The Emperor Kuang Hsu is slight and delicate, almost childish in
appearance, of pale olive complexion, and with great, melancholy
eyes. There is a gentleness in his expression that speaks rather
of dreaming than of the power to turn dreams into acts. It is
strange to find a personality so etherial among the descendants
of the Mongol hordes; yet the Emperor Kuaug Hsu might sit as a
model for some Oriental saint on the threshold of the highest
beatitude. --Charles Johnston in "The Crisis in China."



VIII

KUANG HSU--HIS SELF-DEVELOPMENT

On the night that the son of the Empress Dowager "ascended upon
the dragon to be a guest on high," two sedan chairs were borne
out of the west gate of the Forbidden City, through the Imperial
City, and into the western part of the Tartar City, in one of
which sat the senior Empress and in the other the Empress-mother.
The streets were dimly lighted, but the chairs, each carried by
four bearers, were preceded and followed by outriders bearing
large silk lanterns in which were tallow-candles, while a heavy
cart with relays of bearers brought up the rear. The errand upon
which they were bent was an important one--the making of an
emperor--for by the death of Tung Chih, the throne, for the first
time in the history of the dynasty, was left without an heir.
Their destination was the home of the Seventh Prince, the younger
brother of their husband, to whom as we have already said the
Empress Dowager had succeeded in marrying her younger sister, who