" This was in
September, 1898.
Stripped of every vestige of authority, the unhappy prince was
confined, a prisoner of state, in a secluded palace where it was
thought he would soon receive the present of a silken scarf as a hint
to make way for a worthier successor. That his life was spared was no
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doubt due to a certain respect for the public sentiment of the
world, to which China is not altogether insensible. He having no
direct heir, the son of Prince Tuan was adopted by the Dowager
as heir-apparent, evidently in expectation of a vacancy soon to
be filled. Prince Tuan, hitherto unknown in the politics of the
state, became, from that moment, the leader of a reactionary party.
Believing that his son would soon be called to the throne by the
demise of the Emperor, he put on all the airs of a _Tai-shang
Hwang_, or "Father of an Emperor."
Here again the _patria potestas_ comes in as a factor; and
in the brief career of the father of the heir-apparent, it shows
itself in its most exaggerated form. Under the influence of the
reactionary clique, of which he was acknowledged chief, the Empress
Dowager in her new regency was induced to repeal almost everything
the Emperor had done in the way of reform. In her edict she said
cynically: "It does not follow that we are to stop eating, because
we have been choked!" Dislike to foreign methods engendered an
ill-concealed hatred of foreigners; and just at this epoch occurred
a series of aggressions by foreign powers, which had the effect
of fanning that hatred into a flame.
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