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. Which is a
consummation, I think, devoutly to be wished.
XX
Peking--The City of the Court
The position of Peking at the present time is one of peculiar
interest, for all the different forces that are now at work to
make or mar China issue from, or converge towards, the capital.
There, on the dragon throne, beside, or rather above, the
powerless and unhappy Emperor, the father of his people and their
god, sits the astute and ever-watchful lady whose word is law to
Emperor, minister and clown alike. There dwell the heads of the
government boards, the leaders of the Manchu aristocracy, and the
great political parties, the drafters of new constitutions and
imperial decrees, and the keen-witted diplomatists who know so
well how to play against European antagonists the great game of
international chess.
--R. F. Johnston in "From Peking to Mandelay."
XX
PEKING--THE CITY OF THE COURT
In the place where Peking now stands there has been a city for
three thousand years. Five centuries before Christ it was the
capital of a small state, but was destroyed three centuries later
by the builder of the great wall. It was soon rebuilt, however,
and has continued from that time until the present, with varied
fortunes, as the capital of a state, the chief city of a
department, or the dwelling-place of the court.
It is the greatest and best preserved walled city in the empire,
if not in the world
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