iS8 GREAT EMPRESS DOWAGER OF CHINA

ceived — no less than ^^ 1,500,000, it was said. For
one so wealthy as she was, the surrender of this sum
seems no doubt not a very serious sacrifice. But
when we compare with her conduct in 1894 her
abnegation on the occasion of her seventieth birthday
celebrations also, we must (unless we agree with
those who find behind all good actions of the
Dowager the promptings of other minds) allow her
to have been capable of genuine patriotism, remark-
able in a woman of such an appetite for money and
pleasure, and must set such acts against the stories
current among her enemies in Peking about the
diversion of public funds into her pocket.^

The war which was the occasion of this munificent
gift from the Empress Dowager to her country was
thus a serious check on her enjoyment of the festivi-
ties and honours of her sixtieth year. All Chinese
rulers are wont to connect public misfortunes with
their own lack of merit, as we have seen in the case
of Hienfung ; and Tze-hi, being extremely super-
stitious, could not have been expected to dissociate
two such events in the same year as her Jubilee and
the invasion of China. It is significant that when
she approached the end of another decade in her life,
instead of observing her seventieth birthday on the
correct Chinese date, November, 1904, she held the

^ On one occasion, it was alleged, out of a contribution of three
millions sterling from the Imperial Treasury for naval purposes, the
bulk found its way into the hands of the Empress Dowager. She
used it mainly to build a new palace ; and, in order to "save face,"
an inscription was put up over the gateway : " Admiralty Office ! "



FIRST YEARS OF KWANGHSU 159

celebration a year earlier — as if to elude the wrath of
Heaven or cheat the powers of evil which were wait-
ing to mar her happiness.
