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. To the empresses dowager one child on the throne mattered no
more than another; but it was a question of the first importance that
Ahluta should be set on one side. In such an atmosphere there is often
grievous peril to the lives of inconvenient personages. Ahluta sickened
and died. Her child was never born. The charitable gave her credit for
having refused food through grief for her husband, Tungche. The skeptical
listened to the details of her illness with scorn for the vain efforts to
obscure the dark deeds of ambition. In their extreme anxiety to realize
their own designs, and at the same time not to injure the constitution,
the two empresses had been obliged to resort to a plan that could only
have been suggested by desperation. For the first time since the Manchu
dynasty occupied the throne it was necessary to depart from the due line
of succession, and to make the election of the sovereign a matter of
individual fancy or favor instead of one of inheritance.
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