The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China (40 page)

The content and conclusions of this book on Yehonala are solely my own responsibility, as are any unconscious errors that may exist. But the work could never have been written without help and advice from numerous sources.

Many Chinese friends provided information for the work, and opened up aspects of Chinese history that have thrown new light on the turbulent times Yehonala lived through; especial thanks are due to Mr. Shen Zhihua for his zeal and commitment to unearthing information within China. In the United Kingdom, the staff of Durham University Library have been tireless in helping me obtain obscure books and manuscripts.

At home, my wife Liz, and my children Rachel and Jamie, have endured my deadlines, and my doubts and conflicts in dealing with the enormously complicated events that compose the life of the Last Empress. Their enthusiasm and understanding have been an invaluable support. My editor, Sally Smith, guided me in numerous ways; her persistence and patience have added immeasurably to the style and content of these pages.

Chapter 1

1. Hughes, E. R.
Two Chinese Poets: vignettes of Han life and thought
. Princeton University Press, 1960.

2. Chang, Jolan.
The Tao of Love & Sex
.

3. Gulik, R. van.
Sexual Life in Ancient China
.

4.
Dynastic History of the Later Han
, quoted in Read, D.
The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity
.

5.
Straits Times
, July 14th, 2002.

6. 453—221 BC by modern dating. From the time of the dissolution of the kingdom of China. Orthodox scholars, however, preferred 403 BC, the year when the King of Chou legitimised the action taken fifty years earlier by the Han, Wei and Chou clans.

Chapter 2

1. Michael, F.
The Origin of Manchu Rule
.

2. Bland J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

3. Yun Yu-ting.
The True Story of the Kuang-Hsu Emperor
.

4. Michael, F.
The Origin of Manchu Rule
, p. 82.

5. Freedman, M.
Chinese Lineage and Society
.

6. Mungello, D. E.
Curious Land, Jesuit Accommodation and the origins of sinology
. Steiner, 1985.

7. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

8. Sun Tzu.
The Art of War
, p. 63.

9.
Wiles of War, The
, p. 303.

10. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

11. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

12. Struve, L. S.
The Southern Ming
, 1644—1652, p. 15.

13. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

14. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

15. Struve, L. S.
The Southern Ming
, 1644—1652, pp. 177-178.

16. Balm, A. J.
The World’s Living Religions
, p. 156.

17. Huang, R. 1587,
A Year of No Significance
, p. 28.

Chapter 3

1. Bernbaum, E.
Sacred Mountains
.

2. Chung, S. F.
The Much Maligned Empress Dowager
, p. 3.

3. Pa. An Unofficial History ... Quoted in Vare, D.
The Last Emperor
, p. 3.

4. Fairbanks, J. K.
Chinabound
, p. 38.

5. Keswick, M.
The Chinese Garden
.

6. Swann, N. L.
Pan Chao, foremost woman scholar of China
.

7. Fielde, A.
Pagoda Shadows
.

8. Jackson, B.
Splendid Slippers
.

9. Beahan, C.
The Woman’s Movement and Nationalism in late Ch’ing China
, 1976, p. 22.

10. Beahan, C.
The Woman’s Movement and Nationalism in late Ch’ing China
, 1976, p. 23.

11. Parker, E. H.
John Chinaman
.

12. Warner, M.
The Dragon Empress
, p. 18.

13. Te Ling.
Two Years in the Forbidden City
.

14. Te Ling.
Two Years in the Forbidden City
.

Chapter 4

1. Dreyer, E. L.
Early Ming China
.

2. Hu Chui.
The Forbidden City
.

3. Chang Hsin-pao.
Commissioner Lin and the Opium War
.

4. Balazs, E.
Chinese Civilisation and Bureaucracy
, p. 16.

5.
Mencius
(trans. Lyall, L. A.). Longmans, 1932.

6. Worswick, C. and Spence, J.
Imperial China in Photographs
1850—1912.

7. Balazs, E.
Chinese Civilisation and Bureaucracy
.

8. Backhouse, E. and Bland, J. O. P.
Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking.

9. Anderson, M. M.
Hidden Power
.

10. Mitamura, T.
Chinese Eunuchs
, p. 29ff.

11. Mitamura, T.
Chinese Eunuchs
.

12. Ayalon, D.
Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans
.

13. Collis, M.
The Great Within
, p. 19 ff.

14. Han Fei Tzu. The CompleteWorks of Han Fei Tzu.

15. Hinsch, B.
Passions of the Cut Sleeve
, pp. 142—143.

16. Vare, D.
The Last Empress
.

Chapter 5

1. Shelley, P. B.
Ozymandias
.

2. Cary-Elwes, C.
China and the Cross
, p. 215.

3. Spence, J.
God’s Chinese Son
, p. xix.

4. Medhurst, H.W.
Pamphlets Issued by the Chinese Insurgents at Nanking
, 1853.

5. Medhurst, H.W.
Pamphlets Issued by the Chinese Insurgents at Nanking,
1853.

6. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager.

7. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion.

8. Hirth, F.
China and the Roman Orient
, pp. v—vii.

9. Roberts, F. M.
Western Travellers to China
.

Chapter 6

1. Wakeman, F. E.
The Great Enterprise: the Manchu reconstruction of imperial order in seventeenth-century China
, p. 2.

2. Geiss, J. P.
Peking Under the Ming
, pp. 157—158.

3. The situation has strong parallels with today’s drug problems. Like the pros and cons with regard to present-day legalisation of ‘hard drugs’, it is beset with exactly the same imponderables.

4. Marshall, P. J.
East Indian Fortunes: the British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century.

5. Rockhill, W. W.
Diplomatic Audiences at the Court of China
, p. 5.

6. Hurd, D.
The Arrow War.

7. Deng, S. and Fairbank, J. K.
China’s Response to the West
, p. 48.

8. Hurd, D.
The Arrow War
, p. 166.

9. Armitage, A. H.
The Storming of the Taku Forts
.

10. Lane-Poole, S.
The Life of Sir Harry Parkes Sometime Her Majesty’s Minister to China and Japan
.

11. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E. China
Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 12.

12. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, pp. 25—26.

13. Vare, D.
The Last Empress
.

14.
Wiles of War, The
, p. 303.

15. Swinhoe, R.
Narrative of the North China Campaign of 1860
.

16. Herrison, Comte de.
Journal d’un Interprète en Chine
.

Chapter 7

1. Barrow, J.
Travels in China
.

2. Swinhoe R.
Narrative of the North China Campaign of 1860
.

3. Loch, H.
Personal Narrative of Occurrences during Lord Elgin’s Second Embassy to China, 1860
.

4. This was very much an empty threat — there was no heavy artillery with which to attack the capital’s massive walls.

5. Waldron T.
Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin
.

6. Saved by Père David transferring several to Great Britain where the species thrived and was eventually returned to China in the late 1970s.

7. Spence, J.
The China Helpers
, pp. 74—75.

8. La Gorce, quoted in Vare, D.
The Last Empress
, p. 47.

Chapter 8

1. Vare, D.
The Last Empress
, p. 64.

2. Chung, S. F.
The Much Maligned Empress Dowager
.

3. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

4. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

5. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

Chapter 9

1. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

2. Dillon, E. J.
Fortnightly Review
.

3. Curwen, C. A.
Taiping Rebel
, p. 145.

4. Cahill, H.
A Yankee Adventurer
.

5. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion
, p. 99.

6. Curwen, C. A.
Taiping Rebel
.

7. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion
, p. 104.

8. Wilson, A.
The Ever-Victorious Army
.

9. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion
, p. 111.

10. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion
, p. 126.

11. Michael, F.
The Tai Ping Rebellion
.

12. Cheng, J. C.
Chinese Sources for the Tai Ping Rebellion
, p. 130.

13. Wilson, A.
The Ever-Victorious Army
.

14. Curwen, C. A.
Taiping Rebel
.

15. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 65.

16. Curwen, C. A.
Taiping Rebel
.

17. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

Chapter 10

1. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 81.

Chapter 11

1. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 104.

2. Te Ling.
Imperial Incense
, p. 161.

3. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 105.

4. Wu Yung.
The Flight of an Empress
, p. 200.

5. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 106.

6. The vote was seven in favour of Pu Lun, with three votes cast for Prince Kung’s son.

7. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, p. 112.

8. Wolf, M.
Women and Suicide in China
.

Chapter 12

1. Cordier, H.
Historie des relations de la Chine avec les puissances occidental
, p. 486.

2. Bland, J. O. P., quoting Sir Valentine Chirol, in
Li Hung Chang
, p. 284.

3. M. B. Jansen (ed.) Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 5,The nineteenth century.

Chapter 13

1. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
. p. 117.

2. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

Chapter 14

1. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

2. Sergeant, P.
The Great Empress Dowager of China
.

3. Johnston, R. F.
Twilight in the Forbidden City
.

4. Johnston, R. F.
Twilight in the Forbidden City
, p. 369.

Chapter 15

1. Vare, D.
The Last Empress
.

2. Carl, K. A.
With the Empress Dowager of China
.

3. Dulles, F. R.
China and America
.

4. Chaiken, N.
The Sino-Japanese War
.

5. Tyler, J.
Pulling Strings in China
.

6. Tyler, J.
Pulling Strings in China
.

7. Bland, J. O. P.
Li Hung Chang
.

8. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
, pp. 168—169.

9. According to the Russian diplomat, Count Witte, Li Hung-chang and another colleague were paid 500,000 taels each in order to hurry this process forward.

10. Waltner, A.
Getting an Heir
.

11. Gulik, R. van.
Sexual Life in Ancient China
.

12. Lo Jung-pang (ed).
KangYu Wei, a biography and symposium
.

13. Kang Yu-wei.
Nan Hai Hsien Sheng Ssu Shang Shu Chi
(The four petitions of Mr. KangYu-wei), 6—114. Shanghai, 1895.

14. Shen Tung-sheng et al. (eds).
Kuang Hsu Cheng Yao
, 24/16—17. Shanghai, 1909. Quoted in Tan, C. C.
The Boxer Catastrophe
, p. 19.

15. Headland, I.
Court Life in China
.

Chapter 16

1. Liang Ch’i-chao.
Wu Hsu Cheng Pien Chi
(The coup d’état of 1898). In Yun Shih Ho Chi.
A Critical Study of Li Hung Chang.
Shanghai, 1936.

2. Ch’en J.
Yuan Shih Kai
. Allen & Unwin, 1961.

3. Tan, C. C.
The Boxer Catastrophe
.

4. Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E.
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

5. Pearl, C.
Morrison of Peking
, p. 90.

6. Lo Jung-pang (ed).
KangYuWei, a biography and symposium
.

7. This official was J. O. P. Bland, co-author of the classic
China Under the Empress Dowager
.

8. Richard, A.
Forty-five Years in China
, p. 267.

Chapter 17

1. Tan, C. C.
The Boxer Catastrophe
.

2. Mayers,
China No.1
, 1900, p. 352, quoted in Tan, C. C.
The Boxer Catastrophe
.

3. Pearl, C.
Morrison of Peking
.

4. Pearl, C.
Morrison of Peking
, p. 95.

Chapter 18

1. Plée, H.
Karate
.