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He then began the study of English. When in 1894 a New Testament
was sent to the Empress Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth
birthday, he at once secured from the American Bible Society a
copy of the complete Bible for himself. He began studying the
Gospel of Luke. This gave him a taste for foreign literature and
he sent his eunuchs to the various book depositories and bought
every book that had been translated from the European languages
into the Chinese. To these he bent all his energies and it soon
became noised abroad that the Emperor was studying foreign books
and was about to embrace the Christian faith. This continued from
1894 till 1898, during which time his example was followed by
tens of thousands of young Chinese scholars throughout the
empire, and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making book "China's
Only Hope" which, being sent to the young Emperor, led him to
enter upon a universal reform, the chief feature of which may be
considered the adoption of a new educational system.
But now let us notice the animus of Kuang Hsu. He has been
praised without stint for his leaning towards foreign affairs,
when in reality was it not simply an effort on the part of the
young man to make China strong enough to resist the incursions of
the European powers? Germany had taken Kiaochou, Russia had taken
Port Arthur, Japan had taken Formosa, Great Britain had taken
Weihaiwei, France had taken Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was
anxious to have a slice of his territory, while all the English
papers in the port cities were talking of China being divided up
amongst the Powers, and it was these things which led the Emperor
to enter upon his work of reform
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