Sheepskins, horses, and ammunition in large
quantities were also dispatched to the far west, and General Kinshun, the
Manchu general, was intrusted with the command of the army in the field.
The year 1874 witnessed an event that claims notice. There never has been
much good will between China and her neighbors in Japan. The latter are
too independent in their bearing to please the advocates of Chinese
predominance, at the same time that their insular position has left them
safe from the attack of the Pekin government. The attempt made by the
Mongol, Kublai Khan, to subdue these islanders had been too disastrous to
invite repetition. In Corea the pretensions of the ruler of Yeddo had been
repelled, if not crushed; but wherever the sea intervened the advantage
rested more or less decisively with him. The island of Formosa is
dependent upon China, and the western districts are governed by officials
duly appointed by the Viceroy of Fuhkien. But the eastern half of the
island, separated from the cultivated districts by a range of mountains
covered with dense if not impenetrable forests, is held by tribes who own
no one's authority, and who act as they deem fit. In the year 1868 or 1869
a junk from Loochoo was wrecked on this coast, and the crew were murdered
by the islanders. The civil war in Japan prevented any prompt claim for
reparation, but in 1873 the affair was revived, and a demand made at Pekin
for compensation. The demand was refused, whereupon the Japanese, taking
the law into their own hands, sent an expedition to Formosa. China replied
with a counter-demonstration, and war seemed inevitable. In this crisis
Mr. Wade offered his good services in the interests of peace, and after
considerable controversy he succeeded in bringing the two governments to
reason. The Chinese paid an indemnity of half a million taels, and the
Japanese evacuated the island.
In all countries governed by an absolute sovereign it is as interesting as
it is difficult to obtain some accurate knowledge of the character of the
autocrat. A most important change had been effected in the government of
China, yet it is impossible to discover what its precise significance was,
or to say how far it influenced the fortunes of the country. The empresses
had retired into private life, and for a time their regency came to an
end. Prince Kung was only the minister of a young prince who had it in his
power to guide affairs exactly as he might feel personally disposed.
Prince Kung might be either the real governor of the state or only the
courtier of his nephew. It depended solely on that prince's character.
There were not wanting signs that Tungche had the consciousness, if not
the capacity, of supreme power, and that he wished his will to be
paramount. Such evidence as was obtainable agreed in stating that he was
impatient of restraint, and that the prudent reflections of his uncle were
not overmuch to his fancy. On September 10 the young ruler took the world
into his confidence by announcing in a Vermilion Edict that he had
degraded Prince Kung and his son in their hereditary rank as princes of
the empire, for using "language in very many respects unbecoming." Whether
Tungche took this very decided step in a moment of pique or because he
perceived that there was a plan among his chief relatives to keep him in
leading-strings, must remain a matter of opinion. At the least he must
have refused to personally retract what he had done, for on the very
following day (September 11) a decree appeared from the two empresses
reinstating Prince Kung and his son in their hereditary rank and dignity,
and thus reasserting the power of the ex-regents.
Not long after this disturbance in the interior of the palace, of which
only the ripple reached the surface of publicity, there were rumors that
the emperor's health was in a precarious state, and in the month of
December it became known that Tungche was seriously ill with an attack of
smallpox. The disease seemed to be making satisfactory progress, for the
doctors were rewarded; but on December 18 an edict appeared ordering or
requesting the empresses dowager to assume the personal charge of the
administration. Six days later another edict appeared which strengthened
the impression that the emperor was making good progress toward recovery.
But appearances were deceptive, for, after several weeks' uncertainty, it
became known that the emperor's death was inevitable. On January 12, 1875,
Tungche "ascended upon the Dragon, to be a guest on high," without leaving
any offspring to succeed him. There were rumors that his illness was only
a plausible excuse, and that he was really the victim of foul play; but it
is not likely that the truth on that point will ever be revealed. Whether
he was the victim of an intrigue similar to that which had marked his
accession to power, or whether he only died from the neglect or
incompetence of his medical attendants, the consequences were equally
favorable to the personal views of the two empresses and Prince Kung. They
resumed the exercise of that supreme authority which they had resigned
little more than twelve months. The most suspicious circumstance in
connection with this event was the treatment of the young Empress Ahluta,
who, it was well known, was pregnant at the time of her husband's death.
Instead of waiting to decide as to the succession until it was known
whether Tungche's posthumous child would prove to be a son or a daughter,
the empresses dowager hastened to make another selection and to place the
young widow of the deceased sovereign in a state of honorable confinement.
Their motive was plain. Had Ahluta's child happened to be a son, he would
have been the legal emperor, as well as the heir by direct descent, and
she herself could not have been excluded from a prominent share in the
government.
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