No. 155.
Mr. Angell
to Mr. Blaine.
Peking, April 11, 1881. (Received June 13.)
Sir: I have to announce that on the 8th instant, at 6 p.m., the Empress Dowager, commonly known as the Empress of the East Palace, in distinction from the Empress Dowager of the West Palace, died after an illness of only two days. The legations have, at the time of this writing, received no official announcement of the event. But the Peking Gazette contains two imperial rescripts concerning her death. As the mail leaves at once I cannot now inclose translations of them.
The deceased Empress is the widow of the Emperor Hsien-Fung, who reigned from 1850 to 1861. Having lost his wife just as he ascended the throne, he married the lady just deceased. She bore him no son. In 1856 one of his concubines or second wives bore him a son, who succeeded him as the Emperor Tung-Chih in 1861. At the death of Hsien-Fung, his wife, the woman who has just died, was, of course, the Empress Dowager. But by decree of the new Emperor, Tung-Chih, his mother was also raised to the honor of Empress Dowager. So there have been two Empresses Dowager since 1861. The present Emperor, Kwang-Hsü, who came to the throne in 1874, is the cousin of Tung-Chih and nephew of the surviving Empress Dowager. The two Empresses, it is thought, have played a considerable part in the conduct of affairs. The deceased Empress has been reputed to be of a pacific spirit, and friendly to Prince Kung. The surviving Empress has been thought to take a more active part in shaping the policy of the empire. She has been so ill for months that her death has been daily expected, and several times reported in the streets. But the Empress of the East Palace has not been ill, until she was seized last week with her fatal disease. I think she was about forty-five years of age. It is feared that her sudden death may have an unfavorable and possibly fatal effect on the surviving Empress in her condition of weakness.
It is impossible to say yet whether the death of the Empress of the [Page 255] East Palace will lead to any important political results. Should the other Empress also die, it is extremely probable that important consequences would follow, though no one can predict what they would be. Vague rumors of plottings in the palace are afloat, but as yet they are but rumors and not worth repeating.
I have, &c.,