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IV
The Empress Dowager--As a Reactionist
The most interesting personage in China during the past thirty
years has been and still is without doubt the lady whom we style
the Empress Dowager. The character of the Empress's rule can only
be judged by what it was during the regency, when she was at the
head of every movement that partook of the character of reform.
Foreign diplomacy has failed, for want of a definite centre of
volition and sensation to act upon. It had no fulcrum for its
lever. Hence only force has ever succeeded in China. With a woman
like the Empress might it not be possible really to transact
business? --Blackwood's Magazine.
IV
THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A REACTIONIST
It was between November 1, 1897, and April 16, 1898, that
Germany, Russia, France and England wrested from the weak hands
of the Emperor Kuang Hsu the four best ports in the Chinese
empire, leaving China without a place to rendezvous a fleet. The
whole empire was aroused to indignation, and even in our
Christian schools, every essay, oration, dialogue or debate was a
discussion of some phase of the subject, "How to reform and
strengthen China." The students all thought, the young reformers
all thought, and the foreigners all thought that Kuang Hsu had
struck the right track. The great Chinese officials, however,
were in doubt, and it was because of their doubt--progressives as
well as conservatives--that the Empress Dowager was again called
to the throne
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