Imperialists victorious, and gathered that 
 they alone were capable of establishing law and order. 
 But in national, as in family quarrels, no outsider should 
 interfere unless prepared to adjust matters after the fighting 
 is over. Had the Taipings and Imperialists been let alone 
 there can be little doubt but that the Manchu Dynasty 
 would have been overthrown, and China would have been 
 saved from this corrupting rule; as also possibly from the 
 Japanese defeat and all that so far has come after it. For 
 the ill government and consequent sufferings of the Chinese 
 people Sir James Hope, Gordon, and others, who set up once 
 more the tottering Manchu Dynasty and did not bind it 
 by any conditions towards its ill-used people, must surely be 
 held responsible each in their degree. Interference in others' 
 affairs, to result in good, must be thorough and far-reaching. 
 But that it was not so is probably rather the fault of the 
 British Government at home than of the Englishmen in 
 China. 
 
 Chinkiang and Yangchow were taken; the Taipings had 
 thus the entire command of the Yangtse as also of the 
 communication by the Grand Canal ; they established them- 
 selves at Nanking and sent a column north through Anhui, 
 Shanting, and Southern Chihli, eventually even capturing 
 a city not twenty miles distant from Tientsin. Here it 
 
12 LI BONG-GBANO. 
 
 was that in 1863 Li Hung-chang, leading his regiment of 
 militia against the rebels, first won favourable notice and 
 promotion, as we have seen, in the opening months of his 
 public career. 
 
 During an interval of several years the progress of the 
 revolt does not demand our detailed attention : an episode 
 in the relations of China and the European Powers assumes 
 the chief prominence. Up to 1862 Li's personal affairs 
 may be summarised in a .paragraph. 
 
 In 1856 the death of Li's father, who, together with his 
 stalwart son, had enlisted a local force for the defence of 
 the district, obliged Li to absent himself from service 
 during the mourning period. But he had just before been 
 again mentioned in a memorial as having overcome a re- 
 bellion, so in spite of his mourning he was given promotion 
 to the rank of a Prefect, with the single-eyed peacock's 
 feather instead of the crow's. In the last month but one 
 of that year, after he had wisely managed the outbreak at 
 Lti-chou-fu, the same official patron who had mentioned him 
 before mentioned him again ; and by Imperial Edict he 
 was made an " expectant Taotai," to be appointed to some 
 post as soon as his time of mourning should have expired. 
 Then in 1857, in accordance with the same superior's recom- 
 mendation, he was promoted to be Provincial Judge, on 
 account of his successful settlement of the Wei Wei Chow 
 outbreak. Li was among those sent to another official who 
 petitioned for the help of secretaries from the Capital ; but 
 two months afterwards he was ordered down to Foochow as 
 an acting Taotai, though he never went. In 1862 he was 
 appointed acting Governor, and then Governor, of Kiang-su, 
 and on the official, who was then Superintendent of Foreign 
 Commerce and Commissioner of Customs, being summoned 
 to Peking, Li was directed to take charge of his offices. 
 
 Thus began that intercourse with foreigners which was 
 to terminate only with his death ; for Shanghai, opened to 
 foreign trade in 1843, is in Kiang-su, and that province 
 being in open rebellion, Li often had to reside in Shanghai 
 itself among foreigners for safety. One cannot help pausing 
 
FIRST YEARS OF TEE TAIPING REBELLION. 13 
 
 to wonder what would have been Li's career if no one 
 from afar had come intruding into China ; for Li's reputa- 
 tion amongst foreigners has always far exceeded that which 
 he bore among his own countrymen, who always say he is 
 indebted for his high place to the special favour of Tze Hsi — 
 now Dowager Empress, then the youthful concubine of the 
 Emperor Hsien F^ng, " already tottering to his grave, a 
 decrepit, worn-out man of barely thirty years." 
 
 At this juncture the Arrow War, so called from the 
 name of the boat flying our flag, which the Chinese first 
 seized, had come to an end; Lord Elgin had concluded his 
 Tientsin Treaty and hurried away ; the Peking campaign had 
 followed in 1860 ; and the English and French forces, acting, 
 as the Chinese despatches said, contrary to all the rules 
 of war, instead of coming on from the front like an 
 honourable foe, had attacked the Taku forts from the rear. 
 They had marched on Peking, from which the Emperor, 
 Hsien Feng, with his wife the Empress, and among others 
 the young concubine, then so little thought of, now so well 
 known, had already fled to Jehol; they had burnt the 
 Summer Palace ; and then withdrawn in haste — indicating 
 fear to the Chinese. 
 
 The only nation that seemed to have derived real, tangible 
 advantage from the whole business was one that had 
 done no fighting, but that seems like the Chinese to under- 
 stand diplomacy, and in this case had certainly outwitted the 
 Chinese. For General Ignatieff, the Russian representative, 
 not only gave the English and French the benefit of his 
 superior information, as the Russians did again in 1900 ; he 
 also furnished them with an admirable map of Peking, drawn 
 up by a learned member of the always resident Russian 
 Mission in Peking— meanwhile impressing upon Prince Kung, 
 who represented his fugitive brother the Emperor, that what 
 he stood in need of was some friendly Power that would 
 persuade the English and French armed forces to retire. This 
 he promised to arrange, obtaining for Russia in return the fine 
 province of Primorski, with 600 miles of coast-line, including 
 the magnificent harbour of Vladivostock. When Prince 
 
14 LI EUNG-OHANQ. 
 
 Kung, a year later, learnt that there never had been the least 
 intention of keeping any foreign soldiers in Peking, and that 
 consequently, he had given away this fine province for 
 nothing, he is said to have looked aghast, then said solemnly, 
 " Do you mean to say we have been deceived ? " " Utterly," 
 said another " diplomatist." This seems to have been 
 Russia's first great step backward towards becoming once 
 more an Asiatic Power, a position from which her greatest 
 ruler, Peter the Great, tried so hard to remove her, labouring 
 always to make a European Power of a nation partly 
 Asiatic. How far General Ignatieflfs diplomacy also taught 
 the Chinese a lesson in duplicity may be questioned. 
 Russians and Chinese come originally from the same stock, 
 neither of them attaching quite the same significance to 
 truth that is attached to it in Europe. But certainly Prince 
 Kung and the Chinese generally must then have learnt that 
 one other nation could deceive at least as well as themselves, 
 and in this instance had certainly got the better of them. 
 
 Though in all these affairs Li — destined to be looked 
 upon as a lion-tamer, a man specially calculated to deal 
 with fierce foreigners — had played no part, yet it is well 
 to reflect upon this little matter of Primorski; for there 
 can be no doubt that the still youthful Li pondered over 
 it, and in effect took his first great lesson in diplomacy 
 from the Russian General Ignatieff — as he certainly took 
 his last from M. Lessar, the recently appointed Russian 
 Minister Plenipotentiary in Peking. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TAIPING REBELLION : THE EPISODE OF BUEGEVINE (1863). 
 
 With Li Hung-chang's appointment, in 1862, to the 
 Governorship of Kiangsu, we return to the story of the 
 Taipings. At that date the greater part of the new governor's 
 province was in the hands of the rebels, and, as Sir Halliday 
 Macartney somewhat tersely puts it, "Li was governor 
 certainly, but he could not go anywhere." 
 
 The Taiping army had not done much after the capture 
 of Nanking till after the British defeat at the Taku Forts in 
 1859. But when the allied troops, British and French, 
 marched on Peking, nearly aU the cities about Shanghai and 
 Ningpo fell into the rebels' hands, and one of their princes 
 with a large force threatened Shanghai. They had already 
 captured Hangchow, the capital of the province of Chekiang 
 and at one time the capital of China, as also Soochow. These 
 places are both great silk centres, and the proverb says, 
 "See Soo and Hang and die." But the Taipings were still 
 always wanting an outlet to the sea so as to secure more 
 war material, and Shanghai, too, was therefore to be desired. 
 
 Meanwhile many of those adventurers who seem always to 
 rise to the surface in war time had joined the rebel ranks ; 
 and now the Imperialists in their turn raised a foreign force, 
 several Chinese Shanghai merchants arranging to provide the 
 funds, whilst Ward, a Califomian, was appointed to the 
 command. The latter seems to have been a brave, fearless 
 man ; but when he was shot in the back, while going up a 
 breach, most probably by an accidental shot from one of his 
 own men, after commanding the force for only two years, he 
 left behind him a fortune of £15,000, which fact speaks for 
 itself. All the time there had been contests about money the 
 
16 LI EUNG-aSANO. 
 
 Chinese merchants keeping the foreigners in arrears of pay, 
 and they insisting on being paid. Then was the golden age 
 for foreigners in China ; young men, just sent out from England 
 as clerks, drew their salaries but never entered their offices, 
 serving as volunteers or carrjdng sums of money through a 
 country known to be infested with rebels, and declaring after- 
 wards that they had never been so civilly treated : then also it 
 was that men made fortunes. There were no telegrams in 
 1863 to confuse and hamper people. Those on the spot, who 
 knew the circumstances, had a free hand, and everyone was 
 young and hopeful. It was indeed a fine time for young men. 
 But amongst them were that extraordinary set who seem to 
 know when there is trouble brewing, as crows scent out a dead 
 body from a distance, and who come from the far corners of 
 the earth to fish in troubled waters. It is when one thinks 
 of the effect upon the Chinese of an influx of foreigners like 
 these that one feels sick at heart. 
 
 There were foreigners fighting on the Taiping side, and 
 there were foreigners on the Imperiahst side. What they 
 were like we can gather from this description by an 
 anonymous writer in the local paper at Nanking, the 
 Taiping headquarters ; one whose utterances were known 
 as " A Voice from Nanking " : — 
 
 Dec. 19</i, 1863. — All the fulminations of the Wangs were of no 
 avail — that pure worship on which we had so long prided ourselves 
 was degraded and debased, and little trace was left of the instruc- 
 tions imparted by our foreign brethren in former days. And, in 
 truth, the conduct of the foreigners who lived amongst us was more 
 than sufficient to shake the faith of many, and to convince them that 
 the Christian teachers, who had so little influence over their own 
 countrymen, could hardly claim to control the religious belief of the 
 denizens of the Heavenly Kingdom. Days and nights spent in 
 drunkenness and abominable debauchery rendered those foreign 
 levies, on which we so much depended, worse than useless ; until, at 
 length, at such a pitch of wickedness did they arrive, that all 
 confidence was lost in them, and we were compelled to use them as 
 drudges, instead of following them as leaders. Yet even then, we 
 did not doubt that if the Western Powers knew of our existence as a 
 
THE EPISODE OF BUBGEVINE. 17 
 
 people, and appreciated our suflFerings and our struggles, they would 
 acknowledge us, even although they might look on us as foes . . . 
 
 There was always something grand about the utterances of 
 this Voice. 
 
 Burgevine, another American, was appointed as Ward's 
 successor. Ahnost before he took command, a Russian officer 
 arrived in Shanghai with authority to place at the disposal of 
 the GoYcmor 10,000 Russian troops — much the same offer as 
 Russia made again in 1900. Then it was that Li Hung-chang 
 showed his capacity, for even in China's extremity he declined 
 this ofifer with thanks, evidently thinking 10,000 Russians 
 might prove even more difficult to deal with than the Taipings. 
 Some people thought that Ward had intended from the 
 first to make himseK master of China. Li had been on his 
 guard with him, he was yet more on his guard with Burgevine. 
 The position of a weak country using reckless mercenaries is 
 always difficult, and the time-honoured method of letting pay 
 get into arrears was often resorted to. Li and the patriotic 
 Association at Shanghai had been compelled to subscribe 
 £30,000 a month for the force, and Li contended they were 
 thereby entitled to have an officer in command, in whom they 
 could feel confidence. He visited General Stavely in command 
 of the British troops and begged him to remove Burgevine. 
 General Stavely professed himself unable. Takee was the 
 principal merchant in the Patriotic Association, and, to quote 
 Mr. Howard's very racy account, " Takee refused to give any 
 more money until the accounts were forthcoming. Some- 
 times the force was nearly two months without pay. The 
 men would frequently ask for it when at drill. Burgevine 
 would order a general parade, and tell the men he would go 
 to Shanghai and bring up their pay. This occurred nearly 
 every week, the soldiers yelling every time they were told 
 this. Finally, Burgevine took twenty of his bodyguard, went 
 to Shanghai, demanded the money from Takee, and when 
 told he could not have it, slapped Takee's face. Takee was 
 now a high official, but Burgevine, caring nothing for his rank, 
 called in his men and took the money by force, after which he 
 c 
 
18 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 returned and paid his troops. This caused Burgevine's dis- 
 missal, though all that General Stavely even then could do 
 was to tell him Li had dismissed him from his command." 
 
 A Captain Holland was appointed to succeed him, greatly 
 to the dissatisfaction of the men, who considered that roys- 
 terous Burgevine had been dismissed for demanding their 
 pay. Li, however, instantly paid them in full, and Burgevine 
 carried his complaints to Peking, where Sir Frederick Bruce 
 was at first more than inclined to sympathise with him. 
 Li had ■Ranted the foreign force, of which he was getting to 
 feel strong suspicions, to march to Nanking outside his own 
 jurisdiction, that he might thus get rid of them altogether. 
 An English officer, however, taking command, rendered this 
 impossible ; and he therefore ordered them at once to attack 
 a fortified town long held by the rebels. General Stavely pro- 
 tested that the force was quite insufficient to attack a walled 
 town, but Li stubbornly replied that if the force could not 
 undertake a little thing like that it was not worth keeping up. 
 They were repulsed, losing 2 large siege guns, 6 officers, 4 
 marines, and 180 men killed, 14 officers and 160 men wounded. 
 " This finished Holland," to quote Mr. Howard again ; and 
 Major Gordon, E.E., who had been engaged in making a 
 survey of the country round, being ordered at once to take 
 command, straightway captured the fortified town of Fushan. 
 Li at once recognised his merits in a memorial to the throne, 
 and Gordon was made a Chinese Brigadier-General. 
 
 Dr., later Sir Halliday, Macartney, had sent in his Papers 
 with a view to taking Chinese employ, but as he had not yet 
 heard of their having been received he was not yet free. 
 From the first, however, he was, by the outside world, 
 considered a rival of Gordon's. Being engaged as doctor for 
 the force, he frequently visited Shanghai in a small steamer. 
 One day, no sooner had he left her, than Burgevine (late 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Disciplined troops), with 
 a man who had been in command of a steamer, but had 
 been dismissed by the Viceroy, and two others who had 
 been hiding behind some old ruins close by, boarded the 
 vessel and backed her down the creek. When the officer left 
 
TEE EPISODE OF BUBGEVINE. 19 
 
 behind came up breathless to tell Dr. Macartney, he was already 
 some way off; and when at length soldiers had been roused, and 
 aU gave chase, it was already too late. The only way probably 
 to stop her would have been to gallop to the mouth of the 
 creek, and direct the barge which had been left there to be 
 hauled across the stream and scuttled. But the two Generals, 
 Chang and Li, had disappeared as soon as they heard that sus- 
 picious characters were about. And Burgevine and his friends 
 got about £3,000 from the Taipings by this little adventure. 
 General Chang had been with the rebels before he joined the 
 Imperialist forces, as indeed, according to Mr. Michie, Li Hung- 
 chang himseK was at one time, writing despatches for them 
 when a prisoner in their hands for a while. Possibly judging 
 Gordon by the men he had seen among them, he, Chang 
 being very much annoyed that Gordon would not attack a 
 city as he wished, spread about the report that the latter had 
 received £30,000 from the rebel chief, for retiring after the 
 capture of Taitsan instead of taking Quinsan. He was also 
 very impertinent ; but presently a worse thing occurred ; for 
 on Gordon sending a small force to the assistance of a Chinese 
 General surrounded by Taipings, his own force was suddenly 
 surprised by the Imperial gunboats turning round and firing 
 upon them with grape and round-shot. His force had no 
 ammunition, so were compelled to run for it. Several men 
 were killed and a good many wounded, and yet General Chang 
 seemed to think it was a good joke, saying simply he did 
 not know the flag. However, when Gordon reported the matter 
 to Li Hung-chang, General Chang sent a letter of apology. 
 
 It is instructive to note that the latter, having pre- 
 viously been a rebel, had paid Li a large sum out of 
 the Taiping funds, which he had secured before leaving 
 them, to guarantee his fidelity, and with this money Li had 
 purchased higher rank. This little incident is not often men - 
 tioned, but is it not rather characteristic of Li's whole career ? 
 
 There had meanwhile been other troubles. Li had been 
 induced to believe that the City of Taitsan would surrender, 
 and had sent his brother with 2,000 men to arrange the 
 terms ; he had exchanged gifts with the rebel chiefs, among 
 
20 LI HUNG-CSANG. 
 
 other things presenting a number of official hats to be worn 
 by them on joining the Imperial host. Clothes again t 
 How Carlyle would have delighted in this gift ! On April 26, 
 1,500 Imperialist soldiers were admitted into the city. They 
 had, however, no sooner passed within the walls than the 
 gate by which they entered was closed behind them, and 
 they were made prisoners, 300 of their number being be- 
 headed at once. Gordon's men were driven back in the 
 first instance, but on the second attempt took the town; 
 and then ensued a scene so terrible that the Bishop of 
 Hong Kong felt called upon to denounce it, whilst newspapers 
 blamed Gordon for permitting such atrocities. Among the 
 prisoners taken were seven rebel chiefs, whom Gordon 
 handed over to the Chinese general. No one seems to know 
 whether Li was consulted by the latter beforehand, but it is 
 clear that he approved afterwards. Here are the facts as 
 related by an eye-witness: — 
 
 June ISth, 1863. — About 11 o'clock a.m. on the day following 
 the capture of Taitsan (Sunday, May 3rd), seven prisoners were 
 brought into the Imperialist camp, being stripped perfectly nude; 
 they were each tied to a stake, and tortured with the most 
 refined cruelty. Arrows appeared to have been forcibly driven 
 into various parts of their bodies, head, region of heart, abdomen, 
 etc., from whence issued copious streams of blood. This mode of 
 torture falling short of satiating the demoniacal spirit of their 
 tormentors, recourse was had to other means : — Strips of flesh were 
 cut, or rather hacked (judging from the appearance presented, the 
 instrument seemed too blunt to cut), from different parts of their 
 bodies, which hanging by a small portion of skin, presented an 
 appearance truly horrible. For hours these wretched beings 
 writhed in agony. About sunset they were led forth more dead 
 than alive by a brutal executioner, who, sword in hand, thirsting 
 to imbrue his hand in blood, seemed the very incarnation of a fiend. 
 Seizing his unfortunate victims, he exultingly dragged them forth, 
 mocking and insulting them, and then by hewing, hacking and 
 using a sawing motion, he succeeded eventually in putting an end 
 to their sufferings by partially severing the head from the body. 
 
 In connection with this statement, which seems to bear 
 
TSE EPISODE OF BUBGEVINE. 21 
 
 hardly upon Gordon, how touching is the testimony of the 
 " Voice from Nanking " : — 
 
 Jviy 25th. — Far be it from me to assert that Gordon wap 
 privy to the massacres committed. . . . Yet never did the 
 plains of China blush with blood more unrighteously spilled than on 
 the day succeeding the capture of Quinsan, when the disorganised 
 Hua contingent satiated itself with outrage. I have heard that 
 Gordon grieved bitterly over the cruelties which he could not 
 prevent. . . . Would to Heaven that some unworthy adven- 
 turer would take command, some one that could be slain without 
 regret, and, it necessary, slaughtered without mercy. Often have I 
 seen the deadly musket struck from the hand of a dastardly 
 Englishman (tempted by love of loot to join our ranks) when he 
 attempted, from his place of safety, to kill Gordon, who ever 
 rashly exposed himself. This has been the act of a chief, yea, of 
 the Shield King himself: how then can we be accused of blind 
 hatred even to our enemies ? Could we but look forward to the 
 day when the learned foreigners would do as much for us as they 
 have done for the degraded and degenerate Manchus, we would 
 retire to the mountain fastnesses of Szechuan and Kwang-si, con- 
 fident that whenever foreign aid and education should be extended 
 to us we would sweep the dastard Manchus from the throne, and 
 «stablish the descendant of Chu in the seat of his fathers. I must 
 not now wait to explain to you the eagerness with which we would 
 receive your Western improvements. . , . 
 
 How can I describe the state of things in Nanking ? Penury, 
 disease, famine, vice of all kinds, reign. The troops are demoral- 
 ised, and openly declare that their allegiance to the younger Son 
 of the Father is broken by the misfortunes which have of late 
 followed his arms. In the poorer districts of the city, human 
 flesh it is said is exposed for sale in the shambles, and even little 
 innocent children have been sacrificed to satisfy the unconquerable 
 hunger of their parents. Should we be unable to drive back the 
 •enemy within the next few weeks, the Empire of Peace must come 
 to an end, and all hope of reinstating the glorious Ming line be 
 abandoned. But never while the sun shines on the brethren of the 
 mystic tie, never so long as they breathe the vital air, shall the 
 Heavenly Kingdom perish. Rather would we rush to the fore- 
 front of the battle, and engage men or demons, far rather would 
 we perish unknown, and without any of the glory which encircles 
 
22 LI HUNG - CSANG. 
 
 the man who dies for his principles, than survive the fortunes of 
 our race, and stand the relics of a struggle which destroyed our 
 country. 
 
 Yet, even now, standing as I and the other chiefs of this move- 
 ment do, on the brink of ruin, a prophetic spirit seems to inspire 
 me, and with the confidence of truth I declare that this rebellion 
 will be crushed and not destroyed. If a government, adapted to 
 the growing requirements of the country and the ever-progressive 
 State of civilisation in the world, be established on a firm basis in 
 China, then the dire eflfects of revolt may be prevented. But so 
 long as corruption and bribery influence the courts of law, and 
 spread their ramifications over the political and social life of the 
 Empire, the injustice of the mandarins, and the venality of their 
 officers will prevent China from ever advancing one step forward, 
 and wUl leave in every province little nests of disafiection, which 
 will ultimately spread over the land, and again flood China with the 
 blood of her bravest and best. 
 
 The concluding words of prophecy cannot but be read 
 somewhat sorrowfully by those with whom the memory of 
 1900 is ever present. Oh that an administrator filled with 
 the same chivalrous spirit had been allowed to follow upon 
 General Gordon's victorious steps ! 
 
 Then came again the old difficulty — arrears of pay and 
 the men becoming insubordinate. In consequence of this, 
 probably also a little because of General Chang's treachery, 
 Gordon sent in his resignation ; but just then he heard of 
 Burgevine (the late General in command) going over to join 
 the Taipings, and he turned away his horse's head from 
 Shanghai and rode back to his men ; feeling that the appear- 
 ance of Burgevine's standard with the Taipings might result 
 in many of his old followers rejoining him if Gordon left the 
 command. It is not recorded that Li showed any gratitude 
 to Gordon for this; indeed, not unnaturally he was fully 
 occupied in denouncing the United States consul for having 
 let Burgevine go. Meanwhile, Gordon heard that a number 
 of Europeans in rebel employ were ready to desert from 
 Soochow. Several times he met them to discuss terms, 
 Burgevine himself being present, and sometimes ready to 
 
THE EPISODE OF BUBGEVINE. 23 
 
 rejoin the Imperialists, sometimes not. It was on one of 
 these occasions that he proposed to Gordon that they should 
 together seize Soochow, and with an army of 20,000 men 
 march on Peking. Small reason indeed had Li or the Chinese 
 to feel grateful to, or repose confidence in, men like Burgevine ! 
 At last it was settled that all the Europeans " should make 
 a sally from Soochow as if with the object of capturing the 
 steamer Hyson, that they should be taken on board, and that 
 they should be landed in the Imperial camp." All came off 
 as intended, except that, to Gordon's surprise, Burgevine 
 was not among the deserters, who, fearing the suspicions 
 of the rebel leaders might be roused, had thought it best 
 to come away by themselves. And now at last comes a noble 
 touch in the midst of all this vileness. Gordon, unwilling 
 to leave the wretched Burgevine to his fate, wrote to the 
 Mo Wang — that is, Prince — in command at Soochow, asking 
 of him to allow Burgevine to escape, and at the same time 
 returning all the rifles the European deserters had brought 
 with them. One spark of nobihty is apt to enkindle another, 
 and the Mo Wang actually allowed the twice - traitor 
 Burgevine to leave the city alive. 
 
 Before concluding the Burgevine drama, with its miser- 
 able ending, we should note the Chinese view of the case 
 as expressed in a communication from Li Hung-chang to the 
 British Consul with some very effective Chinese arguments in 
 it, too, which emphasise the Governor's clearness of vision 
 at a time when as yet he had mixed but little with foreigners. 
 
 August 2ith. — On the 22nd instant I received your communica- 
 tion to the effect that a notice has appeared in the newspapers 
 offering a reward for the capture of Burgevine, dead or alive ; and, 
 further, to the effect that I have forgotten the treaty, and requesting 
 me to withdraw the proclamation, etc., etc. 
 
 In reply, I observe that Burgevine has been invested -with 
 Chinese official rank, and has been employed as a military leader on 
 behalf of the Chinese Government; and, having violated Chinese 
 law it is right that he shoxild suffer the penalty attached by China 
 to the crime. His case differs entirely from that of ordinary 
 offenders of your honourable nation, who are to be handed over for 
 
S4 LI HUNG-CHANG. 
 
 punishment to their Consul, In fact, when foreigners become 
 invested with Chinese official rank and violate the laws within the 
 limits of Chinese territory, by whom are they to be judged ? The 
 treaty contains no provision whatever on this point. How, then, 
 can it be said that I am oblivious of the treaty ? 
 
 Moreover, the crime committed by Burgevine is not one with 
 which other offences can be brought into comparison. Having 
 already received rank as a superior officer of the third grade, to 
 strike an official and to disobey the orders of those in authority are 
 in themselves a crime beyond excuse ; yet the Board of Foreign 
 Affairs and myself, from regard for the feelings of your honourable 
 nation, refrained from pressing the matter. Burgevine has now, 
 however, audaciously passed over to join the rebels at Soochow, and 
 appears as the foe alike of China and of the forces of the several 
 Powers engaged in the protection of Shanghai. Thus, Burgevine, 
 having become one of the banditti, cannot be accounted as a citizen 
 of your honourable nation ; but if he still be accounted as such, it is 
 certainly the Consul's duty to have restrained him betimes, and to 
 have adopted measures of precaution. How is it that he has 
 been allowed to join with the banditti ? Furthermore, supposing that 
 a Chinese subject were to become naturalised in your honourable 
 country, and, after receiving marks of favour from the Government, 
 were of a sudden to turn rebel — would no notice of him be taken 
 by your honourable Government 1 Or could China endeavour to 
 shield him with protection ? 
 
 The principles of reason are the same, whether in China or with 
 foreign nations, and it is the Consul's duty to assist me in capturing 
 Burgevine and bringing him to justice, in fulfilment of the obliga- 
 tions of amity and goodwill. No principle exists which would justify 
 his being suffered to join the rebels, or actually favoured with 
 protection and support. As Governor, invested with supreme 
 military authority in the province of Kiang-su, I am doing no more 
 than arresting a rebel within the limits of my jurisdiction, in taking 
 measures as at present for the seizure of Burgevine. 
 
 Your despatch itself asserts that the Consuls representing aU the 
 different Powers are agreed in saying that I, as Governor, am 
 empowered to arrest Burgevine ; and my proclamation was directed 
 to no other end. Not a word is contained therein respecting any 
 ulterior punishment. You appear to have attached a mistaken 
 interpretation to the words " dead or alive," and to have supposed me 
 
THE EPISODE OF BVEGEVINE. 25 
 
 desirous of inflicting the penalty of death. I now distinctly state in 
 reply that the expression " dead or alive " contained in the proclama- 
 tion refers to the apprehension that, on Burgevine's capture, it 
 cannot be certain that resistance will not be oflfered, and firearms be 
 used in the fray, resulting in Burgevine's death, whilst I should not 
 on this account be justified in withdrawing the reward offered by 
 Proclamation . 
 
 At the present moment, the Consuls of all the Treaty Powers are 
 ready to assist me in protecting this place, in order that security may 
 be afforded to the trade of all nations, and, in seizing Burgevine, I 
 am actuated by no other motive than that of ensuring the safety of 
 the country and of the respectable mercantile community— an under- 
 taking which is surely one of complete humanity and justice. 
 
 Foreign nations are all thoroughly actuated by principles of 
 reason, and there is assuredly no danger of their becoming estranged 
 «n this account. The Consul may therefore set his mind at rest. 
 There is nothing extraordinary in the Proclamation, and it is 
 needless, therefore, to withdraw it. The Consul is requested to take 
 note thereof. 
 
 Tung-Chih, 1st year, 7th month, 21st day. 
 
 Burgevine, once the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial 
 foreign force, the Kebel Chieftain and traitor to the Imperial- 
 ists, next the deserter and traitor to the rebels, without 
 considering of what crimes he might be accused, left the safety 
 of the foreign settlement and was captured. The local 
 newspaper of the day proceeds with the story : — 
 
 He was discovered under some planks in a boat, armed to the 
 teeth, but on being dragged out surrendered quietly and was, with 
 his companions, a Portuguese and an Englishman, put in irons. The 
 three were then carried to the magistrates' yamen and placed in 
 confinement. The American Consul, hearing of what had occurred, 
 demanded Burgevine's rendition, but was met by taunts levelled at 
 his dereliction of duty in not arresting Burgevine when he had 
 iim in his power. The Consul, incensed, issued an ultimatum — 
 Restore him by 12 o'clock to-morrow, or I will take him by 
 force. So at midnight Burgevine and the others were despatched 
 under military escort to Foochow, and the American Consul was 
 for the first time apprised of the fact when he found the break- 
 fast which he had sent to the prison for Burgevine returned 
 
26 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 untasted. He refused to believe the intelligence, and at 12 o'clook 
 he, with some companions, forcibly entered the yamen, and searched 
 the prison. Therein (a fact highly significant in itself) were found 
 an American and two Frenchmen. The former was borne off in 
 triumph. 
 
 And the end of it all was tliat the American and English 
 Consuls were officially notified that the dead bodies of 
 Burgevine, his English companion, and the soldiers of the 
 guard, were lying at a village near Ningpo. 
 
 There is the further fact that the United States Charge 
 d' Affaires, instead of demanding Burgeyine's release, advised the 
 Chinese authorities to retain him until instructions should be 
 received from Washington. In giving advice we must always 
 consider a little whether it is likely to be followed. When we 
 know it is not it is hardly good advice to give. There is the 
 further statement, which may or may not be true, but which 
 is generally believed, that when the body of Burgevine was 
 found lying in a ditch in a village in a north-westerly direction 
 from Ningpo, it was in a terribly mutilated state. People would 
 be sure to say this, whether it were so or not. It would, 
 however, probably be true. " This finishes Burgevine," to use 
 the somewhat quaint phraseology of W. C. Howard. Stanley 
 Bennet, a negro, had been offered four hundred dollars by 
 a foreign merchant to place Burgevine within the rebel lines 
 in safety; but some old desire for vengeance still rankled 
 within the negro's breast, and he preferred vengeance to 
 money. Many a worthier man has passed from the world less 
 thought about and fought over than Burgevine. 
 
 Great things were expected when Burgevine came over to us 
 boiling with rage, said the Voice from Nanking. . . . Soon, 
 however, we found that, debilitated by wounds, and disgusted at 
 finding himself arrayed in arms against the chief to whom the 
 English in China point with so much pride, his spirits failed him, 
 and he repented of the rash step he had taken. . . . Then, 
 indeed, the magnanimity of our rulers was plainly shown. This 
 man, whose presence had tended rather to injure our cause than 
 to aid it, was freely allowed to depart, no injunction being even laid 
 upon him to restrain him from betraying any of our secrets to our 
 
THE EPISODE OF BUBGEVINE. 27 
 
 opponents. And then also in truth did the true nobUity of your 
 English nation exhibit itself. Gordon, loth to take any unfair 
 advantage of the difficulties of our position, sent us back the arms 
 and- boats which accompanied Burgevine and the men who left, 
 our ranks with him. ... In future ages, when the present 
 crumbling edifice which the Manchus have raised has sunk into 
 ruins, and foreign nations shall be wasting blood and treasure over 
 the question of the dismemberment of China, it will be deeply 
 mourned that a dynasty possessed of vigour and enlightenment was 
 not placed upon the throne, when the opportunity offered for so 
 doing. In that day it will be found that had China been placed 
 under the Christianising influence of the Taiping rule, the country 
 would have regained its pristine fame, and foreigners would have 
 found amongst the myriads of inhabitants, that some few still 
 hold by the fame of their forefathers, and are willing to welcome 
 any movement which seems to promise enlightenment and peace. 
 
 Alas ! and alas ! that no effort even was made to establish 
 this Christianising rxile ' But what remarkable words these 
 are ! 
 
28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TAIPING REBELLION : THE BETRAYAL OF FAITH (1863). 
 
 We must now turn to the taking of Soochow, after all 
 the foreigners engaged had deserted the rebels and gone 
 over to the Imperialists. Gordon and HaUiday Macartney- 
 were occupying different commands, and apparently on very 
 friendly terms. Sir Halliday, indeed, teUs one of those 
 romantic anecdotes with which the hfe of Gordon aboimds. 
 The latter asked Macartney to come with him in a boat on 
 a lake. They rowed out quite to the middle, and there, 
 since the boatmen could understand no language but their 
 own, the two Englishmen held free converse, Gordon offering 
 the other his command. This incident must probably have 
 occurred soon after the faU of Taitsan, when Gordon, we 
 know, wished to resign his positioa Sir Halliday was then 
 able to speak frankly out of the fulness of his heart, as one so 
 seldom can in Ufe: "Now, Gordon, I can say to you that 
 whilst people have been calUng me your rival and accusing 
 me of plotting against you, I have never desired your com- 
 mand, and have only taken to mihtary work to fiU up my 
 time while I am learning the language. My ambition is to 
 be like the Jesuits in the middle ages, and to go to Peking 
 and be a councillor there." Then Gordon sighed, looking 
 over the lake's smooth surface, and sayiag: "I have many 
 officers under me, all desiring the post, but they cannot take 
 it. They cannot ! " 
 
 It is a strange little incident, the two men alone in their 
 boat in the middle of the lake but for tl;eir all-unconscious 
 rowers beside them, the one offering the other command over 
 
THE BETRAYAL OF FAITH. 29 
 
 the armies of China ; and may be put alongside, by way of 
 contrast, with that other interview in the dark in the camp 
 beside the celebrated fifty-three-arched bridge, when the 
 unhappy Burgevine suggested to Gordon that together they 
 should march on Peking and rule over China. 
 
 Again, if we want another half-dark picture we may see 
 three of the rebel princes discussing with Gordon, at an out- 
 lying picket, the terms for handing over Soochow. There 
 were said to be thirty-five expectant princes, and 30,000 men 
 anxious to come over. These visits were often repeated, and 
 at one the very General Chang, who had himself been a rebel^ 
 and then when in Li's employ had fired upon Gordon and his 
 men by way of a joke, recognised in one of the princes a man 
 with whom he had in earlier days, when they were fighting side 
 by side, sworn brotherhood after the Chinese fashion. The plan 
 at last agreed upon was that the other princes should induce 
 the Mo Wang to come upon the ramparts to look at the 
 foreigners' batteries. They would then thrust him over the 
 wall, having got a boat in readiness beforehand, and thus 
 hand him over to the Imperialists. It will be observed that 
 Gordon consented to this, but also that there was not intended 
 to be any killing in it. 
 
 On Dec. 4th, however, when several of the princes called 
 upon the Mo Wang he prepared a dinner for them, and they, 
 arrayed in their long robes and with crowns upon their heads, 
 got heated in discussion, till the La Wang thinking all had 
 been discovered began loosening and throwing off his over 
 jacket. '' What are you going to do ? " asked the Mo Wang 
 in surprise, seated at the head of his table as host. " What 
 are you about ? " The La Wang advanced rolling up the 
 sleeve of his long gown, and for all answer stabbed the Mo 
 Wang in the neck and back, so that he fell forward on the 
 table dead. It is not a pleasant picture of a Chinese feast, but 
 as a scenic effect it was dramatic. And I must beg the reader 
 to pause upon it, and reflect that this was the action of the 
 rebel princes among themselves, that no one raised a hand to 
 avenge the murdered governor, and that in the end it turned 
 out that the crime and the plotting had all been alike wasted. 
 
30 LI SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 for the Mo Wang, although he had said he and his men would 
 fight to the end, had been quite as ready as the others to give 
 up the city. At daybreak the foreign contingent saw the 
 Mo Wang's men fighting on the top of the city wall against 
 one of the other prince's men ; who had already during the 
 night shaved the fronts of their heads, so as to look like 
 Manchu subjects wearing the pigtail mark of servitude, no 
 longer long-haired rebels. And thus it was that rich, luxurious 
 Soochow was surrendered to the Imperialists. 
 
 Li, always keen where money was concerned, at once 
 wrote to Gordon that he would give each man two months' 
 «xtra pay, if Gordon would only restrain them from entering 
 the city and plundering ; then with true mercantile haggling, 
 after a visit to the city, he said it was not nearly as rich as 
 he had expected, and that he could only give the force one 
 month's extra pay. The men, who had been counting upon 
 loot, which they thought much more of than their eight 
 dollars and a-half per month, were so angry that next day, 
 with the connivance of some of their officers, they marched off 
 to Li Hung-chang's boat, doubtless to reason with him ; but 
 he on seeing them coming jumped into a small boat and was 
 paddled to the other side of the creek, thus escaping them. 
 After that, Gordon put a guard on Li's boat, to protect him . 
 Gordon had, of course, promised the various princes that 
 their lives would be safe if they surrendered Soochow. His 
 own account of the proceediags was given as foUows, in 
 the Shanghai newspaper of December 12th. 
 
 There was no fighting in the city till the morning of the 5th, 
 when the La Wang's men had some trouble with the Cantonese 
 and drove them out of the city, killing some fifty or sixty of them. 
 General Chang's men advanced, and with a small body took charge 
 of the Lo-gate, my men -being kept fallen in, as they were under 
 stricter discipline than the Imperialist soldiers are. On the night of 
 the 4th December the rebels all shaved their heads. I went to the 
 Futai, and, telling him that it would not do to let my men remain 
 idle, proposed to him to march on Wusieh if he would give the men 
 ■compensation of two mouths' pay, as they had received no reward 
 since I had taken the command. He objected to it, and I told him 
 
THB BETBAYAL OF FAITH. 31 
 
 if he could only promise the matter could be settled — -well. He 
 still objected, and I then told him I should leave his service, and 
 went myself to the city. 
 
 Here we find Gordon for the second time threatening to 
 leave Li's employ. These repeated threats must have made 
 Li look upon him as not quite to be counted upon. 
 
 The Imperialists had some men straying about, but not many. 
 I went straight to La Wang's house, and saw him and all the 
 "Wangs. I asked him if all was right. He said that everything 
 was satisfactory, and appeared quite secure. He had not seen 
 Chang at that time. I went to Mo Wang's palace, and the body 
 was where it had fallen. ... I then at the Futai's (Li) request 
 gave orders for the march to Quinsan. Chang told me at this time 
 that the Futai had written to Pekin, and said that he had extended 
 mercy to the Wangs and the rebels. Next morning, after the 
 troops had left, I started for the city. I went to the Lo-gate, and 
 there leamt that La Wang and the other Wangs and chiefs were to 
 come out and see the Futai at twelve noon, and that the city would 
 then be given over. I thought I had better see La Wang before I 
 went out, so I called at his palace, and took him aside, and asked 
 him if everything was all right, and if he wanted me to do anything. 
 He said no, that everything was proper. I told him I was going to 
 the Tai-hu, and he said, " Why not wait ? I am coming to see you." I 
 said it was important business, and that unless he particularly 
 wished it or thought it necessary, I would not stay. He said " Very 
 good," and I left. He passed me on his way to the Lo-gate very 
 soon after on horseback with all the Wangs, going, as I supposed, to 
 the Futai. I went then to Mo Wang's palace, and then to the east 
 ■or Lo-men to wile away the time till the steamers could get round. 
 
 Gordon and Sir HaUiday Macartney stood together on the 
 top of the wall ; they had seen the Wangs pass out, and now 
 they saw a commotion in the Imperialist camp. Even now all 
 these years afterwards it is impressive to hear Sir Halliday tell 
 the tale, so great becomes his agitation, as he says : " It was 
 really the murder, but we did not know it. We heard a 
 great noise, we saw something was happening." Gordon 
 continues : — 
 
32 LI HUNG-CBANG. 
 
 I thought it was the ceremony of submission going on. A 
 few minutes after, perhaps 12.30 p.m., a large body of Imperial 
 soldiers came up, and, passing the gate, rushed cheering into the 
 city, as they generally do iato vacated stockades. I thought little of 
 it, more than expressing my disapprobation to some of them. They, 
 however, came on, pouring in, firing off their muskets in the air, and 
 yelling. Chang then came up and looked rather pale. I asked him 
 if the interview was over, and if it had been satisfactory. He said 
 that La Wang had not been to the Futai at all. I said I had seen 
 him going with the others. He said no, that he could not say for 
 certain, but that he thought he had run away. I said I could not 
 make out what for, as I had just seen La Wang, and he said every- 
 thing was all right. I asked Chang if there was any. trouble. He 
 said that La Wang had demanded the command of 2,000 men and 
 of half the city of Sooohow, the division to be a wall, and that the 
 Futai had refused it, and also that he had let some of Chung Wang's 
 men in. The latter part I knew to be false, but, strange to say, I 
 believed the former portion. I asked him where La Wang could go 
 to. He said that he would not go back to the rebels, but that he 
 would go to some vUlage, and settle there. I thought the thing so 
 strange that I asked Dr. Macartney, who was by me, to go to La 
 Wang's house, and to see him, and tell him not to fear anything. 
 Chang then told me that his men alone would be allowed in, and 
 that there would be no looting, and as I knew before that he had 
 his men in good discipline, I had no fear, and therefore rode round 
 the wall with him. He kept on firing volleys in the air, which I 
 remonstrated at, and could not make out the object. He said it 
 was merely to prevent Kwangsi men from doing anything to his 
 men while they were taking possession of the city. I became 
 uneasy about La Wang, and at the south gate I left General 
 Chang, and rode off to La Wang's palace. I got there at dark, and 
 found it had been gutted. I was then met by La Wang's uncle, 
 who asked me to come to his house. Being only with my interpreter 
 I had no one to send to General Chang or for my troops, but the 
 entreaties of this Tien-Chuang being so great I agreed to do so, and 
 therefore went with La Wang's family to his house. When I got 
 there his men were all fallen in, and the streets barricaded. I 
 wanted to send my interpreter for assistance, but they would not let 
 him go. I therefore remained till 2 a.m., keeping away the Imperial 
 looting parties. At 2 a.m. I sent my interpreter and an Imperial 
 
THE BETBATAL OF FAITH. 33 
 
 soldier who was with my horse, to get the steamers round to Wai- 
 quai-dong to make the Futai answerable, and also sent for my body- 
 guard. After he had started, the man who went with him came 
 back and said he had been beheaded by the Imperialists. I 
 remained till 4 a.m., and then went out to send orders to the 
 steamers myself. I was taken by the Imperialists and detained 
 an hour. 
 
 At last I got to the Low-men, and sent the bodyguard to the 
 La Wang's uncle's house, but it was too late, the Imperialists 
 had entered and gutted it. I then went to the Low-men, and 
 there met General Chang, to whom I gave my opinion. He was 
 most anxious to excuse himself, but I did not listen to him. At 
 this time I did Sot know the Wangs had been beheaded. I then 
 went down to Chang's stockades, and met Major Baily, command- 
 ing Chang's artillery there. He said that General Chang was 
 very much put out, that the Futai had ordered him to execute the 
 Wangs, and had given orders to the troops to enter the city, that 
 he had lost face, etc. etc. Baily then told me that he had La 
 Wang's son, and brought him to me. I refused any communication 
 with General Chang. La Wang's son came to my boat and, 
 pointing to the other side, said it was there that the Wangs had 
 been executed. I went over, and recognised Kung Wang's, La 
 Wang's, Sieh Wang's and Sung Wang's heads, but the body of La 
 Wang was not to be seen — having been buried. I took, at the 
 son's request, La Wang's head. The bodies had been cut down the 
 chest, and the wounds on the head were most horrible, showing 
 the brutality of the executioners. I then was waiting for the 
 steamers, as I had heard that there were some high persons still in 
 custody, and I thought that I could frighten the Futai into giving 
 them up. He, however, heard of my arrival, and went off to the 
 city. I left him a note telling him my opinion, and then moved off 
 with the steamers to Quinsan. I received just before leaving a 
 letter from Fu-tzu-quai telling me that a chief had come over 
 with 3,000 men to my officer in command, and that he, the officer 
 in command, had received them, I sent orders to him to inform 
 the chief of the treachery, and to let him go with his men and arms, 
 if he liked, or else to bring his troops to Quinsan. 
 
 Is not this a time for foreign governments to come forward 
 and arrange the terms ? The power is in this force if the authority 
 from Pekin is given to it to act under some honest Chinaman. 
 
 D 
 
34 II HUNG CHANG. 
 
 What is now to be feared is that foreigners will join the rebels, 
 and will thus cause the war to linger on to the extermination of 
 the unfortunate people on whom the burden falls, and to the detri- 
 ment of trade of every sort. That the rebels really do not possess 
 the qualities of government cannot be doubted. They merely hold 
 cities, and let the villages govern themselves. The head chief may 
 know something of the Christian religion, but I will answer for it 
 that nine-tenths of the rebels have no real ideas on the subject. It 
 is sincerely to be hoped that the government will interfere at this 
 time. C. G. Goedon, Major Commanding, 
 
 This, however, is but the cold account written for the 
 newspaper. Sir Halliday's is more dramatic. He also notes 
 how confused Chang looked when he came up ; and at last, 
 in answer to Gordon's eager question about the Wangs, 
 said : " They did not come ! " " They did not come ! Why ? 
 How is that ? " asked Gordon. " I saw them myself go 
 out. They got off their horses and saluted me. And now 
 you say they did not go ? " " No — no — they did not come," 
 repeated the other. He and Gordon were to meet again 
 at midnight. Gordon did not come. In reality he had 
 been taken prisoner for a time. Sir Halliday not meeting 
 Gordon and being mystified, went to see Li. But he could 
 not find him. Li, in terror for his life, had taken refuge 
 in Sir Halliday's camp on the other side of the city, where 
 he trusted Gordon would not look for him, and when at 
 last found, he said : " Do tell Gordon I never meant to do 
 it; I meant to keep my word as to their safe conduct, 
 but when I saw those fellows come in with their hair 
 long, the very sign of rebellion, and only wearing the 
 white badge of submission in their button-holes, I thought 
 it such insolence that anger overcame me, and I gave the 
 order for their execution. But it was my doing, not 
 Gordon's ; my safe conduct not Gordon's that has been 
 violated. Tell him I am ready to proclaim far and wide 
 that he had nothing to do with it, so that he loses no 
 reputation by it. Can you not make peace with him for 
 me?" 
 
 When Dr. Macartney first found Gordon it was in his 
 
THE SETBATAL OF FAITH. 35 
 
 bedroom, and Gordon seemed beside himself. He stooped 
 down to his little camp bed behind the door and drew 
 from under it a bleeding head, that of the La Wang, which 
 the La Wang's son had given him, and holding it up, all 
 gory as it was, at arm's length, and crying "Look! 
 look!" he began to weep hysterically. There was no use 
 in attempting to reason with him then, so, though it was 
 in the night, Sir Halliday declared he had not come about 
 anything particular, only just looked in in passing. 
 
 Next time he managed to see Gordon it was at break- 
 fast. There sat Gordon amid a great company of Shanghai 
 men, and he made Dr. Macartney sit doAvn with them. 
 All the richest of the Chinese were seeking refuge in 
 Shanghai then, and foreign merchants wei'e accused of 
 letting them shanties and charging them for palaces — 
 making so much money, says Sir Halliday, that they could 
 not but wish the troubled state of things to continue, and 
 they used to be always coming out to the camp to Gordon 
 and inciting him on. Li had shown Macartney a letter in 
 pencil which he had received from Gordon, written when 
 he had first heard of the murder of the Wangs ; he had 
 asked to have this translated, but Macartney had excused 
 himself; for in this note Gordon upbraided Li for his 
 treachery, and called upon him to resign his position as 
 governor into the hands of a Commission to be appointed 
 by Gordon and his officers, until further directions could 
 be received from Peking, adding that if Li would not 
 do this he himself would leave the Imperialist side and 
 go over to the Taipings, retaking for them every town 
 he had taken from them. Li said if he did not know the 
 contents of the letter he could not keep it, so gave it to 
 Sir Halliday, who hastened to take it away, being de- 
 sirous to hand it back to Gordon. But among a crowd of 
 men all drinking and talking loud, the moment was un- 
 propitious for discussing so grave a matter seriously as it 
 deserved. 
 
 So when Gordon at table, all of a sudden, looked round 
 and said : " I don't believe you came with no purpose in 
 
36 XI SUNO- CHANG. 
 
 particular. I believe you have some business on hand. Out 
 with it ! " Sir Halliday replied : " Afterwards, afterwards, 
 Gordon." " No, now ! " Then, looking round the table : 
 "These are all my friends. I don't mind their hearing. 
 You can speak quite freely before them." Then Sir Halliday, 
 trying to pacify him, told him he had got his letter, and said 
 solemnly, " Gordon, beware." But Gordon cried out that he 
 would do all as he had said ; and ordered two steamers to be 
 got ready. In the end he started with his troops, but going 
 half way repented and came back. Sir Halhday says he 
 had warned him as impressively as he could of the awful 
 consequences of carrying out the scheme he contemplated; 
 how Sir Frederick Bruce, then British minister, and every- 
 one else, would blame him. Doubtless Gordon reflected upon 
 this and upon many other matters. But however much we 
 may wish to admire him, it is impossible to think he was 
 right both times — right in leaving Li's army and right in 
 returning to it. There is no doubt that he went about for 
 some days armed, with the intention of killing Li, and but 
 for Macartney he would in all probability have carried 
 out his intention. Among British merchants in China the 
 general idea for years has been that it was a pity that 
 Macartney ever interfered. But with every allowance for the 
 edge given to Gordon's anger by his having himself been 
 detained a prisoner in the barely yet captured city of 
 Soochow, his own life certainly in danger, it does not seem^ 
 dispassionately judging the matter all these years afterwards, 
 that Gordon would have had any right to take the matter 
 into his own hands and try Li, much less summarily to 
 condemn and execute him. The Wangs were traitors ; they 
 had just traitorously killed one of their own number ; and 
 according to ordinary Chinese opinion, Li behaved very 
 cleverly, taking advantage of his opportunity, for they would 
 have been sure to give trouble if allowed to live on. In any 
 case, within three weeks Gordon was serving under him again 
 on apparently perfectly friendly terms. He did not throw 
 up his command and leave Li. This is the official version of 
 the matter in an Imperial Edict of February 6th, 1864 : — 
 
TSE BETBAYAL OF FAITH. 37 
 
 Li H\ing-chang has reported to us the attack upon Soochow, and 
 the delivery up of the city by the rebels in consequence of their 
 strength being exhausted. On perusing his memorial our joy was 
 indeed great 
 
 Soochow has been in possession of the rebels now for four years. 
 The rebel fortifications outside the city were, it seems, first taken in 
 succession by Li Hung-chang with his forces, and this so checked the 
 courage of the rebels that they begged to surrender the city. On 
 the 30th November last the (soi-disant) Chung-Wang, seeing that 
 the city was in great danger from the impetuous attacks of the 
 troops, and that there was much disafiection amongst the rebels, left 
 the city by night with 1,000 of his followers, and gave special charge 
 of the place to Mo-wang, with directions to hold it to the last. 
 
 On the 3rd of December General Chang and two other officers 
 advanced with their forces and took up a position close to each 
 gate, which they maintained day and night, gaining ground as each 
 assault took place. Gordon also in person moved up to the foot of 
 the wall and opened fire on the city. On the 4th the Mo-wang 
 mounted the city wall to conduct the defence and, whilst in the act 
 of delivering orders, was stabbed in an iinguarded moment by an 
 officer under the orders of a fictitious Wang. Over 1,000 of the 
 Mo-wang's men were slain at the same time, and the city gates were 
 opened. General Chang then entered the city and took control. 
 Several thousand rebels were exterminated by him, a great many 
 were cut off by Li-Chao-Pin, and finally Soochow was recovered. 
 
 We now desire that Li Hung-chang direct the troops to follow 
 up their success by taking Chang-chow, and then by a combined 
 movement sweep the rebels out of Nankin, and capture their 
 chief, to the end that the river may be cleared of them. 
 
 It is further our desire that, in consideration of the services 
 rendered by the Minister of State Tseng Kuo-fan, the board decide 
 upon what merit is due to him. 
 
 Li Hung-chang, since entering upon the duties of Governor 
 of Kiangisu, has devoted his whole attention to military opera- 
 tions, and his strategic movements have had perfect success. He 
 has several times entered the rebel strongholds, and now that he 
 has been so successful as to capture Soochow, he is still more 
 deserving of praise. 
 
 We are, therefore, graciously pleased to bestow upon him the 
 title of Guardian of the Heir-Apparent, and reward him with 
 
38 LI EUNG-GHANG. 
 
 a yellow jacket in token of our appreciation of his services, and 
 we are likewise pleased to confer upon Chang the hereditary 
 title of Yun-ch'i-wen, and reward him with a yeUow jacket. 
 
 General Gordon, in his active co-operation, has shown forth 
 extraordinary valour, and we therefore reward him with a first- 
 class medal and the sum of ten thousand taels to evince our 
 desire to encourage merit, etc. Respect this ! 
 
 With his sovereign's approbation and his countrymen's 
 admiration let us therefore now leave Li yeUow-jacketed 
 and guardian of the Heir-Apparent, satisfied that the 
 indignant contempt of the few foreigners in China could 
 not trouble him much one way or the other. Yet it must 
 be remembered that it is this murder of the Wangs that 
 has coloured every foreigner's opinion of him ever since, 
 and that there are Chinese men, men in high place too, 
 who have never done any such action and would be 
 incapable of it. There is one other reflection that forces 
 itself upon us. When the British Government allowed 
 Gordon to serve under Li, when he put at Li's disposition 
 all that went to the making up of that magnetic person- 
 ality we call Gordon, did either realise that thereby 
 Li Hung-chang (through merits not his own) was being 
 lifted up and borne onward to the very highest place in 
 the Chinese Empire ? Thus the man, who bought rank by 
 going security for General Chang, and obtained victory 
 over the Taipings by treacherously murdering all their princes 
 when they came to see him under a safe conduct granted 
 by himself, was floated, as a syndicate is often floated, 
 under false pretences. And it is the shareholders in one 
 case, all the people of China in the other, who know the 
 consequences. Up to this point in his life, so far as we 
 know, Li Hung-chang had given no striking indication 
 of personal bravery, but one or two to the contrary. The 
 Chinese say that he was beaten in every battle till Gordon 
 came to him. He had, however, shown discernment of 
 character even among foreigners, shrewdness and business 
 capacity, and finally that tendency to rise which seems 
 inborn in certain characters, and without which aU the 
 talents and all the virtues are ineffective. 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE END OF THE TAIPING KEBELLION : LI, GORDON, 
 AND CHANG (1863-4). 
 
 The Shanghai paper of the time quotes the following Edict 
 as evidence of Chinese dupHcity : — 
 
 Li Hung-chang reports that General Gordon some time 
 since started from Li-yanghsien to attack Kin-tang. He carried 
 with him mortars to breach the walls. At the attack he 
 was wounded in the leg. Li has therefore recommended him to 
 remain at rest. Such is the despatch. Now Gordon being 
 excessively brave and fearless, was wounded in consequence. 
 We are on this account deeply/ moved. On the other hand, we 
 are informed that the wound is not serious. We order Li Hung- 
 chang to visit Gordon and inquire for him daily, so as to keep 
 his mind at rest, requesting him to wait until he shall be 
 perfectly restored to health and strength. Respect this ! 
 
 But is it not a little hard to conclude from this that 
 the Chinese accused Gordon of malingering ? A shade of 
 difference in the translation would, it is true, quite alter the 
 meaning. Even if the Chinese did suspect Gordon of dis- 
 honourable conduct, can they be blamed for it, considering 
 with what sort of foreign employes they had hitherto been 
 brought in contact, and considering also that to a Chinese 
 General such conduct would seem only natural. 
 
 Each nation — nay, each class in a nation — seems to have 
 certain virtues ; and must own to certain failings which it 
 condones. We English set little store by courtesy; good 
 manners are not taught in our schools, and the English 
 and American lower middle classes seem to have absolutely 
 
40 LI SUNG-CSANG. 
 
 no standard of manners. The Chinese have; they may fall 
 short of their intentions, but they always know how they 
 ought to behave. Whereas they have a general idea that 
 it is stupid to tell the truth, that the man who does so 
 is deficient in imagination or resources, and that to show 
 brains you should deceive and not be found out. Their 
 attitude may be a little too bluntly stated here, but there 
 certainly is a good deal of evidence to show that a man 
 telling the truth or showing natural emotion of any kind 
 is considered lacking in polish. Hence that expressionless- 
 ness, as if one were surrounded by masked faces, which 
 anyone living in a Chinese city finds so trying at first. 
 
 To remind the reader — doubtless at this time judging 
 " good old Lie " somewhat harshly — of the difference in 
 point of view, I will quote again from the Peking Gazette 
 of April, 1864,:— 
 
 Li Hung-chang has sent us a report as to the protection and 
 aid afforded by a god to the city of Chin-kiang when it was 
 seriously threatened by the rebels. We are requested to confer 
 an additional honorific epithet on the god, and to rebuild his temple. 
 Such is the substance of the despatch. The circumstances of the 
 case are as follows : — Chin-kiang-fu, in the Province of Kiang-su, 
 used to possess a temple dedicated to the worship of T'u T'i. The 
 faithful there adored and presented offerings to the shade of Chahg- 
 hsien, who had been a minister under an emperor of the Tang 
 dynasty. In the third year of Hsien-F'eng, this temple was 
 accidentally burnt down. Now, during the first month of the 
 first year of Our reign, although the rebels, when constantly 
 spreading themselves round the city, were as constantly repulsed 
 by the Imperialists, yet they subsequently collected in overwhelming 
 numbers and utterly routed the mandarin troops. But the inhabit- 
 ants of the city trusted implicitly to the protection of the deity ; 
 who proved himself equal to the occasion by extending his segis 
 over his worshippers, for the rebels incontinently took themselves 
 off. It is on this ground that the Futai Li Hung-chang begs that 
 an honorific epithet be bestowed on the god, and on this he also 
 bases the claim to a temple. 
 
 Years afterwards at Tientsin Li Hung-chang startled his 
 
TSE END OF TBE TAIPING REBELLION. 41 
 
 European admirers by doing unexpected reverence to a small 
 snake, and in 1877, during the great drought at Tientsin, he 
 frequently besought the Dragon King to pour water on the 
 thirsty earth, even bringing out a mystic iron tablet " said to 
 possess the power of attracting rain to any district into which 
 it was carried." The Europeans who are most astonished at 
 all this are probably those who would have objected altogether 
 to any effort to convert him to a higher faith. But men of the 
 build and calibre of Li are probably never agnostics. There is 
 something higher than themselves that they reverence, and 
 that carries them forward. We may call it superstition if 
 we please. But how much of what we call our own religion is 
 not superstition, if Mme. de Stael's able distinction be accepted: 
 " Superstition is related to this life, religion to the next ; 
 superstition allies itself to fatality, religion to virtue : it is by 
 the vitahty of earthly desires we become superstitious, and by 
 the sacrifice of these desires that we become religious." If we 
 accept this the Chinese people seem singularly destitute of 
 rehgion ; and with regard to Li himself, no one can doubt " the 
 vitality of his earthly desires." 
 
 In 1864 he may be considered as having been at the 
 beginning of his career so far as learning from foreigners went. 
 Ten years later we cannot believe that he would have killed 
 the Wangs. The story current as to their death is that they 
 refused to kneel before him, claiming to be his equals. He 
 " told his underlings to hamstring them, and when they fell 
 he ordered them to be beheaded. There were nine in all. 
 The Mo Wang had sixteen boy attendants, who were all 
 killed ; his palace was like a slaughter-house." People with a 
 taste for bloodshed can certainly get enough of it in the 
 Taiping rebelHon. Even when the rival princes disputed 
 among themselves for the supremacy in Nanking itself, 
 the Northern Prince killed the Eastern Prince's followers 
 — men, women, and children— 20,000 in all. People, who 
 would behave foolishly over seeing one head cut off, seldom 
 pause to think what such a fact means — the ground soaked, 
 the rivers choked, the dogs gorged, the stench and all the 
 rest of it. Mr. Howard puts it forcibly as usual: "Two 
 
42 II HUNG-CHANG. 
 
 ■weeks afterwards we stormed and captured their position, 
 driving the rebels into the Imperialists' lines. 10,000 were 
 taken prisoners; about 4,000, old men and boys, were 
 stripped entirely naked and sent adrift ; the others, about 
 6,000, were put in a large compound and beheaded. It 
 was an awful sight to see Li Hung-chang's men hacking 
 at them. The bodies of the eight foreigners taken by the 
 rebels were found with their heads off and their bodies 
 mutilated." 
 
 This was after Gordon and Li had become friendly again, 
 Mr. (now Sir Eobert) Hart having persuaded Gordon that he 
 had judged Li too harshly. So Gordon had led his men 
 to victory, and this was the outcome of it all. Certainly 
 war is not a kid glove affair, but it is incredible that 
 this was the highest use to which to put a hero-saint — to win 
 victories for the Chinese Imperialists' forces, who acted after 
 this fashion, and then unconditionally to hand the poor con- 
 quered nation over to the Manchu dynasty, from which the 
 Taipings had sought to free it. They, poor people, were 
 certainly imperfectly enough instructed in the doctrines of 
 Christianity from the outset, and power and luxury not only 
 had temptations for them, but also attracted to their side all 
 the needy daredevils of China. But what was the Imperialist 
 side that we should send our men to fight for them, and watch 
 Li Hung-chang's men hacking 6,000 men to death, after 
 turning 4,000 old men and boys out naked to perish ? , And 
 these are small numbers compared to those that were often 
 killed. Captain Roderick Dew, R.N., tells how in the great 
 populous city of Ningpo he found not a living soul, and Mr. 
 Archibald Little has often told me how, as a young man, he 
 has ridden through large cities, and found only corpses. Mr. 
 Howard also mentions a curious circumstance, again noticed 
 in the last Boxer outbreak : it was a common thing for 
 women to command bodies of soldiers in the rebel army. 
 These women rode astride. In the Boxer oi^tbreak by all 
 accounts they were carried in sedan chairs, those I have myseK 
 seen having bound feet. 
 
 Here, however, are reports from Li himself: — 
 
TEE END OF TEE TAIPING BEBELLION. 43 
 
 On April 20th the Imperial army made a successful attack on 
 Kia-shing-f u, having surrounded the city by day and by night for 
 a considerable time. More than one hundred chang of the wall 
 had been battered down. On the 20th General Chang himself, 
 leading the other officers and men, joined in the struggle, placing 
 scaling ladders and ascending the wall. He was on that occasion 
 grievously wounded. An officer named Liu Szu-chi, when advanc- 
 ing with his men, let fly a shell which burst in one of the rebel 
 magazines and created immense confusion amongst the enemy. 
 Another officer, by name Liu Ping-Chang, with others, each leading 
 his own company, inspired by bravery set to work tearing up 
 the stakes which had been placed in the city ditch, and subse- 
 quently advancing they effected an entrance by the south and 
 east gates. The leader of the rebels, by name Miao Fa-shou, 
 immediately collected the most determined of his followers to the 
 number of many thousands, and kept up a resolute fight in the streets. 
 The Imperial soldiery, with an utter contempt for death, forced their 
 way on, slaughtering as they went some five or six thousand men. 
 The rebels fled by the west gate. Chen Yu-sheng and Li Chao-ping 
 with their followers, dividing their forceSj met and exterminated the 
 fugitives. The rebels taken within the city were executed. The 
 soi-disant Ting Wang was killed by a cannon ball. The soi-disant 
 Yung Wang was taken and beheaded, his head being subsequently 
 hung up. Thus was Kia-shing-fu taken. This entire affair was 
 excellently conducted. The general Chang was very severely 
 ■wounded while attacking the city. Indeed, his noble and heroic 
 soul led him to his fate. 
 
 On another occasion Li writes : — 
 
 "The dead bodies of the rebels strewed the streets and filled 
 the creeks.'' 
 
 And again — 
 
 " Our soldiery surrounded the place and killed a countless 
 number of the enemy." 
 
 To return to the Peking Gazette: — 
 
 The defenders of the stockade fled in the utmost confusion. 
 Sixty or seventy thousand, casting away their weapons, surrendered 
 at discretion. Those old offenders who hid themselves in different 
 
44 LI SUNa-CHANG. 
 
 holes and comers within the city were ferreted out and in like 
 manner exterminated. The Tien-tsian-fei was taken alive. From 
 one o'clock until six the work of slaughter went on, and Changchow 
 was taken at last. The operations were indeed most successful. 
 In the affair Li Hung-chang led the soldiers in person, and 
 vigorously cut down whole battalions of the enemy, finally succeed- 
 ing in capturing this strongly fortified city. His strategic skill is 
 very great, and we therefore repose the greatest confidence in him, 
 and confer on his descendants to the last generation the hereditary 
 rank of honorary Taotai. Several others, being each and all pre- 
 eminent for bravery, contempt for death, and a generous emulation, 
 are invested with the yellow jacket as a reward for their merits. 
 
 Here follo-ws a long list, with this special mention of 
 Gordon : — 
 
 Gordon, the Commander-in-Chief in the province of Kiangsu, 
 as a leader of soldiers, assisted us in destroying the Rebels, and 
 was continually in action. On this occasion he, with Li Hung- 
 chang, attacked and subdued Changchow in a manner most extra- 
 ordinary. He is, therefore, promoted to the rank of Ti-t'u. More- 
 over, in accordance with Li Hung-chang's request, we present him 
 with a banner and a star in order to mark our high appreciation 
 of his services. We await the settlement of the affairs of the " Ever 
 Victorious Army,'' which, when reported to us by Li Hung-chang, 
 will elicit a generous mark of our favour. 
 
 Yet the feehng among Europeans was that not enough 
 credit was given to Gordon ; this, perhaps, may be confirmed 
 by comparing the style in which Li wrote of General Chang, 
 the one who had been a rebel, and whose men fired upon 
 Gordon's men " by mistake" at first : — 
 
 Chang [here follow his titles] fiercely attacked the city of Kia- 
 shing, where he was wounded in the head by a ball which pierced his 
 brain. I over and over again exhorted him to submit to treat- 
 ment, and I called in doctors who professed to cure both internal 
 and external maladies, so that he at last consented to put him- 
 self in their hands. His mind and speech thus soon became clear. 
 I left Soochow on the 7th April for the purpose of following up the 
 rebels, but at the moment of starting I visited him. He said that 
 
TEE END OF THE TAIPING REBELLION. 45 
 
 although the rebels had been defeated, their strength was still not to 
 be despised, and he told me to order the officers to be careful in 
 battle. He also remarked that brave men were not easily obtained, 
 and bitterly regretted his own fate by which he was prevented from 
 following up his duty to the country in exterminating the rebels. 
 He sobbed and sighed and tears came into his eyes while he was 
 speaking to me. I, on the other hand, bid him be of good courage, 
 told him that he would thus hasten his recovery, and that it was not 
 necessary for him to grieve and be anxious. While I was at Kiang- 
 yin attacking the rebels there, a report suddenly reached me that 
 Chang was gradually sinking. 
 
 (Here follow medical details.) 
 
 On the 14th April he called his servant and ordered him to bring 
 the yellow jacket presented to him by your Majesty, and to assist 
 him to put it on. He then bowed his head towards your Majesty's 
 palace. He was much moved, and wept. He ordered Han Chu, 
 a Chi-chao, who had the superintendence of the camp, to mount a 
 horse and come to me, to beg that I would carefully follow out my 
 design of destroying the rebels. He further said that he knew he 
 could not see me again in the provincial city. Indeed, there was 
 not a particle of selfishness in his recommendations. At the time 
 when he felt death approaching he bemoaned the unfinished state of 
 the work he had cut out for himself. He felt that he had not 
 returned the favours heaped on him by your Majesty. On the 
 15th April, at twelve o'clock at night, he died. I was excessively 
 grieved. All the military officers wept bitterly. Every one, 
 whether belonging to Kiangsu or to Chekiang, whether mandarins 
 or scholars or common people, lamented his death. I then examined 
 into Chang's previous history and discovered that he came from a 
 place in An-hui, whence during the Rebel troubles he was taken 
 as a prisoner. The " four-eyed dog " Ying placed great confidence 
 in him. Chang, because he saw that the Rebels oppressed the 
 people, at length made an attempt to get away from them. The 
 Rebels, however, managed to secure him again, and shut him up 
 so that he could not escape. Chang came over to the camp and 
 surrendered himself. He was instantly recognised as a superior 
 man, and one far above the general run of Rebel officers who had 
 come over to our ranks. He was therefore appointed to a command 
 in the camp, and was sent with the expedition which recovered 
 
46 LI HUNO-CSANG. 
 
 Nganking, and his bravery was there most conspicuous. The 
 Governor-General, Ts^ng Kuo-fan, reported the affair to your 
 Majesty, and pledged himself for Chang's worth. At the same 
 time I myself was at Nganking and constantly heard of Chang's 
 exploits, as well as of his wisdom, daring, and varied ability. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, when your Majesty ordered me to hurry to 
 Shanghai, I begged TsSng Kuo-fan to allow me to carry with me 
 Chang's two camps. The Governor-General and TsSng Kuo-tsuan, 
 seeing that I was in urgent need of assistance in the dangerous 
 region to which I was going, granted my request. In the third 
 month of the first year of your Majesty's reign, I started with 
 Chang for Shanghai. In the fifth month we conquered at the 
 battle of Hung Kiao, in the eighth month we routed the enemy at 
 Pi Sin King, in the tenth month we were equally, successful at Szu 
 Kiang Kow, having in these three engagements rendered a satis- 
 tory account of at least ten thousand rebels, and destroyed the 
 prestige of the movement. It was, in truth, Chang's strategic 
 ability which brought about this result. From that time the con- 
 fidence of our troops was restored. Gradually Chang picked out 
 about ten thousand men, and disciplined them carefully. Thence- 
 forward he had only to attack a city in order to ensure its conquest. 
 Thus we regained possession of Ching-poo, Kad-ding, Tai-tsan, 
 Ch^n-yang, Quin-san, Sin-yang, Wu-kong and Chen-tzei, all of which 
 were either choiM or hsiens [cities of a certain rank]. In the seventh 
 month of the second year of your Majesty's reign, we commenced the 
 attack on Soochow, which was the very centre of the rebellion. The 
 city was large and provisions plentiful, while, on the other hand, 
 forty thousand men could hardly have invested it on all sides. 
 Chang employed only ten thousand men — this included both the 
 naval and military forces — and having taken up his position 
 outside the Lo-m^n, gradually pushed the siege. It mattered 
 not how strongly fortified places were, whether protected by camps 
 or by stone stockades, he took them one after another, and 
 established camps of his own in each. Twice he divided his 
 force into two battalions, and sent them to fight in difierent 
 directions. On one of these occasions the Kashing rebels came 
 to the assistance of Soochow. Chang advanced to Ping Wang 
 met them there and routed them. When the Rebel who styled 
 himself Chung (Sincere) advanced to the relief, Chang aided in the 
 repulse which befel the Rebels at Ta-chiao-ko and Wang-ting. The 
 
THE END OF TEE TAIPING BEBELLION. 47 
 
 Huchow rebels who endeavoured to relieve Soochow were also by 
 assistance driven back. For eighteen or twenty miles in every 
 direction round the old camp ambushes were laid into the very heart 
 of the enemy's country. The Rebels were fully convinced that he 
 was in truth a Heavenly warrior. When I reported the capture 
 of Soochow I informed your Majesty that Chang acted like one 
 supernaturally inspired. For " every move on the board " he was 
 prepared, and this indeed his conduct fully proved. 
 
 This despatch of Li's is well worth studying, both because 
 of the insight it gives into Chinese ways, so frequently record- 
 ing sighs and tears, and because of the qualities which he 
 specially selects to praise — " strategic ability," being "a superior 
 man," " like one supernaturally inspired," further " that there 
 was not a particle of selfishness in his recommendations." 
 Chang seems to have died like Rhodes, lamenting " so much 
 to do, so little done." But above all it is to be noticed that 
 in this despatch everything that we are accustomed to 
 consider Gordon's work, Gordon's claim to fame in China, is 
 attributed to Chang, and Gordon left unmentioned, as if he 
 did not exist. Which is quite in accordance with Chinese 
 usage to this day. 
 
 The Chinese, whose education is confined to a study of their 
 own classics and the acquiring of a good literary style, are 
 often quite unaware that there are other nations in the world 
 besides themselves. It is not that they think they are the 
 finest nation, as we all do, every one of us, if we teU the hidden 
 secrets of our hearts, but that they believe there are no others ; 
 only border tribes, sometimes turbulent, with wild sort of 
 chieftains over them ; who come to China, either because 
 they have no land and are weary of living always on the 
 sea, or because theirs are such poverty-stricken districts that 
 there is no tea there, no silk, no sunshine to ripen anything. 
 Therefore we come as suppliants to China, begging of them to 
 trade with us and let us have some of their good things ; and 
 then in a turbulent fashion force them to take our opium or 
 the like in exchange. It is very difficult for the arrogant 
 nations of Europe to believe this. But so it is, and probably 
 Li Hung-chang at this period of his life was not much better 
 
48 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 informed than Chinese generally. In any case, it would have 
 been daring of him to try to force anything of this know- 
 ledge, if he had acquired it, upon his Emperor. He seems to 
 have had the power of recognising a good man when he saw 
 him, but he had been from the first very cautious to keep in 
 check the pretensions of the foreign mercenaries he employed. 
 He had refused the offers of Kussia, he had got Burgevine 
 dismissed. Some people think he must have been very much 
 impressed by Gordon's disinterestedness, because the latter, 
 when Imperial presents were sent him after the capture of 
 Soochow, refused to accept them. But as Gordon, being still 
 full of righteous anger over the murder of the Wangs, took 
 the celebrated walking-stick, with which he always went into 
 battle, and with it roundly beat the Imperial messengers, 
 who had entered with all the state and dignity befitting the 
 bringing of the Emperor's gifts, it is hard to see how this 
 should lead Li to suppose that Gordon came of a cultured, 
 polished race. He might, perhaps, have admired the refusal 
 to accept ] 0,000 taels, though he would be more apt to 
 consider it the caprice of a man who did not understand 
 the value of money; but the beating must have confirmed 
 him in the idea that he had a lot of wild desperadoes to 
 deal with, and that the sooner they were disbanded the 
 better. 
 
 Nanking was now the only city holding out, and so — very 
 carefully furnished with means to return to their foreign 
 homes, lest they should take service with the rebels— the 
 " Ever Victorious Army," as it had been called from the days 
 of Ward, was disbanded, and we read in the Peking Gazette, 
 16 th June, 1864 :— 
 
 Since the spring of last year Gordon has headed the " Ever 
 Victorious Army," and aided the ordinary Imperial forces in the 
 subjugation of Fushan, the relief of Chang-shu-hsien, the capture 
 of Taitsan-chou, Quin-san-hsien, Wu-kong-hsien, and Soochow. 
 Then again, he this year captured Yih-shing-hsien and Li-yang- 
 hsien, while he compelled the retreat of the rebels at Yang-shai. 
 He finally captured Chang-chow-fu, thus continually heaping meri- 
 torious acts one upon another. Moreover, he has, in the most 
 
TBE END OF THE TAIFING BEBELLION. 49 
 
 satisfactory and peaceful manner, completed the disbandment of 
 the disciplined army. There was no vacillation about Gordon's 
 services; he was ever inspired with that bi'avery and strategic 
 talent which enabled him to prove so formidable. He was also 
 intimately acquainted with the relations existing between China 
 and other Powers. It is therefore most necessary for us to mark 
 our approval. Gordon is, therefore, presented with the Yellow 
 Jacket, and a short peacock's feather. He is also presented with 
 the official robes and paraphernalia belonging to the rank of 
 Commander-in-Chief. Thus will our favour be manifested to him. 
 
 It was really not Li's fault that Gordon had no further 
 reward, for he had refused money, and the Yellow Jacket 
 was a very high honour. The other foreign officers got from 
 £500 to £1,000, according to their rank. Foreigners were, 
 however, not yet quite done with. The arsenal established 
 under Dr. Macartney at Soochow was removed to Nanking, 
 and the Lay-Osborne flotUla had still to be got rid of. Horatio 
 Lay, the founder of the Chinese Maritime Customs, hearing 
 that the Chinese Government required "armed vessels to 
 be officered and manned by Englishmen," had engaged 
 Captain Sherard Osborne to command the fleet. On its 
 arrival at Shanghai, Li tried to get all the men to desert 
 to his Provincial fleet, and by offers of higher pay " nearly 
 all the stokers from one ship were tempted into joining his 
 gunboats," so that " Captain Osborne was glad to steam 
 northwards, in order to carry his men out of the reach of 
 temptation." However, he was then told that he would 
 have to serve under Li Hung-chang instead of direct under 
 the Emperor. Sir Frederick Bruce had written to Prince 
 Kung in the strongest terms about Li's conduct to Gordon, 
 and General Brown had taken the same view, and now 
 Captaiu Sherard Osborne wrote several very outspoken letters 
 to the effect that it was impossible for any British officer 
 of standing to serve under Li Hung-chang. "The flotilla 
 was never commissioned," writes Mr. Michie in " The 
 Englishman in China," which purports to be a biography 
 of Sir Kutherford Alcock, but is really a detailed yet 
 dramatic description of contemporaneous events in the Far 
 
 E 
 
50 LI EUNG-CHANO. 
 
 East, rendered yet more interesting by the grand literary 
 style of the writer. He knew Li Hung-chang well, and 
 wrote of him as a warm personal Mend in his obituary 
 notice, therefore it is the more interesting to notice that 
 he adds : " The whole chapter of experiences of the campaign 
 in Kiangsu has left a vivid impression in the mind of Li 
 Hung-chang ; it was the most interesting period of his life, 
 but no incident of it imparts such vivacity to his reminis- 
 cences as that of the Lay-Osbome fleet. Nothing warms 
 him to dramatic locution like a reference to that episode ; " 
 and again it was " the uncompromising attitude of Li Hung- 
 chang " that " smashed the flotilla scheme." " Burgevine 
 was fresh in the Futai's mind — was indeed at that very time 
 in the rebel camp near him. Li's arguments clinched the 
 matter." 
 
 There were still 10,000 Russian rifles and several cannon, 
 that turned up at Peking " after a protracted journey at a 
 time when the Russian Minister deemed it expedient to 
 explain to his British colleagues that the arms had reference 
 only to the rebellion." We do not quite know how this 
 was explained to the Chinese, who had long before declined 
 Russian aid, so that it might have been possible one would 
 think to stop all this artillery before it arrived. Anjrway, 
 Li Hung-chang had disbanded the foreign mercenaries, 
 and rejected the fleet, much as in after years he obliged 
 Admiral Lang- to resign the command of the Northern 
 Squadron. Is it unnatural, then, that he should be held 
 in some measure responsible for the great naval defeat of 
 Yalu and the capture of the Chinese Navy by the Japanese 1 
 
 However, in 1864 he was borne forward on the full tide 
 of victory, and on July 19th the TaipLng rebelUon came 
 to an end through the fall of Nanking, without any further 
 aid from foreigners, Li getting royal presents and the title 
 which we translate as Earl, together with the deuble-eyed 
 peacock's feather; his chief, the celebrated TsSng Kwo-fan, 
 receiving the title we translate as Marquis Tseng. 
 
51 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE AFTERMATH OF THE TAIPING REBELLION (1864-1 
 
 To the interval of peace which followed belongs the tale, how 
 li and a number of high officials were invited to witness the 
 performances of a planing machine, which for beautiful 
 simplicity of construction could hardly be excelled, so experts 
 say. Twice or thrice the operation was performed. Without 
 showing the slightest interest, or even making one intelligent 
 inquiry, they shrugged their shoulders, and with one voice 
 exclaiming " There's a devil in it," turned to examine with 
 the same idle and undiscerning curiosity some other piece of 
 mechanism. Yet it is worth considering who are the stupid 
 ones, we who exhibit with much pains the last marvellous 
 achievement of mechanical genius to these Easterns, or they 
 who, confronted with something of which they do not under- 
 stand the first rudiments, turn away to wax enthusiastic over 
 a display of fireworks or an amusing toy. No one would 
 take a European child who had not even heard of the 
 lever, and think to enhghten him by taking him over great 
 electrical works. Eastern Potentates often know as little 
 about mechanics as European children ; but they may under- 
 stand many things we do not, all the same, such as diplomacy 
 or harmony of colours. 
 
 It would be a comfort at once to pass from those dark 
 times that have left an ineffaceable trace upon many once- 
 flourishing Chinese cities. But those rebels, who with their 
 long hair were so often taken at first sight for women by 
 their enemies, who had aimed at a great peace and made 
 of the smiling plains of China a great desert, had not aU 
 
52 LI EUNG-OHANG. 
 
 been killed, and were soon to reappear in the Provinces 
 of Shan-tung (East of the Mountains) and Ho-nan (South 
 of the Kiver). Whereupon there ensued a political game 
 of which we can at least understand the moves, and see 
 that to his boldness at this juncture Li owed much of his 
 subsequent success. 
 
 Among the players in the aforesaid game were Ts§ng Kwo- 
 fan and Li Hung-chang, one generahssimo of the Emperor's 
 armies, the other governor of three of his richest provinces. 
 Li owed to Tseng Kwo-fan his appointment as Governor of 
 Kiangsu and his subsequent promotion, in succession to his 
 patron, to the governor-generalship of Kiang-su, Kiangsi, and 
 Anhui — in defiance of one of the laws of the empire which 
 rules that no man can hold oflSce in or over his native 
 province. Now, on a Minister of State becoming seriously 
 ill, TsSng Kwo-fan was ordered to Peking to act in his 
 stead, while Li was invited again to succeed his patron as 
 Commander-in-Chief. It seemed like promotion, but Chinese 
 officials in high place are very wary about going to Peking. 
 Again and again in these later years has Chang Chih-tung 
 been summoned thither, and yet always found some pretext 
 to avoid compliance. Once after innumerable delays he 
 had actually got as far as Shanghai when a little anti-foreign 
 disturbance occurring in his viceroyalty he actually found 
 it necessary to hurry back at once with a speed very differ- 
 ent from the exceeding slowness with which he had prepared, 
 moved off, and descended the river. And that is the only 
 time that he has even got ready to go. 
 
 In this case the Court was evidently afraid of TsSng 
 Kwo-fan's power becoming too great, just as Li had been 
 afraid of his foreign mercenaries. A victorious general at 
 the head of his army has always been reckoned difficult 
 to deal with. Nanking became alive with troops, camped 
 round it in the most favourable positions to command the 
 river Yangtse, whilst the artillery was held ready for action 
 at a moment's notice. Foreigners became convinced " that 
 Li contemplated the insane folly of armed resistance to a 
 foreign force in some possible eventuality." The quantity of 
 
TSE AFTERMATH OF TBE TAIPING BEBELLION. 63 
 
 -warlike stores -whicli Li had accumulated, and the facilities 
 his arsenals afforded him for reproducing them, they said, 
 were too much for him ; he was yearning for an oppor- 
 tunity to try the effect of these foreign engines of destruction, 
 A Shanghai paper began to utter words of warning. 
 
 Li has doubtless been longing to see how his foreign-drilled 
 troops will act. From the expense incurred in providing them with 
 European iuBtructors, he has a right to expect men whom two years' 
 drill has reduced to a fair state of discipline, whereas he will hardly 
 find a tithe who have served more than a few months. Month after 
 month, as soon as the muster has been taken and certified to by the 
 inspecting officer, as many as twenty per cent, of the men have been 
 discharged, in order that the officer commanding them may pocket 
 their pay. A few days before the next muster, the battalion is made 
 up again to the strength of the pay roll, again to be cut down as soon 
 as the inspection is over. The new comer is taken on with the 
 understanding that he is to receive no pay, not only for the 
 remainder of the current month, but during the next also. Had the 
 rebels known better how to use foreigners, and the real value of 
 foreign intelligence, their flag might have floated to this hour over 
 the walls of Nanking. But the revelations of those who have left 
 them show that foreigners were regarded rather as ferocious animals, 
 which must be kept chained up and only let loose on the enemy 
 when wanted to fight. It is a pity that Macartney, or some other 
 of the foreign officers in his service, does not warn Li of his danger. 
 
 The Viceroy, who was also, it must be remembered. Com- 
 missioner for Foreign Affairs, had appointed Macartney to 
 act in conjunction with the Fu of Nanking, in conducting 
 any negotiations that might arise pending his absence in 
 Shantung. This appointment of a foreigner to aid in 
 carrying out the treaty regarding foreigners was considered 
 to indicate liberality on Li's part. 
 
 ' Everyone at that time was full of the idea that Ts^ng and 
 Li together could become masters of Central China, and 
 whether concocted by the Imperial Government or by the 
 provincial authorities themselves, it was supposed to be a 
 counter plot against these two powerful men when the 
 Viceroys of Fukien and Che-kiang, and Kwangtung and 
 
54 LI SUNG-GSANG. 
 
 Kwangsi, agreed to club funds for the construction at 
 Foochow of a foundry and dockyard, which should place 
 not only guns but gunboats at their disposal. About 
 3,000,000 taels was the estimated outlay. Two Frenchmen 
 were at the head of the scheme, and purposed to carry it 
 out with the aid of skilled foreign labour; ten gunboats to 
 be built, and the Chinese to be instructed in working them 
 during a period of six years, at the conclusion of which 
 it was assumed that they would be able to do without 
 foreign superintendence.- There was no reason why these 
 Frenchmen, aided by European workmen, should not attain 
 the same success which Macartney earned at Soochow. But 
 that every foreigner concerned would disinterestedly retire 
 at the end of six years, or that the Chinese would be able 
 to dispense with their aid, was in the highest degree 
 improbable. And, as we all know, the French are there 
 yet, thbugh in 1900 the poor Viceroy of Fukien was 
 trying to send them away on the plea of " too much 
 expense," and of Fukien not wanting an arsenaL Then a 
 French admiral called, and one or two French men-of-war 
 lay off the arsenal for months, nominally requiring repairs, 
 and the Fukien Viceroy had to give way. 
 
 The upshot was that at length Li determined on the move- 
 ment against the Honan and Shantung Nienfei, to which 
 TsSng Kwo-fan had so frequently urged him, and left Nanking 
 for the seat of war; Li from the south, TsSng Kwo-fan 
 from the east, and another Imperialist force from the north- 
 west — by which it was hoped to surround and effectually 
 crush the rebels. And it seemed then as if Li had not 
 moved sooner in order that it might be made clear to the 
 world that Tseng alone could not crush the rebels, and that 
 the glory when he overcame should be Li's, not Tseng's. 
 
 And so before Kitchener had ever invented the term, or 
 it had even been heard of, came about the great drive of the 
 Nienfei, during which the Chinese experienced the same 
 difficulty as the EngUsh in the Transvaal ; their infantry being 
 unable to get up with the light rebel cavalry, who were always 
 able to keep a day or two in advance. 
 
TSB AFTEBMATE OF THE TAIPING BEBELLION. 55 
 
 A private letter from the headquarters in Shantung 
 province, dated July 5, 1867, will give a better description 
 of the situation than any that can now be composed: 
 
 I had not joined headquarters three days (about seven weeks 
 ago) before Li put the whole army in motion, driving the rebels 
 back through Honan. We pursued them for twelve days, but could 
 not entirely overtake them, as they have not the impedimenta of a 
 regular force and are able to move faster than us. Li marched at 
 the head of his men night and day, and we have at last driven them 
 into Shantung and holed them within 40 li of the seaboard. He 
 has sent to Nanking to get the steamers round to the promontory to 
 shell theii- camps, and has set the whole army to build fortifications 
 or a wall around them to assist in preventing their escape ; there 
 are some 30,000 to 50,000 I think. All along the track of the 
 Nienf ei through Honan the sight was heartrending ; all the 
 villages and hamlets lying in ruins, fields untilled and uncultivated, 
 nothing but broken bricks and the devastating marks of fire. The 
 cities were crowded with country people, but they had not sufiered 
 much save from the scarcity of food, and without exaggeration I 
 may safely say that the whole population infinitely prefer Mandarin 
 rule to Nienfei rapacity, notwithstanding what some rebel-loving 
 people may say and imagine to the contrary. I do not think there 
 are any foreigners with those robbers ; they must have tired of the 
 chase long ago. 
 
 The rebels appear to have " crossed from Honan, forded the 
 Grand Canal, proceeded towards Tsi-nan-fu, which they beleaguered 
 for about a week, and then, the Imperialists coming up, spread 
 eastwards, pursued by Li's troops, who were hemming them in 
 towards the south-east portion of Shantung promontory. Li was 
 pursuing the rebels with 40,000 men, and had a cordon of forts 
 stretching across the country." 
 
 In addition to the wall already built he had constructed 
 a ditch or dyke 100 miles in length, said to have been made 
 by his army in the short space of ten days. The rebels 
 were now in the extreme portion of the peninsula, and 
 the Imperialist army meant to keep them there till they 
 surrendered. 
 
 The wall was guarded by a series of camps containing 
 each 500 men, about a mile distant from one another. 
 
56 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 There were 60,000 men employed in the building of this 
 wall, and the force of rebels enclosed within was estimated 
 at 80,000 men. The rebels had made several unsuccessful 
 attacks on the wall, and their position within it was rendered 
 uncomfortable by the growing discontent of the peasantry, 
 whose grain they were rapidly consuming. Six thousand 
 of the rebels had actually surrendered, and it was expected 
 that if the Imperialists could have held them for ten days 
 longer enclosed the whole force would have come over. 
 Li, aware of the great crisis which was at hand, was now 
 hastening up from Honan by almost superhuman marches. 
 He was anxious to see the result of his great scheme of 
 hemming them in, and to be himself in at the death. 
 The right flank was in the keeping of a mandarin of the 
 Shantung province, named Wang. This man, contrary to 
 orders, weakened his line by doubling the number of his 
 camps, into which he put 250 men each. The rebel spies 
 found this out, and further, that Wang's troops were armed 
 with old guns and munitions of war. Determined by this 
 information, they made two false attacks on the mandarin 
 guarding the line to the left, and a real attack on Wang 
 himself, which ended in their getting out ; in consequence of 
 which, fifteen days afterwards, Wang hanged himself 
 
 Li, finding his great plan thus made a failure, withdrew 
 to the west bank of the canal, leaving only two flying 
 columns to follow the enemy's movements. Both these 
 columns were defeated, losing 10 guns and 2,400 men, 
 including 700 cavalry, "through the egregious blunder of 
 retiring the guns, after having repelled an attack, while 
 the rebels were still near. The latter, seeing the guns 
 limbered up, halted in their retreat and came down on 
 them before they could be got ready for action. The 
 officers were, of course, the first to run, and the men soon 
 followed, except four who remained by the guns with three 
 Europeans. The rebels speared one of the Europeans slightly, 
 left the others alone, and carried off the guns in triumph. 
 Op the 20th of the same month 300 more cavalry and 
 200 infantry were lost." 
 
THE AFTEBMATS OF THE TAIPING REBELLION. 57 
 
 Thus Li's extremely cautious method of carrj^ing on war- 
 fare by walling the enemy in resulted in as utter a failure as 
 the most rash daring could have brought about ; nor, judging 
 by this specimen, can he by any means be considered to 
 have shown signal gallantry as a general. His successes 
 against the Taiping rebels, on the fame of which all his 
 subsequent career was based, may thus very fairly be rather 
 attributed to General Chang, to whom Li himself, as before 
 shown, attributed most of the credit in his report to the 
 throne, or to General Gordon, as the English are in the habit of 
 doing. It must, however, be borne in mind that Li was not a 
 military mandarin, only a learned man, according to Chinese 
 usage thought fit for anything, by reason of his learning, from 
 starting a candle factory to commanding an army ; and that 
 he might therefore be expected rather to shine in strategical 
 combinations than in brilliant deeds of daring. He was also 
 working under the anything but cheering influence of the 
 following message from Peking : — 
 
 We now command that Ts^ng Kwo-fan, Governor of Hu-peh, 
 be deprived of his official button, and that, in company with Li 
 Huo-nien, Governor of Ho nan, his punishment be before all other 
 adjudged by the Board, that all may know the lightness of the 
 sentence hereby awarded. 
 
 We also command Li Hung-chang strictly to inquire into and 
 report to the Throne the names of the several officers who by their 
 feeble opposition allowed the rebels to escape them. 
 
 With regard to Li Hung-chang himself, the officer especially 
 commissioned to superintend the operations directed against the 
 Nienfei, inasmuch as over half a year has elapsed without any 
 sensible advantage resulting from his generalship, he has certainly 
 abused the trust reposed in him by his Sovereign. We therefore 
 order him, in expiation of the present disgrace, to win renown for 
 himself by at once taking active command of the troops, and leading 
 them into Shan-tung, where, in conjunction with others, he must 
 scour the country and stamp out the smallest spark of rebellion 
 existing there. 
 
 Next there ensued a race for the Grand Canal, which 
 Li succeeded in reaching first and still held towards the close 
 
58 LI EUNG-ORANG. 
 
 of 1867, thus preventing the escape of the Nienfei, at least over 
 the borders of the province. At the same time his deficiency 
 in cavalry still placed him at a great disadvantage either in 
 pursuit or in action. A series of engagements ensued, after 
 which, to quote from the Peking Gazette (not always, how- 
 ever, a guide quite to be relied upon, especially with regard to 
 rebels) : — 
 
 The Nienfei, being scattered for the night in different places, 
 were surrounded, and many of the houses they were sleeping in 
 destroyed. They rapidly mustered in a body and prepared to give 
 battle. Various detachments of the Imperial army coming up at 
 the time, a general onslaught was made, during which the Imperial 
 troops kept up an incessant firing " like rain," till the enemy 
 retreated eastward. Following them by torchlight and falling upon 
 them again at daybreak, they completely routed the whole body. 
 The number killed or taken prisoners amounted to between 3,000 and 
 4,000 men, while the spoil in the shape of weapons, horses, etc., was 
 immense. Forty rebel chiefs were killed. The remnant of the body 
 then retired towards the N.E. The country people who had been 
 carried off by the Nienfei, and returned quietly to their homes upon 
 finding themselves at liberty, numbered about 10,000. 
 
 Yet in April, 1868, we find a foreign correspondent writing 
 from Tientsin : " For six days past numbers of dead human 
 beings, men, women, and children, have floated past this 
 settlement down the river without any clothes on them. 
 . . . The dogs are to be seen in several places betwen here 
 and Taku lying beside the bodies, gorged." This might have 
 served for a description of the same scene in the summer of 
 1900, when the fat dogs were again a feature that specially 
 struck correspondents ; they are generally so thin in China. 
 And again : — 
 
 Yesterday evening, we learnt that a force of 20,000 men of 
 Li Hung-chang's army had arrived at Tientsin early in the day. 
 With this force there are two foreigners employed by Li Hung- 
 chang with the artillery corps, and on these men reaching Tientsin 
 and finding people here whom they knew when serving under 
 Major Gordon, the following news regarding the Nienfei rebels. 
 
THE AFTEBMATH OF TEE TAIPING BEBELLION. 59 
 
 ■which dwarfs all previous accounts completely, has been received 
 by us. 
 
 That they number 80,000 fighting men and are all mounted, 
 as well as the women who accompany them, ; that they are capable of 
 going anywhere in China or of doing anything in it, so far as 
 regards being hindered by the Imperial forces; that Li Hung- 
 chang's army has hitherto not been able to cope with them, and 
 so far as putting down the rebels it may be compared to a paper 
 army ; and that at present there are no signs of the country being 
 placed in tranquillity through the Imperial forces. 
 
 But it was agreed to consider the Nienfei rebellion 
 subdued; and when that is the case in China any further 
 outbreak is handled under a different name, which makes 
 it, of course, quite a different rebellion ; so Li was 
 directed to turn his arms against the Mahomedan rebels of 
 the north-west, who were threatening an invasion of Shansi. 
 The Mahomedans seem to have concluded an alliance with 
 the Honan Nienfei, and burst across Shansi into Chihli, at 
 the same time that the latter entered these provinces from 
 the south. Frequent engagements had taken place between 
 them and the Imperiahsts, who had been quite unable, so 
 far, to overcome them. Large bodies of troops, however, 
 were massed, and an Imperial edict disgraced several high 
 officers for not preventing the irruption. The foreign 
 residents at Tientsin formed themselves into a volunteer 
 corps for the defence of the settlement, in case of emergency ; 
 and the ramparts of the city were put in order, although, 
 "the Imperialist forces being between Tientsin and Pao-ting, 
 the rebel headquarters, no immediate danger seemed to 
 threaten." 
 
 Poor foreign residents ! always in the wrong whatever 
 happens. When they tried to warn Sir Claude Macdonald, 
 the British Minister in 1900, almost the same words were 
 used, "no immediate danger seemed to threaten." Yet 
 in 1870 came the awful Tientsin Massacre, and in 1900 
 the killin g of all the foreigners the Chinese could get 
 hold of in the Provinces of Chihli and Shansi and a part 
 of Shantung. Of late it is the Germans who have supplied 
 
60 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 the great bulk of the arms used by Chinese, although 
 Armstrong and others have done what they could in that 
 way. It is a little interesting to note that formerly it was 
 the German missionary Pere Virbiest who engaged in this 
 work, baptising the ordnance, and giving each the name of 
 some saint. Even on the borders of Yunnan, in the 
 extreme West and South of China, men have told me they 
 have themselves seen Chinese cannon marked with the sign 
 of the cross, showing their Jesuit origin. The Emperor 
 Tao Kwang was quite as pious. He deputed his son-in-law 
 to sacrifice to certain cannon, and appointed seven other 
 officers to sacrifice to certain "red-coated cannon." 
 
 In Soochow, the principal city of Li's late Province of 
 Kiang-su, it was reported that Li Hung-chang was so 
 much disgusted at the treatment he had met with that he 
 intended to throw up office and retire into private life, as 
 soon as his campaign against the Northern rebels had ended. 
 Naturally, while he and Tseng Kwo-fan were engaged at 
 a distance subduing their country's rebels their own enemies 
 were free to cabal against them in Peking. There were 
 rumours that the Tartar cavalry had been called on to aid in 
 suppressing the Northern Nienfei, that a Tartar General 
 had been placed in command of the Imperial army, and 
 that Li Hung-chang and Tseng Kwo-fan were to be deprived 
 of their commands and sent back to their respective vice- 
 royalties. The intention of relegating these two chiefs to 
 their civil stations was not carried out. Though viewing Li 
 for the moment with anger and suspicion, the Court seemed 
 obliged to tolerate him. He was, however, degraded three 
 steps in nominal rank. 
 
 Li, in fact, had actually refused to give up the seals of 
 his viceroyalty to anyone but his patron Tseng Kwo-fan ; the 
 latter at the same time declining to venture himself in Peking, 
 when ordered to take his post at the Board of War. Not 
 satisfied with this act of insubordination, Li had committed 
 another far less expHcable. Immediately after the New Year 
 he coolly went off on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Confucius, 
 and was away for five days, whilst frantic appeals were being 
 
THE AFTERMATH OF THE TAIPING REBELLION. 61 
 
 made to him to defend the capital and the sacred tombs ol 
 the Imperial family, within sight of which the rebels were then 
 said to be encamped. Li was at that time being ordered into 
 Chihli, and steadfastly refusing to move out of the province 
 of Shantung. It wiU probably never now be possible to receive 
 an authentic record of what prompted this pilgrimage. Was 
 it cowardice before armed rebels ? Was it audacity against 
 secret enemies ? Was it rehgious feeling ? Of one thing, 
 however, we may, I think, feel certain, that it was a diplomatic 
 move of some kind. Very early in life a Chinese official learns 
 the enormous value of knowing how to wait. 
 
 So on September 5th we find Li again restored to all 
 the honours of which he had been deprived. By the autumn 
 Tseng Kwo-fan was wUling and ready to assume the Vice- 
 royalty of ChihH, and Li consented to go up for audience at 
 Peking before proceeding to his post as Governor-General of 
 Hunan and Hupei. Before taking up his appointment at 
 Wuchang he also arranged to spend a few months with his 
 family at Anhui. For, though we have heard little of them, 
 to his family Li was a very affectionate father and grandfather, 
 although somewhat stem in his treatment of his sons, accord- 
 ing to foreign ideas. He is also invariably described as an 
 attached husband, and that he had the usual Chinese 
 devotion to his somewhat remarkable mother there is no 
 reason to doubt. It was probably to see her that this visit was 
 planned. 
 
 After all the horrors of the Taiping rebellion, a touch of 
 comedy brings relief ; and so before passing to the next phase 
 of Li's career, we may here briefly relate the episode of the 
 Burlingame Mission : — 
 
 On Mr. Burlingame going to take his congd of the Chinese 
 Ministers of the Tsungli-Yamen, before retiring from his 
 post as Minister for the United States of America and return- 
 ing home to resume political life there, and while he and they 
 were talking about Chinese affairs. Prince Kung made the 
 polite remark, " Now, why cannot you, when you are again in 
 the West, represent our views of what is taking place in 
 China, and of what we would wish to have done in our 
 
62 LI EUNG-CHANa. 
 
 country ? " Mr. Burlingame replied, " Should I visit 
 any of the Courts of Europe I shall have much pleasure 
 in doing so." Whether he took a polite speech somewhat 
 hterally, or whether Prince Kung meant more than he said, 
 Mr. Burlingame is said to have presently received a proposi- 
 tion that he should be the Chinese ambassador at the 
 foreign Courts in Europe and America, and to have accepted 
 the post. Two mandarins — one a Manchu and the other a 
 Chinese, said to be able, intelligent men — were attached to 
 the mission, Mr. Leavy Brown, of H.B.M.'s Legation, and 
 Mr. Deschamps, of the Maritime Customs, being appointed 
 attache. And Mr. Burlingame, late U.S. Minister to China, 
 set forth to the various Courts of Europe to — one would 
 think — somewhat misrepresent the Chinese mind. For how 
 could he represent it correctly ? A further touch of comedy 
 is added by the whole party with their escort — four of the 
 British Legation guard — being blockaded, as they said, by 
 a body of rebels half-way between Peking and Tientsin. 
 Then Lieutenant Dunlop, of H.M.'s gunboat Dove, with 
 twenty bluejackets, and a detachment of native-drilled 
 cavalry, at once went up to their rescue, and the U.S. sloop 
 Ashuelot left Tientsin directly the news arrived. But nothing 
 could be seen or heard of the besiegers. An additional comic 
 touch ! 
 
 It is always the Chinese usage to employ middlemen in all 
 transactions, whether in arranging a marriage or a business 
 transaction ; and a man who has had as large and varied 
 experience in dealing with Chinese as probably any Enghsh- 
 man says the way in which British Ministers and others in 
 high place have insisted on going direct to highly placed 
 Chinese officials to talk matters over with them, demanding, 
 even — as sometimes — insisting, upon seeing Imperial princes, 
 is a great mistake from beginning to end. These last often 
 could not understand the interpreters, and, if they did, could 
 not possibly make up their minds with regard to any question 
 on the spur of the moment. Even if they did, their answer 
 would only be their own individual answer, not that of their 
 office or Yamgn. Every important business ought, he con- 
 
TSE AFTEBMATS OF TEE TAIPING BEBELLION. 63 
 
 tended, to be thoroughly thrashed out by subordinate inter- 
 mediaries, and no call ought to be made upon anyone of the 
 position of a prince until everything -was virtually settled and 
 only required ratification. Sir Robert Hart is known to have 
 always followed this method, and indeed, up to this day, never 
 goes to pay a visit himself unless sent for. China may in 
 1868 be said to have tried to inaugurate this system of inter- 
 mediaries both through the Burlingame Mission and through 
 Sir Robert Hart himself, then Mr. Hart, who was now in Mr. 
 H. N. Lay's place at the head of that Chinese Maritime 
 Customs which Lay founded and Hart so greatly developed. 
 With reference to both, the warning in a leading article 
 of the North China Herald of 1868 may be found valuable 
 even now. If it had been taken to heart in the past, the 
 whole course of events would probably have been absolutely 
 different in the Far East: — 
 
 With the best intentions in the world, he (Mr. Hart) cannot 
 help militating against foreign interests, by the mere necessity 
 under which he will find himself of answering questions. If an 
 attempt is made to extract any of the concessions asked by the 
 various memorials that have been presented to H.B.M. Minister, 
 the Chinese will, of course, object. Their very natural, though 
 unfounded, fears of discontent and outbreak will impel them to 
 urge the stereotyped plea for more time. If pressure is put on, 
 they wiU at once appeal to Mr. Hart — who is a noted supporter 
 of the gradual progress theory — for advice. To him they will 
 put the crucial question, "What have they to fear in the event 
 of non-compliance ? Will foreigners insist by force of arms, if 
 they refuse to construct railways, if they reject steamers from 
 their inland waters, and foreign traders from their large cities ? 
 The reply must be in the negative. Foreigners will be angry, no 
 doubt, Mr. Hart must tell them, and will express themselves 
 strongly; but they will not fight. 
 
 It is England that has suffered most from this dis- 
 advantage, for Mr. Hart, being an Englishman, would be 
 understood to be better informed about English counsels 
 than those of other nations, and to speak more authori- 
 tatively about them. And many a British Minister must 
 
64 LI HUNG-GHANG. 
 
 have felt powerless to assume that swelling port and awe- 
 inspiring manner that render unnecessary all recourse 
 to action, owing to the inward conviction that an Englishman, 
 far better supplied with secret service money than himself, 
 was at the command of the Chinese Government, always 
 ready to tell them what the British Government's difficulties 
 were, and what its real intentions. How can you play 
 whist with your opponent's employe looking over your 
 hand all the time, and telHng him confidentially you do 
 not hold trumps ? What shows Sir Robert Hart's infinite 
 subtilty of mind and adaptability is that he has been able 
 to retain his post of Inspector-General of Chinese Maritime 
 Customs all these years to the apparent satisfaction of 
 everyone concerned. The Burlingame Mission soon came 
 to an end, and is now chiefly remembered by its leader's 
 public declaration that : " China invites Protestant mission- 
 aries to plant the shining Cross on every hill and valley ; " 
 a fine sentence that must at the time have given much 
 pleasure — and rightly so — in the United States, but which 
 leads people of certain temperaments to form so stern a 
 judgment of the speaker that I refrain from touching 
 further on this episode. Here it will be enough to say that 
 Mr. Burhngame succeeded in persuading Lord Clarendon " to 
 discard all the information that ever reached the Foreign 
 Offices from its own responsible agents in China — men who 
 were bound by every consideration of loyalty and public 
 duty to report only what was true — and to accept instead 
 thereof the protestations of an agent hired to make out a 
 case." 
 
 Li on arriving at Peking would hear all about the Burling- 
 ame Mission, the supposed attack upon it, the missing 
 assailants, and finally the never to be forgotten "shining 
 Cross" statement, and as Li greatly loved a joke and had 
 just been reinstated in all his honours and promoted to 
 higher place we can picture him in his own contentment 
 laughing very mightily. But it must all have done harm 
 all the same. 
 
65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROMOTION TO OHIHLI : VAGARIES OF THE YELLOW RIVER 
 (1869-1873). 
 
 We are now approaching the period when Li entered upon 
 his thirty long years of viceroyalty of the Province of Chihli, 
 alike important as containing Tientsin and Peking and the 
 often-captured (now destroyed) Taku Forts. This post again, 
 like that of Governor of Kiangsu, the province containing 
 Shanghai, brought him in constant contact with foreigners, 
 and thus tended further unduly to magnify Li's importance 
 in the eyes of foreigners, many of whom think of him, not 
 unnaturally, as the one Viceroy of China. There are in China, 
 besides sixteen governors, as a matter of fact, eight viceroys, 
 of whom those of Chihh and Canton, and the two of 
 the Yangtse Valley — the one ruling over Kiangsi, Kiangsu, 
 and Anhui, and the other over Hunan and Hupeh — come 
 most in contact with foreigners; though the Viceroys of Fukien 
 and Chekiang, with Foochow in the one province and Ningpo 
 in the other, also have a good deal to do with them. The 
 Viceroy of Szechuan has only lately seen his province flooded 
 with missionaries. The officials of Kansuh and Yunnan and 
 Kweichow, although very important in their own districts, 
 disappear from foreign eyes when they go there. As a rule, 
 the Viceroys of Chihli and Canton are most concerned in 
 international questions, especially he of Chihli. When that 
 post is held by a man like Li Hung-chang, he of necessity 
 becomes China's leading man. 
 
 While Li had been serving as Viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan, 
 he had somewhat distinguished himself by refusing to that other 
 
66 il HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 grand old man, Admiral Sir Harry Keppel, the loan of a small 
 steamer for a voyage of investigation on the Upper Yangtse. 
 He had also tried to close the front gates of his ofl&cial resi- 
 dence to the British Consul, alleging that a consul by treaty 
 ranked only with a Taotai, and that Taotais were admitted by 
 a side door. Happily the then British Consul at Hankow 
 refused to come in by a side door ; and Li yielded, but more 
 than once complained to the Consul of his coming so often, 
 saying that so many visits from a foreigner would bring him 
 into bad odour with his own people. And it is a question 
 how much of the very great dislike of Li certainly general 
 amongst the Chinese people may be attributed to his being 
 considered too much mixed up with foreigners. 
 
 It was, however, entirely to please himself and his love of 
 luxury and grandeur that, instead of travelling by land or 
 canal to take up his post at Wuchang, he had come by 
 steamer to Shanghai ; and although then obliged to tranship 
 into a native junk in deference to popular native opinion, he 
 caused this junk to be towed up the Yangtse by a steamer, 
 and thus, with the escort of three other steamers, arrived at 
 Wuchang. 
 
 It was whilst he was there that he was made a Cabinet 
 Minister in reward for services against the Taiping and Nienfei 
 rebels. This promotion brought him many congratulations, 
 and even his mother received poems written in honour of the 
 occasion. Li stUl continued to guard over the arsenal, now 
 estabhshed at Nanking, over which Dr. Macartney presided ; 
 when a serious outbreak, which ended in estabhshing for a 
 time a Mahomedan Kingdom in Yunnan, occurred in that 
 province and in Kweichow; and Li, who had by this time got 
 an extraordinary reputation as a subduer of rebels, was ordered 
 to proceed once more to the West. He was about to start when 
 another rebellion called for his assistance in Kansuh, where 
 General Tso Tsung-tang was getting into difficulties — the same 
 who afterwards recovered Kashgaria for the Emperor of 
 China. It will be remembered that on that occasion having 
 no proper commissariat, Tso Tsung-tang with true Chinese 
 patience and pertinacity, sowed crops and reaped them to 
 
PROMOTION TO CBIHLI: THE YELLOW BIVEB. 67 
 
 supply his soldiers' needs as he went along — somewhat 
 slowly. 
 
 It is possible that Tso Tsung-tang was already in his slow, 
 dogged fashion subduing the rebels when Li arrived. Anyway 
 the province was soon reported as in order, and Li summoned 
 to Tientsin, there in concert with Tseng Kwo-fan " and 
 others," to conduct the necessary inquiry into the massacre 
 that had just occurred there of sixteen French Sisters of 
 Charity (including one Irish girl), several other French 
 subjects, and a Russian merchant and his wife; also the 
 destruction of the Eoman Catholic Cathedral and French 
 Consulate. Li knew more of the ways of foreigners than any 
 Chinese oiScial, and the occasion was a terrible one. Had it 
 not been the year 1870 we can imagine the punishment that 
 France would have inflicted ; but that country was occupied 
 with Germany, after which came her own terrible internecine 
 struggle, and so when the British Consul was taking leave, 
 after a long interview, on Li's asking : " Do you think France 
 will make war next year ? " we can imagine that the reply did 
 not convey certainty. Yet even then the British Consul, 
 impressed by Li's bearing and manner, wrote : " I take for 
 granted that he wiU. not tolerate any outrage on foreigners 
 "ivithin his jurisdiction ; " a judgment in which he was quite 
 right, for never during his long career has Li encouraged, 
 permitted, or condoned any outrages on foreigners. This also 
 may have tended to increase rather than diminish the dislike 
 entertained for him by his countrymen. 
 
 There having of late been some trouble between the Com- 
 missioner of Northern Trade and the Viceroy, the two offices 
 were combined in Li's person, after the departure of old 
 Tseng from Chihli. For the Viceroy of Kiangsi and Chekiang 
 very opportunely djring just then TsSng Kwo-fan was sent 
 back to his old post. It is noteworthy that Tseng Kwo-fan, 
 who permitted the Tientsin massacre, and did not properly 
 punish it, was universally respected by foreigners in China ; 
 whilst Li, who never permitted a foreign massacre, to this day 
 has some of the hardest terms of abuse served out to him 
 by most foreigners residing in China. These last never as a 
 
68 LI SUNG-CEANG. 
 
 body in the least shared the high estimation held of him in 
 Europe; but Li being a pre-eminently lucky person, which 
 probably shows that he was a man who always knew how to 
 use his opportunities, foreign writers have, almost without 
 exception, been among his admirers. Without entering into 
 all the oft-repeated details of the Tientsin massacre of 1870, 
 to be succeeded by that of Wusieh in 1891, that of Foochow 
 in 1895, and then the long string of massacres in that year 
 of long sieges and great endurance, 1900, it may be mentioned 
 that from this date Tso Tsung-tang and Li may be considered 
 as rivals, the latter now made Commissioner of Trade for the 
 Northern Ports, the former shortly afterwards appointed to 
 the same ofiSce for the Southern Ports. Tso Tsung-tang was 
 held to represent the old conservatism of China, loyal and 
 thorough-going, but blunt and slow; on one occasion he 
 camped outside the walls of Peking for several days, because 
 he Refused to pay the fees demanded for an Imperial audience. 
 
 Li Hung-chang never did anything of this kind; and 
 perhaps by noticing what he never did, and what other 
 people did, we may arrive at as true a view of his character 
 as in any other way. 
 
 For instance, we have just noticed the return of Ts^ng 
 Kwo-fan to Nanking as Viceroy. No one can imagine Li 
 issuing anything in the least like the touching memorial to 
 the Throne penned on this occasion by his old patron : — 
 
 Being of no ability, and having, notwithstanding, been entrusted 
 with the most important duties, I have, as I tottered along, failed to 
 do anything meritorious. "When, some years ago, I went to Shan- 
 tung, I did not succeed in subduing the Nienfei, but returned to 
 Nanking and was ever after ashamed of myself. Last year I 
 was graciously nominated Viceroy of Chihli, but I made unsuitable 
 appointments, mismanaged the army, and failed to do any good for 
 the Yellow River. I tremble as I think of my blunders, and in 
 consequence I am overwhelmed by the gracious order which directs 
 me to reassume my former important post, and thus displays your 
 Majesty's confidence in me, instead of (as would be just) reprobating 
 my worthlessness and dismissing me. In gratitude for this clemency 
 I will most carefully execute whatever duties may in the future be 
 
PBOMOTION TO OHIHLI: THE YELLOW BIVEB. 69 
 
 entrusted to me. But ever since the second moon of this year, I 
 have, day by day, become more feeble and ill, so that for two 
 months, as T before represented, I was unable to attend to any 
 business. During that very period I received an Imperial order, 
 urging me to go at once to Tientsin. Knowing that the matters 
 awaiting me thei-e were very serious and important, I did not plead 
 illness as an excuse, although, in fact, my eyes were most gravely 
 affected; but I resolved that, as soon as possible, I would retire 
 from official life, as I had previously announced my desire to do. 
 After arriving at Tientsin my head failed me, the sun affected me 
 strangely, and I suffered from vomiting and diarrhcea. From these 
 latter I am now free, but my eyes are incurable ; my right eye is 
 completely bHnd, and the left is daily becoming more and more dim. 
 One of the most important duties of a viceroy is to read the reports 
 from his subordinate magistrates, but the condition of my eyes 
 would preclude me from supervising any of the correspondence, and 
 trusting a writer is out of the que.stion. The business of Kiangnan 
 i.e. Kiangsi, Kiangsu, and Anhui, is very heavy, and if in my 
 enfeebled health I undertook it, things would soon be in confusion. 
 During the eighteen months that have elapsed since I came to Chihli 
 in the spring of last year, I have continually reproached myself on 
 account of my mistakes, and reflected on the greatness of my guilt. 
 "With my sight as it is, I should certainly do worse in the future 
 than even I do now. I am grateful for the favours of many past 
 sovereigns. The Empress Dowager and Your Majesty are in- 
 describably gracious in not taking note of my failures. It is not 
 out of selfish regard for my own ease that I desire to retire and be 
 at rest. My illness disables me from taking an official post, but it 
 would be much worse were I to take it and prove incompetent to 
 discharge its functions, seeming thus forgetful of your Majesty's 
 favour. Over and over again I have concluded that another should 
 be appointed, and the Edict commissioning me recalled, so that at 
 once I may be overwhelmed with gratitude and the post be filled by 
 a competent person. Up to the present the serious affairs at Tientsin 
 have not been settled, but when Li Hung-chang arrives I will 
 transfer the seals, and then remain to settle matters in concert with 
 him, so that your Majesty's anxieties may the sooner be set at rest. 
 But so soon as the affairs now pending are arranged, I will again 
 request to be relieved from the duties of Cabinet Minister, so that I 
 may take means to relieve the disease of my eyes, etc. etc. 
 
70 m HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 Tseng Kwo-fan had returned to Nanking, after an interval 
 as Viceroy of Chihli, in which post Li succeeded him. It is 
 perhaps worth while, in contrasting these two, to look at a 
 picture of the elder man drawn at the time when he left 
 Nanking before, in '68 : — 
 
 TsSng Kwo-fan's departure from Nanking was delayed much 
 beyond the date first determined on by Li's arrival, fresh from the 
 Imperial presence, with many matters of importance to communicate 
 to his old friend and patron. The latter was naturally anxious to 
 discover whether his friends or foes were uppermost at Court, and 
 whether there existed any ulterior motive for his being ordered 
 to assume the viceroyalty of the metropolitan province. The 
 feastings and theatrical representations with which the ex-Yiceroy 
 entertained his young and successful protege also absorbed some 
 time, but at length came to an end; and on the 15th December 
 the all but Imperial Ts^ng Kwo-fan left the city which he had so 
 long ruled more like a king than a viceroy. There was no noisy 
 demonstration on the part of the people, as would have been the 
 case in the West. Yet the manner in which they showed their 
 profound respect for the aged Governor was not less marked. 
 There was no shout, no huzza; no triumphal arches had been 
 erected over the way through which he passed out of the city ; 
 but all along the road from the Viceregal palace to the West gate, 
 a distance of some mUes, altars, with candles and incense burning, 
 had been erected ; and before these, in two long rows, the people 
 again and again bowed down and worshipped him as if he had 
 been a god. Women held up their children to him as they do 
 when the Host or image of their city god is paraded in the streets ; 
 but the most affecting sight was when the elders of the city, about 
 100 in number, white-haired men of from 60 to 70 years of age, 
 came forward and detainingly laid their hands on the sedan chair, 
 refusing for a time to let the old' man pass. The conduct of the 
 people reminded one of some high religious festival, and might 
 easily have been mistaken for such, had it not been for the gay 
 appearance of the Thespian stages which, at different places on the 
 route, had been erected for the presentation of such bright characters 
 in the country's history as TsSng had copied or surpassed in his 
 official career. The crowd, headed by the elders, closed in after the 
 chair, and flowed after it like a river, through the city gate and 
 
PBOMOTIOX TO OEIELI: THE YELLOW BIYEB. 71 
 
 down to the place where the Viceregal barge awaited him. There 
 the people collected in such numbers that only the want of standing 
 ground prevented the city from being entirely emptied. 
 
 This picture of the beloved Viceroy's departure from tha 
 provincial capital, where he had so long held sway, makes 
 us feel the heart of the Chinese people beat, and transports 
 us for a moment not perhaps to the China that exists, but to 
 that which Chinese have aimed at creating. The Chinese 
 ideal is quite different from our own, in that it counts the 
 family as the unit, not the individual, and seeks always rather 
 to obtain deference for age than to make way for youth ; and 
 if like our own it has never been realised that is because 
 both aim high. Few people in Europe realise how deeply 
 democratic ideas are ingrained in the Chinese nation ; coupled 
 as they are with a paternal feeling on the part of good 
 officials for those whom they look upon as their children, and 
 they treat with a friendly bonhomie much more pleasing 
 than the manner usual in England. "A man's a man for 
 a' that " does not need to be enunciated in China. Indeed, 
 whilst Europeans often condemn the Chinese for their 
 ignorance about Europe and its ways, I have often thought 
 how startlingly ignorant Europeans might be pronounced if 
 judged by Chinese after the same fashion. 
 
 There must have been something singularly lovable about 
 the distinguished official, who could write the memorial 
 quoted above, and about whom this description could be 
 written ; the Chinese mask, alike impressive and expression- 
 less, seems to fall off, and we feel the human touch that links 
 all the world together. It is not Li's fault that the edict 
 appointing him, being a State paper, has nothing of this ; for 
 indeed none who ever talked with Li could think for a 
 moment that the human element was deficient in him. But 
 before dwelling on that we must follow him a little further in 
 his official career. 
 
 Li's first memorial, however, contains a very marked indi- 
 cation of good feeling and loyalty to the officers and troops he 
 had commanded and hoped to command again, and whom he 
 
72 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 took care not to forget in the moment of his great ad- 
 vancement : — 
 
 Li Hung-chang, Viceroy of Chihli, in a memorial to the Throne, 
 statea that, in July, 1869, he recommended to the notice of the 
 Emperor those ofiScers who had taken a distinguished part in the 
 campaign of 1868 — a campaign which resulted in giving tranquQlity 
 to the Empire. H. I. Majesty was graciously pleased to allow 
 honours, etc., to those officers. The Board of War, however, sent a 
 counter memorial, requesting that the special merit or services of 
 each officer should be clearly stated beneath his name. Again, in 
 April, 1870, the memorialist petitioned the Throne to bestow some 
 mark of Imperial favour on the officers who had subjugated the 
 Nienfei in the West. The Emperor was graciously pleased to grant 
 the petition. But the Board of War again sent a counter memorial, 
 requesting that the services of each officer should be enumerated. 
 The memorialist would state that the officers, whom he has recom- 
 mended for promotion and honours, are all veteran warriors, who in 
 a long series of battles fought hand to hand with the Nienfei, till those 
 rebels were utterly exterminated. They traversed, amid innumerable 
 dangers, many thousand miles of country, and fought over a hundred 
 battles. The civilian has a thousand ways by which he can attain 
 honour and distinction ; but for the soldier, the battlefield is the 
 only arena where he can win a single laurel. The list which the 
 memorialist has forwarded to the Throne does not contain a single 
 name that has not merited the distinction asked ; but the officers 
 having gone home or having joined other regiments, it is impossible 
 now to give the special services of each. By such quibbling as this 
 on the part of the Board of War, veteran heroes who have survived 
 a hundred battles are left all unhonoured to beat their breasts and 
 sigh. This is not the way to excite bravery among the troops. The 
 memorialist prays, therefore, that services of so unusual a character 
 may be suitably rewarded, and that the Board of War be directed to 
 follow the lists forwarded in 1869 and 1870, without requiring 
 details of individual prowess. 
 
 The Board of War at that time in China seems to have 
 been as vexatious as our own War OflSce. They started on the 
 ideal theory that the noblest men would always be ready 
 to place their abilities at their country's disposition, that 
 
LI HUNG-CHANG (1871). 
 (Frcnn a 'photo hy Messrs. Thomson, Grosve^ior Street, W.) 
 
 To face p. 72. 
 
PROMOTION TO OHIELI : TEE YELLOW BIVEB. 73 
 
 whether these men were paid £10 or £1,000, it would make no 
 difference to the way in which they would exert themselves, 
 and that, therefore, a living wage was all that was necessary 
 for an official. The living wage was fixed long ago, and has 
 not been altered. The melancholy result of all this is, that 
 men being from the Fall liable to temptation, and also unable 
 as time went on to live upon the nominal pay of a Chinese 
 mandarin, officials very early began to take bribes, next to 
 exact them, then gradually to pay for their different posts in 
 proportion to the amount they expected to be able to extort ; 
 till a newspaper correspondent did not very much exaggerate 
 when he wrote : — 
 
 A Taofcai-sMp, for example, is something which is worth a large 
 purchase-money ; it means a licence to rob several millions of people 
 for the space of three years. The official cares nothing for canals, 
 roads, military defences, or local institutions of any kind ; which 
 are calculated to benefit the people after his time. His instincts 
 are those of the locust, which would devour without remorse not 
 only the crop of this year, but the seed of the next. After his three 
 years, the deluge. He will rather extort his three lacs of taels than 
 that there should remain one solvent or industrious man in the 
 province. 
 
 If a Taotai-ship affords such faciUties, it may be imagined 
 what now were those of Li as both Viceroy of Chihli and Com- 
 missioner of Trade for the Northern Ports. Li, as the Chinese 
 say, was a tortoise — the emblem of water — so that whenever 
 he went to Chihli the floods came forth, but ceased when he 
 was removed; and at once, at the outset, he found himself 
 favoured by a special outbreak on the part of the Yellow 
 Eiver, which is often nicknamed China's Sorrow, but which 
 certainly for years past has afforded a steady source of revenue 
 to generations of Chinese officials. 
 
 Li, in a long memorial to the Throne, points out the 
 insufficiency of the sum allowed for the repairs of the 
 Southern Canal: — 
 
 Though the Southern Canal is over 200 miles in length, the 
 allowance for the yearly repairs of this canal is only 15,000 taels, 
 
74 LI EUNQ'CHANG. 
 
 and for incidental repairs, 6,000. The Board of Works reduced 
 these sums to one-fourth. The memorialist now begs that 40 per cent, 
 of the original total grant of 21,000 taels may be allowed for the 
 Southern Canal. Less than this is really not sufficient to keep it 
 in proper repair. Since the Yellow River has flowed in its present 
 northern channel, this canal has suffered from the large body of 
 ■water flowing into it, much more than the Northern Canal ; yet 
 twice as much is allowed for the repairs of the latter. The late 
 floods have done so much damage that it is imperatively necessary 
 that the canals should be put in order, otherwise the transport 
 service will be seriously interfered with and much life and property 
 imperilled. The floods last year were caused by the sUting of the 
 canals and the dilapidated state of the embankments. The reason 
 ■why the canals were in this condition is, that for the last twenty 
 years the grant for repairs has been so small that no officials have 
 been specially employed to take care of them, and ■who is to blame 
 for failing to do ■what he had not the means of doing ? This is a 
 penny wise and pound foolish economy, as the past year's mis- 
 fortunes show. 
 
 That ■was in February, 1872. In June, we read that : — 
 
 Last year the Yung-ting broke its embankment in two different 
 places ; the river officials, by working night and day, have succeeded 
 in completing the repairs within the period formerly fixed, and their 
 exertions certainly merit some recognition. Chu-kai, intendant of 
 the Taming, Shunte and Kwang-ping circuit, is handed over to the 
 Board of Civil Office to be rewarded in the most liberal manner 
 ■which the law will allow. Expectant Prefect Hsu Pen-heng, as 
 soon as he has received an appointment as prefect, -will have effec- 
 tive rank as Tao-tai, he is also given a flowered peacock's feather. 
 Seven other officials are similarly rewarded, and five, who had been 
 degraded, are restored to their former rank. 
 
 And yet on the 5th September, Li himself reports : — 
 
 The Yung-ting has burst its banks. During the heavy rains 
 ■which occurred towards the end of the summer, it was observed 
 that the river rose and fell alternately, and orders ■were repeatedly 
 sent to the inspector of the river to be on the alert. He now 
 reports that in consequence of the heavy rain which set in on the 
 
PROMOTION' TO CEIHLI : THE YELLOW BIVEB. 75 
 
 1st August, and which continued to pour incessantly for several 
 days, the plains in the neighbourhood of the Great Wall were 
 several fathoms under water, with no outlet but the Yung-ting. 
 Hence the officer in charge at Shih-ching-shan had to report a sudden 
 rise of 16 feet in the river at 9 a.m. on the 4th August; and at 5 p.m. 
 on the same day, a further rise of 3 feet 6 inches. Next day it had 
 risen 23 feet 5 inches, a height which it never attained even 
 last year, the torrent also being proportionately stronger. The 
 rush and pressure of the water against the banks were so great that 
 it was evident they must give way. Every imaginable plan was 
 tried by the officials to prevent such a catastrophe ; but the violence 
 of the current defied their effisrts. The locks were opened and 
 about 2 feet 5 inches of water let off; but the bulk of water was 
 too great to effect any appreciable diminution ; the banks con- 
 sequently burst in several places. Similar tidings were received 
 from the sub-prefect of Shih-ching-shan. There the river had so 
 swollen that the water overflowed the banks; the latter being 
 eventually swept away, leaving a free channel for the water to 
 pour out on the surrounding country. The soldiers and country 
 people were called out to repair the breach, but to no purpose. 
 The water continued to rise, and rushed along with such fury that 
 human effort was vain. On hearing of this, the river inspector, Li 
 Chao-i, immediately repaired to the spot to see what he could do ; 
 but, alas ! he found the breach was already from 600 to 700 feet 
 long, and that nothing could be done. 
 
 After the bursting of the banks last year, the memorialist had 
 locks (or sluices) erected, and the Yingho cleaned out, hoping 
 thereby to prevent such calamities in the future. He also ordered 
 that a large supply of material should be kept always on hand in 
 case of emergency. The banks, however, were so saturated last 
 year that they are still moist and loose. The rise in the river, too, 
 was something extraordinary, being over 20 feet, whUe the rain 
 was pouring down in torrents and the wind blowing a perfect gale. 
 Human strength contended in vain against such difficulties. Still, 
 the officials having failed to save the embankments, must be held 
 culpable, and it is the memorialist's duty to request their punish- 
 ment. He himself having failed to direct his subordinates, requests 
 that he may be handed over to the Board to be punished according 
 to his deserts. He is making every possible effort to remedy the 
 disaster. 
 
76 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 To touch the examinations of China is to touch the very 
 foundation on which the whole fabric of social life is built 
 up ; and to Chinese ears probably the depths of misery 
 would be best conveyed by the following curt announcement: — 
 
 Li Hung-chang and Hsia Tung Shan, literary chancellor of 
 Chihli, request that the literary examinations in the Ho-chien and 
 Shen departments may be deferred till next autumn. The floods 
 have destroyed the examination halls, and the people are in a most 
 destitute condition. 
 
 In spite of Li's efforts, travellers from Paoting-fu in 
 September, 1873, reported : — 
 
 Every river in that part of Ohihli that has any banks has long 
 since burst them. The general impression of boat travel in that 
 part of the province is that of an ocean voyage. For vast distances 
 no land is in sight. The extent of loss, misery, and devastation 
 which this implies cannot be computed. The sudden influx of water 
 has set in motion a vast number of coffins, which were calmly 
 reposing on their ancestral mounds, but which are now driven about, 
 the sport of winds and waves, like so many Noah's arks. Like the 
 ark, they " sail from no port, are to no port bound; their only wish is 
 soon to run aground." 
 
 This picture of the poor coffins bound to no port is so 
 graphic that I can but regret that I do not know to whom to 
 render my obligations for it. 
 
 The English reader must not be worn out with the infinite 
 vagaries of the rivers of China — the Yellow River removed 
 its mouth 400 miles in 1853. But in conjunction with aU 
 this we must note the rewards of merit : — 
 
 Li Hung-chang, when reporting the contribution of cotton- 
 quilted clothing from Kiangsu and Chekiang, for the sufferers by 
 the floods in Chihli, mentioned the munificent gift of 10,000 
 garments from Hu Kwang Yiing. He has now to report a further 
 gift of 5,000 garments from the same person, and also a quantity of 
 agricultural implements valued at 10,000 taels. Furthermore, he 
 has received a despatch from the Commissioner of Salt trans- 
 port, inclosing a communication from a salt merchant named Yang 
 Chun Yuen, stating that he erected a shed last August on the city 
 
PROMOTION TO CHISLI: THE YELLOW BIYEB. 77 
 
 ■vrall at Tientsin for the accommodation of a number of refugees, 
 whom he daily supplied with food for three months at a cost of 
 more than 5,000 taels. He is now giving two meals a day to over 
 2,500 persons, which will cost him during the next five months 
 more than 6,000 taels. The hospital and kitchens outside of the 
 "West Gate will also necessitate an outlay on his part of 8,000 taels 
 over and above what other persons have contributed. Put together, 
 these sums will make about 20,000 taels. The memorialist prays 
 that his Majesty will graciously be pleased to send a tablet to each 
 of these generous persons, in honour of their noble liberality. Such 
 individuals are few. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Li Hung-chang, Viceroy of Chihli, begs the Throne to confer 
 honours on the officials of the Canton province who contributed so 
 liberally towards the relief of the sufferers by the floods in the 
 North last year. In addition to the tribute rice and public funds 
 which were appropriated for the relief of the sufferers, contributions 
 of clothes, rice, and money were also solicited from Kiangsu, 
 Chekiang, and other provinces. Canton being a wealthy com- 
 mercial province, it was the intention of the Viceroy to set on foot 
 a general subscription for the relief of the people in the North, but 
 it unfortunately happened that Canton itself was also suffering from 
 floods and consequent failure of crops, so that no help could be 
 expected from either the agricultural or mercantile classes. Anxious, 
 however, to do something for the starving multitudes of Chihli, the 
 Viceroy started a subscription list among the mandarins, and 
 altogether the munificent sum of 420,000 taels was subscribed. 
 The Viceroy headed the list with a subscription of 6,000 taels ; the 
 Commissioner of Maritime Customs and the Salt Commissioner 
 followed with a subscription of 10,000 taels each ; the Provincial 
 Treasurer gave 2,000 taels, etc. etc. The action of the Viceroy in 
 this matter is most praiseworthy ; but as he holds high office, and 
 as the Commissioner of Customs, Chung Li, is also an official of the 
 second rank, the memorialist will not presume to say what honours 
 should be conferred on them ; but on the Salt Commissioner he 
 would beg the Throne to bestow a button of the second rank. 
 Although all the officials, from the treasurer downwards, have sent 
 to say that they will not accept any honours, yet the memorialist 
 would suggest that they be included in the general list of subscribers 
 
78 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 when that list is laid before the Throne, and that they be allowed 
 to transfer their honours to some member of their respective 
 families. 
 
 Even the gods have to be rewarded. In February, 1872, 
 an Edict is issued in reference to a memorial from Li Hung- 
 chang reporting a special case of interposition on tlie part of 
 the Kiver God, and begging the Throne to bestow a tablet in 
 commemoration of the event. During the summer and 
 autumn of the previous year there had been such a heavy fall 
 of rain that the rivers and canals about Tientsin rose to an 
 unusual height, but " through the gracious interposition of 
 the River God, the weather cleared and the waters gradually 
 decreased. This is a mercy which calls for the deepest 
 gratitude, and the Hanlin College must prepare a suitable 
 tablet and send it to Li Hung-chang, to be reverently placed 
 in the Ta-Wang temple at Tientsin, in acknowledgment of 
 the divine favour." 
 
 That it may be seen that Li Hung-chang was not 
 exceptional in his reverential feelings, we must mention in the 
 same year an Edict regarding a memorial from Tso Tsung-tang, 
 requesting the Throne to bestow an honorific tablet on the 
 God of Thunder. 
 
 During the sixth moon of the present year, the Imperial troops 
 attacked Suchow (in the north-west of Kansuh), and by the 
 miraculous aid of the God of Thunder won a great victory over the 
 rebels. Such an event calls for profound gratitude ; and the Hanlin 
 is ordered to prepare a suitable tablet, and forward it to Tso 
 Tsung-tang to be placed in the temple of the God of Thunder in the 
 provincial capital of Kansuh, in acknowledgment of divine favour. 
 
 Again, in August of the same year Ting Pao-cheng, lieut.- 
 governor of Shantung, reports two miracles wrought by 
 Kwang-ti, the God of War, and begs the Throne to bestow an 
 Imperial tablet on his temple, in acknowledgment of his 
 favour. 
 
 A despatch from the district magistrate of Chiahsiang, states 
 that during the spring of last year, no rain having fallen for two 
 months, fears were entertained regarding the crops ; so the magistrate, 
 
PROMOTION TO GHIELI: THE YELLOW RIVER. 79 
 
 together with all the officials and gentry of the district, went to the 
 temple of Kwang-ti and offered solemn prayer. Before three days 
 had elapsed, rain fell in copious and refreshing showers, to the joy of 
 all classes of people, who recognised in it the miraculous interposition 
 of Kwang-ti. The magistrate of the district then, out of gratitude 
 for such timely favour, contributed funds from his own salary to 
 repair Kwang-ti's temple, which had been long in a dilapidated 
 condition. Again, during the eighth moon of last year, when the 
 Yellow Ei-ver burst its banks in the Yuncheng district, the city was- 
 in imminent danger of being carried away by the torrent. The 
 plain around was several feet under water, and though every effort 
 was made to protect the city, the aspect of affairs was most alarming. 
 To make bad worse, on the 16th of the month it began to rain 
 and blow furiously, and continued to do so night and day, and in 
 consequence the water rose still higher and was lashed by the wind 
 into huge billows, which swept away the dams thrown up to protect 
 the city, and the walls were washed down in several places. The 
 city was literally crowded with refugees, even the streets and alleys 
 being blocked up by them, and was the scene of confusion and 
 terror. The magistrate accompanied by the officials and people, then 
 went to the temple of Kwang-ti to implore his interposition, and 
 instantly both the wind and the rain ceased, and the water gradually 
 subsided. Thus through the help of Kwang-ti the city was saved, 
 and so astounding was the miracle that even women and children 
 united in reverencing him. Now that the temple has been thoroughly 
 repaired, the Throne is earnestly entreated to bestow an Imperial 
 tablet on it, in acknowledgment of the favour of the God. 
 
 Naturally, Li's unusually rapid promotion had aroused 
 jealousy, but even without taking that into consideration 
 ■we should expect to find a censor memorialising the Throne 
 regarding the bursting of the embankments of the Yung-ting 
 after Li had recommended all concerned in it for rewards. 
 ■" The officials who superintended the work are clearly to 
 blame and are without excuse." Several officials are there- 
 fore stripped of their buttons, but retained in office. Li 
 himself is handed over to the Board of Civil Office for 
 not having better directed his subordinates regarding their 
 work. " He must order the officials concerned to repair the 
 breach with all possible speed, and to see that the work is 
 
80 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 done "well. Great care must also be taken from time to time 
 to keep the embankments in proper repair ; there must be no 
 negligence in this respect." 
 
 But the following memorial against him is so very enter- 
 taining in the many side-lights it throws upon quaint Chinese 
 customs, as also in the naivete with which it allows the 
 jealousy of the writer to be seen, that it must be quoted 
 entire : — 
 
 August 30th, 1872. — Pien Pao-chuenj superintending censor of 
 Chekiang, memorialises the Throne condemning the presentation of 
 a specimen of " auspicious " or double-eared grain by Li Hung- 
 chang, as an act fraught with danger, and begs the Throne to issue 
 instructions on the subject in order to prevent the evils to which 
 that act may give rise. The adulation and flattery with which 
 sycophants attempt to impose on the Throne must necessarily have 
 some basis from which to start, and it is best to crush the thing 
 from its beginning, just as one would stop a stream while it 
 was shallow or arrest an evil while it was yet small In times 
 of prosperity " felicitous omens " are not spoken of, and as to 
 the saying that "a plentiful year is a happy omen," it simply 
 means that the harvest is good and the people peacefully following 
 their several avocations. The memorialist has never yet heard of 
 anyone in times of repeated flood and drought reporting felicitous 
 omens ! From the Han to the Tang dynasties. Court Ministers vied 
 with each other in talkmg about the prosperity of the State as 
 indicated by this and that auspicious augury. At first only one or 
 two persons indulged in such extravagant flattery, but the evil grew 
 till every bush and bit of grass was converted into an auspicious 
 omen, and eager was the race as to who should present it to 
 the Emperor first ! Nothing is more calculated to make the 
 Sovereign vain and extravagant or to deceive the people than 
 such a practice. The memorialist has been led to make the fore- 
 going remarks in consequence of having seen in the Peking Gazette 
 a memorial from Li Hung-chang, Viceroy of Chihli, reporting 
 the appearance of double-eared corn in Ching-yuen-hsien and 
 Kwang-pingfu. Specimens of the corn were also presented for his 
 Majesty's inspection, and the occurrence treated as something 
 unusually wonderful. Now this memorial will be read and dis- 
 cussed all over the Empire. But far from there being anything so 
 
PROMOTION TO GHIHLI; THE YELLOW BIVER. 81 
 
 very marvellous in the event, it is really a very ordinary occurrence, 
 as an appeal to history will at once prove. In the fourth year of 
 Taitsu of the Sung dynasty (954 A.D.) there was wheat in Kai- 
 chow, in Chihli, and Puyang-hsien, having from two to six ears 
 on one stalk. During the reign of Shentsung also, there were 
 40 mows of double-eared wheat in Shenchow, in the Chihli pro- 
 vince. And again, during the time of Hwaitsung there was corn 
 in Tsaichow having from two to eight ears on a stalk. Now 
 all these instances occurred during one dynasty, and it would 
 be simply impossible to enumerate all the cases which occurred 
 during the other dynasties. The memorialist was brought up in 
 the country, and knows from observation that, except during 
 very bad years, the existence of double-eared wheat is a common 
 phenomenon. The cause of such fecundity may be either the 
 richness of the soU or the undue share of nutriment which these 
 particular stalks obtaiaed. Either of these causes would be quite 
 sufficient to account for the phenomenon. How, therefore, can such 
 a very common feature be considered a prodigy ? 
 
 But while speaking of auspicious omens, he would mention 
 an event which occurred during the Han dynasty. Two Court 
 Ministers suggested to Changti that he should change the style 
 of his reign to Changho, on account of the host of happy auguries 
 then occurring ; but Ho Chang (also a Miaister), basing his 
 argument on the classics, rebuked them there and then, and they 
 were so confounded that they could not answer him. Ma Twan-lin 
 devotes a section of his work, the Wen-hsien-tung-kao, written 
 in the time of Chih-yuen (Kublai Khan, 1281—1296) to the 
 consideration of the various auspicious omens of past ages, and 
 he defines such omens as " extraordiuary or unusual phenomena." 
 An omen is, therefore, something uncommon. How, then, can 
 Li Hung-chang put down as a felicitous omen such a commonplace 
 thing as a stalk of double-eared wheat? Last year Chihli was 
 the scene of floods such as had not been witnessed for many tens of 
 years. The south-east of the province was a vast sea, and there -was 
 nothing left but to appeal to other provinces for help, issue maize 
 from the Imperial granaries, appropriate public funds, and remit 
 the taxes, in order to relieve the distress. His Majesty, too, was 
 troubled and made anxious by the occurrence. Even up to the 
 present time many places are still under water. Supposing that 
 both the spring and autumn crops were abundant this year they 
 
82 LI BUNG- CHANG. 
 
 could not make up for the loss of last year. But the fact is that the 
 harvest is not good, except in about half of the province. Moreover, 
 it is now rumoured that the Yungting, though only just repaired, 
 has burst its banks, and that Paoting, Tientsin, and the south 
 of Shuntien are flooded by the overflowing of the various rivers 
 and canals which intersect them. And in addition to all this, 
 the crops are being destroyed by locusts. Where, then, shall we 
 look for the plenty prognosticated by this double-eared wheat ? 
 Such fulsome flattery as that now in question is the work of idle, 
 useless magistrates who, whenever they can hit upon anything, 
 make a handle of it to ingratiate themselves with their superiors. 
 So, too, with a certain set of low gentry, who make a pretext 
 of the least trifle to flatter. It is in this way that the evil now 
 complained of begins. Seeing that peace has not yet been restored 
 in some of the neighbouring provinces, nor the people been rescued 
 from their misery; considering also the high position which 
 Li Hung-chang occupies and the great reputation he enjoys; 
 it was surely his duty to sympathise with their Majesties the 
 Empress and Emperor in their sorrow, and imitate the fidelity 
 of Ho Chang when he rebuked the unseemly adulation of Sung Yeu 
 and Yuen An. As to his reference to an old tale about the appearance 
 of double-eared corn in Yu Yang during the rule of Chang Kan, it 
 must be remembered that that was a time of plenty, and that the 
 people were so rejoicing in the good government of Chang Kan that 
 they sang songs in his honour ; while Chihli, on the other hand, is 
 now suifering from the efiects of repeated calamities, and its people 
 wandering hither and thither in a most pitiable condition. Yet 
 Li Hung-chang insults the Throne with talk about " happy omens," 
 and compares himself to the ancients ! Ostensibly he sent his report 
 for the gratification of the Throne, but really in order to praise his 
 own government. Such a practice^ once begim, will soon have 
 plenty of imitators, and will give rise to an innumerable host of 
 evils. 
 
 The inconsiderate behaviour of the Yellow River, and the 
 sarcasms of memorialisis, were of no serious detriment to the 
 Viceroy of Chihli ; nor did these matters occupy his exclusive 
 attention at this period. 
 
 For instance, there is a quaint, characteristically Chinese 
 memorial concerning an old lady of 94, who had seen seven 
 
PROMOTION TO CHIHLI: THE YELLOW BIVEB. 83 
 
 generations, viz. her grand-parents, parents, and her own 
 children and grandchildren to the fourth generation. Five 
 generations were then hving together in the same home — 
 namely, mother, son, grandsons, great-grandsons, and great- 
 great-grandsons. Her son was a Chin shih (LL.D.) ; of her 
 five grandsons one was a Chii-jen (M.A.), and another a Pa- 
 king (a wrangler) ; of her eleven great-grandsons one was a 
 Yn-kung (B.A. with honours), of great-great-grandchildren 
 there were two. Li begged that this auspicious circum- 
 stance might be commemorated in the usual way by erecting 
 a stone arch. 
 
 Similarly he was concerned with the case of his deceased 
 brother, Li Chaow-ching, who had been a superintendent of 
 the Salt Trade ; his modesty had prevented him from making 
 known his own meritorious services against the rebels, and 
 Li being his brother could not himself draw proper attention 
 to his relation's merits. The latter came to Peking to 
 obtain an audience with the Emperor, and was again attacked 
 by a disease of which he had formerly suffered from hard- 
 ships in service. After his death we can readily believe that 
 Li, who was always zealous to help his own family, took far 
 more trouble to obtain some proof of posthumous regard, 
 than if he could himself have applied for it directly ; besides 
 adopting his son. 
 
 To this time also belonged Li's design of having the history 
 of the Imperial Domain revised and written up to date. It 
 was a hundred and forty years since the last issue of this 
 work, and it was high time, he said, that steps should be taken 
 to draw up the history of that period, otherwise there would 
 be no rehable materials for doing so. He proposed to entrust 
 the preparation of the work to a committee of learned 
 officials and gentry, materials for the history to be drawn 
 from official documents, private family records, and from 
 the tales of old people, nothing to be rejected because it 
 might seem trivial, and every precaution taken to insure 
 accuracy. The cost of preparation was to be borne by the 
 provincial exchequer. 
 
 Not long after, again, he was " requesting manifestations 
 
84 LI nUN&-OHANa. 
 
 of Imperial approbation for the conduct of women of the 
 province whose lives were sacrificed during the rebel inroads 
 which had taken place during the last and the present reign. 
 The official committee at present employed in drawing up a. 
 revised edition of the Statistical Eecord of the Metropohtan 
 Department reports that, over and above the cases which have 
 already been brought before his Majesty's notice, there are 
 upwards of fifteen hundred instances in which the lives of 
 women have been lost, either by massacre at the sword's point, 
 or by suicide to escape dishonour, which have not yet been 
 brought forward, and it is now requested that orders be given 
 to the proper Board for the establishment of memorials in 
 each case, as a solace to the names of the virtuous departed." 
 
 Shall we ever see a similar record concerning those 
 unhappy Chinese women who were similarly driven to their 
 death in 1900 ? 
 
 Finally there were the Tientsin rowdies to be put down, 
 men known throughout China as the worst and most dis- 
 orderly of their kind ; but Li succeeded in dealing with 
 them, for which, as recorded at the time, he merited the 
 best thanks of all orderly, law-abiding Chinese people. 
 
 Now, however, we must turn to an important episode — 
 the marriage of the young Emperor, and the events which 
 followed in its train. 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EMPEROR TUNG-CHIH: HIS MARRIAGE AND DEATH 
 (1872—1875). 
 
 When the young Emperor Tung-chih was a boy of twelve, 
 it was thought that the time had arrived when it was proper 
 that he should marry and assume the Imperial authority. 
 
 One Empress, a wife for the right and another for the left, 
 with eight secondary wives, constituted the imperial harem. 
 The law requires aU who belong to the eight "Banners" 
 which are divided into Manchu, Mongol and Chinese, to be 
 w illin g to send their daughters if of proper age. None are 
 eligible who do not belong to the eight Banners established in 
 Peldng or hx the proviacial garrisons. Mothers, sisters, and 
 sisters-in-law can go with them to the palace and see them 
 occasionally, but the male members of the family can only see 
 them when on journeys. 
 
 On the third day of the second month 108 girls were 
 taken into the palace for inspection; of ages varying from 
 ten to thirteen, so that the Empress should not be more 
 than one year older, or two years younger than the Emperor. 
 Of the hundred and eight, twelve were retained for a time, 
 but soon sent home. A call was then issued for girls from 
 the Banner famihes in the provinces. A large number of 
 eligible girls in the Banner families in Peking were at 
 once reported as in Ul-health or deformed as an excuse to 
 prevent the dreaded isolation of the palace life and irrevocable 
 cutting of home ties. But all were required to appear in the 
 seventh month, deception being suspected. In the eighth 
 month, the Emperor was to be married at twelve and a half 
 years of age. It was not, however, till 1872 that the ceremony 
 took place. 
 
86 LI SUNG -CHANG. 
 
 Among the wedding guests were the Ambassadors from 
 the Tributary States of Corea, Annam, and Loochoo. The 
 first-mentioned came, it is said, expressly to do homage on the 
 auspicious occasion. The resident Foreign Ministers, who 
 refused to ko-tow — i.e. to bow down and touch the ground 
 with the forehead — were thereby excluded from the cere- 
 monial. It may be remembered the present Emperor's 
 brother, Prince Chun, refused to perform this ceremony at 
 Berlin in 1902, on his mission of contrition for the murder 
 of the German Minister in 1900 in Peking. 
 
 Excepting the procession from the Imperial palace to the 
 Empress-elect's residence, everything was conducted within 
 the sacred privacy of the palace. The European may note 
 a very striking ceremony, which took place on the fourth day 
 after the marriage, when the Emperor was presented to his 
 mother and the Empress Dowager, and, at the command 
 of a herald, the Lord of the Dragon Throne, with his princes, 
 nobles, and high officers, rulers and subjects, all prostrated 
 themselves before the two Empresses, Tsz-An and Tsz-Hsi — 
 two women ; after which both were presented with additional 
 titles. 
 
 I cannot find any actual record of Li's presence, but he 
 must have played a prominent part, his imposing presence 
 towering over the crowd of other officials. Also as Viceroy of 
 Chihli he must have had to provide much money for the 
 expenses. 
 
 On Oct. 22nd was issued the Edict by which the Emperor 
 nominally took the power into his own hands, as the young 
 King of Spain did in May, 1902. 
 
 The Empress-Mother presented Prince Kung with a scroll 
 in that fine, bold, artistic hand so familiar to all who, during 
 the recent troubles, have enjoyed the opportunity of wander- 
 ing through the august halls of the Peking palaces, where 
 many specimens of Tze-Hsi's masterly handwriting decorate 
 the walls ; for the Chinese do not look upon writing as simply 
 a means of conveying ideas, but as in itself an end, as much 
 as any picture ; and the Chinese character is so decorative that 
 even Europeans soon find their eyes resting on a beautiful 
 
TEE EMPEROR TUNG -ORIS. 87 
 
 specimen of Chinese writing with almost as much pleasure as 
 on a fine landscape. Tze-Hsi's handwriting, once seen, is un- 
 forgettable, and at once predisposes the beholder to admire yet 
 dread the writer. 
 
 On December 2nd the Peking Gazette records : — 
 
 Hitherto the Empress-Mother, listening to all affairs o£ State, 
 has been unremitting in her exertions to promote the public good. 
 She has regulated audiences, settled the Five Relationships, promoted 
 the worthy, and punished the rebellious ; from first to last the 
 country has enjoyed peace, and the people have lived in comfort. 
 Thus has her Majesty imitated the good example of former rulers, 
 and history will record her worth. 
 
 On March 18th, 1873, Li left for Peking to have his first 
 audience with the Emperor after his accession, as also to see 
 Prince Kung and the other Ministers of State. He had two 
 more audiences with the young Emperor, and the Peking 
 Gazette records that Li on some occasions showed opposition 
 to Imperial commands. His Majesty thereupon commanded 
 that the Viceroy should be fined nine months' pay of his 
 salary. There is no record what these commands were, but it 
 seems as if they must have been verbal, not signed with the 
 vermilion pencil, or Li must have obeyed. 
 
 It was now his duty to start some days before the 
 Emperor, who was departing on a State Pilgrimage, and 
 to see that everything was in order for his reception on the 
 way and at the tombs in the Eastern mountains, where sacri- 
 fices have been offered by Emperors year by year. The 
 Foreign Ministers, all full of the important question of the 
 Audience, at that time anticipated no help from Li, who at 
 that period of his life was regarded as anti-foreign. On his 
 return to Tientsin, for two days all the officials were calling 
 upon him to congratulate him ; and the rumour got about 
 that at Li's last audience the Emperor, after having listened 
 for over a couple of hours to what Li had to say on some 
 important questions, political and diplomatic, said to him : 
 " Such being your views of these various matters, it is very 
 evident to me that, as you have thoroughly studied them. 
 
8(3 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 you are the fittest man in the country to see them efficiently 
 carried out. I therefore now command you to reside at the 
 capital as one of the Ministers of State, so as to be present 
 always to advise the Throne regarding the proper settlement 
 of the questions which you have just spoken of, and which 
 you apparently understand correctly, and regarding other 
 matters which may from time to time arise poUticaUy or 
 diplomatically." 
 
 This rumour probably rather shows what Tientsin officials 
 were beginning to think of Li than the opinion of the 
 somewhat rowdy young Emperor. The Pilgrimage to the 
 Imperial Tombs seems to have been very badly managed that 
 year ; the camels were not ready in time, and the mules were 
 half-starved and could not go ; the officials in charge of the 
 transport, both those connected with the Imperial Stables and 
 the luggage, were ahke blamed ; whilst the Chief of the 
 Eunuchs was banished, and other officials discharged because 
 they were hasty in haridling the dishes. Which all looks as 
 if the Emperor were not only youthful, but also hasty tem- 
 pered, and anything but likely to appreciate Li's judgment on 
 important questions, political and diplomatic. 
 
 The Gazette of April 14 congratulates the Emperor on his 
 birthday, while that of the 16th appoints officials to prepare a 
 mausoleum for himself and his wife Ahlute. This to Chinese 
 would not seem the least incongruous ; they have not the 
 horror of death with which Christians seem so unfortunately 
 to regard the inevitable passage to what we say we believe to 
 be higher life beyond ; and a coffin is sometimes the sole and 
 very handsome ornament of a country house entrance haU. 
 The very words of the Emperor show a feeling different from 
 that of Europe : — 
 
 When respectfully worshipping at the Eastern Mausoleum, we 
 noticed a happily placed piece of ground, to the east of the latter, 
 which is luxuriant and beautiful in aspect, and is surrounded by 
 hills and water. We have prayed the two Empresses to go them- 
 selves and inspect this spot in person, and their Ijlajesties have 
 graciously replied as follows : " These two spots are most decidedly 
 places for happiness for all future ages. Respect this." We 
 
THE EMPEROB TVN6-CHIH. 89 
 
 looking up and realising the tender concern of their Majesties on our 
 behalf, deem it our duty to select a propitious day on which to 
 commence building tombs on these spots. 
 
 The following description of the return from the Tombs 
 by a European may perhaps cast some light upon the 
 appearance of the present Emperor, Kwang-Hsii, whose want 
 of animation when seen in public has been so severely noticed 
 by newspaper correspondents. There was no idea at the time 
 of his accession that Tung-chih was not destined to a long 
 life. No one said he had a mortal disease, or had lost his 
 intellect, and he probably had the advantage of some loving 
 oare from that remarkable woman, his mother. Yet here is 
 the contemporary record : — 
 
 April 11th, 1873. — About forty finely-dressed servant girls, from 
 thirteen to nineteen years of age, accompanied the Empresses, and 
 these again had a number of middle-aged women to dress and 
 attend on them. The hand-maidens and their female servants all 
 travelled in carts, and appeared to enjoy the trip immensely, 
 judging by their looks and laughter. The Empresses had their hair 
 dressed horn fashion, like other Manchu ladies. The Empress- 
 mother looked extremely weU, and appeared to enjoy the trip 
 heartily. Both the ladies were of course dressed in splendid 
 silks. 
 
 The Emperor did not appear a first-class horseman, as he held 
 the reins of the bridle with his right hand, the arm stretched almost 
 to its full length, with the hand of course well forward on the 
 pony's neck. A groom walked on the near side of the pony and 
 had hold of the rein there. The Emperor appeared either very 
 fatigued or entirely sunk in thought, for he did not look either 
 to the right or to the left at the people kneeling by the roadside, 
 but sat bent forward on the saddle like a very wearied person. He 
 is apparently of short stature ; his face is long, thin, and sallow. 
 
 It is exactly after this fashion that correspondents have 
 described the present Emperor on his return to Peking, with 
 the single exception of one Japanese, who describes him as 
 conversing with the greatest animation with his suite. 
 
 On the way " the Emperor Tung-chih's face had got 
 
90 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 bronzed by exposure to the sun, the official spring- 
 hat being no protection against its rays; and as the roads, 
 are very dusty, it had besides a plentiful covering of dust. 
 He appeared to be in the best of spirits and in excellent, 
 health, his whole appearance being in that respect in great 
 contrast to what it was when he departed from the capital 
 seven days previously." 
 
 The great audience ultimately took place, lasting after alL 
 but about five minutes. Everything was in order. But Tung- 
 chih died within the year, aged eighteen, and leaving no good 
 reputation behind him, though whether it is true that he 
 was in the habit of breaking bounds and visiting the disre- 
 putable haunts of Peking incognito does not seem quite 
 certain. It is certainly believed that his death was not made 
 known till some time after it had occurred, and that when he 
 was already nine days dead he was stated, in token of 
 rejoicing for his own convalescence, to have bestowed various, 
 honours and donations. Then on Jan. 13th, 1875, we read : — 
 
 Prostrate upon earth, we bewail our grief to Heaven, vainly- 
 stretching out our hands in lamentation. Tor thirteen years, 
 as we in humility reflect, his Majesty now departed reigned 
 under the canopy of Heaven. In reverent observance of the 
 ancestral precepts he made the counsels prompted by maternal 
 love his guide, applying himself with awestruck zeal to the 
 toilsome performance of his duty. For not a single day, in. 
 reverence for Heaven and in obedi.ence to the ancestral pattern, 
 did he cease to be inspired with devotion in the cause of govern- 
 ment and love on behalf of his people. He gave the charge of office 
 to the attached and wise. He vanquished and subdued the great 
 revolt. The welfare of the people and the policy of the State were 
 ever present in his inmost thoughts. Sincere in the deepest measure 
 must be at this time the grief and lamentation of all to whom the 
 breath of life is given. Not in words can we give expression to the 
 sadness which pierces our heart and shows itself in tears of blood. 
 
 And now we come to the dark secret history of the 
 remorseless woman who still rules the destinies of China, 
 by the will of the foreign nations of Europe rather than 
 
THE EMPEROR TUNG-GHIR. 91 
 
 by that of the Chinese people. She is sometimes accused 
 of the death of her son, as some people also accuse her' 
 of having got rid of the Emperor Hien-feng, the fugitive 
 to Jehol, whose concubine she was, and whose favour she 
 may possibly have feared to lose. She is often accused of 
 having eventually got rid of the other Empress, Tze-An ; but 
 even at the Chinese Court people must die a natural death 
 sometimes. There is, however, no doubt at all that she 
 did get Ahlute, the young wife of her son Tung-chih, who 
 was then with child, to commit suicide or die in some way — 
 Chinese people generally say she was made to drink from 
 a poisohed cup ; and the two young people being thus 
 " removed," we have this memorial from Li and others : — 
 
 Her late Majesty, a lady of perfect virtue and of a family 
 elevated by its refined breeding, was affianced to his late Majesty 
 and became Queen Consort of the "Central" Palace; her benevolence 
 sufiused itself throughout the Court. The fountain-head of the 
 "female element," and the first symbol thus of the earth, she 
 centred around her an atmosphere of virtue illimitable in extent, 
 and responded to the divine scheme of nature by co-operating with 
 and assisting the " male principle." Her gentleness and excellence 
 formed a pattern for study, and her strict rectitude exerted 
 influence throughout the six Palaces. Her deportment was 
 retiring and modest, and for the three years that she graced the 
 Court, while making manifest the excellence of her rule over 
 the "inner affairs," she further shared in the anxieties and toils 
 attending the administration of government. As successor to their 
 Majesties the Empresses Dowager, she further displayed her filial 
 devotion by her attractive and winning ways ; and the many 
 feminine qualities thus illustriously exhibited have been evident to 
 every inmate of the Palace. In conformity with the regulations 
 handed down by our ancestors, it is fitting that a glorious epitaph 
 and posthumous title be selected for her departed Majesty ; and the 
 ministry is hereby commanded to examine and carefuUy note 
 the record and ceremonial canons, and to respectfully make a 
 suitable selection. The Ministers, while paying additional tributes 
 to the memory of her departed Majesty, remark with the greatest 
 humility that where the virtues of an Emperor and his Consort 
 harmonise, the effect may be compared to the sun and moon 
 
92 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 beautifying the heavens — (the sun is another emhlem of the male, as 
 the moon of the female principle) — and that where the two natures 
 accord, the female acts in unison with the male, and the scheme of 
 nature is thus carried out; etc. etc. 
 
 The poor young dead girl is dubbed "yielding, chaste, 
 careful, virtuous and intelligent, who governed her actions by 
 the laws of Heaven, and whose life added lustre to the teachings 
 of the Sages," and succeeding writers have all shed a tear 
 over the early death of the beautiful Ahlute, for whom and for 
 her mother-in-law, Tze-Hsi, there was not room enough in 
 this smaU world. Tze-Hsi had still a sister left, and on a 
 bitterly cold night in January, 1875, she stole that sister's 
 child out of his warm bed, conveyed him to the Palace, 
 and proclaimed him Emperor next morning. Chinese always 
 add, "and the child wept !" Poor Kwang-Hsii has often had 
 cause for even bitterer tears since then. But he stiU lives. 
 His mother, Tze-Hsi's sister, was got out of the way some 
 years later. Tze-Hsi is one of those " charming women " who 
 brook no rival near the throne, and that both her sister and 
 her son's wife were made to die by her orders it is impossible 
 to doubt. 
 
 But before she succeeded in placing another baby on the 
 throne of China there occurred one of those dramatic episodes 
 of which Li's long life seems unusually full. A Chinese teUs 
 the story thus : — 
 
 There was a formidable party in the palace opposed to the two 
 Dowager-Empresses, anxious to put them and their party out of the 
 way, and raise to the Throne a dissolute son of Prince Kung, since 
 dead. The Dowager-Empress appealed to Li, then Viceroy of Chihli, 
 and as such the lawful protector of the dynasty. He did not lose a 
 moment [looking over Li's long life, that seems to have been one of 
 the secrets of it ; he never did delay unless he wanted to, and then 
 none could better play a waiting game]. On this occasion Li made 
 a secret forced march to Peking accompanied by his personal guard 
 of 4,000 well armed men, horse, foot, and artillery, all Anhui men, 
 on whose devotion he could rely under any circumstances. The 
 march of eighty miles was made in thirty-six hours, and timed to 
 
TSU EMPEBOB TUNG-CHIH. 93 
 
 arrive at Peking at midnight. A prince who was an adherent of the 
 Dowager-Empress had been placed in charge of the Ohungwen Gat© 
 with a guard of his personal retainers, imder orders to open it only 
 to Li and his force. At midnight Li and his Anhui men were 
 admitted, and marched into the Forbidden City in dead silence, every 
 man holding a chopstick in his mouth to prevent his talking, and 
 with the metal trappings of the horses all muffled. Arrived within 
 the Forbidden precincts, the Manchu bannermen on duty at the 
 various palace gates were all replaced by Li's men, the Empresses 
 having sent out eunuchs to point out which detachments were 
 doubtful, or had almost openly declared for the conspirators. These 
 were at once disarmed, bound, and hurried off to the prisons of the 
 Board of "Punishments. The artillery was posted to command the 
 entrances to the Forbidden City, the cavalry were set to patrol the 
 grounds and pick up any stray conspirators who could be found, and 
 the infantry were stationed so as to surround the palace where lay 
 the Dowager-Empresses and the present Emperor, Kwang-Hsii, then a 
 child of about four years old. When day broke the surprise of such 
 of the conspirators as had not been arrested during the night was 
 complete. The disaffected were quietly made away with, or sent 
 into perpetual exile in the Heilungchang region, and the next day 
 Prince Chun's little son was proclaimed Emperor, with the title of 
 Kwang-Hsii. It turned out that neither Prince Kung nor his son 
 had any connection with the conspiracy, and they were unharmed. 
 Prince Kung remaining, as he always had been, a staunch friend of 
 Li. Everything being settled, Li marched back to Tientsin with his 
 troops, as unostentatiously as he had come, and so secretly had 
 everything been done that only those directly conceriied in this 
 coup d'etat knew what had happened, or how entirely it was due to 
 the loyalty and promptitude of Li — who might at that moment, if he 
 had chosen to be false, have raised himself to the throne — that a civil 
 war was averted and a great and bloody tragedy prevented. The 
 Empress-Dowager has never forgotten her debt to the Viceroy, and 
 it is only due to her entreaties and her representations that the 
 stability of the dynasty depends still on him, that His Excellency has 
 consented to take up his post ia the Tsungli Yamen, the Emperor, 
 it is said, beiag so much under the influence of Weng Tung-ho that 
 he has never realised what he owes to his great subject. 
 
 This is the story of Li's great midnight march, so often 
 
S4 LI RUNG-CHANG. 
 
 referred to as the means by which he won for all time the 
 Empress Tze-Hsi's favour ; but the fact that she appealed to 
 him looks a little as if he already enjoyed it. On the 
 ■expedition to the tombs there must have been many 
 opportunities of intercourse. 
 
 And probably these two gauged each other's characters 
 from the outset. 
 
95 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DIPLOMATIC EXPERIENCES (1873— 1876). 
 
 In February, 1873, Ministers from Japan and Peru and the 
 Charge d' Affaires from Holland were all expected to arrive 
 at Tientsin as soon as the ice melted sufficiently to allow 
 the opening of sea communication, and Li considered it 
 necessary that he should be on the spot to receive them. But 
 one delay after another occurred, and it was only in July, after 
 his visit to Peking, that the memorable interview took place 
 in which the Japanese Commissioner calmly and with dignity 
 flouted and set at naught the most overbearing of China's 
 Ticeroys. 
 
 The Japanese doubtless fully knew the character of 
 the man he had to deal with, and had possibly also heard 
 that Li had on several occasions declared his intention not to 
 permit him to go to Peking ; so he was very gracious, very 
 civilly announced that he had been appointed by the Govern- 
 ment of Japan to reside in Peking, courteously expressed how 
 Jie was looking forward to seeing that most interesting city, 
 but said never a word about Formosa, the question at issue. 
 A Japanese vessel had been cast ashore there and the crew 
 murdered. At first the Chinese Government had short- 
 sightedly declared they could not restrain the savages of 
 Formosa. The Japanese had immediately landed a force 
 to do so, and now he (Soyeshima) was on his way to Peking 
 to explain and settle matters. Li began at once to discuss 
 the difficulty ; though whether it is authentic that he handed 
 Soyeshima a slip of paper with a quotation from Confucius 
 concerning the " lawless encroachments of one State upon the 
 territory of another," and that the Japanese received it with 
 
96 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 apparent indifference, I am not prepared to say. Anyway, 
 after Li had exhausted himself in eloquence, the Japanese 
 said simply that he had only " called to pay his respects, not 
 to discuss international affairs — that he had been accredited 
 to the Chinese Government at Peking," and was then on his 
 way thither. 
 
 We can then imagine the solemnity of that exasperatingly 
 self-possessed Japanese bow we aU know so well, with its final 
 smile, and the state of mind in which great big Li must have 
 been left — doubtless mentally boiling over. The lesson was 
 a wholesome one, and probably Li never again displayed 
 such want of tact and judgment. His declared intention 
 had been to stop the Japanese Minister from proceeding to 
 Peking, and he must have felt very keenly mortified, for he 
 did not even return the Minister's call, sending a deputy to 
 say he was suddenly indisposed. Li's sudden indispositions 
 got to be so well known that in the end, when he lay dying, 
 people hardly believed that he was really ill. Thus in the 
 first encounter of wits Japan came off victorious, and after a 
 vacillation and helplessness painful to behold — so that 
 Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, who was asked 
 to mediate, could not tell what it was really intended to do — 
 the Chinese consented to pay the expenses of the Japanese 
 invasion of Formosa. These in the end, in proper business 
 fashion, were whittled down from 3,000,000 taels to 
 500,000 ; and as the Chinese would not consent to pay this 
 down at once, nor the Japanese to give them credit. Sir 
 ■ Thomas Wade, in the interests of peace, advanced the money. 
 Thus there was no Japanese war in 1874, at which people 
 at the time thought Li was disappointed. And perhaps, 
 indeed, it would have been better for China if there had 
 been. 
 
 The indemnity was to be paid out of the revenues of the 
 Foochow and Tientsin customs, but before all this was 
 settled Li had another set down. For the Japanese Am- 
 bassador Okubo, accompanied by Admiral Ito, General Le 
 Gendro, and a large body of attendants, spent six days in 
 Tientsin in September, 1874, without even paying a visit 
 
DIPLOMATIC EXPEEIENCES. 97 
 
 to Li Hung-chang; this being the first instance in which 
 a Minister, or Ambassador, accredited to Peking, had ever 
 passed Tientsin without a visit of ceremony or a friendly 
 salutation of some kind to the Viceroy. 
 
 It is said that no single event, since the occupation of 
 Tientsin by the allied army in 1860, had awakened such a 
 profound and universal feeling amongst the officials of the 
 province as the advent of this Embassy from Japan. The 
 party occupied sixteen houseboats, and each boat displayed 
 the national flag as it filed slowly through the shipping and 
 past the bridge of boats and so on up the Peiho, that river 
 that is for ever turning round to look at itself and almost 
 tying itself in knots. The grand style in which the Am- 
 bassador came to Tientsin made an immense impression on 
 the Chinese. One large ironclad, which the Chinese said 
 had on board 3,000 men (!), brought the Embassy to the 
 Taku outer anchorage; a fine gun-boat brought it from 
 thence to Tientsin ; and the Ambassador was accompanied 
 by several secretaries and attaches, besides a host of servants. 
 
 It would seem that from the first the Japanese did not 
 think Li's friendship worth cultivating. Is it an indication 
 that another nation did that we find the following in the 
 Shanghai newspaper ? — 
 
 Oct. 11th, 1874. — This afternoon, Li Hung-chang, the Governor- 
 General of ChihH, made a visit to the Russian gunboat lying off 
 this settlement. After his Excellency had been on board for about 
 an hour, the commander of the gunboat exploded a torpedo sunk in 
 the river off his vessel, raising the water some forty feet in the air, 
 while the ground on the bank shook ; and the shock was similarly 
 felt at the British Consulate, near which the gunboat is moored. 
 The Viceroy had a salute of fifteen guns given him on his arrival. 
 
 Some day, one cannot help thinking, the world will have 
 progressed sufficiently for people to marvel at this nineteenth 
 century idea of entertaining a foreign potentate or notability 
 by showing him how well prepared we are to blow him and 
 his into eternity. As it is we all do it. So we must not 
 blame the Russians. 
 
 H 
 
98 LI SUNG- CHANG. 
 
 Besides his diplomatic difficulties, Li at this period had a 
 good deal of trouble with his own soldiers — some 60,000 
 troops, within two days' march of Tientsin, condemned to 
 inactivity in a province in which they were as much 
 strangers as if they were foreigners. There was a conspiracy 
 among them led by one of the Viceroy's late officers ; a large 
 number of ex-military officers were understood to be ready 
 to join ; and a great body of soldiers from the South prepared 
 to come over to them as soon as the signal for revolt should be 
 given. There was serious disaffection among the troops in the 
 large military camp at Hsin-ch'eng, on the south bank of the 
 Peiho, sixteen miles above Taku ; several hundreds of the men 
 had deserted the camp ; and so great was the consternation 
 amongst the commandants of the Taku forts that every 
 preparation had been made for an assault upon their works 
 by the rebels, which was daUy and hourly expected. 
 
 The intention of the insurgents was to march upon 
 Tientsin simultaneously from both the camps, capture 
 and hold the place, and put all the foreigners to death. A 
 letter giving the above information was intercepted, and the 
 facts were immediately sent to Li Hung-chang, who issued 
 prompt orders for the apprehension of a number of suspected 
 people. It was the expectation of the leaders that, as soon 
 as the rebel standard should be hoisted over the walls of 
 Tientsin, the whole body of Li flung-chang's Southern 
 soldiery would join them, as they were known to be exceed- 
 ingly hostUe to foreigners, The Viceroy's detectives were 
 soon upon the scent, seven of the ringleaders were arrested 
 at an obscure Chinese inn near the western suburbs of the 
 city, and, on the day following, six more were brought 
 in irons from the camp, escorted by a strong body of soldiers 
 from the Viceroy's guard. The leader of the revolt made 
 good his escape. 
 
 The badge adopted by these rebels was a white turban, 
 and their standard a white flag bearing the inscription Hsiu 
 An. Quite a number of these flags were captured. It was 
 a singular fact in connection with the affair that the local 
 officials professed entire ignorance of what was going on. 
 
DIPLOMATIC EXPEBIENCES. 99 
 
 On which a Tientsin correspondent, from whose adcount I 
 have gathered these details, takes occasion to give this con- 
 temporary estimate of Li Hung-chang : — 
 
 Every confidence is felt in the Viceroy's fidelity toward 
 foreigners in this movement. Whatever may be its extent or 
 results, there is no doubt as to the position of Li Hung-chang. 
 His loyalty to the present dynasty, his courage, and his ability 
 to deal with refractory subjects, give great promise of a satisfactory 
 solution of this troublesome looking affair. But from the know- 
 ledge of Chinese character which past experience has given us, 
 it would seem the part of wisdom to keep ourselves in readiness, 
 prepared to defend ourselves, without depending too much upon 
 others. 
 
 Thus it would seem that already even foreigners in China 
 were forgetting the murder of the Wangs and once more 
 were reposing confidence in Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Soon after this occurred the murder of the interpreter 
 Margary. It might be thought that a crime committed in far 
 away Yunnan could not possibly concern Li Hung-chang, 
 Viceroy of Chihli and superintendent of trade in the Northern 
 Provinces. But although Sir Thomas Wade, the British 
 Minister, had just received expressions of gratitude from 
 Prince Kung and his colleagues, for his mediation for them 
 with the Japanese, yet, when he decided to send Mr. 
 Grosvenor from the British Legation to Yunnan to inquire 
 into this murder, they contented themselves with desiring 
 Li Hung-chang to appoint an officer to accompany him. 
 Dilatoriness was the order of the day. The man selected by 
 Li was of such low rank, that pressure had to be brought to 
 bear on the Viceroy, who at length replaced him by his own 
 brother, Li Han-chang. The latter then so delayed that, 
 though Sir Thomas Wade left Peking for Shanghai, so as to 
 telegraph home more conveniently, and Mr. Grosvenor started 
 up the Yangtse, yet the latter returned to his chief and Sir 
 Thomas to Tientsin, without having arranged anything. At 
 Tientsin, of course, Sir Thomas found Li only too ready to 
 enter into negotiations with him, as he had been with the 
 Japanese Commissioner. Sir Thomas Wade succumbed, and 
 
100 . LI HUNG - CBANa. 
 
 talked over the whole business, beginning with the very 
 unsatisfactory conduct of Li's brother, and laying down five 
 demands, which must, he urged, be granted by the Chinese 
 Government in the first place. Li was liberal of assurances 
 that he would urge his brother to lose no more time in setting 
 out for Yunnan, and also that he would advise the Tsungli 
 Yamgn, or Chinese Board of Foreign Affairs, to receive Sir 
 Thomas Wade's proposals favourably. The Yamen, however, 
 in the first instance, stood upon their dignity, declaring it to 
 be contrary to custom for Chinese officials, not charged with the 
 management of foreign affairs, to meddle with them; and 
 they objected to Li's having held intercourse with a foreign 
 Minister accredited to Peking. They also objected to send- 
 ing an envoy to England, as Sir Thomas wished, saying the 
 matter had been for some time under discussion, and "no 
 suitable persons being forthcoming for the moment, it had 
 been impossible to carry it into immediate execution." 
 
 Sir Thomas Wade was just about to return to Peking 
 when Li persuaded him to wait a few days, declaring he had 
 received a copy of a decree instructing him and another 
 official to confer with the British Minister. In a few days the 
 decree arrived, not couched in the usual language of the 
 Peking Gazette, but saying simply : " Let Li Hung-chang and 
 Ting Jih-ch'ang negotiate respecting the Margary affair with 
 the British Minister, Mr. Wade, at Tientsin, as he is on the 
 spot, with a view to satisfactory results." A dispatch from 
 Prince Kung also stated that Mr. Wade " can without hesita- 
 tion confer and take action with their excellencies Li and 
 Ting." Li seems to have been most agreeable, but whatever 
 he promised the Yamen refused to endorse; one of the 
 Assistant Grand Secretaries saying " that it did not follow 
 that what His Excellency, Li, might guarantee at Tientsin 
 was to be given effect to at Peking." 
 
 The worst feature in the whole business was that Tsen, 
 Governor of Yunnan, and thus naturally one of the accused 
 parties, was appointed to help Li Hung-chang in his in- 
 vestigations. Tsgn, whose son has been made Viceroy of 
 Szechuan and Canton successively, as being one of the very 
 
DIPLOMATIC MXFEBIENCES. 101 
 
 few men in the Empire adequately fitted to cope with rebel- 
 lion, was one of the aboriginal race of Kwangsi, perhaps the 
 source of the Chinese people, and had acquired great reputa- 
 tion by his method of suppressing the Mahomedan re- 
 beUion in Yunnan. " To save the trouble of burying many 
 thousands of old people and children he had them buried in 
 the Tali Lake." The Military Governor in after life used to 
 say it was not really 10,000 but 3,000 that were treated after 
 this fashion — the same which the Russians under General 
 Gribsky employed along the Amur in 1900. When at the 
 time the Military Governor remonstrated, saying that such 
 severity was contrary to Tao Li (good principle), TsSn, the 
 Governor, had replied : " You have nothing to do with Tao Li 
 (good principles) ; you have only to do with the Lii Li (the 
 penal code)." It was this man who now had to investigate 
 a crime committed under his own jurisdiction, and for 
 which, in accordance with Chinese custom, he should himself 
 have been held responsible. From the Governor-General 
 downwards officials are each and all individually and collec- 
 tively held responsible for all that may happen in the limits of 
 their jurisdiction. Sir Thomas Wade decided that the Governor 
 had instigated the murder, and demanded that he should be 
 brought for trial to Peking. The Peking Government refused 
 to listen, and at last produced a report from the Governor- 
 General himself, making out, after the usual Chinese fashion, 
 that certain of his subordinates, whom he seemed ready to 
 give up, were the culprits. Sir Thomas Wade threatened to 
 haul down his flag if such a misleading report were published. 
 Sir Thomas had abeady seen that Li had been trying all 
 the while to fool him — it can hardly be expressed otherwise — 
 for not only had LL made promises, that had been at once 
 repudiated by the Yamen, but at his suggestion, as was 
 generally understood, a man called Sieh had been appointed 
 to help his brother Li Han-chang. Now this man, years 
 before, when the conflict between Li and Burgevine had been 
 at its height, had been sent to Peking by Li to represent 
 his views, and had been by Sir Frederick Bruce denounced 
 as an enemy to foreigners and a confirmed mischief-maker. 
 
102 LI HUNG • CHANG. 
 
 And so aware were tlie Chinese governors of tlie British 
 objection to him, that they did not even insert the decree 
 appointing Sieh in the Peking Gazette till six months 
 afterwards. 
 
 The Chinese particularly excel in entangling people in 
 eompUcated negotiations, and to quote from Dr. Michie, " the 
 British Minister became entangled in a cat's cradle of negotia- 
 tions for the revision of the treaty of Tientsin, with which the 
 Yunnan outrage got so mixed up that the different questions 
 never could be, or at any rate never were, separated 
 again." The great question to the Chinese mind i^as, 
 would the English fight if no reparation were offered? 
 " Prince Kung, when he realised that the British Minister had 
 actually left the capital suddenly, became serious, and sent 
 after him to say there had been a misunderstanding." He 
 took counsel with Mr. (now Sir) Robert Hart as to what were 
 really the intentions of the English, and after the Grand 
 Secretary, Li, had failed to detain Sir Thomas Wadia at 
 Tientsin, Mr. Hart, Inspector General of Chinese Maritime 
 Customs, Avas sent after him to Shanghai, "ostensibly to 
 discuss the commercial question, but really to induce the 
 British Minister to re-enter the arena of negotiation, in which 
 the Chinese felt themselves safe ; " Li Hung-chang being 
 appointed High Commissioner. 
 
 Thus the personnel of the piece was unaltered, only the 
 scene being shifted ; Wade himself having selected Chefoo, 
 that favourite summer sea resort, as the place of meeting, for 
 which it was specially suited, in August and September. 
 For some reason or other, the Ministers of no less than seven 
 foreign Powers found themselves assembled in 1876 at this 
 usually quiet summer resort, in addition to two British 
 admirals. The occasion led to much interchange of visits, 
 both afloat and ashore; and to the clever Li occurred the 
 happy idea of uniting the entire diplomatic body at a 
 banquet given at his temporary lodging-place, the Swatow 
 Guildhouse, on Aug. 30th. Owing to the limited nature 
 of the accommodation, the number of the European 
 guests was strictly confined to the members of the 
 
DIPLOMATIC EXPBBIENCES. 103 
 
 diplomatic circle and the two British admirals. The 
 entertainment consisted of a dinner in both Chinese and 
 European styles, in alternate courses ; and the company was 
 composed of the following fifteen individuals, viz.:— Sir 
 Thomas Wade, the Ministers of Russia, Germany, the United 
 States, France, Spain, and Austria, Vice- Admiral Ryder, Rear- 
 Admiral Lambert, R.N., the Secretary of the Spanish Legation, 
 and Mr. F. Mayers (Chinese Secretary of the British Lega- 
 tion), together with Li Hung-chang as host, and the Chinese 
 Envoy-Designate to Great Britain (Hsu Ch'ien-shen), and two 
 other Chinese. 
 
 The banquet was very magnificent, and towards its close it 
 became understood that Li was prepared to propose a toast in 
 the foreign fashion. A short speech, which he had himself 
 drafted in Chinese, had been translated into English, and was 
 read to the assembled company by Mr. Tong King- sing : — 
 
 I now wish to thank my guests for the honour and the pleasure 
 they have conferred upon me in assembling to partake of this poor 
 repast. 
 
 I have heretofore enjoyed the gratification of meeting from time 
 to time most of my guests now present, but I have met them singly 
 at different places. The increased pleasure of meeting them collect- 
 ively, and enjoying a few hours of pleasant intercourse free from 
 the restraints of public business, has been denied me until this time. 
 
 Here, at this port of Yen-tai, beautiful scenery delights the eye 
 and cool breezes give health to the body ; it is fitting, therefore, 
 that our minds should be in harmony with the beauties of Nature, 
 cultivating friendship and sincerity as being the noblest traits of 
 human character. 
 
 And applying the same principle to our official duties, I sincerely 
 hope that the nations here represented may always dwell in peace 
 and Mendship with each other, like brothers living together; for 
 an ancient sage of China has said that " aU within the four seas are 
 brothers." 
 
 I therefore propose this sentiment, as coupled with the health of 
 the distinguished guests who grace my table. 
 
 The speech cannot be considered a bad one, though it 
 does not equal those Sir Chih Chew Lo Feng Lu was in 
 
104 LI SUNG -CHANG. 
 
 the habit of delivering for Li during his quasi-Imperial 
 progress round the world; and is more noticeably Chinese 
 in sentiment with its reference to the beauties of nature as 
 predisposing men to cultivate friendship and sincerity. Are 
 these the two noblest traits of human character ? It always 
 appears as if Chinese placed friendship far higher than we 
 do ; they are more definite as to its duties. " What are 
 the duties of a friend ? " I once asked a Chinese Secretary 
 of Legation, and he replied off-hand : " Why to stand by 
 his friend in adversity, and to admonish him if he be tempted 
 to act amiss." It will be noticed also that Li, like so many 
 foreigners since, quoted the Chinese saying, "All within 
 the four seas are brothers." Now, although one sinologue 
 differs from another sinologue, so that it is difficult to affirm 
 anything positively about the Chinese language, yet I have 
 understood that the phrase, " within the four seas," means 
 simply " in China " — which the Chinese generally think com- 
 prises aU the world worth mentioning, the rest consisting 
 merely of wild border tribes, who occasionally rebel and give 
 trouble; so that this fine sentence from the Classics means 
 no more than that all Chinese are brothers, though now 
 Chinese themselves often use it as signifying the brotherhood 
 of all mankind. 
 
 Li's own (official) view of the whole business is presented 
 in his report, as follows : — 
 
 Oct. 5th, 1876. — The writer presents a memorial requesting the 
 issue of a Decree. He would humbly recall the fact that in the 
 sixth moon of the thirteenth year of the reign of T'ung Chi (May — 
 June, 1874), the British Minister residing in Peking proposed 
 to the Yamen of Foreign Affairs, in accordance with precedent, 
 to issue passports duly sealed, under which an official mission from 
 India might enter Yunnan by way of Burmah, and the Interpreter 
 Margary might be sent to meet it ; also to write letters informing 
 the provincial Governments along the line, as well as to the 
 Governor-General and Governor of Yunnan. 
 
 It was in course of time stated by the British Minister that, 
 in January, 1875, the Interpreter Margary had reached Bhamo in 
 Burma, and, having there met Colonel Browne and the rest of the 
 
DIPLOMATIC EXPEBIENCES. 105 
 
 party sent from India, was returning through the Yunnan country, 
 when on the "2 1st February, 1875, he, the Interpreter Margary, 
 was murdered at Man-wyne, a place which he had reached in the 
 jurisdiction of Momein. On the 22nd February, Colonel Browne 
 and the rest were attacked and driven back by an armed force. 
 
 In the 5th moon of the same year, your Majesties despatched 
 la Han-chang, Governor-General of Hu Kuang, to make inquiry 
 and take action, and the ex- Vice-president Sieh Huan was sent to 
 act with him. The British Minister at the same time sent 
 Grosvenor, Secretary of Legation, with other officers, whom he 
 had selected, that they might be present at the investigation. 
 
 In March, 1876, Li Han-chang and his colleague, having com- 
 pleted their inquiry, reported to the effect that the murder of the 
 Interpreter Margary was the act of savages, who had demanded 
 blackmail of him * j that he had refused to pay it, and had been 
 killed by them in consequence ; and that it was at the instigation 
 of Li Chen-kuo, the military officer (a major) at Nan-tien, since 
 cashiered, that his fellow-travellers had been stopped. The case 
 being one affecting foreign relations, they (the Commissioners) 
 did not think it well to take on themselves to award a sentence, 
 and they prayed your Majesties to instruct the Tsungli Yam^n 
 to confer with the Board of Punishment and to report their joint 
 opinion. Your Majesties having been pleased to signify approval 
 of this course, a copy of the Decree, reverently made, was com- 
 municated by the Tsungli Yam^n to the British Minister, to 
 whom were also forwarded copies of the memorial of Li Han-chang 
 and his colleague, with copies of depositions and letters. And 
 whereas the depositions of Li Chen-kuo, now cashiered, and the 
 other prisoners, supplied trustworthy evidence against them, the 
 proper course would have been to award such penalty as, after 
 reference to the laws of China, the prisoners should be found 
 severally to deserve. The British Minister, however, has handed 
 in a memorandum prepared by him, in which he states that having 
 carefully considered the report of the secretary, Grosvenor, and 
 those with him, he is of opinion that, although, by the laws of 
 China, there might be ground sufficient for the conviction of Li 
 Chen-kuo and the others whom Li Han-chang and his colleague 
 have pronounced on the depositions and other evidence before them, 
 to be the principals in this case, the prisoners, if the evidence were 
 
 * This was a pure invention. 
 
106 LI HUNQ- CHANG. 
 
 tested by the laws of England, would not, in his belief, be held to 
 have been justly convicted ; that the punishment of the persons 
 above mentioned, consequently, so far from being regarded as 
 acceptable in England, would, on the contrary, but too probably 
 excite mistrust and apprehension. The persons murdered and 
 driven back in this case (the British Minister observes) were British 
 officers, and inasmuch as Western civilisation teaches that punish- 
 ment of the past is not of so great consequence as security for the 
 future, he urges that the parties in this case now awaiting sentence 
 be not punished. 
 
 Your servant, having, in obedience to your Majesty's decree, 
 repaired to Yen-t'ai to confer with the British Minister, would 
 submit that, as the laws of China and the West diflEer from each 
 other, and as there is a corresponding difference between their modes 
 of proceeding, the sentences that would otherwise have been passed 
 should be modified so as to meet the exigencies of the case. Chiang 
 Tsung-han, general of the division of Teng-yueh, T'ing (Momein), and 
 Wu-ch'i-liang, sub-prefect of that jurisdiction, have already been 
 cashiered. They need not therefore be taken farther account of. 
 As regards Li Chen-kuo, the major cashiered, with Erh T'ung Wu, 
 La Tu, and the others, eleven in number, if there be no impropriety 
 in the request, the memorialist would respectfully pray your 
 Gracious Majesties, as an exceptional instance of humanity beyond 
 the prescription of the law, to deign to accord the request of the 
 British Minister, and as an act of indulgence to consider the 
 possibility of granting remission of their sentences. Prostrate he 
 awaits the decision of your Sacred Majesties. 
 
 He reflects at the same time that by the murder of the 
 Interpreter Margary, he being an officer sent on a mission by a 
 friendly Power, and provided with a passport, and by the repulse 
 of the officers with him, a wound could not fail to have been 
 inflicted upon the relations of amity existing between the two 
 countries; while with the deep interest taken by your Majesties 
 in foreign relations your Majesties cannot but have felt deeply 
 concerned thereat. He proposes accordingly to request your 
 Majesties to issue for publication in the capital and the provinces 
 a Decree, the promulgation of which may dissipate misgiving in 
 the public mind. 
 
 China and other nations having long since made treaties with 
 each other, religious observance of which is equally incumbent on 
 
DIPLOMATIC BXPEBIENCES. 107 
 
 both sides, the Tsungli Yamen in the 9th moon of last year 
 presented a memorial praying for a more perfect exposition of the 
 provisions of the treaties ; and a circular was written by it to the 
 provincial governments reminding them of the provision under 
 ■which foreigners travelling with passports are entitled to protection, 
 and enjoining on them a special attention to the meaning of the 
 treaties in this regard, and the duty of action in conformity there- 
 with, as differing circumstances might require. And it is the 
 writer's duty to request that a Decree may now be issued directing 
 the governor-general and governors to obey with awe your Majesties' 
 Decree of the 9th October, 1875, and once more to issue strict 
 orders to their subordinates with reverence to second the desire of 
 the Government to keep on terms of amity with friendly States, 
 and to remember that whenever a foreigner is travelling in the 
 interior with a passport, they must act towards him in respect of 
 his treaty right, as the treaty requires; that he must be duly 
 protected ; that if any serious harm befall him in consequence of 
 their omission to take proper precaution, the authorities of the 
 province concerned will be held responsible j that in every pre- 
 fecture, sub-prefecture, and district, proclamations are to be posted, 
 so that every household may know the relation in which the Chinese 
 and foreigners stand to each other. This done, misunderstandings 
 will be certain not to occur; should your Majesties honour the 
 above proposition with your approval, it will be for the Tsungli 
 YamSn to draft the proclamation that is to be sent to the provincial 
 Governments for their guidance. Whether the course suggested in 
 this memorial for the termination of the Yunnan affair be worthy of 
 adoption or not, the writer humbly beseeches their Majesties the 
 Empresses Dowager and the Emperor, when they shall have perused 
 it, to signify. 
 
 Thus, according to Li, the guilt " of notoriously innocent 
 parties was assumed but their pardon granted," on the ground 
 that the evidence against them would not convict them 
 according to British law, whereas all that Li was seeking was 
 to screen the redoubtable Tsen, Governor of Yunnan, and the 
 other high officials implicated. In order to carry his point he 
 tried Sir Thomas Wade's plan of going away ; to secure the 
 signature of the Convention, it proved only necessary for Li 
 to threaten that he would leave Chefoo on a certain day 
 
108 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 ■vvhetlier it were signed or not. So the Chefoo convention 
 was signed, extending the area of internal taxation, preparing 
 for an increase in the opium revenue, opening certain new 
 ports, and embodying a very remarkable arrangement about 
 Chungking, the great commercial centre of the rich west of 
 China : " The British Government will further be free to send 
 officers to reside at Chungking to watch the conditions of 
 British trade in Szechuan. British merchants will not be 
 allowed to reside at Chungking, or to open establishments 
 or warehouses there, so long as no steamers have access 
 to the port. When steamers have succeeded in ascending 
 the river so far, further arrangements can be taken into 
 consideration." 
 
 This was signed on September 13th,1876,and I little thought 
 how much of my own life was to revolve round and round and 
 in and out of these surely most unnecessarily involved phrases 
 drawn up by Sir Thomas Wade and Li Hung-chang ! It is 
 believed that the idea in Sir Thomas's mind was that his 
 compatriots were recklessly enterprising, and that if they went 
 and resided at Chungking, 1,500 miles up the river Yangtse, 
 they might get all massacred or otherwise ill used ; whereby 
 Great Britain might find itself entangled into sending an 
 expeditionary force through the far-famed Yangtse gorges. At 
 the same time he did not like to preclude his countrymen 
 from ever trading there, so he made the proviso that when 
 steamers had access to the port, British merchants might also 
 have it. We are to see these clauses again modified later ; the 
 Port of Chungking being proclaimed open, and British 
 steamers expressly shut out. What idea prompted that 
 arrangement I have never heard from anyone. The French 
 saying is : " II faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermee," but 
 somehow the British Foreign Office in after years thought it 
 possible for Chungking port to be both open and shut at the 
 same time. 
 
 Thus did Sir Thomas Wade accept money for the 
 murder of Margary — 200,000 taels — and do many other things 
 it would seem as if he had better not have done. But it 
 must be remembered that he had consented to treat with Li, as 
 the Japanese had steadfastly refused to do, and that Li had 
 
DIPLOMATIC EXPEBIENCES. 109 
 
 the benefit of Sir Robert Hart's advice and help. Nor do 
 we know how far the ministers of other Powers, so many 
 of whom happened to be at Chefoo at this time, may have 
 assisted him also. Remarkable at all events was Li's 
 ingenuity in making it appear that the whole matter was 
 one of the British begging the Chinese not to punish 
 certain people whom British law did not consider quite 
 rightly condenmed, and of the Chinese issuing a declaration 
 of religious toleration ; which last, the first apparently spon- 
 taneous manifesto of the kind ever issued by the always 
 tolerant, non-persecuting Chinese, excited some stir at the 
 time in Peking. 
 
 It is noticeable, also, that the two Englishmen who have 
 longest retained the confidence of their Chinese employers. 
 Sir Robert Hart and Sir HaUiday Macartney, are both men of 
 very calm, somewhat reticent character, men who could not 
 be moved to hasty anger and impatient words, and that both 
 Gordon and Sir Thomas Wade were emphatically of the 
 opposite type. The Chinese have always a great dislike to 
 people who show " ch'i," a term, perhaps, better Englished 
 as excitability than anger. This is often believed to be 
 part of the objection of domestics to serving mistresses 
 instead of masters. 
 
 Anyway, it is impossible to read the account of this Chefoo 
 convention and not be struck by the resemblance between 
 Li, at the age of 54, when he may be said to have been 
 at his very best, and Bismarck; Li's enjoyment of life, his 
 brusque geniality, his impressive personaUty, his absolute 
 freedom from scruples, and his astute wariness as to carrying 
 his own ends, all recalling the great German statesman. So 
 far untainted by intercourse with European promoters, Li 
 at this period of his career may surely be considered a great 
 Chinese statesman. The secretary of the Navy League, then 
 a midshipman on Admiral Ryder's ship, remembers vividly 
 the impression Li created when he came on board the Flag- 
 ship with two hundred official followers ; his majestic height, 
 his dignified bearing, his piercing eyes that seemed to see 
 everything at once, all combining to make an ineffaceable 
 impression. 
 
no 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHANG CHIH-TUNG, THE INCORRUPTIBLE. 
 
 It was about this time (that is to say, 1876), that a rival ot 
 Li Hung-chang, a very noteworthy person, began to attract 
 public attention. 
 
 Chang Chih-tung is a man of very different calibre from 
 Li ; as remarkable for his small size as Li for his great stature, 
 as noted for his incorruptibility as Li for his aivarice. Chang 
 Chih-tung is a far greater scholar than Li, though the latter 
 was by Chinese esteemed for his learning. But Chang Chih- 
 tung's literary style is considered the finest in the Empire 
 unless with the solitary exception of that of Liang, the 
 Reformer, for some years the editor ol Chinese Progress, 
 whose style displays so classical a finish that the Chinese 
 often shed tears over his compositions simply from admir- 
 ation of their beauty. Chang Chih-tung is probably more 
 respected by that very important body the Literati of China 
 than any other man ; and his relations seem to be generally 
 men of leatning like himself — men who will not take bribes, 
 and are consequently disliked by other officials unable to 
 emulate an example of such purity, but who are all esteemed 
 though possibly dreaded in their respective spheres. 
 
 Mr. Michie has said that his many fantastic schemes 
 "would in any Western country have relegated their author 
 to the custody of the Commissioners of Lunacy." And he in- 
 stances Chang Chih-tung's scheme " to prevent foreign ships 
 from entering the Gulf of Pecheli by sinking tiers of junks 
 between Shantung and Talien-wan"; and his plan for catching 
 the Japanese soldiers " in a gigantic locust trap, consisting of 
 a deep trench to be dug at their landing place." But Mr. 
 
CHANG CHIH-TUNG, THE INCORRUPTIBLE. Ill 
 
 Micliie seems, in this instance, hardly to have remembered 
 the schemes which really have been made use of successfully 
 by Chinese in their internal warfare ; as, for instance, that of 
 Chu Ko-liang, who, being short of arrows, piled up bundles of 
 straw on boats, and let them drift slowly past the enemy's 
 troops. Underneath, a few soldiers were sheltered, beating 
 drums assiduously. Consequently the enemy so energetically 
 pelted them with arrows, which stuck comfortably in the 
 straw, that Chu Ko-liang was soon plentifully suppUed again. 
 Again, on the Upper Yangtse, Meng Liang cut square holes, 
 still to be seen, on the surface of one of the most precipitous 
 chffs in the Yangtse Gorges, and fixing the ends of beams in 
 them led his army up the flight of steps thus constructed 
 in the face of an inaccessible cliff; so in the night 
 surprising the enemy's army, comfortably encamped at the 
 top, fearing no danger. This flight of steps is to this day 
 called Meng Liang's ladder. Chinese history teems with 
 instances of the kind, and it cannot be thought unnatural 
 that Chang Chih-tung, no soldier but an erudite scholar, 
 should at first have thought that such expedients, which had 
 succeeded brilliantly in the past, might suit the present 
 age. Mr. Michie admits that Chang Chih-tung's much 
 ridiculed ironworks at Hanyang have produced iron used 
 for making rails. He might have added that Chang Chih- 
 tung's clothworks have turned out admirable calico, and that 
 he alone of Chinese viceroys made a carriage road through 
 his city whilst at Nanking, thus introducing carriages and 
 jinrickshas there. He has also introduced jinrickshas into 
 Wuchang, when moved to that viceroyalty, and has 
 established innumerable colleges of agriculture and the 
 like; a record so far unique among those of Chinese 
 viceroys, and fairly good for a man supposed not to be 
 practical 
 
 In 1876 Chang Chih-tung was only literary Chancellor in 
 Szechuan, and the memorial that first brought him into 
 notice is so remarkable, I think it well to give it here in 
 its entirety. It will make the reader better appreciate 
 the intense dishke and contempt entertained by Chinese 
 
112 XI HUNG - CSANG. 
 
 for foreigners, and better enable him to understand what 
 a man like Li had to overcome in himself and contend 
 against in others. With the alteration of a word or two, the 
 translation is by Mr. Clement Allen, late Consul-General, and 
 a great Chinese scholar. Wherever I can I seek to give the 
 original writings of Chinese, reproducing their turns of 
 thought as the best indications of their character, but am 
 always indebted for the translations to the North China 
 Herald. 
 
 Your servant, Chang Ohih-tung, presents this memorial on his 
 knees. Your servant has always heard that Chinese and barbarians 
 cannot exist in the same spot, and that no part of your Majesty's 
 realm can be properly shared with others. He, therefore, begs the 
 Government will not forget its former injuries, and that the disgrace 
 inflicted by feudatories may be washed out. We must assent to the 
 will of Heaven above, and conform to the wishes of men on earth 
 below, but the Government should assert the majesty of its warlike 
 might, in order to drive away the hordes of fierce and cruel men. 
 We know that the dispositions of these outer barbarians are as ravenous 
 as those of wolves. They manufacture opium, which they exchange 
 for our useful silver and gold, that they may fill up their bottomless 
 abysses with it. This opium drives away all feeling of shame among 
 the black-haired race, and ruins the energies of our soldiers and 
 their ofiicers. The late Emperor, well knowing the malignity and 
 wickedness of foreigners, and furious and terribly indignant 
 thereat, ordered his high military officials to go to the Pearl river. 
 They burnt the opium, and detained the ships of the barbarians. 
 There was good reason for the employment of this military force. Who 
 was not delighted, or who f aUed to express his admiration 1 How- 
 ever, Keshen proved to be a man of no resource, and he was mad 
 enough to enter into an armistice with them, to the injury and 
 disgrace of the military commanders ; on his own responsibility he 
 cut ofi" a slice of territory, and sold the commanding position of Tiger 
 Island, which formed a natural protection, and thus these robbers 
 became outrageous. Their demands became more and more in- 
 satiable. Again and again they brought out their murderous and 
 savage soldiery. They took Hongkong, and laid hands on Nanking. 
 They enticed a general there, and had him killed before them as they 
 feasted. 
 
CHANG OEIR-TUNG, THE INOORBUPTIBLE. 113 
 
 Possibly some of the stories we believe of Chinese are no 
 truer than this: — 
 
 They pounced upon a high commissioner (Yeh Ming Ch'eng) and 
 carried him off to a foreign country. Their crimes and offences are 
 notorious. The case is one that cannot be expiated even by death. 
 Notwithstanding this, the late Emperor made a treaty of peace with 
 them, and consented to their proposals for commercial intercourse, 
 which shows the vast benevolence of our great Government. Your 
 servant, turning to former memorials on these subjects, sighs to 
 think of the mistakes which were committed in that one moment. 
 After this the flame of rebellion [literally smoke and miasma], 
 sprang up on all sides in China, and the barbarians on this enter- 
 tained yet viler schemes than before. They fomented strife and 
 turned their backs on treaties. They came to a seaport (Tientsin), 
 and we turned our sailors into fighting men ; but the barbarians, 
 once more lucky beyond their deserts, crossed by land. Fortunately 
 we had San-ko-lin-sin, who was thoroughly acquainted with 
 strategy, and who advanced boldly. He devised plans for driving 
 them back to their own country. He placed good soldiers iii 
 ambush to protect the stations on the coast. If we could have had 
 the luck to have once met in arms success must have followed, and 
 the barbarians would have lost courage. Who could have foreseen 
 that two camps would have caught fire, and that our troops would 
 have been routed 1 The barbarians thereupon swarmed in every- 
 where, like moths or ants, and crept out here and there like so many 
 frogs and insects. They suddenly forced their way past our stations 
 and invaded our sacred demesnes ; they burnt our pleasure gardens, 
 and spied out our cities and country places. The (very) rivers and 
 hills changed colour. The Imperial chariot was forced to leave. The 
 light of the stars paled. The Emperor retreated on his charger. 
 This surely is an injury which will not admit of our both existing 
 under the same skies. The Emperor and his Ministers cannot forget 
 this in a moment. 
 
 Now, again, the barbarians want people to believe in them, and 
 to make further compacts, that they may entice persons into their 
 depraved faith. They set up stations and erect buildings, in which 
 they place handsome platforms [altars or pulpits], and make use of 
 magic arts to entrap men. An awe-inspiring government submitsi 
 to a barbarous nation. Your servant grieves day and night 
 I 
 
114 LI HUN6-CHANG. 
 
 thinking over the vast internal injury to his country, which must 
 mainly be caused by such ignorant and foolish persons. As good 
 luck would have it, they have lately been guilty of the crime 
 of kidnapping men, and of the sin of injuring the people. The 
 awful indignation of heaven has been excited, and the people 
 disturbed, so that they have pulled down the churches and driven 
 away their congregation. 
 
 If the Government will take advantage of this opportunity, 
 while the hearts of the people are inflamed, they should send ofiScial 
 circulars in all directions, informing everyone of the evil propensities 
 of foreigners, that the indignation of all may be aroused, and 
 that those who have been deluded astray may be overawed. Let the 
 High Provincial authorities be instructed to burn all foreign 
 churches, and lead on the people to exterminate this wicked brood. 
 This would have the effect, on the one hand, of removing the 
 objects of the two late Emperors' hatred, and, on the other, 
 of educating the minds of the populace. There is no doubt this 
 question affects our prosperity or ruin. We must not, therefore, 
 miss the opportunity. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the oflScials are stupid enough to unite in 
 making amicable advances, so that the Government gives its 
 consent, and nobody ventures to say a word about fighting, then 
 it will follow that the people of China are to blame, and the ofS.cials 
 will have the duty of punishing them. Those who give way to the 
 barbarians will then be meritorious ofiicers, and those who resist 
 and oppose them will all be considered a traitorous set, to the 
 destruction of the good reputation of China, and to the furtherance 
 of the malicious designs of these veritable birds and beasts. Your 
 servant fears that the wicked men will thus grow more and more 
 numerous every day, and that honest Ministers will all be driven away. 
 This will not only compel the people to join depraved sects, but will 
 be tantamount to taking the Imperial revenues and letting bar- 
 barians use them for the support of their religious ideas, which 
 would indeed be a pitiable proceeding. 
 
 Your servant has been a student ever since his queue was first 
 plaited, and although he is not deeply read, he would request 
 that the following examples of evil resulting from conceding treaties 
 of peace may be laid before the Government : — 
 
 In the time of Yuan Ti, of the Han dynasty (b.c. 48), the 
 Hsiung-nu invaded and ravaged the country. The Government 
 
CEANQ GHIH-TUNG, THE TNGOBBUFTIBLE. 115 
 
 just at that time had plenty of soldiers and a sufficiency of 
 provisions. Still, they would not heed the good counsels of Chao 
 Chien, but listened to the evil designs of Wen Hsiang, and, to 
 begin with, gave the Emperor's daughter, Shou Yang, in marriage 
 to the invader. After that the Emperor's concubine, "Wang Chiang, 
 went over to the enemy; but, nevertheless, after a lapse of a few 
 years, the Capital was once more plundered by him. 
 
 In the times of the Emperors Huei Tsung and Chin Tsung, of 
 the Sung dynasty (a.d. 1101-1126), the inhabitants of Chin in- 
 vaded and ravaged the country. The Government at that time 
 had plenty of soldiers and quantities of officers, nevertheless they 
 would not listen to the good advice of Yo Fei, but yielded to the 
 evil designs of Chin Kuei, and in the first place gave pearls and 
 precious stones to sue for peace, and afterwards presented the enemy 
 with land and property to keep him quiet. But before many years 
 had elapsed, the Emperor wanted a piece of ground left to him, and 
 he could not get it. Again, among the barbarous countries beyond 
 sea, there is Cochin-China to the north and Laos to the south. The 
 former made a treaty and became a dependent state ; the latter 
 would make no treaty, and remains independent. A thorough 
 examination of all ancient instances shows them to be all of the 
 same pattern ; why should not our Government take warning by 
 them] 
 
 There exist at present seven reasons why we should decide on 
 going to war : — 
 
 1. Foreigners can only fight with success in the summer. We 
 can fight during any of the four seasons, so we have the weather on 
 our side. 
 
 2. They can only fight with success at sea. We can defend 
 the land. The land, therefore, is an element on which we can rely,, 
 
 3. They excite the anger of the people. We satisfy the people's 
 minds. We can reckon on the goodwill of the people. 
 
 4. Besides, they live in an outside state. We live in the Central 
 nation. Are we not a match for them in numbers 1 
 
 5. They believe in Jesus, we in Confucius and Mencius. These 
 faiths difier as truth and falsehood. 
 
 6. They have to find rations. We have our supply of pro- 
 visions. This makes all the diflference between strength and weak- 
 ness. 
 
 7. They come from a long way ofi", and suflier accordingly from. 
 
116 II HUNG-CHANG. 
 
 many infirmities. We are safe at home, and so are not afflicted at 
 all, and can therefore wait till they are exhausted. 
 
 Their plans are drawn up jointly by the two countries (England 
 and Prance). Our soldiers and people form one family. United 
 we may count on victory. Reason demands we should go to war ; 
 circumstances admit of our so doLag. Consider these seven reasons ; 
 there is not a single woman or child who cannot appreciate them. 
 
 Now, the Ministers whom we have are men full of learning, 
 and our literati have a universal reputation as clear-minded 
 scholars ; should they all give a unanimous vote for peace, your 
 servant, alas ! can guess the reason. It is that they, knowing the 
 tender age of your Majesty, and the feeble and embarrassed state 
 in which the soldiers and people are, and acquainted with the over- 
 bearing fierceness of our enemies, would preserve themselves and 
 their families in peace and quietness ; and so in their carelessness, 
 they would pass their days in a security to which they have no right. 
 They say, too, " wait a while for a better opportunity later on," 
 not knowing that every day on which a concession is made to 
 enemies brings trouble on many future generations. 
 
 This sentence of Chang Chih-tung's might -well be taken 
 to heart by England. Its non-observance may yet cause a 
 terrible European war to take its origin in China. 
 
 Unless something is done at once, our country's vital strength 
 [literally, blood and breath] will become more and more exhausted 
 every day, while their powers of mischief [literally, teeth and claws} 
 will increase in the same ratio. When the roots of a tree have 
 spread deep into the ground, how can one shake it 1 Your servant 
 would pray the Government and the Ministers of State to exert 
 their energies, and at once instruct (the inhabitants of all) the 
 villages that each village is to take care of its important posts, and 
 at the same time to order that the batteries on the sea are to be 
 repaired, to prevent the barbarians' ships passing. We shall then 
 see signs of streng-th like teams of horses, and marks of power like 
 hills and rivers. The foolish and idle classes will be exterminated, 
 and the sun and moon once more shine in their glory. Magical and 
 strange practices will be done away with, and disgrace and meanness 
 will be swept out of heaven and earth. The mind of Heaven will 
 thus be pacified, and the desire of men satisfied. The grievances 
 endured by the two Empresses will be removed, and the disgrace to 
 
CSANO OHIH-TUNG, THE INOORUVFTIBLE. 117 
 
 -two reigns will be wiped away. The country and his Majesty s 
 Government will alike enjoy prosperity. 
 
 Your Minister has hereby committed the fault of oversteppijag 
 (the duties of) his office. But even though he should be punished for 
 «o doing, he \nl\ not complain. 
 
 In view of this memorial it is not surprising that Chang 
 Chih-tung's hatred of foreigners has long been supposed to 
 exceed that of other Chinese. I remember once on some 
 ■occasion, half ia joke, saying to a Chinese gentleman d propos 
 of some question pending : " I think I really must get an 
 interview with Chang Chih-tung and see him myself. What 
 effect do you think that would have ? " I added, noting his 
 cmrious change of expression. " Oh, it could not make him 
 hate foreigners more than he does now," stammered the 
 other, then felt he had hardly said quite the right thing, and 
 subsided into sUence. 
 
 Nevertheless, Chang Chih-tung was in 1900 one of the two 
 Yangtse viceroys to whom, under Heaven, we Europeans in 
 China owe our lives ; he, the Viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan, 
 joining with Liu K'lm-yi, the Viceroy at Nanking, to make 
 an agreement with Mr. (now Sir Pelham) Warren, our 
 donsul-General, to which agreement the Manchu Viceroy of 
 Szechuan also, after some wavering, decided to adhere ; thus 
 setting at nought the Imperial Edict to " kill us all, and if 
 we attempted to escape to the sea to kiU us straight away." 
 Thus since 1900 we English in China feel ourselves under a 
 ^eat debt of gratitude to Chang Chih-tung, Liu K'un-yi, and 
 Consul-General Pelham Warren ; but even before that we all 
 respected Chang Chih-tung, beheving in his absolute honesty 
 and disinterestedness, in his integrity of purpose and single- 
 minded devotion to his country's welfare. 
 
 Yet there have always been strange stories about him — 
 that he kiUed his wife, for instance, and never afterwards 
 could he down o' nights, being haunted by her ghost. The 
 captain of a river steamer that conveyed him and his suite 
 up the Yangtse to Tchang gave a most peculiar account of 
 this man of smaU frame yet of evidently gigantic spirit; 
 
118 LI HUNG-GEANG 
 
 how he never went to bed nor even lay down, and how, 
 whenever he drowsed off for a few minutes, his attendants 
 stood round and poked pillows under his head to support 
 him, that the fragile frame and overworked brain might at 
 least obtain some moments' rest. Then, waxing furious, the 
 captain related how the gentlemen of the suite tried to take 
 command of the steamer and hurry her on amongst the 
 dangerous quick-sands and shallows, through which he (the 
 captain) was painstakingly and slowly feeling his way ; till at 
 last, in indignation, regardless of all decorum, shouldering 
 obsequious but resisting Chinamen to right and left, he 
 rushed in upon the great little man himself; and how Chang 
 Chih-tung, directly he understood what was the matter, gave 
 orders, in a manner that must be obeyed, that no one should 
 interfere with the captain in the execution of his duties — 
 the speciahst was to be left to his special subject. Then he 
 composed himself to sleep again, after the fashion of a man 
 accustomed to govern provinces and imagine ideal worlds, 
 which yet he strove to realise, catching sleep the while when 
 he could. " In Gcelo quies," let us hope, is his motto, and 
 that there may at last be peace there for many an overtaxed 
 Chinese mandarin who, in much bewilderment, somewhat 
 blindly strives to do his duty with an usurping Empress, a. 
 deposed Emperor, and eight nations knocking at the gates to 
 extort from a long-suffering and too often starving peasantry 
 compensation for their rulers' wickedness. " Beware the fury 
 of a patient man," We may yet see worse deeds than those 
 of 1900. 
 
119 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THINGS DOMESTIC (1877—1881). 
 
 It was doubtless due to Li's diplomatic experiences that, 
 during the comparatively uneventful years which followed 
 the Chefoo coronation, we find him coming forward to suggest 
 the establishment of an Institution for the study of Foreign 
 Affairs. Someone else suggests that there should be special 
 examinations. The Princes took no notice of either sugges- 
 tion, but in reference to the estabUshment of resident envoys 
 in Japan and the countries of the West, also advocated by 
 Li Hung-chang, Prince Li was of opinion that the measure 
 was an expedient one. The Prince's idea, no doubt, was that 
 the despatch of envoys, and the establishment of institutions 
 with examinations for the study of Foreign Affairs, were two 
 separate questions. " But to wish to carry out a measure 
 without seeking for the material wherewith to put it into 
 execution, or to affirm that the material exists without 
 effectively searching for that required by such a course of 
 procedure, although it may not render the execution of a 
 measure impossible, yet at least makes the execution of it 
 ineffective," said the Tsungli Yamen, or Board of Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 The idea of Li Hung-chang and others was the establish- 
 ment of ten district class examinations in accordance with 
 the precedents set by the Han and Sung Dynasties. Institu- 
 tions for the study of Foreign matters, and the inauguration 
 of a separate system of examination, were measures which 
 could co-exist with the then established examinations without 
 mutual interference — for it was not designed to introduce 
 
120 LI HUN6-CSAN&. 
 
 Foreign subjects into the existing examinations; and, as it 
 was necessary to prepare men for the duties of envoys, the 
 establishment of the above-referred-to colleges or institutions 
 to mould their characters, and of examinations to select 
 them, were measures which should have been undertaken. 
 " The required talent would be collected and stored, and men 
 fitted for posts abroad would be at hand. At the same time, 
 the question was not one to be entered into precipitately, and 
 the procedure required at the moment should be first 
 deliberated upon." The Yamen, therefore, deemed it its duty 
 to beg that the Imperial command be given to the North and 
 South Ministers for Foreign Affairs, as well as to Shen Pao-chen 
 and others, to introduce to the Government any officers whom 
 they might know to possess talent fitting them for employ- 
 ment. Similar orders were also to be given to the Governors 
 and Governors-General of all the provinces. 
 
 Evidently Li was taking the wise view here ; and he seems 
 to have done the same with reference to that (to Chinese) very 
 important subject, the enshrinement of the tablets of the late 
 Emperor and Empress in the Temple of Ancestry. Being called 
 upon as Grand Secretary for a statement of his views, he 
 gave it as his opinion that such systematic rules should be 
 adopted as the times might render desirable, advocating the 
 enlargement of the tablet-shrine. But again in this instance 
 his advice was not followed. Then, however, a truly horrible 
 discovery was made, that in the archive room the strips of 
 paper used in sealing up the doors had fallen off, and both 
 the large and small locks had been tampered with. On 
 inspection being made, it was found that five of the archive 
 presses had been opened, but that nothing was missing 
 beyond 218 of the wrappers enveloping the books within. 
 The Grand Secretaries residing in Peking, and the sub- 
 ordinates directly responsible, submitted themselves for 
 the penalty they incurred through failure to guard against 
 such an occurrence. But it seems that Li Hung-chang, not 
 residing in Peking, was not held responsible. 
 
 In 1878 befel the Great Famine. In April of that year, 
 we find Li, according to the curious custom, requesting that 
 
laiNGS DOMESTIC. 121 
 
 penalties should be inflicted upon himseK for his inabiUty 
 to combat successfully the suffering and want in the Ho-kien 
 ■and other prefectures of his province. 
 
 An Edict, however, declared : — " The Governor-General haa 
 been most zealous and energetic in rendering assistance to 
 Shansi and Honan, and in the face of the present calamity, 
 with festering want so prominently before them, it only 
 remains for the Sovereign and his Ministers mutually to 
 examine into their shortcomings with reverence and fear, and 
 to hope that by amendment of their ways and the cultiva- 
 tion of virtue, the present calamity may be taken away and 
 peace given unto the people. Let Li Hung-chang, then, 
 identify himself with the unceasing care and solicitude 
 "displayed by us, and put forth all his energies in the devising 
 and execution of measures that shall meet actual suffering in a 
 complete and satisfactory manner, and so show himself worthy 
 of the confidence that has been reposed in him. And as a special 
 act of grace, we command that the penalties which Li Hung- 
 chang has requested may be inflicted upon himself shall be 
 remitted." 
 
 In the Provinces of Chihli, Shansi, and Honan, and in parts 
 of Kansuh there was no rain for two years, and the crops failed 
 entirely. The people tried to live upon the leaves and bark 
 of trees, they ate grass, they ate one another, but in the end 
 it was reckoned 9,000,000 died of hunger. The Government 
 did what it could. There is no lack of benevolent intention in 
 China, but there are no available means of transport. Li 
 arranged that all grain from the south should be carried by 
 the China Merchants Company's steamers instead of by junks j 
 but although in this way it arrived earlier, there was still great 
 waste, and many of Li's subordinates were charged with 
 peculation in connection with the purchase and distribution of 
 the grain. At the same time a popular exhortation to charity 
 was widely circulated: — 
 
 Extraordinary is the dearth in the Northern provinces, bitter 
 are the things before our eyes ; in Shansi, in Honan, the drought 
 is terrible^and exceeding great ; in Shensi and Chihli nothing has 
 
122 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 been garnered in ; year after year ttere has been a great drought, 
 the various grains have not been stored away ; the earth is red for 
 three hundred miles round, the green grass cannot grow ; no place 
 is there to find things for satisfying hunger; the roots and grass 
 and bark of trees have all been eaten clean off ; hunger presses 
 terrible to endure, it is impossible to sustain life ; human flesh is- 
 much eaten, saddening to the eye and grievous to the heart ; men 
 are sold, women are for sale, but there are none to take them over ; 
 wives are deserted, children abandoned and wander about and afar 
 in all directions ; young people, wives and women, throw themselves. 
 into rivers, giving up their lives ; the old in years, destitute of 
 strength, hang themselves from beams and strangle themselves ; 
 when the bowl is brought with lite-restoring food, they desire to- 
 eat, but are unable. . . . Therefore benevolent men are besought 
 and exhorted to put forth virtuous intentions. Gradually diminish 
 your expenses, the more then can you save from starvation; the- 
 sight of the subscription box should be like that of a man in 
 distress ; find means to bring up the orphan, and by one assistance 
 save a double life [i.e. cause the child to become a man] ; subscribe- 
 and assist with all your power, for to do so surpasses the building 
 of a seven-storied pagoda ; rescue sons and you will have sons ; 
 save the aged and you will add to your own age. 
 
 Do not frequent bad houses ; there in a moment you expend 
 myriads, which you should use for charity, when Heaven will grant 
 you a good name. Do not gamble ; you then lose more than you. 
 can remember, such money you should use for charity, and when 
 you are in distress it will not be too great. Do not eat dainties ; 
 plain food is palatable enough, and great Heaven will repay the 
 debt. Do not overdress ; cloth and cotton are in common use, give 
 value of sUks and satins to charity, and Heaven will repay you 
 ten-fold. Do not smoke opium; do not pay visits of congratula- 
 tion — at marriages and birthdays friends come in crowds, and have 
 to be entertained. You can show your virtue by doing good acts 
 with the money saved from this which you can give in charity. 
 Now is the time of the Dragon festival, and families and house- 
 holds are all enjoying themselves; spread abroad are fish, fleshy 
 and fruits ; use somewhat less and you will suffer no hardship. 
 Take the money so saved, and send it to the chest ; Heaven knows, 
 earth sees, and the spirits will protect you. Certain will you be 
 of honour and protection from Heaven. Do not then let slip 
 this chance for accumulating happiness. 
 
THINGS DOMESTIC. 123^ 
 
 Then the Chinese newspapers began to tell touching^ 
 stories, just as they would with us. This is from the 
 Shen-pao : — 
 
 The Slavk Woman's Mite. — A subscription box has been set up 
 for the Honan famine, and many subscribe with pleasure their tens 
 or hundreds of cash, whilst a few, suffering agonies, contrive t& 
 force open their purses and extract one or two dollars. On the 
 28th June after noon, an old slave woman was seen suddenly t& 
 give 1,000 cash [about 2s.] and hurry off, brushing away her tears. 
 The bystanders, unable to fathom her reasons, imagined she at first 
 threw away her money, and then, sorry she had done so, shed some 
 tears. Some, however, who knew her explained she was a slave, 
 and that this 1,000 cash was two months' wages which she had 
 obtained in advance from her master to buy summer clothes. 
 Seeing the subscription box in the street, she then learnt for the 
 first time, from the passers-by, of the Honan famine, and regretting 
 her means were so slight that she could not, like Too Ling, extend 
 houses, or like Pae Fu, grant attire to the amount of myriads of 
 taels to raise up the miserable from their distress, she had been 
 grieved and wept. On hearing this, all applauded the woman. 
 Now, had the rich men in the Empire the heart of this old woman, 
 the collection of subscriptions and charities for the relief fund 
 would not be so insuperably difficult. 
 
 This other story is, however, far more startling : — 
 
 Mother and Son. — The drought in Honan drives numbers of 
 starving people to send their young wives and daughters to the 
 South for sale, whereby bachelors can purchase wives, or married 
 men without offspring, concubines. Such a custom as this cannot 
 long continue, but the crime lies with the seller, not the buyer. 
 The following most remarkable case occurred, however, to Mr. Chia, 
 of Nanking, on his projected marriage, the like of which has seldom 
 been heard. Mr. Chia was of an old family, but engaged in trade. 
 He had just been capped, being over twenty, but was not yet 
 married, and hearing that several women had arrived for sale, he 
 asked a friend to select one for him. The friend fell in with a 
 woman over thirty, who was willing to marry. Chia, though the 
 lady was of a certain age, agreed, as the price was moderate, and 
 the engagement was made. Chia had inherited some property, but 
 
124 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 the rebellion had spared him alone of all his family. His family 
 house had fortunately not been entirely destroyed, and on his 
 matrimonial matters being settled he put some apartments in a state 
 of repair, and selected a fortunate day for consummating the 
 ceremony. On the bride reaching the house, she began to weep 
 uncontrollably. Mr. Chia tried to console her, but she wept more 
 than ever ; he said, " Though I have no abilities, am not a man of 
 mark, yet I am in trade ; though my house is poor, yet it is an 
 ancestral inheritance ; I have sufficient to clothe and feed us ; you, 
 madam, come of your own free will, I did not compel you, why then 
 do you so weep ? " The lady replied, " I must grieve. After being 
 & wanderer over the face of the earth half its life, the swallow has 
 returned to its old nest and is touched to the heart at what it sees 
 and hears." She was in reality Mr. Ohia's own mother. When 
 sixteen she had married his father and given birth to her child. 
 At the time of the rebellion some soldiers had carried her off, and 
 she had been made to follow the rebels to Honan. Thus mother 
 and son had been parted twenty years, and he no doubt had, when 
 in the cradle, been abandoned. The lady was now really thirty-six, 
 and having followed a, man southwards, she had been selected for 
 marriage by her own son ; thus on entering the house she had been 
 unable to restrain her grief and horror. Mr. Chia was at first 
 incredulous, but his mother said, "I buried with my own hands, 
 behind the house, wine, ingots of silver, and a quantity of cash ; if 
 perchance this has not been moved, it will serve as proof of what 
 I say.'' Mr. Chia agreed, and it turned out true. Mother and son 
 then lived together, and with the newly-found treasure-trove he 
 married another person. From this remarkable story, the secret 
 intention of Providence to bring about this reunion is manifested. 
 
 Thus moralises the Chinese newspaper, and its moralising 
 is perhaps as good as our own. We all are apt to consider 
 the universe as circling round our own small persons. 
 
 In 1881 Li found leisure to pen his views on the opium 
 traffic, in reply to a communication from the Secretary of the 
 Anti-Opium Society. 
 
 2ith May, 1881. — Viceroy's Yam^n, Tientsin, China, — Sir,— It 
 gave me great pleasure to receive your letter dated 25th Feb., 
 with its several enclosures, sent on behalf of the Anglo-Oriental 
 iSociety for the Suppression of the Opium Trade 
 
THINGS DOMESTIC. 125 
 
 Your Society has long been known to me and many of my 
 countrymen, and I am sure that all — save victims to the opium 
 habit and those who have not a spark of right feeling — would unite 
 with me in expressing a sense of gratitude for the philanthropic 
 moves and efforts of the Society in behalf of China. 
 
 To know that so many of your countrymen have united to 
 continually protest against the evils of the opium traffic, and thus 
 second the efforts China has long been making to free herself from 
 this curse, is a source of great satisfaction to my Government, to 
 whom I have communicated a copy of your letter. The sense of 
 injury which China has so long borne with reference to opium, finds 
 some relief in the sympathy which a society like yours existing 
 in England bespeaks. 
 
 Opium is a subject in the discussion of which England and 
 China can never meet on common ground. China views the whole 
 question from a moral standpoint ; England from a fiscal. England 
 would sustain a source of revenue in India, while China contend* 
 for the lives and prosperity of her people. The ruling motive with 
 China is to repress opium by heavy taxation everywhere, whereas 
 with England the manifest object is to make opium cheaper, and 
 thus increase and stimulate the demand in China. 
 
 With motives and principles so radically opposite, it is not 
 surprising that the discussion commenced at Chefoo in 1876 has up 
 to the present time been fruitless of good results. The whole record 
 of this discussion shows that inducement and persuasion have been 
 used in behalf of England to prevent any additional taxation of 
 opium in Clyna, and objection made to China exercising her 
 undoubted right to regulate her own taxes — at least with regard 
 to opium. 
 
 I may take the opportunity to assert here, once for all, that the- 
 single aim of my Government in taxing opium will be in the future, 
 as it has always been in the past, to repress the traffic — never 
 the desire to gain revenue from such a source. Having failed to 
 kill a serpent, who would be so rash as to nurse it in his bosom ? 
 If it be thought that China countenances the import for the revenue 
 it brings, it should be known that my Government will gladly cut 
 off all such revenue in order to stop the import of opium. My 
 Sovereign has never desired his empire to thrive upon the lives or 
 infirmities of his subject^. 
 
 In discussing opium taxation a strange concern, approaching ta 
 
126 £1 KVNG - CHANG. 
 
 alarm, has been shown in behalf of China, lest she should sacrifice 
 her revenue ; and yet objection and protest are made against rates 
 which could be fixed for collection at the ports and in the interior. 
 The Indian Government is in the background at every official 
 •discussion of the opium traffic, and every proposed arrangement 
 must be forced into a shape acceptable to that Government and 
 harmless to its revenues. This is not as it should be. Each 
 government should be left free to deal with opium according to its 
 own lights. If China, out of compassion for her people, wishes to 
 impose heavy taxes to discountenance and repress the use of opium, 
 the Indian Government should be equally free, if it see fit, to pre- 
 serve its revenue by increasing the price of its opium as the demand 
 ior it diminishes in China. 
 
 The poppy is certainly surreptitiously grown in some parts of 
 China, notwithstanding the laws and frequent Imperial Edicts 
 prohibiting its cultivation. Yet this unlawful cultivation no more 
 shows that the Government approves of it than other crimes com- 
 mitted in the Empire by lawless subjects indicate approval by 
 the Government of such crimes. In like manner the present im- 
 port duty on opium was established, not from choice, but because 
 China submitted to the adverse decision of arms. The war must be 
 ■considered as China's standing protest against legalising such a 
 revenue. 
 
 My Government is impressed with the necessity of making 
 strenuous effijrts to control this flood of opium before it overwhelms 
 the whole country. The new treaty with the United States con- 
 taining the prohibitory clause against opium encourages the belief 
 that the broad principles of justice and feelings of humanity will 
 prevail in future relations between China and Western nations. 
 My Government will take effective measures to enforce the laws 
 against the cultivation of the poppy in China, and otherwise check 
 "the use of opium ; and I earnestly hope that your society and all 
 right-minded men of your country will support the effi)rts China is 
 now making to escape from the thraldom of opium. 
 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Many people have chosen to call this letter hypocritical 
 but it is much easier to do that than to show what the 
 Chinese Government could do in the matter of stopping 
 
THINGS DOMESTIC. 127 
 
 opium smoking. This last is China's vice as drinking is that 
 of England. Both are so injurious that it seems idle to 
 try to estabhsh which is most so. Under the influence of 
 strong drink men and women are moved to commit crimes 
 of violence as they are not under the influence of opium. 
 On the other hand, there is no doubt that many habitual 
 -drunkards are men of great parts and of special charm of 
 character, whom it is impossible not to love in spite 
 of their faults. As far as I have been able to learn, this is 
 not the case with opium smoking, which seems to deaden 
 the moral qualities in a specially repulsive manner. More- 
 over, since India's revenue from the sale of opium has from 
 natural causes fallen to less than half what it once was, one 
 oannot help thinking that it would have been better for 
 dhina, and for England's trade and intercourse generally with 
 China, if this had been done of intention. There does not 
 -seem the least reason to doubt that Li would have done 
 his part to contribute to this object had there ever been a 
 way possible to him ; although he is said to have grown 
 opium on his own property and made money by it. Certainly 
 he never fought opium with the energy of Tso Tsung-tang. 
 
 The death of the Empress in this same year had unex- 
 j)ected results. Li at this time, apart from some treaty 
 questions which stiU required to be settled with Sir Thomas 
 Wade, was engaged on certain commercial ventures. Among 
 them were the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, 
 largely estabUshed by Li's own funds; he having bought 
 out the wharves and ships of an American Company, on the 
 theory that if foreigners had vessels on Chinese coasts and 
 rivers, Chinese might as well have them too. Besides this, 
 there were the Kaiping Mines. Now Li was triumphant over 
 the success resulting from the application of foreign machinery 
 to these mines, and was proposing to sink shafts in adjacent 
 iron mines, when an order was issued stopping work altogether, 
 •on the ground that foreign methods of boring go down into 
 the vitals of the great earth-dragon — Chinese methods only 
 tickle his hide — making him uneasy, in fact, angry. " Con- 
 .-sequently the late Empress will not be able to rest quietly 
 
128 XI HUNG CHANG. 
 
 in her grave " ! In 1884, however, both Kaiping Mining- 
 Company and China Merchants' Company took a fresh start. 
 
 Two incidents of this period, suflSciently unimportant 
 in themselves, are worth recording — simply as Chinese 
 curiosities. 
 
 A large brass "Eight Diagrams" plate, about four feet 
 square, with the brass chains attached to the dragon heads,, 
 griffins, etc., which adorn the side ridges of the Palace, were 
 stolen; each of the chains weighed several hundredweight, 
 and all were heavily plated with gold. The brass netting- 
 from under the eaves of some of the palaces and gates also- 
 disappeared. Among the thieves, some say thirteen in all, 
 there was a colonel of about fifty yeass of age. When asked 
 how they got admittance they professed to have got over the 
 wall, which is a structure like the ordinary city walls, with 
 a moat of about fifty feet broad outside ! 
 
 In the Han-lin College, where formerly an extensive Hbrary 
 existed for the sake of the officials, now hardly a book is to be 
 had. The editions there were all Imperial, magnificently got 
 up with huge margins above and below of white paper, which 
 the Chinese so much admire in all their best books. These 
 margins had been cut off and sold for old paper ! 
 
129 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TREATIES AND WAR-CLOUDS (1879-1886). 
 
 With tlie year 1880 the (comparatively) even tenor of Li's 
 recent career was broken by the flying visit of Gordon. Even 
 now people do not rush out to China for a week-end, and 
 communications were far slower then. But to explain why 
 Grordon came, and why, having come, he went away again, 
 it is necessary once more to touch upon politics, and to 
 begin with those of Russia. 
 
 China had been in trouble all round. Mr. Michie de- 
 scribes the position well and briefly : — " In the south-west 
 the Province of Yunnan had been severed from the Imperial 
 rule, and in its recovery the land was almost depopulated. 
 In the north-west there were also Mohammedan risings ; and 
 in far distant Kashgaria, separated from China by a thousand 
 miles of desert, and militarily untenable by her, the adven- 
 turer known as Yakub-beg set up an independent govern- 
 ment, which he maintained for some years. Anarchy on 
 her frontier afforded to Russia the pretext of occupying 
 Chinese territory to maintain order, but she was scrupulous 
 in assuring the Peking Government that this step was 
 provisional, and that she was ready to restore Kuldja as 
 soon as the Chinese were again in a position to resume 
 the government of the town and territory. The time came 
 sooner than was expected. The march of Tso Tsung-tang, 
 who halted to grow grain for the support of his army, and 
 the disaffection in the rebel camp leading to the demise of 
 Yakub, enabled China to reoccupy the revolted district. 
 Russia, on being asked to redeem her pledge as to Kuldja, 
 J 
 
130 £1 SVNa - CHANG. 
 
 made conditions which were not acceptable, and a diplomatic 
 campaign was entered upon." 
 
 From which it may be seen that the position Russia now 
 occupies in Manchuria is no novel one for her. She found 
 it convenient to retire from Kashgaria; she may find it 
 convenient to keep her word also about Manchuria. And yet 
 the fable is handed on from father to son that " La Russia 
 boude, mais ne recule jamais." We cannot, indeed, wonder 
 at this, finding how convinced people are that Russia, with 
 its weight of many millions, must flow over into and occupy 
 the fertile plains of China. Yet Russia is the most 'sparsely 
 peopled of countries — ^if we include Siberia, with its acres 
 upon acres of magnificent grain-growing districts lying idle ; 
 whereas, China, the most anciently civilised of lands, is over- 
 peopled ; China alone has ever cultivated Siberia, and China 
 still does yearly, by natural force of attraction, flow over and 
 dig and reclaim Siberia for the Russians : who once, in alarm 
 at the numbers of Chinese, the result of natural causes not 
 in any way stimulated by Government, rose up and killed 
 them in droves as sheep are led to the slaughter. That 
 however, was in the year of many massacres, of long endur- 
 ance, of heroic sieges and noble martyrdoms. 
 
 In 1879, then, a high Manchu official, the same who had 
 been before sent to France — Chung-how — was sent to St. 
 Petersburg, and there concluded what is commonly known as 
 the Treaty of Livadia, in which he certainly showed that 
 he possessed little geographical knowledge ; but what did our 
 oflicials show when they gave away Washington territory 
 to the United States ? He sent a copy of the treaty to 
 Peking, set off at once for China, was received at Shanghai 
 with all honours by the Chinese officials, and proceeded 
 to Peking in state ; but, somewhat as it befel later with Li 
 Hung-chang on his return from his Imperial progress 
 round the world, he was there at once handed over to the 
 Board of Civil Office for trial on the charge of having 
 returned to China without special permission from the 
 Emperor. Li Hung-chang was appointed, with others, to 
 report on the treaty. There was a party at the Court 
 
TREATIES AND WAR-CLOUDS. 131 
 
 "who were strongly in favour of war at once. This party 
 was headed by Prince Ch'un, the father of the Emperor, and 
 Tso Tsung-tang, the hero of Kashgaria ; whUst Prince Kung 
 and Li, who better knew the condition of the Chinese army, 
 were in favour of peace, Prince Kung being a relation of 
 Chung-how, and therefore naturally inclined to stand by him. 
 They could not, however, save the unlucky Ambassador from 
 being cashiered, and handed over to the Board of Punish- 
 ments for correction ; and the war-party seemed likely to get 
 the upper hand. 
 
 Troops were sent to the Kuldja frontier, and twenty 
 Enghshmen were reported to be among them. It was stated 
 that the Russians had found Kuldja, during the years in which 
 they occupied it, the richest and most promising of all their 
 conquests and annexations in Central Asia, the barrenness of the 
 greater part of which brought the fertility and resources of 
 Kuldja more prominently before their eyes. Its population at 
 that time was estimated at from 100,000 to 130,000 souls,mostly 
 Tarantchis and Kirghiz ; but there were also large communities 
 of other Central Asian tribes within its borders, together with a 
 iew Russian and Chinese settlers. The Russians had been willing 
 to give up a part of it, on condition of retaining in their own 
 hands command of the military passes, and receiving general 
 permission for Russian merchants to trade in any part of 
 China, as well as a trifle of .5,000,000 roubles by way of 
 compensation. Then it was that the incorruptible Chang 
 Chih-tung made his first great impression upon China by a 
 memorial especially worth perusing carefully at the present 
 time. It not only speaks volumes for his judgment, but is 
 pregnant with suggestions that might be of use now. Un- 
 fortunately, it is too long to quote, except in the Appendix.* 
 
 The arguments of this memorial contain something in the 
 nature of a side thrust against Li. " The enormous expendi- 
 ture of millions of taels spent year after year in the manufac- 
 ture of war material has been incurred for just such a crisis 
 as to-day's. If, after all that, we cannot fight one battle even, 
 of what use are the servants in whom your Majesty trusts ? " 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
132 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 Indeed, the attack was now turned from the ah'eady fallen 
 Chung-how and directed against Li ; Li who had just got out 
 a fleet of gunboats from England ; Li, who as the head of the 
 army, Viceroy of Chihli, and Grand Secretary, was also con- 
 fidential adviser of the two Empresses, the Regents. 
 
 Through Sir Robert Hart a telegram had been despatched 
 to Li's old friend and subordinate General Gordon. Gordon 
 was in India at this juncture, having gone out with Lord 
 Ripon. Great things had been expected of him there; a 
 cloud of romance had surrounded his campaign in China, 
 carried on with a walking-stick as sole means of self- 
 defence, and people had not realised how impulsive and 
 arbitrary he was. Hardly had he arrived in India before an 
 Indian prince told Gordon the history of his wrongs, and 
 Gordon at once announced to the Viceroy that he ought 
 to be pardoned and reinstated. Although it seems that 
 Gordon was quite right in his conclusion, it is not unnatural 
 that the Viceroy should have said something tantamount 
 to " Wait a bit while we examine into the circumstances of 
 the case." " If you don't release him at once I leave you," 
 is said to have been Gordon's reply. Resign he did next day ; 
 intending to proceed to Zanzibar and investigate the con- 
 dition of things in Africa ; but then came the unconditional 
 invitation from the Chinese Government in the form of a 
 telegram from Sir Robert Hart. This Gordon accepted at 
 once, without knowing what he was wanted for, or on what 
 terms, and sailed for China. If — if — if — how often one 
 speculates on this in life! If Gordon had but thrown all 
 his strategic ability, amounting to genius, and the whole 
 force of his magnetic personality, together with his burning 
 Christian faith, on to the side of the Taipings, who wished 
 to be Christians, but did not know how, then — then — ! But 
 that opportunity was gone for ever. And it is not impossible 
 that Gordon had, by this time, realised what had been 
 missed, and for ever ! 
 
 On his arrival at Hongkong he talked with the various 
 officers there; all agreeing that for China to fight Russia 
 then would be madness, Gordon himself being, as usual, 
 
TREATIES AND WAB-GLOUDS. 133 
 
 specially outspoken in his views. Accounts differ as to 
 whether it was at Shanghai or Chefoo that Gordon then got 
 n telegram telling him that if such were his views, he had 
 better not proceed, being decidedly not wanted if in favour 
 of peace. One accoimt says the telegram was from Sir 
 Thomas Wade, the British Minister, as a warning; others, 
 that it was an intimation conveyed through Sir Robert Hart 
 from the Chinese Government. Perhaps both telegraphed. 
 In any case, as might be imagined by anyone who knew 
 Oordon, he was very angry, and went straight on to Tientsin. 
 
 Whereupon there occurred an incident which sounds so 
 romantic and improbable that I hesitate to record it; yet, 
 since it was told to me by one of the best European authori- 
 ties on Chinese political affairs, with all their many impro- 
 babihties and inconsistencies, who declares that it was true, 
 I here give it. As Gordon's boat was making its way up the 
 Peiho, in the evening, a big man came on board in the dark, 
 and sat down and talked — talked well, too. Gordon was 
 drawn on into expressing his opinions freely ; but his man 
 servant, who was interpreter, could not make out the 
 stranger's dialect, and so Gordon, waxing impatient, called 
 on another man to serve as interpreter. The other began, 
 looked at the big man, looked again, then knocked his fore- 
 head on the ground and solemnly kotowed. It was Li him- 
 self, come off alone in the dark to learn what Gordon really 
 meant to do. And together the two men talked long into 
 the night. 
 
 Next day Li officially received Gordon as if for the first 
 time ; but they already knew each other's views ; and Gordon 
 went on at once to Peking, though Li begged him not to do 
 so. There he saw Prince Kung, poured out all his views to 
 him, and saw that Prince Kung was not absolutely convinced, 
 but after the official fashion inclined to delay, and let things 
 ripen a little. " Oh, you had better make haste," said Gordon. 
 -" I leave for Tientsin to-morrow morning." He did so, and 
 started for England by the next steamer — very likely the 
 wisest thing he could have done — leaving a strange feeling 
 of unrest behind him. He never saw Sir Robert Hart, in 
 
134 LI HUNG . CHANG. 
 
 accordance with whose telegram he had come to China he 
 did not even call upon the British Minister ; but from some 
 port on the voyage sent back this singular and most char- 
 acteristic letter, which again it would be well to reflect upon, 
 not just to skim through. For by its light not only might 
 China have escaped her overwhelming defeat at the hands 
 of Japan in 1894, but we also in England in 1902 might not 
 have been lamenting how — 
 
 " The flowers o' the forest are a' wede awa' " — 
 
 had we realised what the Boers by the quick moving of their 
 troops with little baggage could do against even the best 
 armed regulars " if the country is at all difficult " ; for as the 
 Chinese proverb says : " The mighty dragon himself is no 
 match for the local snake." This was Gordon's advice to 
 the Chinese in 1880 :— 
 
 China possesses a long-used military organisation, a regular 
 military discipline. Leave it intact. It is suited to her people. 
 
 China's power is in her numbers, in the quick moving of her 
 troops, in the little baggage they require, inj their few wants. It is 
 known that men armed with sword and spear can overcome the best 
 regular troops, though armed with the best breechloading rifles and 
 well instructed in every way, if the country is at aU difficult, and if 
 the men with the spears and swords outnumber their foe ten to one. 
 If this is the case, when men are armed with spears and swords, it 
 will be much truer when the same are armed with ordinary breech- 
 loaders. 
 
 China should never engage in pitched battles. Her strength is 
 in quick movements, in cutting off the trains of baggage, and in 
 night attacks, not pushed home; in a continuous worrying of her 
 enemies. 
 
 When the enemy comes up and breaks the wall of a city the 
 Chinese soldiers ought not to stay and fight the enemy, but to go- 
 out and attack the trains of baggage in the rear and worry him on 
 the roads he came by. By keeping the Chinese troops Ughtly 
 loaded with baggage, with no guns, they can move two to every on© 
 li the enemy marches. To-day the Chinese will be before him; 
 to-morrow they will be behind him ; the next day they will be otk 
 
TREATIES AND WAB-GLOUDS. 135 
 
 his left hand, and so on, till the enemy gets tired and cross with 
 such long walks, and his soldiers quarrel with their officers and get 
 sick. 
 
 Remember, with this programme, China wants no big officer 
 from foreign Powers ; I say big officer, because I am a big officer in 
 China. If I stayed in China it would be bad for China, because it 
 would vex the American, French, and German Governments, who 
 would want to send their officers. Besides, I am not wanted. 
 China can do what I recommend herself. Tf she cannot, I could do 
 no good. (Signed) 
 
 Canton, 7th July, 1880. C. G. Gordon. 
 
 P.S. — As long as Peking is the centre of the Government of 
 China, China can never affijrd to go to war with any first-class 
 Power. It is too near the sea. The Emperor (Queen Bee) must be 
 in the centre of the hive. 
 
 No ironclads or iron gunboats can help China till she has a 
 place to keep them in. But China can have no place (asylum) to 
 keep them till she has an army. 
 
 China cannot have an army when generals keep 2,000 men and 
 draw pay for 5,000. Those generals ought to have their heads 
 cut off. 
 
 It was disinterested, high-spirited advice, but one can 
 hardly say that it was couched in the terms most Ukely 
 to conduce to its being acted upon. 
 
 The sentence of decapitation against Chung-how was 
 remitted, but he was still kept in prison for awhile, then 
 released. The Marquis Tseng, afterwards Chinese Minister 
 in London, and son of Li's great patron Ts^ng Kwo-fan, 
 was called upon to act with due care and attention, and 
 eventually concluded what is known as the Treaty of St. 
 Petersburg, by which "the Tekkes Valley and the passes 
 through the Tien Shan into Kashgaria were to remain in 
 Chinese hands, but the indemnity, which had been fixed 
 by Chung-how at 5,000,000 metal roubles, was increased by 
 Tseng to 9,000,000," 
 
 Li, although eagerly denounced, continued to hold all 
 his high posts. 
 
136 LI HUNG . CHANG. 
 
 The years '82, '83, '84, and '85 witnessed the great Korean 
 conspiracy and two ill-advised steps on the part of the 
 British Government; but as these had but little effect 
 upon Li's life they must be but briefly touched upon. 
 
 In 1882 the father of the King of Korea, who had ceased 
 to be Kegent on his son's coming of age, tried to depose 
 him. In the contest the Japanese Legation was attacked 
 and a good many Japanese killed. Li Hung - chang, 
 having learnt from the Formosa experience that it was 
 better to be beforehand with the Japanese in establishing 
 order, despatched an envoy with a squadron, and carried oft 
 the King's usurping father to China as a State prisoner 
 Intrigues continued; two Ministers were assassinated ir 
 1884!, partly, perhaps, because the Koreans were attempt 
 ing then to free themselves from Chinese supremacy by 
 aid of the Japanese. The Japanese tabulated the casualties 
 " Seven ofiicials killed by progressives, 7 progressives 
 killed by Korean troops, 38 Korean soldiers kiUed by 
 Japanese troops, 95 rioters killed by Japanese, 67 pro- 
 gressives imprisoned, 11 beheaded with shocking barbarities 
 at execution." Kim Ok Kum took refuge in Japan, 
 where he used to be pointed out to globe trotters as the 
 murderer, who had killed as many people as any man 
 they were likely to see ; a description which always struck 
 me as most unfair considering his had been political 
 murders. However, he had been confidential adviser to 
 the Crown, and the King of Korea stood in terror of 
 his life whilst Kim lived. Finally by means of a plot long 
 enough for a three-volume novel at least, he was lured 
 to Shanghai by Koreans and there murdered in his turn 
 by a Korean patriot. The King of Korea, "in a frenzy 
 of delight," gave a banquet to which he invited all the 
 foreign ministers. The Japanese were not pleased and 
 Count Inouye was sent to Korea to investigate the 
 relative positions of China and Japan with regard to 
 Korea. An embassy was sent to Peking under Count Ito, 
 but could not succeed in settling anything with the 
 Tsungli YamSn; so even the Japanese were reduced to 
 
TREATIES AND WAB-GLOUDS. 137 
 
 treating with Li Hung-cliang at Tientsin. Then, after several 
 weeks of negotiation, Count Ito was successful in con- 
 cluding a treaty by which China and Japan were put 
 on a footing of equality in Korea; but China retained the 
 ceremonial form of suzerainty till nine years later, when 
 Count Ito and Li Hung-chang had again to conclude 
 a treaty. 
 
 From spite of all Li Hung-chang's astuteness, it is worth 
 noting that he could not hold his own against Count Ito even 
 in 1885. 
 
 Next, Great Britain occupied Port Hamilton. Lord 
 ■Granville said it was necessary to do so in order to anticipate 
 the "probable occupation of the island by another Power." 
 dhina and Japan both objected, and the Russian Minister 
 ■said Russia would have to compensate herself by seizing some 
 other port. Eighteen months after taking it Great Britain 
 ■came to the conclusion that it was not worth having. Korea 
 proposed to open as Treaty Ports both Port Hamilton and 
 Port Lazareff, which Russia had wished for, but this was not 
 arranged. 
 
 The whole of this business can now be only considered as 
 one of England's many mistakes in the Far East. The next 
 was that of preparing to send the Macaulay Mission to Tibet 
 with some 300 men, and then, after sending a special envoy, 
 Chandra Das, to Peking to get the proper passport, and after 
 a delegate had also been sent there from the Grand Lama, 
 despatching orders to the Indian Government to stop 
 the Mission. 
 
 From all this confused tangle of questions, in which it 
 must have seemed really impossible to know what the 
 English would in the end do, Li Hung-chang had somehow 
 or other to manage to obtain what was best for China. Then 
 also there were troubles in Peking between Prince Kung and 
 his faction and the Empress Regent and her following. 
 Tze An, the real Empress Regent, had departed this life in 
 one way or other in 1881. For twenty-five years Prince Kung 
 had held the position of Minister for Foreign Affairs and 
 head of the Tsungli Yamen ; now the Empress, Tze-Hsi, dis- 
 
138 LI HUNG CHANG. 
 
 missed him and his set, and tried to bring forward her sister's 
 husband, Prince Ch'un. And, as Ch'un was also father of the 
 young Emperor, for foreign affairs he had to be largely 
 represented by Li and Prince Ching, who now replaced Prince 
 Kung as President of the Tsungli Yamen, and afterwards 
 became so weU known to the world by the messages during" 
 the Peking siege " from Prince Ching and others." 
 
 Li had visited Port Arthur before retiring for his mother's, 
 funeral, and had been greatly delighted with the fortress, as 
 also with the ships. Now, on the way back to Tientsin, h& 
 inspected various arsenals and forts, and in September, 1884, 
 ■ he was formally reinstated in his offices of Viceroy, Super- 
 intendent of Foreign Trade, and Grand Secretary; though 
 against his will, as it would seem from his repeated memoriala 
 begging to be left in retirement. Some Europeans had an. 
 interview with Li about this time. During the conversation 
 the door opened, and the Viceroy's grandson, a child of three 
 years old, ran in and clambered upon his lap. " There," said 
 one of the gentlemen present, smilingly, "sits the future 
 Foreign Minister of China." '' My child," said Li, with the 
 somewhat grim humour which characterised him, " when you 
 grow up, have nothing to do with foreign affairs, then you 
 won't be so much abused as your grandfather was before you." 
 
 Li was very much depressed on his return by a telegram 
 handed to him about the doings of the Black Flags in Tonquin, 
 accompanied by a request from the French Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs that he or Chang would attend to the matter. The 
 Black Flags seem to have occupied precisely the same position 
 that the Boxers (so-called) afterwards stepped into. Out- 
 lawed by the Chinese, called pirates by the French, the 
 Anhamese Government had invited their assistance ; and the 
 Chinese Government officially encouraged them, for the 
 French were attacking China's tributaries one after the 
 other — Cochin China, Annam, and then Tongking. They had 
 destroyed the seal granted to the Annamese sovereign by the 
 Emperor, and the Marquis Tseng in Paris and Li Hung- 
 chang in China were both trying in vain to arrest the French. 
 The Chinese Envoy had declared that any attack upon Sontajr 
 
TREATIES AKB WAE- CLOUDS. 139> 
 
 or Bacninh would mean war; but the French seized both in the- 
 spring of 1884, and nothing came of it. AdmiralJaureguibery 
 wrote : " The conquest of Tongking had been decided upon in 
 principle when at home the French were declaring they had 
 no policy of aggression." We Europeans may complain of 
 diplomatic insincerity on the part of the Chinese, but it 
 seems sometimes to be rather a case of pot and kettle. 
 
 Mr. Detring, a German, whom we met before as Commis- 
 sioner of Customs at Tientsin, now on his way to take up a. 
 similar post at Canton, accepted a passage thither in a French 
 man-of-war; the consequence of this was that he advised 
 that its captain, Fournier, should be sent to treat with Li 
 Hung-chang ; for he found the rich city of Canton perfectly 
 unprepared to defend itself against a French attack, the 
 provincial authorities being fully aware of the fact, but not 
 daring to avow it to the Imperial Government. 
 
 Mr. Detring, in the first instance, himself returned to 
 Tientsin to talk over matters with Li. It wiU be observed 
 that in each dealing with a foreign nation Sir Robert Hart, 
 the head of the Customs, or Mr. Detring, one of his subordi- 
 nates, acts as intermediary ; and yet people expect the 
 Chinese to accept the Customs — originally called Maritime, 
 but now installed all about in the interior of China — as 
 having nothing to do with foreign politics, and in no wise 
 threatening the subjugation of the country. 
 
 Captain Fournier was soon summoned from Chefoo — where 
 he was sent to wait till Mr. Detring had prepared the way — 
 to Tientsin, where, by tele^am from France, he was at once 
 raised to the rank of a plenipotentiary, although there was 
 already a French Minister at Peking. He and Li Hung- 
 chang seem to have got on capitally, and indeed signed a 
 convention on May 11th, which they celebrated by a grand 
 dinner, given by Li to the gallant naval officer and to all who 
 had taken part in the negotiations. 
 
 It was but a few months since the Empress Dowager had 
 presented Li with a few ounces of tobacco, a girdle, and some 
 pieces of embroidery ; but before the convention was signed 
 there came a private communication in which she is re- 
 
140 XI BUNG- CHANG. 
 
 ported to have said : " The Ministers of the Grand Council 
 stand in the position of eyes and ears to the Throne, and 
 the high provincial officers are reckoned upon to assist them. 
 But you," says her Majesty, addressing Li, "confine your 
 attention simply to what is before you at the moment, 
 and appear to exercise not the slightest foresight with 
 regard to the future ; " and further accuses him of cowardice, 
 negligence, and bad management. The Viceroy is reported 
 to have been much disturbed by the receipt of this dispatch. 
 Over forty-five Censors and other members of the Hanlia 
 Yuen impeached the Viceroy Li on seeing the translation of 
 the Franco-Chinese convention, written in French. No 
 wonder Li was in such a low state of mind before signing it 
 that Chinese newspapers described him as having "locked 
 himself up in a room, where he spent his time heaving pro- 
 found sighs and gazing through the window at the moon;" 
 although this sounds particularly unlike the great Li, and 
 hardly consistent with another account, which records that 
 " the various official documents received every day by Viceroy 
 Li, when piled up, are over a foot in thickness. They are 
 read as soon as they arrive, and no sooner read than answered. 
 Before noon is reached, the amanuenses and scribes show 
 signs of being greatly fatigued. Moreover, Li has to receive 
 in audience his suborduiates, and foreign Ministers on inter- 
 national affairs, so that there is scarcely a moment's rest to 
 be obtained from dawn to sunset." 
 
 Now, however, ensued a far worse state of things than 
 before. According to Mr. Michie, whilst Li was endeavour- 
 ing to obtain an indefinite delay in retiring the Chinese 
 troops, his interpreter summed it up to Fournier in two 
 words "Avancez done." According to Captain Fournier, a 
 date was definitely fixed for the Chinese to retire and the 
 French to advance, and a pen was subsequently drawn 
 through the date. Li's two secretaries positively deny that 
 they made the erasures in the Fournier Memorandum after- 
 wards, and declare that they saw Captain Fournier make 
 them with his own hand. If the French military com- 
 mander had advanced with sufficient force all this would not 
 
TBEATIES AND WAR-CLOUDS. Ul 
 
 SO much have mattered ; but as it was, when he called upon 
 the Chinese commander to evacuate his post, the latter said 
 he had received no instructions to do so, and on the French 
 still persisting in advancing, they were driven back with con- 
 siderable loss. Mr. Michie's idea seems to be that Li on pur- 
 pose left the date vague, because he shrank from asking 
 the Central Government to order the troops to withdraw, and 
 trusted the French would advance in sufficient numbers to 
 settle the matter for themselves. This repulse of the French 
 terminated the convention, and the Franco-Chinese war may- 
 be said to have begun in August, 1884, continuing till the 
 following April. The French destroyed the Chinese ships 
 belonging to the Foochow squadron, also the Arsenal, which, 
 as Li Himg-chang bitterly complained, had been erected 
 by " French genius." They were not successful in Formosa,, 
 and the French Government refused their Admiral leave to 
 " attack Port Arthur " on the non-mihtary ground of wishing 
 to save the prestige of " notre ami Li Hung-chang." 
 
 In the end Sir Kobert Hart was the intermediary in 
 bringing about peace through his London agent, who was 
 sent to Paris to open negotiations with the French Minister — 
 nominally about a small Chinese lighthouse tender captured 
 by the French, and needed by the foreign Customs in China. 
 M. Ferry had the treaty all ready, when the news came of a 
 French defeat. General Negrier had been wounded, and his 
 troops had retreated in hot haste before imaginary pursuers. 
 M. Ferry, feeling sure the Chinese after their victory would 
 never keep to this treaty, was then afraid to say anything 
 about it, although it might have saved him ; and in the storm 
 of indignation roused by hearing of the French defeat, he had 
 to resign. So M. Ferry's successor thus got the honour of the 
 treaty, which seems to have been almost identical with that 
 concluded between Li and Fournier. There had been a year's 
 fighting in the interval; China had spent 100,000,000 taels, 
 and France much the same. The Dowager Empress, unmoved 
 by the successes of the Chinese troops, seems to have been 
 urgent for peace. There was still a doubtful clause for casuists 
 to split hairs about; and to get over that China agreed to 
 
142 LI HUNG CHANG. 
 
 •.give "a French syndicate the contract for excavating the 
 basin and dock at Port Arthur and certain orders for 
 material, among which was a famous miUtary balloon, wonder- 
 fully s3Tnbolic of the whole proceeding," as says Mr. Michie. 
 Thus Li's good sense in making the Li-Foumier convention 
 seems to have been completely vindicated. At the same 
 ■time there was a large party at the Court furious with him 
 for never having the army in a condition to fight anywhere. 
 And this still remains the heaviest indictment against him. 
 
 This concession to the French started Li upon that 
 prolonged and continuous intercourse with promoters and 
 :syndicates, from which it would require a man of stronger 
 anoral fibre than he was to emerge unspotted. 
 
143 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE viceroy's MOTHER (1882-1883). 
 
 Hitherto we have watched Li's career entirely in his public 
 •capacity; but the death of his mother in 1882 not only 
 reminds us that there was another side to his life, but illus- 
 trates the fact in rather a striking manner. 
 
 To a Chinese his mother is probably always the dearest 
 woman in the world. And Li's mother was by universal 
 consent a very remarkable woman. There is a curious tale 
 told of her by Chinese, that her feet were not properly bound, 
 and that once when she was getting into her sedan chair her 
 illustrious son begged her to cover them more with her skirts, 
 that everyone might not see them ; on which she rebuked 
 him, and said she would stretch them right out for everyone 
 to see, for she was not ashamed of them, if he was. It is a 
 very popular tale, but when I referred to it to Li himself, he 
 said his toother only let out her feet a little when she was 
 quite old. 
 
 She had been now for some years past living with her 
 elder son, Li Han-chang, Viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan, at 
 Wuchang, opposite to Hankow, on the river Yangtse. Li 
 Han-chang had done everything he could, for his mother, 
 and in 1882 the best Chinese doctors were called in, with the 
 hope of prolonging her life. So little hope was entertained, 
 Jiowever, that he devolved upon another official the annual 
 ^rand inspection of the troops, and one night all the officials 
 of the city were assembled at the Viceroy's YamSn to of3Eer 
 their condolence on the momentarily expected decease of his 
 jiiother, who was 83. Li Hung-chang, who had seen (Dr.) Mrs. 
 
144 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 King's snccess with his wife, invited her to attend his mothei- 
 at Wuchang. He also memoriahsed the Throne, applying for 
 leave of absence, saying that " his heart burned with anxiety, 
 and his sleep and his food were worthless to him. Since the 
 day in the spring of 1870, when he left with his forces for 
 Shen-si, and bade her farewell, thirteen years ago, he had 
 never seen his mother's face. A man has a long lifetime, it 
 is said, to spend in his country's service, and but a short term 
 of years in which he can serve his parents ; and now that the 
 iUness from which his mother has long been suffering still 
 continues unabated, the memorialist all night long tosses about 
 in his trouble, and not for a single moment is his mind at 
 rest," etc. etc. 
 
 The march of progress has carried us far away from the 
 period when a statesman even in unemotional England might 
 have written somewhat after this fashion in view of an aged 
 mother's death. But as one reads the fond words the idea 
 occurs that the march of progress does not always lead on- 
 ward and upward ! Li finishes by saying " he presents this 
 memorial with inexpressible fear and distress of mind." He 
 was granted a month's leave of absence, and the Empress 
 sent eight ounces of ginseng (Aralia quinquefolia) , which 
 the Chinese believe above everything possesses the power of 
 rejuvenating the old. But it was all too late, and the news 
 of his mother's death reached Tientsin before Li could even 
 finish his preparations for departure. So the aged mother of 
 two Viceroys was measured for her wadded clothes — they 
 think the dead go to the coldest of regions — footstove and 
 all were prepared, and her most celebrated son, the great Li, 
 was still far away. According to Chinese usage he ought 
 now to retire and mourn for twenty-seven months ; and many 
 of his rivals, and those who desired to rise into the posts 
 that would be left vacant by his absence, were full of 
 expectancy ; but they were disappointed. 
 
 For those who, like myself, find pleasure in the quaint 
 old-world flavour of the Chinese phrases, I here append a 
 few extracts from Li's memorials in this connection : — 
 
 In one he says: — 
 
THE VICEBOY'S MOTHEB. 145 
 
 The Memorialist was vouchsafed a Decree (Jan. 29th, 1883) in 
 which he reverently recognised the completeness of his Majesty's 
 instruction and admonition and the perfection of his praise and pity 
 in that, amid his anxious care for the weighty questions of the 
 defence of the capital, he could yet find room to compassionate the 
 private feelings of his servant. The Memorialist, conscious of his 
 own unworthiness of the affectionate bounty, with which he has so 
 often been blessed, humbly received his will with a tearful gratitude 
 too great for words, and has since the beginning of spring quietly 
 awaited his Majesty's commandment. He should not dare to 
 importune his Majesty with the repetition of his grief and anxiety ; 
 but time glides by, the ice has melted, and the day for opening the 
 temporary mound is, he reckons, little more than a month distant. 
 The way from Tientsin to Anhui is long, and, even with the aid of a 
 steamship, more than ten days are needed to reach his home. 
 Moreover, if all that is required for the funeral be not fully pre- 
 pared beforehand and carefully taken account of, the worship will 
 be imperfect and the rites hurriedly performed — a source of lifelong 
 regret to the Memorialist. The Record of Rites says : " A dutiful 
 son takes anxious thought when about to worship ; not one point 
 may he leave unprovided for." Since in sacrifice deliberate pro- 
 vision is so needful, how, then, could the thought of undue haste 
 or negligence in laying a parent's body in the tomb be borne ' 
 Thus for more than a month his eager gaze has in thought beeii 
 fixed on the yew-trees, his spirit has flown to his home, and froni 
 mom tiU eve he has with outstretched neck looked for the coming 
 of his Majesty's gracious mandate. Official despatches, too, have 
 ieen numerous, so that, harassed by public and private anxiety, his 
 mind is confused as by a sense of loss. Now that, by the majesty 
 and fortune of his sacred Lord, the coasts are at peace and inter- 
 national affairs are not very pressing, he ventures to repeat his 
 former requests and to pray for a few months' leave. He requests 
 that Chang Shu-sheng, whose leave will shortly expire, may be 
 ordered to proceed to Tientsin at once and act as Superintendent of 
 Trade as well as Viceroy of ChihH. 
 
 In another he writes : — 
 
 As I gaze south towards my native land, my heart is troubled. 
 With tears I bethink me I have never found opportiinity to revisit 
 my home and minister to my mother. I have failed in my filial of&ce, 
 K 
 
146 £1 SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 and now, the utmost I can do is only to lay her in the tomb. On 
 this one occasion to consign her body to the earth, and to offer 
 sacrifice to the dead, is all but to fulfil the outward show of duty. In 
 the grave there is no meeting, and though I long to spend my power 
 in requiting her affection by loving tendance, never shall I obtain my 
 desire. 
 
 Finally, comes his expression of gratitude : — 
 
 The Memorialist was moved to tears of gratitude by the Decree 
 of March 8th, granting him two months' leave. Since he was 
 summoned northwards last autumn and sacrificed the rules of 
 propriety to the public weal, his heart has been disquieted within 
 him, as if oppressed with heavy guUt. He has, for the few months 
 he has been at Tientsin, made such dispositions as were required 
 from time to time, but has not been able to enter on any wide 
 measures. Of late he has beset his Majesty's ear with urgent 
 pleadings, the thought of his mother's body still unburied rendering 
 him unconscious of the burdensome iteration of his cry. It is but 
 natural for a man in pain to call on his father, in distress and 
 longing to cry to Heaven. Relying on the loving affection of a 
 Sovereign Father, he simply prayed that his yearning might be 
 speedily satisfied, and had no care for the limits of respectful 
 speech. The leave now graciously granted him will not only enable 
 his Majesty's servant to fulfil to the uttermost his desire to show 
 careful attention in the performance of the funeral rites of his 
 parent, but will relieve in some degree the secret sorrow of an 
 orphan for the breach of the rules of propriety. His gratitude for 
 his Majesty's pity and aid will last for ever and ever. 
 
 By May 17 Li had applied for the third time, begging to 
 be permitted to retire for the full period of mourning, but 
 the Emperor declined to extend the leave of one hundred 
 days originally granted. On the expiry of that term Li must 
 return to his post as Acting Viceroy and eventually be 
 restored to the full appointment, which for the time devolved 
 upon his substitute Chang. 
 
 There is a glowing account of Li's departure by a Tientsin 
 correspondent of the Shanghai paper : — 
 
 On the Bund, in front of the steamer, was erected an imposing 
 structure of bamboos covered with matting, combining temple, 
 
THE VICEBOTS MOTSEB. 147 
 
 reception and refreshment rooms ; the last-named kept well supplied 
 by the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, whose entire 
 premises were, in fact, open house for those who were to do honour 
 to the departing Viceroy. Throughout the day the Bund in front 
 of the steamer presented a busy panorama of mandarins with their 
 followers ; and at five o'clock in the afternoon the ship was crowded 
 by the native gentry of Tientsia, waiting to do homage to the great 
 man. Then the Viceregal launch came alongside ; Li was received 
 at the gangway by the captain, and passed aboard, where a small 
 army of mandarins did obeisance to him, and conducted him to 
 his quarters. Here he was called upon by the new Viceroy, Chang, 
 Sir Thomas Wade, and the various Consuls ; after whom, by native 
 officials almost without number ; whilst the Viceroy's band played 
 lively marches. 
 
 At daylight the next morning the Pautah started down river, 
 one Chinese gunboat preceding, and another following her. The 
 banks of the river were lined with troops, who presented a most 
 imposing spectacle with their gaudy banners advanced and grouped 
 in front. In the Chinese Army it often seems as if there were 
 a banner to each man. Repeated yoUeys from the regiments, 
 salutes from the field batteries, and the music of the regimental 
 bands, made the morning air heavy with smoke and sound. As the 
 steamer came abreast of each regiment, at a given order down they 
 went upon their knees, and remained so until she had passed by. 
 
 Tliis is what so impressed foreign correspondents, when 
 the Court returned to Peking in 1902, but it is the usage at 
 all viceregal reviews. The scenic effect is very fine, and I 
 have always thought more theatrical than anything I have 
 ever seen upon the London stage, where the attention seems 
 generally diverted and frittered among details instead of all 
 leading up to one grand culminating effect. 
 
 The forts paraded their garrisons, and salutes were fired from 
 each as she passed. At the new city there were 10,000 troops in 
 one unbroken line, making a most brilliant display. On the arrival of 
 the Pautah at Taku, the Chinese fleet manned yards, and each saluted 
 the fleet of H.E. as he passed by; and as the steamer came to 
 anchor between the forts at the mouth of the river, the boom of the 
 salutes was deafening. Two hours were given to leave-taking (for 
 
148 XI HVNG - CHANG. 
 
 several hundred officials had accompanied Li thus far), aiid then the 
 steamer started on her voyage amidst another salvo of big and little 
 guns that made the air tremble. Although His Excellency had 
 throughout plainly shown a disposition to avoid demonstrations, 
 Still he could not but feel gratified by such tokens of respect and 
 honour, given so enthusiastically. 
 
 It is pleasant to pause over this picture of Li, in his very 
 day of prosperity, going forth among all this magnificence, to 
 pay his last respects at the funeral of the mother who had 
 watched over his infant years, and whose face he had not been 
 permitted to see for thirteen years past, although residing in 
 the same country. But China is so vast, and means of travel 
 so slow. To reach my own home, in the West of China, from 
 Shanghai, takes longer than to get to Shanghai from London ! 
 The Tientsin paper adds : — 
 
 The regrets of parting are sincere, because, while Li's first 
 thought is always for the Empire, he has a strong element of fair 
 dealing in his mental composition, and a vastly better comprehension 
 of external forces than is possessed by any other of the highest 
 officials. 
 
 There is a curious story about the Viceroy's departure, 
 which illustrates not only the intriguing constantly going on, 
 but also Li's own methods. 
 
 No sooner was the acting Viceroy, Chang, installed in his 
 new office, than he denounced the whole body of the provincial 
 officers. Possibly he wanted to lose no time in getting round 
 him his own friends, knowing that Li's men would always look 
 up to him, not to Chang, as their lord. Anyway the memorial 
 denouncing them is said to have been received by some of 
 the grandees at the conclusion of a sumptuous dinner that 
 they had been enjoying in company. 
 
 In this document the late Viceroy of Chihli, as is related, was 
 solemnly impeached, accused of misgovemment, corruption, mis- 
 appropriation of State funds, and other irregular practices. These 
 accusations were at once sent to Li by a trusty friend, and two 
 counter-strokes were given, one after another without loss of time. 
 
TSE riCEBOY'S MOTHER. 148 
 
 The Viceroy Chang came on board to take leave of the departing 
 Minister, and as he returned on shore Li handed him, with some 
 mocking expressions, a paper he said he had just received from 
 Peking which nearly concerned His Excellency. The other, ignorant 
 of the discovery of his plot, took it with a smile, little thinking that 
 it was a copy of his own denunciation of Li himself. 
 
 The story is " hen trovato" anyhow. For this is just the 
 sort of thing Li would have doiie. 
 
 And then he steamed away with all the army on its 
 bended knees, abasing its banners in the dust before him. 
 Then the two Viceroys, Li Han-chang and Li Hung-chang 
 with their two brothers, twenty sons, and eight grandsons, 
 lamented at the old lady's funeral whilst "the memorial 
 tablet of the deceased was placed among the ancestral 
 memorials of the Li family, in the presence of three hundred 
 mandarins, who one and all kotowed before the tablet in 
 token of their respect for the mother of the great Viceroys." 
 She, we must remember, was a real Li, born so ; Li Hung- 
 chang and the others were not really Lis, their grandfather 
 being a Hsii, adopted into the Li family. Adoption is 
 very frequent in China. But this explains how it was that 
 Li's parents were not debarred from marr3dng. Even so, 
 marriage between persons bearing the same surname is so 
 unusual that one suspects some exceptional explanation in 
 this case, though other members of the famUy can suggest 
 none. 
 
 Li's mother was evidently a woman of great influence. 
 And sometimes I have fancied that there was a change in Li 
 after her death in 1882 ; he was then himself sixty, at which 
 age, according to Chinese usage, a man is entitled to retire 
 from public life. He had his wife, however, for ten years longer, 
 and she, too, by all accounts, was a woman of intelligence 
 and not to be set at naught. When the feet of the women 
 of China are not mutilated and they are no longer thus 
 handicapped in the battle of life, we may expect to see an 
 immense change in the nation if it be not too late — if it be 
 only not too late ! Towards the end of his career Li was 
 
150 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 without the loving help of woman, and this may possibly 
 account for the increasing deadliness' of soul that is perceptible 
 in his later years. 
 
 " They pass me by like shadows, crowds on crowds, 
 Dim ghosts of men, that hover to and fro, 
 Hugging their bodies round them like thin shrouds 
 Wherein their souls were buried long ago." 
 
151 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MINOR AFFAIRS (1884—1887). 
 
 It -was in 1884 that Li was ordered to take up the 
 late Tso Tsung-tang's place of " Court-walking," and in 
 1885 he was ordered — together with Prince Ch'un, the 
 Emperor's father and the Councillor of Foreign Affairs — 
 specially to consider the pressing problem how to protect 
 China against sea attack. Thus Li was styled Associate 
 President of the Board of Admiralty. They decided that there 
 must be a disciphned naval force, of which Prince Ch'un was 
 to be the head, Yih-kwong and Li were to make arrangements 
 for the management, and Li, as usual, was to raise the funds. 
 Li had up till lately held rather peculiar ideas about naval 
 matters, as may be seen by his claiming, in 1882, rewards 
 and honours for certain officers who had brought some 
 gunboats out from England without damage. "Hitherto,"' 
 he said, " it has been the custom to pay a very heavy sum for 
 insurance along the entire route, and in the present instance 
 ■Sir Robert Hart had made a special request that the in- 
 surances should be effected in some foreign office. He, 
 however, with a view to saving further useless and unprofit- 
 able expenses, gave private and particular instructions not 
 to insure the vessels, but to exercise more than ordinary 
 ■caution and care. Foreigners," he added, "all considered 
 this policy most reckless. In spite of it all, the vessels were 
 brought out safely, unprotected by insurance, and in so doing 
 the officers in charge accomplished a feat of infinitely greater 
 difficulty than that of a diplomatist, who merely labours with 
 pen and tongue." He had, however, already started a Naval 
 School, and since then called for a competitive examination of 
 
152 £1 HUNG-CSANQ. 
 
 candidates; and, no doubt, his steamship company was. 
 educating him. 
 
 At any rate Li, in order to interest Prince Ch'un in his 
 scheme of naval defence, persuaded him to make the celebrated 
 trip to Port Arthur, where they were met by a British admiral 
 with a guard of honour. This naturally gave Prince Ch'un 
 at first a great shock, as it appeared to him as if he had been, 
 trapped into the power of a foreign force ; but with his Court 
 training he showed but little of his feelings, and seems to 
 have impressed the foreigners he had already met at Tientsin 
 very favourably. Pleasant httle anecdotes are related of him. 
 The Prince was walking round the steamer, looking into 
 everything with a natural curiosity, when he came to the 
 cabin of the second engineer, the door of which was open. 
 Taking up a fan that was lying near the door, he fanned 
 himself with it, then took it back with him to his state- 
 room, and wrote an autograph motto on it in MongoHan 
 characters, Li Hung-chang putting this into Chinese on 
 the other side. The Prince then sent it back to the engineer 
 by one of his interpreters, who said that to a Chinese official 
 the fan would be worth several thousand taels, for Chinese 
 set a great value on autographs of members of the Imperial 
 family. He also sent for cakes and wine on another occasion 
 and offered them to the officers, who had been playing and 
 singing to him. It is well known that on his return he wrote- 
 a httle volume of poems about his journey, which so fired th(& 
 Dowager Empress with emulation that she, too, wanted to- 
 make a voyage; and the preparations for this were being 
 pressed forward when the Boxer outbreak put an end to 
 all projects of travel, until there came the sudden flight from 
 Peking. 
 
 During these years Li had a great deal of trouble with his 
 steamer company. Two officials had to be reported to th& 
 Throne as defaulters, one to the amount of 62,000 taels, and 
 the other of 30,000 taels. A subsequent manager showed a 
 deficit of 200,000 taels, yet the number of steamers was always 
 being added to. When Li invited people to take shares in th& 
 railway between the Kaiping mines and Tientsin, no one would. 
 
MINOB AFFAIRS. I5S 
 
 have anything to do with the scheme since it was under 
 official control. But for Li's energy in preventing the 
 steamers of the Governor of Formosa from trading on the 
 Yangtse, and so successfully securing the monopoly of 
 Government freight northwards for his company, the China 
 Merchants' Steam Navigation Company would probably have 
 done much worse. We have seen before how Li supported 
 the monopoly of his Shanghai cotton factory, and even when 
 he visited the Tientsin Printing Company's offices, he seems 
 to have done so as a business man, giving the editors valuable 
 advice, and at once pointing out some of the defects. Besides 
 aU this, he had an exceedingly complex prospectus to bring 
 out for gold mining in Manchuria. Surely even the men 
 who think in millions would be puzzled "to turn their at- 
 tention to so many subjects as a poor Chinese Viceroy has to 
 deal with in these complicated latter days. 
 
 There was also the Telegraph Convention to settle. 
 Telegrams can be sent for less than sixpence a word from 
 Petersburg to Yladivostock. If these telegrams could but 
 be sent on across the boundary into China it would be 
 an immense convenience, not only to business men, but to all 
 residents in the Far East. But it was decided in the in- 
 terests of the Eastern Extension and Great Northern Com- 
 panies not to allow this, and to keep up the rates at 5s. 6d. 
 a word to Europe, the Chinese Telegraph Administration 
 receiving 100,000 taels a year for doing this. Thus the Chinese 
 Government made itself a partner with two private com- 
 panies in the exploitation of the country for the sake of a 
 hundred thousand taels a year. Curiously enough, not only 
 did the British Minister agree to this, but I recollect the 
 representative of one of the largest business-houses in the 
 East arguing that it was desirable that the price of telegraphs 
 should be kept up, as otherwise so many Europeans with Uttle 
 capital might be tempted into business in China. 
 
 It was soon after a visit to Peking in 1885, that Li 
 entered on the question of the Northern Cathedral. The 
 Dowager Empress had long wished to obtain possession of 
 this, on the ground that its lofty tower overlooked the 
 
154 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 palace grounds, and although the Fathers had promised never 
 to ascend their tower without permission, yet the arrange- 
 ment hardly seemed a satisfactory one. We cannot imagine 
 even an English sovereign, who does not specially court 
 retirement, liking a large mosque built beside his palace 
 grounds with a minaret commanding a full view of them. 
 Li sent an Englishman, " Mysterious Dunn," as he was then 
 called, to Rome to approach the Pope, both about the giving 
 up of the cathedral and the expediency of appointing a 
 delegate to China to represent all Roman Catholic missions — 
 thus removing them from the Protectorate of France, who 
 too often uses what are called missionary troubles for her 
 own political purposes. Li Hung-chang himself had so 
 little realised the importance of this last matter, that when 
 Mr. Dunn's telegrams began to treat of it, he felt irritated, 
 and could not at first think what they were about. 
 
 An exchange of sites was agreed upon without difficulty. 
 This was followed up by a list of rewards for all concerned — 
 a button of the third rank for Pere Favier, Mr. Dunn to 
 receive 2,000 taels with a " Precious Star " of the third class, 
 (the money to be provided by Li Hung-chang), Mr. Detring 
 a button of the second rank; Mr. Michie to be eventually 
 rewarded also, as soon as Li Hung-chang has suggested 
 some appropriate form of recompense ! 
 
 But the other part of the matter that Mr. Dunn had under- 
 taken was far more difficult. The Empress Dowager is said to 
 have grasped the importance of having the Roman Catholic 
 Church in China represented by the delegate of a Power 
 which has no armies or fleets wherewith to threaten or attack ; 
 and when Mgr. Agliardi's coming was announced to depend 
 on his getting a formal Imperial invitation, she sent an urgent 
 message to the Yamen, " Get that man here ; lose no time " ; 
 but the French Government threatening in that case to 
 withdraw the subvention to the Church in France, and 
 sequestrate its ministers, the Pope " deplored his impotence 
 to respond to the invitation of China under such a truculent 
 menace to his children in France." In the Chinese Press 
 we find the natural comment : " It is rather suspicious that 
 
MINOB AFFAIRS. 155 
 
 the French Government, the greatest enemy of Christianity, 
 which is constantly oppressing the priests and confiscating 
 their property in France, should be so intensely desirous of 
 protecting Christians in China, where this protection is not 
 required," and again, " During the last hundred years Russia 
 has several times made war on Turkey, always on the pretext 
 of protecting Christians, and it is this which is fast breaking 
 up the Turkish Empire. It is interesting to observe that 
 Russia and France follow the same policy in this matter." 
 It is evident, however, that Li did not appreciate the true 
 significance of the question in the least. 
 
 The ratification of a treaty of friendship and commerce 
 between Portugal and China took place at Tientsin, in the 
 new Admiralty buildings on the 28th April, 1887, H.E. 
 Li Hung-chang acting on behalf of the Emperor of China, and 
 H.E. Senhor Roza on behalf of the King of Portugal. After 
 the ceremony Li gave a farewell dinner to the Portuguese 
 Minister, and it was attended by the foreign consuls and the 
 local mandarins. During the dinner Li proposed the health 
 of the King of Portugal, and Senhor Roza proposed that of 
 the Emperor of China, whUe the Viceroy's band played at 
 intervals. On the 1st instant, H.E. Senhor Roza and his 
 interpreter, Senhor P. Nolasco da Silva, left Tientsin for 
 Shanghai. 
 
 There I remember seeing them part, the Secretary 
 returning to Portugal first, and how Senhor Roza bent forward, 
 gazing after his departing friend, waving his handkerchief till 
 it was impossible to see anything more. Then when he looked 
 round his eyes were full of tears. He was a fine, handsome 
 man, of distinguished bearing, and he said as an apology: 
 " When one has gone through such long trying negotiations 
 together, one cannot but feel very much at parting from the 
 friend who has sustained one." I had met him several times 
 during the negotiations at Peking, and had no idea they 
 had tried him so much. But he had every reason to 
 feel satisfied with the result, for China confirmed the perpetual 
 occupation and government of Macao and its dependencies by 
 Portugal, whilst Portugal engaged never to alienate Macao and 
 
156 LI SUNG - CHANIJ^. 
 
 i\/% dependencies without agreement with China ; and lovely 
 old picturesque Macao, with its old-world charm, would be 
 like a jewel to any Power that knew how to utilise its fine 
 position. Unfortunately Portugal does not, and the stately 
 tihree-storied houses along the Praza, buUt by Portuguese for 
 their own delight, are mostly falling into the hands of Chinese, 
 who trade and prosper where Portuguese are unable to make 
 a living. 
 
157 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PEESONAGES AND PERSONAL MATTERS (1887—1889). 
 
 In this scarce year 1887 we find quite a series of Decrees 
 requesting Li to find money ; on February 12tli — 
 
 A Decree directing the Governor-General Li Hung-chang to 
 •order the Financial Commissioner of ChihU to forward 12,000 taels 
 without delay to a certain General, who was in immediate want of 
 funds for the repair of roads, bridges, and rest-houses, in anticipation 
 of the Imperial visit to the Western Mausolea at the end of the 
 third moon. 
 
 On February I7th — 
 
 A Decree caUing upon the Governor-General Li Hung-chang to 
 remit to the treasury of the custodians of the Imperial Mausolea 
 before the end of the first moon the sum of 10,000 taels, which was 
 required to make preparations for the Imperial visit. 
 
 Then again to send 30,000 taels before the 4th of March to the 
 Board of War, being part of the debt of 40,000 taels due to that 
 •department on land rents. This sum was urgently required to make 
 preparations for the Imperial visit to the Mausolea. 
 
 And on February 28th — 
 
 A Decree ordering the Governor-General Li Hung-chang to 
 *end 3,000 taels at once to the custodian of the Western Mausolea, 
 who requires the money to make preparations for the approaching 
 Imperial visit. This sum is an instalment of the arrears of rent due 
 on Government lands in An-chou and other districts in Chihli. 
 
 It was much about this time that there appeared on the 
 scenes one of those strange characters that are always 
 arriving in China, promising to accomplish everything: 
 
158 LI SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 brilliant comets that rise suddenly above the horizon and 
 then as suddenly disappear. In this instance it was Count 
 Mitkiewicz from Warsaw, the precursor of Luzzatti, Pritchard 
 Morgan, and one knows not how many yet to come. But 
 none seems to have obtained such a hold over Li as 
 Mitkiewicz. He was to start a bank for China, he was to 
 run the Chinese Empire, he got concessions for everythingr 
 and all his papers were said to be properly signed and in 
 order ; yet directly the bearer of concessions, of photographs 
 and letters from Li, of an Imperial Edict and much else 
 besides, landed once more in San Francisco, all sorts of 
 scandals were unearthed. According to a telegram from 
 Warsaw, Mitkiewicz was not even a count, and he and his 
 difficult name passed back into the obscurity from which 
 they sprang. Before this, however, the Dowager Empress is 
 said to have ordered Li to stop the negotiations about the 
 American-Chinese Bank. It is evident that either the 
 Dowager had a far keener intellect than the veteran states- 
 man, or that she had an adviser of far greater business 
 ability. And at once rumour indicates the mock eunuch, 
 Li Lien-ying, as the power behind the throne : the man 
 supposed to own pawn-shops or banks all through Peking, 
 the man who would demand 10,000 taels or so for an inter- 
 view with the Empress, the man whom Chinese commonly 
 speak of as really Tze Hsi's husband. But for someone's 
 interference it is certainly clear that Li would have got mixed 
 up after a yet more compromising fashion than was the case- 
 with that self-proclaimed saviour of society — Mitkiewicz from 
 Warsaw. 
 
 It is generally said in the West of China that the only way 
 to get on in business is to get heavily into debt, for no one is 
 interested in pushing a man who is solvent, whilst, in the 
 other case, all his creditors are so ; as it is their only chance 
 of ever being paid. How far this method holds good over 
 China generally it is difficult to ascertain. But there certainly 
 seems to be a generally received idea in the East, that, when a 
 man is disgraced and has no friends, that is the moment to 
 attach him to your side; because then, having nothing but your 
 
PERSONAGES AND PERSONAL MATTERS. 169 
 
 support to stand between him and ruin, there is nothing he 
 need hesitate to do in pushing your interests. Some people 
 say it is on this principle that Russia arranged for Li to be 
 sent as envoy to the Moscow coronation, and that she now 
 stands by the Dowager Empress ; knowing that the latter is 
 so universally hated in China, that she must absolutely rely 
 upon Russian support. In any case this principle may, to a 
 certain extent, account for Li's choice of friends. It is notice- 
 able that wherever Chang Chih-tung has held high place, he 
 has left a school of somewhat sterling ardent reformers 
 behind him — La Canton, in Szechuan, and elsewhere; probably 
 also at Nanking, though of this I cannot speak from personal 
 experience. As a rule, wherever one meets with an official, 
 dishked but respected by other officials because of his incor- 
 ruptibility, the explanation is always "Oh, one of Chang 
 Chih-tung's set ! " Indeed, " a relation," is generally added. 
 
 Li, on the other hand, seems to have gathered all the most 
 hopelessly corrupt men in China round him, his special friends 
 during this period being Liu Ping-chang, Viceroy of Szechuan, 
 on whose permanent exclusion from office the British Govern- 
 ment was at last obhged to insist, because he so evidently 
 fomented the disturbances against foreigners in his province 
 in 1895 ; and Shang, for years Li's special proteg^ then his 
 decidedly treacherous rival, and now occupying the best posts 
 in China for making money, as Administrator of Railways, 
 Mines, Telegraphs, etc. Li had recently been worsted by a 
 censor who had memorialised the Throne against a cashiered 
 officer, whom he was employing. The officer's record was so 
 bad that the censor carried his point, and the Emperor ordered 
 the defaulter to be dismissed. It was then that Li applied 
 for the services of the now celebrated Shang, then a cashiered 
 judge from Fukien. 
 
 Again, when Cheng Ki-tong had to leave the Chinese 
 Legation and Paris, because of some affair about a cheque, 
 the signature to which he was accused of having meddled 
 with, and returned to China with a French lady as his wife — 
 exciting the more comment in Shanghai because he had 
 abeady there an English wife in charge of the children of 
 
160 £1 HVNa - CHANG. 
 
 Ms first Chinese wife, said to be dead — it was at Li's Viceregal 
 Court that he found a shelter when pursued by justice. And 
 it was not even as if the late attache had been a man of dis- 
 tinguished parentage and antecedents, who might already 
 have been in many ways linked with Li. For as he had been 
 a manservant waiting at dinner in a European house of 
 business, like not a few other men floated by the Chinese 
 Oovernment as fit to associate with diplomatists in Europe, 
 his antecedents were well known. Cheng Ki-tong was at 
 £rst sought for as a criminal, but Li's favour secured liberty 
 for Cheng, and for Li, the services of a clever, unscrupulous 
 man, who could not stand without his support. 
 
 Now in 1888 Li emphasised this preference of his for 
 men of ability, whose characters could hardly be called 
 ■doubtful, by insisting on marrying his daughter to one who 
 has been often spoken of as his evil genius, Chang P'ei-lun ; 
 who besides many other misdeeds, when appointed to the 
 defence of the Foochow Coast, not only had made no pre- 
 paration to resist the French attack, but "even had the 
 Audacity, when his fleet was finally destroyed, to report that 
 he had gained a complete victory, and had sunk two of 
 the French ironclads." For this Chang had been exiled to 
 Manchuria, but Li managed to obtain his return to favour, 
 as also that of the admiral who had commanded the fleet 
 and had been likewise banished. Li's daughter, as well as 
 her mother, protested vehemently against the marriage, but 
 Xi carried his point and there were great wedding festivities 
 in the autumn. 
 
 Whether as a retribution or in consequence of too much 
 Tvine drinking — for the Chinese attach great importance to 
 what they call big- wine capacity, and think it a quality to be 
 greatly admired — Li almost directl}"^ afterwards had a stroke 
 of facial paralysis, which, although not serious, caused some 
 apprehension ; as the removal of the great Yiceroy from his 
 post from any cause would produce important changes in 
 China. 
 
 The account in the Peking Gazette of March, 1889, is that 
 Li had — 
 
\ 
 
 LI HUNG-CHANG'S WIFE (1871). 
 {From a 2'hoio l)y Messrs. Thomson, Grosvenor Street, W.) 
 
 To face p. 101. 
 
FER80NAGES AND PERSONAL MATTERS. 161 
 
 caught a severe cold in his head which affected the muscles of 
 his face, and produced great thirst and redness of the eyes. Hw 
 obtained at first twenty days' leave, and was subsequently granted 
 two extensions of a month each, on both of which occasions the 
 Emperor expressed great solicitude about the state of his health, ;ind 
 urged him to procure the best medical advice available. Prince 
 Ch'un sent him twenty piUs which had been specially prepared in 
 the palace, one of which was to be taken every day before food. 
 
 During the last month the redness of the eyes has greatly dis- 
 appeared, there has been a stoppage of the tears, and his face has no 
 longer tie drawn appearance it formerly had. The doctor's bulletin 
 states that the disease is already eight parts gone. The muscles are, 
 however, still weak, and the patient will require to keep out of tlic 
 wind and take rest. With the mildness of spring he will be able to 
 go out once more, and under the vivifying influences of that health- 
 giving season his muscles will resume their proper functions. The 
 patient expresses himself profoundly grateful for the many tokens q£ 
 regret which he has received from the Throne, and assures the 
 Emperor that nothing is farther from his thoughts than to take his 
 ease at such a moment as the present. Though he has been on leave 
 for the past month he has been daily occupied in transacting business 
 and seeing his subordinates, and has often forgotten to take his food 
 until after the going down of the sun. All through the stillness of 
 the night his mind has been troubled with the thought that his sick- 
 ness might cause some miscarriage of public business ; now, however, 
 that his sickness is gradually disappearing, he proposes to cancel his 
 leave, and resume entire supervision of his oftice. — Rescript : We 
 have carefully perused the above, and must again urge upon the 
 patient to be still more careful in sparing himself anxiety and labour, 
 and to continue a course of medical treatment, in the hope that his 
 early restoration to health may remove the earnest solicitude which 
 we feel on his behalf. 
 
 During the month the Viceroy's eldest son arrived ac 
 Tientsin, having come from London — where, as also in Paris, 
 he had been Secretary of Legation — in order to pass his 
 examination as Chun-tze ; but after all it seems he could not 
 go up for it, siQce a relation had been appointed examiner ; 
 thus rendering it impossible according to Chinese usage. Lord 
 Li had also come to celebrate the birthday of his mother (by 
 
162 LI HUNG-CBANG. 
 
 adoption). There was a grand Chinese dinner at the Viceroy's 
 Yamen to Chinese officials. Li seems to have been -well 
 again. But paralysis is apparently the great foe of Chinese 
 officials, for one after another is recorded as dying of it. 
 Prince Ch'un, the Emperor's father, was even now labouring 
 under general paralysis; he could barely walk with the 
 assistance of two helpers, his left hand could not move, and 
 with his right hand he was unable to sign his name. It 
 had already been reported in the papers that he was dead, 
 a statement repeated more than once before the end came, 
 as also that he had vowed to repair all the temples in the 
 capital if he should recover. The taking of a vow of this 
 sort is not unusual among wealthy Chinese, and the repairs 
 of many well-known temples have come about in this way. 
 
 Meanwhile, Li Han-chang, Li's elder brother, and formerly 
 Governor-General of Hupeh and Hunan, had been appointed 
 Iiispector-General of the Grain Transport ; a post of consider- 
 able standing, and if railways were to be built under his 
 auspices, likely to become of stiU greater importance. Li Han- 
 chang carried anything but a good reputation as Viceroy into 
 retirement a few years before, and as he had been in Peking 
 for some months seeking an appointment, it seems as if he 
 had had some difficulty in obtaining one. He was commonly 
 known in China as " the bottomless purse," and whilst some 
 Europeans defend Li Hung-chang against the charges of 
 peculation and avarice — I have never met a Chinese who did 
 so — neither Europeans nor Chinese defend either Li Han- 
 chang or Li Hung-chang's sons from charges of the kind; 
 which are brought against them in so very gross a form that 
 I always feel unable personally to accept them ; with regard, 
 at least, to Lord Li — with whom I have conversed more than 
 once — who has very pleasing manners, and, I should say, a 
 good countenance. Yet men who have had business dealings 
 with him ought to know best, and they are unanimous. 
 There were now great family rejoicings over this appointment 
 of Li Han-chang's; and presently another son of Li's was 
 appointed second-class Assistant Secretary, in commemora- 
 tion of the Emperor's twentieth birthday. 
 
PEESONAGBS AND PERSONAL MATTERS. 163 
 
 Meanwhile also there had been great doings at the Court, 
 as duly recorded in the Peking Gazette. Our own Court 
 Circular would not be half such interesting reading. 
 
 November 8th, 1888. (1.) Since the Emperor reverently- 
 entered upon the succession to the great patrimony he has been 
 gradually growing up to manhood, and it is fitting that a person of 
 liigh character should be selected to be his Consort and assist him in 
 the duties of the palace, to the end that the high position of Empress 
 may be fittingly filled and the Emperor be supported in the pursuit 
 of virtue. The choice having fallen upon Yeh-ho-na-la, the daughter 
 of Deputy-Lieutenant General Kuei Hsiang, a maiden of virtuous 
 character and becoming and dignified demeanour, we command tha 
 she be appointed Empress. 
 
 (2.) We command that T'a-t'a-la, aged 15, the daughter of 
 Ch'ang Hsii, a former Vice-president of a Board, be raised to a 
 position of concubine of the fourth degree, and that another daughter 
 of the same officer, aged 13, be appointed another concubine of the 
 same degree. 
 
 Kuei Hsiang was a younger brother of the Empress 
 Dowager, as also of the Emperor's mother ; and consequently 
 the future Empress was a cousin of the Emperor. Ch'ang 
 Hsii, the father of the two sisters who were to become 
 Imperial concubines, was formerly Vice-president of the 
 Board of Punishments, and died some three or four years 
 before. Some time before his death he got into trouble for 
 having on a day -of official mourning betrothed one of his 
 daughters to the son of Pao-heng, then Acting Governor of 
 Shansi. Not that this last curious little fact has special 
 bearing on the important matter in hand. 
 
 The Emperor is supposed to make the final choice himself, 
 by moving his sceptre slightly in the direction of the young 
 lady he chooses as worthy to be Empress out of those selected, 
 and again re-selected for him by the Empress Dowager ; and 
 according to Chinese report, he was indicating another young 
 lady, when Tze Hsi, with that decision that never forsakes 
 her, seized the sceptre in his hand and herself directed it 
 towards her niece. Yek-no-na-la was said to be of a character 
 somewhat like her own, and her age was twenty-four; while 
 
164 XI MUNa - CHANG. 
 
 the Emperor was only eighteen. To give, as usual, a con- 
 temporary account of the ceremony : — 
 
 Eirst came four horsemen as teralds, followed at a short distance 
 by a large cavalcade of more horsemen, headed by the two Imperial 
 Commissioners appointed to escort the bride ; then followed nine 
 pairs of white ponies with yellow trappings, two deep, led by men ; 
 then came two yellow pavilions, followed by two large yellow satin 
 carts, each drawn by one white pony ; next two large yellow satin 
 sedan chairs with eight bearers. These were followed by a huge 
 crowd of bannermen, in large red flowered robes carrying horn- 
 lanterns with the character "felicity" painted upon them; then 
 came halberdiers with large round yellow silk fans or screens, and 
 two closed silk umbrellas of each of the five colours, and last of all 
 came the bride's or Phoenix chair in yellow satin with what at 
 the distance appeared as glass panels with painted Phoenixes (hence 
 the name) in satin on the inside, carried by sixteen bearers, and the 
 rear of the procession was brought up by horsemen. Large yellow 
 buttons adorned the top of the first cart, and the bride's chair. 
 At two o'clock a.m. the procession returned to the Palace, carrying 
 the bride and the two young concubines. The streets were beauti- 
 fidly lighted with fixed lamps on each side at short distances. The 
 numerous bearers carried lighted lamps in the procession. The 
 night was intensely cold. There was no music, and the chair was 
 yellow not red, in • these two respects difl'ering from all other 
 Chinese marriages. On March 4th the Legation flags were again 
 at the mast toj), in honour of the assumption of the reins of 
 Government by the Emperor, the Empress that morning having 
 officially given up charge. The bride's father was created a duke 
 on the occasion, and further had the rank of Tartar Generalissimo 
 conferred on him. A few days before the Imperial bridal trousseau 
 was taken in. It was divided into two portions, each of three 
 hundred pieces. All was carried in by men, one part two days 
 before the proper day, and the final part on the day before, or on 
 the 25th February. The gates and doors of the palace were orna- 
 mented by silk lattices, and the whole of the way from the palace 
 to the bride's house was carpeted. 
 
 Thus Tze Hsi, ex-concubine of the Emperor Tao Kwang, 
 not satisfied with having placed her sister's son upon the 
 great Dragon throne, now set her brother's daughter by his 
 
PEB80NAGES ANB PERSONAL MATTERS. 165 
 
 side. On the 30th of April following, the young Empress per- 
 formed her first State function, when, accompanied by some 
 ladies of the Court, she revived the old practice of worship- 
 ping at the Temple of the Goddess of Sericulture, which 
 had been in abeyance for the last thirty years. This function 
 was not performed by the Empress of T'ung Chih, and 
 owing to its long discontinuance, the oiBcials of the Imperial 
 household experienced considerable difficulty in endeavouring 
 to reproduce the old rites. One feature of the ceremony is 
 the picking of the mulberry leaves, and the trees from which 
 these were gathered on this occasion had been specially 
 planted some years before in anticipation of the custom being 
 revived. The Imperial journey to the Tombs was accom- 
 pHshed this year without any eontretremps whatever. 
 The Emperor had a chair, a cart, and a horse, so that he 
 could vary his mode of travel. He was again seen and 
 described as " rather a handsome young man, somewhat pale, 
 but with a very intelligent face " ; the Empress Dowager as 
 "of extraordinary force, very well preserved, her features 
 denoting great strength of will." The most striking charac- 
 teristic of the whole cortege was the irreproachable freshness 
 of everything, so diiferent from ordinary Oriental processions. 
 Everything was new, or newly done up ; chairs, carts, harness 
 and accoutrements, the uniforms of the troops, etc. The 
 mules and horses were also very elegant. The procession, 
 which numbered more than 10,000 men, had an air of 
 brilliancy and splendour to which Peking was little accus- 
 tomed. 
 
 The achievements of the Dowager Empress Tze Hsi are 
 certainly remarkable. Her nephew, by her management, was 
 Emperor, her niece Empress. Yung-lu, believed by many to 
 be now ruling the destinies of China, is a near kinsman. 
 And yet again and again it is repeated throughout Europe 
 that she herself was a Cantonese slave girl. Even in China 
 there are Chinese who declare she is by birth a Cantonese- 
 There are, indeed, Chinese who will declare that, although she 
 was the daughter of the not very exalted military official, who 
 passed as her father, yet she was not the daugh ter of his wife 
 
166 LI HVNG- CHANG. 
 
 but of a woman wiio had a European father ; and that it is 
 the European blood in her veins that accounts for her 
 masterful character, and her piercing eyes. This last theory 
 is very fascinating, till one discovers that Tze Hsi is not without 
 precedent in Chinese history. There have been before her 
 the Empress Lii, and the still more extraordinary Empress Wu. 
 
 According to an article in the North China Herald of 1885 
 the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty (e.g. 206 to a.d. 220), 
 always regarded as one of the most glorious in Chinese history, 
 abdicated in favour of his son ; when the Empress Dowager 
 Lti " usurped the Throne and reigned wickedly and unjustly 
 for eight years. Jealousy of a more youthful and beautiful 
 rival, the Lady Ch'i, had, even in the lifetime of the Emperor, 
 developed all that was evil in the nature of this woman ; and 
 it is related that her vengeance at length prompted her to- 
 cut off her rival's hands and feet, put out her eyes, render her 
 deaf and dumb, and then throw her ahve upon a dunghill, 
 bidding her young son go and inspect for himself the ' human 
 sow.' When, on the death of both the old and young 
 Emperors, — the latter of whom died a drivelling imbecile, in 
 horror at his mother's crimes — she assumed full power in the 
 State, her reign was a series of the most mischievous pohtical 
 intrigues, and her decease was hailed with deep and heartfelt 
 satisfaction in all parts of her dominions. 
 
 " One of the inferior concubines of the reigning sovereign, 
 the future Empress Wu, a woman of low birth, said to have 
 been extraordinarily fascinating, retired from Court on the 
 death of her protector and' embraced a rehgious life. But 
 eventually she was discovered in her convent by the successor 
 of the monarch, and, after years of the cleverest and most 
 audacious intrigue, found herself in a position of power which 
 for an entire generation proved absolutely unassailable. She 
 was the female counterpart of the great, bad sovereign whO' 
 burnt the books, boiled the sages, buried courtiers ahve, and 
 arrogated to himself the title of ' The First Emperor.' 
 
 " Stories of her strange extravagances are legion. Every- 
 body has read how she even claimed authority over Nature, 
 and caused the pink peonies to bloom at her command ; how 
 
PEBSOJSTAGES ANB PERSONAL MATTERS. 167 
 
 she had one good, great councillor to whom she remained 
 steadfast throughout, in spite of her evil propensities; how 
 she strengthened her power by foreign aUiances; how she 
 altered the style of her reign no fewer than seventeen times ; 
 how she attempted to change the mode of writing Chinese 
 characters; how she held the reins of government for over 
 twenty years in the teeth of the universal execration with 
 which she was regarded ; and how, in spite of the actual 
 existence of a real Emperor on the one hand, and the Salic 
 law on the other, she assumed and was accorded the title of 
 ' Most Holy Emperor ' herself. She was eventually deposed, 
 but she Hved her life out in a splendid palace, and passed 
 away peacefully at the last. Her memory and the memory of 
 the Empress Lii are both infamous, and the Chinese point to 
 the reigns of these two women as justifications of the national 
 policy with respect to the exclusion of women." 
 
 Although the Dowager Empress of to-day has not yet, 
 like Wu, gone so far as to try to alter the Chinese method of 
 writing, yet it is possible that future ages may hold her in 
 greater horror than these Empresses; for in her reign the 
 Holy Places of Peking, and even the burial-places of the 
 dead Emperors, have been defiled. However her reign may 
 end, that she must in the end be classed along with the 
 arch-fiends Lii and "Wu seems inevitable. 
 
 In June of this year, 1889, we find Li engaged on one of 
 those questions which emphasise the multifarious character 
 of a Viceroy's duties; namely, the repairing of a great 
 roadway. He writes a memorial, stating that " the pass 
 leading from Nank'ou through Chuyung Kuan up to the 
 Great Wall is one of the great thoroughfares connecting 
 Peking with Mongolia and the northern parts of the Empire. 
 The mountainous region in this vicinity was regarded by 
 former dynasties as a barrier against invasion, but under the 
 enlightened influence of the present reigning family a closer 
 connection has been maintained with the vast extent of 
 country lying beyond the Wall. As a consequence the pass 
 is largely frequented by Mongolian princes and tribute 
 missions visiting Peking, while it is also the main route 
 
168 Xr EUNG-CSANG. 
 
 for the conveyance of mails and Government supplies to 
 the border country on the north and north-west part of 
 the Empire. For more than two hundred years it has never 
 received any repairs on a large scale. Kunning for a distance 
 of nearly fifteen miles through an overhanging mass of high 
 hills and precipitous cliffs, it became in summer and autumn 
 a raging torrent, and in winter was a succession of frozen 
 sheets of water, which often proved fatal to man and beast. 
 "The pass came to be regarded with such dread by all 
 travellers that some improvement in its condition was viewed 
 as an absolute necessity. The great difficulty was the 
 question of expense. Chihli being a province whose ex- 
 chequer shows an annual deficit, no assistance was to be 
 expected from pubHc funds. Four years ago a conference of 
 the district officers was held, and amongst those present were 
 several prefects. Extensive inquiries were made amongst 
 the elders and gentry of the neighbourhood, with the result 
 that public opinion was clearly shown to be in favour of 
 levying a contribution on passing animals for the repair 
 of the pass. Offices were accordingly established, and a toll 
 of from two to ten cash was coUested upon all camels, mules, 
 oxen, horses, donkeys, and other animals passing up and 
 down. Exception was, however, made in favour of horses on 
 government service returning without a load, as also of all 
 beasts of burden carrying firewood or agricultural implements. 
 The length of the pass was measured, and found to be 
 6,730 chang from Tungpotzu to Langwo. Having regard 
 to the large quantity of stone and other materials required for 
 such a vast work, it was soon found that the proceeds of the 
 contributions from baggage animals were not large enough 
 to warrant its being all undertaken at once, and it was there- 
 fore thought advisable to carry it on gradually in sections. 
 The work that remained to be done was still enormous. 
 Hollows had to be filled up, heights had to be levelled down, 
 and in some places a long detour had to be made and an 
 entirely new road constructed." Then followed elaborate 
 calculations as to how the sum required was to be raised. 
 The Viceroy concludes by recommending for various forms of 
 
PEBSOXAGES JXD PERSONAL MATTEBS. 169 
 
 rewards a number of officials to whose exertions it is due that 
 a pass which a few years ago scarcely afforded a foothold for 
 unimals of any kind should now be a thoroughfare for carts 
 and traffic of every kind. 
 
 At this time — 1889 — the great question of the day was that 
 •of railways. Chang Chih-tung's proposals had been approved 
 by the Throne, and the Viceroy himself had been transferred 
 to Wuchang, where he would be at the southern terminus of 
 the line of railway he had proposed. Li Hung-chang was un- 
 ■doubtedly strongly in favour of railways, and particularly 
 anxious to see the existing railway continued to Tungchow. 
 The Admiralty (which seems rather an odd board for the 
 purpose) had submitted a memorial on railways, and August 
 27, 1889, an Edict had come out. " The Sovereign is of the 
 opinion that to make a country powerful railways are 
 •essential, but recognising the fact that at the outset the 
 people will have doubts and suspicions, orders the Viceroy 
 and Governors of Chihli, Hupeh, and Honan, to issue ex- 
 planatory proclamations to them, exhorting and commanding 
 them to throw no impediment in the way. It is the Imperial 
 desire that all shall work together to make this great work a 
 success." Li, meanwhile, had entered into pecuniary and 
 other arrangements, and was annoyed by the delays, fearing 
 always also that a fire might occur in the palace or a 
 breach in the Yellow Kiver embankment, which might be 
 taken by the opponents of railways as an indication of the 
 displeasure of Heaven. 
 
 Alas! hardly had this fear been expressed before the 
 beautiful circular pavilion at the Temple of Heaven, covered 
 with azure blue tiles of finest porcelain clay, and built in 
 three tiers— the very pavilion under which the dragon throne 
 was placed — caught fire, so that the whole sky was illuminated. 
 Already before that a palace gate had been burnt down, 
 but this was far more serious. I still remember the shudder 
 -with which the news was reported throughout China — " The 
 Temple of Heaven burnt down ! — the Temple of Heaven 
 burnt down ! " And from that moment the Emperor, in whose 
 reign it had occurred, was regarded as a doomed man. It 
 
170 LI HUNG • CJSANG. 
 
 ■was not, however, after all, the great white marble sacrificial 
 altar on which the Emperor alone ascends once in the year 
 to offer atonement for himself and for his people in a remote, 
 lonely place, and which is open to the sky, and has little to 
 bum; yet the event could not but be regarded as the 
 warning of Heaven. And it was remarked by one of 
 the officials in the palace, that just as the proposal to 
 build the Tungchow line had been followed by the burn- 
 ing of the Tai-ho gate, so now the proposal to build the 
 Hankow line was followed by the burning of the Temple of 
 Heaven. 
 
 It was about this time that a good man was taken away 
 from the evil to come. The lad whom TsSng Kwo-fan, on his 
 return from quelling the Taiping rebellion to his home 
 in Hunan, found immersed in literary pursuits, and, of all 
 things in the world, studying an English dictionary, and there 
 in the centre of China slowly and painfully perfecting himself 
 in English — this lad had developed into the Minister at 
 St. James's. Minister to England, as before to France and 
 to Russia, where it had been his duty to set aside Chung- 
 How's unfortunate Treaty of Livadia, everyone had formed 
 high hopes of what his influence might effect in Peking when 
 he returned there. He had seemed so pleasant, so en- 
 lightened, so friendly in Europe, that it was a great dis- 
 appointment to find that his Yamen in Peking soon assumed 
 the same neglected, untidy appearance as the other official 
 residences there, whilst he evidently shrank from, rather than 
 sought, intercourse with foreigners. And yet, with all this, he 
 was accounted by his fellow-countrymen such a friend of 
 foreigners that he never even dared return to his native 
 province of Hunan. He seems always to have felt himself 
 at a disadvantage among his own countrymen — men who 
 had never visited foreign countries, but who had been for 
 years carrying on the business of foreign affairs with 
 foreigners. Possibly the Marquis Tseng felt himself at a 
 loss in other ways, for he may be said to have modelled 
 his conduct in accordance with the wisely beautiful words 
 of his even more distinguished father: — 
 
PERSONAGES AND PERSONAL MATTERS. 171 
 
 It is always difficult to know what to do in barbarian affairs. 
 However, the key is never to be found far from the four qualities of 
 Confucius — Loyalty, Genuineness, Truth and Respect. Genuineness 
 means Honesty ; Respect means Prudence ; for Truth, it simply 
 suffices not to say anything that is untrue ; yet this is the most 
 difficult of all j and it is on this word that it behoves us to take our 
 chief hold. Do not allow anything agreed upon to-day to be modified 
 to-morrow, on account of some small advantage or disadvantage. 
 
 What statesman nurtured in accordance with Christian 
 teaching has ever given more high-minded advice to a son ? 
 
 If, however, he was not everywhere appreciated, his; 
 amiabUity and easily flowing conversation charmed the young 
 Emperor; till TsSng became a daily visitor at the Palace, where 
 Kwang-Shu loved to hear from him about his foreign ex- 
 periences. TsSng had long been in the confidence of the 
 Emperor's father, and it must have been a great joy to him to 
 note the eager curiosity of the young Emperor, whose rapid 
 intellectual development seems to have surprised and de- 
 lighted him. Continued intercourse with the lad, we are told, 
 confirmed the high estimate he had formed of his capacity. 
 Between Emperor and Minister there was respect on one side> 
 traditional reverence on the other, and it is probably no 
 exaggeration to say, affection on both. Amid much distract- 
 ing care and press of work, with health impaired and rest 
 destroyed by the absurd hours observed at the Chinese Court, 
 the Marquis Tseng broke down and died. China's loss was not 
 only that an honest and able statesman had gone from her, but 
 that her young Emperor was thus deprived of a sympathetic 
 and sagacious adviser at a time when his counsels would have 
 been of most value. Yet we cannot but imagine that it was 
 during these daily conferences that the aspirations after 
 reform, which afterwards showed themselves in such a startling 
 manner, were first implanted in the youthful monarch; for 
 Weng Tung-ho, his tutor, of a very ancient and renowned 
 family from near Soochow, a man who for years exercised a 
 tremendous influence over his pupil, had always been so strongly 
 opposed to foreign ways, that it was feared that his opposition 
 
172 .il HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 "Would even prevent the introduction of railways. But the 
 Emperor's gentle friend, the one time " little Tseng Chi-ts^ " of 
 the great Tseng Kwo-fan, died. Every day crowds of officials 
 arrived to make their prostrations before the coffin, whUst 
 all felt the greatest sympathy with his tall, gracious widow, the 
 Lady Peach Blossom^ and the rest of the mourning family. 
 Then the old Viceroy at Nanking told the story of a remarkable 
 dream ; how he had seen his brother in a most exalted place 
 in Heaven, and asked if he were happy, and the other had 
 replied that he had his family and relations round him, had 
 reached a very high state of happiness, and could not wish to 
 be more so. The day after the dream came the unexpected 
 news of the death of the Marquis ; and the Viceroy (recalling 
 it, and connecting it with this sad news) was at once consoled; 
 and so, said the Chinese papers, were the rest of the family. 
 But it did not seem so when I met them in after years. 
 
 The death of the Marquis Tseng was incidentally seized 
 upon as a pretext for postponing any further consideration of 
 the Hankow Kailway ; and a decree was issued : — 
 
 In reply to a memorial from the Viceroy of ChiLli, Li Hung- 
 chang, setting forth the high qualifications of the late Tsing Chi-tse, 
 and praying that his biography may be incorporated among the 
 •chronicles of State, His Majesty, after touching on the worthy 
 manner in which the deceased Minister filled the post of envoy 
 abroad, the highly satisfactory way in which, as a member of the 
 Tsungli Yamen, he conducted international relations with Foreign 
 Powers, and the valuable assistance rendered by him in connection 
 with the organisation of the newly-formed Admiralty Board, com- 
 mands that a biography of the late Minister be enrolled among the 
 records of the State Historian's office, and that as a mark of special 
 favour, a title of canonisation be conferred upon him, in token of 
 the lasting regard with which His Majesty cherishes the memory of 
 a loyal servant of the Throne. 
 
 The Shihpao then announced : — " Lord Li is expected by a 
 great majority to take the place of the late Marquis Tseng in 
 the Diplomatic Service ; he is comparatively a young man, of 
 about thirty-five years of age, having an energetic mind to 
 perform the nation's work ; with his father's rank and power 
 
PERSONAGES AND PEBSONAL MATTERS. 17S 
 
 lie can do more in the affairs of State than any ordinary 
 official even of high rank. It is said that Lord Li has a fair 
 command of the English language, an invaluable vade mecum, 
 for a diplomat at the Court of the Mikado, where English is 
 the Court language. The Government has made a wise choice, 
 in appointing Lord Li as Minister to Japan, for he will surely 
 bring these two sister nations into closer friendship by his 
 genial manner and diplomatic tact which he acquired while at 
 the Court of St. James as Secretary of Legation. 
 
 "The rumour of the death of Prince Ch'un is not con- 
 firmed. He went into a sinking fit, remaining unconscious, 
 about four hours, hence the report. His recovery is supposed 
 to be due to the prayers of the Emperor, who held a Budd- 
 hist image in his hands till his father revived." 
 
 A propos of this we learn that the seventh Prince 
 was a universal favourite. When the Viceroy, Li Hung- 
 chang, offered to pave several of the main avenues of the. 
 city at his own expense, the kind-hearted Prince gained 
 the everlasting gratitude of the small hucksters in Peking 
 by refusing to allow this paving, which would have inter- 
 fered with their business. He could not withstand the 
 petitions of the poor, and the streets remain in their filth 
 as before. Visitors to Peking can hardly feel equally 
 grateful to him. Notwithstanding this, we are told that 
 he was desirous of improvement and progress in China. 
 He was in favour of railroads and steamships. The Emperor 
 had nearly completed a magnificent residence for his father in 
 the northern part of the city ; but here have we no abiding 
 city, and so Prince Ch'un, too, passed away, and from being 
 styled officially " The Father who gave birth to the Emperor," 
 he became the " Emperor's Father," and lost his own name 
 of Prince Ch'un, to be known to history as "Prince Virtuous"; 
 for, says the Empress Dowager, '' concerning all the posthu- 
 mous honours, the most essential is the alteration of name. 
 . . . Let the laudatory title be ' Virtuous,' so as to make- 
 manifest his loyal services and moral excellence, and may it 
 be handed down from generation to generation for ever. Let 
 the Chinkuo Duke, Chai L'e, Prince Ch'un's second son, and 
 
174 LI SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 the Emperor's brother, succeed immediately to the heredi- 
 tary princedom of the first rank, so as to show our deep 
 regard for a near and virtuous relative." All business went 
 on as usual, and only the Emperor himself wore mourning for 
 liis father. 
 
 Instructions, however, were given by the Empress 
 Dowager that the obsequies were to be conducted according 
 to the regulations laid down for those of an Imperial Prince. 
 ^'The Emperor will himself make out an inscription for a 
 memorial tablet, which tablet shall be roofed in with yellow 
 tiles. On the expiry of the first year's mourning, and on 
 the day on which he comes out of mourning, the Emperor 
 will hold a service conducted according to the rites of the 
 greater sacrifices, and will himself read the service. On the 
 day prior to the committal of the body to the ground, he 
 will hold a similar service at its temporary resting place, and 
 on the day itself respectfully accompany the cortege. On the 
 day after he will again worship at the grave. The yearly rites 
 in connection with the tomb shall be performed by the Prince 
 succeeding to the title. Out of respect to the memory of the 
 deceased the character Huan, the name of the Prince, is 
 henceforth not to be used in writing." 
 
 Then follows a decree mentioning the high officials at 
 Peking and in the provinces^ whom the Emperor, after the 
 triennial examination, finds deserving of special notice and 
 Tecognition, Li Hung-chang among them. 
 
 After noting these important deaths, we may remind 
 ourselves of the position and the career of some of China's 
 surviving notabilities. Chang Chih-tung, so often before 
 mentioned, was third in the metropolitan examination in 
 1863, and was appointed Judicial Commissioner in Kuang- 
 tung in March, 1865, and Financial Commissioner in May, 
 1868. He was made Governor of Shansi in January, 1882, 
 and Viceroy of Kwangsi and Kwangtung in August, 1884 ; 
 then in 1890 appointed Viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh. He is 
 one of the two staunch Yangtse Viceroys to whom so many 
 Europeans owe their lives. 
 
 The second of these is Liu K'un-yi, a Hunan man, who, 
 
PEBS0NAG3S AXD PERSONAL MATTERS. 17 
 
 it was thought at first, would not take up his post at 
 Nanking as Viceroy of Kiangsu Kiangsi and Anhui ; partly 
 because of his great age, and partly because of his devotion to 
 ■opium. He was in the habit of smoking two ounces a day, 
 which habit, he said, he had contracted during his military 
 career, when opium was the only means he could find of 
 relieving his fatigue and alleviating the privations and hard- 
 ships to which he was exposed. Also because of his tendencies 
 towards Mormonism in domestic matters, which he explained 
 by himself by the fact that he was old and childless, and it 
 behoved him to leave no resource untried in order to get a 
 son to perform the rites for him after his decease. And 
 lastly, because of his great wealth. He was said to have made 
 200,000 taels during the eight months in which he had charge 
 of the superintendence of customs ia Canton. The reports 
 about him were like those about Liu Ming Chuan, Governor 
 of Formosa, of whom it was said : " The daughters of the 
 ^people fill the Governor's harem." But it must be remem- 
 bered that at that time it was thought Liu K'un-yi's fond- 
 ness for opium and Mormonism would but commend him 
 to the Empress Dowager, popularly accused at the time of 
 both tastes. Though the opium charge is incredible, Tze Hsi 
 Tvas regarded as a great invalid during the Hfetime of Tze An, 
 the other Empress Regent, and then curiously enough it was 
 the other who died, Tze Hsi becoming the extraordinarily 
 vigorous ruler she had ever since appeared, always looking 
 younger than her years, too. 
 
 Besides these prominent men, there was also Li Han- 
 chang, Li Himg-chang's elder brother, an Anhui man and a 
 Licentiate. He was Taotai in Kwangsi in 1862, Grain Com- 
 missioner in Kwangtung in February, 1863, then Judicial 
 Commissioner there, and subsequently Financial Com- 
 missioner in the same year. In March, 1865, he was 
 appointed Governor of Hunan, and was transferred to the 
 ^ame post in Kiangsu in 1867 and in Chekiang in 1868. In 
 September, 1870, he was appointed Viceroy of Kwangsi and 
 Kwangtung, removed to Szechuan in January, and restored 
 to Kwangsi and Kwangtung in October, 1876. He went into 
 
176 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 mourning in 1882, and was appointed Director-General of 
 Grain Transport the following October. Although seventy 
 years of age he was still vigorous when now appointed once- 
 more to be Viceroy of Kwangsi and Kwangtung, to the great 
 dissatisfaction of the Cantonese. There was also Kang-Yi, 
 the new Governor of Kiangsu, since known as the Lord 
 High Extortioner, a Manchu. Yuan-shih Kai, Yung Lu, and 
 Yii-hsien were hardly heard of then, nor was Prince Tuan 
 yet talked of among Europeans. Of Shang, then stUl Li's 
 protege, we have already spoken. There were beside these 
 Li Hung-chang and the rest of his family. 
 
177 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE VISIT OF THE CZAREVITCH. 
 
 In 1891, the Czarevitch, then on his tour round the world, 
 paid a visit to China; which demands to be recorded in a 
 separate chapter, although Li does not personally appear in 
 the attendant celebrations. 
 
 Early in the year the Chinese Times had related how the 
 Emperor said, " We add the further wish that the relations 
 between China and other countries may in future take the 
 friendliest form." It described Kwang-Shti, at the same time, 
 as rather pale and dark with a well-shaped forehead, long, 
 black, arched eyebrows, large, mournful, dark eyes, a sensitive 
 mouth, and an unusually long chin. The young Emperor, 
 we are told, together with an air of great gentleness 
 and intelhgence, wore an expression of melancholy — due, 
 natiurally enough, to the deprivation of nearly all the pleas- 
 ures of his age and to the strict life, which the hard and 
 complicated duties of his high position forced him to lead. 
 The recent death of his father might have been added tp 
 these causes. 
 
 When the Czarevitch, who is to-day ruler over All the 
 Russias, visited China, the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung ex- 
 pressed his intention of not making any preparations for his 
 reception unless he were ordered to do so by an Imperial 
 Edict ; and he does not seem to have been reprimanded. The 
 Czarevitch was brought at once up the Yangtse to Hankow, 
 almost the centre of China, in the middle of what has since 
 been so often called the British sphere of influence, but 
 certainly is the seat of the great Russian brick-tea industry; 
 
 M 
 
178 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 comprising the wealthiest colony in China, thanks to the 
 Russians there possessing a monopoly of the brick-tea 
 trade with Russia. In the end the Czarevitch and Prince 
 George of Greece lunched for five hours with the Viceroy 
 Chang Chih-tung, on April 20, 1891, at the picturesque 
 temple at Hanyang, the Viceroy's visit having been the first 
 the Czarevitch received on arriving, and this lunch being the 
 return call. From the luncheon the two Princes came to 
 the magnificent Russian banquet at Hankow. Hankow and 
 Hanyang are only divided from one another by the river 
 Han, which there flows into the Yangtse, while the Viceregal 
 city of Wuchang is separated from both of them by the 
 Yangtse itself, there about half a mile in width. 
 
 A special table had been prepared for the Czarevitch, but 
 he requested to sit with other people, so his seat w£is placed in 
 the middle of the long table running all down one side of the 
 immense dining hall, Mr. Molotkoff's godown really. He was 
 seated between two ladies, in a chair covered with Chinese old 
 gold satin, buttoned down with golden nails; opposite sat Prince 
 George of Greece, who declined a similar golden chair, which 
 had been prepared for him. There was another table running 
 the whole length of the room, at only one side of which seats 
 were placed, so that no one should turn his back on Royalty, 
 the guests being estimated at 149. The room was most 
 elaborately draped with red, blue and white, the Russian 
 colours, and all round it stood tall flowering plants in pots, 
 pink peonies showing out specially, and palms being placed 
 behind the Royal seat. The decorations on the table were 
 confined to leaves arranged in H's and A's, H being the 
 Russian N for Nikolai. There were a few toasts proposed, 
 but no regular speeches, although the Czarevitch said a 
 few words of thanks when his health was drunk. Prince 
 George, then a fine-looking young fellow, fair and of a 
 genial countenance, did not return thanks. 
 
 During the dinner a sort of colossal opera box was erected 
 at the entrance to the banqueting hall, and to this the whole 
 party adjourned a little before ten to see the fireworks and 
 illuminations. The former were Cantonese, and probably 
 
TEE VISIT OF THE CZABEVITC3. 179 
 
 intended for a courtyaxd, being too intricate to admire at any 
 distance, letting down cascades of lanterns, and troops of dolls 
 that danced in the heat. Though more elaborate they were 
 less romantic than those of the night before, set off from boats 
 and thus gaining from the reflection in the water. But 
 the illuminations were quite fairy-like, and Hankow Bund 
 never looked so weU before, and possibly never will again. 
 Crowds of naval officers arrived, the Germans all speaking 
 English perfectly, and a little before ten appeared the 
 Czarevitch and Prince George of Greece, with a great follow- 
 ing of imiforms ; the Russian Ghargd d' Affaires (acting in 
 the absence of his chief. Count Cassini) , having come especially 
 from Peking for the occasion, and one or two others being in 
 diplomatic uniform. They had been detained at the entrance 
 by a Chinese deputation from the Tea Guilds of Hankow, and 
 the four Tea Provinces of Hunan, Hupeh, Shansi and Canton, 
 who presented an address, and made speeches thanking the 
 Emperor of Russia for his protection and hospitality to 
 Chinese engaged in the Tea Trade in Russia, and also thank- 
 ing the Czarevitch for having come to Hankow, the centre of 
 the Tea industry. The Prince replied that he would tell 
 the Czar, his father, what they had said ; and then the 
 beautifully dressed deputation disappointed everyone by 
 withdrawing, and not assisting at the entertainment although 
 they had been duly invited. The Czarevitch was then a 
 slight stripling with brown hair^ his mother's eyes and fore- 
 head, but his father's mouth, and with a very sweet expression 
 indicative of great amiability, as also of a naturally affection- 
 ate disposition ; but he appeared very shy, and hardly spoke 
 during the dinner. 
 
 About midnight the Princes were sent off between flaming 
 torches of Bengal light, held by the various gentlemen, and 
 this seemed by the Chinese to be looked upon as the most 
 curious part of the proceedings. In spite of the barricades to 
 keep them out, a great part of the Bund was a serried mass of 
 Chinese, and there were thousands of boats lining it, and 
 adding very much to the general effect. And one could not 
 help feeling an infinite pity for the gentle, pleasant-looking 
 
180 LI BUNG - CHANG. 
 
 young man, whose future destiny one seemed to read so un- 
 mistakably in his features during the two hours of that 
 dinner. 
 
 The last day of his visit was pervaded by a spirit of un- 
 certainty and conflicting rumours. At last the great luncheon 
 had finished beneath a most brilUant awning of flags on the 
 deck of the Russian man-of-war VladivostocJe, and Chinese 
 launches whistled wildly. All the men-of-war, two Chinese, 
 two Russian, one English, and one German, manned yards, 
 the Germans, who alone wore white trousers, looking the most 
 effective, whilst the Chinese were the most original Then 
 the sun set in orange brilliance behind a mass of Chinese 
 soldiers in orange, scarlet, and green, making them look like 
 so many brilliant parrots among the greenery upon the Bund, 
 and the VladivostocJe started down river, followed by the 
 Koreyetz and the Bobr, the Tehhsing, with a large gathering 
 of the Russian community, and the Yiuenwo with the 
 privileged few, who were to get down to Kiukiang to prepare 
 for the Prince. 
 
 All three days the weather was calm and lovely, so that 
 the illuminations were seen to full advantage ; and so great 
 was the enthusiasm that not only houses on the Bund were 
 illuminated, but those in back streets, where certainly the 
 Royal visitors would never see them. But for a telegram 
 announcing the death of the Grand Duke Alexander's mother 
 it was understood that all would have been yet grander. 
 
 At Kiukiang the reception was only semi-private, and 
 great was the disappointment of the Chinese crowd that the 
 Czarevitch in felt hat and tweed suit was dressed just like 
 any other foreigner. But here again nothing could surpass 
 the good behaviour and good humour of the Chinese. Carpets 
 were laid down, and soldiers of the district, uncommonly taR 
 for Chinamen, with big black turbans and picturesque 
 uniforms Uke court cards, lined the landing-stage, their quaint 
 tridents being stacked at intervals. The British Consul and 
 the Commissioner of Customs were the only outsiders invited 
 to what was otherwise a purely Russian reception. 
 
 At Nanking great was the array of flags lining the river 
 
THE VISIT OF TSE CZABEVITCH. 181 
 
 bank and the canal shore. But there the Prince was not to 
 land, only to receive and be received upon the river. And 
 thus concluded the visit to China of the Heir to All the 
 Kussias, in whose hands, at the present time, rest the destinies 
 of so many miUions. For it was impossible that fitting arrange- 
 ments should be made for him to meet that other young man 
 of like age, already nominally ruling over Chinese millions, 
 and thus Peking remained unvisited. It must have been for 
 some reason considered disadvantageous to Russian policy 
 that the heir to All the Russias should see the Manchu 
 Emperor of China. Probably it would have made a difference 
 if they had met. At any rate, I have many a time wondered 
 since whether the two persons most concerned have regretted 
 this half as much as I have, or think, as I do, that had it 
 been possible to arrange otherwise, the destinies of all the 
 world might have been changed, and that great European 
 war cloud which so many of us see looming in the Far East 
 in awful blackness perhaps have been permanently dissipated. 
 For after all the Emperors of China and Russia are 
 both nominally autocrats — a propos of which an amusing story 
 is told of some Russian Minister's conversation with the 
 Emperor of China, which, although it may not be true at all, 
 yet might be so; for everything — even secrets of State — in 
 China is overheard and repeated. The story goes that the 
 Russian Minister urged upon the Emperor of China that those 
 two countries ought to be specially friendly, because they alone 
 were governed according to the principles of propriety and 
 decorum, the sovereign decreeing and the people obeying. 
 In England and Germany, he said, there were also sovereigns, 
 but there the people interfered and had a voice. In Germany 
 it is four-tenths people and six-tenths Emperor ; in England 
 it is even six-tenths people and only four-tenths sovereign. 
 In France and America it is too terrible ; there is no ruler at 
 all — only the stupid people doing just as they please. In 
 China and Russia alone are the people governed as high 
 Heaven intended, by the direction of the All-wise Ruler. 
 Ought not these two countries, then, to be like two brothers ? 
 For if Russia were to fall and to become like these other wild 
 
182 LI sung-csang: 
 
 nations of the earth, then only China would stand, alone — 
 the one Empire as Heaven intended it. And if China were 
 to fall, then Russia would stand all alone in the world. 
 These two countries must, therefore, mutually support one 
 another. Report said the Chinese Emperor was much 
 impressed by the idea. 
 
 It was stated as early as 1888, by those who knew what 
 went on m Peking, that the Tsuhgli YamSn was thoroughly 
 informed by the native employees in the various Legations 
 of the character of every member of those Legations, from 
 the Minister downwards ; and that accordingly, whenever a 
 remonstrance or complaint or suggestion came into the 
 Yam^n from any Legation, it was received not on its intrinsic 
 merits, but by the light of the information which the Yamen 
 already possessed as to the firmness or otherwise of the 
 writer. The YamSn being thus able to judge perfectly 
 whether the particular document before them was mere 
 words or would be backed by deeds, it is of much more 
 importance at Peking than at a European Court that 
 the foreign representatives should be men of determination, 
 and should be recognised as such by their native staff — 
 men who will only make reasonable requests, but will stick 
 to their demands when they have made them. 
 
 Russian Ministers are reported always to say, when they 
 meet with any opposition, " These are my orders, and if 
 you don't agree I don't know what will happen." Then 
 the Chinese Minister considers the matter all round for 
 some time, and at last asks, " And if I don't agree, what wUl 
 happen ? " " That is exactly what I don't know," rephes the 
 Russian. " I have got my orders, and they are that I must 
 put this thing through." And they do. 
 
183 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PURELY PERSONAL. 
 
 As if the cares of a province and of the commercial relations 
 of Northern China, coupled with the responsibility of being 
 special adviser to the Throne, and of being first personage 
 in aU China's relations with foreign countries, were not 
 enough for him, Li added to all these the work of authorship. 
 
 When Sir Robert Hart, amid all his other work for the 
 regeneration of China, had sixteen volumes of science 
 primers translated by Dr. Edkins, to supply a want felt in 
 the preparatory science schools which were then being 
 inaugurated, particularly at Tientsin, excellent prefaces to 
 the work, inculcating the advantages of a scientific training, 
 and praising the advance made in science in the West, were 
 written by the two foremost statesmen ia China, the Viceroy Li 
 and the Marquis TsSng. And a year afterwards Li undertook 
 to publish a small work in Chinese on Tree Culture, translated 
 by Dr. Edkins from the book on this subject pubhshed by 
 the Adelaide Forestry Exhibition ; a work which ought to be 
 of value to the Chinese, as the hills in many parts of China 
 are already denuded of trees. 
 
 It was on this occasion that Dr. Edkins, while passing 
 through Tientsin on his way to Shanghai, was favoured with 
 an interview with Li, when much conversation took place 
 regarding Christian Missions. To Li's inquiries, Dr. Edkins 
 replied that there were 540,000 Roman Catholic converts 
 and 35,000 Protestant, and the Viceroy pronounced as his 
 opinion that missionaries should confine themselves to moral 
 efforts without teaching religion. 
 
184 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 This may recall the conversation that Li had years after- 
 wards with the late Colonel Dyer on the occasion of his 
 visit to Elswick: — 
 
 Li Hung-chang : " It is a mistake to suppose that success 
 depends on mental ability. It is all a matter of luck. One 
 man is prosperous and another is poor and downtrodden, not 
 because of any mental qualities that either of them may 
 possess, but just according to their good or bad luck." 
 
 Colonel Byer : " Oh ! Then I see that we in Europe have 
 been making a great mistake. We all supposed that it was 
 by his mental ability that Li Hung-chang raised himself 
 to the foremost position in China. Now we must change 
 our views and say that his success was simply due to luck." 
 
 Li laughed and enjoyed the compliment as well as the 
 repartee, then said : — 
 
 Li Hung-chang : " Men ought always to admire success. 
 I cannot understand why clever men, like some of you 
 Europeans, should actually worship Jesus Christ. Why, that 
 man's life was a failure, and he was actually crucified at the 
 end of it. Now, crucifixion is a very painful death, besides 
 being a degrading form of punishment. How can you call 
 yourselves followers of such a man as that ? " 
 
 Colonel Byer : " WeU, your Excellency ! I don't know what 
 you call failure. When a man's words and the story of bis 
 life have influenced many of the best and noblest of men 
 for nearly two thousand years, I don't call that failure." 
 
 Jesus Christ's death is apt to be a great trouble to Chinese. 
 One man said, " No, that is too much to believe. For he was 
 a good man. Everything shows he was a good man. I 
 cannot believe in any people, however wicked, putting such a 
 good man to death." Yet during the Boxer outbreak how 
 many thousands of martyrdoms of good men took place in 
 this very same China ! 
 
 In 1891 a Manual of Therapeutics and Pharmacy in 
 the Chinese language was brought out by the Rev. S. A. 
 Hunter, M.D., for which the Viceroy wrote a Preface. I quote 
 a review written at the time by Mr. Archibald Little, which 
 will throw a good deal of light on Li's intellectual standpoint. 
 
PURELY PERSONAL. 185 
 
 An interesting feature of the book was the preface contributed 
 by Li Hung-chang, which is unstinted in its praise of foreign 
 methods, their exactness and width of range, while, as might be 
 expected, it does more than justice to the ancient native systems. 
 It begins by telling how, in the time of the Han dynasty (b.c. 206 
 to A.D. 220), eleven celebrated physicians made use of the four 
 classes of prescriptions, and how in the renowned Pen Tsao (of the 
 Sung dynasty) we find 365 kinds of drugs and 113 kinds of formulas 
 described. Western medical experts, he says, follow on from 
 generation to generation, son succeeding father ; halls for medical 
 study are established and honorific degrees awarded for merit. He 
 rightly states that where the Chinese use rough decoctions and make 
 tisanes from their drugs, western chemists make extracts of constant 
 strength and use minute and accurate weights to dole them out with. 
 " The ancients used metal models to exhibit man's inner structure, 
 and Western teachers of medicine have accurate drawings and models 
 also. Now, a Chinese physician should investigate every detail of 
 his art and acquaint himself thoroughly with both native and 
 foreign practice as set forth in the respective books. Dr. Stephen 
 Hunter is a physician of great repute, and his work promotes 
 learning and longevity " ; hence H.E. commends it to his country- 
 men, and is pleased to write a preface, etc. 
 
 Li commences with an extract from Pan-koo. This author in 
 his history of the early Han dynasty has a chapter on books, 
 containing the oldest book catalogue possessed by China. Wc learn 
 from the titles of the books lost that the Divine Husbandman, the 
 Yellow Emperor, and the physician Yu-fu were the first teachers of 
 medicine in the opinion of China in a.d. 100. The names of thirty- 
 nine treatises are given. Of these only two are now in existence. 
 Pan-koo, writing 1,800 years ago, knew of these thirty-nine works. 
 Two of Pan-koo's books are still read, and they contain the old 
 medical theory. What Pan-koo read he has written, and what he 
 wrote our Viceroy has read, and both read believingly. The 
 Viceroy has quoted in the preface the exact words of both of these 
 books as he has also quoted the exact words of Pan-koo in speaking 
 of them. These two books, the Soowen and Ling-choo, are the 
 Hippocrates and Galen of Chinese medicine. All well-informed 
 Chinese readers are acquainted with them. The Viceroy has read 
 them with admiration, but he is surrounded and pressed upon by 
 the influence of the modem period. He has seen and helped in the 
 
we LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 work of the medical missionaries in Tientsin. He has read trans- 
 lated works on chemistry, physiology, physics, botany, and various 
 other subjects, and he has no idea of doubting foreign science. He 
 accepts it, but he will not throw aside the old native books. In 
 this preface he does not say whether he still believes in the Yin and 
 Yang principles or not, but he mentions in closing that the book 
 now translated is strictly on the art of healing. He advises readers 
 not to reject it as strange, but to look on it as a work valuable 
 enough to be treasured like a treatise of Ko-hung or Sun Sze-miao, 
 and carefully studied for practical use. He concludes by saying 
 ^that if the medical student will join Chinese and foreign teaching in 
 one, it will be found that the new addition made to his powers as a 
 healer will be by no means small. From the near he will be able to 
 reach the distant. The world will be better for it. Men wiU live 
 longer, and the advantage gained wUl be in truth incalculable. 
 Such was the view of foreign medicine held by Viceroy Li. He 
 thinks he finds the Western doctrine of the nerves in the old medical 
 treatises of his country. Statements on anatomy made by modern 
 Europeans, he fancies, agree with the Han commentator Chang's 
 views in his notes to the Chow-li. He notices that Buddhism and 
 Taoism have both had influence on Chinese medicine, and there can 
 be no question that alchemy has had full liberty in developing it. 
 As to Indian influence, the anatomical statue in copper five feet 
 high, brought many centuries ago from Nepaul and marked for 
 teaching anatomy, is an indisputable witness, for it is kept at the 
 hall of the Imperial Board of Physicians. 
 
 In 1889 Li was encouraged by the gift of the Purple 
 Bridle; in 1891 he was further encouraged by royal presents, 
 and raised two steps in rank ; and in 1892 we find him in two 
 elaborately worded and florid memorials, bristling with classical 
 quotations and recondite allusions, rendering thanks to the 
 Emperor and Empress Dowager for the gifts which they 
 bestowed on him on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. 
 Those from the Emperor, who dared not send a greater number 
 than the Empress, as he being a junior had in a manner to 
 give way to his senior, were as follows : — 
 
 1. One manuscript tablet; i.e. a tablet engraved with characters 
 written by the Emperor himself. 
 
 2. A pair of scrolls, likewise in the Imperial handwriting. 
 
PUEELY PERSONAL. 187 
 
 3. Ose scroll with the character /m (happiness). 
 i. One scroll with the character shou (long life). 
 6. One small Buddha. 
 
 6. One ju-i inlaid -with jade. 
 
 7. One dragon robe. 
 
 8. Sixteen pieces of " hsiao-chiian " Chiang satin. 
 
 The Empress sent the following : — 
 
 1. One manuscript tablet. 
 
 2. One pair of scrolls written by herself. 
 
 3. One scroll with the character yit. 
 
 4. One scroll with the character shou. 
 
 5. One scroll with the two characters shou, designed by herself. 
 
 6. One drawing, also executed by Her Majesty. 
 
 7. One Buddha. 
 
 8. One robe composed of the throat skins of sables. (This robe 
 is composed of fifty-four pieces of the throat portion of the martin or 
 sable, the middle of each piece being a dark circle, the other parts 
 being yellowish, thus presenting the effect of so many "eyes," as the 
 Chinese call them. These " eyes " are placed in nine rows of three 
 " eyes " each in the front portion of the robe, and similarly arranged 
 at the back. This robe is worn only by the Emperor, and cannot be 
 possessed by anyone else unless presented with such a robe by the 
 Sovereign. Li Hung-chang was the first ofiicial of Chinese descent 
 to receive this honour since the reign of the Emperor Lien Lung, 
 1736-95.) 
 
 9. One ju-i inlaid with jade. 
 
 10. One dragon robe. 
 
 11. Twelve pieces Chiang satin. 
 
 These various gifts were sent to Tientsin in charge of the Grand 
 Secretary's nephew, Li Ching-yu, a Hanlin compiler of the second 
 class. 
 
 A pamphlet was issued from the Tientsin press contain- 
 ing an excellent, but possibly too eulogistic, biography of 
 the Great Viceroy, followed by an account of the grand 
 Banquet at the Gordon Hall, and translation of the Eulogistic 
 Address to Earl Li on Reaching the Age of Threescore Years 
 and Ten, from H.E. Chang Chih-tung, Viceroy of Hupeh and 
 Hunan, etc., as also from the oflicials of those provinces. 
 
188 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 "Surely you are He/' says this address, "that Hofei was 
 destined to bring forth ; Councillor, Governor-General of the 
 Metropolitan Province, Naval Minister, Superintendent of 
 Trade, we see you engaged in these quadruple duties, and 
 in each facile princeps. You have vindicated your right to 
 all your titles. Our Prince is indeed fortunate in the 
 possession of such a Minister." 
 
 This was all in August, 1892, yet it was only on July 1st 
 that the Viceroy's wife. Lady Li, had died from typhoidal 
 malaria. Everything possible had been done to save her. 
 Mrs. King, M.D., was in daily and hourly attendance on her 
 staunch friend, and Dr. Irwin's able services had been enlisted- 
 Lord Li, the Chinese Minister to Japan, had petitioned 
 the Throne to be allowed to go into retirement on the death 
 of his own mother in the previous year — ^he had been adopted 
 on his own father's death by Li, many years before — but this 
 was not allowed, and he was only permitted to take one 
 hundred days' leave. Now, however, he was allowed to retire 
 on the death of his adoptive mother, the wife of the Viceroy, 
 Li Hung-chang. 
 
 It was not tiU long after this that the remains of Countess 
 Li were brought to Wuhu, escorted by two armoured cruisers 
 of the Northern squadron. The officials, civil and military, 
 as well as the troops, turned out en Tnasse to meet the funeral 
 cortege, and to pay the usual sacrifices to the dead.. The 
 coffin was then put into a large boat paiated red, for the 
 journey inland to the family mausoleum at Hofei. Nine 
 steam launches, and six large houseboats carried the members 
 of the Li family and their retainers, till the long procession 
 they formed looked more like a holiday turn-out than a 
 funeral. Lord Li, who came down from Tientsin for the 
 purpose, had then been living very quietly at the family seat 
 for the last three months, superintending the building of the 
 mausoleum for his adoptive mother. 
 
 If the Japanese vernacular papers were right, which there 
 is no reason to doubt, the necessity for Lord Li's retirement 
 at the time of his adoptive mother's death was very unfor- 
 tunate. He was recognised at Tokio as the ablest Minister 
 
PURELY PERSONAL. 189 
 
 that China had yet sent there, and was rapidly stifling the 
 jealousies that had so long existed between China and Japan. 
 His efforts towards that end had been greatly a/ssisted by the 
 admirable bearing of Admiral Ting — who made himself most 
 popular at Tokio and Yokohama — and indeed of the whole of 
 the Chinese squadron. The Mainichi SMmhun concluded 
 a laudatory article on Lord Li by saying : " We must refer 
 these happy results to the skilful management of the Chinese 
 Minister. He knows how to replace enmity by friendship. 
 Such Ministers are very rare, and we venture to think that 
 if Lord Li has accomplished so much in a short space of time, 
 his continued residence in Japan may entirely change the 
 feeling of this nation towards China." 
 
 Thus not only were the Emperor's father, Prince Ch'un, and 
 the Marquis Tsgng gone, but Li was henceforward deprived 
 both of his strong-minded old mother's guidance and his 
 wife's intelligent and kindly partnership. Yet his seventieth 
 birthday was none the less royally celebrated. How different 
 in every detail from Chang Chih-tung, who on the day before 
 his birthday, this very same year, ordered all the yamen 
 doors to be locked, so that when the city officials came in the 
 morning to offer their congratulations, they could not obtain 
 admittance ; not an attendant being seen near the doors, 
 which were strongly secured. The officials had to return to 
 their homes without attaining their object. No entertain- 
 ment was given in the yamen, and everything went on as 
 usual Next day the Yiceroy made a return call on the 
 officials who had taken the trouble to go as far as his front 
 door. He is said to detest heartily all these empty cere- 
 monies, and to look with more favour on a diligent and 
 honest official than on one who kotows all day and speaks 
 fine phrases. Yet one can easily understand that of the two 
 men Li Hung-chang would be the more popular. 
 
 The year before his death, the Governor of Anhui, receiv- 
 ing a representation from Li Ching-shu, stated : — 
 
 The petitioner's mother is the wife of the Yiceroy, Li Hung- 
 chang, with whom she is living in the Province of Claihli. 
 
190 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 Economical in her household expenditure, she delights in relieving 
 the distressed, and in times of want distributes among the sufferers 
 all her means. Hearing of the failure of last year's harvest in her 
 native district of Northern Anhui, she has given the petitioner a 
 thousand taels to be sent to the Anhui Relief Fund. At the same 
 time she disclaims all wish of reward. The Governor of the Pro- 
 vince, through whose hands the contribution had passed, feels that 
 he ought to bring the matter to the Emperor's notice, and suggests 
 that an arch with a suitable inscription should be erected in honour 
 of the donor at her home in Hofei Hsien. 
 
 There are interesting accounts of her visits to the foreign 
 hospital for women, of her fostering new industries in Paoting- 
 fu, and she seems to have been a woman of high ability and 
 force of character, who exercised a powerful but legitimate 
 influence over her distinguished husband ; she took a deep 
 interest in work for women, and was a generous coadjutor in 
 every work of charity brought to her notice. She was in her 
 fifty-sixth year, having married Li after the pathetic loss 
 of his first wife and entire family during the early days of 
 the Taiping rebellion. 
 
 The Chinese have not yet learnt the art of intervie^ving 
 and dragging into the full glare of publicity the Uttle do- 
 mestic details of their great men's lives. So that it is even 
 doubtful whether we shall learn much more about this from 
 the biography of Li, which was taken in hand, on his death, 
 by a learned Chinese, at the instance of Lord Li ; a work for 
 which we are told that a six years' search through ofiicial 
 records and private papers is a necessary preliminary, so 
 great is the mass of documents that Li has left behind him. 
 
 Something, however, we do know ot Lady Li, who un- 
 doubtedly exercised considerable influence over her husband, 
 while it is probable that her uncertain health was a frequent 
 source of real anxiety to him. A serious illness from which 
 she suffered in 1879 started quite unprecedented relations 
 between the Viceroy and the Western medical fraternity. 
 She had, indeed, been ill for some time, but towards the close 
 of that year the Chinese physicians gave up her case as hope- 
 less. A British consular ofiicial, observing Li's manifest 
 
PURELY FEBSOiirAL. 191 
 
 depression, and learning the cause, at once suggested calling 
 in a foreign doctor. Li could not make up his mind to this 
 at once, but as Lady Li became worse during the night he 
 sent off a messenger, who brought back Dr. Mackenzie, of the 
 London Mission. Dr. Irwin was also called in. Miss Howard, 
 M.D., was placed in attendance, a cure was effected, and Li 
 appointed the latter lady special physician to his wife, and 
 Doctors Mackenzie and Irwin to the rest of his family, and 
 in gratitude established a Chinese Free Hospital, placing 
 Dr. Mackenzie at the head of it. Several successful surgical 
 operations were performed in the presence of the Viceroy ; 
 moreover, three of his secretaries put themselves under 
 foreign treatment, as did the Prefect of Tientsin, a general, 
 and the wife of the Customs Taotai. Numbers of opium 
 smokers applied to be cured of their opium-longing, and it 
 seemed at the time as if all barriers were being broken down 
 and prejudices overcome. 
 
 The Hospital was at first started in a temple, but it was 
 proposed to erect suitable buildings near the foreign settle- 
 ment, as it would be impossible to properly attend to critical 
 cases if they were kept two miles away in the Chinese city. 
 The Viceroy himself gave the building, the outfit, and the 
 running expenses of the General Hospital, and added his 
 powerful influence and encouragement. 
 
 After residing as physician and guest for a month at the 
 Vicero/s yamen. Miss Howard, M.D. (now Mrs. King), of the 
 American M.E. Mission, completed her treatment of Lady Li, 
 and departed on her return to Peking ; taking with her lavish 
 presents of silks and satins and valuable china, honoured also 
 with the rare courtesy of having the Viceroy's despatch boat 
 for a tug as far on the way to T'ung-chow as the water would 
 allow. Before departure she was led to accept, for the winter, 
 the pressing invitation to join in the dispensary work so 
 generously established and fostered by the Viceroy — she to 
 treat the women, while Dr. Mackenzie, of the London Mission, 
 was to treat the men. Everyone concerned was full of high 
 hopes ; a Viceroy, possibly the greatest Viceroy in China, had 
 engaged foreign physicians, considered that his vnie's life had 
 
192 LI HUNG - CRANG. 
 
 been saved by them, was showing his gratitude after the 
 Uberal Chinese fashion, had had an American lady for two 
 months in his official residence, and, with his wife, had 
 shown her every courtesy. It is to missionaries that we are 
 indebted for most of our written information about China, 
 and for years to come Li Hung-chang was the special pet or 
 hope of all missionary writers, especially as from year to year 
 he continued to show his interest in the hospital. 
 
 A curious little story, indicating that Li was somewhat 
 in awe of his wife, was told me by a man, who vouched 
 for the accuracy of the facts. Some years after the founda- 
 tion of an European Hospital Li visited a German man-of- 
 war, and there, over the champagne, was persuaded that 
 Koch's discoveries had revolutionised medicine, and that 
 therefore he oiight to have a German instead of an English- 
 man as Doctor of the Northern Fleet. In the end Li agreed 
 to telegraph to Germany for a suitable man. Dr. Irwin, who 
 had been attending the Li family, and also held the appoint- 
 ment of Physician to the Fleet, heard of this and went to 
 Mr. Detring, then Commissioner of Customs at Tientsin. 
 " Will you put the matter entirely into my hands ? I will 
 give you twenty-four hours to think it over. But if you 
 want me to help you, you must be entirely guided by me." 
 Dr. Irwin thought it over, and decided in the end to do so. 
 " Very well, then. Sit down at once and write your resigna- 
 tion of both posts." Then Mr. Detring went to Li, and by 
 degrees spoke a little loud. " Take care — take care," cried 
 Li, in great alarm ; then with a comical expression, " My 
 wife might hear you. And I don't want her to know any- 
 thing about it.'' Whether it was the mastery a weak, 
 ailing woman often exercises over a good-natured husband, 
 afraid of making her ill, or because she was herself clever 
 and high-minded and considered that she owed her life to 
 Dr. Irwin, Li in the end agreed to wire to Berlin that he did 
 not want the doctor already bespoken by telegram. We may 
 mention that there were again intrigues to get rid of Dr. 
 Irwin when Li started on his voyage round the world ; and 
 Li was assured he could not possibly take an English doctor 
 
FUHELY PERSONAL. 193 
 
 into Kussia or Germany ; but he was not a man ever to part 
 with a friend. Dr. Irwin accompanied him on his joumey, 
 and remained indeed in Li's employ till his own death, 
 which occurred but a short while before the resolute, bluff 
 " old squire " passed also from the world's stage, in which he 
 had thi-oughout his life occupied so large a space. 
 
 It was because, owing to his wife's illness, Li expected 
 to have no son himself, that he adopted the present Lord Li, 
 the son of his brother, who died young, as his eldest son. 
 His wife did, in fact, after her recovery, bear him both a 
 daughter and a son, who survived his father only a few 
 months ; but the position of the adopted son was not thereby 
 affected — he still counted as the eldest. 
 
 Mr. King told me that his wife, for years afterwards (till 
 Lady Li's death in 1902) on intimate relations with the 
 family, always said that whatever Li might appear in official 
 life, and although certainly a rather stern father, he shone 
 in his domestic relations. And none who had ever once 
 talked with him could doubt that he must have been a man 
 pre-eminently pleasant at home and among his intimates; 
 bon camarade and bcm enfant, as the French would say. 
 
 The name of the " old squire " was bestowed upon Li by 
 Mr. Murray. A brother of Li, who died young, left a blind 
 son behind him, a very engaging lad, of whom Li appears 
 to have been very fond, and who seems quite to have returned 
 his affection. Shortly before the Peking siege, Mr. Mun-ay, 
 who had started a school for the blind in Peking, was asked 
 to give this lad some lessons ; which he did, gaining at the 
 same time a very pleasant insight into Li's domestic relations • 
 which he describes as singularly genial and amiable, brighten- 
 ing the picture by always talking of Li himself as " the old 
 squire." After a while Mr. Murray found he could not spare 
 time to go himself, but he sent one of his most promising 
 pupils, under whose auspices Li's grandson made rather 
 astonishing progress. But Li, although delighted with all 
 this, never gave any contribution to the Blind School, 
 nor affected even to remunerate Mr. Murray for his trouble, 
 although some small — very small — sum was paid for his most 
 
 N 
 
194 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 promising pupil's teaching. It was probably not Li's fault that 
 this young man was among the first afterwards put to death 
 by the Boxers. But Li might have paid handsomely for his 
 grandson's tuition, and it seems astonishing that he should 
 have allowed a member of his family, a much loved member, 
 to derive so much benefit from a foreign charitable insti- 
 tution — one much needed in China, and in very struggling 
 circumstances — without ever attempting to help it forward. 
 I note this specially because Mr. Murray is one of those men 
 so much more ready to give than to exact, that I had even 
 trouble in getting the facts from him. He was eager to 
 speak of Li as a much loved father of a family, tenderly 
 indulgent towards the younger ones, quickly obeyed by his 
 servants and those under him, genial towards himself, 
 evidently an ideal Chinese '' old squire " ; but he shrank 
 from in any way indicating that he himself, or the charity 
 to which he had dedicated his life, might have had claims 
 upon Li that had not been met. " I never asked him," he 
 repeated again and again. 
 
 Liberality was, to put it plainly, very much lacking in Li. 
 Years after the foundation of the hospital, of which we 
 have spoken above, when Dr. Mackenzie died, worn out by 
 his self-denying labours for starving Chinese, to the surprise 
 of the missionary body the Viceroy suddenly claimed the 
 building as his own. A very angry quarrel ensued, which 
 the British Consul decided in favour of Li. He is since said 
 to have regretted that he did so, and it certainly does not 
 seem that Li was justified. From this time forward we must 
 expect to find most of the foreign accounts of Li somewhat 
 unfavourably coloured, as before they were perhaps too rosy 
 in their colouring. And it seems thus to have come out that 
 Li never did give any of his own money as a thank-offering 
 for his wife's recovery, but pubHc money, that he appropriated 
 for this purpose. 
 
 There are many other stories corroborating the charge 
 of stinginess against Li, whose avarice has yet been more 
 commonly talked of In reality, probably Li looked upon 
 money as a means of gaining power, and was always 
 
PURELY PERSONAL. 195 
 
 unwilling to part with it to no purpose. By means of a 
 judicious application of money it was always easy to win to 
 higher place, by means of higher place to get more money, 
 and so onwards and ever upwards as far as this world is 
 concerned. 
 
 When I had my one interview with Li at Canton in 
 the spring of 1900, 1 noticed another trait in his character. 
 I had asked for the interview, on behalf of the Anti-foot- 
 binding movement; and although he did not subscribe, he 
 very good-naturedly rose (with considerable difficulty), and 
 wrote an inscription on my fan, at my suggestion, by way of 
 signifying approval But he also at once promised a con- 
 tribution to the Hospital of an American lady doctor, who 
 kindly accompanied me ; looking carefully in her book to see 
 what previous Viceroys had given, that he might act according 
 to precedent, and then insisting that she must wait and take 
 the money away with her. At the time I thought this a little 
 inconvenient, as the interview was really over, and we were 
 not only kept waiting ourselves, which did not matter, but 
 seemed to be unduly detaining the Viceroy and his suite. But 
 Li, discharging all expression from his face, which always in a 
 Chinese signifies there is a hidden, deeper meaning, said, 
 "No, take it away with you. Wait and take it away. It 
 will be here directly. It won't take long." Evidently he 
 knew that this was the only way to ensure the hospital 
 getting the exact amount of the subscription, and had a 
 kindly desire that it should do so — also, no doubt, that there 
 might be no risk of complications and troubles arising. So 
 my friend went off with her hundred dollars, which she then 
 laughingly said she must hold on to now, as the Viceroy 
 had insisted on her taking it. 
 
 It was at aU events a kindly, sensible act on the part of 
 a man, of whom it is interesting to remember that we know 
 of no unkindly acts. 
 
 Of the nature of Li's manners at an early period, some idea 
 can be formed from the account given by one of our greatest 
 authorities upon things Chinese, if not the greatest, then in 
 a subordinate position in the British Consulate. Sent to 
 
196 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 interview the Viceroy on some matter, he found no one to 
 receive him, no one to do anything, an absolutely empty 
 audience-hall ; so he sat down coolly in a seat down the side 
 of the room, somewhere near the door, and very far away from 
 the upper seats at the other end of the room, where Li might 
 sometime or other be expected to appear. Eventually he did 
 so, with much noise and a great following ; and, without any 
 apology for keeping his visitor waiting or request to him to 
 come up higher, began shouting out to him in the difficult 
 Anhui dialect, which was continually the despair of his Tientsin 
 attendants, who knew they had to do something and at once, 
 but could not the least make out what. Then, to the utter 
 dumbfounding of every one present, contrary to all prin- 
 ciples of Chinese etiquette, with which even then he was 
 intimately acquainted, Mr. Giles shouted back his answer in 
 the same loud, rough voice, as far as he could imitate it, in 
 which Li had spoken to him. The astonishment and horror 
 of everyone present can better be imagined than described. 
 Even Li started and spoke lower. Gradually the conversation 
 assumed a somewhat more conventional tone ; and the pre- 
 liminaries having now been got through as to "How long 
 have you been in China ? " etc., presently Li, with a humorous 
 smile, beckoned the bold young representative of England to 
 come up higher and sit down beside him. They soon became 
 excellent friends. Every story about Li at this period deals 
 with his rudeness at the outset, though many dwell more 
 upon his subsequent geniality. 
 
 Li, in fact, was always famous for brusque, not to say rude, 
 speeches. In 1892, when receiving a visit from an American 
 officer, he asked him abruptly, " How would your Government 
 like it if I borrowed the English fleet and bombarded 
 Washington ? " This seems to have been rather a favourite 
 idea of his, for on an occasion of great state at Chefoo, he said 
 to an English naval officer of high standing, " Would it not 
 be nice if we joined together, and went and smashed Vladi- 
 vostock ? " To two American College young men, who made 
 a wonderful journey through Asia to Peking on bicycles, 
 Li was much more polite, saying "A scholar should be 
 
PURELY PERSONAL. 197 
 
 courteous to scholars." When he asked, " Which country of 
 those you have seen do you think the best ? " like patriotic 
 Americans, they told him that the United States seemed to 
 them nearest perfection. "Then why do you come to see 
 other countries ? ", asked Li. " Because," they answered, " if we 
 had not seen other countries, we should not have known ours 
 was the best." Li was politeness itself to these young men, 
 carefully inquiring as to the behaviour of the officials along 
 the route towards them. Possibly it was the Chinese con- 
 tempt for Naval and Military officers that made him so rude 
 in the other instance; or perhaps his exceptional courtesy 
 to the young Americans was due to his surprise at what must 
 have seemed to him their unique rudeness ; for it is Chinese 
 etiquette always to talk of "my miserable country," "your 
 grand nation," " my wretched hovel," " your beautiful palace," 
 and so on. 
 
 This characteristic never left him. When he was in 
 England an American lady newspaper writer tells how he 
 immediately asked her her age, what she made her living 
 by, and how much she got for her writings. I forget pre- 
 cisely in what pleasant form of words she explained that she 
 took off from her years whilst she added on to her emolu- 
 ments. Next day an English lady newspaper writer, in 
 answer to the same questions, replied truly. " Oh, you must 
 be a very poor sort of writer," said Li directly. " There 
 was a little girl here yesterday, much younger than you, 
 who made much more." That the interpreter should have 
 interpreted this speech perhaps illustrates the esteem in which 
 both held newspaper ladies ! Once, when Li Hung-chang 
 complained that Sir Harry Parkes was like all other 
 foreigners — he could not talk reasonably — the then British 
 Consul, Davenport, spoke up and reproved him by bluntly 
 remarking, " That is all very well, but your idea of Tao-li 
 (reason) is to look at your own side of the question and 
 ignore ours : talking to you is like addressing a row of 
 books." Besides this character for rudeness where he could 
 venture upon it, Li Hung-chang's reputation for always 
 getting the best of it in conversation accompanied him 
 through life. 
 
198 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 INTRIGUES AND TROUBLES (1891—1894). 
 
 During 1891 an intrigue was set on foot which, after lasting 
 for several months, seems to have come to nothmg; an 
 intrigue in which Li Hung-chang, Lord Li, and Mr. Lo Feng- 
 luh combined in an attempt to remove Sir Robert Hart and 
 put Lord Li in his place as Inspector-General of Customs, 
 removing at the same time half a dozen other prominent 
 Commissioners and putting Chinese adherents of the Lis in 
 their places. There is said to be extant a copy of a memorial 
 addressed to Li Hung-chang on the subject, to be forwarded 
 by the Viceroy to the Throne. What the real relations were 
 between Li and Sir Robert Hart would be very interesting 
 to know. Probably Li regarded him like Gordon and 
 Burlingame, as likely to become dangerous. But he must 
 certainly also have thought that the Customs revenues would 
 furnish excellent pickings, if handled by a Chinese who knew 
 the way to make profit out of them. Sir Robert Hart says of 
 Li : " My own opinion is that luck and circumstance were as 
 much on his side as brains ; but then it requires brains to catch 
 luck and circumstance." 
 
 In 1892 Li was sending help to the people in Northern 
 Anhui, where the last harvest had failed, and consequently 
 much distress was prevalent. As the provinces of Kiangsu 
 and Anhui had on former occasions come forward in a spirited 
 manner to render assistance when parts of Chihh were inun- 
 dated, the Viceroy felt bound to do what he could in return ; 
 and he accordingly sent 50,000 taels from the funds in the 
 hands of the Board of Relief The Governor of Anhui wrote 
 
INTBIGUES AND TROUBLES. 199 
 
 to beg for more. Li, however, remarked that the Charity 
 Fund in Chihli was not a large one, and there was an imme- 
 diate call on it for the unfortunate people " who have suifered 
 so seriously at the hands of the insurgents in the neighbour- 
 hood of Jehol." " Therefore," said Li, " Chihli is really not 
 rich enough to help other provinces ; but the distress in 
 Anhui being so severe," he ordered the payment of another 
 twenty thousand taels to meet the most pressing needs. 
 
 Besides all the other famines, news was now brought of a 
 terrible famine in Shansi. There is always something on a 
 very large scale going on somewhere in China, and an official 
 appointed by the Viceroy Li started from Peking with 
 100,000 taels, to be distributed in the famine- stricken districts 
 of Shansi. At the same time, a Censor memorialised that a 
 magistrate in Shansi should be cashiered for appropriating 
 large sums of money that had been given him for the people 
 of his district. It was to help the sufferers from this famine 
 that such large sums were sent from London. 
 
 We next find Li addressing the Emperor on behalf of the 
 Provincial Commander-in-Chief and other officers, all belong- 
 ing to the " Army of the Huai," the title given to the Anhui 
 troops which had been raised to fight against the Taipings; 
 representing that the Huai army had had a most distin- 
 guished career, in early days fighting numberless battles 
 against the Taiping and Nienfei rebels, and since then keeping 
 guard upon the coast. " At Wusih, near Soochow, at Paoting 
 Fu, and at Wuchang, all places where it has done good service, 
 temples have been built and services periodically performed in 
 honour of those who died in action or from exhaustion or 
 disease ; but nothing of the sort exists at Luchou Fu, where 
 the force was first raised." He tells how in the beginning of 
 the reign of Hsien Feng, when the Taipings invaded Northern 
 Anhui and effected a partial union with the Nienfei, Luchou 
 became a point of the utmost strategic importance. The 
 Viceroy's father, a Senior Secretary of the Board of Punish- 
 ments, and the Viceroy himself, were then ordered to return 
 home to Luchou and enlist a local force for the defence of the 
 district. A number of since distinguished officials aided them 
 
200 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 by enrolling bands ; and the valour displayed by these troops 
 struck terror into the Taipings. In the first year of Tung 
 Chih (1862), having been made Governor of Kiangsu, he had 
 been ordered to march towards the east, when he was accom- 
 panied by the above-mentioned ofiicers and their men, and 
 was afterwards joined by Liu Ping-chang and Wu Ch'ang- 
 ch'ing, who had collected similar troops in the adjacent 
 districts. Thus had been formed the Army of the Huai, by 
 which Kianhsu was reconquered and both the Nienfei armies 
 were destroyed. From first to last the prowess of these 
 troops was seen in Che-kiang, Fukien, Kiangsu, Anhui, Hupeh, 
 Honan, Chihli, and Shantung. " Many honours have been 
 granted to those who fell, and chapels have been erected to 
 their memory. In Hunan, Tseng Kwo-fan built a temple in 
 honour of the troops of that province, and when the war was 
 ended obtained permission for the performance of official 
 services. It is hoped that a similar favour may be granted 
 for the Army of the Huai, which, though but few of its 
 veterans are left, still remains a valuable force, guarding the 
 approach to the Throne and defending the coast as far as 
 Foochow and Canton." 
 
 At the same time, he recommended for reward a number 
 of ofiicers who had taken part in the late campaign against 
 the rebels in the north. In a country traversed by a network 
 of mountain roads, and constantly haunted by mounted 
 brigands and other freebooters, no one can say how widely the 
 danger would have spread had it not been nipped in the bud. 
 " In the intense cold of the winter, outside the passes, our 
 men suffered terribly from the frost ; but this deterred them 
 no more than did the showers of bullets from the guns of the 
 enemy. In the more hard-fought battles the carnage was very 
 great, as is proved by the reports of the ofiicers engaged in 
 restoring order, who state that they have buried twenty 
 thousand corpses." 
 
 It is touching to read of the veteran statesman's recollec- 
 tions of his own earlier martial services, and his mention of 
 his father will also be noticed. 
 
 Hardly was the ink of this memorial dry before Li had to 
 
INTSIGUES AND TROUBLES. 201 
 
 turn his attention from the far north to the far west, and, 
 " moved by a sentiment of equity, knowing the miseries 
 suffered by the Christians of Szechuan, who had been the 
 objects of an outbreak, sent personal orders to the Chungking 
 mandarins, enjoining on them to render to the Christians 
 the justice to which they had a right. The murderers of the 
 Christians were to be punished according to the law; the 
 Christians were to be reinstated in their homes, and indemni- 
 fied for the heavy losses they had undergone. 
 
 No one could object to these conditions, dictated by th& 
 first principles of justice ; they Avould be granted by the 
 meanest person who found himself in the same circumstances. 
 The Mission of Western Szechuan accepted them ; it had 
 never demanded anything more than common justice. It was 
 thus that the Bishop was able to come to an understanding 
 with the mandarins, and by common accord an arrangement 
 was signed comprising the following clauses : — 
 
 1. Punishment of the six murderers of Christians. 
 
 2. Payment of an indemnity to the Christians. 
 
 3. Reinstatement of the Christians in their properties. 
 But alas ! in spite of all these words, no penalty overtook 
 
 the malefactors in far-away Szechuan. Liu Ping-chang, the 
 Viceroy, simply asked to be allowed to resign his post on 
 the ground of ill-health, and was given a month's leave of 
 absence, which was again extended to three months. 
 
 Obviously Li was bent on shielding rather than punishing 
 his special friend, the Viceroy of Szechuan, who, with Sheng, 
 made, up to that date, the great Li triumvirate. 
 
 In striking contrast was the fate of a militiaman 
 named Chou, not a Christian, who had been detailed by the 
 authorities to guard a Roman Catholic church a week before 
 the massacre of the twelve Christians and the burning of more 
 than 260 houses at Tatsou. This man had been brought 
 in March last before the sub-prefect, and asked if he was 
 the Chou who had been engaged by Father Pons to kill 
 people. The poor man replied that he did not know Father 
 Pons even by sight, and had never killed anybody. Racked, 
 tortured, and beaten until his legs were broken, he stuck to 
 
202 LI HVNO'-GHANO. 
 
 the truth : " I was ordered and paid hy the head of the 
 militia to protect the church : I don't know the missionary 
 you mention, and I have never killed anyone." Two days 
 later, he was again brought before the sub-prefect, and again 
 tortured; with a truly noble courage he still refused to 
 give the false evidence which the magistrate was anxious 
 to elicit, and he died under the torturer's hands rather than 
 earn his release by perjury. A heathen if you will, but 
 certainly also a typical Chinese, yet worthy of the finest days 
 of the Spartans, to whom so many are yet to be found like- 
 minded amongst this great Chinese people, who seem at 
 once so loyal and faithful, so cruel and remorseless. 
 
 As if, however, all this were not enough, the Pamirs ques- 
 tion was engrossing much of Li's attention. There was an 
 active demand on all sides at Peking for exact information 
 as to the geography and topography of Central Asia, and 
 especially of the so-called "Roof of the World"; which 
 eventually resulted in a Commission being appointed to 
 determine the boundaries between the three Empires — Great 
 Britain, Russia, and China. Also the Chinese Minister at 
 Berlin was ordered to send his Chief Secretary of Legation 
 to St. Petersburg to act as Charge d' Affaires there, in order 
 to have a representative on the spot to talk over the Pamirs 
 question with the Russian authorities. 
 
 It was about this period of his career that Li was enter- 
 tained at dinner at Tientsin by the agent of the Hong Kong 
 and Shanghai Banking Corporation in the newly erected 
 premises of the Bank. There were present on this occasion : 
 Lord Li, Ambassador to Japan, Li's own son, and his grand- 
 son. In attendance were the officials forming the Viceroy's 
 suite, among them Lo Feng-luh, Secretary to the Admiralty, 
 who, when Li's health was enthusiastically drunk, read for 
 him one of the admirably composed speeches which won 
 so much credit in the subsequent European tour. A brief 
 quotation from it is of interest. 
 
 "The theory of political economy which treats of the 
 circulation of wealth, or the banking system, the pivot on 
 which the international commerce of the civilised nations 
 
INTBIGUES Ay^D TROUBLES. 203 
 
 turns, though a modern science in Europe, has been ori- 
 ginated, we presume, from the principles of the law of 
 administration of the Chow dynasty. The subsequent 
 writings of the two most celebrated Chinese historians, Tze 
 Ma-chien and Panku, on the Balance of Trade and Com- 
 modities, may be compared with those of Adam Smith in the 
 ' Wealth of Nations.' In addition to my various official duties, 
 as Superintendent of Trade in North China, I take a great 
 interest in studying the state of commerce between our 
 country and foreign nations, and, as the banks are a sort 
 of self-registering barometer of the trade, they cannot fail 
 to attract my attention." 
 
 The telegraph lines were now being completed across far- 
 distant Yunnan in the south-west by Li Hung-chang's orders. 
 He had barely finished his inquiries into the disturbances 
 in Jehol in the north, and we now find him commanding his 
 naval secretary, Mr. Lo Feng-luh, to be the next Customs 
 Taotai of Tientsin, and Mr. Wu T'ing-fang — known in Hong- 
 kong as Ny-Choy, barrister-at-law — to be Director-General 
 of North China railways in place of the then Director, just 
 retired on account of a stroke of paralysis. These two men, 
 Lo Feng-luh and Wu T'ing-fang, since respectively promoted 
 to be Chinese Ministers in London and Washington, did 
 yeoman service for their Government later on during the 
 Boxer troubles, explaining away everything that could be 
 explained, and always maintaining that there had not been 
 a general massacre of all the Corps Diplomatique in Peking. 
 The strangely passive position assumed by the United States in 
 view of the cruel outrages upon American women and children 
 may in great measure be attributed to Mr. Wu T'ing-fang's per- 
 suasive tongue. Both these men owe their advancement in 
 the first instance to Li Hung-chang, and have done him credit. 
 
 Tennyson's "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle 
 of Cathay" strikes an answering chord in all our hearts; 
 but probably few people know that a Chinese cycle is 
 actually sixty years. Still less, no doubt, have they any idea 
 how important a sixtieth birthday is in China, and already 
 in the spring of 1893, among all the famines and troubles 
 
204 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 of the people, preparations were well advanced for the 
 Dowager Empress's birthday in the following year. 
 
 Possibly in recognition of these, in June, we find the 
 Empress Dowager graciously presenting the members of the 
 Grand Council, and H.E. Li in particular, each with a folding 
 and a moon-shaped silk fan, on both of which were autograph 
 water-colour paintings by the illustrious donor. On the 
 folding fan which was presented to Li was painted a bunch 
 of grapes, on the moon-shaped silk fan a pink peony — by 
 the Chiaese considered the most beautiful of flowers. The 
 writing on the other side of the fans — prose or poetry — and 
 the names of the receivers were by the Palace librarians, 
 members of the Hanlin College. 
 
 Yet, in spite of this delightful reward from Tze Hsi's 
 hands, when we think of the multifarious occupations of a 
 Chinese Viceroy, and how he must himself feel the impos- 
 sibility of sufficing for all, and the almost impossibiUty 
 of getting clean-handed through them, we can sympathise 
 with Chan Tai in his poem : — 
 
 THE WHITE SWALLOW. 
 From the Chinese of Chan Tai. 
 Few are the hearts that the lusts of the day 
 
 Leave white at the set of the sun ; 
 
 To the blossoming pear-tree I hie me away, 
 
 Nor care, be the world lost or won. 
 
 Pallid my plumes as I skim through the air, 
 I would scorn to be tinged like the crow ; 
 
 And my outline, if fuller when homeward I fare, 
 Must be moulded of nothing but snow. 
 
 My shadow gleams white on the sable of night ; 
 
 Tho' steeped in the bloom of the peach, 
 The purple of springtime I've worn in my flight, 
 
 My mantle I never need bleach. 
 
 Ah ! many are winging the radiant doves 
 
 To flutter in evil apart ; 
 Through the tempest of jealousies, sunshine of lores, 
 
 I alone bring an innocent heart.* 
 * Translated by Kolichi. 
 
INTRIGUES AND TllOUBLES. 205 
 
 Li's summary methods of dealing with the superstitions 
 of his country when he wanted to drive a railway along showed 
 him at his best. We see in the following incident the energy 
 that was evident in his very attitude when he was young, as 
 it was shown also by the much talked of brilliance of his eyes. 
 We see also the strong common-sense and a little of the 
 laughter-loving geniality that must have carried him over 
 many a rough place in his career. The railway engineers 
 wished to fix upon a place a mile outside the city of Moukden 
 as the junction for the Kirin and Newchwang Railway, but the 
 Tartar General Yu-lu got a number of geomancers and similar 
 wiseacres to see whether this choice would affect the Fung-shui 
 of Moukden. Fung-Shui (literally wind- water) or the belief in 
 influences of climate and exposure, is one of the religions of 
 China ; and the wise men declared that " the vertebrae of the 
 Dragon which encircles the holy city of Moukden would be 
 broken by driving the long iron nails of the railway sleepers 
 into them " ; so Yu-lu vetoed the decision of the engineers, who 
 accordingly reported the matter to Li. 
 
 Now inasmuch as Kinchow, Moukden and Newchwang 
 form the three angles of a right-angled triangle, with Mouk- 
 den as the apex and Kinchow and Newchwang at the base 
 angles, the ingenious Tartar General tried to get over the diffi- 
 culty that had been raised by his veto by ordering that the line 
 should be led straight across from Kinchow to Newchwang. 
 Obviously, this route had shortness of distance to recommend 
 it ; but the engineers objected to it on two grounds : first, 
 that the country between Newchwang and Kinchow was a low, 
 marshy tract of land liable to floods during the wet seasons 
 and secondly, that the country being sparsely settled, scarcely 
 any traffic would be tapped. They therefore preferred to 
 make a longer line by joining Kinchow to Moukden, and from 
 that city running branch lines southwards to Newchwang and 
 north-eastwards to Kirin, more than compensating for the 
 length of the line by making it pass through thickly settled 
 and rich towns on the route and laying it on ground com- 
 paratively level and high. Upon the report of the engineers 
 reaching the Viceroy, he wrote at once to the superstitious 
 
206 LI HUNO- CHANG. 
 
 Tartar General, telling hiin that his anxiety for the Fung- 
 shui of the ancestral home of the reigning dynasty was 
 exceedingly commendable, though it was his (the Vicero3r's) 
 candid opinion that the Fung-shui of Moukden would be 
 bettered by the junction rather than otherwise. Still, if his 
 colleague (Yu-Iu) was determined to veto the engineers 
 decision he would memorialise the Throne, and in the 
 meantime had ordered all work to be stopped on the line, 
 pending his Majesty's decision. Alarmed at this sudden turn 
 of affairs, Yu-lu wrote and urged that the work should go on, 
 but that the engineers should go over the ground again, and 
 he would " think about it." A place a few hundred yards 
 distant from the objectionable first site was then chosen, and 
 the geomancers, apparently acting upon the hint not to make 
 any more objections, declared that the Dragon's pulse would 
 not be injured in the newly chosen spot. 
 
 Li had a habit of always going straight to the point. Mr. 
 Goebel, an engineer and also a late Belgian Consul-General 
 in Shanghai, when at one time asked his opinion upon the 
 desirability of establishing laboratories in Belgium for instruc- 
 tion in practical engineering, wrote : — 
 
 "Allow me to add to my personal estimate the opinion 
 which I had the opportunity of gathering two years ago from 
 the mouth of the illustrious Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, the 
 eminent Chinese statesman. 
 
 " As I was dilating to him on the depth of our technical 
 studies and the merits of our engineers, he said to me : 
 " Belgian engineers have the knowledge — but have they also 
 the practical experience ? For in these matters science is 
 worth little unless it is made fruitful by practice. I pointed 
 out to him the greatness and variety of the Belgian industry 
 and the immense field of action open to our young 
 engineers, in which they can acquire practical knowledge 
 when they have done with the theory. ' Do not bring me,' he 
 said, ' any man less than thirty years old.' " 
 
 An English Commissioner of Customs, who had had many 
 dealings with Li, pronounced him an excellent administrator 
 and strong and daring up to a certain point, Li would sit 
 
INTBIGUES AND TROUBLES. ^Qil 
 
 down and write off a forcible despatch himself, and see that his 
 orders were attended to. If Li had remained in Chihli, in this 
 gentleman's opinion there would have been no Boxer outbreak. 
 Once, when he was passing through Tientsin, Li consulted him 
 about sending a large quantity of treasure south. Going into 
 the matter of the expense of conveying and protecting it, he 
 advised sending a gunboat with it. Li agreed. Then the 
 other said : " And I think I will go on that gunboat too, if you 
 permit." Li rather opened his eyes : " Oh ! you will go on 
 that gunboat ! " To the intense surprise of the Englishman, 
 the captain of the gunboat reported all ready for starting 
 within twenty-four hours, and he went to Li and complimented 
 him upon the smartness with which the preparations had 
 been carried out. Li said calmly : " Oh, when I give orders 
 that things are to be done, they have to be done at once." 
 "And whom are you going to send in charge of this trea- 
 sure ? " " Why, of course, you will take charge of it." " What ! 
 I ? Had you not better send one of your own people ? " 
 " Why should I ? " grumbled Li, with his comical ex- 
 pression. ''You said you were going, and he would only 
 steal it." 
 
 If this was his opinion of Chinese, he seems to have had 
 a still worse opinion of Manchus. When the new Minister 
 to the United States, Spain, and Peru, called upon Li to 
 take leave, and told the latter that he had eight Manchu 
 attaches in his suite, Li made a grimace at the information, 
 and immediately said : " Well, take my sincere advice, never 
 put the Manchus in any post of responsibility, for they are 
 never to be trusted " ; which recalls a little Trochu's words as he 
 walked round the wards of a Paris hospital, when on asking 
 a wounded soldier what part of France he came from, and 
 being told Paris, " Mauvaise race, mauvais sang," said the 
 General, turning upon his heel. 
 
 About 1893 Li was busy with the new medical college. 
 The work of Drs. Mackenzie, Irwin, and Mrs. King begun 
 in 1889, had been brought to a successful conclusion, and 
 the Medical College stood ready to do its work. "In this 
 country, where so much depends on the individuality of 
 
208 LI HUNG-OUANG. 
 
 a statesman, an institution of this kind may be almost 
 regarded as the work of the man who favours its birth, and 
 we hope that the college will be a lasting memorial worthy 
 of the talents of Li Hung-chang," wrote a Tientsin corre- 
 spondent in 1894. 
 
 At the expense of some £5,000, a large medical school 
 had been erected adjoining the hospital and fully equipped. 
 Twenty-three students — English speaking — had been enlisted, 
 chiefly in Shanghai and Ningpo, and were to be maintained — 
 i.e. lodged, boarded, and paid — during the entire period of their 
 curriculum. One of the very last acts of the late Sir Andrew 
 Clark was to appoint a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, 
 to the position of Director of Studies and Resident Surgeon 
 and Physician. The students were to be put through a pre- 
 liminary course of chemistry and to begin anatomy with 
 French models in wax. 
 
 Before this Li Hung-chang had deputed a doctor attached 
 to the Peiyang hospital at Tientsin, to go down to Shanghai 
 and get together twenty young men, under the age of twenty, 
 for the purpose of training them for the medical profession, 
 preparatory to entering the Chinese Army or Navy as doctors 
 or surgeons. Ten of these young disciples were required 
 to have had at least three years' study of the English 
 language. Mr. Fenney, of the Anglo-Chinese school, also 
 won his patronage, the first practical manifestation by a high 
 Chinese official of interest in any school wholly under foreign 
 control, and having no connection whatever with the Chinese 
 Government and officials. The Viceroy offered two watches 
 as prizes for an essay in English and for proficiency in 
 mathematics, appointing his secretary, Mr. Lo Feng-luh, to 
 select the subject of the essay and conduct the examination, 
 and proposing to continue to offer prizes to the school in 
 succeeding years. 
 
 We find the completely Chinese Li again, however, in a 
 memorial to the Throne, March 16th, 1894, stating that the 
 second breach in the banks of the Grand Canal at Hungmiao 
 (about fourteen miles from Tientsin) the other day, was owing 
 to the devilry of a river god who had concealed himself in 
 
INTBIGUES AND TBOUBIES. 209 
 
 the vicinity of that place. His presence was at first reported 
 by the local rustics, and eventually corroborated by the 
 testimony of all the officers and troops occupied with the 
 task of filling in the breaches there, who averred that the 
 god appeared in various guises to them while at work. This 
 report reaching the Commander-in-Chief and the Taotais in 
 charge on the day of the second successful attempt to fill 
 in the breach, a sacrificial stage was erected in honour of 
 the deity, and oiferings were made to him, beseeching his 
 kind interposition on behalf of the embankments, coupled 
 with prayers that he would remain passive and not spoil the 
 work completed with such labour and expense. 
 
 In answer to the prayers of the said Commander-in-Chief 
 and Taotais, it is presumed that the river god promised 
 favour, for on the day in question the workers were blessed 
 with beautiful serene weather and peaceful calm upon the 
 waters, which, it must be confessed, was just the contrary 
 before the sacrifices were offered, the labourers at the canal 
 having been hitherto impeded in their work by sleet and 
 pouring rain, while the canal itself was one mass of raging 
 waters. Memorialist, therefore, thinks that a fitting recogni- 
 tion should be made by the Throne to this river god for 
 his interposition on behalf of the unimpeded traflic on this 
 canal and rest and quiet to the people living in the vicinity. 
 His Majesty is therefore requested to bestow a title on the 
 river god of the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, and 
 to allow a temple to be built for him there, and entered 
 on the official list for spring and autumn sacrifices by the 
 mandarins of the locality. 
 
 It was in 1894 that the story was told of the Empress 
 Dowager and her eighteen lamps, which she was said to keep 
 constantly burning day and night in her Palace to represent 
 the eighteen provinces of China. One of the lamps, though 
 it received precisely the same attention as all the others, took 
 to burniQg very badly, and the Empress sent for the chief 
 Imperial astronomer to learn the reason. The latter, having 
 carefully considered the matter and consulted the archives, 
 told the Empress that the lamp which was burning so badly 
 o 
 
210 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 represented the province of Canton, which was about to be 
 afflicted with a serious epidemic in which the God of Pes- 
 tilence had determined to take off sight-tenths of the people- 
 
 The Empress was very much concerned at being told 
 this, and on her asking how such a dreadful doom might 
 be averted, the chief astronomer said that the god might 
 perhaps be moved with prayer and offerings. Everything 
 was done to appease his wrath by the Empress Dowager's 
 orders; whereupon the chief astronomer, being asked what 
 success had been achieved, after much consideration and 
 consultation replied that the God of Pestilence had consented 
 to compromise — but this was absolutely the best that he 
 could do — for four-tenths human beings and the balance in 
 rats. 
 
 Thus the frightful mortality of rats and human beings 
 at Canton that spring was accounted for. 
 
 Among his many other investments, Li had started a 
 cotton cloth mill in Shanghai, and tried hard to get a mono- 
 poly of the business. No less than nine telegrams were, 
 therefore, despatched to him by the mill officials and the 
 various local mandarins when these miUs were burnt to the 
 ground. Among Li's answers, the first was of an hortatory 
 nature, owing to his having been informed of the attempted 
 suicide of the mUl manager in the flames ; the second asked 
 why it was that the manager had not insured the property ; 
 the third inquired why the foreign volunteer fire brigades had 
 not rendered any assistance, and commanded the manager to 
 try his best to find out the origin of the fire and see whether 
 anyone was in fault; the fourth and last commanded Nieh 
 Taotai to investigate the matter and report at once. He 
 deputed his eldest son to help in the re-organisation. 
 
 A native correspondent at Tientsin writes that Li was 
 exceedingly annoyed in 1894 by the efforts of the Brazilian 
 emigration agents to get Chinese labourers to go to Brazil, 
 before the ratification of a treaty between China and that 
 country, the uncertainty of the revolution there in progress 
 at that time being another reason why he was unwilling that 
 his countrymen should visit it. He suggested that if the 
 
INTRIGUES AND TROUBLES. 211 
 
 Chinese in the South wished to leave their native places, they 
 should migrate to the north-eastern provinces of Manchuria 
 and to Heilungchiang and Chinese Turkestan, where there 
 was plenty of room in a fruitful country, instead of emigrating 
 to foreign lands. 
 
 The same Commissioner of Customs whom I have quoted 
 before tells a story rather bearing upon this about Liu K'un-yi : 
 a man whom, like all Englishmen who have had dealings with 
 him, he considers quite to be relied upon in spite of the vices 
 that so disfigure an otherwise apparently noble character, 
 worthy of the manly province of Hunan from which he came. 
 The Spanish were at one time making great efforts to re- 
 establish the export of Chinese labourers from Canton to 
 Cuba. " Do you know what you have virtually agreed to ? " 
 asked the Englishman, astonished at the Chinese Viceroy. 
 " Oh," replied Liu K'un-yi, " the Spanish minister came and 
 talked for five hours, and I was so tired I could think of 
 nothing better to do than to tell him to talk it all over with you 
 and settle matters. Of course, what you say he wants is out 
 of the question. Why, it would be enough to cause a revolu- 
 tion." The same Englishman relates how Sir Robert Hart, 
 who writes Chinese very well, and is given to the production 
 of somewhat lengthy despatches, once evolved a particularly 
 long one on the reform of China. Asking Li if he had read 
 it, Li repHed : " Read it ! N-o-o ! Wen Hsiang will have to 
 read it, and I expect it wiU kill him." 
 
 In the Spring Liu K'un-yi had recommended Ching-ts'u, a 
 son of Li Han-chang, as a man fitted by his great knowledge 
 of foreign affairs and government to be a Taotai of first 
 importance, and requested that the Throne should give him a 
 post at the first opportunity. This the Emperor did, making 
 him Salt Commissioner at Hupeh. The latter accordingly 
 went up for the usual audience, but, it seems, failed to satisfy 
 the Emperor of his " great knowledge of foreign affairs." This 
 coupled with a memorial by a Censor informing the Emperor 
 of Li Ching-ts'u's relationship to Li Han-chang and Li Hung- 
 chang, made the Emperor suspect that family influence had 
 more to do with the recommendation than the talents of the 
 
212 LI HUNa-OHANG. 
 
 nominee ; so, after remarking that although Liu K'un-yi had 
 always had the reputation of being impartial in his duties, 
 he had now failed to act up to the mark, the appointment of 
 Li Ching-ts'u to the Salt Commissionership was cancelled. 
 In the same decree, a similar fate befell a man of Taotai's 
 rank, recommended by Li Han-chang ; on the ground that 
 the nominee had been Li's secretary, and so "favoiuitism 
 must have been at the bottom of all this laudatory language." 
 Viceroys and Governors are exhorted to be more careful of 
 criticism in the future. Thus, both Liu K'un-yi and Li Han- 
 chang " lost face " this time, and of course indirectly, Li Hung- 
 chang, whose nephew the rejected Li Ching-ts'u was. 
 
 Chang Chih-tung, on the other hand, had meanwhile very 
 successfully inaugurated his iron works at Hanyang close to 
 Hankow. It was expected that they would soon be turning 
 out large quantities of steel ; meanwhile, as we learn from 
 a native informant, the Viceroy gave great praise to Ts'ai 
 Taotai, the Director-General of the Iron Works and Coal 
 and Metal Mines of Hupeh, as well as to the various 
 foreigners connected with the works, to whom the greater 
 part of the credit was really due. Thus the different Viceroys 
 pursued their different courses, Liu K'un-yi evidently co- 
 quetting with the Li faction, Li Han-chang as usual trying 
 to get aU he could, Chang Chih-tung working on at his 
 somewhat visionary schemes, yet achieving practical result, 
 Li busy with foreign politics, and as it would seem with every 
 other sort of affair under Heaven. 
 
 A little later he started for his triennial inspection of the 
 coast naval defences, his colleague being the Governor of 
 Manchuria. The novelty of the occasion was the landing 
 at Shanhaikuan and the journey home by railway. Li then 
 at last saw with his own eyes the great bridge over the 
 Lanho, ia the progress of which he had manifested and sus- 
 tained so keen an interest. Unfortunately, he could no longer 
 see the most remarkable part of the work, the caisson 
 foundation sixty feet below the bed of the river. 
 
 The Viceroy also spent three hours on board H.M.S. 
 Centurion, examining carefully her armament and equipment, 
 
INTRIGUES AND TROUBLES. 213 
 
 in which he expressed much interest, the more so because 
 we now hear he had been informed that the English were 
 now incapable of building ships or making cannon. 
 
 Li was still gaining honours, but in 1893 he sent a 
 secret memorial to the Throne, pointing out that he was 
 getting too old for the onerous duties connected with his 
 position, as Viceroy of Chihli and virtually Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, asking that he might be permitted to 
 retire, and even recommending his successor; but the 
 Emperor refused to entertain any idea of this, and would 
 not hear of his retirement. [For Emperor, of course, read 
 Empress.] 
 
 In March, 1894, the Viceroy Li was again made the 
 recipient of Imperial favour, the three-eyed peacock feather 
 being bestowed upon him. This, the highest honour obtain- 
 able in China, had last been bestowed upon a Manchu, and 
 that was about 300 years ago. Li Hung-chang is, indeed, 
 the only Chinese who ever received this mark of favour. 
 Thus it would appear that he had attained to the rank 
 next below that of the Emperor himself among the titled 
 dignitaries of the Empire. However, before the year was 
 out he had been deprived of all his honours and titles by 
 an order from the Council Chamber " to bring him to a 
 better state of mind " as was therein stated. 
 
 Before that an extra title was arranged for the Empress 
 Dowager in honour of H.I.M.'s sixtieth birthday anniversary, 
 the extra two characters " Chu'ng-hsi " being ordered by 
 Edict to be presented to the Imperial lady on the eighth 
 moon of the next Chinese year (September, 1894). Tze Hsi 
 had already seven names of fourteen characters, which 
 ministers at Court had to labour through whenever mention- 
 ing her ; but from the following September they would have 
 to go painfully through the long list of Tze-hsi-Tuan-yu- 
 K'ang-i-Chao-yu- Chung - ch'eng - Shou - kung - Ch'ing-hsien- 
 Ch'ung-hsi-Huang T'ai-hou (the last three meaning Dowager 
 Empress), before anyone could be sure of whom they were 
 talking. 
 
214 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE JAPANESE WAR (1894—1895). 
 
 Isf 1894 Krupp's agent was in China, and Armstrong's also, 
 both scenting a coming war. Possibly contracts are not 
 managed quite in the same way for our War Office as in 
 China, so it may be as well to explain the method there in 
 force. No man can hope to sell to a Chinese Viceroy unless 
 at a much higher rate than the goods are worth, since he is 
 always expected to sign a receipt for some thousands of taels 
 more than he has received. The difference between the price 
 received and that signed for goes into the Viceroy's purse 
 (with the exception of what intermediaries pocket on the 
 way thither), and this is the really important factor round 
 which all the preliminary negotiations circle, the quality of 
 the goods being a quite unimportant item in comparison. 
 It is for this reason that men of a certain character are 
 generally most successful in dealing with Chinese officials and 
 that transactions are lengthy and precarious. 
 
 Two men have told me of a certain deal in guns, which at 
 last was settled to the great satisfaction of the foreigner who 
 put it through. He came into the Tientsin Club and had a 
 champagne lunch on the strength of it. That deal was with 
 Li Hung-chang, and, my informants maintain, decided the 
 Japanese war. How much money was made by it is known 
 of necessity to many living now. How many men have died 
 in consequence, how many homes have been ravaged, how 
 many women murdered, how many children left orphans or 
 cut up by swords or thrown down wells or into rivers, none 
 will ever know. How that foreigner came into the club and 
 
THE JAPANESE WAR. 215 
 
 ordered his champagne, sticks in the minds of men who were 
 present. And after that the Japanese war was a dead 
 certainty they say. After that also there were large contracts 
 for guns which were never delivered, never even put in order, 
 though the money passed, as all Tientsin knows. And the 
 poor soldiere went without. 
 
 By July the local mandarins were receiving urgent 
 messages from the north to send at once 100,000 pounds of 
 prismatic powder, presumably for the fleet, Avith orders to 
 forward it within three days from receipt of telegram. 
 Similar orders had been received from Formosa ; the Governor, 
 H.E. Shao Yu-lien, offering cash down for a large quantity of 
 arms to be sent south at once. The arsenal authorities were 
 at their vfits' end how to fulfil these orders. From 10,000 to 
 12,000 Chinese troops were ordered to Korea. To transport 
 them a number of China merchants' steamers had been sent 
 forth, the Kowshing had been chartered, and endeavours had 
 been made to secure other British steamers. 
 
 The cause was an insurrection in Korea. According to Mr. 
 Michie : " A condominium must ever be destructive to the 
 poHcy of the less energetic member, and the treaty concluded 
 between Li Hung-chang and Count Ito in 1885 was the fatal 
 prelude to the events of ten years later. As the treaties 
 granting to Russia a co-equal right of navigating the Amur 
 and a joint ownership of the Assuri Province constituted the 
 virtual surrender of Chinese rights, so any treaty with Japan, 
 no matter on what conditions, respecting Korea, was a virtual 
 abdication of the Chinese suzerainty. The right in common 
 to send troops into Korea on notice given could have no other 
 effect than to deliver up the Kingdom to the Power which 
 was the most alert in taking advantage of the agreement." As 
 it fell out, the King of Korea under pressure had appealed to 
 his suzerain, the Emperor of China, to send troops to help him. 
 Li Hung-chang was unwilling to do this, but the Tsungli 
 YamSn taunted him with never being ready, and insisted. 
 Then the insurrection collapsed, the Chinese troops were 
 ordered to withdraw, and the Kowshing is said to have been 
 chartered at first for the purpose of bringing them away. 
 
216 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 Now the Japanese had already sent many more troops than 
 the Chinese to Korea ; moreover, a gentleman, who should be 
 in a position to know, told me he had himself seen the whole 
 Japanese plan of the coming war drawn up beforehand, down 
 to the Tery smallest detail, together with the terms of peace 
 Japan intended to demand ; also the exact plan of the next 
 war she then expected to have to wage with another foreign 
 Power. Possibly the events that have since occurred have 
 thrown even the wily Japanese out in their reckoning, and led 
 to some revision of all this ; but if such papers were, as 1 have 
 been assured, already drawn up before the Chino-Japanese 
 war of 1894, then it is obvious that the Japanese knew per- 
 fectly not only how to plan but how to mislead ; for the great 
 authorities unanimously declared there would be no fighting ; 
 the very war correspondents who had flocked to Korea 
 dispersed, and the Kowshing, Jardine's steamer, embarked 
 1,500 Chinese troops, together with General von Hanneken in 
 command. 
 
 The oft-told story of the Kowshing always reminds me of 
 Browning's "King and the Book," where every character 
 concerned imparts so different a colouring to the same circum- 
 stances as to make them appear quite different. But I, who 
 must not emulate the poet by devoting a whole volume to this 
 one episode, will be content to quote a letter signed " Mariner " 
 in the North China Herald, which bears internal evidence 
 of the intention of the writer to tell the truth. It is dated 
 July 30th, 
 
 On arrival at Tangku the Kowshing received orders to turn 
 round to take in coal and troops. To inquiries made by the 
 captain and crew whether the war had been declared, they were 
 told that it had not, that things were in the same condition as when 
 they left Shanghai. Relying on this information as correct, they 
 left Tangku with 1,500 troops, some cannon, and munitions of war, 
 with sealed orders that they were not to open till they got a certain 
 distance to sea. 
 
 Everything proceeded favourably until their arrival at Baker 
 I.sland, at the entrance to Shallow Bay, where they met a Japanese 
 man-of-war, awaiting them, already cleared for action, and evidently 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 217 
 
 expecting them. On arriving within range of the man-of-war's 
 guns, they were ordered to anchor, and were boarded by an officer, 
 and told that war had been declared between China and Japan, and 
 that they were carrying an illegal cargo, but that the ship and 
 crew being British (a neutral Power), they, the Japanese, would 
 not touch them. They requested the captain, officers, and crew 
 to go on board the man-of-war, promising that they should be 
 landed at the nearest port, but declaring their iatention to blow 
 up the ship and destroy every other soul on board, amongst whom 
 was a foreigner in Chinese clothes with the rank of General. And 
 let it be accounted to their everlasting honour as British men, that 
 they refused as one man to leave their fellow-passengers and ship 
 in the hour of danger. 
 
 The naval officer repeated the offer, which was again refuse 1 ; 
 he then returned on board his ship, which steamed a little way 
 off, fired a torpedo into her and blew the stern off, and then another 
 that blew her up. In a few seconds the water was one mass of 
 struggling humanity, fighting for dear life and vainly looking for 
 assistance in any shape — even a British man-of-war. 
 
 The Japanese man-of-war turned on its heel, and, slowly steam- 
 ing through the midst of the struggling mass, opened fire on it with 
 the machine guns and small arms, until hardly a soul remained 
 alive. To say that they had no intentions against foreigners is 
 palpably wrong, as one foreigner was able to get to the mast 
 of the sunken ship and climbed up it, when the Japanese returned 
 and deliberately shot him down, having to fire several times before 
 they hit him, leaving several Chinese soldiers that were clinging 
 to the same mast, who were eventually picked up by the French 
 gunboat Lion. 
 
 Those Englishmen who survive tell how the Chinese 
 officers held revolvers to their heads at the last, threatening 
 to kill them if they surrendered. To my mind the action 
 was a fine one. The Chinese officers could not speak Enghsh, 
 the officers of the Kowsking could not speak Chinese. The 
 Chinese officers were determined to defend their soldiers and 
 munitions of war against treachery, and did not understand 
 the rules of civilised warfare, any more than the Japanese 
 seem to have done, for there had been no declaration of war. 
 Similarly there had been none at Foo-chow in 1880, when 
 
218 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 Admiral Courbet " drew up his nine vessels of war opposite 
 the eleven wooden boats of the Chinese, demanding the 
 immediate surrender of the forts and the fleet. All but one 
 of the Chinese ships were destroyed within a few minutes, 
 and 3,000 Chinese were killed." The Chinese have really not 
 had much opportunity of learning Western rules of warfare, 
 being thus often treated to the exceptions. \\Tien, finally, 
 the English officers, hopeless against overwhelming odds, 
 sprang into the water, they were fired on by both Chinese 
 and Japanese, and had to dive and duck their heads to 
 save themselves. Thus those Chinese at least went do-»vn 
 fighting to the last against overwhelming odds. 
 
 Next, with one voice the experts, who had already been 
 deceived as to whether there would be a war or not, pro- 
 ceeded to declare that Japan would have no chance, would 
 probably have some successes at first, but must in the long 
 run be overwhelmed by the immense numerical superiority, 
 the weight and great resources of the vast Chinese Empire. 
 But I had seen the Hunan braves, the best fighting men of 
 China, floating down the thousand miles or so of Yangtse on 
 the picturesque Chinese junks, with their black kerchiefs 
 round their heads, made fast by twisted pigtails, with scorn 
 for everyone firmly imprinted on their well curved arching 
 lips ; and I saw also the Japanese levies, coming in from 
 the mountain districts, assembling at Tokio, without a 
 murmur, in excellent order, with every modem appliance, and 
 evidently perfectly drilled, hardy, resolute, and disciplined. 
 I never could see how there was any possibility of China's 
 succeeding; it seemed as if she must be utterly crushed 
 from the outset, as she indeed was. And I can only attribute 
 the different opinion of the experts to the fact that so few 
 people go into the interior of China and learn really to know 
 the Chinese. 
 
 It is curious that Mr. Michie, who calls Li Hung-chang's 
 treaty with Count Ito " the fatal prelude " to the Japanese 
 War, yet has no word of condemnation of his favourite 
 statesman for making such a treaty, while he passes over the 
 Kowshing incident completely; yet it is clear that either 
 
THE JAPANESE WAR. 219 
 
 Li ought not to have sent soldiers in an English steamer, or 
 else the Japanese had no right to fire on her. The judicial 
 authorities seem in the end to have decided that the blame 
 lay with the Chinese Government, then represented by Li 
 Hung-chang, and that they ought to pay. 
 
 Now to give the Chinese version of the whole business ! 
 " Korea," they argued, " has been our tributary for the past 
 two hundred odd years. She has given us tribute all this 
 time, which is a matter known to the world. For the past 
 dozen years or so Korea has been troubled by repeated 
 insurrections, and we in sympathy Avith our small tributary 
 have as repeatedly sent succour to her aid, eventually placing 
 a resident in her capital to protect her own interests. In the 
 fourth moon (May) of this year, another rebellion was begun 
 in Korea, and the King again repeatedly asked for aid from 
 us to put it do^vn. We then ordered Li Hung-chang to send 
 troops, and they having barely reached Yashan the rebels 
 immediately scattered. But the Wojen [an ancient name 
 for Japanese, expressive of contempt], without any cause 
 whatever, suddenly sent their troops also to Korea, and 
 entered its capital, Seoul, reinforcing these constantly until 
 they exceeded ten thousand men. In the meantime they 
 forced the Korean King to change his system of Government, 
 showing a disposition every way of bullying the Koreans. 
 Whereas we, who have been in the habit of assisting our 
 tributaries, have never interfered with their internal govern- 
 ment. The various Powers are united in condemning the 
 conduct of the Japanese, and can give no reasonable name 
 to the army she has now in the country. Japan has not been 
 amenable to reason, nor would she listen to the exhortation 
 to withdraw her troops and confer amicably upon what 
 should be done in Korea. On the contrary, she has shown 
 herself bellicose without regard to appearances, and has been 
 increasing her force there. Her conduct alarmed the people 
 of Korea as well as our merchants there, and so we sent more 
 troops over to protect them. Judge of our surprise then 
 when, half way to Korea, a number of the Wojen ships 
 suddenly appeared, and taking advantage of our unprepared- 
 
220 £1 HVNG - CHANG. 
 
 ness opened fire upon our transports at a spot on the sea-coast 
 near Yashan, and damaged them ; thus causing us to suffer 
 from their treacherous conduct which we could not have 
 foreseen. 
 
 " Since Japan has violated all law, and is now running 
 rampant with her false and treacherous actions, commencing 
 hostilities herself, and laying herself open to condemnation by 
 the various Powers at large, we therefore desire to make it 
 known to the world that we have always followed the paths 
 of philanthropy and perfect justice throughout the whole 
 complications, while the Wojen, on the other hand, have 
 broken all the laws of nations and treaties; a thing which 
 it passes our patience to bear with. Hence we command 
 Li Hung-chang to give strict orders to our various armies 
 to hasten with all speed to root the Wojen out of their 
 lairs. He is to send successive armies of valiant men to 
 Korea in order to save the Koreans from the dust of bondage. 
 We also command the Manchu General Viceroys and Gover- 
 nors of the Maritime Provinces, as well as the Commanders- 
 in-Chief of the various armies, to prepare for war and to 
 make every effort to fire on the Wojen ships if they come 
 into our ports, and utterly destroy them. We exhort our 
 Generals to refrain from the least laxity in obeying our 
 commands in order to avoid severe punishment at our hands." 
 
 By August 3rd, it became known that Imperial disfavour 
 had fallen upon the Viceroy Li Hung-chang and he had been 
 deprived of his Yellow Riding Jacket. To the English mind 
 which sees nothing strange in the bestowal by our Sovereign 
 of a Garter upon the young King of Spain, this seemed quite 
 grotesque, and there were so many jokes about it that the 
 late Consul-General, Sir Chaloner Alabaster, wrote to the 
 Standard : — " The deprivation of Li Hung-chang of his 
 Yellow Jacket does not mean that he is disgraced in the sense 
 that disgraced is understood in Europe. It is the custom in 
 China to grant officials honours of various sorts periodically 
 when things go on well, and to take them away when things 
 go ill, and neither the one nor the other means very much, 
 80 long as the official is not removed from his post ; indeed, so 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 221 
 
 certain is it that a responsible official will be subjected to stop- 
 page of three months' or even a year's pay, five or six times a 
 year, that they in many cases do not draw their official salary 
 at all during their tenure of office, and a high official is almost 
 invariably deprived of the button of his rank more than once 
 in his career." 
 
 It is certainly clear that Li Hung-chang at first resisted 
 the Tsungli-Yamen's pressure. Whether it is true that when 
 he at last gave way about the Japanese war it was because of 
 a deal in munitions of war satisfactory to him, and to others, 
 according to the story before related, will probably never be 
 proved ; indeed, it hardly can be. The guns would not have 
 been bought had there not been war, that is clear. But 
 possibly the war had been decided upon in his mind first. In 
 either case, the following account (which, as usual, whenever I 
 can, I quote from an eye-witness) is specially interesting, as 
 showing how Li was understood by all to be solicitous about 
 the legality and strict propriety of China's attitude. It shows 
 also the light in which the Kowshing incident appeared 
 to the ordinary Chinese mind, at which we also cannot surely 
 wonder. 
 
 Japanese were hustled in the streets of Tientsin, and after 
 the arrival of the survivors of the Koivshing butchery with 
 their exasperating story, it was deemed expedient to send the 
 Japanese away at once. The officials of the Taku Tug 
 and Lighter Company very generously placed vessels at the 
 disposal of the poorer class and got them down in the dark on 
 Tuesday night. Under the charge of his American colleague, 
 the Japanese Consul's household was sent down by train on 
 "Wednesday and got safely on board the Chungking, which 
 had been specially retained till Friday, hoping to take the 
 Charge d' Affaires from Peking. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, an officer in the merchant service, then writes, 
 August 2nd, 7 p.m., 1894 :— 
 
 " Had a brutal attack at one this morning. While alongside 
 the coal wharf at Tongku was aroused by a terrible noise in 
 saloon ; Japanese women yelling and being dragged along the 
 deck and down the gangway, and thrown on the wharf as if 
 
222 il nUNG CHANG. 
 
 they were pigs or fowls. Fifty soldiers fully armed took 
 control of the ship, guarding all exits ; stated they were 
 obeying orders, and as a matter of fact were led by two officers. 
 We never got to bed, and I never witnessed such cruel sights. 
 They spoiled the Japs and extracted over |600, besides 
 watches, trinkets, etc., from the poor women and the Consul's 
 wife. I am sure we have not heard the last of this frightful 
 outrage ; when we asked them to be gentle, they only cried 
 out ' Kowshing ! Kowshing ! ' The girls were not ill-treated at 
 the godown adjoining the Customs where they were shut up. 
 The barber and his assistants got on the rigging and remained 
 hid till the others were brought back under escort to the 
 steamer at 5 a.m. The men were in uniform and were armed 
 with rifle, sword and spear ; they were said to belong to the 
 neighbouring camp. 
 
 " The Consul's wife and children were not taken away ; but 
 we had the very greatest trouble to get the soldiers pacified 
 and to persuade them to leave her cabin. The children and 
 the European ladies on board were, of course, very much 
 excited. We simply waited in the saloon while the ladies 
 remained in their cabins ; as long as they abstained from 
 violence we deemed it the wisest thing for us to do under the 
 circumstances. At 3 a.m. some half-dozen men fired a volley 
 over the ship's side, and thereupon the women (chiefly of the 
 housekeeper class) were tied up by the wrists and legs. They 
 were brought back on board at 5 a.m. The Viceroy is greatly 
 annoyed at the incident, and ample satisfaction will doubtless 
 be given to all parties concerned. His Excellency has been 
 pluming himself on the strictly neutral attitude of China all 
 through the crisis." 
 
 Li had already memorialised the Throne for another 
 2,000,000 taels. Although the Board of Revenue had not yet 
 sent this last-named sima, the Empress Dowager had, it was 
 reported, ordered the placing apart of 12,000,000 taels to be 
 at the disposal of Li Hung-chang at any time. 
 
 Yuan Shih-kai, formerly Chinese Resident in Korea, then 
 Viceroy of Shantung, and after that of Chihli, whom the 
 Chinese generally pronounce responsible for this war, was 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 223 
 
 appointed by Li to command a division of four thousand 
 men and to start for Korea the following month. He was 
 placed at the head of the military secretaries belonging to the 
 Chinese forces in Korea, and one of his chief duties would be 
 the pacification along the route of the army of the Koreans, 
 who were said to have implicit faith in him, as well as to 
 distribute arms to them. We must not follow the many 
 tragedies of the startling Chino-Japanese war, but this procla- 
 mation from the Shanghai Arsenal, put out almost at the 
 beginning of it, we must find room for : 
 
 Taels. 
 For every actual Japanese spy captured ... ... 100 
 
 For every Chinese traitor captured ... ... 50 
 
 For every Japanese spy captured upon information 50 
 
 For every Chinese spy captured upon information 40 
 
 For the capture of a Japanese ship of war ...100,000 
 
 For every Japanese ship of war damaged ... ... 8,000 
 
 For the capture of each steam-launch that may 
 
 attack the arsenal ... ... ... ... 500 
 
 For the head of each Japanese killed in battle (in 
 
 an attack on the arsenal) ... ... ... 50 
 
 Kwaug Hsii, 30th year, 7th moon (August, 1894). 
 
 In September rumours were current in Peking that Chang 
 Pei-lun, the Viceroy's son-in-law, was about to be expelled 
 from the yamen in Tientsin. It was also reported that Li's 
 two nephews bearing his name had incurred the Censor's 
 wrath, and were about to be cashiered ; and it now turns out 
 that both rumours were correct. 
 
 The outbreak of hostilities had found Li's Peiyang 
 squadron almost literally without a shot in the locker. 
 Chang Pei-lun's equally notorious brother, Chang Shih-yu, 
 the CMef Director of the Imperial Railway both in Formosa 
 and Chihli, kept so tenacious a grip on the purse strings that 
 railway progress was more than once brought to a dead stop. 
 But Chang Pei-lun was a man of totally different stamp. At 
 once a scholar and a man of rare force of character, he had 
 been believed to exert a powerful and evil influence over his 
 
224 LI HUNG ■ GHANG. 
 
 father-in-law for years past. The Peking Gazette, with its 
 usual frankness, sums up the case against him thus : 
 
 The Censor Tung Liang requests that Chang Pei-lun be sent 
 home, so that he may no longer interfere in public business. He 
 was formerly cashiered because his services were bad. Lately, in 
 the yamSn of the Viceroy of Chihli, he has interfered again in 
 public affairs. We hear many unsatisfactory things about him, 
 and we therefore command Li Hung-chang to send Chang Pei-lun 
 home. He must stay no longer. 
 
 In October Li's request to be allowed to take the field 
 in person was granted, and thus at 72 we find the veteran 
 statesman under arms again, but with no Gordon by his side 
 now. Indeed, the Chinese were said to be inquiring whether 
 there were still soldiers to be had of the type of Moltke and 
 Napoleon, and a very high official asked if there were any 
 more Gordons in England. In October Prince Kung was 
 called from his ten years' retirement to take charge of affairs 
 connected with the Tsungli Yamen, the Admiralty, and the 
 Board of War. He was very reluctant to undertake the 
 task — impossible as it seemed — and is said to have made 
 his acceptance conditional on the opening of the Marble 
 Bridge, which the Empress had closed some years before, 
 thereby shutting off the east from the west city, except by 
 long detours to the north and south ; the reason being that 
 the Empress had built for herself the beautiful palace in 
 the south-west of the city, where Waldersee and the French 
 General afterwards found their quarters. The lake and its 
 lovely old world environs, with that masterpiece the azure- 
 tiled dragon screen, were reserved for her sole delight. When 
 wandering through these vast pleasure grounds, kept for 
 herself alone, one better appreciates the absolute selfishness 
 of the parvenue. 
 
 Prince Kung called round him his old colleagues, and it 
 was then that great consternation prevailed in Cantonese 
 official circles upon Viceroy Li Han-chang receiving the 
 following telegram from his brother Li Hung-chang, Viceroy 
 of Chihli : " The mind of the Emperor is inscrutable ; be on 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 225 
 
 your guard and act.'' Li Han-chang attempted to commit 
 suicide the same evening, and was with difficulty prevented 
 by his attendants from carrying out his intention. At the 
 same time, Shang Taotai, Administrator of Railways, etc. 
 offered two mUHons of taels to the man who would save 
 Port Arthur; whom some expected to find in General von 
 Hanneken, saved from the Kowshing disaster. Soldiers of 
 fortune were again gathering from all the nations of Europe 
 tQl people wondered how long neutrality would stand the 
 strain thus put upon it. 
 
 On November 23rd General Wei Ju-Kuel was beheaded. 
 This man had been the most notoriously corrupt military 
 official in the province for four or five years ; and his con- 
 tinued favour had been a very sore point for a long time. 
 The summer before, at the Viceregal inspection of coast 
 defence, his soldiers all but mutinied on the day of the 
 review, and were only kept from disgracing their commander 
 by a liberal largesse and still more liberal promises, which 
 were not kept. Yeh and Nieh, his coadjutors in the Ping- 
 yang flight, had been degraded and disgraced. It was re- 
 ported that Li was to be removed to Peking, and Liu K'un-yi 
 to be summoned from Nanking to take his place ; and that 
 the Court was about to take refuge in the ancient capital 
 Hsian-fu, whither it eventually did retire during the so-called 
 Boxer rising. On November 30th Mr. Detring, the Com- 
 missioner of Customs, together with Mr. Michie, the author 
 of "The Englishmsin in China," left Tientsin for Japan on 
 a diplomatic mission, to try to arrange terms of peace. 
 
 But already Li Hung-chang's nurseling and pride. Port 
 Arthur, on the defence of which incredible sums had been 
 expended, had fallen almost without striking one blow in 
 its own defence. At first Europeans could not believe the 
 news, which the Chinese officials were all too glad to con- 
 tradict. About 13,000 Chinese and about 15,000 Japanese 
 were engaged in the battle ; some 2,000 of the former 
 were killed, while the killed and wounded on the other side 
 only amounted to about 200. On entering the fort, the 
 Japanese found everything intact — nothing destroyed. The 
 
226 LI BUNG - CHANG. 
 
 following account does not quite taUy with this statement, 
 but has at least the merit of being by a Chinese eye-witness 
 and of containing some terribly graphic touches : 
 
 " On the night of the 7th November, the Civil Commandant, 
 Kung Taotai, stole across to Chefoo and thence to Tientsin. The 
 next morning, it having got noised abroad that the Civil 
 Commandant had taken to flight, the whole of the enormous sta£f of 
 artisans and labourers belonging to the various departments left 
 their work and dispersed, and amidst the confusion which then 
 arose the soldiers began to rob and plunder wherever they went. 
 The special body of troops commanded by Kung Taotai himself also 
 began to loot as soon as they heard that their chief had fled, their 
 object being the dockyard money vaults. In a few minutes < not a 
 dollar was left in the treasury, while the storehouse was also pillaged 
 of its contents by the very men stationed there to protect the spot. 
 People commenced to move their household eifects and families, 
 from what was apparently to be a pandemonium, and the civil 
 portion of the town was in a short time deserted. The commander 
 of the submarine mines and torpedo corps, in his fright, cut the con- 
 necting electric wires and immediately fled, carrying away the firing 
 apparatus, his example being well imitated by those under him, so 
 that of the 600 odd torpedoes laid in the harbour not a single one 
 ■was fired against the enemy. Can a greater disaster be imagined ? 
 On the 11th and 12th a portion of our army arrived at Muhch'eng, 
 a place twenty miles from Port Arthur. There they captured five 
 Japanese and five Chinese traitors engaged in spying out the land 
 and drawing maps of the route, details of which appeared to be very 
 precise. At this crisis Kung Taotai returned to Port Arthur, com- 
 pelled to do so both by the orders of the Viceroy Li and the fear of 
 being arrested by the Governor of Shantung, Li Ping-heng, who was 
 on the look out for deserters of Rung's stamp. Arrived there he 
 called together a council of war of six Generals and various Colonels 
 of battalions then at Port Arthur, and the consternation, irresolution, 
 and jealousy apparent amongst the lot was a picture to see. No 
 one had any plan to offer. 
 
 In a short time the forts of Port Arthur were in the hands of 
 the enemy, a portion of whom getting to the barracks of General 
 Chiang's division, began to set the place on fire, which further 
 increased the uproar and confusion. No one stayed ; all fled. And 
 
THE JAPANESE WAS. 227 
 
 what about Kung Chao-yu, the great Civil Commandant and 
 autocrat of Port Arthur t Having issued in the early part of the 
 day orders to his own battalion to "run and fight as they went," 
 he disguised himself in cotton wadded clothes, like a small trader, 
 and, accompanied by a few body servants and his secretary, crept 
 towards the rear of the dockyard and went out by the back gate, 
 where, getting into a boat, he began his flight. His companion was 
 no other than the younger brother of the Wei of the Sheng division, 
 General Wei Ju-ch'eng. This man had disguised himself as a 
 common soldier. There happened to be quite a gale of wind blowing 
 at the time, and their boat being a small one, it took them from five 
 o'clock that afternoon to ten o'clock the same night before they could 
 weather the mouth of the harbour. It took them four days more to 
 get to Chefoo, and as they passed the outer harbour there could be 
 seen four miles off a fleet of thirteen ships of the enemy, and five 
 torpedo boats cruising about the place, while another fleet of nine 
 English men-of-war could be perceived bound for the stronghold 
 that had just been handed over to a small force of Japanese. 
 Arrived at Chefoo, General Wei Ju-ch'eng left the boat disguised as 
 a boatman j but Kung himself rem.ained in the boat, not daring to 
 expose himself yet. The weather, however, being cold, he sent 
 a servant to Liu Han-fang, the Chefoo Taotai, begging for 
 a sheepskin robe. On the 27th November, taking advantage of 
 a steamer passing through the port en route for Tientsin, Kuiig took 
 passage in her to beseech the protection of his patron, the powerful 
 Viceroy of Chihli. As for General Wei, he has not been seen since 
 he left the boat at Chefoo. [He was, however, in prison in the Board 
 of Punishments for " treason, peculation and cowardice."] It is 
 also known that General Huang Sze-lin availed himself of a small boat 
 to get away from Port Arthur ; but that is all, nothing more having 
 been seen of him since." 
 
 No words of comment could add anything to this terrible 
 picture of generals deserting their posts, of cowardice and 
 ineptitude. Is it any wonder that, as with one voice, people 
 should denounce Li Hung-chang, the quasi dictator of China, 
 for years responsible for her naval and military defences, and 
 the patron of aU these now thus grossly discredited officials ? 
 Can we wonder that a Hanlin Reader and 54 members of the 
 College sent up a memorial against him, too lengthy for 
 
228 LI SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 complete insertion here, although well worth the reading?* 
 " Who is it that has had supreme command of the armies ? " 
 ask the memorialists. " Who is it that has controlled advance 
 and retreat, led the great against the small, the mighty against 
 the feeble, with the result that a series of such disastrous 
 defeats has been sustained ? Who is it, if not the subject of 
 this memorial — the incompetent, arrogant, unprincipled, 
 highly placed official who by his conduct has so imperilled 
 the interests of the State that his name stinks in the nostrils 
 of his countrymen ? " Then follow the five counts of the 
 indictment. And again : " It is for this reason that the fate 
 of the country and the welfare of the people entirely hinge on. 
 the retention in or dismissal from office of this one man." 
 
 Never from Chinese lips have I heard any other view 
 of Li's long management of his country. Chinese are very 
 practical. They say : " He had the power ; see the results." 
 Foreigners who had been for years mixed up with him in 
 business deaUngs, subjected to the influence of the huge fellow's 
 genial personality, are possibly hardly impartial judges ; nor 
 do they ever offer any explanation of how China has been 
 brought to its present condition of decrepitude, Li being 
 the ruling spirit. The most, indeed, that can be said, is 
 as follows, in a newspaper paragraph : — 
 
 The Viceroy went to Taku on November 27th, to inspect the 
 forts, and to proceed to Shanhaikuan to take charge in person. 
 Among the Chinese it is said that he left before daylight, and with 
 an escort of only seven ^ subordinates, which they consider as a 
 confessed disgrace. Indeed, it is reported that he had been stripped 
 of all his honours. No one man could possibly have discharged 
 the responsible duties that have been piled upon him, and it ia 
 pitiful to see an old man like him made to sufi'er for evils for which 
 others are more responsible than he, great as are his shortcomings. 
 Nothing is heard yet of the approach of Liu K'un-yi and his heavy 
 reinforcement of men for the front. If he does not come soon, his 
 journey north will be useless. 
 
 It \vas said in Chinese circles that valuables and ancient 
 jewels and stones, valued at not less than five million taels, 
 
 * The memorial is given in externa in Appendix B. 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 229 
 
 not including valuable furs and robes in nearly seven hundred 
 trunks, belonging to the family of Li Hung-chang, passed 
 through Tientsin en route for the Yangtze, under the charge 
 of his eldest son, who remained incognito while going through 
 Shanghai. Foreign lady residents were still forbidden to 
 return to Peking, and a great exodus of Chinese families had 
 taken place from Peking for the south. 
 
 Two important Imperial Edicts were issued by which 
 Kung, the Civil Commandant of Port Arthur, and the four 
 Generals appointed by the Viceroy Li to hold that important 
 fortress, were ordered to be placed under arrest and sent to 
 Peking for punishment. Admiral Ting was also held censur- 
 able for the loss of the naval station. 
 
 At last Liu K'un-yi, who was said to be anything but easy 
 at the prospect of stepping into the great Li's shoes, arrived 
 in Tientsin, and was received in state by all the local, civil, 
 and military officials, headed by the Viceroy Li, in his 
 capacity as Governor-General of the province. People felt 
 curious as to how these chiefs of the two great political 
 factions of China — the one a Hunan man, the other the 
 representative of Anhui — would conduct themselves when 
 they met. But although one had come to supersede the 
 other, and, to all intents and purposes, had been selected by 
 the Emperor to strip his rival of a large portion of his 
 hitherto supreme power, Li displayed to the outside world 
 nothing of whatever he might be feeling, but maintained 
 a dignified courtesy towards the Viceroy Liu K'un-yi, even, 
 indeed, appearing cordial. The latter left almost immediately 
 for his audience with the Emperor. 
 
 It was thought at the time that the coming of Liu 
 K'un-yi to the north had upset aU the manoeuvres of the 
 Peace Party at Peking and Tientsin, but Mr. Detring was 
 only recalled from Japan because the United States Ministers 
 at Tokio and Peking offered their mediation. And but for 
 this offer some people still maintain that he would have 
 arranged a peace. Mr. Detring's mission had such a strange 
 appearance to Europeans that it is as well to quote from Li's 
 despatch to Count Ito about it : — 
 
230 LI SUNG - CKANG. 
 
 Our Ta Ch'ing dynasty is in the enjoyment of its traditional 
 policy of peace with every nation, save that lately has risen an 
 unhappy dispute with your country, whereby the usual friendly 
 intercourse has been exchanged for a state of war. Seeing that no 
 inconsiderable calamities have lately fallen upon the people, it 
 is now proposed that both countries temporarily direct their forces 
 by sea and land to cease hostilities. Memorialisiag the Throne 
 upon the advisability of this course, the commands of His Imperial 
 Majesty, my august master, have been received as follows : 
 
 " Whereas Mr. Detriag has held office in our Empire for many 
 years, and proved himself faithful, true, and worthy of the highest 
 trust. We command Li Hung-chang to inform him fully and 
 completely of whatever has so far been deliberated upon and decided, 
 and ask him to proceed without delay to Japan to effect a settle- 
 ment as occasion arises. Mr. Detring will inform us confidentially 
 and with due speed by telegram through Li Hung-chang of the 
 progress of negotiations." 
 
 In accordance with his Majesty's commands, Mr. Detring, an 
 official holding rank of the first grade, has been directed to proceed 
 forthwith to Tokio to present this despatch and learn the conditions 
 upon which peace may be regained and amicable intercourse be 
 re-established as of old. Therefore, requesting that your Excellency 
 will discuss with Mr. Detring how friendly relations may be re- 
 stored, this despatch is written commending the proposal to the 
 favourable consideration of your Excellency. 
 
 Already some time before, Wen Tung-ho, the Emperor's 
 tutor, and Wen Ting-shih, a near relation of the Viceroy 
 Chang Chih-tung, then tutor to the ladies of the Imperial 
 household, afterwards for a time the nominal head of the 
 Reform Party, had memorialised the Emperor suggesting the 
 removal of the capital westward. In reply the young Emperor 
 issued an Edict, the substance of which ran thus : " When 
 we first took charge of the Empire it was our intention to 
 introduce many reforms. Suddenly and unexpectedly the 
 Japanese have broken the peace, taken away our Korean 
 dependency, and taken possession of the borders of our 
 Empire. We have sent our Generals with their armies to 
 punish the Japanese and drive them away, but we never 
 intended to disturb the peace of the Japanese Empire. 
 
THE JAPANESE WAB. 231 
 
 This our ancestors and foreign nations all know. Little did 
 we expect that the Generals were incompetent and the 
 soldiers insubordinate, so that the Japanese gained victor 
 after victory and place after place, till our ancestors in 
 their very graves were disturbed. This is because we are 
 unworthy and have employed unfit men. If, however, the 
 worst come and the Japanese get the sacred altars, then 
 there remains nothing for us but to perish with them. When 
 that time comes, may you reverently escort the Empress 
 Dowager westward and elect a worthy man to be the 
 Emperor and to look after the sacred altars of our ancestors 
 and wipe off this disgrace." 
 
 In January, 1895, comes a Decree from the Empress 
 Dowager herself: 
 
 Our dynasty ever since its establishment has always been very 
 careful in maintaining strict discipline within the Palace, and 
 especially is strict supervision kept over the various members of the 
 Imperial harem, none being allowed to interfere in any way 
 whatever in affairs of State or in the Government of the Empire. 
 Her Majesty, however, finds that the Imperial concubines, Ch'ing 
 Fei and Chen Fei, taking advantage of their proximity to the 
 Imperial presence, have been trying to use their influence, asking 
 for favours on behalf of their relations and friends, conduct which, 
 if allowed to pass unnoticed, will surely be productive of dangerous 
 results in the future. Although on account of their general good 
 behaviour Ch'ing Fei and Chen Fei have been gradually promoted 
 until they are Imperial concubines of the third rank, still, in order 
 to prevent others from following this dangerous precedent, some 
 penalty must be forthcoming. We command therefore that 
 the said concubines be forthwith degraded two steps, as a slight 
 punishment and warning to the rest of the harem. 
 
 Tze Jui, the father of the two concubines, a leading spirit 
 in the Hanlin College, and of late the energetic supporter 
 of the Anti-Li party, in accordance with whose representations 
 Mr. von Hanneken had been called to the capital and entrusted 
 with the re-organisation of China's miUtary forces, was at the 
 same time nominated Governor of a remote district on the 
 Siberian frontier. 
 
232 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 On tlie 12tli February, 1895, Admiral Ting had sent a flag 
 of truce to the Japanese Admiral, offering to surrender aU the 
 men-of-war, arms and fortifications, provided that the safety 
 of the crews of the vessels, soldiers and foreigners with them, 
 were guaranteed. Arrangements for the surrender were 
 formally made, and the Japanese Admiral congratulated the 
 Chinese on having made a gallant defence. 
 
 Chinese officials generally stoutly maintained their 
 disbelief in the news of Admiral Ting's surrender, declaring 
 that it was impossible that he would risk the lives of so many 
 people belonging to his own family and those of the officers 
 under him, who would be surely put to death if he had 
 surrendered. 
 
 However, Wei-hai-wei capitulated on the 12th, and Admiral 
 Ting, Commodore Liu, and General Chang committed suicide 
 that night. Chang, late Civil Commandant of the forts 
 on Liu Kungtao Island, was a nephew of the late Lady Li. Of 
 the gallant Ting I have written at length in " Intimate 
 China," his hfe being that of a very t3rpical Chinese of the 
 nobler kind. 
 
 Thus may be said to have ended the Japanese war, leaving 
 Li deprived indeed of all his honours and titles " to bring 
 him to a better state of mind," but yet sufficiently powerful 
 to secure the disgrace of all those who had dared to move 
 against him. 
 
LI HUNG-CHANG (ABOUT 1896). 
 
 J'o face p. 532. 
 
233 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PEACE NEGOTIATIONS (1895). 
 
 A CENSOR memorialised the Throne on behalf of General 
 T'ang Wen-lien (Provincial Commander-in-Chief of Kuang- 
 tung), who had been called up in the preceding October from 
 the south to take command of the Chinese army covering 
 Moukden, and Li is denounced for having refused to deliver 
 over 10,000 rifles specially bought for this General Tang's 
 new Hunan levies, yet placed in the Peiyang Ordnance 
 godown at Tientsin. In consequence, that large brigade had 
 been lying idle and destitute of arms and ammunition at 
 Shanhaikuan, when it was urgently needed to reinforce the 
 armies in Manchuria. This memorial was to be a test case ; 
 if the Emperor took the matter up, there were to be many 
 others like it, and the onus of China's humiliation would then 
 be placed upon one man alone — Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Li, having on February 18th, 1895, handed over the seal 
 of the Imperial High Commissionership of the Peiyang 
 forces, and on the 19th that of the Viceroyalty of Chihli, 
 to H.E. Wang Wen-shao, ex-Viceroy of Yuhnan and 
 Kweichon, started for Peking with a very small retinue of 
 only about a dozen persons accompanying him. These visits 
 to Peking are rather more serious than they sound, for 
 each was reputed to cost Li at least from four to five 
 thousand poxmds, while on this occasion the Empress's 
 favourite, the pseudo-eunuch, is reported to have charged a 
 fabulous sum. 
 
 Before Li started, the outside world heard that the 
 Emperor would not take any more excuses as to his inability 
 to arrest the Generals who disappeared upon the fall of 
 
234 LI HUNO-CKANG. 
 
 Port Arthur. Another Decree had been sent down again 
 peremptorily ordering the arrest of those Generals within a 
 specified time, and their properties in their native provinces 
 had already been confiscated. 
 
 The Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, assisted by Mr. Moorhead, 
 Commissioner of Customs, had been meanwhile busy 
 thoroughly reorganising the Nanyang, or southern squadron 
 of five large cruisers and six gunboats. The incompetent 
 officers hitherto in command had been all dismissed, and 
 officers educated in the foreign system placed in command. 
 It was anticipated that the squadron would be ready to try 
 conclusions with the enemy by the beginning of March. 
 It is interesting to notice that the Admiral, who was made 
 to retire by the Viceroy, nevertheless contributed some 
 £12,000 towards naval expenses. Is not this very unlike the 
 men Li had gathered about him ? 
 
 At the Capital, Li was twice received in audience by the 
 Emperor in the Grand Council Chamber. The Emperor 
 announced it as his intention to put the question of prolonged 
 war or immediate peace to the votes of the high provincial 
 authorities from the first to the third rank, inclusive ; to 
 save time the memorials of the various officials were to be 
 telegraphed to Peking. At once five out of the eight 
 Viceroys, seven out of the sixteen Governors, six out of 
 twenty-one Treasurers, and three out of the twenty Judges 
 of China Proper, including Formosa and Kashgaria, sent in 
 their replies; More than two-thirds of the memorials ad- 
 vocated peace if Japan desired an indemnity only, however 
 large the amount might be, but declared for war to the bitter 
 end if the enemy desired to keep any of the conquered 
 territory ; on the ground that the Emperor's prerogative did 
 not include the giving away of land obtained by his ancestors 
 at the cost of so much bloodshed. This is an idea very 
 deeply rooted in the Chinese mind, which has far more 
 defined notions as to what you have a right to do and what 
 you have no right to do than are entertained in Europe. The 
 Chinese are not fond of fighting, and are generally ready to 
 submit to what they are convinced is in accordance with justice. 
 
PEACH NEGOTIATIONS. 235 
 
 If what is to their minds injustice is forced upon them, they 
 bide their time and watch for an opportunity to shake it off. 
 
 After one or two futile attempts at missions, which fell 
 through even in the case of the United States' intervention 
 by means of its Ministers, the Japanese Government early in 
 March intimated its willingness to receive the Viceroy Li 
 Hung-chang as an Envoy, provided the authority given to 
 Li were submitted to it first. The English text of the 
 credentials was approved, but exception was taken to the 
 Chinese text, as implying that Japan, not China, was suing 
 for peace. To make quite sure that no underhand reservation 
 was made, the Viceroy was to be received at Shimonoseki, 
 where his fuU credentials were to be examined ; and then 
 only if everything proved to be satisfactory, Li would be 
 permitted to proceed with his negotiations. 
 
 The Emperor had given Li no present on his visit to the 
 Capital, which was much commented upon, and probably had 
 a deep significance. 
 
 People say that the Viceroy postponed his departure 
 several days, hoping to succeed in his attempt to see the 
 Empress, but all in vain. One day he went to call, and, in 
 the little Sedan chair provided inside the palace for high 
 officials who do not ride, was carried to the apartments of 
 the Empress Dowager, where he waited for two long hours 
 and still failed to see his august mistress. As a Chinese 
 remarked, the Empress Dowager is very cunning, and does 
 not like to be mixed up in a bad business. 
 
 While at Peking Li visited all the foreign Ministers and 
 also Sir Robert Hart. It would be interesting to know what 
 passed between the two old servants of the Dowager Empress. 
 A fuU record may possibly be presented to the world when 
 Sir Robert Hart's diary is published, which alone of all his 
 possessions was saved when, a few years later, his house 
 was destroyed by the infuriated soldiery of the same Empress, 
 and he himself only escaped with his life ; indebted to the 
 English Minister for a " roof over his head," as well as for his 
 "daily rice," as he wrote to his employers, the Chinese 
 Government, in a letter full of a noble indignation. 
 
236 XI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 Li was appointed Plenipotentiary and formally acknow- 
 ledged by the Japanese Government, and then the Emperor of 
 China began sending forth to the various crowned heads and 
 Presidents of Republics a melancholy series of appeals for 
 help, which read like the anguished cries of an unreasoning 
 woman driven to despair. These we must put down to 
 Tze Hsi, the Dowager Empress, a woman whose career seems 
 to have varied in accordance with the character of the 
 prime favourite of the hour. Since she fell under the dominion 
 of the pseudo-eunuch Li Lien-ying, it must be admitted that 
 she has shown much business capacity ; but she has given no 
 sign of the statesmanship which Europeans yet so liberally 
 impute to her. It is not generally understood that Chinese 
 women of a certain age are accustomed to try at least each 
 to be the ruling spirit in a household, and to display an 
 amount of energy that English women seem to disburse in 
 their younger days. During the days of Tze An, the other 
 little talked of Empress Eegent, and Prince Kung, the Chinese 
 Government made none of the terrible mistakes that have 
 been committed since this extravagant and imperious woman 
 stepped to power over the bodies of her dead rivals ; and of 
 late years her every effort seems to have been concentrated 
 on obtaining money by hook or by crook, which money 
 was generally in the end diverted to gratifying her caprices. 
 Thus, when Prince Kung ordered the closing of the Admiralty 
 Board, as being no longer needed, all the ships being lost, in 
 the accounts of the Board there was about a million sterling 
 unaccounted for; and it was insinuated that this large 
 amount had been appropriated to the use of the Empress 
 Dowager. A partial explanation suggests itself. Anyone who 
 has of late been over the Summer Palace must at once have 
 been struck by the trumpery and gaudy character of the 
 repairs there executed for her, contrasting with the old 
 work still to be seen in its ruined condition on the far side of 
 the hill ; showing how the Empress has been cheated by her 
 contractors. 
 
 Li departed on his mission. An old man, knowing 
 his country to be at Japan's feet, he had been sent rather by 
 
FEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 237 
 
 his enemies than by his own party to treat for a peace which 
 all alike knew must make his name hated throughout China. 
 The big bully, as some people considered him, the one 
 statesman of China, as others have described him, Li, the 
 magnificent, the pleasure lover, the holder of countless posts, 
 the jovial host, the kindly grandfather, was at the lowest 
 ebb of his fortunes ; and almost everyone was compassionately 
 regretting that he had not been allowed to retire when he first 
 sent in a memorial on the subject, and when people might 
 have thought that the glory of China had departed with grand 
 old LL But the luck turned when, after the third conference 
 between the Plenipotentiaries of China and Japan on March 
 24th, on his way back from the meeting, the Viceroy was fired 
 upon by a Japanese fanatic. 
 
 Count Ito, Viscount Mutsu, and other Japanese ofl&cials 
 at once went to make personal inquiries, and the Emperor of 
 Japan immediately despatched two Imperial Surgeons-General 
 by special steamer, and an aide-de-camp to convey messages 
 of condolence from himself and the Empress. The whole 
 of Japan felt deep sorrow, and two nations, indeed it may 
 be said all the civilised world, hoped that the wound might 
 not prove fatal. 
 
 Japan voluntarily granted an armistice during his con- 
 valescence, and the foreign community of Tientsin telegraph- 
 ing a message of sympathy and inquiry, received the following 
 friendly answer : — 
 
 " Thanks to all for their kind remembrance. Wound 
 painful ; buUet cannot be safely removed, but I am improving 
 steadily and can attend to business from my bed. My best 
 thanks to the whole community." 
 
 Li, a practical man, who knew his world, as usual did the 
 right thing ; he kept quite calm ; he did not in any way seek 
 to make a hero of himself; therefore the world did it for him, 
 and he got well. 
 
 As to the negotiations themselves, to give a clearer idea of 
 the characters of the Viceroy Li Hxmg-chang and Count 
 Ito, I am kindly permitted by the North China Herald to 
 borrow from it an account of some conversations between the 
 
238 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 two, written by a Chinese at the time, and bearing in its eyeiy 
 phrase the imprint of truth. 
 
 Count Ito opened the first conversation by congratulating 
 the Viceroy on his convalescence, and after the latter had made 
 some polite inquiries as to the health of Viscount Mutsu, one 
 of the Japanese Plenipotentiaries, who was suffering from 
 an attack of " Spring " fever. Count Ito mentioned that his 
 father and mother were both hale at the age of eighty. The 
 Viceroy remarked that Shimonoseki was famed for its good 
 men and its beautiful products, but Count Ito averred that it 
 was not to be compared with Hunan and Anhui (the latter 
 being Li's native province) ; on which Li said : " Hunan 
 is somewhat like Satsuma ; the people are much devoted to 
 military matters. Shimonoseki is very Uke Anhui, but the 
 comparison quickly fails ; we are far behind you " ; the Count 
 politely replying that the blame of the recent defeat lay upon 
 China, not upon Anhui. Then after a few minutes, he called 
 the Viceroy to business. " The armistice," he said, " has now 
 lasted several days, and the end begins to draw near. The 
 treaty should be settled as soon as possible, and in order that 
 time may not be wasted, I have here a memorandum upon the 
 revised articles. With regard to the two memoranda of 
 the Grand Secretary, one is very lengthy, and there is a 
 proposal to make a change in the main body of the treaty. 
 Being fully aware of the difficulties under which China 
 labours, I have prepared this memorandum, in which our 
 original demands have been reduced as much as possible. 
 But reduction has a limit, and I also have difficulties to 
 contend with. When the Grand Secretary has read over this 
 document, he will perceive that it requires but one of two 
 replies — Yes or No." 
 
 Li: "This can scarcely be construed to mean that no 
 discussion is admissible ? " 
 
 Count Ito : " Discussion can lead to nothing further ; the 
 terms cannot be reduced." 
 
 Li then urged that the position of China ought to be 
 considered, to which Count Ito replied that if the Viceroy 
 insisted upon discussion, it must be done upon the lines 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 239 
 
 of the original draft, as the revised draft with its reduc- 
 tions represented all that many days of argument would 
 have arrived at. Li began again by sa3dng that the indem- 
 nity, two hundred million taels, was too large to be borne. 
 
 " The reduction I have made is final," said Count Ito. 
 " Why don't you make your loans for forty years, instead of 
 twenty ? " 
 
 " Would Japan lend us the money ? " said the Viceroy. 
 
 " We could not manage it," answered the Count ; " you 
 can borrow the money from foreigners ; your credit is good 
 enough ; China is ten times as large as Japan ; her people are 
 four hundred millions ; her resources are enormous and easy to 
 develop. When a country is in difficulties, then is the time for 
 men's abilities to appear, and use can be made of them to 
 develop her resources." 
 
 After another fruitless attempt to get the principal of 
 the indemnity reduced, the Viceroy demurred to interest 
 being charged. China had never paid interest on previous 
 indenmities. At last Count Ito promised that if the indem- 
 nity were paid off in two years, or only a trifling sum 
 were left unpaid in the second year, the interest should be 
 waived. But Li wanted the interest to be waived uncon- 
 ditionally. "ITiough Japan has been victorious," he said, 
 "why should she press us so very hard as to be unbear- 
 able ? " 
 
 Count Ito : " Does ' unbearable ' mean refusal ? " 
 
 Li : " I am sincerely anxious to restore peace, but I cannot 
 refrain from pointing out what seems impossible to consent 
 to." 
 
 Count Ito, however, was firm, and Li passed to the con- 
 sideration of the territory to be ceded. He thought it too 
 hard that China should be forced to give up the whole of 
 the Liaotung peninsula. " The troops of Great Britain and 
 France," he said, " occupied our cities for a time, but they 
 never demanded a foot of territory." 
 
 Count Ito : " They had other ideas, and their action is 
 not binding upon us." 
 
 "But we have a custom-house at Newchwang," said Li, 
 
240 LI EUNG-GSANG. 
 
 " and you are taking that away from us, whfle asking us to 
 pay a big indemnity." 
 
 "Further concession here is impossible," said the 
 Count. 
 
 The Viceroy then went on to say that he could not give 
 up Formosa, and there was quite a Httle passage of arms 
 between the two, ending in Li's saying : " To sum up these 
 three articles : two hundred millions is enormous, and I must 
 ask a further reduction ; I ask that Newchwang be restored ; 
 and Formosa is out of the question." 
 
 Count Ito : " In that case we have dissimilar views ; 
 I can do no more than hand over the modified articles of the 
 revised treaty. As time presses, much cannot be done. If 
 this arrangement be acceptable, all the better ; if not, then 
 it must be rejected." 
 
 The Viceroy : " Is it not for me to reject ? " 
 
 Count Ito : " Kejection is all very well, but my views 
 cannot be changed in the least. The Grand Secretary 
 naturally desires a speedy settlement, and so do I. But more 
 than sixty transports, of a total tonnage of two hundred 
 thousand tons, are at Hiroshima, and several have left port 
 to-day. War material is all ready, and has not been sent 
 away because of the stipulations of the armistice." 
 
 The Viceroy ; " When the armistice finishes, an extension 
 may be requested." 
 
 Count Ito : " If a treaty has been signed an extension 
 may be allowed ; if not, it cannot." 
 
 In vain did Li beg for a little more time, as he had 
 to get an Imperial rescript from Peking. Three days were 
 all Count Ito would give ; the Japanese Generals in the field 
 had to be informed. The Viceroy thought there might be 
 an answer from Peking and another conference in five days ; 
 meanwhile he begged for a reduction of the indemnity by 
 fifty millions, and he could not give up Formosa. 
 
 " In that case I must take it," said the Count. 
 
 " The French found it too hard a nut to crack," said 
 the Viceroy ; " besides which we want to be friends." 
 
 " Indemnity and the cession of territory are like debts," 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 241 
 
 said the Count ; " after the debts are paid we shall naturally 
 be friends." 
 
 " You press your debtors too hard," said the Viceroy ; and 
 he -went on to point out that Formosa was full of malaria, and 
 the people had to use opium as a prophylactic. 
 
 " We intend to prohibit the use of opium," said the Count 
 promptly. 
 
 " I respect you for it," said Li ; and then he indulged in 
 the old misrepresentation, that Great Britain forced opium 
 into China against the Government's will. 
 
 "It will be necessary to find some means of prohibiting 
 your people from buying it," said the Count, " and the im- 
 portation will soon stop." 
 
 The Viceroy then rose to take leave of Count Ito. While 
 they were shaking hands, he asked once more for a reduction 
 of the indemnity; Count Ito smiled, but shook his head, 
 saying " Impossible " ; and the sitting was at an end. 
 
 On June 24th Count Ito read the English version, had 
 it explained in Japanese by his secretary, and then, we are 
 told, smoked a cigar to gain time. At last he delivered 
 himself : " Before the Grand Secretary left China, he and his 
 Government quite understood the actual condition of affairs 
 between our two countries, and are, I presume, sincere 
 in their negotiations for peace and a renewal of friendly 
 relations ? " 
 
 The Viceroy must have felt a little annoyed at this 
 renewed doubt of his sincerity, and he repHed : " I am an 
 old man who has never been abroad before in his hfe. My 
 Government has a clear idea of the actual position of affairs, 
 and knowing me to be an old friend of the Minister (Count 
 Ito), sent me upon this mission. This seems to me sufficient 
 proof of sincerity, nor could I decline the proffered task." 
 
 Count Ito — soon to be undeceived — replied that "the 
 present negotiations affected only China and Japan; other 
 Powers having no concern whatever with the question, and 
 not being involved in the slightest degree." " We are prac- 
 tically left to our own resources," said Li, though it is hardly 
 doubtful that he knew better ; and he told a story of a 
 Q 
 
242 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 conversation with Okuba, who passed through Tientsin on 
 his way to Peking, after sending an expedition to Formosa, 
 and who agreed that the murder of some Japanese traders by 
 a few irresponsible savages was not worth quarrelling about. 
 
 Count Ito at once brought the conversation back to the 
 gravity of his own duties, and to the difficulty that he would 
 have in remaiaing long at Shimonoseki. 
 
 Li replied that if the terms of the draft treaty were not 
 too onerous, it could soon be arranged. 
 
 Count Ito : " The people of both countries are anxiously 
 waiting for the treaty, and it were well to settle it quickly. 
 Negotiations must not be so prolonged as is ordinarily the 
 case, especially when it is considered that the armies are 
 stiU face to face in the field, and every day causes a further 
 loss of life." Then, with a polite question from the Viceroy 
 as to the Emperor's movements, the sitting terminated. 
 
 It was on his way to his lodgings from this sittmg on 
 March 24th that the Viceroy was shot at and wounded ; in 
 consequence of which a partial armistice, called unconditional, 
 was at once granted by the Emperor of Japan. 
 
 Eight days afterwards, on the 1st April, Count Ito sub- 
 mitted Japan's first draft of the treaty of peace. Four days 
 after that, on the 5th April, the Viceroy sent his reply ; and 
 on the 6th April Ito wrote back that " an elaborate recital of 
 the domestic difficulties of the Empire of China " was no 
 reply at aU, and that the Viceroy must " definitely announce 
 his acceptance or non-acceptance of the draft treaty of peace 
 already presented, either en bloo or severally article by 
 article''; and the Viceroy accordingly submitted a counter- 
 draft of the treaty on the 9th April. Oii the next day, 
 the 10th, Count Ito submitted his replies to this counter- 
 draft, specifying all the reductions that Japan was prepared 
 to make. 
 
 At this the fourth and last conference, on April 10th, 
 Count Ito began : " As I said before, the limit of con- 
 cession has been reached. I am very sorry, but it is im- 
 possible to make any further concession." 
 
 Li : "I have received a rescript from his Majesty directing 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 243 
 
 me to decide according to my discretion ; but the matter 
 is of such vast importance that I am entirely at a loss ; 
 I wish the Minister would decide for me." Count Ito said 
 he should be blamed for conceding so much, and the Viceroy 
 felt that he would be blamed for not obtaining better terms. 
 If Count Ito would only make one or two changes in the 
 treaty, he (the Viceroy) could undertake the responsibility 
 of signing it ; he especially wanted some concessions in the 
 two items — indemnity and cession of territory. 
 
 Count Ito : " I spoke plainly at the very first. It, is 
 impossible to give way in the least. Yesterday I informed 
 Lord Li that we had reached the limit of possible concession. 
 If this is not so, why have three or four conferences 
 been necessary to reach the present understanding ? I have 
 carefully considered the circumstances of China, and reduction 
 has reached the vanishing point. Negotiating a peace is not 
 like haggling in a market-place, where each party is trying to 
 beat the other down. It is not dignified." 
 
 On this the Viceroy began to haggle. The Shimbun 
 said that the war had only cost Japan eighty millions. Count 
 Ito looked at the paper and said : "Whatever this paper 
 says is always inimical to the Government and unworthy of 
 credence." 
 
 " Just make a little reduction," said the Viceroy, " and 
 I will telegraph to my Government to accept gratefuUy." 
 Then he complained that the territory Japan asked for was too 
 large and had great possibilities; but Count Ito said 
 that whatever resources existed in the new territory had to be 
 developed, and could not be regarded as a set-off to the 
 indemnity. Besides, any wealth that might accrue would be 
 spent in the territory ; there would be no surplus. 
 
 " Let us turn to Formosa," said Li, " which the Chinese 
 have not exploited well. It has coal mines, gold mines, and 
 kerosene wells. If I had been Governor I should have opened 
 all these." 
 
 "Again, there is the expense of development," said 
 the Count. 
 
 " The greater the expenditure," said the Viceroy, " the 
 
244 LI BUNG - CHANa. 
 
 greater the return. Since in the future the gain will be 
 so solid, what can stand in the way of a slight reduction ? In 
 that case it would be easier for China to borrow the requisite 
 amount. When I was in Peking some foreigners were ready to 
 lend twenty millions sterling on the security of Formosa. 
 After I had reached Japan everyone heard that Japan 
 was bent upon obtaining possession of the island, and so that 
 affair can no longer be mentioned. So much having been 
 offered with the island as a pledge, naturally it could have 
 been sold for much more." 
 
 Count Ito, however, refused to be talked over, though the 
 Viceroy begged again and again for only a little concession in 
 either money or territory. If a little reduction were made, it 
 would be a parting gift which the Viceroy would always 
 remember with pleasure. 
 
 Count Ito : " The amount which has been reduced is a 
 parting gift. As I said yesterday, I was unwilling at first 
 to make any change in the treaty as originally drafted, but 
 have reduced the indemnity by a hundred millions out of 
 regard for a friendship of many years' standing." 
 
 Li : " Such stubborn cruelty I shall always remember." 
 
 Count Ito replied that he had conceded a great deal and 
 would be freely abused for having done so. He hoped the 
 Viceroy would decide before the armistice expired, or it 
 seemed probable that the conditions would be much more 
 severe. 
 
 " Well, then, if Count Ito could not reduce the indemnity, 
 would he waive the interest ? " 
 
 Count Ito had already promised that if the principal were 
 paid in two years, interest would be waived. 
 
 " Would Count Ito accept the interest and let the principal 
 stand over ? " 
 
 "No; this would be tantamount to Japan's lending the 
 money, which she is in no position to do." 
 
 " Well, then if the principal were paid within three years, 
 would Japan waive the interest ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the Count. 
 
 " Perhaps this had better be inserted in the treaty," said the 
 
PHAGE NEGOTIATIONS. 246 
 
 Viceroy, "or how would it do to take twenty millions from the 
 indemnity in order to meet the interest, leaving the one 
 hundred and eighty millions to be dealt with as in the treaty ? " 
 
 " No, thank you," said Count Ito. 
 
 The Viceroy : "If twenty millions be taken off, China need 
 borrow that sum the less." 
 
 Count Ito : " It is absolutely impossible." 
 
 Then there was a dispute as to how this provision — that 
 if China paid the principal in three years, interest should 
 be waived — should be inserted in the treaty; the Viceroy 
 repeating that when China had to pay indemnities to England 
 and France, it was clearly stated that interest was to be 
 paid only upon overdue instalments. At last after much 
 reflection. Count Ito agreed that interest should be paid 
 for three years according to the original scheme. Then, 
 if payment were made in fall within three years, the 
 interest already made would be regarded as principal. 
 
 Again Li said : " Let Formosa be omitted from the treaty 
 until you have taken it," and then, after further conversation, 
 " within a month is pressing us too hard. The Premier and 
 I are too far from Formosa really to appreciate aU the 
 conditions involved. The best way would be for the Chinese 
 Government to direct the Government of Formosa to 
 come to an understanding with the High Commissioners sent 
 by Japan to Formosa as to the regulations and details of 
 transfer. When ratifications have been once exchanged, and 
 the two countries have fairly entered upon cordial relations, 
 then any matter can be discussed." 
 
 Count Ito : " A month is enough." 
 
 The Viceroy : " Everything is in a state of confusion. Two 
 months would allow things to become comparatively settled. 
 Why be in such a hurry about Formosa when it is actually in 
 in your mouth ? " 
 
 Count Ito ; " We have not swallowed it yet, and we 
 are very hungry." 
 
 The Viceroy : " Two hundred millions are enough to 
 appease your appetite for a time." 
 
 The treaty was signed on April 18th. Li then returned 
 
246 LI EUNO-OHANG. 
 
 to Tientsin, arriving there in good health on the 20th. After 
 the receipt of Li's telegram reporting his arrival at Tientsin 
 from Japan, the Emperor held a long audience with the 
 members of the Grand Council of War. The main clauses of 
 the Treaty of Peace were discussed, but nothing definite had 
 been arrived at. The populace of Peking appeared at the 
 time to be in total ignorance of what had been going on 
 during the peace negotiations, refusing to believe that any 
 portion of Manchuria was to be given up to Japan, and grew 
 indifferent about Formosa. This shows how differently the 
 people feel in different parts of China. For all along the 
 Yangtse Valley, and especially in far distant Szechuan, I had 
 not believed the people capable of so much feeling about a 
 public event as high and low showed over the cession of 
 Formosa. Tearful questions and incredulity, then a silence 
 that was worse than tears, was the way in which the in- 
 formation was generally received. After which the visitor 
 would take leave only very perfunctorily, going through the 
 usual forms of politeness. Not a word more, only an air 
 of being crushed, absolutely crushed under the blow that the 
 Emperor had given up Formosa, that pearl of the Chinese 
 crown. 
 
 Li Hung-chang started on April 30th for Peking, although 
 his sick leave had not yet expired ; partly owing to the 
 urgent commands of the Emperor, who desired to consult 
 with the Viceroy personally before deciding whether to 
 ratify the treaty or not, and partly because Prince Kung 
 had informed Li that unless he speedily made his appearance 
 at the capital all the trouble and danger gone through in 
 Japan would be so much labour lost. Certain ministers of 
 State and Princes had suggested the doubling or trebling 
 the war indemnity in lieu of the cession of Manchurian 
 territory, while all officials in Peking who came from Fukien, 
 to which province Formosa belonged, had in a body protested 
 against the cession of that island to Japan, offering to 
 contribute enough money to buy it up if necessary. Thus 
 with Chinese it is always a question of money. They began 
 the war by setting prices upon Japanese heads, they now 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. 247 
 
 hoped to conclude it by buying back Formosa. Our Peace 
 Party ought at least greatly to approve of this last idea. It 
 is what we all should come to, if we followed their doctrines 
 *s the Chinese tried to do for centuries. But it seems ignoble 
 to the ordinary twentieth century mind. 
 
 For the past fortnight the Emperor had been deluged 
 with memorials from the proYinces; not a single Viceroy, 
 Oovernor, Tartar General, or Provincial Commander-in-Chief 
 hainng abstained from his privilege of memorialising the 
 Throne and advising the rejection of the Li-Ito treaty, by 
 which the cession of territory had been agreed upon. The 
 vote for a continuance of the war, if Japan insisted upon 
 the observance of the whole treaty, also seems to have been 
 unanimous on the part of these officials; who, furthermore, 
 guaranteed funds for the prosecution of the war, while 
 Viceroy Liu K'un-yi and General Sung Ching declared their 
 intention of fighting to the death before giving up Man- 
 churia to Japan. Liu K'un-yi and the other Yangtse 
 Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, were always amongst the most 
 strenuous opponents of Li Hung-chang. Some of the 
 liigh officials even went so far as to send in sealed me- 
 morials suggesting the annihilation of the Li party "as a 
 set of traitors to sovereign and country, one and all without 
 exception." 
 
 The terms of the treaty that Li signed on April 18th 
 are stated briefly : 
 
 1st. Formosa ceded permanently. 
 
 2nd. Territory between Yalu Kiver on the east and Port 
 Arthur on the west, up to the 40° of N. latitude, ceded 
 permanently. 
 
 3rd. Indemnity of 30,000,000 pounds sterling, payable in 
 fifteen years. 
 
 4th. Five new ports or places to be opened for trade, 
 including Peking and Nanking. 
 
 There is no doubt that but for the Dowager Empress's 
 protection at this juncture, Li would have lost his head for 
 signing such a treaty, Tze-hsi seems to have at least one 
 good quality, and it is a great one; she always stands by 
 
248 LI SUNG- CHANG. 
 
 her friends. Across the years there came to her possibly 
 the memory of Li's midnight march and entrance into 
 Peking at the head of his men, each carrying a chop-stick 
 between his teeth, and of two trembhng women saved per- 
 chance from what now threatened him — an ignominious 
 death. And her heart went out to the man who had since 
 then risen from post to post to the highest offices in China, 
 and had always remained true to her. And she saved him. 
 
249 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Li's TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS (1896). 
 
 Mr. Michie draws attention to the fact that China waa 
 " defeated amid the applause of Europe and the whole world." 
 It is a curious fact, the more curious in that the next move 
 of Europe was to receive with acclamations and almost as 
 a monarch the very man who must be held responsible, if any 
 one man ever were, for China's downfall. Had we been 
 crushed in the Transvaal and our conquerers been acclaimed 
 by the whole of Europe, our feelings might perhaps have then 
 a httle resembled those of the Chinese in 1895. They are 
 a proud people, and they have taken to reading foreign news- 
 papers in translation. If ever there was a war that seemed to 
 dispassionate onlookers without justification, it was that of 
 Japan and China. But the Japanese, like Bismark, chose the 
 psychological moment, and they crushed China utterly. 
 
 For a long time past the British — as was once remarked to 
 me by the distinguished minister of a foreign Power with 
 genuine regret — ^had made of themselves une quantiU 
 negligeable ; and now they remained apart and quiescent, while 
 Russia, France, and Germany came forward together to induce 
 Japan to withdraw her forces from Manchuria and to give up 
 Port Arthur and the Liaoting peninsula generally, in 
 consideration of an increased indemnity. Mr. Michie more 
 than hints that, when Li agreed to the Japanese demands, 
 he was really thankful for their severity, since he knew 
 that their very gravity would bring down the interference 
 of other Powers, and especially that of Russia. People 
 in England never seem to think of these diplomatic finesses ; 
 they were delighted with our Government for its splendid 
 
250 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 isolation. " Keeping clear of all international complications," 
 they called it, whilst Englishmen in the East walked 
 about with bowed heads. But they still complained — a 
 iealthy sign always in Englishmen. The time was stiU to 
 come when they would cease even to do that. 
 
 Residents in China had for long been trying to put their 
 information, their serious views on public questions, at 
 the disposition of Government ; but the latter seems to have a 
 •distinct dislike to information that does not come through an 
 official channel. It would hardly be believed, if it were 
 not demonstrably true, that despite the large number of 
 English men and women in China, possessed of an intimate 
 knowledge of the Chinese language and customs, entirely 
 disinterested, many of them acute and deep thinkers, not any 
 use whatever is made of them to get correct intelligence 
 as to what is going on in the remote corners of the Chinese 
 Empire. Only the English nation acts like this. The 
 French, for instance, habitually make use of the Roman 
 Catholic missionaries, in especial of the Missions Etrangeres 
 composed exclusively of Frenchmen, as a great unpaid 
 Intelligence Department. On the face of it, it would seem 
 natural that all Consuls should snatch at opportunities of 
 getting accurate news from correspondents ; yet, so rarely 
 is this done, that our Consul-General in China, Sir Pelham 
 Warren, is always mentioned as " the man who is so 
 Tfell informed," because he does have correspondents outside 
 the Consular Service. 
 
 It is generally said that it was because of the complete 
 breakdown of the English Intelhgence Department in China 
 that England carried no weight when the other nations were 
 modifying the Japanese treaty. Now how can a thing 
 break down that does not exist ? At the period in question, 
 can there be said to have been any Intelligence Department 
 in China at all? One gallant officer states that he sent 
 home full and detailed accounts of aU the little trifles, such 
 as, for instance, the great Chinese Arsenals which Ad- 
 miral Seymour's column took because they happened to 
 stumble across them by accident ; trifles which, nevertheless. 
 
LI'S TBIUMPHAL PB0GBE8S. 251 
 
 appajently remained imknown. Certainly, no notice was 
 taken of this information at the Foreign Office, where 
 there is not yet one man who could be said by anyone 
 to know China, nor any department for specially deal- 
 ing with the affairs of the Far East. This would not matter 
 so much if the telegraph wires could be kept permanently 
 cut. Left to themselves, Englishmen in the East could 
 not only look after themselves and their own interests, but 
 those of their country into the bargain, even with the other 
 <jrovernments of Europe each backing its own capitalists by 
 threats of war. But when people quite uninformed about 
 ■China and the Chinese are yet continually telegraphing 
 instructions to Peking — well known in diplomatic circles 
 as " the grave of reputations " — that way of escape is barred. 
 
 Within two months of the revision of the treaty of 
 Shimonoseki, while England was complacently " keeping clear 
 of international comphcations," the French were compelling 
 China to sign away to them among other things a portion of 
 the Shan States, reserved in the treaty between China and 
 Great Britain, as a neutral zone ; the Kussian Minister 
 the day following making "a formal visit to the Tsungli 
 Yamen, with more than the customary display, to con- 
 gratulate the Chinese Ministers on what they had done, 
 -and to assure them of the approval of his Government.'' 
 Everyone was wanting to lend money to China. When 
 the English offered £16,000,000, Russia objected, and insisted 
 •on the Chinese borrowing from the French while she herself 
 stood security, thereby "assuring the position of first 
 mortgagee on the revenues of China. That accomplished, 
 ilussia stipulated that China should contract no further loan 
 for a period of six months." 
 
 It seemed then and seems^ still impossible to gain serious 
 <;onsideration for affairs in the Far East. Place and power and 
 the votes of constituents are not to be won by care and energy 
 About Eastern affairs. Whilst our Imperial Parliament is 
 hampered by the management of all the quasi-parochial 
 Affairs of Great Britain and Ireland, we cannot wonder at that 
 Parliament more and more adopting a klein stadtisch tone. 
 
252 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 But England's interests are far deeper and wider reaching" 
 than little vestry questions. 
 
 It will only be when the effect on our commerce comes to 
 be felt that people at home may begin to realise how their own 
 direct interests were at stake at this time; and how many 
 millions a year a country may be saved by a great name for 
 power. But it may be too late by then. 
 
 From far away Szechuan now came the news that as soon 
 as the new Viceroy of that province entered it he was 
 besieged by petitions from people who had complaints to 
 make, the majority being against the retiring Viceroy. No less 
 than two hundred and fifty petitions of this kind were 
 received. Liu Ping-chang, the retiring Viceroy, it may 
 be remembered, was Li Hung-chang's particular friend and 
 ally. He had come some way down the river Yangtse, on 
 his journey home to Anhui, when the Imperial Rescript 
 compelled him to retrace his steps ; and in the end the 
 British Government was firm about him, and he was degraded, 
 never to hold office again. The Chinese Legation in London 
 stated that his degradation had been decided upon before the 
 British ultimatum was sent in. A French official note 
 ascribed the decision to the pacific pressure exercised by 
 France. But out in China we attributed it to Sir Nicholas 
 O'Conor. 
 
 Lord Li, Li's adopted son, had, since his return from 
 the peace conference in Japan, been occupying his leisure 
 hours in superintending the building of a handsome house in 
 foreign style inside the capacious gardens of his father 
 situated on the river foreshore at Wuhu. The furniture 
 and appointments of the new building were of the best 
 English and French make, luxurious and elegant. They had 
 cost something like 30,000 taels, while the value of the knick- 
 knacks was said to amount to a fabulous sum — mostly gifts 
 presented to him and the Viceroy in the last fifteen years. 
 
 In August Li was summoned to Peking from Tientsin, and 
 an Imperial Decree was issued ordering him to do duty 
 as Manager of the Imperial Chancery, or Prime Minister 
 of China. Wang Wen-shao, acting Viceroy of Chihli, was 
 
LI'S TRIUMPBAL PB0GBE8S. 253 
 
 confirmed in Li's former posts in Tientsin, and it was 
 stated that Li, being comfortably off, was anxious to 
 retire, like liis elder brother Li Han-chang, into private 
 life, but that the Throne would not dispense with his services. 
 Li, in fact, was required at Peking, to assist in arranging 
 the new commercial treaty with Japan. The Tsungli Yamen 
 wished Mr. Hayashi, the Japanese Minister, to go down 
 to Tientsin to settle it there, but this the Minister 
 flatly refused to do, saying that he was accredited to Peking 
 and not to any provincial official. Again a Japanese rebuffing 
 Li and teaching him his proper place as it were ! Li had no 
 proper place, however, just then; actually no proper office 
 Tvhere he could conveniently meet the Japanese Minister. To 
 supply this want the Emperor ordered apartments to be 
 prepared for him in the Tsungli Yamin, and also appointed a 
 ■staff of eight secretaries and deputies to serve under him. A 
 wooden seal containing the legend " The Seal of the Chief 
 High Commissioner, granted plenary powers by Imperial 
 Edict to conclude the treaty," was also given to Li, the fact of 
 its being a wooden one implying the transitory nature of Li's 
 ^'plenary powers," and suggesting that as soon as this 
 treaty had been ratified he would be relegated to the literary 
 sinecure provided for him in the Inner Council Chamber. It 
 was believed by many Europeans, however, that it would not 
 be long before the Emperor would be obliged to bring 
 him back into full power. 
 
 Li, meanwhile, was living in a portion of a large Buddhist 
 temple, opposite the parade ground in Gold Fish Lane, 
 near the East Flowery Gate of the Palace, in perfect health 
 and excellent spirits. He had an audience of the Emperor, 
 sent for his family, called on the foreign Ministers, received 
 return calls, and was appointed sole Commissioner to arrange 
 the details of the Japanese Commercial Treaty. Yet the 
 Chinese said that his career was finished and nothing now 
 remained for him but to retire. Liu K'un-yi had, as usual, 
 tendered his resignation several times, but he was stUl ordered 
 to return to Nanking ; the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung to remain 
 in Wuchang. 
 
254 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 In one of his audiences Li is said to have proved, 
 documents in hand, that he had repeatedly demanded 
 more warships, and had even made vigorous remonstrances- 
 against the niggardly policy pursued by Peking in respect 
 of the Navy. But if so, these remonstrances must have been 
 of a very quiet nature to have been so little heard of; and his 
 enemies still pursued their course, preparing for the impeach- 
 ment of Shang, the one remaining member of the corrupt 
 trio. The delay about this was due to the magnitude of 
 the preliminary investigations required and to the tim& 
 necessarily consumed in collecting evidence from the several 
 provinces in which Shang had held office. Li Ping-heng, the- 
 Governor of Shangtung, had now completed his report, and, as^ 
 anticipated, it was entirely adverse to Shang. 
 
 A nephew of Li's, Chief Commissioner of the railway 
 construction from Kaiping to Shanghai-kuan, was also in 
 trouble, as he had been called upon by the new Viceroy 
 to render an account of his stewardship for the last three 
 years. The Board of Revenue alone had sent this Li six 
 million taels, not counting the contributions from provincial 
 authorities. 
 
 Lo Feng Luh, expectant Customs Taotai at Tientsin, ex- 
 Naval Secretary of the Peiyang and confidential agent of the 
 ex- Viceroy Li Hung-chang, was also denounced, a native 
 paper stating that one of the first men to denounce him 
 was Wen Ting-shih, Sub-Chancellor of the Grand Secretariat 
 and late tutor of the ladies of the Imperial Household. 
 
 Things looked badly for the Li party ; but it really seemed 
 as if Li were a great magician with always some card up 
 his sleeve, for hey presto ! quick change ! and Li, the 
 discredited, was the appointed Special Envoy of the Emperor 
 of China to congratulate his particular friend, the youthful 
 Emperor of Russia, on his coronation at Moscow. There was 
 a farewell banquet to Li Hung-chang in Tientsin, when 
 the foreign community outdid itself to show the old man 
 honour. The new Viceroy and all the great officials of the 
 city attended. 
 
 Gordon Hall was resplendent in the beautiful embroideries 
 
LI'S TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS. 255 
 
 presented by Li himself on the occasion of his 70th 
 birthday f^te, and was really a thing of great beauty, the 
 whole display resembling a dream from the Arabian Nights 
 rather than the prosaic dining chamber, as we are told. 
 
 The Chairman of the Municipal Council proposed the 
 health of Li, " the official with whose administration of this 
 viceroyalty we have been long familiar; a post which 
 you have held with conspicuous ability for twenty years ; and 
 the one Chinese nobleman and statesman most celebrated 
 among the nations of the West, which we jointly represent. 
 We take this opportunity of recognising with unstinted 
 admiration the service which your Excellency has rendered to 
 your Emperor and country in safely steering the ship of State 
 through troubled waters and past dangerous breakers into the 
 port of Peace. We congratulate your Excellency on the 
 fortitude and endurance which enabled you to bring the peace 
 negotiations to a successful issue, notwithstanding the 
 personal danger and suffering through which you passed, and 
 in successfully weathering the storm of pubHc opprobrium, 
 which is sometimes the statesman's greatest honour. (Loud 
 applause.) We rejoice to see your Excellency, notwithstand- 
 ing your advanced age, so hale in body and so cheerful 
 in spirit. As in physical stature you stand head and 
 shoulders above those about you, so we are conscious that in 
 intellectual power and administrative capacity, by the signal 
 qualities you have displayed during a long career as scholar 
 soldier, and statesmen, you overtower your fellow-countrymen 
 and are among the most prominent figures in Asia. During 
 your Excellency's regime here, you have been leader in 
 the van of progress, and have in the face of much opposition 
 promoted reform in China. Many projects owe their 
 inception to you, which, though they may not as yet 
 have accomplished their end, mark the true line along which 
 the destiny of your country must advance. Kailways, 
 telegraphs, schools, hospitals, etc., are all evidence of 
 your practical earnestness in promoting the good of your 
 country, and show that, more than any living Chinaman, you 
 appreciate and sympathise with the civilisation of the 
 
256 £1 HUNQ - CHANG. 
 
 West. Your Excellency's departure for Europe is a great 
 historical event, which appeals strongly to the imagination, 
 and we hope will mark a signal phase in the development of 
 China." All this was accentuated by much cheering. 
 
 Lo Feng Luh, speaking in English on behalf of Li Hung- 
 chang, said amongst other things : 
 
 " My feelings of apprehension of danger are overcome by 
 the earnest desire to be useful to my sovereign and country, 
 and to secure to them peace, the preservation of which, 
 although perhaps contrary to the current of the time we 
 are living in, has always been the ideal of the Chinese people 
 and the ultimate object of the Chinese statesman." 
 
 Mr. Tsai then said, on behalf of the new Viceroy "Wang : — 
 " This grand hall suggests and recalls by its name those 
 early services which Li Hung-chang rendered to his country, 
 assisted by his illustrious foreign heutenant. He has spent 
 the strength of a long life for the public good, and now 
 in response to the call of duty he is undertaking an arduous 
 journey from which most men of his years would naturally 
 shrink." 
 
 "Never had the Viceroy in the course of his long 
 association with foreigners been so deeply affected," says 
 the local newspaper, " and the heartiness and transparent 
 sincerity of the whole function profoundly surprised his 
 successor." 
 
 I think it is well worth while to reproduce these speeches, 
 for it must be remembered that it was among the Tientsin 
 men that Li Hung-chang had lived and gone in and out 
 for over twenty years. They had seen him surrounded by 
 concession hunters ; they had been parties in his business 
 transactions ; they were witnesses of his conduct ; and there- 
 fore, for a leading Englishman to speak thus of Li before 
 the men who knew him best, shows that, when removed 
 from Court intrigues, Li was at least not so completely 
 discredited as might appear in Peking. 
 
 We now learn also that the charges brought against Lo 
 Feng Luh -had been investigated and reported baseless ; and, 
 in full possession of his rank and titles, he was then 
 
LI'S TRIUMPHAL PB0GBE8S. 257 
 
 appointed Chief Secretary of the special mission to St. 
 Petersburg under Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Nothing would induce Li to land in Hong Kong ; " plague 
 was raging in the colony," he said, " and he did not wish 
 the vessel put into quarantine at Singapore." He was travel- 
 ling on a French steamer, which may account for this. The 
 Russian Minister, Count Cassini, tried hard to prevent him 
 also from taking his English doctor with him. But Li 
 remained true to his old friend Dr. Irwin. 
 
 On April 23rd, 1896, he and his suite left Port Said on 
 a vessel of the Russian volunteer fleet. 
 
 The steamer had been beautifully fitted for the occasion, 
 and Li was met by the Russian Consul, as well as Prince 
 Ouhdtomsky (who had travelled round the world with the 
 Czarevitch) and a gentleman of the Russian Foreign Office, 
 the two latter being sent expressly by the Foreign Office 
 to receive the Ambassador. 
 
 A Chinese correspondent reports the arrival : — 
 
 On April 28th -we arrived at Odessa. This magnificent port 
 was en fete; the quays and points of observation were crowded, 
 as also the steamers in the harbour, fifty-two in number, with 
 visitors and inhabitants, trying to get a glimpse of the rare guests 
 of Odessa. The Ambassador was received on reaching the landing 
 stage by the different branches of the Imperial Administration, 
 also the English and Japanese Consuls at Odessa. A Guard of 
 Honour was drawn up at the landing stage formed of the 57th 
 Regiment of Infantry with their band. The magnificent regiment 
 received him with the usual present arms and salute, " Good health ! 
 We are pleased to serve your Excellency." The band played a 
 welcome, and amidst enthusiastic cheers the Ambassador and suite 
 were conducted to the fine Hotel St. Petersburg, where tliey were 
 received by the officers specially appointed from the Foreign Office. 
 The Ambassador only returned two calls, as he had many visitors 
 to receive. In the evening the suite were entertained at dinner 
 in the grand saloon of the hotel, and a visit was made to the circus, 
 where a pleasant evening was passed. We left the following 
 day at two p.m. The Ambassador was received at the railway 
 station by all the officials I have named, who assembled to say 
 B 
 
258 LI HUNG ■ GHANG. 
 
 « 
 farewell, and the Imperial train carried us to St. Petersburg in 
 forty-eight hours — 1,043 miles. H.E. Li Hung-chang has enjoyed 
 the voyage so far, and his health is much improved. 
 
 Li Hung-chang sent long telegrams from Russia to 
 the Tsungli YamSn — one of two thousand words in cipher, 
 which was not translated, as the ordinary messages were 
 in the Yamen, but was taken home to the private residence of 
 one of the Ministers. It was generally supposed to be 
 concerning the Russian railway construction through Man- 
 churia, but may have treated of even more important 
 questions. The Chinese in Peking asserted that Li had 
 no authority to settle anything. His mission was simply one 
 of courtesy to Russia, and thereafter "to see Europe and 
 America." The Germans, as he travelled through their 
 country, exerted themselves greatly to do him honour, 
 and showed some disappointment that he did not give 
 big orders for guns and warships. They had no occasion, 
 however, to complain, as one of their agents in China at this 
 juncture secured from the Tsungli Yamen an order for 
 the construction of some three war vessels. 
 
 From Germany Li went to the Hague, and at the Kurhaus 
 at Scheveningen, where the Dutch Government gave him 
 a banquet, he seems to have enjoyed himself more than 
 anywhere else during his travels. Here he saw for the 
 first time the Cinematograph, and was delighted with the 
 fireworks, which included an inscription in Chinese characters, 
 meaning " May Li Hung-chang live a thousand years." He 
 took away with him the Visitors' Book of the Kurhaus, 
 and in it he wrote a whole page covered with Chinese 
 characters ; the first part, of which the following is a transla- 
 tion, is in verse : — ' 
 
 " I have been a member of the Chinese Imperial Academy 
 and Grand Secretary for more than fifty years. It has never 
 yet been my experience to have found myself in such an 
 earthly paradise, across the seas and oceans, as in this of 
 Scheveningen. I have found pleasure in the music, and it was 
 a high honour for me to read in the fireworks the good wishes 
 for my long life that were there displayed. This I wish to 
 
LI'S TBIUMPRAL PBOGBESS. 259 
 
 express in verse." This is followed by a passage in prose: 
 " There are many men skUled in languages in Holland. 
 In the course of my special visit to Europe I passed through 
 this country. Both the officials and the people received me at 
 a place on the coast of the North Sea. In this place there 
 were fireworks and a concert. No greater compliment could 
 have been paid me than to let me read in the fireworks 
 the five Chinese characters which express the wish for my 
 long life and prosperity in consideration of my dignity as 
 the highest man under the Emperor. This gave me the idea 
 of writing the foregoing verses." There is something very 
 " childlike and bland " about this effusion, and one can 
 see that Li was really enjoying himself there. 
 
 The excitable French seem to have taken him about 
 too much. Everyone probably has heard how he admired 
 the strong rooms at the Credit Lyonnais in Paris, and 
 how, when one of the directors handed for his inspection a 
 stock certificate of the new Chinese loan, Li examined it with 
 much interest, finally asking if he might be allowed to keep it 
 as a souvenir. The director, who was obviously astonished, 
 hastened to explain that the stock certificate belonged to 
 a client of the bank, and Li regretfully yielded it up, But it 
 has always been a question to my mind whether Li was really 
 as simple as people thought. The Dowager Empress had 
 thought it proper of late to give about ten pounds apiece 
 to each of the ladies of the Diplomatic Corps who attended 
 her tea party, and gifts of money are frequent in China. It 
 has never seemed impossible to me that Li quite knew 
 the value of the stock certificate, and thought it was a 
 present — a nice present too ! He is, of course, said to have 
 received much larger money presents in Moscow. 
 
 Newspaper interviewers questioned him on various 
 political subjects. On being asked whether the Chinese 
 Government would not do something to stimulate trade 
 between French Indo-China and the Southern Provinces 
 of China, Li replied that nothing could be done unless 
 the Powers would consent to an increase in the Customs 
 tariff. He dwelt at some length on the hardship of China not 
 
260 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 being allowed to impose more than a 6 per cent, import 
 duty, but did not say whether one of the chief objects in 
 making his journey through Europe and America was to 
 persuade the Powers to let China increase the tariff, as many 
 people think it was. Questioned as to his views on the rivalry 
 of French and English for the trade of South China, Li replied 
 that he desired to hold the balance evenly between the French 
 and English. There was plenty of room for both, the English 
 being well situated for trade in the Korth of Yunnan, and the 
 French with the south-east of that province. Being bluntly 
 asked if it was a fact that he had given numerous orders 
 for guns and engaged miUtary instructors in Germany, he 
 seems to have replied very straightforwardly — '' Nothing has 
 been settled, but a great many offers have been made to me. 
 I have discussed them and made myself acquainted with the 
 cost. Here I shall do the same. At the end of my journey 
 I shall compare prices and qualities, but what I shall 
 decide to do, it is of course impossible to say." 
 
 At Lyons he expressed surprise on meeting a prefect, who 
 had actually succeeded in retaining office for five years, 
 adding, " M. Hanotaux, whom I saw in Paris, has been 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs for only three months." Li 
 improved the occasion of a grand review by mentioning that 
 at Berlin the head of the State did not sit in a carriage, 
 but put himself at the head of the Army and manoeuvred 
 it in his presence. Those who saw him being dragged from 
 one function to another reported that his general appearance 
 was one of profound boredom. 
 
 In England, amongst others Li was introduced to Lord 
 Kelvin, to whom he put characteristic questions, opening 
 with the polite remark, ''You are the first scientific man 
 in the world." Lord Kelvin bowed. After asking the age 
 of his new acquaintance, in accordance with Chinese 
 etiquette, Li asked, "How many students have passed, 
 through your hands every year ? " 
 
 Lord Kelvin replied : " About 200," and the following 
 dialogue ensued: "How long have you been Professor of 
 Electricity and Natural Philosophy?" "For fifty years." 
 
LI'S TBIUMPHAL PBOGBESS. 261 
 
 " Amongst the large number of students have you ever found 
 one who promises to be as great a scientific man as yourself ? " 
 Lord Kelvin was understood to reply that it was for others 
 to judge of that matter, but he did not try so much to turn 
 out theoretically scientific men as practical men, who, when 
 they left college, could render good service to mankind. 
 " Who succeeded you as President of the Eoyal Society ? '' 
 "Sir Joseph Lister, the first surgeon in England." "Is 
 he the first surgeon in England?" "Yes, he made 
 a great discovery which has now been adopted by every 
 doctor in the world. It is not to cure a wound so much 
 as to prevent a wound from receiving damage from the 
 work of microbes, and leaving Nature to work its cure." 
 With great quickness Li on this immediately said that he 
 had not previously heard of Sir Joseph Lister, but he had 
 benefited from his method; for once, he said, he had 
 received a wound on the cheek from a shot fired by a 
 would-be Japanese assassin, and a German doctor, who was 
 in Japan, had advised him simply to wash the wound three 
 times a day, to prevent the work of microbes. This he had 
 done, and the wound had healed of itself. After concluding 
 his interview with Lord Kelvin, Li adjourned to his chair, 
 which had been placed on the deck of the steamer. Here 
 he was surrounded by a small group of persons who, through 
 the interpreter, explained the working of the Clyde Naviga- 
 tion Trust and the extent and style of the various yards. 
 Ex-Lord Provost Ure surprised the Grand Secretary by 
 remarking that the management of the Clyde was under- 
 taken by men who were not paid. " Then what do they get 
 for their trouble?" was the question Li promptly asked. 
 "Nothing, they do it gratis." "Then," said Li Hung- 
 chang, with a look of surprise, pointing coolly to a dia- 
 mond scarf-pin which decorated the breast of the deputy 
 chairman of the Clyde Trust, "where did that come 
 from?" 
 
 But it was at New York that Li showed himself at his 
 rudest, for there at a Press interview he stopped and looked 
 around at the reporters. " Are you the best representatives 
 
262 LI EUNa- CHANG. 
 
 of your papers ? " he asked, " Because you are very poor 
 representatives." 
 
 Everyone has heard how, when coming away from 
 Hawarden, he asked the railway porter how it was Mr 
 Gladstone had not found a husband for his daughter. 
 Curiously enough in China, where there are not such marked 
 class distinctions as with us, a man of this kind would be 
 likely to know all about such a matter, which, by the Chinese, 
 would not be considered a delicate one, but merely one of 
 arrangement. Li, however, certainly scored in his meeting 
 with the Duke of Devonshire, when the Duke, perhaps to 
 avoid questions like those with which Lord Tweeddale had 
 been assailed (for Li's fame as a questioner preceded him by 
 this time), began by asking a question himself! " I have been 
 shooting grouse. Does your Excellency ever do that ? " 
 "No, I have never shot grouse," replied Li, in that little 
 grumbhng tone he used at times, " but I have often shot 
 rebels." 
 
 After he got back to China, the sights that Li Hked best 
 to dilate upon of all those which he had seen in England, 
 were the Forth Bridge, and the marvellous skill of Mr. Brock, 
 the Crystal Palace pyrotechnist. He was very proud to be 
 told that the display he had seen was the finest ever given 
 in England or anywhere else ; the Hong Kong and Shanghai 
 Bank, which gave him the dinner at the Palace, being said 
 to have spent £3,000 for the fireworks on the occasion. The 
 other matters Li dilated on to his British callers were the 
 Fleet, Lord Salisbury's fine presence, and the behaviour of 
 our crowds. The sail down the Thames and through the 
 Docks also profoundly impressed him. All the Viceroy's 
 foreign callers observed a marked change in his manner of 
 address after his grand tour through Europe. He had lost 
 much of his old brusqueness, and was more gentle and 
 considerate. He constantly used a walking stick ot General 
 Grant's, considerately presented to him by the latter's son 
 in New York. Li had always had a great fondness for 
 General Grant. And when he saw Mr. Frederick Grant in 
 New York he said at once to him : " Are you rich ? Is your 
 
LI'S TBIUMPHAL FBOGBESS. 263 
 
 wife rich ? " Then : " Do you mean to tell me that your 
 father was a General during a rebellion that lasted five 
 years, and brought it to a successful conclusion, and that 
 he was then afterwards twice elected President of the United 
 States, and that yet you his son are poor ! Well ! I do 
 not understand how that could possibly be ! " 
 
 Of course, while in England, he had not forgotten Gordon, 
 and the English pubhc were greatly touched by the aged 
 Chinese dignitary proceeding to lay a wreath on the 
 Gordon statue, whilst some people cried out on him as an old 
 humbug, recaUing the night when Gordon had sought 
 him, revolver in hand, after the murder of the Wangs. 
 But that was all long ago, and probably entirely forgotten by 
 Li Hung-chang himself; as it was also forgotten by those 
 who recalled the incident, that Gordon had afterwards so far 
 overlooked the matter as to be willing to be friends with 
 Li and continue to serve under him, and, indeed, had returned 
 to China once again, content to do so had occasion served. 
 There is every reason to beheve that Li cherished a very real 
 regard for Gordon, the man who had really won his victories 
 and started him on his brilliant career. 
 
 We must now, however, without giving further details 
 of a Royal progress dwelt upon at the time ad nauseam 
 by both European and American newspapers, proceed to the 
 homecoming of Li. When his steamer got over the Takubar, she 
 met a whole host of steam launches and vessels with Chinese 
 officials of all ranks on board. Orders were given to ignore 
 them and go full speed ahead ; but suddenly another steamer 
 turned up with the directors and a few other foreigners 
 on board ; a hearty cheer was raised, on which Li said : 
 " I know that greeting ; it is an English cheer " ; and he at 
 once summoned the Peiho alongside and invited all to come 
 on board. The Chairman expressed the general pleasure 
 at the Viceroy's safe return, and in the name of his old friends 
 and neighbours, the foreign residents, gave him a hearty 
 welcome. Li responded most heartily, and remained chatting 
 with his foreign friends on the incidents of his journey 
 till Tangku was reached. After a quick transfer to the train. 
 
264 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 a fine run was made to Tientsin, where an enormous crowd ol 
 officials, headed by the then Viceroy, was gathered to meet 
 him, together with the British Municipal Councillors, 
 supported by a large number of residents. Li shook hands 
 with all the foreigners and then betook himself to the duties 
 of a colossal audience with the native officials. " His remark- 
 able vitality and spirits were the theme of universal 
 remark. None of his oldest friends could recall him looking 
 so fit and vigorous," was the comment at the time. 
 
 Thus let us leave him, at home in China once again, and, 
 as it would seem, in even more than his usual health and 
 spirits. His tour had lasted from April to October. It had 
 been a wonderful undertaking for a man of his years, and it 
 seemed to have been an unmitigated success. 
 
265 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 COUP DE THEATRE AND COUP D'fTAT (1896—1899). 
 
 All the countries of Europe, and with them the United 
 States, were expecting a graceful return from China for the 
 magnificent courtesies they had heaped upon her Special 
 Envoy, who after all had given no trade orders. For the 
 moment, therefore, the civilised world was dumbfounded, 
 as it was flashed round the globe by telegraph that the old man 
 of 74 had been accused of trespassing in the grounds of 
 the Summer Palace after an audience with the Empress, 
 and had been sentenced to the loss of all his rank and titles 
 in consequence ! This, it seemed, was China's message of 
 thanks to all Europe ! But those who have read at all care- 
 fully this account of the many and embittered enemies 
 Li had left behind, can understand how indignant the 
 quasi-royal reception accorded to him must have made them, 
 ■end how prompt they would naturally be to seize the first 
 pretext that could be got hold of to degrade him. The 
 Emperor (meaning, of course, as usual, the Dowager Empress) 
 commuted this punishment for the loss of one year's salary ; 
 which sounds serious to Enghsh ears, but in China is a mere 
 bagatelle, a Chinese official's salary being always too small to 
 be worth considering. It is the bribes that are of value. 
 
 Even in China, people confidently expected next to hear 
 that Li was very ill and had asked leave to retire to his native 
 province. Not so Li Hung-chang ! Despite his great stature 
 he seems all through life to have been as plucky as if he had 
 been half the size. But it must be remembered he was on the 
 side of the Dowager Empress, and conscious of her support. 
 Had it not been so, he might well have felt afraid, for there 
 
266 LI HUNG ■ CEANG. 
 
 had been strange things happening in China whilst he had 
 been away. 
 
 Tze Hsi, who having raised her sister's son to the throne 
 of China, then married him to her brother's daughter ; who has 
 since then firmly stood by her kinsman Yung-lu, of whom 
 more anon ; could yet brook no interference, even from her 
 own family. Now, just about the time when Li was being 
 royally received at Moscow, the Emperor's mother, Tze Hsi's 
 sister, called upon her to remonstrate concerning the 
 education of her son, who was kept constantly in waiting 
 on the Empress, to the neglect of affairs of State, owing to her 
 autocratic habits and her long residence in the Eho Park. 
 Although, when she went to see her sister, the Emperor's 
 mother was well, next day she was dead. The mildest version 
 of the matter is that Tze Hsi was so indignant at the 
 interference that she deprived her sister of her sedan 
 chair ; and the latter being thus obliged to return home in the 
 great heat of a summer day in a common Peking cart, 
 through the glaring sun and clouds of dust, died next day of 
 that illness so common at the Peking Court — pent-up rage ! 
 Other versions speak of more direct means being employed. 
 Anyway, on the one day she was well and next day she 
 was dead ! 
 
 It may have been with reference to this that Li Hung- 
 chang sent his lengthy telegram from Moscow, although that is 
 generally believed to have treated of matters more intrinsically 
 important than this, or even than the Manchurian branch 
 of the Trans-Siberian Railway. One of the best informed 
 and most brilliant of newspaper correspondents says that 
 while at Moscow for the Coronation festivities, he accidentally 
 obtained positive proof that Li received then and there a 
 very large cheque. Can it be doubted that Eussia had had 
 some special object in choosing Li — some special service she 
 expected from him — when she selected him, at a moment 
 when he was so discredited that his Imperial mistress 
 could with difficulty preserve his head on his shoulders, 
 to come on this special mission of congratulation ? Evi- 
 dently at that period Li was in a position which 
 
COUP BE THEATRE AND COUP D'ETAT. 267 
 
 forced him to stand by anyone that stood by him ; 
 great man though he was, he could no longer stand 
 alone. To secure him was, of course, to secure also all the 
 Li party of Anhui, men brilliant rather than scrupulous. 
 The bargain was effected; and fi-om this time we find Li, 
 whom the English had been wont to consider their special 
 friend, accused of being pro-Russian, and anti-Enghsh. 
 Under all the regal splendour of the old man's tour, beneath 
 the flashing coruscation of the festivities and the amusing 
 oddity of Li's abrupt questions, there had been a deeper 
 meaning hidden. 
 
 Li was next appointed to the Tsungli Yamen. The day 
 of Tientsin was over; people had said before this that no 
 more big contracts would be had there, but rather in Peking ; 
 and he settled down in his old Temple near the East Flowery 
 Gate, paid visits to all the Ministers, and asked for two 
 months' leave to recruit his health. This, however, was not 
 granted, so he took over his seals of office on November 1st, 
 1896. His colleagues, however, took the opportunity to 
 oiFer him a deliberate insult ; since only the subordinates 
 of the office were present to receive him. 
 
 Once in every three years there appears a list of Ministers 
 and officers expressing the result of an examination into 
 their official records during that time ; which list is one of the 
 means by which the Imperial Government endeavours to 
 stimulate the emulation of all Manchu and Chinese officers 
 of the metropolis, high and low. Whilst lauding others, 
 aU that is said of Li in the Edict of February 23rd, 1897, 
 is : " As for Li Hung-chang, Senior Grand Secretary, we have 
 for very many years leaned upon and confided in him, while 
 he, on the other hand, has never shirked his duties on the 
 score of fatigue. We hereby hand him over to the Board, 
 for the determination of adequate rewards ! " 
 
 Yet, early in May, we find Li giving the following most 
 instructive letter quite en grand Seigneur, to the Rev. Gilbert 
 Reid, an American, who had been for some years trying to 
 start an International Institute among high-class Chinese in 
 Peking : — 
 
268 II SUNG. CHANG. 
 
 It is unfortunately true that suspicion, prejudice, and self- 
 sufficiency are peculiar traits of educated Chinese, especially 
 noticeable in their estimation of other countries — perhaps because 
 of the isolation of China from Western influence for so many 
 centuries ; but whatever may be the case, the lamentable eflfect 
 is seen in the present backward state of China among the natioils 
 of the world. The social, educational, and official systems of 
 China have tended to give to the educated classes control of the 
 destinies of the nation. Whether such a monopoly of power be 
 good or bad need not now be considered ; it exists, and the practical 
 question is how to turn it into beneficent and useful channels. 
 I think I may claim to have many friends in the United States 
 where you now go. The cordial reception I met with wherever 
 I went there made a deep impression upon my heart, and has 
 greatly endeared your people to me. If it would interest them 
 to know that I regard them highly and will give you a helping 
 hand in your future efibrfcs to bring more light into the world 
 and encourage higher aims and aspirations, you may use for that 
 purpose this letter from 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 (Signed) Li Hung-chang, 
 
 Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, 
 
 Classical Reader to his Majesty the Emperor, 
 
 Senior Grand Secretary of State, 
 
 Minister of the Foreign Office, and 
 
 Earl of the First Rank. 
 
 The old man still retained his titles, but in the well- 
 turned phrases one cannot but recognise the pleasing style of 
 Lo Feng Luh, which robs the document of some of its interest. 
 
 In June, 1897, we find a special Kussian Diplomatic 
 Mission at Peking. According to the contemporary record, 
 " the reception and entertainment accorded by the Chinese 
 Emperor to his guests, the Kussian Ambassadors, are said to 
 have been worthy of the occasion, and this is the first time 
 in the history of the present dynasty that such a recognition 
 has been given to the special representatives of a neighbour- 
 ing State. The Empress Dowager also gave the Special 
 Russian Ambassadors, Princes Uchtomsky and Wolkonsky, 
 
GOUP BE TSEATBE AND COUP D'ETAT. 269 
 
 a fare-well banquet at the Tsungli Yam^n's Great Hall on the 
 2nd inst., the Princes Kung and Ching acting as hosts on 
 behalf of the Empress Dowager. All the other Ministers of 
 the Yamgn were present except Li Hung-chang, absent on 
 sick leave. The banquet was entirely in the foreign style." 
 
 Before arriving at Peking, Prince Uchtomsky had visited 
 the Eastern Arsenal, some five miles distant from the foreign 
 settlement at Tientsin, and had been specially pleased with 
 the new Russian School, established there in 1895 in 
 obedience to an Imperial Decree. The Prince presented 
 £35 in prizes to the scholars, and £5 to the servants attached 
 to the school; besides contributing £160 towards the estab- 
 lishment of a Technical School of Mines, which the Peiyang 
 authorities intended soon to open in Tientsin. 
 
 From Peking the Mission proceeded to Vladivostock vid 
 Manchuria, the route along which all the Chinese will soon 
 be travelling to and fro by the Eusso-Manchurian Railway. 
 
 The Emperor had seen his mother killed, and his 
 favourite concubine degraded ; now he had had to entertain 
 these Russian envoys with special favour, though doubtless 
 he knew a little of what had passed at Moscow. Was he 
 beginning to prove restive ? Here is a most strange 
 Imperial Decree which, it seems, must have been drawn up 
 for someone's special edification: — 
 
 The Princess Fu Chin, the widow of the late Prince Pu Chin, 
 has presented to us (the Empress Dowager) a memorial complaining 
 of the headstrong, wilful, and unfilial conduct of Prince Tsai Shu, her 
 eldest son and the heir to his father's estate. As a matter of fact, 
 he frequently showed contempt of his mother's efforts to restrain 
 his headstrong conduct, and of late had wilfully shown disrespect in 
 his daily bearing towards his widowed mother. For instance, 
 the 10th inst. was the birthday anniversary of the Princess Fu Chin, 
 Instead of showing due filial piety by evincing an interest in or 
 directing the proposed festivities to be held in honour of the occasion, 
 Prince Tsai Shu pretended to fall ill the day before and asked to 
 be excused from participating in them, thereby evading certain 
 important ceremonies which, as the eldest son and head of the house, 
 he should have tried by every means in his power to perform. Then, 
 
270 XI BUNG - CHANG. 
 
 to crown all, when our (the Empress Dowager's) birthday presents 
 to his mother arrived at the Fu Chin Palace, Prince Tsai Shu made 
 no attempt to appear and show his loyalty and respect for us, as well 
 as thankfulness for this mark of Imperial bounty to his mother, by 
 reverentially kneeling at the grand entrance of his Palace while 
 the Imperial gifts were being borne within. Furthermore, neither 
 did he worship at the tablets of his ancestors nor pay congratulatory 
 obeisance before the image of his mother, which he should have done 
 on such an occasion, even if he had been considerably more ill than 
 he pretended to be. In a word, this audacity, this contempt for the 
 first principles of filial piety and loyal devotion to his parent, has 
 really gone beyond bounds ; and if we do not make a most 
 severe example of the culprit, we cannot expect to see dutiful 
 conduct in others. Our (the Emperor's) sentence therefore, is that 
 Tsai Shu be forthwith stripped of his princely title and handed over 
 to the Imperial Clan Court for the administration of eighty blows 
 of the broad bladed bamboo. He is then to he immured for ever tvithin 
 the four walls of an empty room. As for the successor of Tsai Shu, 
 we hereby leave Princess Fu Chin herself to select the next heir to 
 the late Prince Fu Chin and his estates. 
 
 All those who have lived in China will remember the many 
 subsequent reports that such a room was being got ready for 
 the Emperor himself — a living tomb in which he was to 
 be immured. What in all the subsequent troubles did become 
 of this Prince Tsai Shu, I have been unable to discover; 
 whether he was killed by the Boxers or freed by the 
 Allied Forces. 
 
 "After considerable trouble and many vexatious delays 
 lasting several years," writes a Chinese correspondent from 
 Peking, " a beautiful place in the Western Hills, near the Lama 
 Temple, has at last been chosen for the site of a mausoleum 
 for the Emperor Kwang-Hstl. The name of the spot 
 means ' EstabUshing the Heir,' and the name is considered by 
 the Board of Kites and Astronomy to be a most auspicious 
 augury that His Majesty will be blest with an Heir Apparent* 
 
 * Be it noted this was only in 1897, yet almost at the same time reports were 
 industriously circulated amongst foreigners an to the Emperor's incapacity 
 to have an heir. Chinese evidently did not believe this in 1897. 
 
COUP BE THEATRE AND GOUP D'ETAT. 271 
 
 m the near future. The Emperor is said to be delighted, 
 not only with the beauty of the spot, but also with its 
 avispicious name, and honours will fall thick upon the 
 fortunate finder of this secluded dell in the Western hills." 
 
 The building of an Imperial mausoleum sometimes 
 occupies a man's lifetime ; hence the necessity of beginning 
 the building of it whilst he is yet alive. Thirty years 
 for the completion and fitting up of this Death Palace 
 is not at all long, according to the ideas of chronology 
 amongst the Chinese. Chin Shih-huang, the first Em- 
 peror of China (b.c. 228-209), employed a million men 
 on his mausoleum, and it took him fifteen years to complete 
 it. This Emperor is the one known as the Destroyer of 
 Books. 
 
 By an Imperial Edict of August 3rd, Li was appointed 
 Chief Examiner of the Wuying Throne Hall, the Grand 
 Secretary of which is second in seniority among the four 
 Grand Secretariats. Another Decree of the same date 
 appointed Weng Tung-ho Preceptor of the Bachelors of 
 the Hanlin Academy. The latter and Li Hung-tsao, a man 
 simple in his habits, sterling in his character, an official of 
 integrity and a true patriot, were the two great opponents of 
 the Lis. 
 
 Li Hung-tsao took the gloomiest view of the future, 
 as expressed in his speech, made shortly before his death : 
 " Oh, what a change has come over China ! For the last 
 thirty years she has been getting weaker. The trouble is with 
 the officials, for they have lost the confidence of the people. It 
 is not as in former days, when we had Tseng Kwo-fan 
 and Tso Tsung-t'ang. It looks as if nothing could be done." 
 This was the view that was taken at a Chinese dinner party in 
 Shanghai, to which I had the great honour of being 
 invited. I will not enumerate the names of the Chinese hosts 
 and guests, for fear it might even yet get some of them deeper 
 into trouble than they already are ; but it can do no harm to 
 say it was to meet Mr. Weng Ting-shih, late tutor to the ladies 
 of the Imperial Household ; for there is already such a heavy 
 price set upon his head, it could hardly be heavier. It was 
 
272 LI HUNG - CH.ANG. 
 
 the saddest dinner which I hope I shall ever attend, for 
 every man alike seemed and professed to be in despair. They 
 indeed appeared to have invited me in their desperation 
 as a drowning man catches at a straw, because of my 
 known interest in setting the women of China on their 
 feet again by doing away with foot binding. 
 
 Was it not in 1897 that a British Consul-General, Mr. 
 Brenan, wrote the true sentence : "A long and painful 
 experience of thwarted efforts has had such a discouraging 
 effect on foreigners in China that a condition of stagnation has 
 come to be accepted as in the nature of things." 
 
 If the sturdy Englishman, whose neck at least' is generally 
 protected for him by his Government, feels like this, can 
 we wonder at the despair of the Chinese reformers ? How 
 willingly would I write a chapter or two on the wide- 
 spread Reform movement in CMna, numbering in its ranks 
 aU the most promising young men of letters ! 
 
 But Li Hung-chang had nothing to do with the Reform 
 movement. It is against the interests of Russia, conse- 
 quently also of her ally France, that China should be 
 reformed ; so the Diplomatic Corps at Peking has been led 
 from the first up to the present date to cast all the weight of 
 the Governments of Europe into the other scale, and one by 
 one or in great companies leading reformers are being killed 
 off. While men are thus in danger of their Hves, the less said 
 about those still living, the better. It is for the same reason 
 that I refrain as a rule from giving the names of my 
 authorities, when they are still living and still mixed up with 
 affairs Chinese, unless they have themselves written a 
 book. This is the case with Europeans also, not so 
 much from the fear of Chinese vengeance as of persistent 
 European thwarting, should their views be unacceptable to the 
 powers that be. 
 
 In August there was another display of commercial 
 fireworks. " We learn on good authority that the Jameson- 
 Hooley Syndicate have signed a preliminary contract with the 
 Chinese Government for a loan of sixteen million pounds, 
 starting at 5 per cent., in consideration of which they have 
 
COUP BE THEATRE AND COUP B'ETAT. 273 
 
 been given the construction of important railway lines in 
 the Empire." A very light and airy gentleman represented 
 them for some time in China, and then they too disappeared 
 from sight like the other comets. 
 
 In October, Li Hung-chang, of all men in the world, was 
 appointed Chief Examiner of Essays. This in England 
 we should consider shelving a statesman somewhat 
 emphatically. 
 
 Of the 16,000 and more candidates from all parts of the 
 Empire who gathered at Peking to compete for the M.A. 
 degree, only seventy-three were deemed worthy of getting 
 the coveted distinction. Among these, twenty-seven Can- 
 tonese were successful; while Kiangsu Province, of which 
 Soochow is the capital, and which used to come out head, 
 had only six new M.A.s, although the third name on the list 
 belonged to a Soochow candidate, the first being from Chihli 
 Province (Peking). Chihli thus kept her record, the first 
 men of the previous- four triennials having been invariably 
 Chihlians. This is the more remarkable, as Northern men 
 are as a rule reputed stupid. 
 
 Up to this time Li Hung-chang in the Tsungli Yam^n 
 had been relegated to a very low place, Prince Kung as 
 President assuming the nominal leadership ; after him, and 
 actually directing the policy of the Foreign Office, was 
 the Manchu Assistant Grand Secretary Yung Lu, President 
 of the Board of War, and Commandant of the Peking 
 Gendarmerie. 
 
 Yung Lu had been an immense favourite of the Emperor, 
 who greatly admired his really brilliant talents. Anything 
 that the Assistant Grand Secretary recommended to the 
 Throne was never vetoed by the Emperor, and had it not 
 been for this officer Li Hung-chang's name would have been 
 more potent in the Councils. What does not seem generally 
 realised is that Yung Lu was one of the special following 
 of Prince Ch'un, the Emperor's father, one of his liegemen, 
 who had known the Emperor from a baby upwards; and 
 it is to this fact the unhappy Kwang-Hsii probably owes 
 his life, for Yung Lu and Chang Yi, both devoted servants 
 
274 il HUNa-CBANO. 
 
 of his father, would not have him touched at the subse- 
 quent coup d'dtat. I have, indeed, been assured that they 
 threatened to head the revolution if his person were not 
 held sacred. 
 
 Yung Lu has been described as illiterate, but he has 
 also been depicted as " one of the most popular generals 
 in the Imperial Army ; one who loves his profession, having 
 chosen it when a youth, although his family influence could 
 easUy have obtained for him a good position as a civil 
 official. Yung Lu always likes to boast of being a military 
 officer, especially whenever he is surrounded by a group 
 of high literary graduates and civil officials. He has always 
 been a dandy in dress, and has the reputation of being the 
 best-dressed man in Peking, whilst the gilded youth amongst 
 the Manchu nobility always copy his dress and swear by 
 ' Yung Lu's style.' His horses and mules also have ever 
 been the finest in Peking, not even excepting the Emperor's 
 stud, and he loves to mount the most fiery and restive cattle 
 when riding out. This has led to several picked horses 
 sent as tribute to the Emperor from Kuldja and Mongolia^ 
 but which no one could ride owing to their untamed and 
 restive spirit, being specially presented to him by the 
 Emperor's command. His magnificence and lavishness make 
 him a popular idol with high and low." 
 
 In 1897 another nail was driven into the coffin of Li's 
 reputation, when the Germans seized Kiaochow — this term 
 is surely technically correct, although as Dan Leno would 
 say the Russians afterwards " took Port Arthur, and yet 
 they did not take it, you know." 
 
 To give the German account as not likely to err in bias 
 against Germany : — 
 
 On the 14th, at 8 a.m., a landing party was sent ashore to 
 take possession of the heights surrounding the bay. At the same 
 time the order was given to the Gormorem's landing party, she 
 being farthest inside the bay and commanding the passes to the 
 interior, to take the powder magazine. Towards nine o'clock, these 
 points having been secured, the Flag Lieutenant was sent to the 
 Chinese General with an ultimatum that within three hours he 
 
OOUP BE THEATJRE AND OOUP D'ETAT. 275 
 
 must clear out of the camps. The soldiers were permitted within 
 the same time to depart with their weapons and possessions. The 
 two ships, Kaiser and Prinzess WiUielm, were so anchored outside 
 of the port that they commanded the forts, the order having been 
 given to fire on the same on a given signal. 
 
 After delivery to him of the ultimatum the General withdrew 
 a,s resistance, especially since his ammunition had been seized, would 
 have been futUe ; the same was done by the soldiers, saving their 
 goods and chattels as far as possible. Towards 2 p m. the German 
 flag was hoisted on the East Fort; the Admiral made a speech 
 to the crews, who saluted and gave three cheers for the Kaiser. 
 While the flag slowly ascended a salute of twenty-one guns was 
 given by the men-of-war. The inhabitants behaved quite peace- 
 ably; in reality they were satisfied to be free from the native 
 soldiers. The native soldiers withdrew behind the hiUs, and 
 erected a camp at_ a distance of j about five miles. The forts were 
 then all occupied and measures^taken to guard the country against 
 3)lundering. 
 
 Li Hung-chang was] interviewed on the subject by a 
 New YorJe Herald man, and as he saw a copy of the 
 interview and approved it this is really interesting, and well 
 worth the consideration of all readers, who wish to form 
 an impartial judgment : — 
 
 The forcible occupation of Kiaochow by Germany is a direct 
 -violation of existing treaties and international law. The pretext 
 made for this act of war was, the murder of two missionaries by 
 robbers in the interior of the province of Shangtung. The Chinese 
 Government offered immediate and full redress for this outrage-^ 
 punishment of the criminals, dismissal of the local officials, and 
 large compensation for all losses. Anxious to avoid hostile acts, 
 the Chinese troops were withdrawn from Kiaochow when the 
 Germans landed, and, in spite of strong public feeling prevailing 
 throughout the country for the defence of Chinese territory against 
 aggression, my Government has not sent reinforcements to Kiaochow, 
 Outlaws exist in China as in all countries. Neither treaties, law, 
 nor religion can entirely suppress crime anywhere in the world, 
 though they condemn and punish the criminals. There are places 
 in every country where lawlessness abounds, and to such a place 
 in Shantung German missionaries determined to go, knowing that 
 
276 LI EUNG- CHANG. 
 
 the inhabitants themselves were often victims of these bandits. 
 Unfortunately, China has not recovered from the effects of the 
 late war, and our country requires a period of peace to carry out 
 the work of reform lately begun. Of late years, from instruction 
 and observation, the Chinese have come to regard the countriea 
 of the Western world as models, and even greater in justice than 
 in arms. Is it just to oppress us while we are struggling to emerge 
 from the restraints of our ancient civilisation, while improvement 
 and progress steadily continue ? Should China be distressed by 
 having her shores invaded and her territory occupied because of 
 an occurrence which Western countries would deal with by law 
 and not by war — an unexpected incident, deplored by my Govern- 
 ment and followed by full redress ? Our desire is to preserve our 
 territory intact and to steadily improve it as a field open to all 
 countries equally for the development of commerce. 
 
 Then the German Minister formulated his demands on the 
 Tsungli Yamen under six heads : — " (1) £30,000 indemnity for 
 two German Roman Catholic missionaries killed at Yenchou. 
 
 (2) The rebuilding of the chapel destroyed in the riot. 
 
 (3) The payment of Germany's expenses incurred in the 
 occupation of Kiaochow. (4) Li Ping-heng, retiring Governor 
 of Shangtung, to be cashiered and dismissed from the public 
 service. (5) The severest penalties upon the murderers 
 of the German priests and upon the local authorities where 
 the riot took place. (6) (a) Germans to be given the sole 
 right to open coal mines throughout Shangtung Province ; 
 (b) Special privileges to be granted to Germans in the matter 
 of railways in the said province; and (c) Germany to be 
 given the privilege of storing coal at Kiaochow in per- 
 petuity." 
 
 And Europe, which had rejoiced in the unprovoked attack 
 of Japan upon China, began to find this action on the 
 part of Germany a httle too much. The Russian Charge 
 d' Affaires at Peking at the same time demanded the dismissal 
 of all British employees on the Chinese railways. He also 
 demanded many other things, and according to Chinese 
 report, the Russians were placed in temporary custody of Port 
 Arthur, in accordance with the arrangement that in the event 
 
COUP DE THEATRE AND COUP D'ETAT. 277 
 
 of a disturbance of the peace in Eastern Asiatic waters, China 
 should lend Port Arthur to Kussia So the Eussian 
 fleet entered Port Arthur in order not to be forestalled by the 
 Germans, and the Chinese authorities consented, upon the 
 Russian Admiral promising to return the place " after peace 
 becomes once more settled." 
 
 H.M.S. Daphne had looked in to see what was doing, then 
 H.M.S. ImmortaliU and Iphigenia. This had made a bad 
 impression on the Russian Government, and Lord Salisbury 
 made the unfortunate mistake of ordering them off, remarking 
 afterwards (March, 1898) that, " whilst his Government had 
 always looked with favour upon the idea of Russia obtaining 
 a free port in the Pacific, Russia had now given a most 
 unfortunate extension to the policy." This and Mr. Balfour's 
 subsequent speech, free, gratis and for nothing, informing 
 the world in general and Germany in particular that we 
 would take no steps to connect Wei-hai-wei by railway with 
 the rest of the world or make it a commercial success, made 
 it impossible for anyone in the East to write with calm of 
 these transactions. 
 
 It was then that we ceased even to complain. Of what 
 use in face of such ignorance and wantonness in high 
 places ? Under a form of negotiation, we had taken possession 
 of Wei-hai-wei and a bit of land we had long wanted opposite 
 Hong Kong. The Itahans then asked for San-men Bay ; 
 the French formulated their demands ; only Austria, it is 
 believed, asked for nothing. The Cassini Convention had 
 been published to the world by Mr. R. W. Little, then 
 indignantly contradicted, then proved by the course of subse- 
 quent events to be substantially correct in every particular. 
 People said now there was a large cheque in the Russo- 
 Chinese Bank at Peking waiting for Li Hung-chang's 
 acceptance, whenever Russia should be fairly in possession of 
 aU out of which she had turned Japan. Others referred to the 
 large amount they said had been paid over at Moscow. Others 
 again maintained that thanks to Russia and the Dowager 
 Empress's protection, Li Hung-chang's head had been kept on 
 liis shoulders, and that had been payment enough. The 
 
278 LI HUNO ■ CHANG. 
 
 people who know the real truth about such matters have 
 always excellent reasons for not revealing it. 
 
 But there is one fact patent amid all that is doubtful ; the 
 Chinese had had every reason given them for wishing ta 
 be rid of all European nations together, robbers and pirates as. 
 they must have appeared to them. 
 
 At the Chinese camp at Lutai, all German drill instructors 
 had been removed, and a Russian General placed in 
 charge. And the Chinese had not asked for this Russian 
 General, nor were they consulted as to making the change. 
 He was lent by the Czar, so could receive no salary, but was 
 to have an annual " allowance " for incidental expenses of not 
 less than £50 per month. He was to hold equal rank with the 
 Chinese General, and matters for reference he was to refer to 
 the Russian Minister, receiving his own instructions from the 
 Czar, not from Peking. Then it was that Li Hung-chang was 
 impeached by a Censor for selling his country to Russia for a 
 quarter of a million sterling. Even when he passed through 
 Singapore on his tour round the world, he was beKeved by the 
 Chinese there to have sold his country for gold, and was 
 openly accused of it, so that he had to have an extra 
 police guard given him by the British Government, so 
 great was the indignation against him amongst the Singapore 
 Chinese, who actually pelted him as he landed. The EngUsh 
 head of pohce was nearly driven distracted by what he at the 
 moment thought Li's indecision as to where he was going, by 
 what road, and at what hour, leading to his having difficulty 
 even himself in keeping close to him, while to keep the 
 guard always near him became a sheer impossibility. Only 
 afterwards did it occur to him that all the apparently object- 
 less changes were the precautions Li himself felt it necessary 
 to take, knowing the feeling against him at Singapore. 
 
 Viceroy Chang Chih-tung at the same time offered his. 
 resignation, owing to the Emperor's consenting to give the 
 control of the salt duties and tea likin of his province of 
 Hupeh into the hands of Sir Robert Hart, to guarantee 
 a portion of the recent Anglo-German loan. The Yangtse 
 Valley was reported to be arming ; the Emperor had begun a 
 
OOUP BE THEATRE AND OOUP D'ETAT. 279 
 
 series of reforms with a long Edict dated AprU 11th. 
 A memorial had been presented to the Emperor, signed 
 by nearly twelve hundred metropolitan officials and literary 
 graduates, begging him to use his own judgment, and 
 citing " the fate of the traitorous Prince and Grand Secretary 
 at the time of the re-entry of the Emperor Haien Feng 
 into Peking after his flight from the Allied Armies of 
 Great Britain and France to Jehol, when both men were 
 summarily decapitated for treachery." 
 
 And yet in April we find Li accompanying a Manchu 
 Prince to meet Prince Henry of Prussia at Tientsin. Just 
 before this, there had been an attack upon Li's life that 
 was very carefully hushed up. One account is that, as Li was 
 on the point of enteriug the sacred precincts of the Grand 
 Audience Hall, three hours after midnight, to have an inter- 
 view with the Emperor, and was passing through the 
 double line of Imperial Guards at the Palace Gates, a man 
 dressed entirely in black suddenly broke through the line, and 
 getting within striking distance of the old statesman, launched 
 a blow at his head. Fortunately, Li had noticed the commo- 
 tion made by the man breaking through the guards, and 
 inclining his head a httle aside, managed partially to evade the 
 blow, but was not quick enough to prevent his assailant's fist 
 from landing on his shoulder. The attack was so sudden that 
 none of the Guards interfered until the assailant made 
 a further attempt to trip Li up. Then it was that, just as the 
 man's right leg was being stretched out for the purpose, 
 a guardsman brought his naked sword with a sweep outwards 
 and the next minute the man was overpowered and bound. 
 
 If the Emperor knew of the affair, many would have to lose 
 both rank and position for their lack of vigilance. Li, 
 with his usual calm, went through his audience as if nothing 
 had happened. But one cannot help thinking there must 
 have been more in the affair than here appears, for a man to 
 have succeeded in concealing himself in such a place and 
 in breaking through two lines of Guards. 
 
 The Emperor made Prince Henry some handsome gifts, in- 
 cluding two fans painted by the Empress Dowager, who must 
 
280 LI HUNO^CHANG. 
 
 be extraordinarily industrious as well as gifted, if she reaUy 
 paints and writes all that is attributed to her. Prince Henry 
 had interviews with both Emperor and Empress, and was re- 
 ceived like a regular Royal Prince — the first time this honour 
 had been accorded to anyone in China. This was in May, 1898. 
 
 In June we hear : Li Hung-chang continues to enjoy 
 excellent health and is daily at his post in the Tsungli Yamen, 
 the hardest working man of all the Yamen Ministers, and that 
 the Emperor had appointed a number of officials to burn 
 incense in order to propitiate Tien Lao-yeh (Venerable 
 Heavenly Father) into sending rain, but still the sky remained 
 cloudless and the rain came not. The wheat crop was ruined 
 and the tall millet also was getting yellow and sickly. 
 How long this latter state of things continued ! And it 
 signifies so much in China, where means of inter-communica- 
 tion are practically non-existent and large masses of the people 
 are always on the verge of starvation. Old Prince Kung lay 
 dying amid the unbroken sunshine. He was visited by both 
 the Emperor and Empress Dowager ; and when the latter saw 
 that there was no hope, she bent over the Prince and 
 anxiously inquired whom he would recommend as a 
 fitting person to succeed him in the Grand Council. " Wang 
 Wen-shao," replied the Prince without hesitation. "And 
 whom should you recommend to take Wang Wen-shao's 
 place at Tientsin when he comes to Peking ? " again asked the 
 Empress Dowager. There was a long pause, the Prince being 
 evidently deep in thought. At last he slowly shook his head, 
 as if knowing of none competent. 
 
 So Yung Lu was appointed Viceroy at Tientsin. It was 
 then Wen Ting-shih sent a memorial strongly advising the 
 Emperor to throw himself and the country upon the pro- 
 tection of Great Britain, deriding the pretended friendship 
 of Russia, and giving a plain sketch of the whole story of 
 the retrocession of the Liaotung peninsula by Japan. He 
 bewailed the sad fact that everyone in China was misled 
 by the pretensions of Russia, and wound up by saying 
 that in the friendship of Great Britain lay the salvation 
 of China. But Great Bricain alone was indisposed to show 
 
OOUF BE THEATRE AND COUP DE'TAT. 281 
 
 friendship to anyone at that juncture. To us in China she 
 seemed dead asleep. To those in South Africa she must 
 have seemed yet more so, for she had not wakened up to 
 the Transvaal then. 
 
 Weng Tung-ho, the Emperor's tutor, for years the leader 
 of the reactionary party, but of late always increasingly 
 enlightened, and undoubtedly a man of noble aims and 
 absolute rectitude, was now dismissed ; and Li smiled grimly 
 when asked by a foreigner how he felt when he heard that 
 Weng, his inveterate enemy, the man who had clamoured 
 for his head at the time of the Japanese-Chinese War, was 
 degraded and removed. At this time the notion was com- 
 mon in China and foreign circles that Li's Kussophile bias 
 was only equalled by his positive Anglophobia. Curious 
 stories were circulating in Chinese officialdom as to recent 
 passages of arms between Li and Sir Claude Macdonald, in 
 which pretty plain speaking was indulged in on both sides ; 
 and report said that Li often felt thankful there was 
 a table between them, so hot at times grew the soldier- 
 minister's indignation against him. Tientsra, however, 
 honoured Li, and said there was no doubt but that under 
 Yung Lu roguery was more rampant than in Li's time and 
 corruption more widespread and barefaced. 
 
 Kang Yu Wei, a Cantonese member of the Hanlin College, 
 had now suddenly become the Emperor's chosen adviser, 
 recommended to him first by one of the censors, then by 
 his former tutor, Weng Tung-ho and another equally trusted 
 friend. Under his guidance Kwang-Hsii is said to have 
 passed too many reform Edicts, but it would be hard for 
 anyone to point out one which was not needed, or which 
 was not entailed indeed by those already passed, owing to 
 the solidarity of everything in China. Preparations were 
 still being continued at Tientsin, where a Palace was being 
 got ready for the projected visit of the Emperor and Dowager 
 Empress in the autumn ; and the Emperor talked of going 
 on to Canton in a steamer. In June (1898) Li Hung- 
 chang was appointed Inspector of the Department of 
 Promulgated Edicts. 
 
282 LI SUNG-CRANG. 
 
 In July there was said to be a deal of trouble brewing- 
 in Shansi, on account of the concession to the Peking' 
 Syndicate; a determination having been expressed by the 
 populace, inspired no doubt by the officials, not to allow 
 the introduction of foreign machinery and plant. People 
 wondered already what action would be taken when the- 
 time for working the concession should arrive. In December, 
 1902, engineers had been at work for six months, em- 
 ploying large numbers of men, opening mines, and building" 
 a railway, without the slightest friction arising with either 
 officials or people ; the Chinese, as usual, acquiescing in 
 un fait accom/pli. 
 
 In September some 5,000 persons were thrown out of 
 employment by the aboUtion of six minor courts, pronounced 
 under the new regime superfluous, and Li Hung-chang was 
 dismissed from the Tsungli Yamen, the local English paper 
 characterising this " as a sign that a very healthy accession 
 of firmness has characterised the British attitude in Peking." 
 But Li was not to be beaten so easily. He and the Dowager 
 Empress both saw there was not a moment longer to be 
 lost. Kung Yu-wei had, indeed, been advising the Emperor 
 secretly to shut up Tze Hsi somewhere, so that she could 
 not interfere with affairs of Government. 
 
 Yuan Shih-hai, entrusted with the carrying out of this 
 scheme, betrayed it to Yung Lu and either or both of them 
 to the Empress. The Emperor warned Kang Yu-wei to fly 
 for his life ; and at the request of Kang Yu-wei and his 
 friends, an EngUshman (organising secretary of the Society 
 for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge in 
 China) went to the British Legation, and tried to make 
 known the position of affairs. Sir Claude Macdonald, the 
 Minister, was away ; so were several of the Ministers ; so 
 also was Sir Kobert Hart. The moment evidently had been 
 carefully chosen. The Emperor's life was doubtless in 
 danger. But the British Charge d' Affaires definitely refused 
 to be informed, saying, " If you have anything of importance 
 to communicate to the Legation, you can do so in writing,'' 
 then turned on his heel. So urgent was the danger that 
 
COUP DE THEATRE ANB COUP D'ETAT. 283 
 
 Mr. Kichards did writa A month afterwards he received 
 a reply to his letter, advising him to let politics severely 
 alone in future. The rudeness of such behaviour can only 
 be surpassed by its want of common sense. 
 
 Meanwhile, if only because of his series of providential 
 escapes, we must follow the fortunes of Kang Yu-weL 
 
 Arrived at Tientsin, he found a steamer just starting 
 and went directly on board. It was contrary to the rules of 
 that company to take a Chinese passenger, who had no 
 luggage, and who had not beforehand provided himself with a 
 ticket from their office. So that steamer sailed without 
 him, and it was well that it did so, for, in spite of flying 
 the British flag, she was overhauled by a Chinese cruiser 
 before arriving in Shanghai, and searched, it was said, for 
 a fugitive escaping from justice. 
 
 Kang Yu-wei, in the next steamer, ignorant of the 
 extremity of his danger, actually went on shore at Chefoo 
 when she called in there. The Taotai at that place had 
 already received orders to behead him at all hazards, but 
 having occasion to go over to Kiaochow, the German posses- 
 sion, had taken his telegram with him for fear of it 
 being made known to the intended victim. As he returned, 
 the steamer was already moving out of sight. That was 
 providential escape number two, but the third was yet 
 more remarkable. 
 
 The captain had made such an uproar over the violation of 
 the British flag that the Chinese authorities were afraid 
 to repeat the offence ; so they sent in a photograph to the 
 British Consulate, asking for assistance in getting such a 
 criminal off the next steamer from the North. Had they 
 not done this, they would probably have captured Kang 
 Yu-wei Nothing had been heard in Shanghai of what was 
 going on in Peking. The wires were supposed to be broken, 
 and everyone believed everything tranquil there. But the 
 face in the photograph was not that of a criminal. The matter 
 got talked about. An Englishman in the end boarded the 
 next steamer from the North with that photograph in his 
 hand, identified the original and at once conveyed him on to 
 
284 LI HUNG ' CHANG. 
 
 the P. & 0. steamer, just about to sail for Hong Kong. 
 H.M.S. Este convoyed the P. & O. steamer as long as she 
 could, till, from want of sufficient speed, she gave up 
 the charge to another of our ships. And when the latter also 
 was left behind, a Chinese cruiser at once started off at full 
 speed with what intent cannot be known, for just as she was 
 overtaking the English passenger steamer, H.M.S. Bonaven- 
 tv/re hove into sight and the Chinese cruiser put back again. 
 
 Thus, for the third time, the fugitive was saved. He was 
 then placed in Hong Kong gaol as a measure of security. All 
 his family had had to fly from the village near Canton during 
 the night ; for the relations of such a criminal, as he was now 
 held to be, are put to death even to the ninth degree. 
 His brother and five others, a Censor, a Hanlin compiler and 
 three first-class Secretaries of the Grand Council, among 
 them the noble Tan Tze-tung, son of the Governor of Hupeh, 
 had all been summarily decapitated the day after he left 
 Peking, September 28th, 1898. Fourteen eunuchs were also 
 put to death, being the Emperor's personal attendants upon 
 whose devotion he could count — these last in the courtyard of 
 the Chief Eunuch's office, within the Palace grounds. The 
 other leading Eeformers escaped by hiding for a time. 
 
 A Peking dispatch reported that as soon as it became 
 known in the capital that Kang Yu-wei had been rescued and 
 conducted in safety by the British authorities to Hongkong, 
 immediate orders were sent by the Empress Dowager to a 
 General at Newchwang to concentrate eight thousand of 
 his best troops at Shanhaikuan ; to General Tung Fu-hsiang, 
 with his Kansuh troops, numbering twelve thousand men, to 
 concentrate near Peitaiho ; to General Lo, of Tientsin, to take 
 seven thousand troops to Taku and Peitang ; and to General 
 Mei, with eight thousand, to go to a port to the south-west of 
 Taku, on the Gulf of Pechili Yung Lu, who had been unable 
 to sleep for two nights from anxiety as to what the British 
 fleet was doing at Peitaiho, fearing that it had got wind of the 
 projected cov/p d'dtat, now ordered ten thousand men into 
 Peking, drawn from the two army corps of Yuan Shih-kai 
 and Neih Sze-cheng, supposed to command the best 
 
COUP DB THEATRE AND COUP D'ETAT. 285 
 
 drilled troops in the Northern Army. These ten thousand 
 ■were to form his personal guard, and special instructions were 
 sent to Yuan and Nieh to pick out the best men under them, 
 who must be prepared to obey orders arising from any 
 emergency. 
 
 Immediately after the coup d'6tat, the Empress Dowager 
 was anxious to reinstate Li Hung-chang in the Tsungli Yamen, 
 but was opposed by Yung Lu, who told her that he " had heard 
 while in Tientsin that if this was done the British fleet would 
 seize Newchwang." Sir Claude Macdonald's vehemence seems 
 to have had some effect. But whether Yung Lu wanted 
 his special troops to defend himself or the Emperor did 
 not seem quite clear. It was, moreover, a long whUe before 
 anyone in China believed the Emperor was still alive. Even 
 when a French doctor prescribed for him in November — ^for 
 the Emperor was promptly reported ill, and has been reported 
 ill ever since — some people maintained that it was a mock 
 Emperor the doctor saw. There seems to be little doubt that 
 it was the intention of the Manchus to kUl Kwang-Hsli ; but 
 the attitude of the foreign Legations, as also probably that 
 of Yung Lu at the head of his troops, made them pause for a 
 while. 
 
 In November, General Tung Yu-hsiang, Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Kansuh Army Corps, had an audience of the 
 Empress Dowager, and begged permission to lead his bat- 
 talions against the foreign Legation guards, as a preliminary 
 to a declaration of war against all Europe, guaranteeing that 
 he and his Kansuh men could drive all foreigners coming to 
 China into the sea again. 
 
 Li Himg-chang had been, to the surprise of everyone, 
 ordered off to repress the Yellow River. The Empress had 
 sent for Li, after reading the distressing memorials of the 
 Governor of Shangtung, and had a long talk with him — the 
 first private audience he is known to have had since 1895. Li 
 pleaded age and infirmity in vain, then wired to the 
 Chinese Ministers in Washington and London to secure 
 all information possible in regard to the Mississippi, Nile, 
 Ganges and Irawaddy, and started on December 6th with a 
 
286 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 large staff of deputies — a very old man to undertake such a 
 journey in the bitter winter weather of North China. General 
 Tcheng Ki-tong, of Paris notoriety, was attached to his 
 staff. Li's nomination was pretty generally put down to the 
 wish to get him out of Peking, rather than to the urgency 
 of the floods. 
 
 More eunuchs were being punished ; more Reform leaders 
 terrified for their hves. Several of them telegraphed to 
 the same Mr. Richards who had been powerless to save 
 the Emperor, begging him to secure England's protection for 
 them. He was sitting, sadly thinking how useless it was for 
 him to appeal to the British Legation, when in came the 
 same Times correspondent who had gone to meet Kang Yu- 
 wei. " Oh, give me that telegram," he said. " Well ! very 
 likely that is the best thing I can do with it," rephed 
 Mr. Richards mournfully. The other at once sent on the 
 telegram to the Times. Next day came an inquiry from the 
 Foreign Office to the British Minister: "Who are these 
 Chinese Reformers who are applying for Great Britain's 
 protection ? " No one knew at the Legation, so the question 
 was sent on to the Consul-General in Shanghai. He did not 
 know either, but he knew who would know, and sent at once 
 for Mr. Richards. Thus these young men's lives were for the 
 time saved by British intervention, only obtained after a rather 
 unnecessarily circuitous fashion. 
 
 Suddenly, in February ('99), Li was ordered to return 
 post haste to the capital. On January 26th, the Princes of 
 the Blood Royal had brought their children together to the 
 Palace, and discussed the question of raising one of them to 
 the throne in succession to the Emperor. 
 
 Li's return may, however, have had nothing to do with 
 this matter. For the Dowager Empress was investigating 
 charges of extravagance against the Governor of Shangtung, 
 When Li was appointed Imperial High Commissioner of 
 the River Conservancy, the reception given him by the 
 accused Governor had been extravagant in the extreme; 
 every luxury, even extraordinarily rich and expensive furni- 
 ture and utensils, being placed at the disposal of the 
 
COUP BE TSEATBE AND COUP B'EIAT. 287 
 
 Commissioner and of his numerous staJBf, while no less 
 than £200 a day had been spent since their arrival at 
 Chinanfu, the provincial capital, in entertaining the party. 
 In addition to this, the more important members of Lis 
 numerous staff had been presented with sums of money 
 for "boarding expenses," "insomuch," remarks the accuser, a 
 Hanlin Reader, " that all of Li Hung-chang's staff had all their 
 ■desires fulfilled." From the day of Li's arrival, the charge is 
 that " not a single one passed but feasting and gaiety of some 
 sort on an extravagant scale took place." In regard to 
 the above extravagance, Li was taken to task and asked by the 
 Empress Dowager why, upon experiencing all this, he did not 
 stop it on the spot and denounce his host to the Throne 
 instead of accepting these luxuries. But this also was 
 •explained to the Empress's satisfaction, although Dr. Fryer, 
 long in Chinese employ, and at that time lecturer at the 
 University of California, then characterised Li as " an extinct 
 volcano, a traitor to his word, a secret opponent of foreign 
 «ivilisiag influences, and a Royal favourite simply because of 
 one timely act of military strategy whereby he aided the 
 Empress Dowager." 
 
 Li sent in his report with regard to the Yellow River, in 
 -which " a permanent control " plan and a " temporary rehef " 
 plan were embodied — the first to cost six millions sterhng 
 and the latter half that sum. He then presented a memorial 
 resigning his post in Peking and praying that he might be 
 permitted to return to his native city there to pass the 
 Temainder of his days. It is reported that the Empress 
 Dowager was favourable to granting Li's prayers, but no 
 Edict appeared on the subject. Just then great secrecy was 
 being observed in the meetings of the Grand Council, pre- 
 sided over by the Empress Dowager, who was assisted by 
 Yung Lu; every outsider, eunuchs and all, being ordered 
 out of earshot during the deUberations. 
 
 It was then that Li Hung-chang strongly recommended 
 the appointment of the new Governor of Shangtung, Yu 
 Hsien — one shudders as one reads the name now — to the 
 Superintendency of the Works for the Control of the Yellow 
 
288 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 River. The newspaper comment is : " There is, therefore, little 
 chance that anything eifective will be done, unless the 
 Foreign Ministers urge the Tsungli Yamgn to vote for the 
 employment of Western methods." 
 
 We read of Li after this in good health, happy at home, 
 expressing the greatest confidence in the Peking Syndicate, 
 and wiring for 4,080 scrips; Kang Yi, by whose advice 
 the six young reformers were executed without trial, was 
 on the Yangste inquiring into Yu Hsien's twenty-three 
 charges of misconduct against the Viceroy, Liu K'un-yi, and 
 eight of his Taotais. The late Viceroy of Szechuan, the 
 originator of the Szechuan riots, dismissed for ever from 
 office in accordance with the demands of the British Govern- 
 ment, had been specially invited by the Empress Dowager 
 to come to Peking. 
 
 At this juncture, when Great Britain and Russia had just 
 made an agreement of a somewhat vague nature about affairs 
 in China, a Peking correspondent reports an interesting 
 conversation between an Englishman of high position and 
 Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Li Hung-chang remarked that he was unable to see 
 in the Anglo-Russian Convention any evidence of England's 
 boasted friendship for China. '' You are to do as you like 
 in the south without hindrance from Russia, Russia is to 
 follow its sweet will in the north without protest from 
 England. Is this any strong indication of great friendship 
 for China? Between you, two-thirds of our country are to 
 be absorbed, and yet you assert 'England is CJ^ina's best 
 friend.' I must say I fail to see it." 
 
 Explanation was not easy, but the statement was made 
 that even in this England was really China's friend, " for 
 without this convention Russian aggression would have been 
 more rapid, and China's dismemberment would have been 
 hastened. Unable to hinder the Russian advance, England 
 has endeavoured to delay and limit it. What more could 
 we have done under the circumstances ? " 
 
 " I cannot say," said Li ; " but the results are all to be 
 advantageous to you, and disadvantageous to us. Your 
 
COUP BE THEItBE and COUP D'ETAT. 289 
 
 explanation leaves the matter exactly in tlie position I 
 maintained would be the case. After all, you and Russia 
 are eventually to obtain two-thirds of the Chinese Empire, 
 and we are to lose it. How can I possibly see in this any 
 evidence of England's goodwill towards us ? " 
 
 Surely most of us must agree with Li; explanation 
 certainly was not easy. 
 
 And as an indication as to who reaUy ruled in Peking, 
 a Manchu, designed for the office of Customs Taotai, at 
 Tientsin, on finding that he should be expected to pay the 
 Empress's favourite eunuchs about 30,000 taels in addition 
 to the usual fee of 6,000 taels, blimtly told the Empress of 
 the extortion ; whereupon she simply ignored the accusation, 
 saying that she would instead appoint him to a Provincial 
 Judgeship on the next vacancy, as perhaps that would suit 
 him better. 
 
 And through all this Tung Fu Slang's cavalry rode on 
 " at a slow trot, in compact companies of fifty ; with waving 
 of sUk baimers and fluttering of scarlet cloaks and long 
 red-tufted lances quivering in their hands like reeds, they 
 swept through the quiet country lanes in a way that for 
 once recalled some of the pomp and circumstance of war. 
 It would seem that they are so conscious of their strength, 
 and their power to crush the foreigners, when the word is 
 given, that they look on them more -with pitying contempt 
 than with active dislike. After a peasant has gone to his 
 fields at dawn and returned home at night for a month 
 together to this sort of music, he begins to have a pretty 
 clear conception that something unusual is under way ; and 
 that if the Empress Dowager has undertaken the overturning 
 of the whole Imperial policy towards foreigners, she has 
 taken good care to gather troops enough to ensure the com- 
 plete success of her policy, however ruthless. And that it^ 
 will be ruthless is the conclusion that the entire countryside 
 has drawn from this two months' cannonade. Everywhere, 
 both in city and country, we hear the same tale, that all 
 the foreigners are to be killed or driven out, and that our 
 day is close at hand. These remarks are seldom made to us 
 
 T 
 
290 LI SUNG -CHANG. 
 
 personally — though they have been so made to our faces here 
 in the streets of Tungchou — but the ears of native helpers 
 and converts are filled with them. For the most part, the 
 feeling of unrest and expectancy on the part of the Chinese 
 is unaccompanied by any sentiment of hatred towards us, 
 such as prevailed at the time of the kidnapping rumours 
 a year or more ago, but merely includes the dispassionate 
 though agreeable conviction that our lives are drawing to 
 a close." 
 
 Thus, towards the close of December, 1898, wrote a Tung- 
 chou correspondent to the Shanghai paper ; and we all read 
 it, and some of us — thought a good deal. 
 
291 
 
 CHAPTER XXITI. 
 
 THE BOXER OUTBREAK (1899—1900). 
 
 Li HuNG-CHANQ, in the course of his Progress, gave out that 
 he did not come to give trade orders. Lord Charles Beresford, 
 on the other hand, announced that he came to China as 
 a commercial traveller, was equally received en Prince, and 
 yet seems to have made speeches quite as rude, if not 
 ruder than those of Li. At Wuchang, in conversation with the 
 most literary and learned Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, he 
 actually said bluntly : " Of course, we could take the Yangtse 
 Valley, you know," whilst , men conversant with Chinese 
 notions of courtesy shuddered, as the tiny Chinese dignitary, 
 with haughty composure, said quietly : " Oh, of course," and 
 then adroitly, but firmly, turned the conversation. Only the 
 legacy of bitterness and distrust left behind shows the impres- 
 •sion Lord Charles produced both at Wuchang and at Nanking. 
 There, Liu K'un-yi had already a French Admiral tackling 
 Mm about an addition to the French concession at Shanghai. 
 Lord Charles had promised beforehand to abstain from touch- 
 ing upon the subject, yet he plunged deep into it at once. At 
 Tientsin he went still further, for he actually proposed to the 
 Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai that he should march upon Peking 
 and seize the person of the Dowager Empress, adding that 
 then he would himself go along with him. Then, when this 
 speech became known, he was astonished : " I never saw such 
 a funny place as China. There was no one present but Yuan 
 Shih-kai, my secretary and myself. Who can have told ? " 
 " Why, the Viceroy, of course. Do you not see that it was high 
 treason you were talking ? If it became known that he had 
 
292 il KVNG CRANG: 
 
 heard it and said nothing, he would have been beheaded, 
 so, of course, he told it at once to make himself safe." 
 
 Since it was understood that Lord Charles was a specially- 
 accredited Envoy of the British Sovereign — for he accepted all 
 the honours that would naturally be accorded to a man. 
 in such a position — it may be better imagined than 
 described what a rankling memory the professedly "com- 
 mercial traveller," who yet did no business, left behind him m. 
 China. Then came his book, the book of England's Special 
 Envoy, entitled " The Break-up of China," freely translated 
 into Chinese of course, and widely circulated. Yet, even after 
 that, people continued in a fatuous fashion to distinguish 
 Chinese oflScials as anti-foreigner, anti-English and pro- 
 Russian. Every man's hand being outstretched against China, 
 how could it be otherwise but that the Chinese were against 
 all foreign nations — only obliged to side, now with this 
 one, now with that one, as a protection against the others ? 
 
 It was noted at this time that Li had a mysterious 
 interview of over an hour's duration with the Russian Minister 
 in July, 1899. 
 
 It was in this year that round-faced Li Han-chang, Li's 
 elder brother, died at the ancestral home in Anhui Province, 
 at eighty years of age, from cancer, all his sons, nephews, 
 grandsons, grand-nephews and great-grand-nephews assem- 
 bling at Hofei to pay him the last respects, as in 1902 they 
 were doing again in Li Hung-chang's honour. 
 
 Li had been before that excused from attending at the 
 Tsungli Yam§n, and given the privilege of a two- bearer chair 
 within the Palace gates. He was now appointed President of 
 the Court of Last Appeal for men under sentence of death. It 
 seems as if in turn this indefatigable old man must hold every 
 appointment there was to be "had; and could any be more 
 appropriate for an aged man than this ? 
 
 Already, a month earlier, the now too notorious Yu Hsien, 
 who in history must surely rank along with Nana Sahib, was 
 recommending that all Chinese Christians should be compelled 
 to dress like the Europeans, whose creed they had adopted, so 
 that in the event of a riot, the officials might at once be able to 
 
TEE BOXEB OUTBREAK. 293 
 
 distinguish them. Moreover, Kang-yi, called by Chinese the 
 Lord High Extortioner, had been sent on his journey of 
 oppression through the Yangtse Provinces to extort as much 
 money as possible for the Dowager Empress's needs. Whilst 
 •doing so, one of his first acts had been to close the Girls' 
 School, that had but lately been opened with great dclat at 
 Shanghai by King Lien-shan, the head of the Telegraphs there, 
 a remarkable old Cantonese, stone deaf, and yet of enlightened 
 Tiews and with the courage of his opinions. Kan-yi's attitude 
 is expressed by his remark on another occasion : " I cannot 
 understand why people of late enjoy opening schools. These 
 schools educate a number of men who, as soon as they know a 
 little about Western affairs and have learned a few sentences 
 in the Western language, forthwith desire to turn traitors, 
 while crafty and cunning merchants show great fondness 
 for assisting these schools with funds. I must say that I 
 feel deep indignation at such conduct." From this point of 
 view, we can appreciate his opinion on the subject of army 
 discipline : " I see that of late the Commandants of Regiments 
 have all taken to drilling their men after the foreign methods. 
 This is a truly pernicious habit. They throw aside the sword, 
 spear and shield, and talk of nothing but keeping their men 
 in step and in proper line. They have made a great mistake, 
 w^hich they will by-and-by find out to their cost. Now in 
 :fighting, headlong dash and courage wia the battle. How can 
 one show this dash, then, by keeping in step and in line with 
 his fellows ? Why, this kind of drilling is simply learning to 
 lose instead of to win a battle." 
 
 People began to notice that the rival Generals were mass- 
 ing their forces round Peking, that the Eunuch Guard was 
 being armed, and that there were many dark reports as 
 to strong-rooms the Empress was having made in the palace ; 
 some said for her own safety in case of the worst ; others, for 
 confining the Emperor — who was still a prisoner on a fairy-like 
 island in the middle of a large lake, a tangle of exquisite 
 pagodas, lovely Chinese pavilions with curving roofs of 
 glittering, golden yellow porcelain, fantastic summer-houses, 
 petrified trees, and beautiful throughout ; a place in which the 
 
294 LI RUNG - CHAN a. 
 
 heart might grow sick with longing, looking at the great 
 palace roofs in the distance, with their buoyantly upcurvecf 
 ends, signifying to the prisoner on the island the power he had. 
 never held, the freedom he might never regain. 
 
 According to a Chinese report, one night, one plank of 
 the drawbridge connecting the island with the shore by a. 
 long causeway was left down by a combination of treachery 
 and friendship ; the Emperor, with some adherents, was about 
 to cross it and escape, when up rushed guards and eunuchs„ 
 who, though none dared to lay a hand upon him,, 
 entreated him with tears, saying : " That way for you lies- 
 freedom, but you know that then to-morrow all our heads, 
 would be cut off." Kwang-Hsu looked at them with 
 those dark, mournful eyes, the intense sorrow in which 
 has caused even hardened Legation Secretaries to write- 
 pathetic descriptions after State audiences, looked at them,, 
 knew what they said was true, and went back to the pavilioiL 
 assigned to him, a voluntary prisoner. 
 
 A mass of books was about this time obtained for the 
 Emperor from the office of the Society for the Diffusion, 
 of Christian and General Knowledge in China. He had 
 already learnt to speak English fairly well, as his former 
 instructor, now Chinese Minister in England, told me ; 
 and he was full of the idea of qualifying himself better for 
 the great post which he still believed he was yet eventually 
 to hold. Since then, it has become almost a race question, 
 whether the Chinese Emperor is still competent to rule or not- 
 Frenchmen and Russians say he is abruti — un homme fini ; 
 whilst Englishmen, and yet more, Chinese, will tell you he 
 is a man of remarkable intelligence, not even sick, except 
 that he overtaxes his strength by studying and working too- 
 hard. Of all the newspaper correspondents who witnessed, 
 the return to Peking, it was reserved for a Japanese alone; 
 to see the Emperor in earnest and animated conversation 
 with the gentlemen of his suite. Whilst Roman Catholic- 
 missionaries say he has been so maltreated as henceforth to be- 
 incapable of anything, Protestant missionaries believe very 
 largely that he is almost, if not altogether, a Christian, and 
 
THE BOXEB OUTBREAK. 295 
 
 still hope great things of a man who, at all events, knows how 
 to keep sUent. 
 
 At this time the Empress wished to appoint Li to his 
 old post at Tientsin, but Yung Lu — hated of Kang-yi, the 
 man of many dislikes, as " a little boy who will soon be 
 glad to come home and play with his bow and arrows 
 again" — could not make up his mind to give up the com- 
 mand of the Peiyang land forces. Meanwhile, the ever- 
 increasing number of Chinese — not Manchu — memorials 
 deprecating the deposition of the Emperor, made the 
 Empress pause, although she stiU thought it well to get 
 rid of Li, for the time, by appointing him Investigating 
 Commissioner of Commercial Matters in the Treaty ports, 
 a novel and anomalous appointment. Li was only thankful 
 to get out of Peking. I remember vividly how people, who 
 met him at the time, spoke always of his almost boyish joy 
 at getting away ! 
 
 In December, 1899, he was made Viceroy of Canton. 
 Was this appointment made in view of something projected 
 at Peking, in order to hold the fierce Cantonese in check ? 
 for no one could keep a province in order so well as Li. 
 Or was it simply done to get him away ? For Li's European 
 friends all declare there would have been no Boxer rising 
 had Li remained at his old post as Viceroy of Chihli. 
 
 It was generally believed that before the Chinese New 
 Year, which comes a little later than ours, another coup was 
 to come off. Some months earlier the compilers of the 
 Imperial Almanac had been instructed to leave the name 
 of the Emperor blank for the present; the Imperial Com- 
 missioner of silk looms at Soo-chow had received orders to 
 make in all haste sixteen court robes similar to those worn 
 by the Emperor, and evidently not intended for the child, 
 Prince Tuan's son, whose imminent proclamation as heir- 
 apparent was being openly announced ; and at a certain 
 Council all high officials were ordered to come with their 
 sceptres as is only usual on the occasion of the proclama- 
 tion of an Emperor. There were, indeed, rumours of all 
 kinds, of which the most general was that Kwang-Hsu 
 
296 LI HUNG- OBANG. 
 
 "was to be made away with, and on January 24th, 1900, he 
 " was forced to sign his abdication." This is the account 
 given by a Chinese present : — 
 
 I was one of those who stood by with ink slab and pen for 
 the Emperor to use, while the Empress Dowager herself held out 
 the pen to him. Even then his Majesty hesitated to take it and 
 sign the already prepared " Imperial " decree of abdication held 
 out to him ; but an imperious stamp of the right foot and those 
 piercing, menacing eyes of the Empress Dowager frowning upon 
 him, seemed to enthral and fascinate the Emperor, who immediately 
 stretched forth a trembling hand, and the next moment, with 
 a groan and a gesture of despair, as it were, the fatal deed was 
 done, and the Empress Dowager had triumphantly snatched the 
 " Decree " from her nephew's hand. Then a sudden change oc- 
 curred, which those around her were too accustomed to see to 
 be startled or astonished at. The Empress Dowager's face became 
 instantly suiBfused with smiles, her eyes became soft and benevolent, 
 and she was all kindness and motherly solicitude for her Imperial 
 nephew ! He, poor fallen Majesty, had sunken down on his chair 
 after signing the fatal paper, while a sudden deadly paleness mani. 
 fested itself on his countenance, and a moment afterwards he had 
 dyed his robe and the carpet beneath him with his life's blood. 
 His Majesty's excitement had been too much for his weak health, 
 and it seemed that he had burst one of his lesser blood-vessels. 
 Very kindly and gently the Empress Dowager herself attended 
 to the Emperor, and, when he seemed to have somewhat recovered 
 himself, herself supporting him on one side, waving away the 
 eunuch who had come forward to do so, and with a surpassing 
 solicitude for his health and comfort, arranged the pillows and 
 cushions in the sedan chair which was to carry him back to his 
 usual prison — the water-surrounded kiosk at the Southern Lake 
 Palace, very near the Empress Dowager's own residence of Eho 
 Park. She herself escorted the Emperor to his place of retreat, and 
 having seen him securely confined within and the drawbridge once 
 more brought over, her face resumed that hard, inscrutable look 
 usual to it, as she and her numerous retinue returned to her 
 palace. All the way to his prison I heard the Emperor weeping. 
 
 In December, 1899, a circular despatch had been sent out 
 by Tze Hsi to all Viceroys and Governors of the Maritime and 
 
THE BOXES OUTBBEAK. 297 
 
 Yangtse Provinces. At the time it hardly read as if it could 
 be genuine. In the light of subsequent events, it seems 
 wonderfully explicit, and is quite worth carefully considering 
 •even now: 
 
 As the Italians have not had their ambitions gratified with 
 respect to the cession of Senmen Bay to them, it is apprehended that 
 they may try to seek opportunities for seizing other portions of our 
 coast. Moreover, the arbitrary and aggressive actions of the French 
 at Kuangchouwan [since then annexed by France], where they are 
 stirring up disturbances in order to obtain further pretexts for 
 demanding concessions from the Imperial Government, may lead to 
 actual hostilities between China and France. It behoves us, 
 therefore, to exercise the utmost vigilance and watchfulness to guard 
 against sudden aggression and to be always prepared to resist an 
 ■enemy. Your Excellency is, therefore, urged to enjoin all this upon 
 the Generals and Commanders of troops garrisoning important 
 points within your jurisdiction, and not only this, but to be prepared 
 also to give aid to your brother Viceroys and Governors whose 
 territories adjoin your own. It has been an evil practice among the 
 high provincial authorities to consider that the duty of any one of 
 "them lies only in guarding safely the region lying within his 
 ■own jurisdiction, ignoring the crisis that may be taking place in the 
 adjoining provinces, forgetting that, his neighbours being overcome, 
 his turn for overthrow becomes a near possibility. This lack of 
 union is lamentable, but it must not be continued from this date. 
 This YamSn has received the special commands of her Imperial 
 Majesty the Empress Dowager and H.I.M. the Emperor to grant you 
 full power and hberty to resist by force of arms all aggressions upon 
 your several jurisdictions, proclaiming a state of war, if necessary, 
 without first asking for instructions from Peking, for this loss 
 of time may be fatal to your security and may enable the enemy to 
 make good his footing against your forces. Finally, your Excellency 
 will be held responsible for any repetition of indecision or too great 
 trustfulness in the declarations of an encroaching enemy, such 
 as happened, for instance, to General Chang Kho-yuan in Shangtung. 
 (This General was in command of the Tsingtao forts when the 
 Oerman fleet seized Kiaochow Bay.) 
 
 Another secret Edict issued on her own initiative on 
 
298 LI SUNQ. CHANG. 
 
 November 21st, 1899, is almost more striking in its concludmg' 
 sentences : — 
 
 It is our special command, therefore, that should any high official 
 find himself so hard pressed by circumstances that nothing short of 
 a war would settle matters, he is expected to set himself resolutely to 
 work out his duty to the end. Or, perhaps, it would be that war ha» 
 already actually been declared ; under such circumstances, there 
 is no possible chance of the Imperial Government consenting to an 
 immediate conference for the restoration of peace. It behoves, 
 therefore, that our Viceroys, Governors and Commanders-in-Chief 
 throughout the whole Empire unite forces and act together 
 without distinction or particularising of jurisdiction, so as to presents 
 a combined front to the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their 
 officers and soldiers in person to fight for the preservation of their 
 homes and native soil from the encroaching footsteps of the foreign 
 aggressor. Never should the word peace fall from the mouths of our 
 high officials, nor should they ever allow it to rest for a moment 
 within their breasts. With such a country as ours, with her vast 
 area, stretching out several tens of thousands of miles, her immense 
 natural resources and her hundreds of millions of inhabitants, if only 
 each and all of you would prove his loyalty to his Emperor and his 
 love of country, what, indeed, is thereto fear from any invader? Let 
 no one think of making peace, but let each strive to preserve from 
 destruction and spoliation his ancestral home and graves from the 
 ruthless hands of the invader. Let these, our words, be made known 
 to each and all within our domains. 
 
 Therefore, when the Russian Government once again 
 formally offered to undertake the suppression of the 
 Boxer rebellion and the restoration of order in the North of 
 China, it is not unnatural that their offer was refused. 
 The Russians, it will be remembered, had previously 
 offered to repress the Taiping rebellion. They subsequently 
 saved Tientsin, Captaia Baily, R.N., in command there,, 
 " particularly desiring to make this known." They claim 
 also, and possibly with justice, that they saved Admiral 
 Seymour's column after it had started counter to their wishes 
 and contrary to their advice ; their Intelligence Departnient, 
 
TKIE BOXES OUTBBEAE. Sg^ 
 
 Tinlike our own, being perfectly well aware that the Imperial 
 Army and the Boxers were one body with one souL 
 
 It is not for me here to give an account of the terrible 
 massacres, the noble heroisms, the saintly martyrdoms of the 
 year 1900 in China — a year when so many of us forgot how 
 to smile ; for that I must refer the reader to the many 
 volumes already written on the subject, borrowing from the 
 Rev. Arthur Smith's " China in Convulsion " his description 
 of the Boxer method of initiation. It was, perhaps, a mis- 
 fortune that the name of the League of Righteous Harmony 
 was from the first Anglicised as Boxers — the word for League 
 also meaning Fist, and " Fists and Feet " being the Chinese 
 name for Boxing — for the use of this derisive name conduced 
 much towards the Society's growing without much notice 
 being taken of it. It began as a Sword Society in Shangtung, 
 Yu Hsien's Province. On account of Yu Hsien's marked 
 hostility to foreigners, the Germans objected to his presence 
 there as an official. Whereupon he was summoned to Peking^ 
 received " the character happiness or good-luck," written in 
 the Empress's own hand, and was appointed to Shansi, whick 
 ■was full of English missionaries. Well do I remember my thrill 
 of indignation on finding that the British Minister had offered 
 no opposition to this appointment, that the British Govern- 
 ment tolerated it. Evidently at home they had no thought 
 to spare for us. Yet, even at Tientsin, people played about 
 on their recreation ground while the Boxers were going 
 through their drill alongside, without ever pausing from their 
 play to notice what the others were doing, until they found 
 themselves fleeing before them to take refuge in the Gordon 
 Hall. 
 
 This is one form of Boxer drill : " With the two hands 
 fix the magic fingers, the feet upon a cross (marked on the 
 ground) facing east, read a certain charm three times, 
 touch the ground with head three times, again read the 
 same charm thrice in succession; in one hundred days 
 wUl practice be to perfection. Note. — Unless you desist 
 from meat, do not bathe, and truly preserve a respectful 
 heart while reading the above, it will be ineffectual — this is 
 
300 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 exceedingly important." And then again : " Bow once and 
 knock the head to the north-east — ^read the following once — 
 again three times and bow and knock head, shut the eyes, 
 stand on two feet together — use charm with thumb, saying 
 'Invite southern 0-mi-to Fu.' Do as before — use charm 
 with first finger, say ' Strike Heaven, the heaven gate opens, 
 strike Earth, the earth gate approaches. I desire to learn of 
 the Divine Boxers, and invite the Genie Teacher to come,' 
 follow with the Yuan Wu charm, one bow to the south and 
 read, once, one step one bow, one reading, another step then 
 bows, one reading, another step, shut eyes, two feet stand 
 together." 
 
 Ked Lantern girls were carried in front of the Boxers, who 
 believed they were invulnerable, and the Boxer Lord of 
 Wealth and Happiness issued the following manifesto, the 
 beginning of which recalls " Everyman," the oldest morality 
 play in Europe : — 
 
 The condition of the Yam^ns is unspeakable. In every market 
 and in every guild nothing can be done unless money is spent. The 
 officials must be bribed. Having forfeited their heaven-derived 
 disposition they are unreasonable and unregulated. They are all 
 alike— ill-gotten wealth is their one object. There is no one to 
 whom the aggrieved may appeal ; the simple multitudes are killed 
 with oppression, and their cry goes to Heaven itself and is heard 
 of God. Though spiritual beings and sages were sent down to 
 teach right principles, to issue good books, and to instruct the multi- 
 tude, few, alas ! heeded. Who is there that understands ? . . . Now 
 in anger the Heavenly powers are sending down multitudes of 
 spirits to earth to make inquiry of all, both high and low. The 
 Emperor himself, the chief oflFender, has had his succession cut off, 
 and is childless. The whole court, both civil and military, is in 
 an unspeakable condition. They indulge blindly in mere amuse- 
 ment, and disregard the cry of the widow, repenting of nothing and 
 learning nothing good. 
 
 Great calamities still have overtaken the nation. Foreign devils 
 come with their teaching, and converts to Christianity, Roman 
 Catholic and Protestant, have become numerous. These churches 
 are without human relations, but being most cunning have attracted 
 all the greedy and covetous as converts and to an unlimited degree 
 
TEE BOXEB OUTBREAK. 301 
 
 they have practised oppression, until every good official has been 
 corrupted, and, covetous of foreign wealth, has become their servant. 
 So telegraphs have been established, foreign rifles and guns have 
 been manufactured, and machine shops have been a delight to their 
 evil nature. Locomotives, balloons, electric lamps, the foreign, 
 devils think excellent. Though these foreigners ride in sedans, 
 unbefitting their rank, China yet regards them as barbarians of 
 whom God disapproves, and he is sending spirits and genii for their 
 destruction, the Light of the Red Lamp and the Volunteer Asso- 
 ciated Fists — the purpose of Heaven is fixed ; a clear sweep is to 
 be made. 
 
 Thus they, too, began as reformers. 
 
 The Yangtse Viceroys sent up a protest against the 
 crowning of a new Emperor; forty-six protests of the 
 kind came in, sometimes a dozen in a day, but the first was a 
 telegram headed with the name of Mr. King Lien-shan,. 
 the stone-deaf chief of the Telegraphs and founder of the 
 Girls' Schools in Shanghai. 
 
 "February 1th, 1900. 
 
 " Telegram to the Princes and Ministers of the Tsungli Yamen : 
 " When we received the Edict of the 24th inst, in which the 
 Emperor proposed to abdicate on account of illness, we 
 were amazed, and the mandarins, gentry and merchants from 
 all the provinces residing in Shanghai became full of anxiety 
 and discussed the matter everywhere in the streets. We 
 therefore wire to you to beg you to be loyal and faithful, and 
 on behalf of the nation to implore the Emperor not to think of 
 abdicating, though he should be unwell, so that the Empress 
 Dowager at her advanced age may not have the extra burden 
 of ruling a distracted Empire, and so that the spirits of our 
 ancestors may be at rest and the people live in peace." 
 
 This was signed by 1,231 officials and Literati, and must be 
 pronounced an exceedingly well worded telegram; but the 
 rage of the Empress, who had already despatched twenty- 
 six men to Hong Kong and elsewhere to capture Kan Yu-wei 
 or assassinate him on the spot, if more convenient, was 
 now such that the eunuchs and even the Prince of Li, 
 who brought the telegram, were simply terrified, and trembled 
 
302 LI SUNG- CHANG. 
 
 lest her anger should, fall on anyone present. " Who dare send 
 such a telegram ? " at last came her question. " Very well ! 
 we'll show them how we deal with traitors who cross our path." 
 Li Hung-chang was thereupon ordered to search heaven 
 and earth to find Mr. King, for almost at once the Telegraph 
 Manager had disappeared. Mr. King was ultimately discovered 
 at Macao, and lodged for safety by the Portuguese authorities 
 in a fortress prison, from which he did not emerge till the 
 <5lose of 1901. 
 
 I never knew whether I did not really owe my long inter- 
 view with Li, the only interview ever accorded by a 
 ■Chinese Viceroy to a foreign lady, in some measure to 
 this order ; for in the midst of a most animated and charming 
 conversation, the grand-looking old man leant across the table 
 •and looking me right in the eyes, said : " Mr. King Lien-shan 
 is a member of your Anti-footbinding Society ? " " No-o-o," 
 I replied, " warmly interested in the movement, I beheve, but 
 not a member of our society." " I am told he is quite a 
 leading member of it," shouted Li, almost putting his face into 
 ■mine. " Indeed, your Excellency has been wrongly informed. 
 All our committee and officials are foreigners. We are 
 particularly anxious to be identified with no poUtical party. 
 And, indeed, Mr. King has never even contributed one peimy to 
 our society." Then when the Viceroy had assured himself 
 that I did not know where Mr. King was, by perceiving, 
 I presume, no guilty tremor in my countenance, even 
 under such close inspection, the conversation continued 
 AS before ; and I have ever since maintained that the great 
 Viceroy Li was the most entertaining man I have ever talked 
 with. He asked me none of the rude questions for which he 
 is famous, but simply joked and laughed from the beginning 
 to the end of the interview. His sympathy with the 
 anti-footbinding movement, the ostensible subject of our 
 -conversation, did not, however, strike me as particularly warm. 
 
 At this time, it required two attendants to lift him out of 
 his chair in order to get him to his writing table ; the weakness 
 of his legs, as his son Lord Li informed me, being his 
 ■only infirmity. He certainly was a magnificent figure as 
 
TBE BOXES OUTBBEAE. 303 
 
 Tie received us — for, naturally, I did not go alone — his 
 long gown even adding to his height, his eyes still piercing, and 
 Tiis hearing evidently still quite acute; while his power of 
 repartee and badinage was something extraordinary for an old 
 man of any nationality, and yet more so when one considers 
 that conversation had to be carried on through interpreters. 
 
 My recollection of this interview has naturally somewhat 
 <3oloured all these pages, for as I write of him, I cannot 
 but recall the great Li's geniality, how absolutely natural and 
 unaffected he was, the good-natured, grumbHng tone ia which 
 Jie said, " No-o ! I don't like to hear httle children cry ; 
 but then, you see, I never do hear them." The indignation 
 with which he said, " I don't Uke to see bones, whether 
 they are Chinese women's bones or foreign women's," when I 
 presented him with a Rontgen Ray photograph of Chinese and 
 European women's feet — a speech his interpreters, under 
 the circumstances, thought too rude to translate. I was much 
 impressed, too, by the way in which he kept us both waiting, 
 and himself also, that my friend might herself take away 
 intact his gift to her hospital (as I have related 'in an earlier 
 chapter); by the haughty tone in which he said that all 
 the women of the Li family have always had their feet bound ; 
 and by the way in which his face softened as, looking back 
 across the years, he said : " My mother only let out her 
 feet when she was quite an old lady.'' 
 
 He must have been overwhelmed with business at the 
 time, and yet talked and laughed as if he had not a care. 
 Shortly before I saw him there had been another attempt 
 upon his life, but the explosion had occurred a little too soon, 
 just before he had entered a certain temple, and so this third 
 and last time he escaped imhurt. 
 
 In May a Shanghai paper published a letter from its 
 Chinese correspondent in Peking, who is believed to have 
 been killed afterwards during the siege. All of us in China 
 had the opportunity of reading it, but, of course, long 
 before that many of us had realised that a great many 
 people were going to be killed that summer in China. This, 
 however, is what we read :— 
 
304 LI SUNO - CHANG. 
 
 I write in all seriousness and sincerity to inform you that there 
 is a great secret scheme, having for its aim to crush all foreigner* 
 in China and wrest back the territories " leased " to them. The 
 chief leaders of this movement are the Empress Dowager, Prince 
 Ching, Prince Tuan (the heir apparent's father), Kang Ti, Chao 
 Shu-ch'iao, and Li Ping-heng. The forces to be used to achieve 
 this end are all Manchus — viz. the Peking Field Force (50,00(> 
 men), under Prince Ching ; the Hushung Corps or " Glorified 
 Tigers " (10,000 strong), under Prince Tuan ; and the various 
 banner corps of the Imperial Guards (aggregating 12,000 men), 
 under ^Kang Wi and others. These 72,000 men are to form the 
 nucleus of the " Army of Avengers," whilst the Boxers are to be 
 counted upon as Auxiliaries in the great fight that is more imminent 
 than foreigners in Peking or elsewhere dream. All Chinese of the 
 upper classes know this, and those who count foreigners amongst 
 their friends have warned them, but have to my own knowledge 
 been rather laughed at for their pains than thanked for feeling any 
 anxiety on their Western friends' behalf. May I be more fortunate 
 in warning you ! The foreign Ministers, I know, have protested to 
 the Tsungli Yam4n about the increase of the Boxer organisations in 
 the northern provinces, but dust has as usual been thrown into these 
 foreigners' eyes. Not only have the Boxers increased tenfold in 
 numbers since the beginning of the year in Shangtung and Chihli, but 
 even the Imperial Prefecture of Shuntien (Peking) and the three 
 north-eastern provinces (Manchuria) are now filled with the ramifi- 
 cations of this dangerous society. I will give this time only two 
 instances to show the high favour in which the Boxers stand in the 
 eyes of the Powers that be in Peking. 
 
 In the first place, a Censor named Wang, a native of Chihli, had 
 recently an audience of the Empress Dowager. The subject of the 
 Boxers having come up, the Empress Dowager said to the Censor, 
 " You are a native of this province, and so ought to know. What 
 do you think of the Boxers in Chihli i Do you think that when the 
 time comes for action they will really join the troops in fighting the 
 foreign ' devils "i" " I am certain of it, your Majesty. Moreover, 
 tenets taught the members of the society are, ' protect to the death 
 the Heavenly dynasty and death to the devils.' For your servant's 
 own part, so deeply do I believe in the destiny of the society 
 to crush the ' devils ' that young and old of your servant's family are 
 now practising the incantations of the Boxers, everyone of us having 
 
THE BOXEB OUTBREAK. 305 
 
 joined the society, to protect the Heavenly dynasty and drive the 
 foreign devils into the sea.' Had I the power given me I would 
 willingly lead the Boxers in the van of the avenging army when the 
 time comes, and before that time do all I can to assist them in 
 organising an army." The Empress Dowager nodded her head in 
 approval, and, after ruminating in her mind, cried, " Ay ! It is 
 a grand society ! But I am afraid that, having no experienced men 
 at their head just now, these Boxers will act rashly and get the 
 Government into trouble with these ' Wang-kuei-tse ' (foreign 
 devils) before everything is ready." Then, after another pause> 
 " That's it. These Boxers must have some responsible men in 
 Chihli and Shantung to guide their conduct ; " and the audience 
 then ended. 
 
 The next morning a Decree was issued naming this Censor, 
 Wang, Governor of Peking. That is to say, a sixth grade official 
 was by a stroke of the pen raised to a fourth grade metropolitan 
 post — a sub-prefect to a provincial judgeship ! Wang will, there- 
 fore, have the opportunity he wishes — namely, to organise, advise, 
 and arm his friends the Boxers. 
 
 The second instance I give to show the light in which foreigners 
 are held just now is this. Since the Tientsin massacre of 1870, a 
 ban had been placed by the officials — all except the most bigoted 
 amongst the Conservatives — upon the term " Wang-kuei-tse " 
 (foreign devils) ; men having been bambooed for using it, when 
 found out by the officials. But here we find that not only is this 
 term embodied in the war cry of the Boxers, but it has received 
 official sanction from the lips of the Empress Dowager herself. 
 
 As for Yung Lu, he has kept quiet so far, and, indeed, is credited 
 with having decided to stand by the Emperor should anything 
 happen to the machinations of Princes Tuan and Ching, Kang Yi 
 and Chao Shu-ch'iao, in Peking, and Li Ping-heng in the provinces- 
 He is, at heart, a friend of the English. This I know. At a 
 session not long ago of the Grand Council, when the question of 
 the demands of Italy and France for territory in the South was 
 discussed, Yung Lu alone advised the Government to throw itself 
 upon Great Britain for protection, arguing that the United States 
 and Japan would help Great Britain if Bussia and France threatened 
 reprisals. But he was overruled by Prince Ching, Prince Tuan, Kang 
 Yi, and Chao Shu-ch'iao. "For," said Kang Yi, "we have scores to 
 settle with Great Britain for the sake of the Yuen-Ming- Yuen Palace j 
 
 V 
 
306 LI HUNG - CSANG. 
 
 with Japan for the seizure of Formosa ; and with the United States 
 for treating the Chinese who go there and to the Philippines no 
 better than dogs. Against Russia we have nothing. Whilst if 
 France helps Russia, although we have deep grudges against France, 
 we shall only be so much the stronger. I decide for keeping in the 
 closest friendship with Russia, for with her by us we can defy the 
 world. With Russia alone ready to help us, Great Britain will cower 
 into the background." These sentiments being unanimously received 
 with approbation by the rest of the Council, including the Empress 
 Dowager, who nodded approval vigorously, Yung Lu became silent 
 and said nothing more. 
 
 This, however, shows the defiant mood of the present Govern- 
 ment, and foreigners would do well to ponder over this. In the 
 meanwhile, the Boxers are daily waxing more powerful and 
 numerous, and are spreading in the east, west, and south of Chihli. 
 You wiU soon find the people of the South just as restless and hostile 
 to the foreigners as has been the case with Chihli and Shantung for 
 the past eight months or so. 
 
 Yet the Legations remained incredulous, and no steps 
 were taken to protect the unhappy Europeans and Americans, 
 scattered about in remote parts of China. 
 
 Suddenly thirty railway engineers were fighting their way 
 in from Paoting Fu, like heroes ; closing round, and at the 
 last carrying, their women, for three days fighting aU the day. 
 The Belgians all arrived together, a wounded, worn-out, 
 miserable company ; a Greek and an Italian wandered in the 
 day after, unable to give any account of themselves, so much 
 had they suffered ; and of six others of varied nationalities, 
 including one woman too, we only know they died somehow. 
 
 That may be called the beginning of it all, when the 
 railway men had to fly for their lives. The next thing was 
 the tearing up of the raUs on the way to Peking ; and then for 
 foreigners all communication ceased between them and the 
 rest of the world. Of people happening to be visiting there, 
 some left one day, as it happened ; others who, as it happened, 
 did not, never left at all. Even yet no steps had been taken 
 to protect the unhappy English and Americans and Swedes 
 scattered throughout Shansi, where Yu Hsien was Governor ■ 
 
THE BOXES OUTBBEAK. 307 
 
 they were left as sheep for the slaughter, under the care 
 of Yu Hsien, who had them brought into his own official 
 residence, and then hewn down on July 9 th, 1900. After 
 that Yu Hsien wrote to his Empress, boasting of what he 
 had done to fulfil her will ; for the old Edict, that had been 
 issued once before in Chinese history, was out again, " Ex- 
 terminate aU foreigners, and if they attempt to return to the 
 sea exterminate them at once." 
 
 It is well to finish the story of Yu Hsien's career here. 
 According to a Belgian priest of the district, whilst Prince 
 Tuan and General Tung Fu-hsiang were still hanging about 
 at Li-Ngan-Fu, the Empress only pretending to punish them, 
 Yu Hsien alone, so far, had been put to death. Condemned 
 like them to banishment, aU went well with him till he 
 arrived at the Capital of Kansuh, where the Governor Li, 
 one of his accomplices in the massacre at Tai-Yuen-fu, 
 marched out all the troops to meet him, giving him a grand 
 sedan chair, and a triumphal entry, while the people saluted 
 him as the defender of his country. Then the Empress re- 
 ceived from the Powers a demand that had to be complied 
 with, and the death sentence was telegraphed. The Governor 
 put off the matter on the plea of its being the Chinese 
 New Year season, when no official business was done, and 
 besought Yu Hsien to commit suicide, but the latter refused, 
 saying, " If I must die, it shall be at your hands, and then 
 the people wiU avenge me." Then the Governor, unable to 
 bring himself to kUl his old chief, committed suicide, and 
 Yu Hsien found partisans, who, excited by the sudden death 
 of the Governor, went about shouting, "Death to the 
 Europeans," whilst all the walls were covered with placards 
 calling for a rescue. To prevent an uprising it was decided 
 to execute Yu Hsien at once. He was busy writing letters, 
 which he was allowed to finish, himself giving permission to 
 one of his wives to survive him in order to rear their 
 children. The two others were forced to swallow opium, one 
 dying quickly, but the other in such convulsions that Yu 
 Hsien himself is said to have finished her with a thrust from 
 his dagger, after which he continued writing to his mother 
 
308 II HUNG • CHANO. 
 
 and friends. At daybreak, February 22nd, 1901, he was still 
 writing. At last he was told he must come forth. Being 
 a high-class official he could not be beheaded by the common 
 executioner. A military commander was charged with the 
 deed; the moment Yu Hsien set foot in the street he was 
 ordered to kneel and bow his forehead to the ground. As he 
 raised it, the sword was to fall But the sword only got 
 buried deep in his neck, on which he raised his bleeding head, 
 faltering out, " It has missed " ; one of his own servants then 
 despatched Yu Hsien with his own knife, cutting his throat. 
 So ended the murderer of two bishops, and of a number of 
 Roman Catholic priests and nuns ; as well as of Protestants, 
 men, women, and children, fifty in all, in his own residence ; 
 not to speak of all those slaughtered throughout the province 
 by his orders in compliance with the Empress's instructions. 
 
 The Peking Syndicate men forced their way out of Shansi 
 heavily guarded, and themselves guarding a certain number 
 of others, who escaped with them ; yet they knew how much 
 more critical their precipitate flight made the position for 
 those who yet remained behind. Thus began the great flight. 
 From the Yangtse VaUey, from far away Yunnan round by 
 Tonquin, and Hong Kong, from the Tibetan border, from 
 Kansuh and from Shansi and Szechuan we all got in alive. 
 For happily the West did not rise ; the Viceroy of Szechuan 
 determined after many vacillations to throw in his lot with 
 the Yangtse Viceroys, who, realising that whatever Russia 
 might do in the North would only leave that region the more 
 defenceless before Great Britain, determined to treat her as 
 an ally, and themselves to keep the peace. And they did so 
 with a combination of statecraft and firmness that cannot 
 but move us to admiration. They were Chinese Viceroys, 
 loyal to China ! their fear, of course, being lest Great Britain 
 should at once seize the Yangtse as a set oif to Russia's 
 getting Manchuria as per agreement. 
 
 As the uprising began with the attack upon the railway 
 men, so one of the last victims was Lieutenant Watts Jones, 
 R.E., on an exploring expedition in the West of China. 
 He was murdered at a Shansi border town ; but in between 
 
TBE BOXEB OUTBBEAK. 309 
 
 there had been a little army of missionaries killed, and 
 thousands upon thousands of Chinese Christians, so that this 
 may rank as the greatest Christian persecution since the 
 early days of the Christian Era. And through it all Tze Hsi 
 sat in her beautiful Eho Palace with the incomparable 
 wood carvings — burnt, alas! afterwards during Waldersee's 
 occupation — with the gorgeous dragon-pattern yellow carpet, 
 and the dragon-embroidered yellow cushions. There she 
 dwelt at ease, the Emperor still always imprisoned on 
 his fairylike island. And yet some people still try to make 
 out that it was by Prince Tuan's orders that all was done, and 
 that the Empress herself was not responsible. We shall see 
 later how Li, with his strong common sense, dealt with this 
 fiction. But there are Europeans who yet try to get others to 
 accept it. Li Hung-chang would not even attempt to do so. 
 
310 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PEACE AND DEATH (1900-1901). 
 
 All this time people wondered what Li was thinking of the 
 whole affair, as he kept order — and he did keep order 
 — amongst the turbulent Cantonese. LJ, who had been 
 commissioned to hunt down the Reform party one by one, had 
 been busy with the arrest of Mr. King, and in connection 
 therewith, as it is believed, had had conferred upon him 
 the privilege of wearing the Imperial five-clawed Dragon, 
 an oiEcial " square " worn on the chest and back, the only 
 difference between his and the Emperor's being that the 
 latter wears his in a circular plaque. 
 
 I have been unable to find any special record as to 
 a memorial frona him with regard to the deposition of 
 the Emperor on the elevation of the son of Prince Tuan 
 to be heir, not to Kwang-Hsii, but to his predecessor, 
 Tuang-Chih. 
 
 What he was thinking about other people's affairs 
 we know from the story of a United States officer from 
 the Philippines, who visited him, and asked his opinion on 
 the occupation of those islands. The old Viceroy blamed the 
 States severely for forsaking their traditional policy, assuring 
 the officer that, had Grant lived, the country would never 
 have entered upon a policy that he (Li) prophesied would 
 be disastrous to them. When asked if China would object to 
 America enlisting several regiments of Chinese mercenaries 
 to fight the Filipinos, Li replied that China would not object 
 if they were enlisted in the Philippines, and with the know- 
 ledge and consent of the Chinese Consul there. But he said 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 311 
 
 in conclusion: "You had much better sell the islands to Japan 
 for the sum you paid Spain for them, and then clear off home 
 and attend to your own business," and then suggested if that 
 course were not pursued, the next best plan would be to buy 
 Aguinaldo out. We always know so well how to manage other 
 people's affairs ! 
 
 Suddenly, Li announced that he had been summoned to 
 Peking. In June, he said that he should not go unless 
 ordered again by Imperial Decree, for he had telegraphed 
 four times to Peking through the Governor of Shantung ; 
 if his advice were urgently needed, he felt sure that he 
 should get another order within the week. On the 21st, the 
 Viceroy of Chihli had telegraphed to Li, asking for additional 
 troops, and saying he could only hold out four or five days 
 at the most. 
 
 Meantime, all the authorities in Canton were beseeching 
 hrm to remain there and protect them ; to whom Li replied 
 that, considering the present difficulties in the North, he 
 was bound to protect the dominions of his Sovereign and 
 to act for the good of the people, while he had already 
 made arrangements for the peace of Canton. But he 
 added what sounded simply like idle tales to European ears 
 — that he had been receiving several telegrams every day 
 about the fight between the foreign soldiers and the Boxers, 
 which was causing great alarm at the capital and in the 
 Imperial Palace. This made Europeans in China exceedingly 
 indignant, for at this moment it was the belief of the 
 Europeans that Peking was completely cut ofi" from all 
 communication with the outside world. Intense excitement 
 prevailed, as the whole Diplomatic Corps was understood then 
 to have been massacred, together with all other Europeans in 
 the capital, and it was thought that Li, by these statements, 
 was trying to impose upon the world — for which the world 
 certainly then was in no humour. 
 
 Then appeared one of the characteristic declarations which 
 remind us that the Chinese are still in the period of Sir Charles 
 Grandison, when people in England wrote verses and always 
 fainted upon critical occasions. " Being at so great a distance 
 
31 2 LI HUNCf - CHANG. 
 
 Li Hung-chang wishes from the depths of his heart that he 
 could fly to Peking for the deliverance of the Imperial 
 Government; but he cannot. His heart is burning with 
 so strong a desire that he has no time to eat and sleep. 
 Knowing as he does the difficulties of the journey and 
 the stretches of mountains and water between, and aware that 
 by going alone so great a distance he cannot by himself be of 
 any help to his country, still, when he thinks that his Imperial 
 Majesty is in imminent danger, he must perforce proceed with 
 all possible speed to show even a little spark of loyal feeling. 
 Though a poor old man at the age of eighty, he does not mind 
 any trouble or risk if he can stand by his country and face the 
 danger." 
 
 This expression of sentiment, however, was quite com- 
 patible with a very sensible memorial to the Throne from 
 Li, stating that his efforts as a peacemaker can have no 
 success until the Throne really devotes its energies to the 
 repression of the Boxers, the release of the Ministers, the 
 protection of the Christians throughout China, and the 
 suppression of Li Ping-heng. 
 
 At this time, Li was interviewed in writing by some home 
 paper, and asked if he thought an amicable settlement in the 
 North could be arranged, and on whom he would chiefly rely 
 to bring it about Li's answer to a question somewhat absurd 
 under the circumstances was simply, " An amicable settlement 
 is impossible." Asked if he would still proceed to Peking, he 
 gave the evasive reply that the heat affected him very much, 
 and delayed his journey. This and the affecting passage about 
 "the stretches of mountains and water" are a little in- 
 consistent with the fact that he had nothing to do but to get 
 on a steamboat and enjoy a pleasant week's voyage as far 
 as Taku. But, of course, at that time there were many 
 difficulties and dangers of another kind for a Chinese Viceroy. 
 He could not give it as his opinion, but affirmed as a fact 
 to his interviewer that the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, 
 and the Legations were safe. 
 
 People were already talking as if there were no sovereign in 
 China, hoping that Li would be asked to show his credentials. 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 313 
 
 and saying the only Government foreign Powers recognised 
 "was that of the Yangtse Viceroys. But it seems clear that no 
 Chinese ever looked upon the matter in this light; nor is 
 there any reason to believe that telegraphic communication 
 with Peking, by other somewhat more circuitous routes 
 than the direct one to Tientsin, was ever for one day even 
 interrupted. Tze Hsi was still alive, and it is probable that 
 there was much more frequent communication with her than 
 has ever been acknowledged. That she was to a certain extent 
 acting under influence is, of course, also highly probable, 
 indeed certain. It is curious that during all this period, 
 Li Lien-ying, her favourite pseudo-eunuch, was reported dead ; 
 and a full account was given in the papers of his obsequies 
 and the enormous fortune he had left behind him. Possibly 
 he had been to some extent supplanted by the man whom 
 the Empress had transformed at one bound from a petty 
 official into the Governor of Peking, because he said he 
 had taken care that every member of his household was a 
 Boxer. Prince Tuan also, father of the thoroughly unsatisfac- 
 tory heir apparent, who has since been set aside at the request 
 of the Powers, was never a person easy to manage, aU 
 accounts agreeing that he was a man of both most vicious 
 and most violent character. It is indeed alleged that he 
 was not a Prince at all, but the son of a nurse, passed off 
 by her mistress as her own, and with all the low tastes and 
 coarse ways of a bad man of the coohe class. 
 
 On July 25th, Li Hung-chang ordered the Black Flag 
 leader to march ten thousand of his men overland to Peking, 
 and it was also said that he had given military commissions 
 to several pirate chiefs, a common practice in China; but 
 when he left, the Black Flag leader refused to begin his march 
 unless he had twenty thousand men at his disposal ; and when 
 they in the end started, they spread terror and distress 
 along their line of march. Li, meanwhile, having, as he 
 said, received an Edict appointing him Viceroy of Chihli — his 
 old post — left for Hong Kong, where Sir Harry Blake, the 
 Governor, strongly urged him to go back, advising him 
 
314 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 to remain true to the agreement with the other Yangtse 
 Viceroys, each to preserve order in his own province. 
 
 Then comes a very pitiful time in Li's career. Arrived in 
 Shanghai, at first no one would recognise him or visit him. No 
 one would believe in his new appointment ; people simply 
 regarded him as the Viceroy of Canton, absent without leave, 
 and come to Shanghai for the express purpose of getting some 
 advantage out of embroiling the foreign Powers with one 
 another. For the sake of society, or to keep himself in view, 
 the old man used to have an armchair placed on the sidewalk 
 of the Bubbling Well Road, the fashionable Shanghai drive, 
 and there, with his suite standing round him, talk to any 
 passer-by who cared thus to make acquaintance with him. A 
 young Lieutenant of Marines, amongst others, did so, and 
 obtained leave to visit him at his house and photograph him. 
 Gradually, however, first one Consul-General, then another, 
 visited Li, at first very privately, and then more openly, the 
 British Consul-General alone refusing up to the last. 
 
 In August appeared the following Edict, said to have been 
 issued on August 7th : — 
 
 The present complications between this Empire and foreign 
 countries have been caused by certain mistakes made by the various 
 combatants. Nor can we ever aver that our local authorities have 
 been free from blame in the administration of their duties, and, in 
 consequence, mutual hostilities have arisen, endangering our friendly 
 relations with the Powers. This cannot be favourable for the pros- 
 perity of the whole world. We, therefore, hereby appoint Li Hung- 
 chang Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the foreign Powers; 
 and he is empowered to confer by telegraph with the Foreign OflBces 
 thereof for the stopping of further hostilities, after which an approach 
 towards peaceful negotiations can be made. Whatever arrangements 
 towards this end may be made, Li Hung-chang is to memorialise us 
 £|,nd ask for ratification. 
 
 It will be observed that he was not instructed to treat with 
 the duly appointed representatives of those Powers still shut 
 up in Peking, and " stormed at with shot and shell " oy order 
 of the same Government that appointed him. 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 316 
 
 The Viceroy, in the first instance, telegraphed for a steamer 
 of his own Chinese Merchant Company, as also for a 
 bodyguard of two hundred men. As soon as the Chinese in 
 the North heard this, they said : " The Western nations are 
 now anxious for peace, and have asked Li Hung-chang to act 
 as mediator. He has arranged that they shall bear the 
 entire military expenses of China for fifteen years. Tung 
 Fu-hsiang, though, is not willing, and demands in addition 
 the expulsion of all foreigners." 
 
 Another result of Li's arrival at Shanghai was that 
 all manner of intrigues began, and on August 15th, the 
 Viceroys, including Li Hung-chang, appealed to the good 
 offices of the United States to prevent British troops from 
 landing in Shanghai. Up till then, there had been no idea of 
 making a difficulty about this step — afterwards considered so 
 necessary for the protection of foreigners, that not only British 
 troops landed there, but French and German troops also, and 
 in the familiar language of the story of the three bears, " there 
 they are still" 
 
 It was, however, from the safe distance of Li Ngan-fu, in 
 famine-striken Shansi, that Li received a communication, 
 purporting to come from the Empress Dowager, and seeking to 
 make out that she had had nothing to do with the attack upon 
 the Legations ; a communication so extraordinary that Li, who 
 was always a man of the world, saw there was nothing to 
 be done but to repudiate it. He telegraphed to Yuanshih-Nia, 
 then Governor of Shantung: "I find, in reference to the 
 Secret Edict, that all the telegrams I have received from the 
 various Foreign Offices, as well as what I have read in 
 the foreign newspapers concerning what happened to the 
 various Legations in Peking, do not at all agree with what is 
 said therein. I therefore consider, under the circumstances, 
 that it will be most difficult to open and complete negotia- 
 tions on that line. I memorialised yesterday, asking for the 
 appointment of Prince Ching, Yung Lu, and the Viceroys 
 Liu K'un-yi and Shang Chih-tung as colleagues to bring about 
 peace negotiations ; and that our Ministers in foreign countries 
 be commanded to explain, in a friendly and suave manner, 
 
316 £1 HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 matters to the various Offices. As for the command that 
 I should appeal to the various Consuls-General of Shanghai, I 
 must say that, with the exception of certain Consuls who have 
 called upon me, the rest have not done so, and seem to 
 entertain other opinions. Those whom I have seen and asked 
 to telegraph to their home Governments replied that they 
 had no authority to negotiate for peace here. But I intend, 
 as soon as matters clear up for the better, to take steamer 
 to Tientsin and Peking, where opportunities may be seized 
 to open negotiations in company with my colleagues." 
 
 On September 12th Li Hung-chang formally notified the 
 Powers that, if not accepted as plenary peacemaker, he would 
 go to Tientsin and take up his duties as Viceroy of ChihU. 
 But before that the old man's courage for once failed him, and 
 with his baggage already packed, he appUed to the Throne 
 for twenty days' sick leave, having apprehensions that he him- 
 self, the Yangtse Viceroys and his old protdge Shang, were 
 all about to be denounced by the redoubtable Li Ping-heng 
 on the charge of being friendly to foreigners. At last on 
 September 18th, in a British steamer, he arrived at Taku 
 unescorted. He had previously accepted the proffered escort 
 of a Kussian man-of-war, but Admiral Sir Edward Sejnuour 
 pointed out to the Russian authorities that the vessel would be 
 sufficiently protected by her British flag, and the intention to 
 escort her was dropped. There was difficulty even then about 
 Li's landing; the commanders of the naval forces made 
 objections, and he had to go through an undignified ordeal. 
 
 Eventually, Li got up to Tientsin together with his suite, 
 and was quartered not far from his old YamSn, in the Russian 
 sphere of influence, and guarded by a detachment of Russians. 
 He kept very quiet at first, and there was no talk even then of 
 his going to Peking. None of the Powers — unless Russia 
 — seemed inclined to listen to him ; indeed, he was regarded 
 with suspicion by all. 
 
 It was just about then that the dreaded Li Ping-heng was 
 deputed to command a large force posted on the river banks, 
 to oppose the advance of the Allied troops. As soon, however, 
 as he heard the enemy coming, he stripped himself of 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 317 
 
 his official robes and ran faster than any frightened 
 coolie; and in less than half an hour the whole army 
 had disappeared. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Empress had fled from 
 Peking on August 15th, the day after the Allied Troops had 
 entered ; having first put to death — not any foreigners, 
 but — the Chinese President of the Board of War, and two 
 Manchus, one the Vice-President of the Board of Revenue, 
 and the other a Minister of the Tsungli Yamen ; also the 
 unhappy concubine Cheng Fu, who had been confined in 
 a Palace dungeon where the light of day never penetrated, 
 ever since the coup d'dtat of 1898. Now, before the flight 
 of August 15th, 1900, she is said to have been thrown alive 
 into a well by order of Tze Hsi, who personally superintended 
 the deed ; ordering her eunuchs to throw large stones in 
 immediately afterwards, "in order to preclude any chance 
 of her enemy's returning to life again." The other favourite 
 Imperial concubine, Ch'ing Fei, was murdered at the same 
 time, it is said. So many people were crushed to death 
 during the Imperial flight that a Tartar dignitary said after- 
 wards, " more people were killed by our troops in making 
 a passage through the north-west gate for the escape of the 
 Empress Dowager than suflered death at the hands of the 
 Allied Troops. The cortege of the Empress travelled on the 
 mangled corpses of those slain to let her pass"; adding, 
 " Foreigners have captured our capital, and occupied it 
 without atrocity or revenge. They are not barbarians after 
 all. Why, they have not burned the city and massacred the 
 people, as we ourselves should have done under similar 
 circumstances. If we had captured the Legations, do you 
 think we should have allowed anyone to remain alive, or 
 left one stone upon another ? " 
 
 In the end Li moved on to Peking in the course of 
 September. He was in a very anomalous position. Whilst 
 in Tientsin he was issuing proclamations which foreigners 
 thought he ought not to do without the approval of Graf 
 von Waldersee, the Commander-in-Chief When, on October 
 24th, Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang, made co-plenipoten- 
 
318 ZI SUNG - CHANG. 
 
 tiaries, offered an indemnity and new commercial advantages 
 whilst proposing a cessation of hostilities, M. Pichon, the 
 French Minister, replied on his o-vvn initiative that hostilities 
 would cease when the heads of the principal culprits had 
 fallen; without apparently consulting Graf von Waldersee 
 who was at the same time sending an ultimatum to the 
 Imperial Court ; whilst it was becoming increasingly evident 
 that Kussia intended to shield all Chinese culprits, meanwhile 
 doing her utmost to get all the Ministers to leave Peking 
 en masse. 
 
 The Russian Legation, indeed, withdrew to Tientsin ; an 
 English Secretary of Legation piquing himself on having 
 said at the time " not adieux but au revoir in Peking," for 
 they presently returned. They always persistently shielded 
 the Chinese criminals who had not specially sinned against 
 Russia; perhaps they thought they had more than got 
 compensation by their wholesale massacres along the Amur, 
 and they certainly hoped to get more in the shape of 
 Manchuria — and other things ; already, as is understood, 
 promised by Li. 
 
 Li's position was a very difficult one, and it is charac- 
 teristic of the Chinese generally, rather than of Li in 
 particular that we find him on one occasion stating, " The 
 Powers are now craving permission to retire from Peking." 
 After all, this was very little more of a distortion of the 
 truth than the German papers indulged in when they 
 heard that Great Britain had arranged for an unconditional 
 surrender on the part of the Transvaal. 
 
 We find the Shanghai papers forcibly commenting on the 
 absence of any reference to the restoration of H.M. Kwang 
 Hsii and the retirement from power of the Empress Dowager : 
 " If this is not an outcome of the present situation all labours 
 of the Allies are thrown away." The Chinese Minister inter- 
 viewed abroad was reported to have said : " Instead of losing 
 their strength and their time in military or diplomatic 
 skirmishes, let them bring back the Emperor to Pekinc 
 with or without his consent, and deliver him for ever from 
 the disastrous influence of the Empress. The day that my 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 319 
 
 master, dethroned for his attempt at reform, becomes free 
 and independent, Europe -will find its loyal auxiliary and 
 its most certain guarantee." 
 
 One of the most esteemed and sagacious of British 
 Consuls in China relating a conversation of his with Chang 
 Chih-tung says, " I interposed that the retention of power 
 by her Majesty appeared to be hardly open to discussion, 
 since public opinion in Europe held strongly that she had 
 fostered the Boxer movement, and had grasped power from 
 the unwilling Emperor." This view the Chinese Secretary 
 combated with vehemence ; asserting that her Majesty 
 resumed power only to reheve the Emperor, who found him- 
 self unequal to the burden, and that the position was thus 
 quite constitutional. He confessed that her Majesty had 
 thought the Boxers would constitute a species of "jLandwehr " 
 against invasion, but denied that at that time they had 
 announced any hostihty to foreigners or missions. The 
 Consul further reports, " I rejoined that I did not suppose 
 that a cell with a sentry at the door was within the bounds 
 of likehhood. This declaration seemed to reheve him." 
 This was what the Chinese nation naturally anticipated at 
 the time — if indeed the foreigners would stop short of de- 
 capitation — and it is evidently what Tze Hsi herself dreaded, 
 while she lingered at Li Ngan-fu. 
 
 Foreign intervention at that time in favour of the legi- 
 timate Emperor would have helped the Chinese of solid merit 
 to stand up against their oppressors, and might have brought 
 to an end the system of cruelty and injustice, tempered by 
 rebellion, that had been the state of the country for so long. 
 
 But when Tze Hsi dethroned the nephew, and had herself 
 set upon the throne, the diplomatic corps had not only 
 abstained from helping the Emperor to whom they were 
 accredited, but began immediately to pay open court to Tze 
 Hsi ; sending their wives, for the first time in history, to visit 
 the usurping Empress; and now they continued to throw 
 all their weight into the scale of Tze Hsi, whilst at the same 
 time, curiously enough, England was protecting at all costs 
 the Reform leaders she was bent on hunting down. 
 
320 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 It is obvious that just as Russia had before selected Li 
 Hung-chang to be a special envoy thither, because he had 
 got into such a position that he had no other help to rely 
 upon, so it was now Russia's interest to uphold the discredited 
 ex-concubine who had brought China to the lowest depths 
 of infamy, as well as disgrace ; first in the war with Japan, 
 and now by her fostering of the so-called Boxers, and attack 
 upon the Legations accredited to her Sovereign. France 
 naturally sided with Russia. Germany may have had induce- 
 ments to do likewise ; whilst Great Britain, as we all know, 
 was occupied in the Transvaal. Sometimes one thinks that 
 if the Home Government would but have concentrated it- 
 self on that, and given a freer hand to England's diplomatists 
 on the spot, they might, unhampered, have achieved much 
 better results for England's credit than those we now sadly 
 contemplate. 
 
 It must certainly have been Li's doing that in January he 
 and Prince Ching were severally memorialising the Empress 
 that if she did not return to Peking, matters would take a 
 turn for the worse for the Empire and the Court ; a warning 
 which she was besought carefully to observe. 
 
 In February, 1901, we hear of Li as ill, forgetting he is 
 an old man, and rushing at his duties with the vehemence 
 of youth. In November he had been nominally handed over to 
 the Board of Punishments on account of the loss of Paoting 
 Fu ; which is enough to make anyone's brain reel, for to 
 whom was Paoting Fu lost and by whom captured ? It may 
 be remembered that one of the most wholesale massacres had 
 been at Paoting Fu, where the Allied Forces, in consequence, 
 subsequently took down the topmost corner-stone of the wall ; 
 this being one of the greatest insults that can be done to 
 a fortified city in China. Li complained now that he was 
 heavily handicapped because he could not send telegrams 
 in cipher to the Court. Next we hear that his despatches 
 have been stolen en route. This was because he had con- 
 sented to terms, which the recalcitrant Court refused to 
 ratify, and he felt unable to communicate their refusal ; and 
 thus, according to Chinese fashion, " saved his face " by saying 
 
PEACE ANB DEATH. 32l 
 
 that the despatches had been stolen. On March 25th he sent 
 a most characteristic telegram : " If yom" Majesty do not ratify 
 the Agreement, Russia will remain and take possession of 
 Manchuria for ever, and other countries will follow suit. If 
 your Majesty will ratify it, Russia promises to return all 
 Manchuria to China, and this will prevent further protests 
 from the foreign Powers." It was certainly a hard position 
 for a man of sense, with a foreign enemy not exactly tapping 
 his wires, but openly reading the telegrams that passed over 
 them, and with the pleasure-loving old lady at the other end 
 of the wire surrounded by his own Chinese rivals. 
 
 Three large theatrical troupes . had followed the Court 
 from Peking to Si Ngan-fu, and were playing almost 
 daily before the Empress Dowager inside the improvised 
 Imperial Palace, and giving daily performances before the 
 Ministers and officials there. Meanwhile the people wero 
 dying of starvation, paying high prices even for human flesh, 
 a picul of rice costing 18,000 cash and a cup of water five cash ; 
 yet an official just returned from Si Ngan-fu reported 
 the Empress Dowager as looking well and self-satisfied, 
 appearing more like a well-preserved woman of forty than one 
 a quarter of a century older. The Emperor, on the contrary, 
 looked worn and unhappy, anxiety and sorrow being 
 clearly written on his countenance. Still one of the most 
 pathetic figures in history, Kwang-Hsii is called Emperor 
 of China. 
 
 In May Li was buying a large house in Peking for the 
 reception of his family, whom he had sent for from Ho-fei 
 It has been estimated that forty-one languages were at 
 this time being talked in the streets of Peking, which had 
 been renamed, and were lighted after a fashion, policed 
 and cleaned. A Chinese newspaper said that one of the Allied 
 Powers at Peking were pressing a number of natives to do 
 work of this kind for them; and among the pressed there 
 were a former acting Vice-President of one of the six Boards, 
 and a recently appointed Secretary of the Grand Secretariat. 
 
 In June some of the foreign Ministers in an interview 
 suggested to Li Hung-chang that when foreign Ministers 
 
322 II KVNa - GSANG. 
 
 went to the Palace for audience, they, should be provided with 
 Imperial sedan chairs. Li, of course, immediately replied that 
 there had never been any precedent for this. "Well," was the 
 reply, " when your Excellency visited Europe, you went about 
 in royal carriages, didn't you ? Why shouldn't we, then, use 
 your Imperial sedan chairs ? " Li became silent at once. He 
 had always been of a character to acquiesce in the inevitable. 
 This is, indeed, the case with the whole Chinese nation. 
 They will oppose innovation tooth and naiL Once introduced 
 they say no more about it. In what other country would 
 so many people have committed suicide ? In Peking, they 
 killed themselves in whole families when the Allies marched 
 in ; so that, in one stately dwelling-house, a young Englishman, 
 charged with scavenging duties, was shocked to find everyone 
 dead but one old man — most of them hanging from the beams 
 of the house. " But you must not do this. We do not mean 
 to hurt you. Why, why do you do this ? " " Because we are 
 weary of life, and do not wish to have anything more to do with 
 it," said the old man, turning his back upon him and looking 
 away. It was the same in house after house. At Kirin, 
 in Manchuria, the Tartar General, his wife, brother, brother's 
 four wives, and four nieces, aU committed suicide together 
 in the official residence, which they set on fire. His name was 
 in consequence to be placed among the tablets in the temple 
 of heroes, while his women relations were to have memorial 
 arches erected to them. In Peking, the Libationer of 
 the Imperial Academy, together with his wife, poisoned 
 himself. In connection with this, the following table is 
 interesting, although I cannot flatter myself it is complete : — 
 
 CoMMirrED Suicide. 
 
 First Bank. — Hsu Tung, Chinese. Upon flight of Empress. 
 Chung Ti, Manchu. Upon flight of Empress. 
 Kuei Heng, Manchu. Upon entrance of Allies. 
 Hsi Ching, Manchu. Upon entrance of Allies. 
 Li Ping Heng, Manchu. After battle Tung-chou. 
 Tseng Chi, Manchu. After defeat by Russia. 
 Yen Mao, Chinese Bannerman. After defeat 
 by Bussia and loss of Kirin. 
 
PEACE AND DEATS. 323 
 
 Second Hank. — Hsu Cheng-yu, Chinese Bannerman. After fall 
 of Peking. 
 Fu Jun, Manchu. After fall of Peking. 
 Died. 
 
 First Hank. — A Grand Secretary died of old age just before 
 
 disturbances began. 
 Assistant Grand Secretary. Of fright and ex- 
 haustion following Court's flight. 
 Hsin Fu. Of fright and exhaustion following 
 
 Court's flight. 
 President of Court of Censors. Just before 
 
 Peking siege. 
 President of Board of Works. Of illness 
 
 duiing flight to Hsian-fu. 
 Chief of Yung Lu's staff' (Generalissimo of 
 
 Northern Army). Of spleen at Peking just 
 
 before troubles. 
 Commander of left wing of Northern Army died 
 
 of old age (eighty-eight), soon after Court's 
 
 flight. 
 
 Second Bank. — Vice-President of Court of Censors. During 
 
 flight to Hsien-fu. 
 Literary Chancellor of Fukein died of hearing 
 
 all his family had been massacred by 
 
 Boxers. 
 Chen Pao Chen, Governor of Shantung, 
 
 cashiered, died of illness, strong reformer. 
 Governor of Kiaochow died. 
 Ex-provincial Treasurer of Shanai died just 
 
 before troubles. 
 
 Some more are said to have died by journey to Hsien-fu. 
 
 Besides there were Jive executed by order of Prince Tuan, 
 two executed by order of the Empress, two killed by Boxers, 
 one kUled by Allies, three killed in battle. 
 
 On March 2nd there was a Decree of nearly 2,000 charac- 
 ters, containing the names of men who fell in battle fighting, 
 at the time of the arrival of the foreign troops in Peking ; 
 also of those who committed suicide with or without their 
 
324 il KVNG - CHANG. 
 
 families. All were granted posthumous rewards and honours, 
 and their heirs, if any, were to have official rank in recognition 
 of their parents' patriotism. 
 
 Such was the state of things when Li, who had been 
 so glad to get away, returned again to Peking. We have 
 seen that at Tientsin he was a little premature. Indeed, Sir 
 Ernest Satow, then British Minister, telegraphed Lord Salis- 
 bury in November, 1900, that Li, as Viceroy of Chihli, had 
 addressed an impertinent note to the foreign Ministers, com- 
 plaining of the conduct of the Allied troops in the Paoting 
 Fu expedition, as also of the Chinese Christians. English, 
 French, German, and Italian Ministers returned the note, 
 saying they were unable to accept it, whilst others refrained 
 from acknowledging it. But this did not seem to correct 
 Li's manners ; for he now summoned Yuan Shih-kai's troops 
 to enter Peking and keep order, without consulting the 
 foreign Ministers first ; so that he had to be told that if 
 met by the AlHed Troops they would probably be fired upon. 
 No wonder Li fell sick again and again, whilst people viewed 
 his illness as merely diplomatic; the position was so false 
 a one ; voluntarily made so by the Allies, for the Chinese 
 position was quite plain. 
 
 It is evident that the Chinese Goverimaent (as represented 
 by the Dowager Empress, who until her flight certainly held 
 the great Seal, which she never at any period had given over 
 to the Emperor), in its desperate desire to get rid of foreigners, 
 had determined partly by making use of a Chinese Secret 
 Society, partly by a large increase of the Army, cloaked by 
 being represented as secret society bands, to drive all foreigners 
 out of China. The Empress, in fact, very nearly succeeded, 
 and would probably have quite done so, but for the Irregular 
 Forces, which the Government had summoned to its aid, 
 getting a little out of hand and attacking the railway and 
 the railway engineers somewhat prematurely. The foreign 
 Governments, however, while each sending troops to protect 
 their Legations — or rather their Ministers — chose to pretend 
 to believe that they were helping the Government of China 
 to put down an insurrection ; and this even, as we have seen, 
 
PEACE AND BEATS. 325 
 
 while routing Chinese Generals and their Armies, and taking 
 Chinese cities. 
 
 One of the comic results of the ghastly state of things 
 thus kept up was the number of Chinese officials who 
 took out life policies at this time ; and among them naturally 
 we find Li Hung-chang. 
 
 Pierre Loti, in his "Derniers Jours de Pekin," a book 
 which gives a picture of Peking in the autumn of 1900 aa 
 vivid as it is accurate in detail, tells how he found Li down 
 a wretched alley way, in a ruined house ; dirty Cossacks, with 
 ruddy, naive faces, guarding the door ; in the middle of the 
 entrance hall a table and two or three armchairs of carved 
 black wood ; all the rest a confusion of the valises, bundles, 
 bedding done up for travelling, as if all ready for sudden flight. 
 He describes Li as colossal, with prominent cheek bones, 
 bright observant eyes, the exaggeration of the Mongol type, 
 yet good-looking in spite of this ; and with the air of a grand 
 seigneur, for aU that his fur-lined gown was stained and worn, 
 Li inquired what the French were doing in their palace, 
 adjoining Waldersee's in the Eho Park, and, like Waldersee's, 
 belonging to the Empress ; indirectly he asked if they were 
 spoUing it in any way, and seemed greatly pleased when 
 assured they were taking the greatest care of it and every- 
 thing in it. And then Li made one of the finest speeches 
 that have ever been made about Peking : " Having visited all 
 Europe," he said, " I have seen the museums in all your 
 capitals. Peking had its museum also, for the whole Imperial 
 city was a museum, begun centuries ago, which one might 
 compare with the most beautiful of yours — and now it is 
 destroyed." And the old man who spoke must have felt 
 that he himself was being destroyed with it. 
 
 In April, 1901, six officials, among them Li Hung-chang 
 were appointed to act as Regents. And in the same month 
 numbers of memorials were sent from Peking, warning 
 the Court against returning to the capital, and impeaching 
 Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang. It was then that he and 
 Prince Ching asked the British Minister to allow Mr. Timothy 
 Richard to proceed to Shansi and settle all the cases between 
 
326 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 foreigners and Chinese pending there, the stone that had 
 been rejected by the British Legation in 1898 being thus 
 made into the head of the comer by these Chinese dignitaries. 
 But Sir Ernest Satow would not sanction Mr. Richard's life 
 being risked by a journey to Shansi at that time, whilst the 
 Committee on indemnities was still giving its report. And so, 
 among the abomination of desolation, the ruins of this 
 dishonoured capital, the old man worked laboriously and 
 unceasingly without a proper staff to help him, until the day 
 when he signed the protocol. He really should not have 
 ventured out on that day, but he was determined to be present 
 at the signing. He was then said to be better, but very weak, 
 and had sent for all his sons to come to him. Lord Li 
 had already some time before been summoned by telegram. 
 It is reported that two days after the signing of the protocol 
 Li sent a confidential secretary to the Russian Legation to 
 inform the Minister that the Chinese plenipotentiaries had 
 received instructions from Si-Ngan-fu, ordering them to make 
 a formal demand for the evacuation of Manchuria, since the 
 protocol had now been signed and peace assured between 
 China and all the Powers. The reply on the occasion attri- 
 buted to the Russian Minister was a characteristic one : " I 
 am only a Minister accredited to Peking, and can take cog- 
 nisance of merely local matters. I regret to say that I 
 have no authority to deal with such a large question as 
 the evacuation of the Manchurian provinces. The best 
 for your plenipotentiaries to do would, therefore, be to 
 communicate with the Minister for Foreign Affairs at St. 
 Petersburg, who has power to deal with such important 
 questions." 
 
 Then M. Lessar, the new Russian Minister, the inexorable, 
 of Penjdeh fame, arrived, and Li, who had partially recovered, 
 had a long conference with him early in October. According 
 to a Chinese newspaper, there was another long interview of 
 three hours on October 7 th. On October 8th it was reported that 
 Li was coming down to live in his temporary Yamen at Tientsin, 
 and that he was going to meet the Emperor and Empress ; 
 at all events, as far as the railway would take him. It seems 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 327 
 
 to have been the restlessness of a dying man, for on November 
 1st he had another attack of a serious nature, but after a lapse 
 of some twenty-four hours he became much better, feeling, 
 however, extremely weak. A great deal of his sickness 
 was stated to be due to disappointment and dissatisfaction, 
 especially with regard to recent political events. Prince Ghing, 
 his colleague in the recent Manchurian convention with 
 Russia, had strongly disagreed with the old Viceroy on cer- 
 tain important points of the convention, inson^uch that the 
 Prince subsequently gave up all responsibility in the matter. 
 We learn that another thing that hastened his end was 
 the information that different Viceroys and Governors were 
 intending to make valuable presents to the Empress Dowager 
 on her birthday. Having failed to do this himself, he began 
 to worry, and became for a while delirious. 
 
 M. Lessar had been urging Li Hung-chang to sign the 
 Manchurian convention, but unavailingly, Li's sickness being 
 so serious that by November his recovery was quite hopeless. 
 He is said to have invited the Russian Minister to call at his 
 house, being too weak to leave his residence, in order to inform 
 M. Lessar of the Court's decision to abide by the advice of the 
 Viceroys Liu K'un-yi and Chang Chih-tung, and refuse 
 the ratification of the latest Manchurian convention ; also that 
 he, Li, had been commanded to appeal to the so-called 
 Russian "friendship" for China, and ask for more lenient 
 conditions, which the Chinese Emperor would conscientiously 
 ratify. The feelings of the Russian Minister may be better 
 imagined than described, upon learning of the shattering 
 of his hopes for a brilliant coup which would give Manchuria 
 to Russia for ever. It was also reported that during the 
 secret consultations between the Viceroy and the Russian 
 Minister about Manchuria, an interpreter of the Japanese 
 Legation called on the former and strongly advised that 
 a demand should be made requiring the Russians to evacuate 
 Manchuria entirely within twelve months of signing the 
 Convention. To this, Li replied that it was intended to insert 
 a clause that the Russians should evacuate Manchuria in the 
 spring of 1903, " which was only a little over a twelvemonth. 
 
328 LI HUNG -CHANG. 
 
 and not so very far from the wishes of the Japanese 
 Government." 
 
 On November 6th Li asked the Government to order 
 Prince Ching to return at once to Peking, and himself 
 telegraphed to Prince Ching to return at once, as he ex- 
 pected momentarily to breathe his last. There is a report 
 that every morning the indomitable Russian Minister went 
 again to try to get the seal of Li Hung-chang affixed to the 
 Manchurian agreement, but that it was impossible to accom- 
 plishit. The last moments of Li were passed in the midst 
 of confusion and wailing ; fortunately, the old man had 
 become unconscious. 
 
 It is interesting to note that one of his last acts had been 
 to write an introduction to Dr. Martin's latest translation 
 of International Law. Thus, working to the last, died Li 
 Hung-chang, on the 7th November, 1901, aged seventy-eight 
 years and six months; according to Chinese modes of 
 expression, seventy-nine years old. The Empress wrote at 
 once, saying, to use the quaintly expressive English of a 
 Chinese translator : " We find that the Grand Secretary and 
 Viceroy of Chihli long ago rose up from a literary position, 
 made a brilliant record in military affairs, blazed his name at 
 the Court, uplifted the country .and put down the great 
 rebellion that threatened it. For the last thirty years he 
 undertook the management of international affairs. Since 
 trouble occurred in Peking last spring and everything was in 
 a critical condition, the Grand Secretary Li took upon himself 
 the whole burden with loyalty and fortitude. Thus, our 
 fatherland is again saved ; the great and the low can live in 
 peace. During his illness, we often sent him messages — as 
 everything was just settled, we thought we could have him for 
 many years yet ; but suddenly he has been struck down by 
 haemorrhage, never to rise again. At such a difficult time we 
 have to lose a statesman so indispensable ! How unfortunate 
 we are," etc. etc. 
 
 There was also a Decree granting the posthumous honour 
 of Marquis of the first class in recognition of his eminent 
 services to the dynasty ; allowing the funeral ceremonies and 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 329 
 
 Government grant usually permitted to a Grand Secretary on 
 his demise; and further commanding Prince Kung to select 
 an escort of ten members of the Imperial Bodyguard, and 
 to carry to the late Viceroy, on behalf of the Empress, a 
 " T'o-lo " prayer coverlet, to be used as a shroud for the 
 deceased statesman. Prince Kung was also commanded to 
 pour out libations to the manes of the deceased in the name 
 of their Majesties the Emperor and Empress Dowager, and 
 finally, the name of Li Hung-chang was to be inscribed in the 
 Temple of Faithful and Loyal Ministers, to be worshipped with 
 other great Ministers of the dynasty who have passed away. 
 
 Mr. Pethick, for so many years Li's secretary, arrived 
 in Peking too late to see him. His own health was in a 
 serious condition, the result of the strain put upon him in 
 1900, when he guided a party to the relief of the Christians 
 at the old Portuguese Cathedral of Nantang. He shortly 
 afterwards died too, and seems to have carried his master's 
 secret with him to the grave. 
 
 The Emperor and Empress returned to Peking, as was 
 described most graphically in the Tiines of the period, 
 the Empress Dowager looking after her luggage like a thrifty 
 housewife, and talking to everyone, even nodding and calling 
 out to the foreign ladies on the top of the city wall ; the Emperor 
 sad and silent and self-contained. There was no Li Hung- 
 chang to welcome them. On June 1st, 1902, the body of Li 
 Himg-chang was carried out of Peking by sixty-four bearers, 
 a brilliant military and rehgious procession accompanying it. 
 At Tungchow the coffin was placed on board a junk, to be 
 conveyed to Taku, where it was transferred to a steamer, in 
 which to complete the journey to the last resting-place of the 
 Li family at their ancestral home at Ho-fei, in Anhui. Chinese 
 and foreigners were invited to the funeral barge to pay their 
 last respects. There was an altar set up near it, and all 
 the morning officials were there burning incense and showing 
 marks of respect ; but English people who went late found the 
 coffin covered with common red cloth, a coolie's dirty 
 jacket thrown upon it, and not even one person watching 
 beside the remains of China's grand old man. The near 
 
330 LI BUNG - CHANG. 
 
 relations were, however, in an adjacent boat, and, of course, the 
 funeral, when it came off, was of the grandest ; but long before 
 that poor old Li seemed quite forgotten in the land where he 
 had for so long played such a principal part. His eldest 
 son, however, only survived his father a few months, broken 
 down, as Chinese said, by grief and trouble. It was he who 
 had commissioned a learned Chinese to write a biography 
 of Li Hung-chang, allowing six years for the preliminary 
 reading through of the immense mass of papers and documents 
 left behind. This arrangement, however, a member of the 
 family tells me, has been put an end to by Li Ching Hsui's 
 own death. Li had one concubine, who bore him several 
 children. This is very usual in China, but it is not 
 universally the case among the rich and great, as many 
 foreigners believe. There are many high-class officials known 
 to be husbands of but one wife. 
 
 Had Li Hung-chang died some twenty years earlier, there 
 can be no doubt as to the estimation in which he would have 
 been held by posterity, and as misfortunes fell upon China, we 
 can easily fancy how people would have cried out for Li 
 Hung-chang, and said, " If only Li were yet alive ! " As it 
 is, the war with Japan but too plainly showed that he, who had 
 been trusted with the supreme power, had absolutely failed to 
 put China in a position to defend herself He and his party 
 remained predominant to the last, whilst their unhappy 
 country was brought to such a pitch of helplessness that 
 one shrinks from thinking of the sorrows to be endured by 
 surely the most patient, law abiding, long suffering people on 
 God's earth. To have summarily partitioned China, as people 
 talked of doing, would have been merciful in comparison with 
 what must now surely occur, as the people, maddened by 
 exactions to meet an indemnity, for which many of the 
 provinces must feel themselves in no wise responsible, 
 will naturally rise either in rebellion against their own 
 Government or in what is called a riot against foreigners, first 
 here, then there, after which we may look for fresh demands 
 from each aggrieved Power. 
 
 Like superior people, we dubbed Li Hung-chang the great 
 
PEACE AND DEATH. 331 
 
 opportunist, not seeing that the opportunism was as much on 
 our own side, and that Li's party took refuge with Russia, which 
 could be counted upon, though his countrymen feared there 
 might be " many bitter fruits " from this policy. All through 
 life Li Hung-chang stood firmly by the Empress Dowager, and 
 she stood by him. There was nothing of opportunism now. 
 Had it not been for Li and Gordon, the Taiping rebellion 
 would probably have overthrown the Manchu dynasty, and a 
 new China might have arisen out of the ashes. As it is, 
 a corrupt, cankered Court has been preserved at the expense 
 of the nation, and the whole effort of the European Powers has 
 been directed towards exalting the central Government, 
 contrary to the genius of the Chinese people, in accordance 
 with which each Viceroy would improve and develop his own 
 province. It does not appear that there is much hope 
 for China now, and in this connection Li Hung-chang suggests 
 Rienzi rather than Bismarck. The latter left behind him a 
 united Germany, the other a divided and dividing Italy. 
 
 Those who have had the patience to follow Li's career 
 through the preceding pages ought to be in a position to 
 decide from his actions how far Li guided events or was 
 himself guided by them. That Li was astute and had strong 
 common sense we cannot doubt But a man of this t3rpe not 
 uncommonly makes the greatest mistakes, when confronted 
 with vital issues, which demand a certain amount of idealism 
 from him who is to deal with them aright. That Li was a 
 loveable character we have every evidence. He was true 
 to his friends ; even when people conspired against him he 
 was still kindly and geniaL This is possibly a sign of loose 
 principles, which make a man incapable of righteous indigna- 
 tion as much as of good nature. But this we cannot say of 
 the other fact, that Li, though constantly impeached himself, 
 never impeached anyone, nor did he bear malice against men 
 who had impeached him. Yet we are told that he never 
 forgot a &ce, foreign or native, and knew what each man was 
 available for should he meet him a second time. 
 
 In family life he seems particularly to have shone; an 
 affectionate husband, a kindly though somewhat stern father 
 
332 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 a particularly loving grandfather. No one has ever even 
 accused him of yielding to low vice. And though fond of 
 conviviality, an Englishman who knew him well says Li has 
 always been known for his moderation and temperance. He 
 seems to have been always ready to encourage any movement 
 for the good of those around him, yet without ever being 
 specially interested in it himself. In less troubled times he 
 might have passed across the stage of life, a somewhat stately 
 figure, conferring pleasure by his very presence as he passed. 
 It was his lot to be born into the world when his country 
 was being torn to pieces by internal revolution, and to 
 live on till the various nations of Europe, each thrusting out 
 a greedy hand, were seeking to make of her an India ; and Li 
 Hung-chang, now an old man, versed only in the ways of 
 Asia, was not equal to the situation, and saw no way out of 
 the impasse. Perhaps no man could have. 
 
 There remains the one great imputation upon his charac- 
 ter that he sold his country for gold. That Li loved money 
 we cannot doubt. How far he was indebted to his able 
 management of money for his advancement all through life 
 it is hard to say. He certainly did not spend it in riotous 
 living and luxury, and the fortune he acquired has probably 
 been enormously overestimated. But it remains the fact that, 
 entrusted for years with large sums to put his country into 
 a position of defence, he never achieved that end. He alstf 
 surrounded himself with men notoriously corrupt ; when the 
 Japanese attacked China the horrible rottenness of the state 
 of things became manifest to the whole world, China falhng 
 to pieces from her own corruption. And as the head of a 
 department must always be held answerable for his sub- 
 ordinates the responsibility for this must remain with Li. 
 
 "Ex umhris et imaginibus in veritatem," old Li has 
 passed away, but in this world of shades and images he — Li 
 Hung-chang, whom we all knew, whose hearty laugh we still 
 remember^ — has been canonised and is to be worshipped with 
 the other great Ministers of the Dynasty who passed away 
 before him. Can our ways seem as strange even to the 
 Angels as Chinese ways appear to us? 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 The memorial hy which the Viceroy Chaiig Chih-tung won his fame, 
 stating why Chung-hov^s treaty with Russia should he repudiated : — 
 
 June \st, 1880. 
 
 I have lately read in the Peking Gazette that as a treaty had been 
 concluded with Russia, by which your Majesty's Ambassador had 
 dishonoured his commission, your Majesty has commanded the Court 
 officials to consult together. Of this treaty, I have heard by rumour 
 the general purport, and as I am anxious and distressed in 
 the extreme, I beg reverently to address your Majesty and the 
 Empresses Regent on the momentous issues of its acceptance 
 or rejection. 
 
 With the exception of the most glaring blunders in the eighteen 
 articles of the new treaty, I shall leave it in other respects unnoticed. 
 These are as follows : — By an overland trade route from Chia 
 Yii-kuan direct to' Hankow, vi4 the cities of Si An and Hanchung, 
 the vulnerable points of Kansu and ShSnsi, and the up-river 
 sections of Ching andCh'u (Hupeh, etc.), are all threatened. Trading 
 places, in daily increasing numbers, will luxuriate like branching 
 weeds, news will travel everywhere, and although our frontier be 
 guarded, we shall have lost the very heart of the country. This is 
 the first concession to be refused. The Manchurian provinces are the 
 cradle of the Imperial family, and the city of Petune is the centre of 
 the Province of Kirin. If your Majesty permits it to be approached 
 by Russian ships, the concession will be tantamount to throwing the 
 whole of Manchuria open to the Russians. They will then be close 
 to Peking, our Northern frontier [literally head and shoulders] will 
 be defenceless and exposed, and we shall have voluntarily retired 
 six hundred miles west of Sui F6n for no reason whatever. The 
 
334 LI HUNG ■ C3ANG. 
 
 navigation of our inland waters has for years been sought in vain by 
 foreign countries, and if we grant the privilege to Russia, other 
 States will be guided in their demands by her example. This is the 
 second concession to be refused. 
 
 When our Government does not insist on the payment of duties, 
 it is as a measure of relief to traders. But if, in Sungaria, Kashgaria, 
 and throughout Mongolia, the Russians are to be allowed to trade 
 without paying any duties, Chinese merchants will in time be 
 beggared. This is a small matter compared with what will follow. 
 The feeble and poverty-stricken Mongols will only exist to be 
 the victims of Russian exactions, and the vast expenditure incurred 
 in the subjugation of the new dominion will have been wasted for 
 the sole benefit of the Russians. And further, the trading 
 establishments which they have opened at Kalgan and other places 
 in the interior will gradually extend far and wide, so that, on 
 the outbreak of hostilities, their communications will be complete 
 from one end to the other, ten thousand li within our borders. This 
 is the third concession to be refused. 
 
 The dependencies of inner and outer Mongolia are the bulwarks 
 of China. The desert of Gobi, stretching for ten thousand 
 li, is a barrier set by heaven to the Russians, and if they seek 
 to invade our borders, they will find it everywhere along the 
 Northern frontier difiicult and troublesome. But if the Russians 
 are allowed to hold out extra pecuniary inducements to the 
 Mongolians, who already act as their couriers and servants .at 
 the postal stations in Mongolia, and war does some day break out, 
 the Russians will have simple and perfect communications by letter, 
 their Commissariat and Treasury will be unimpeded; by their influence 
 they will fan into rebellion our dependent States, and our tribes 
 will act as Russian guides. This is the fourth concession to be 
 refused. 
 
 The treaty enumerates thirty-six barriers where the Russians are 
 to have the right to pass the frontier. They comprise a line much 
 too long, making it equally impossible for us to examine travelling 
 caravans in time of peace, or to repel an invading army in time of 
 war. This is the fifth concession to be refused. 
 
 There is no law which permits a merchant, of what nationality 
 soever, to carry arms. What then can be intended by a declaration 
 in the treaty, made without the slightest reason, that every Russian 
 may carry a gun ? On the sudden entry of a crowd of a hundred or 
 
APPENDIX A. 335 
 
 a thousand Russians, who will be able to distinguish soldier from 
 merchant t This is the sixth concession to be refused. 
 
 In all the clauses regarding trade and duties, the Russians 
 get, in an underhand way, some advantage ; other countries 
 will expect similar privileges and make similar demands, and 
 the revenue of the Hankow Custom-house will show a yearly deficit 
 of millions of taels. This is the seventh concession to be refused. 
 
 In 1864, the boundaries of the New Dominion were defined 
 by ti-eaty. The Russians now wish to annex land within these 
 boundaries and to cut oS" our communications with the moat 
 southerly of the eight cities of Turkestan. The Northern Section of 
 the new dominion is barren and bare, but the Southern cities are 
 rich and populous. We contend for a stony desert and abandon 
 fertile soil. We strive after a false fame and meet the real calamity. 
 This is the eighth concession to be refused. 
 
 We are to allow the Russians to station Consuls at Hi, 
 Tarbagatai, Cobdo, Uliasut'ai, Kashgar, Urumtsi, Kuche, Hami, 
 Turfan, Chia Yii-kuan, etc., and thus give them control of the North- 
 west frontier and the whole of the New Dominion. With foreign 
 officials come foreign merchants, and with foreign merchants come 
 foreign soldiers. They will usurp our authority and influence to 
 begin with, and in the course of time our guests will have become 
 our hosts. It will come to this, that the officials will be Russian, and 
 we shall have no soldiers. By a law recognised in every country, 
 the coasts and frontiers of China are the only places where 
 the Consuls of foreign States are permitted to be stationed. But 
 cities like Uliasut'ai, Cobdo, Urumtsi, Kuche, Hami and Chia Yii-kuan 
 are within our frontiers ; and with every country following the 
 example set by Russia, the whole of the interior of the eighteen 
 provinces of China wiU be overrun by foreign officials. This is the 
 ninth concession to be refused. 
 
 By allowing the Russians to return Hi to us, while they 
 atUl stick proudly to the mountain passes on three sides of it, to 
 its barriers within and without, and keep their hold of the 
 heights which dominate the plains, we lose the keys of the country. 
 Lop off from Hi the section to the west of the Kohsu River, and to 
 the north of Koer-hmantou, and there remains no stretch of soil to 
 till, no pasture on which to graze our flocks, and of the wealth of the 
 country there is nothing left. Kinting-szu also, which has long been 
 a Russian trading mart, is not to be returned to us, and becomes by 
 
336 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 the treaty a Bussian possession. Thus, the long-high road from the 
 East (i.e. China proper) to Hi will pass through a nest of Russians, 
 and the country will be without an outlet. Few as are the people 
 left in it, they too will be driven out by the Russians, the country 
 will be deserted, and we shall have thrown away 2,800,000 taels of 
 useful money to get back an Hi without natural defences, without 
 material resources, without a population and without an outlet. 
 And all for what good ? This is the tenth concession to be refused. 
 
 The Russians, in making their demands, show themselves to be 
 plunderers and bullies of the worst type ; Ch'ung How, in assenting, 
 showed himself to be a blunderer and a fool in the extreme. Your 
 Majesty and the Empresses Regent, by your burst of indignation, by 
 calling the Ambassador to account, and by summoning your Council, 
 show yourselves to be possessed of a most eminent wisdom and 
 decision. The Grand Council, the Tsungli Yamto, your Majesty's 
 officers of every class and degree, the whole country in short, unite 
 in saying that this treaty must not be. Those who dare not speak 
 out officially their opinion that the treaty must be altered refrain 
 because they fear that to alter a treaty which had been once agreed 
 to would most probably lead to a quarrel. In my opinion, there is 
 no occasion for fear, and I say this treaty must be altered. 
 Trouble is certain to follow, but if we do not alter it, we are not fit 
 to be a nation. 
 
 There are four cogent reasons for my request that the treaty 
 be altered: — 1st, a prompt decision has to be given; 2nd, a bold 
 attitude must be taken up ; 3rd, right is on our side ; 4:th, a plan 
 is arranged [in case of war]. 
 
 What do I mean by a prompt decision 1 On the above grounds, 
 I say, execute Ch'ung How. This is what I mean by a prompt 
 decision. 
 
 What do I mean by a bold attitude 1 The Russians deceived 
 our unprotected and imbecile Ambassador, and browbeat him into 
 Signing a treaty by which, for every penny they spent, they got 
 back a hundred, and yet were not satisfied. The Russians, in a 
 loutish way, are a great nation, and one does not expect them to act 
 in this manner. It is not China alone that is exasperated with 
 Russia ; in the estimation of the world her character is the reverse 
 of straightforward. For the declaration of the Russian Minister at 
 Peking, that he was to return home without waiting for your 
 Majesty's decision in regard to the treaty, there is no warrant in 
 
APPBNBIX A. 337 
 
 Western law. It is evident that this is an empty threat. The best 
 course for your Majesty to pursue will be to issue an Edict calling 
 the attention of the whole official body, metropolitan and provincial, 
 to the injustice of the Russians, and to the reasons for rejecting this 
 treaty to which rulers and people of China alike have given public 
 expression. To the various foreign Powers a despatch should be 
 sent, so that they may be able to decide whether China or Russia is 
 in the right, and to order their assemblies to insert in the news- 
 papers an account of how China has exhausted every possible appeal 
 to reason. Acting on the national indignation which will brook no 
 wrong, we must hold fast to our resolution not to accept the treaty. 
 Although Russia is a great country, since her bitter conflict with 
 Turkey her soldiers are worn out, her resources are exhausted, and 
 her rulers and her people are estranged. Indeed, of late years there 
 have been reports that the Sovereign has had to take precautions 
 against attempts on his Ufe. If in spite of aU this he repudiates 
 [our old] treaties and our friendship, by his schemes in distant lands 
 he will burden his people, and will certainly bring upon himself 
 " a calamity in his house,'' which will inevitably destroy him. How 
 can he then attack anybody"! Let your Majesty proclaim this 
 throughout the land. This is what I call a bold attitude. 
 
 Our Ambassador certainly signed the treaty, but he never had 
 your Majesty's permission to do so, and the instrument itself, not 
 having been sealed with the Imperial seal, is in the position of 
 a document (in the olden days) unattested by the oath of blood. 
 How can it be received as evidence 1 The moral position of the 
 Russians is bad, and their arguments are poor. How can they fix 
 a quarrel on us t If then we defer to another time our claims to 
 Hi, we shall have what I have called right on our side. 
 
 What do I mean when I say we have a plan for a campaign? 
 As the Russians are bent on disregarding public law, and on 
 rejecting our friendship, we shall have to defend ourselves, most 
 probably in three quarters : in Turkestan, in Manchuria, and at 
 Tientsin. [In Turkestan] Tso Tsung-t'ang is in command of a 
 victorious army of soldiers sturdy with years of toil ; and Kin-shun, 
 liu Chin-tang, Si-lun, and Chang-yo are thoroughly good generals. 
 If they remain quietly on the defensive, the Russians must be 
 beaten ; and, with the Mongolian tribes as our auxiliaries, the 
 Russian retreat will be cut off. Neither horses nor steamers will 
 take them home. They may break into the province of Kirin. 
 
 W 
 
338 LI SUN& - CSAN&. 
 
 The frontier on that side is distant, the forests are thick, and it 
 is more than 6,000 miles from the capital of Russia. If an army 
 without supports were to invade it deeply, it would necessarily be 
 a small one, and its commissariat service would be difficult. For 
 this emergency a general of ability, skilled in both military and 
 civil administration, armed with great powers, and supplied with 
 an adequate military chest, should be appointed. Half the total 
 sum now given to the marine defences of the northern and southern 
 sections of our coasts should be constituted by your Majesty a fund 
 for the defence of Manchuria. Let your Majesty give orders to Tso 
 Tsung-t'ang and Kin Shun to detach from their staff several generals* 
 natives of Manchuria, who know war, and send them east to await 
 orders. Even if we encounter a slight reverse, we have only to 
 keep steady and unwavering for a few months to see the Russian 
 force dispersed. 
 
 Tientsin is close to your Majesty's capital. Russian men-of-war, 
 however, are prevented by the English and French Law of Sea-ports 
 from leaving the Mediterranean,* and the appearance in China of 
 the merchant vessels in which the Russians will have to transport 
 their troops will be a very different thing from (the arrival of) 
 European ironclads. On the conspicuous talents of Li Hung-chang 
 China here rests her hopes. The enormous expenditure of millions 
 of taels, spent year after year in the manufacture of war material, 
 has been incurred for just such a crisis as to-day's. If, after all 
 that, we cannot fight one battle even, of what use are the servants 
 in whom your Majesty trusts ? Prostrate, I implore your Majesty 
 to issue to Li Hung-chang an Edict ordering him to carry out, 
 without the slightest alteration, your Majesty's policy, and holding 
 him alone responsible for its success. He must select his staff, 
 drill his troops, and make additions, after the German methods, to 
 our forts. He must be told that if our soldiers fight and win, your 
 Majesty will reward the victors with patents of nobility ; and that 
 if we fight and lose, your Majesty will punish the vanquished with 
 exceptional severity. 
 
 With the 2,800,000 taels with which we are to buy back Hi, we 
 should hire stout soldiers from Europe. And they would be certain 
 to fight for us. For the ultimate intention of the Russians, in 
 steadily encroaching on Kashgaria, and in annexing Khokand, is 
 to get a grip of India from behind. It is not China alone that 
 
 * Mediterranean means Black Sea, and Law means Treaty of Paris. 
 
APPENDIX A. 339 
 
 suffers, England also is aggrieved ; and if Li Hung-chang were to 
 make it plain to the British Minister that without the molar the 
 maxUlary bone cannot be used, and that without lips the teeth will 
 ^et cold, England would make common cause with us against the 
 common enemy. 
 
 I would not dare to speak so boldly, and to purpose to stake the 
 whole country on a single cast, were I not deeply sensible of the 
 changed times we live in, of our daily accumulating troubles, with 
 European nations usurping our authority, Japan meditating the 
 annesxation of our territory, and now Russia provoking us into a 
 ■quarrel. But if we yield and give in, fresh demands by other 
 nations will be made, and as a time must inevitably come when we 
 must assert ourselves and refuse to retire, how can it be that we 
 can yield and give in now ? I do not go into the question whether, 
 in the event of our resisting Russia, we must, in natural justice, 
 get the victory ; for, in actual warfare, victory and defeat are 
 Tincertain. But I do think that if Russia fights, she can never 
 pass Chia Yij-kuan (in Kansu). Even if she is victorious, she can 
 never capture Ninguta (in Manchuria), and the result of the cam- 
 paign wiU be that she wUl not get far enough to disturb the general 
 prosperity of our country. Days will be wasted in tedious delays, 
 food will be deficient at every stage, and their resources will be 
 weakened. What then have we to fear ? 
 
 From this moment let us take a decided course. This is the 
 time to fimd out whether China is strong or weak, and whether the 
 talents of her leaders have grown or diminished. With brave 
 ■generals and a wise leader, now is our time to fight ; a few more 
 jears, and Tso Tsung-t'ang, though still alive, will be declining in 
 vigour j Li Hung-chang, with vigour unimpaired, will be old ; our 
 3)owers of offence will be exhausted ; and if we wanted to fight then, 
 we could not. The Russians have cities to the east of us, garrisons 
 ■on our west, trading establishments to the north of us, their holes 
 and caves are everywhere, within and without our frontier ; they 
 are in communication with Thibet, and they threaten Korea. If we 
 <io not now put a barrier between us and them, the time will come 
 when we shall have to fight them within our own borders ; of what 
 Tise will it be to repent then ? 
 
 Military preparations are the one essential. And they must go 
 ■on whether the treaty be altered or not. Our demand for the 
 rendition of Hi must be deferred whether the treaty be altered or 
 
340 LI HUNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 not, Oh'ung How must be executed whether the treaty be altered or 
 not. This is not my own individual opinion, but the public senti- 
 ment of the whole country. 
 
 Co-operation in deciding the measures to be taken is the duty of 
 all the high oflScers of the crown ; the bold attitude I have spoken 
 of must be maintained by the whole body of Chinese officials ; to 
 explain that right is on our side is the duty of the Tsungli Yam^n ;, 
 but it is for your ]\([ajesty alone and the Empresses Regent to give- 
 the decision regarding the past. The question concerns the highest 
 interests of the Empire. Sit still and look on, I cannot ; remain 
 silent, I dare not. Looking upwards I implore your Majesty ta 
 place this my memorial before the Council, that they may deliberate 
 on what I now, in the extremity of my grief and resentment, 
 humbly implore your Majesty to peruse. 
 
341 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Indictment of Li Hung-chang, signed by a certain Hanlin. 
 Header and fifty-four members of the College of Literature : — 
 
 December 5th, 1894. 
 
 A memorial impeaching a certain high officer of State and calling 
 for his dismissal from the public service, on the grounds that he 
 is stupidly incompetent, proudly arrogant, that he has entirely lost 
 all feeling of what is right, and has grossly mismanaged matters 
 a fleeting the country's welfare. 
 
 When, in the first instance, Japan created trouble and 
 ■encouraged rebellion in an outlying dependency of China, the 
 memorialist, on reverently perusing the Imperial Declaration of 
 War, dated 1st of August, recognised that it was only as a 
 last resort that the Emperor was driven to have recourse to arms. 
 The consummate feeling of compassion (towards Korea), not only 
 inwardly cherished, but thus outwardly made manifest, has 
 commanded the respect of all mankind. Yet, during the last two 
 months, the situation has undergone repeated changes. Alarming 
 reports of the defeat of our troops and the loss of our territory follow 
 each other in quick succession, and startled by day and terrified 
 by night, the minds of men are in great perturbation. The state 
 of mental care and anxiety displayed by the Edict of the 25th of 
 September, giving expression to a desire on the part of H.I.M. the 
 Empress Dowager, that, as long as hostilities continued, all 
 iestal celebrations in the Eho Park be suspended, appealed 
 to the hearts of Chinese and foreigners alike, and a universal sense 
 of hatred (against those who caused H.M. this pain) was excited 
 in all breasts. 
 
 The memorialist, however, being of opinion that a full and 
 ■clear statement should be made of the causes which have combined to 
 bring about these calamities, and the hidden influences which have 
 oontributed towards this gross mismanagement of affairs, does hereby 
 venture to treat of them in minute detail for H.M.'s information. The 
 
342 LI EUNG-OSANQ. 
 
 memorialist has been given to understand that not for one moment 
 can Japan's status as a nation or her military strength be compared 
 to those of Western countries. Her National Debt is large and her 
 people poverty-stricken, which proves that her prosperity rests- 
 on an an insecure foundation. She has fast cruisers, but no larg& 
 battleships, -which indicates a defect in her military organisation. 
 Her soldiers are hurriedly levied and are not trained troops. Her 
 political power is divided amongst parties, and the administration 
 consequently lacks unity. 
 
 On war first breaking out, all military experts and those 
 acquainted with foreign affairs unanimously compared Japan's action 
 to that of the praying mantis, which stretched out its feelers to 
 stop the chariot, and which was for its temerity immediately crushed 
 to death. Although even Europeans talked of China's success 
 as a foregone conclusion, events have proved under how great a. 
 misapprehension all laboured. The capital of Korea was lost, shortly 
 afterwards to be followed by the reverse sustained at Yashan. 
 Oh'engch'uan was abandoned, and the army fled in confusion at 
 Pingyang. Vessels of war which were sunk on the Han river have- 
 not been recovered, and ironclads have been destroyed by fire on 
 Deer Island. Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei are the keys of the sea. 
 approach, yet no steps are taken to prevent the patrolling of the- 
 Gulf by cruisers of the enemy. Ichou constitutes the protection, 
 of the Pengt'ien frontier, yet has this bulwark now been completely 
 torn down. The appointment of Wei Ju-kuei transformed the Huai 
 troops, veterans of a hundred fights, into a fleeing rabble. The 
 appointment of Ting Ju-chang reduced a fleet of powerful battleships, 
 to a collection of leaking sieves. So far from being able to recover 
 Korea, the defences of the Tumen and the Yalu have beoom* 
 matters of the gravest consideration. So far from being in a position 
 to undertake operations at Chemulpo, a descent on Taku and 
 Peit'ang is an imminent danger. 
 
 Who is it that has had supreme command of the armies? 
 Who is it that has controlled advance and retreat, led the 
 great against the small, the mighty against the feeble, with the- 
 result that a series of such disastrous defeats have been sustained 1 
 Who is it, if not the subject of this memorial — the incompetent, 
 arrogant, unprincipled, highly placed ofl5.cial, who by his conduct has- 
 so imperilled the interests of the State that his name stinks in the: 
 nostrils of his countrymen 1 
 
APPENDIX B. 343 
 
 The grounds on which this universal detestation has been 
 incurred are as follows : — 
 
 1. Having received orders to succour Korea, this official secretly 
 tied the hands of his general officers. Having failed to take 
 any precautionary measures in the first instance, he proceeded, when 
 the crisis did arrive, to hamper their action in every way. At 
 Hsiaopu, Yashan, Pingyang, and Lutao, our troops sat with folded 
 arms calmly waiting until they were surrounded and attacked by the 
 Japanese. But surely he cannot seriously expect to be able to make 
 such complaisance a basis on which to conduct peace negotiations ? 
 Having neglected to seize the opportunity affiarded at the beginning, 
 such action simply tends to raise the prestige of Japan and lower that 
 of China. 
 
 On every occasion the Japanese take the initiative, and thus it 
 comes about that the valour of our troops has to give way 
 before them. We, on the other hand, invariably wait until the first 
 move has been made, and by reason of our tardiness have to bow to 
 the conqueror. The complete wreck which has consequently 
 supervened is entirely due to delay and mismanagement. 
 
 2. When an army starts on a campaign in a distant country, 
 proper commissariat arrangements are of the first importance. A 
 department of this nature already exists at home ; how much more 
 necessary is it when troops have to be taken outside of China's 
 border ? Foreign countries carrying on war consider the supply of 
 food for the army to be of even greater moment than that 
 of the arms. The high official referred to has had experience of 
 military matters for over thirty years ; how comes it then that 
 he has made no provision in this respect 1 First take the flight at 
 Yashan, where the troops were without provisions or ammunition ; 
 then the battle at Pingyang, where they were similarly destitute ; 
 no camp followers or baggage carts were provided, so that each 
 soldier had to carry his own rice and was without a supply 
 of spare cartridges. Driven to extremities by hunger, they were 
 compelled to forage for food and take it by force, thereby incurring 
 the ill-will of the Korean people. When it came to fighting, they 
 had to submit to be slaughtered, having nothing but their bare 
 hands wherewith to strike the enemy. The valiant troops on whom 
 the Throne had placed reliance throughout twenty years, and in 
 whom the hopes of the people centred, thus helplessly, without arms 
 and without food, lay down and died in vain. All this is owing to 
 
344 LI HUNG - CHANG. 
 
 the blind confidence reposed by a certain official in his own minions, 
 und his unwillingness to organise a commissariat. 
 
 3. The designs of Japan on Korea have been maturing during 
 many years ; how then comes it that in the spring of the present 
 year, on the first indications of her intention to carry these designs 
 into execution becoming apparent, the Superintendency of Northern 
 Trade, with its splendid Intelligence Department for foreign afiairs, 
 saw and heard nothing? When matters were coming to a head, 
 Yuan Shih-k'ai, who thoroughly saw through the Japanese plans, sent 
 frequent secret messages to this official, and had the latter disclosed 
 to the Throne in the beginning the true position of Japan towards 
 Korea there would have been time carefully to consider the matter, 
 and it is hardly likely that there would have been any of the 
 ill-considered, hasty action which subsequently ensued. He, on the 
 contrary, at first kept everything shrouded in mystery, only letting 
 fall vague hints, and afterwards sought by greatly exalting the power 
 and prowess of the Japanese to instil a dread [of open rupture]. 
 When the crash came, the inner secrets of Japanese intrigue were 
 well known to this high official, whereas the Throne was 
 but imperfectly acquainted therewith. On Yuan Shih-k'ai being 
 summoned to Court by Imperial Edict, the official in question used 
 every endeavour to prevent his going to Peking, and all telegrams 
 that passed through his hands for transmission to the Emperor he 
 revised and altered in such a manner as to make their contents 
 correspond with the views he himself was putting forward, and 
 to prevent any knowledge of the actual state of foreign afiairs 
 reaching the Government. The suggestions and orders emanating 
 from the Throne, therefore, were formed at a distance from the 
 scene of action on unreliable data. The punishment of death would 
 be too light a penalty to pay for such treacherous deceit 
 and misrepresentation. 
 
 4. Of late years, all positions of profit and infiuence throughout 
 the Empire have been under the charge of this official ; all military 
 power has been vested in him, and the Throne has ever regarded him 
 as a tower of strength. He, however, has reared a horde of parasites 
 for the purpose of hoodwinking and deceiving the Government. 
 
 and are his eyes and ears ; and are as his inmost 
 
 heart ; Ting Ju-ch'ang and Wei Ju-huei are as his talons and teeth ; 
 Kung Chao-yu and Lui Han-fang are as his wings. These individ- 
 uals are derided and scorned by everybody, yet are they appointed 
 
APPENDIX B. 345 
 
 by this highlofficial to posts in the Customs, the Grain Transport 
 Service, the Telegraphs, and the Ordnance Department. To get 
 proper men to fill posts of this nature is a matter of the greatest 
 importance to a country conducting a war, yet are these creatures 
 so firmly established in their present positions that they cannot be 
 dislodged. Ordinarily they oppress and grind down the people and 
 prey upon the State in aU sorts of dark and nefarious ways. When 
 anything happens, however, they well know how to gloss over their 
 misdeeds with specious falsehoods. Not only do they assist the 
 high official denounced to deceive and hoodwink the Government, 
 they go the length of remorselessly seUing him for their own ends. But 
 he ever affords them his protection, and, like as the mother bird 
 stretching out her wings over her young, tenderly supplies all their 
 wants, so does he take upon himself to defend them against the 
 attacks of the Censors, whose accusatory statements by scurrilous 
 calumny he endeavours to prove false. To crown all, he dared 
 deliberately to disregard an Imperial Decree, ordering Viim to 
 dismiss and remove Ting Ju-ch'ang from his post. A dependency 
 of some thousands of K in extent has thus by his supineness been 
 completely surrendered into the hands of these four or five 
 contemptible persons. 
 
 5. The instances above quoted do not by any means complete 
 the record of his misdeeds. Japanese rice steamers were allowed 
 to clear from Chinese ports, and permitted to carry K'aip'ing coal. 
 Japanese spies when caught were either openly discharged or secretly 
 set at liberty. 
 
 A man named Wang, living near the jHaikuan Su, was appre- 
 hended and examined at the instance of the Tientsin hsien ; the son 
 of this high official, the late Minister to Japan, however, interceded 
 on his behalf. 
 
 On the arrest of the Japanese informer Shih Ch'uan-shih and 
 Liu of the Ordnance Department, evidence was given implicating 
 this son of the high official, herein impeached, together with the 
 heads of that department, whereupon a certain Taotai conveyed to 
 the Tientsin hsien Li Ohen-p'eng a hint that this high official desired 
 the suppression of such evidence, and sought to compel him to alter 
 the substance thereof. This interference was, however, so strongly 
 resented that the matter was allowed to drop. 
 
 A special application was made to the Throne for authorisation 
 to release a Japanese vessel seized near Formosa. Those entrusted 
 
 W* 
 
346 £1 HVNG ■ CHANG. 
 
 with the charge of the Ordnance Department sold quantities of the 
 arms that have been accumulating there for years and pocketed the 
 proceeds. After war had broken out, a collection was made of 
 certain useless ammunition for muzzle-loading guns and sold to 
 the Japanese for 140,000 taels, this sum subsequently being divided 
 up amongst the officials attached to the Department. The warrant 
 to pass this ammunition out of store was signed by the high official 
 of whom this memorial treats. It is further a matter of common 
 report that he has millions of taels invested in Japanese coal mines 
 at Oh'ashan, that his son has established three foreign hongs in the 
 Japanese islands, that greed of gain has so clouded his intellect that 
 he is led by the nose by the Japanese, that the announcement of 
 a reverse sustained by China elates him and correspondingly the 
 tidings of a Chinese victory depresses him. 
 
 Although these stories constitute but the gossip of the streets, 
 they are current on ten thousand, tongues and can surely not all be 
 utterly without foundation. To sum up, the complete overthrow we 
 have sustained is to be attributed to the want of offensive power 
 displayed by the fleet under the command of Ting Ju-ch'ang. This 
 officer in the first stages of the war kept out of the way of the 
 Japanese, lacking courage to meet them in open fight, and when 
 eventually, while convoying the Ming Army Corps, he did engage 
 in battle, he did so in an unsystematic blundering manner. The 
 Chihyuen was the only ship which broke the ranks and rushed 
 to the attack ; not one of the others attempted to foUow her. Can 
 Ting therefore be said to possess any of the qualities of a Com- 
 mander-in-Chief 1 To behead the captain of the Chihyuen for being 
 the first to flee but to condone the shortcomings of the officer in 
 supreme command would seem to indicate a certain incongruity, and 
 the memorialist greatly fears no reform in the Navy is possible. 
 
 As regards the Army, Wei Ju-kuei is responsible for its defeat. 
 If even the wind conveyed to him the fact that the enemy was near 
 he fled, and Yeh Chih-ch'ao followed him. 
 
 It is reported that a few days after we experienced our first 
 defeat Tso Pao-kuei despatched a secret telegram, stating that were 
 Wei's troops withdrawn the others would fight to the death, but 
 were this not done all would be annihilated together. Every form of 
 outrage has been perpetrated by Wei's soldiers in Korea ; women 
 were violated, and property was plundered to such an extent that 
 the Koreans no longer regarded us as friends but as enemies, and 
 
APPENDIX B. 347 
 
 it was impossible for our men to secure supplies. When the Army 
 wsis defeated the Weis, father and son, took refuge in a clump of 
 reeds, where they nearly met death at the hands of their own 
 soldiers, incited to revenge by the way in which these officers had 
 appropriated their pay and generally maltreated them. AU the 
 bamboos on the Southern HUls made into books would not suffice 
 to contain the catalogue of their oflfences. But although their 
 crimes are known to aU the world, yet can the Throne not punish 
 them. For so long as a certain high official is retained in power 
 in the North, so long will these great traitors fail to meet with their 
 deserts, so long will the return of a proper spirit to the Army be 
 deferred, and so long will this succession of constant reverses con- 
 tinue. "When an army sees its leaders properly rewarded, it is 
 stimulated to perform great deeds, but cases such as the following 
 deprive a soldier of aU heart. 
 
 Liu Pu-ch'an, although impeached, was appointed by this high 
 official to act as Naval Commander-in-Chief j Liu Kuo-hsiang, 
 although he fought bravely, but lost his ship, was at the instance of 
 this same official temporarily degraded. The greatest culprit of all, 
 Wei Ju-kuei, the man responsible for all defeat and mismanagement, 
 was similarly represented to be of high capacity. The record of his 
 iniqtdty was by the same hand converted into a list of meritorious 
 actions. With experiences of this kind can any army be expected to 
 hold together 1 The memorialist had heard that the Ruler of Japan 
 has moved his Court to Hiroshima in order pei-sonally to direct the 
 movement of his forces, and that in the beginning of the eighth 
 moon he fixed a term of twenty days within which they were to 
 take Pingyang. Pingyang, as it turned out, fell after sixteen days, 
 and it is now stated that Fengtien is to be taken within four weeks, 
 and that Tientsin and Taku must be captured by the end of the 
 ninth moon. 
 
 The number of the Japanese troops is set down at 90,000 men, 
 and having invaded Korea in force they will spread into Manchuria, 
 advance towards Tientsin and Taku, and doubtless attempt to invest 
 Peking. Our military organisation being in no sense reliable and 
 entrusted to the hands of this incompetent, arrogant, unprincipled 
 mismanager of his country's afiairs, is it possible with any degree of 
 certitude to put any confidence in the statements of those who 
 assert that the Imperial Mausolea will remain inviolate, and that 
 never need anxious fears disturb the capital 1 
 
348 LI HUNG- CHANG. 
 
 When war first broke out brave, loyal leaders, such as Sung- 
 ch'ing and Liu Yung-fu, were burning with zeal to proceed to the 
 front, but they were all laid under restraint and kept back by this 
 high official. Amongst the officers that were actually sent Nieh 
 Shih-ch'eng of the Huai Army and Ts'ao K'o-chung of Tientsin had 
 the reputation of being able Generals and superior to the others, but 
 their action was likewise fettered by those of his satellites who accom- 
 panied them. The memorialist is given to understand that Sung- 
 ch'ing has been entrusted with the command of the army in the 
 field, but if this official continues to have control at the base, it is to 
 be- feared that, his jealousy being excited, he wUl continue to pursue 
 his obstructive tactics. The transmission of despatches will be 
 delayed, the supplies of food and ammunition will prove defective, 
 and one's blood will be made to run cold by a repetition of the 
 Pingyang disaster. 
 
 According to the universal popular opinion this official must 
 be severely reprimanded and removed from Tientsin before our 
 splendid troops and valiant leaders will be able to put forth their 
 utmost strength, and by fighting to the death to wipe out the 
 disgrace of the reverses we have hitherto experienced. 
 
 It is for this reason that the fate of the country and the welfare 
 of the people entirely hinge on the retention in or dismissal from 
 office of this one man, and the memorialist ventures to express a hope 
 that his Majesty will deign to issue definite orders in the sense 
 desired. Should the counsels of his party be listened to further, and 
 any compromise, which would lead to a continuance of his tardy and 
 damaging policy be efiiected, the troops will remain uninspired by a 
 proper martial spirit, Fengt'ien will be invaded, and the fall of 
 Wei-hai-wei and Port Arthur become a moral certainty. Should 
 the second capital {i.e. Moukden) be lost, alarm wiU knock at the 
 gates of the present capital and chaos supervene. To feast ofi" the 
 fiesh of that official would then be but of little avail. 
 
 As long as he is not removed there is grave reason to fear, more- 
 over, that no response will be made to the urgent daily appeals by 
 the Throne to the people, and a state of things wUl ensue about 
 which the memorialist does not care to speak. It is on these grounds 
 that he ventures with tears in his eyes to set forth the circum, 
 stances which have roused popular indignation to so high a pitch- 
 Should the Emperor graciously condescend to pay heed to his advice 
 he would humbly request that an^ experienced and trustworthy 
 
APPSNDIX B. 349 
 
 leader, well acquainted with military affairs, be selected and 
 despatched with all haste to the front, in order that the proper 
 measures may be taken forthwith to carry on the war. He is well 
 aware how rash and inexpedient a step it is from a military point 
 of view to supersede a Commander-in-Chief in the field, but if 
 3. certain high official goes on protectiug his own and giving way to 
 the enemy, the consequences will be so serious and far-reaching 
 that memorialist dare not stand aside and do nothing to avert the 
 Tuin, which he sees hanging over his country. 
 
 It is reported to-day that the official in question is entering into 
 private negotiations for peace with the Japanese, on the basis of 
 a surrender of Korea and Formosa and the payment of a large sum 
 of money indemnity. Were such a settlement arrived at, were the 
 heritage of our ancestors thus abandoned, or were a drain of this 
 kind made on the wealth of our country, complete disintegration 
 of the Empire would at once set in. Although it is only an 
 "unconfirmed rumour, yet previous experience of this official's 
 •conduct and proclivities would justify a supposition that he would 
 not rest content until he had carried his perverse folly to even 
 these lengths. 
 
 It is therefore the memorialist's earnest prayer that the high official 
 herein arraigned be at once degraded and deposed from office. When 
 this shaU have been done peace will once more reign in the ancestral 
 halls, the spirit of our Army will be re-invigorated, and it will 
 be possible to entertain a hope that the lost dependency may yet be 
 recovered. 
 
 Such a consummation would, indeed, confer the greatest happi- 
 ness on the whole Chinese people. 
 
350 LI BUNQ CHANO. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 According to Dr. Albrecht Wirtts — 
 
 Asia comprises altogether 44 million square kilometres. 
 Of this— 
 
 Russia owns 17 million square kilometres with 23 million 
 souls. 
 
 China, exclusive of Manchuria, 10-2 million square kilo- 
 metres with 350 to 400 million souls. 
 
 Great Britain 5 -3 million square kilometres with 29T 
 million souls. 
 
 Manchuria 942,000 square kilometres with 6 to 15 
 million souls. 
 
 According to Mr. Alexis Krausse — 
 
 While Great Britain has annexed Chinese territory t* 
 the extent of an area of the size of Carnarvonshire, B.ussia 
 has despoiled the empire of a region rather bigger than the 
 whole of France, Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Spain put 
 together; and France has robbed it of an area of 315,250 
 square miles, equal to Germany and Austria put together, 
 her trade and commercial interest being the smallest of any 
 first-class Power. 
 
I NDEX. 
 
 Ahlute, Empress, married to the Em- 
 peror Tung-ohlh, 85; mausoleum 
 prepared for, 83; death ol, 91; 
 memorial to, 91 
 
 Alabaster, Sir Chaloner, on Chinese 
 official honours, 220 
 
 Amerioan-ehlnese Bank, Dowager Em- 
 press and, 158 
 
 American Comi>any's wharves and ships 
 bought by LI Hung-ohang, 127 
 
 American occupation of Philippines, LI 
 Hung-chang on, 310 
 
 Anglo-Eusslan ConTentlon, Li Hung- 
 ohang and the. 288 
 
 Anhul, 5; Famine In, 198 
 
 Anti-opium Society and LI Hune-chane, 
 124-126 
 
 Archive room, its seals and locks tam- 
 pered with, 120 
 
 Army ol the Hual, Li Hung-chang's 
 Memorial for, 199 
 
 Arrow War, 13 
 
 Author's interview with Li Hung- 
 chang, 195, 302 
 
 Bacnlnh, French seize, 139 
 
 Balfour, Mr., and Wei-hal-wel railway, 
 
 277 
 Belgian engineers and Li Hung-chang, 
 
 206 
 Beresford, Lord Charles, In China, 291 
 Black Flags In Tonquin, 138; march on 
 
 Peking, 313 
 Blind School in Peking, 193 
 Board of War in 1870, Chinese, 72 
 Boxer Outbreak, 291; Russia offers to 
 suppress, 298; beginning of, 299, 
 306; drill of Boxers, 299; Red Lant- 
 ern girls, 390; Boxers' Manifesto, 
 300; warning letter concerning 303- 
 306; railways destroyed, 306; flight 
 of foreigners, 308 
 Britain, Great (see Great Britain) 
 Bruce, Sir Frederick, on Ll Hung- 
 chang's conduct to Gordon, 49 
 Burgevine, commands Imperialists, 17; 
 his dismissal, 18; captures Dr. 
 Macartney's steamer^ IB; joins the 
 Talpings, 22; and Gordon, 22, 23; 
 capture and death of, 25 
 Burllngame Mission, Episode of, 61, 64 
 
 Canton unprepared for French attack, 
 139; Ll Hung-ohang in, 310, 311 
 
 Casslnl Convention, 277 
 
 Casslnl, Count, and Dr. Irwin, 257 
 
 Chan Tal, Poem of, 204 
 
 Chang Chlh-tung avoids visiting Peking, 
 52; oompared with Li Hung-ohang, 
 110; schemes In warfare, 110 ; Intro- 
 duction of manufactures, etc.. Into 
 China, 111; memorial against 
 (oreigners, 112-117; European lives 
 saved by, 117; strange stories con- 
 cerning, 117; memorial on Russian 
 treaty, 131, 353-340; choice of honest 
 officials, 159; career of, 174; dislike 
 ol empty ceremonies, 189; inaugur- 
 ates Ironworks at Hanyang, 212; re- 
 organises naval squadron, 234; 
 offers resignation, 278 
 
 Changchow subdued by Gordon, 44 
 
 Chang, General, and Gordon, 19; 
 wounded In attack on Kia-shlng-fu, 
 
 43; Ll Hung-chang's praise of, 44? 
 death of, 45 
 
 Chang, General, commits suicide, 232 
 
 Ch'ang Hsii, 163 
 
 Chang P'el-lun, and Ll Hung-ohang, 160; 
 evil Influence of, 223 
 
 Cheloo, Diplomats at, 102; signature of 
 Convention of, 108 
 
 Cheng Fu, Death of, 317 
 
 Cheng Ki-tong, 159 
 
 Chla, Mr., Story of 123 
 
 Chin Invasion of China, 115 
 
 Chln-klang taken by Taiplngs, 11 
 
 Chln-klang-fu, Temple at, 40 
 
 China Merchants' Steam Navigation 
 Company, 127; and Ll Hung-ohang, 
 152 
 
 Chinese: reverence for scholarship, 6^ 
 courtesy, dress, and politics, 9; 
 ignorance of foreign countries, 47 > 
 lack of interest in mechanics, 51; 
 usage of employing middle men, 
 62; number of viceroys and govern- 
 ors, 65; paternal feeling of good 
 ofaolals, 70; Board of War In 1870, 
 72; ofaolals and bribery, 73; floods, 
 73-78; examinations, 76; characteris- 
 tic memorial, 80; handwriting, 86; 
 indifference to death, 88; idea ol 
 friendship, 104; fantastic schemes. 
 In warfare. 111; in Siberia, 130; 
 troops sent to Kuldja frontier, 131; 
 Gordon's advice to, in 1880, 134; 
 treaty with Japan, 137 ; repulse the. 
 French, 141; grant France conces- 
 sions, 142; term of mourning, 144; 
 Telegraph Convention, 153; and 
 Jesus Christ, 184; importance of 
 sixtieth birthday, 203; way of man- 
 aging contracts, 214; official hon- 
 ours, 220; attack on Japanese at 
 Tongku, 221; their sense of justice, 
 234; class dlstlnotions, 262; Reform 
 movement, 272; examination of 
 essays, 273; camp at Lutai under 
 Russian general 278; Reformers 
 apply for British prpteotion, 286; 
 opposition to Innovation, 322; 
 suicides, 322 
 
 Chinese Free Hospital, Establishment 
 of, 191; Ll Hung-chang claims 
 building of, 194 
 
 Chlng, Prince (see Prince Ching) 
 
 Ch'lng Fel, Death of, 317 
 
 Chlng-ts'u falls to be appointed Salt 
 Commissioner 211 
 
 Chlno-Japanese War: Chinese prepara- 
 tion for, 214 ; Mr. Mlckle on cause of, 
 215; Japanese preparation for, 216; 
 story of the Kowehmg, 216; proclam- 
 ation from Shanghai Arsenal, 223; 
 Jajpanese enter Port Arthur, 225; 
 capitulation of Wei-hal-wel, 232 ; end 
 of, 232; Peace negotiations after, 
 233-246; terms of treaty, 247 (see alio 
 Japan) 
 
 Chou, Punishment of, 201 
 
 Chu Ko-llang's scheme in warfare. 111 
 Ch'un, Prince (see Prince Ch'un) 
 Chung-how concludes Treaty of 
 Llvadia, 130; cashiered, 131; sen- 
 tence of death remitted, 135 
 Chungking, Proviso for British trading 
 at. 108 
 
352 
 
 LI HUNO-GHANG. 
 
 ■Clark, Sir Andrew, and Chinese Medical 
 School, 208 
 
 ■Conventions: ol Cheloo, 108; Franco- 
 Chinese, 139, 140, 141; Telegraph, 
 155; Anglo-Eusslan, 228; Casslnl, 
 277; of Manchuria, 327, 328 
 
 •Cyclists, Two, LI Hung-chang's inter- 
 view with, 196 
 
 Czarevitch's visit to China. 177-181 
 
 Davenport's, Consul, reproval oi Li 
 Hung-chang, 197 
 
 Decrees quoted, 37, 39, 73, 100, 121, 157, 
 169, 172, 231, 269, 297, 298, 307, 314 
 
 J>etring, Mr., Intermediary between 
 France and China, 139; Interview 
 with Li Hung-chang, 192; leaves for 
 Japan, 225; recalled, 229; Li Hung- 
 chang's despatch concerning mis- 
 sion ol, 230 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, and Li Hung- 
 chang, 262 
 
 Dew, Captain Roderick,' on Chinese 
 massacres, 42 
 
 Diagrams, Eight, stolen, 123 
 
 Dowager Empress (««« Tze-Hsi, Lu, and 
 Tsz-An) 
 
 Dunn's^ Mr., Mission to the Pope, 154 
 
 Dyer, Colonel, and Ll Hung-chang, 184 
 
 ^Jdicts (see Decrees) 
 Edkins, Dr., and Li Hung-chang, 183 
 "" Bight Diagrams " stolen, 128 
 Emperor (see Kwang-Hsii, Tung-chih, 
 
 and Hsien Feng) 
 Empress {see Ahlute, and Wu) 
 Empress Dowager (see Tze-Hsl and Lil) 
 England (see Great Britain) 
 Essays, Examination ol, 273 
 
 Famines: ot 1878, 120-124; Li Hung- 
 chang's aid in, 198 
 
 Fenny, Mr.,- and Li Hung-chang, 208 
 
 Ferry, M., resignation of, 141 
 
 Floods in China, 73-78 
 
 "Foochow, Construction of Dockyard and 
 Foundry at, 64 
 
 Foreign Aflalrs, Suggested Institution 
 for Study of, 119 
 
 ■Foreigners in China, Influx during 
 Talping rebellion, 16; always in the 
 wrong, 59; Ll Hung-chang's protec- 
 tion of, 67; Chan>g Ohih-tung's me- 
 morial against, 112-117; their Re- 
 form movements thwarted, 272; and 
 the Empress Dowager, 289; Tu 
 Hsien's hostility to, 299; Boxers' 
 manifesto against, 300; movement to 
 crush, 304; Edict to destroy, 307; 
 their flight, 303; their supposed 
 massacre in Peking, 311 
 
 Tormosa, Japanese invasion of, 95; 
 Cession of, 246, 247 
 
 TTournier, Captain, appointed plenipo- 
 tentiary, 139; signs Franco-Chinese 
 Convention, 139 
 
 French: attack Chinese tributaries, 
 133; Convention signed, 139, 140, 
 141; repulsed by Chinese, 141; des- 
 troy Chinese ships and arsenal, 141 ; 
 are granted concessions by China, 
 142; Government and Roman Catho- 
 lics in China, 154; reception of Ll 
 Hung-chang, 259 
 
 Trench Consulate at Tientsin, Destruc- 
 tion of, 67 
 
 Germans; and Chinese arms, 60; seize 
 Kiaochow, 274; -their demands for 
 murder of missionaries, 276; their 
 reception of Li Hung-chang, 258 
 
 Giles, Mr., and Ll Hung-chang, 196 
 
 God of Thunder, Edict for tablet to, 78 
 
 God of War, Miracles by, 73 
 
 God, River, Edict for tablet to, 78; of 
 Grand Canal, 208 
 
 God worshippers. The, 7 
 
 Goddess ol Sericulture, Worship at the 
 Temple of, 165 
 
 Goebel, Mr., and Ll Hung-chang, 206 
 
 Gordon, General, commands Imperial- 
 ists, 13; and General Chang, 19; 
 blamed for atrocities at capture <A 
 Taltsan, 20; and Burgevine, 22, 23; 
 offers Macartney his command, 28; 
 the murder of the Wangs, 30; 
 auger against Li Hung-chang, 34, 
 36; threatens to leave Imperialists. 
 31, 35; awarded first-class medal, 
 38; reconciled to Ll Hung-chang, 
 36, 41; promoted to rank of Ti-t'u, 
 44; Li Hung-chang's opinion of, 48; 
 presented with Yellow Jacket, 49; 
 compared with Hart and Macartney, 
 109; flying visit' to China in 1380, 
 129; in India, 132; accepts invlta- 
 tion from Chinese Government, 132; 
 Li Hung-chang's mysterious visit to, 
 133; visits Prince Kung, and starts 
 for England, 133 ; advice to Chinese 
 in 1880, 134; Li Hung-chang lays a 
 wrea-th on statue of, 263 
 
 Governors in China, Number of, 65 
 
 Grand Canal River God, 208 
 
 (3reat Britain: supports Manchu dyn- 
 asty, 11; occupies Port Hamilton, 
 137; its Macaulay Mission to Tibet, 
 137; indifierence ol its Government 
 to Chinese affairs 249-252, 281; Ll 
 Hung-chang in, 260; and Wei-hai- 
 wei, 277; saves lives of Chinese Re- 
 formers, 286 
 
 Grosvenor, Mr., and Margary affair, 99 
 
 Han Dynasty, First Emperor of, 166 
 Hangchow, Taipings capture, 15 
 Hankow, Taipings capture, 10; Recep- 
 tion of the Czarevitch at, 1'73 
 Hanlin College, Books stolen from, 128 
 Hanlln Reader's indictment of Li Hung- 
 chang, 341-349 
 Hanneken, Mr. von, 231 
 Hanyang, Taipings capture, 10; Iron- 
 works ins-Ututed ^at, 212 
 Harem, Imperial, Constitution of, 35 
 Hart, Sir Robert, as Inspector-Geneial 
 of Chinese Maritime Customs, 63; 
 sent to Sir Thomas Wade by Prince 
 Kung, 102; calm character of, 109; 
 peacemaker between France and 
 China, 141; attempt to supplant as 
 Inspec-tor-General of Customs, 198; 
 burning of his house, 235 
 Hayashl, Mr., and commercial treaty 
 
 between China and Japan, 253 
 Heaven, Burning of the Temple of, 169 
 Henry of Prussia, Prince, in China, 279 
 Ho-fei, Birthplace of Li Hung-chang, 5 
 Holland, Capt-aln, commands Imperial- 
 ists, 13' 
 Holland, Li Hung-chang In, 258 
 Honan, Stories concerning famine in, 
 
 123 
 Hong Kong Banking Corporation enter- 
 tains Li Hung-chang, 202 
 Hope, Sir Admiral James, and Talping 
 
 Rebellion, 11 
 Hospital, Establisliment of Chinese 
 Free, 191; Ll Hung-chang claims 
 building of, 194 
 Howard, Miss, and Lady Li, 191 
 Howard Mr., on fall of Wuchang, 10; 
 on slaughter of prisoners. 41 
 
INDEX. 
 
 353: 
 
 Hsien Feng, Emperor, flies to Jeliol, 13 
 Hsiung-nu, Invasion of China l)y, 114 
 Hual, Army ol the, LI Hung-chang's 
 
 memorial lor, 199 
 Hung Shii-chuen, originator ol Talplng 
 
 Rebellion, 7 ; becomes Tien Wang, or 
 
 Heavenly Prince, 8; Proclamation 
 
 by. 9 
 Hunter's, Eev. S. A., Chinese Manual of 
 
 Therapeutics, 184 
 
 Ignattiefl, General, and Talplng Eebel- 
 
 llon, 13 
 Imperial Domain, Li Hung-chang's pro- 
 posal to revise history ol, 83 
 Imperial five-clawed Dragon, 310 
 Imperial Harem, Constitution of, 85 
 Imperial Mausoleum, Building of an, 271 
 Indemnity : to Japan in 1874, 96 ; by 
 treaty oJ Sb. Petersburg, 136; of 
 Chino-Japanese War, 247 
 Institution for Study of Foreign Affairs, 
 
 Suggested, 119 
 Irwin, Dr., and Lady LI, 191; physician 
 to the Chinese Fleet, 192; accompan- 
 ies Li Hung-ohang to Germany and 
 Russia, 193 
 Ito, Count, concludes treaty between 
 China and Japan, 137; and Li Hung- 
 chang, 237-245 
 
 Jameson-Hooley Syndicate, 272 
 
 Japan; invades Formosa, 95 ; indemnity 
 from China, 96, 135 247; its Ambas- 
 sador slights Ll Hung-chang, 96; 
 Chinese Impression of its Embassy, 
 97; its Korean Legation attacked, 
 136; its treaty with China, 137; 
 objects to British occupation of 
 Port Hamilton, 137 ; grants an armis- 
 tice, 237, 242 («ee also Chino-Japanese 
 War) 
 
 Jauseguibftry, Admiral, on conquest of 
 Tonqnin, 139 
 
 Jehol, Emperor Hslen FSng and party 
 fly to, 13 
 
 Jones, Lieutenant Watts, Murder of, 308 
 
 Ealplng Mines, Ll Hung-chang and the, 
 127 
 
 Eang-yl, 176, 293 
 
 Kang Yu Wei, adviser to Chinese Em- 
 peror, 281; urges the Imprisonment 
 of Tze Hsi, 282 ; providential escapes 
 ot, 283; relatives decapitated, 284; 
 rescued by British, 234' 
 
 Kansuh Rebellion, 66 
 
 Kashgaria, Takub-beg's government of, 
 129; Russia retires from, 130 
 
 Kelvin, Lord, and Li Hung-chang, 260 
 
 Kla-shlng-fu, Capture of, 43 
 
 Klang-su, Ll Hung-chang appointed 
 Governor of, 12, 15 
 
 Kiaoohow, Germans seize, 274 
 
 Kim Ok Kum 136 
 
 King, Mr., Telegram ot, 301 
 
 King, Mrs. (see Howard, Miss) 
 
 Klrln and Newohwang Railway, 205 
 
 Kiuklang, Captured by Talplngs, 10; 
 Reception of the Czarevitch at, 180 
 
 Korea, Chinese troops ordered to, 215; 
 Chinese claim to, 219; Emperor 
 Kwang-Hsii on Japanese Invasion 
 of, 230 
 
 Korean Conspiracy, 136 
 
 KowsMng, Story ol the, 216 
 
 Kuel Hsalng, General, 163 
 
 Kuldja: occupied by Russians, 129; 
 fertility and resources of, 131 
 
 Kung Chao-yu, flight from Port Arthur, 
 227 
 
 Kung, Prince (see Prince Kung) 
 
 Kung Taotai leaves Port Arthur, 226; 
 forced to return, 226 ; arrest ordered,. 
 229 
 
 Kwang-Hsii, Emperor, Appearance ot^. 
 89; proclaimed Emperor. 92; Mar- 
 riage of, 163; journey to Tombs, 165; 
 ■and Marquis TsSng, 171; described, 
 by Chinese Times, 177; Edict on 
 Japanese Invasion of Korea, 230 ; an± 
 Li Hung-chang, 234, 235; appeals lor 
 help to foreign Powers, 236; recep- 
 tion of Russian Ambassadors, 268; 
 site of a mausoleum for, 270; and 
 Yung Lu, 273 ; begins a series of re- 
 forms, 278; and Prince Henry of 
 Prussia, 279; visits Prince Kung, 
 280; under guidance ol Kang Yu 
 Wei, 281; life in danger, 282; thought, 
 to be dead, 285; prison ol, 293; and 
 his guards, 294; foreigners' opinion 
 of, 294; signs abdication, 296; at SI 
 Ngan-fu, 321; returns to Peking, 329' 
 
 Kwang-tl (God of War), Miracles by, 78 
 
 La Wang, Murder of, 33 
 
 Lay, Horatio, founder of Chinese Mari- 
 time Customs, 49 
 
 Legations (see Peking) 
 
 Lessar, M., and Convention ol Man- 
 churia, 326, 327, 328 
 
 Liang, the Reformer, Literary style of, 
 110 
 
 Ll Chaow-ching, brother to Ll Hung- 
 ohang, 83 
 
 Ll Chen-kuo, instigator of murder of 
 Margary, 105 
 
 Ll Ohlng Hsui, Death of, 330 
 
 Ll Han-chang, aippolnted iio inquire- 
 into murder of Margary, 99; death 
 of mother, 143; reputation of, 162; 
 career of, 175; "loses lace," 212; 
 attempts suicide, 225; death of, 292" 
 
 Ll Hung-ohang : prominent personality 
 1-4; birthplace, 5; father, 5; educa- 
 tion, 5; secretary to Tseng Kwo- 
 fan, 6; appearauoe, 6; promoted to- 
 six degrees, 6; leads militia against, 
 rebels, 12; death of father, 12; rapid 
 promotion, 12; foreign and Chinese 
 opinion of, 13 ; first lesson in diplo- 
 macy, 14; appointed Governor of 
 Klangsu, 15; and Burgevlne, 17; 
 buys rank with guarantee money, 
 19; on conduct of Bargevlne, 23, 25; 
 in terror of Gordon, 34; awarded 
 Yellow Jacket, 38; reconciled to 
 Gordon, 36, 41; his account of cap- 
 ture of Kla-shlng-fu, 43; praise of 
 General Chang, 44; opinion of Gor- 
 don, 48; rejects Lay -Osborne Fleet, 
 50; rewarded on fall of Nanking, 
 50; and Tseng Kwo-fan, 52; plan of 
 driving the Nlenfel rebels, 54; as a 
 military general, 57; holds the 
 Grand Canal, 57; degraded three 
 steps 60; refuses to move out of 
 Shantung^ 61; restored honours, 61 j 
 as a family man 61; and Burlin- 
 game Mission, 61; promotion to 
 Chlhll, 65; made a Cabinet Minis- 
 ter, 66; protection of foreigners, 67; 
 first memorial, 71; memorials on 
 rep'alrs of Southern Canal, 73; me- 
 morial against, 80-82; proposition 
 ol having history ol Imperial Do- 
 maiu revised, 83; first audiences 
 with the Emperor, 87; midnight 
 march on Peking, 92; and boye- 
 shlma, 95; slighted by Japanese- 
 Ambassador, 96; visits Russian gun- 
 
354 
 
 LI BUNG -CHANG. 
 
 boat, 97; overcomes revolt among 
 Ills own troops, 98; and the Mar- 
 yary aflair, 99-109; resemblance to 
 Bismarck, 109; compared with 
 Chang CMh-tnng, 110; suggests In- 
 istltuUon for study of Foreign 
 Affairs, 119 ; and famine of 1878, 120 ; 
 on opium ■traffic, 124-126; mysterious 
 ■visit to Gordon, 133 ; and Count Ito, 
 137; reinstated as Viceroy, 138; 
 signs Franco-Chinese Convention, 
 139; blaimed by Empress Dowager, 
 140; death of Ms mother, 143; de- 
 parture for mother's funeral, 146; 
 denounced by his Acting Viceroy, 
 148; considers scheme for China's 
 naval defence, 151; decrees request- 
 ing him to find money, 157; his 
 choice of corrupt offloials, 159; 
 facial paralysis, 160; on repairing 
 roadway, 167; in favour of rail- 
 ways, 169; as author, 183; and 
 ■Colonel Dyer, 184; his preface to 
 Manual of Therapeutics, 185; re- 
 •ceives Purple Bridle and Eoyal 
 presents, 186; death of his wife, 188; 
 es-tabllshes Chinese Free Hospital, 
 191; domestic life, 193; bestowal of ■ 
 the name "old squire," 193; lack of 
 liberality, 194; author's interview 
 with, 195, 302; early manners, 195; 
 interview with two bicyclists, 196; 
 *nd lady newspaper writers, 197; 
 and Sir Eobert Hart, 198; renders 
 -assistance In famines, 198; his 
 memorial for the army of the Hual, 
 199; and the murdered Christians 
 of Szechuan 201 ; method of dealing 
 with superstitions, 205; and Belgian 
 ■engineers, 206; an excellent admin- 
 istrator, 206; burning of his 'cotton 
 cloth mill, 210; inspects coast naval 
 ■defences, 212; request that he may 
 retire refused, 213; receives the 
 three-eyed peacock feather, 213 ; de- 
 prived of Yellow Biding Jacket, 
 ■220 ; takes command of army against 
 Japan, 224; Chinese denounce, 227; 
 ■superseded by Uu K'un-yi, 225, 229; 
 despatch on Mr. Detring's mis- 
 sion to Japan, 230; and end 
 ■of Japanese War, 232; visits 
 to Peking, 233, 235; and the 
 Emperor, 234, 235; appointed Pleni- 
 potentiary, 236; fired upon by 
 Japanese fanatic, 237, 242 ; and Count 
 Ito, 237-245; protected by Dowager 
 Empress, 247 ; made Prime Minister, 
 252; appointed special Envoy to 
 Emperor of Bussla, 254; banquet 
 given to, 254, 256; reception at 
 ■Odessa, 257; In Germany, 258; In 
 Holland, 258; In France, 259; In 
 "England, 260, 262; in New York, 261; 
 ■and the Duke of Devonshire, 262; 
 and statue of Gordon, 263; his 
 liomeoomlng, 263; sentence of loss 
 of rank and titles commuted to loss 
 of year's salary, 265; and Russia, 
 '266, 277; appointed to the Tsungll 
 YamSn, 267; appointed Chief Ex- 
 aminer of Wuying Throne Hall, 271; 
 and KeJorm movement, 272; ap- 
 pointed Chief Examiner of Essays, 
 '273; and German occupation of 
 Kiaochow, 275; pelted at Singapore, 
 278; seoond attack on his life, 
 279; and Sir Claude Maodonald, 
 ■231; appointed Inspector of De- 
 3)artment of Promulgated Edicts, 
 281; starts for the Yellow Eiver, 
 
 285; audiences with Tze-Hsl, 
 285, 287; and Anglo-Russian Con- 
 vention, 288; appointed Presi-- 
 dent of Court of liast Appeal, 292 ;■ 
 made Viceroy of Canton, 295; tblrd 
 attempt on his life, 303; on Amerl-^ 
 can occupation of Philippines, 310; 
 in Canton, 311 ; orders Black Flags to 
 march on Peking, 313; in Shanghai, 
 314; apoointed Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary, 314; at Tientsin, 316, 317; 
 his telegrams to Empress Dowager, 
 320; returns to Peking, 324; ap- 
 pointed to act as Regent, 325; Ill- 
 ness, 326, 327; death, 328; funeral, 
 329 ; estimation of his character, 330- 
 332; memorial indicting, 341-349 
 
 Li Hung-tsao, 271 
 
 Ll-Ito Treaty, Terms of, 247 ^' 
 
 Li, Lady, Death of, 188; funeral, 188; 
 goodness of, 190 
 
 LI Llen-ylng, 158 ; reported death of, 313 
 
 LI, Lord, 161, 162; appointed Minister 
 to Japan, 173; retires on dea^th of 
 adoptive mother, 188; Japanese 
 opinion of, 183; Li Hung-ohang's 
 adoption of, 193; builds new house 
 at Wuhu, 252 
 
 Li Ping-heng, Cowardice of, 316 
 
 Lister, Sir Joseph, and Li Hung-chang, 
 261 
 
 Little, Mr. Archibald, on Chines© mas- 
 sacres, 42; on Li Hung-chang, 184 
 
 Little, Mr. R. W., and Cassinl Conven- 
 tion, 277 
 
 Little's, Mrs., Interview with Li Hung- 
 chang, 195, 302 
 
 Liu, Commodore, commits suicide, 232 
 
 Liu K'un-yi, European lives saved by, 
 117; fondness for opium and Mor- 
 monlsm, 175; and exporta^tlon of 
 Chinese labourers, 211 ; " loses face," 
 212; supersedes LI Hung-chang, 22S, 
 229 
 
 Liu Plng-chang and British Govern- 
 ment, 159 ; and murdered Christians, 
 201; degradatioQ of, 252 
 
 Llvadia, Treaty of, 130 
 
 Lo Feng-luh, Mr., Quotation from 
 speech of, 202; appointed Customs 
 Taotai of Tientsin, 203; his service 
 in Boxer troubles, 203; denounced, 
 254 ; appointed Chief Secretary ■to LI 
 Hiing-chang 256 
 
 lK>tl's, Pierre description of Ll Hung- 
 chang in Pekln In 1900, 325 
 
 L-ii, Empress-Dowager, Story of, 166, 167 
 
 L-ii-ohou-fu, Taiping outbreak at, 12 
 
 Lutal, Chinese camp 'at, 278 
 
 Macao, Portuguese occupation of, 155 
 Macartney, Sir Halliday, desires to 
 enter Chinese employ, 18; Chinese 
 command offered by Gordon, 28; his 
 account of the murder of the Wangs, 
 34; as peacemaker between Gordon 
 and Ll Hung-chang, 36; appointed 
 to act in conjunction with the Fu 
 of Nanking, 53; calm character of, 
 109 
 Macaulay Mission to Thibet, 137 
 Maodonald. Sir Claude, and Ll Hung- 
 chang, 281 
 Mackenzie, Dr., and Lady L!, 191; death 
 
 of, 194 
 Maltomedans Invade Ohlhli, 59 
 Manchu Dynasty, British support of, 11 
 Manchuria, Russiaxi Minister and, 326, 
 
 327, 328 
 Manchus, Ll Hung-chang's opinion of, 
 207 
 
INDEX. 
 
 355 
 
 aiargary .Murder ol thelnterpreter,99-100 
 Mausoleum, Imperial, Building ol an,271 
 -Medical College, Completion of, 207 
 Medical School, U Hung-chang's, 208 
 Memorials quoted, 68, 71, 73-75, 80, 91, 
 104, 112-117, 144, 145, 167; against 
 Russian treaty, 131-333-340; indict- 
 ment of LI Hung-diang, 341-349 
 Meng Liang's scheme in warfare, HI 
 JMlchie, Mr., on Lay-Osboome Fleet, 49; 
 on schemes of Chang-Chlh-tung, 110 ; 
 on troubles of China, 129;' on Japan- 
 ese War, 215; leaves lor Japan, 225; 
 on defeat of China, 249 
 Mitklewlcz, Count, 158 
 Mo Wang, Murder of 19, 41 
 Mourning Chinese term of, 144 
 3i:urray, Mr., and Blind School In 
 Peking, 193 
 
 Nanking, taken by Talplngs, 10; a 
 voice from, 16, 21, 26; taken by Im- 
 perialists, 50 
 N^grier, General, wounded, 141 
 TJew York, LI Hung-chang In, 261 
 Nganklng, 10; taken by Talplnga, 10 
 Nienfel, Great drive of, 54 ; slaughter of, 
 
 58 
 Iforth China Herald quoted, 63, 166, 216; 
 
 Author's indebtedness to, 112 
 Northern Cathedral, Dowager Empress' 
 objection to, 153 
 
 ■Odessa, Li Hung-chang's arrival at, 257 
 
 Okubo, Ambassador, slights LI Hung- 
 chang, 96 
 
 Opium: Chang Chih-tung on, 112; LI 
 Hung-chang on trafBc, 124-126; smok- 
 ing compared with drunkenness, 127 
 
 Osborne, Captain Sherard, and Chinese 
 Fleet, 49 
 
 Pamirs question, 202 
 
 Pan-koo, Chinese author, 185 
 
 Paotlng Fu, 320 
 
 Parkes, Sir Harry, on fall of Wuchang, 
 10; Li Hung-chang's opinion of, 197 
 
 Peace negotiations after Chlno-Japanese 
 War, 233-245 
 
 Peace treaty signed, Japanese, 245; 
 Terms of, 247 
 
 Pelho, Japanese Embassy upon the, 97 
 
 Teklng, Chinese ofSdals' wariness in 
 visiting, 52; LI Hung-chang's mid- 
 night march on, 92; supposed mas- 
 sacre of Europeans In, Sll; Lega- 
 tions reported safe, 312; Empress 
 Dowager disclaims attack upon Lega- 
 tions, 315; Dowager Empress flies 
 from, 317 ; cleaning of, 321 ; suicides 
 In, 322; Li Hung-chang's return to, 
 324; Emperor and Dowager Empress 
 returns to, 329; campaign, 13 
 
 Teking Gazette quoted, 40, 43, 48, 58, 87, 
 160, 163, 224 
 
 Peking Syndicate, 282, 308 
 
 Pethick, Mr., Death of, 329 
 
 Philippines, Li Hung-chang on Ameri- 
 can occupation of, 310 
 
 Pien Pao-ohuen, memorialises Throne 
 against Li Hung-chang, 80-182 
 
 Pilgrimage, Emperor Tung-Chlh'fl State, 
 88 
 
 Port Arthur, Offer of money to save, 
 225 ; fall of, 225 ; Chinese General's 
 flight from, 226 ; Eussian occupies, 276 
 
 Port Hamilton, British occupation of,137 
 
 Portugal, Chinese treaty with, 155 
 
 Primorski, Eusslans obtain, 13 
 
 Prince Chlng made President of the 
 Tsungll Yam6n, 138 
 
 Prince Ch'un at Berlin, 96; visits Port 
 
 Arthur, 152; attacked by paralysis, 
 
 162; death of, 173 
 Prince George oi Greece In Ohliia, 178 
 Prince Henry of Prussia In China, 279 
 Prince Kung, deceived by Russia, 13i 
 
 despatcli on the Margary aflair, 100 ; 
 
 consults with Sir Robert Hart, 102; 
 
 dismissed as Minister of Foreign 
 
 Affairs, 137; recalled to take ofSce, 
 
 224 
 Prince Tai Shu, Punishment of, 270 
 Prince Tuan, Character of, 313 
 
 Qulusain, Atrocities at capture of, 21 
 
 Railways, Chinese Edict concerning, 169 
 Reform movement in China, 272, 286 
 Reld, Rev. Gilbert, and LI Hung-chang, 
 
 267 
 Richards, Mr., and British Legation, 
 
 283; and Chinese Reformers, 286 
 River God, Edict for tablet to, 78 
 River God of the Grand Canal, 203 
 Roberts, Mr., and God-worshippers, 7 
 Roman Catholic Church in China, 154 
 Roza, Seuhor, at Tientsin, 155 
 Russia, and Talplng Rebellion, 13 ; oflers 
 help to Imperialists, 13, 17; Chang- 
 Chih-tung's memorial against 
 treaty with, 131, 333-340; occu- 
 pies Kuldja, 129, 131; retires 
 from Kashgaria, 130; objects to 
 British occupation of Port Hamil- 
 ton, 137; method of dealing with 
 Chinese Ministers, 182 ; and Li Hung- 
 chang, 266; Kwang-Hsil's reception 
 of Ambassadors from, 268; occupies 
 Port Arthur, 276; places General 
 over Chinese camp at Lutai, 278; 
 ofiers to suppress Boxer rebellion, 
 298; Legation shields Chinese crim- 
 inals, 318 ; and Manchuria, 326,327, 328 
 
 St. Petersburg, Treaty of, 135 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, and Russia, 277 
 
 Sericulture, Worship at the Temple ol 
 the Goddess of, 165 
 
 Shang, Administrator, 159 
 
 Shang Sha, Talplngs beaten back at, 9 
 
 Shang Taotai oSers money to save Port 
 Arthur, 225 
 
 Shanghai opened to foreign trade in 
 1843, 12; LI Hung-chang's recep- 
 tion in, 314; Chinese objection to 
 British landing at, 315 
 
 Shanghai Arsenal, Proclamation from, 
 223 
 
 Shanghai Banking Corporation enter- 
 tains LI Hung-chang, 202 
 
 Shanghai paper quoted, 39, 53, 97, 146, 
 303-306 
 
 Shansi, Famine in, 199; foreigners 
 massacred in, 306: flight from, 308 
 
 Shan-tung, Li Hung-chang ordered to, 57 
 
 Shen-yao, Famine stories quoted from 
 the, 123 
 
 SMhpao, Extract from, 172 
 
 Si Ngan-fu, Empress Dowager at, 321 
 
 Siberia, Chinese in, 130 
 
 Sieh, Character of, 101 
 
 Singapore, Li Hung-chang pelted at, 278 
 
 Sontay, French seize, 138 
 
 Soochow, taken by Talplngs, 15; sur- 
 rendered to the Imperialists, 29; 
 Gordon's account of, 30; murder of 
 the Wangs, 33, 41 ; ofllcial account of 
 Its capture, 37 
 
 Southern Canal, LI Hung-chang on 
 repair of, 73 
 
 Soyeshlma and Li Hung-chang, 95 
 
 State Pilgrimage, Emperor Tung-ohlh's, 
 
356 
 
 LI HUNO- CHANG. 
 
 Starely, General, refuses to remove 
 Burgevlne, 17 
 
 Suicides In Peking, 322 
 
 Szechaan, LI Hung-cbang and tlie mur- 
 dered CJhrlstians of, 201 
 
 Talplng Rebellion, Its rise and origin- 
 ator, 7; success of, 9; fall of Wu- 
 chang, 10; fall of Nanking, 10; what 
 might have occurred If not quelled, 
 11; and Russia, 13; fall of Hang- 
 chow, and Sooohow, 15 ; brings about 
 Influx of foreigners, 16; TMtsan cap- 
 tured by Imperialists, 20; surrender 
 of Soochow to Imperialists, 29; mur- 
 der of the Wangs, 33, 41 ; bloodshed 
 In, 42; end of, 50; aftermath of, 51 
 Taitsan, Atrocities at capture of, 20 
 Takee and Burgevlne, 17 
 Tan Tze-tung, Decapitation of, 284 
 Tatson, Massacre of Christians at, 201 
 Telegraph Convention, 155 
 Temple of Heaven, Burning of the, 169 
 Tientsin, Massacre of, in 1870, 67; row- 
 dies put down by LI Hung-chang, 
 84; Japanese Embassy enter, 97; 
 attack on Japanese, 221; banquet to 
 H Hung-chang in, 254-256 
 Tientsin paper. Extract from, 148 
 Times, The, and Chinese Reformers, 286 
 Ting, Admiral, censured, 229 ; sends flag 
 01 truce to Japanese Admiral, 232; 
 commits suicide, 232 
 Tongku, Chinese attack on Japanese at, 
 
 Tonquln, Black Flags in, 138 
 
 Treaties: of Livadia, 130; of St. Peters- 
 burg, 135; Franco-Chinese, 139, 140, 
 141; between Portugal and China, 
 155; with Japan, 245, 247 
 
 Tsal Shu, Prince, Punishment of, 270 
 
 TsSn, Governor, Ch'aracter of, 100; and 
 murder of Margary, 101 
 
 TsSng Kwo-tam made marquis, 50; and 
 LI Hung-chang, 52; respected by 
 foreigners, 67; memorial to the 
 Throne, 68 ; Chinese reverence for, 70 
 
 Tstog, Marquis, concludes treaty of St. 
 Petersburg, 135; Chinese and for- 
 eigners' opinion of, 170; and the 
 Emperor Kwang-Hsu, 171; death of, 
 171, 172 
 
 Tso Tsung-Tang. General, and Kansuh 
 rebellion, 66; appointed Commis- 
 sioner of Trade for Southern Ports, 
 68 ; famous march of, 129 
 
 Tsz-An, Empress, Death of 91, 137 
 
 Tuan, Prince, Character oi, 313 
 
 Tung Tu-hsalng, General proposes to 
 drive foreigners into the sea, 285 
 
 Tung-chih, Emperor, at age of twelve, 
 85; selection oS his wives, 85; wed- 
 ding guests, 86; takes power in own 
 hands, 86; fines Li Hung-chang, 87; 
 makes a State pilgrimage, 88; mau- 
 soleum prepared for, 88 ; his return 
 from Tombs described, 89 ; death of, 
 90 
 
 Tungting Lake, Taipings cross, 10 
 
 Tze-Hsi, Dowager Empress and the 
 Emperor Hslen F6ng, 13; hand- 
 writing of, 86; accusations of mur- 
 der against, 91; proclaims Kwang- 
 Hsvi emperor, 92; appeals to Li 
 Hung-chang for protection, 92; 
 marries her niece to the Emperor, 
 163; beliefs concerning her birth, 
 165; possible judgmemt by future I 
 
 ages, 167; said to be fond of opium 
 and Mormonlsm, 175; her presents 
 to LI Hung-chang, 187; story of her 
 eighteen lamps, 209; birthday hon- 
 ours for, 213; beautiful palace, 224; 
 decree degrading two concubines, 
 231; desire for money, 236; protects 
 LI Hung-chang 247; and death of 
 Emperor's mother, 266; banquet to 
 Russian Ambassadors, 268; visits 
 Prince Eung, 280; proposed im- 
 prisonment of, 282; massing of 
 troops by, 284; and Ll Hung-chang, 
 285, 286; her power in Peking, 289; 
 compels Emperor to sign abdica- 
 tion, 296; her despatches to "Vice- 
 roys and Governors, 296-298; and 
 telegram of Mr. King, 301; and 
 Boxers, 304, 309; disclaims attack 
 on Legations, 315 ; flies from Peking, 
 317; and the Allied Powers, 318-320; 
 amusements at Si Ngan-fu, 321; on 
 death of Li Hung-chang, 328 ; return* 
 to Peking, 329 
 Tze Jnl, 231 
 
 TTchtomsky, Prince, In China, 269 
 
 Viceregal reviews, Scenic effect of, 14T 
 Viceroys in China, Number of, 65 
 Virblest, Pfere, German missionary, 60 
 
 Wade, Sir Thomas, mediates between 
 China and Japan, 96; and the Mar- 
 gary affair, 99-109 
 
 Wang, Censor, and Boxers, 304 
 
 Wangs, Murder of, 33, 41 
 
 Ward, Leader of Imperialists, 15 
 
 Warren, Sir Pelham European lives 
 saved by, 117; " The well-informed," 
 250 
 
 Wei Ju-ch'eng's flight from Port Arthur. 
 227 
 
 Wei Ju-Kuel, General, beheaded, 225 
 
 Wei-hai-wel, Capitulation of, 232 
 
 Wen Ting-shlh advises Emperor to ask 
 for British protection, 280 
 
 Weng Tung-ho. degraded, 281 
 
 Wilson, Mr., on Chinese attack at 
 Tongku, 221 
 
 Writing, Beauty of Chinese, 86 
 
 Wu, Empress, Story of, 166 
 
 Wu T'lng-fang, Mr., appointed director- 
 general of North China Railways, 
 203 ; his service in Boxer troubles, 205 
 
 Wuchang taken by Taipings, 10 
 
 Takub-beg, Independent Government 
 
 of, 129 
 Tangchow taken by Taipings, 11 
 Teh-ho-na-la appointed Empress, 163; 
 
 her first State function, 165 ' 
 Yellow River as a source of revenue to 
 
 Chinese ofBoials, 73 
 Yu Hslen, 292; and Boxer outbreak, 
 
 299; massacres of foreigners, 307; 
 
 death of, 308 
 Yu-lu, General, and the Eirln railway, 
 
 205 
 Yuan Shlh-kai appointed to command 
 
 in Korea, 222; betrays plot to con- 
 fine Tze-Hsi, 282 
 Yung Lu, 273: orders ten thousand men 
 
 into Peking, 284; friendliness to 
 
 Great Britain, 305 
 Yung-ngan, Taipings capture, 7 
 Yung-ting, Ll Hung-chang on flooding 
 
 of, 74 
 
 Printi;!! by Cassbll and Compasy, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.G. 
 
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