WANSAN

The Seal of Power

The first snow of the tenth moon in the solar year of the monkey, yu shen, had fallen on the Imperial Palace in the Forbidden City.  Its towering walls and massive gates gave shelter from the chill wind that blew cruelly from the Taihang mountains.  In the Triple Shrine, the Tower of Rain and Flowers, Tzu Hsi, the Dowager Empress, “Old Buddha”, was warm in her pale blue ermine robes.  Blue was the death color which she wore to pray for the Son of Heaven, the Emperor Kwang Hsu, who lay dying.  It was his time to go to the Yellow Springs.

Kwang Hsu was the puppet emperor whom she kept imprisoned in his palace because he was not fit to rule.  Tzu Hsi regretted not his passing.  If he lingered too long the Chief Eunuch knew to poison his wine.

“What a long time I have ruled – nearly half a century – since I became the favorite concubine.  Who else could have held this vast empire together?” she ruminated.  “Foreign devils from every land, with their terrible cannon and steel fighting ships, have forced me to trade my silks and porcelains and jades for the enslaving opium that has degraded my people.”

Wearily Tzu Hsi removed her glittering headdress and massaged her aching temples.  Her ladies fluttered about her, wiping her brow with perfumed linen.  They loosened her robes which were embroidered with the five-clawed Imperial Dragons of the Manchus.

Her prayers finished, she motioned with her down-turned middle finger for her palanquin and was borne to her Summer Palace.  Despite the cold of winter she preferred to stay in the lavish splendor of this heavenly structure.  It had been built on the ruins of the original palace which was destroyed by the British in the First Opium War.  “How she had compromised, given concessions, made any sacrifice to keep the empire together!”

The Empress went to her private temple near the great theatre to choose a new Emperor. She kneeled before the great white Buddha that was mounted on a huge lotus leaf of green jade. From the altar she took a rosary of sandalwood, counted the beads, lit a joss stick and murmured her prayer:  “Gods of Heaven, give me your guidance as you have always done.  Whom shall I choose in this two hundred and sixty-fourth year of Manchu rule?  I must choose one who will glorify our ancestors.”

Long she mused until her Chief Eunuch, master of three thousand palace eunuchs, who was never far from her side, dared to speak.

“Empress Mother, so long you have not moved.  It is bitter cold and I fear for your health.  Come warm yourself at the brazier and drink the tea that has been brewed for you.”

“How dare you disturb me at my prayers!”, she said so fiercely that the Chief Eunuch was frightened and prostrated himself on the cold marble floor.  He kneeled three times, each time striking his head on the floor thrice in the time-honored kow-tow. Tzu Hsi took no notice of him and he remained on his fat knees, sweating despite the cold.

In silence she mused on, reviewing all the eligible children.  Since she meant to rule as regent, it must be a child or a youth under sixteen.  She had no premonition that this was also to be the year of her own death.  A brilliant thought struck her.  “Prince Ch’un’s. daughter had given birth to a son.  This boy she would teach to deal with the foreign devils until they could be driven out.  The boy was a pure Manchu; the gods had answered her prayer. But having made the choice, he must be protected from all the intrigues of the palace.  Assassination was so easy.  She could not she trust even her Chief Eunuch, who from his network of spies, knew all that went on in the palace.