Another was Pien-liang,
"The Bridge of Pien," one of the names of the present city of
K'ai-fung-fu. That bridge has long since disappeared; but the name
adheres to the city.
What an unstable foundation on which to erect a seat of empire!
Yet the capital has been located in this vicinity more than once
or twice within the last twenty-five centuries. The first occasion
was during the dynasty of Chou (1100 B. c.), when the king, to be
more central, or perhaps dreading the incursions of the Tartars,
forsook his capital in Shensi and followed the stream down almost
to the sea, braving the quicksands and the floods rather than face
those terrible foes. Again, in the Sung period, it was the seat
of government for a century and a half.
The safest refuge for a fugitive court which, once established
there, has no reason to fear attack by sea or river, it is somewhat
strange that in 1900 the Empress Dowager did not direct her steps
toward K'ai-fung-fu, instead of escaping to Si-ngan. Being, however,
herself a Tartar, she might have been expected to act in a way
contrary to precedents set by Chinese dynasties. Obviously, she
chose the latter as a place of refuge because it lay near the borders
of Tartary. It is noteworthy that a loyal governor of Honan at that
very time prepared a palace for her accommodation in K'ai-fung-fu,
and when the court was invited to return to Peking, he implored
her not to risk herself in the northern capital.
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