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On the death of the Emperor, a regency was organized by two of
the princes, which did not include Prince Kung, and disregarded
both of the dowagers, and it seemed as though Prince Kung was
doomed. His father-in-law, however, the old statesman who had
signed the treaties, urged him to be the first to get the ear of
the two women on their return to the capital. This he did, and as
it seemed evident that the regency and the council had been
organized for the express purpose of tyrannizing over the
Empresses and the child, they were at once arrested, the leader
beheaded, and the others condemned to exile or to suicide. The
child had been placed upon the throne as "good-luck," but now a
new regency was formed, consisting of the two dowagers, with
Prince Kung as joint regent, and the title of the reign was
changed to Tung Chih or "joint government." Thus ended the
Empress Dowager's years of training.
III
The Empress Dowager--As a Ruler
That a Manchu woman who had had such narrow opportunities of
obtaining a knowledge of things as they really are, in
distinction from the tissue of shams which constitute the warp
and the woof of an Oriental Palace, should have been able to hold
her own in every situation, and never be crushed by the opposing
forces about her, is a phenomenon in itself only to be explained
by due recognition of the influence of individual qualities in a
ruler even in the semi-absolutism of China
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