Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland

Name: China Under the Empress Dowager — Chapter 8 Tzǔ Hsi becomes sole regent
Author: Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland

China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

Summary

“China Under the Empress Dowager — Chapter 8 Tzǔ Hsi becomes sole regent”, published in 1914, is a work by Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland. It explores elements such as Tzǔ Hsi, Prince Kung and the Grand Council.

Quotes from China Under the Empress Dowager… (Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland)

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ In the innocence of his lonely youth he frequented therefore the Eastern Palace, while Tzǔ Hsi, whose pride could brook no rivals, even in the heart of a child, was compelled to look on, and to realise that the forming of the future ruler's mind was in the hands of another woman. There were not lacking those who told her that her colleague, secretly and with ulterior motives, encouraged the boy to oppose and displease her. Under these conditions, it was inevitable that the young Emperor should gradually become a cause of increasing jealousy and friction between the two women. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ Tzǔ Hsi undoubtedly resented the boy's predilection as much as her colleague's action in encouraging it. At Court, where everyone and everything is a potential instrument for intrigue and party faction, the young Emperor's attitude could not fail to cause her grave concern. She was well aware that Tzǔ An could never become, of herself, a formidable rival, but should she hereafter enjoy the Emperor's confidence and support, and instigate him to become the centre of a faction against her (which he did) , there might be danger in the situation for herself. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ As a concubine, etiquette required her, during the sacrifice, to take a position on one side and slightly in the rear, while the vacant place of honour to Tzǔ An's left belonged to the shade of Hsien-Feng's first consort, who had died before his accession, but had been posthumously raised to the rank of Senior Empress. Tzǔ Hsi, realising that this indignity was put upon her at the instigation of Prince Kung and the Princes of the Imperial family, had no intention of submitting, and peremptorily insisted upon taking the position to which her actual rank and authority entitled her. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ When Their Majestics arrived at the grave of Hsien-Feng, there was serious friction. Tzǔ An, as the senior Consort of the deceased monarch, claimed as her right the central position, at the same time relegating her colleague to the place on her right, leaving the place of honour on the left unoccupied. Not content with this, Tzǔ An went on to remind her Co-Regent that, where sacrifices to Hsien-Feng were in question, Tzǔ Hsi was entitled only to claim precedence as a senior concubine, her elevation to the position of Empress Mother having taken place after his decease. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ In the atmosphere of an Oriental Court such charges are as inevitable as they are incapable of proof or disproof, and were it not for the unfortunate fact that those who stood in the way of Tzǔ Hsi's ambitions, or who incurred her displeasure, frequently failed to survive it, we should he justified in refusing to attach importance to the imputations of foul play raised on this and other occasions. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ After the issue of the above Decree, Prince Kung was succeeded in office by Prince Li, the head of the eight Princely families and a descendant of a younger son of Nurhachi. With him were associated on the Grand Council, amongst others, the elder brother of Chang Chih-tung and Sun Yu-wen. [4] The latter was a bitter enemy of the Imperial Tutor, Weng T'ung-ho. In appointing him to the Council, Tzǔ Hsi followed her favourite tactics of creating dissension among her advisers and maintaining the equilibrium of her own authority as the resultant of their conflicting forces. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland, China Under the Empress Dowager… (1914)

“ The immediate pretext for their dismissal was the destruction of the Chinese fleet of junks by the French in the Min River, but Her Majesty's real reason was that she believed that the Prince was intriguing against her with the young Emperor, and that he was to some extent responsible for a recent Memorial, in which several Censors had roundly denounced her for depraved morals and boundless extravagance. ”

Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland

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Quotes from China Under the Empress Dowager… (Edmund Trelawny Backhouse and John Otway Percy Bland)

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