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Court Life in China-Part16_Issac Taylor Headland(1859-1942)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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PRINCE CHUN--THE REGENT

The selection of Prince Chun as Regent for the Chinese empire



during the minority of his son, Pu I, the new Emperor, would seem

to be the wisest choice that could be made at the present time.



In the first place, he is the younger brother of Kuang Hsu, the

late Emperor, and was in sympathy with all the reforms the latter



undertook to introduce in 1898. If Kuang Hsu had chosen his

successor, having no son of his own, there is no reason why he



should not have selected Pu I to occupy the throne, with Prince

Chun as Regent, for there is no other prince in whom he could



have reposed greater confidence of having all his reform measures

carried to a successful issue; and a brother with whom he had



always lived in sympathy would be more likely to continue his

policy than any one else.



But, in the second place, as we may suppose, Prince Chun was

selected by the Empress Dowager, whatever the edicts issued, and



will thus have the confidence of the party of which she has been

the leader. It is quite wrong to suppose that this is the



conservative party, or even a conservative party. China has both

reform and conservative parties, but, in addition to these, she



has many wise men and great officials who are neither radical

reformers nor ultra-conservatives. It was these men with whom the



Empress Dowager allied herself after the Boxer troubles of 1900.

These men were Li Hung-chang, Chang Chih-tung, Yuan Shih-kai,



Prince Ching, and others, and it is they who, in ten years, with

the Empress Dowager, put into operation, in a statesmanlike way,



all the reforms that Kuang Hsu, with his hot-headed young radical

advisers, attempted to force upon the country in as many weeks.



There is every reason to believe that Prince Chun, the present

Regent, has the support of all the wiser and better element of



the Reform party, as well as those great men who have been

successful in tiding China over the ten most difficult years of



her history, while the ultra-conservatives at this late date are

too few or too weak to deserve serious consideration. We,



therefore, think that the choice of Pu I as Emperor, with Prince

Chun as Regent, whether by the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, or



both, was, all things considered, the best selection that could

have been made.



Prince Chun is the son of the Seventh Prince, the nephew of the

Emperor Hsien Feng and the Empress Dowager, and grandson of the



Emperor Tao Kuang. He has a fine face, clear eye, firm mouth,

with a tendency to reticence. He carries himself very straight,



and while below the average in height, is every inch a prince. He

is dignified, intelligent, and, though not loquacious, never at a



loss for a topic of conversation. He is not inclined to small

talk, but when among men of his own rank, he does not hesitate to



indulge in bits of humour.

This was rather amusingly illustrated at a dinner given by the



late Major Conger, American minister to China. Major and Mrs.

Conger introduced many innovations into the social life of



Peking, and none more important than the dinners and luncheons

given to the princes and high officials, and also to the



princesses and ladies of the court. In 1904, I was invited to

dine with Major Conger and help entertain Prince Chun, Prince Pu



Lun, Prince Ching, Governor Hu, Na T'ung, and a number of other

princes and officials of high rank. I sat between Prince Chun and



Governor Hu. Having met them both on several former occasions, I

was not a stranger to either of them, and as they were well



acquainted with each other, though one was a Manchu prince and

the other a Chinese official, conversation was easy and natural.



We talked, of course, in Chinese only, of the improvements and

advantages that railroads bring to a country, for Governor Hu,



among other things, was the superintendent of the Imperial

Railways of north China. This led us to speak of the relative



comforts of travel by land and by sea, for Prince Chun had gone

half round the world and back. We listened to the American



minister toasting the young Emperor of China, his princes, and

his subjects; and then to Prince Ching toasting the young



President of the United States, his officials, and his people, in

a most dignified and eloquent manner. And then as the buzz of



conversation went round the table again, and perhaps because of

their having spoken of the YOUNG Emperor and the young President,



I turned to Governor Hu, who had an unusually long, white beard

which reached almost to his waist as he sat at table, and said:



"Your Excellency, what is your honourable age?"




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