national pride and his current condition a secret. As for Guang-hsu, he had suffered enough humiliation as Emperor and didn't want to suffer more as a man. He knew his own condition, and didn't want the world to find out why he was childless.
I was reluctant to subject my son and China to further embarrassment, but as a mother I was committed to try everything to save my son's life. A Western doctor might be Guang-hsu's last hope for regaining his health. I might not have been a worldly woman, but I wasn't stupid. I believed that 'in a tiny piece of spotted skin one could visualize an entire leopard.' My French hair dyes, English clocks and German telescope spoke of the people who created them. The industrial marvels of the West-telegraph, railroad, military armaments-spoke even louder.
I asked delicately if Guang-hsu was willing to reveal the complete truth, meaning mention of his sexual dysfunction. My son gave a positive reply. I was relieved and went to share the good news with my daughters-in- law. We became hopeful, and together we went to the Palace Temple to pray.
In the last week of October, a French physician, Doctor Detheve, was escorted to the Forbidden City and into the Emperor's bedroom. I was present throughout the medical interview. The doctor suspected a kidney ailment and concluded that Guang-hsu suffered a number of secondary symptoms brought on by that illness.
'At first glance,' Doctor Detheve's evaluation read, 'His Majesty's state is generally feeble, terribly thin, depressed attitude, pale complexion. The appetite is good, but the digestion is slow… Vomiting is very frequent. Listening to the lungs with a stethoscope, which His Majesty gladly allowed, did not reveal indications of good health. Circulatory problems are numerous. Pulse feeble and fast, head aching, feelings of heat on the chest, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and stumbling that gives the impression that he is missing a leg. To these symptoms add the overall sensation of cold in the legs and knees, fingers feeling dead, cramps in the calves, itching, slight deafness, failing eyesight, pain in the kidneys. But above all there are the troubles with the urinary apparatus… His Majesty urinates often, but only a little at a time. In twenty-four hours the amount is less than normal.'
Guang-hsu and I were left with a favorable impression of the doctor and looked forward to his treatment. What we didn't expect was that his evaluation would find its way to the public. We had no way of knowing whether it was intentional or not. Nevertheless, the evaluation became the inspiration of gossips in China, Europe and the United States. It was the last blow to Guang-hsu's self-image. From the grinning expressions of the court during audiences I could tell that our ministers had read a translation of Doctor Detheve's opinion.
Chinese provincial newspapers and magazines spread the gossip as news: 'His Majesty habitually had his ejaculations at night, followed by voluptuous sensation. Doctor Detheve's evaluation concluded, 'These nocturnal emissions have been followed by the lessening of the faculty to achieve voluntary erections during the day.' It was Detheve's opinion that the Emperor's illness made sexual intercourse impossible. The Emperor could not make love to his Empress or his concubines. And without sex, His Majesty would remain childless, which means that there will be no heir to the throne.' Such reports made the Ironhats demand Guang-hsu's replacement.
I witnessed the sacrifice of my son's dignity. Although the French doctor's examination demonstrated that Guang-hsu was alive and that therefore I could not be his murderer, I was devastated.
Although Guang-hsu continued to suffer-high fever, little appetite, his throat and tongue swollen and raw-for the sake of appearances he offered to sit with me during audiences.
For the radical reformers, the image of the two of us sitting side by side served as proof of my being a tyrant. The newspapers published their observations, describing how the victimized Emperor must have felt about his living hell. In a popular version, Guang-hsu was seen 'drawing huge pictures of a mighty dragon, his own emblem, and tearing them up in despair.'
The Ironhats, on the other hand, found justification in orthodox Chinese thought: Guang-hsu had virtually plotted matricide, and there was no crime in the Confucian canon more heinous than a dereliction of filial piety, especially in an emperor, the moral exemplar of his people.
I was supposed to brandish before Guang-hsu the proper moral righteousness. But I could not ignore his pain. My son was brave enough to face the men he had ordered to resign before the attempted coup. Every day now he sat on a carpet made of a thousand needles. He might continue to have the court's loyalty, but would he have its members' respect?
Given my son's delicate health, I was moved to accept the Ironhats' proposal of considering his replacement. I acted sincerely throughout the debates and in the end pronounced P'u-chun, Prince Ts'eng Junior's adolescent son, my grandnephew, the new heir. However, I insisted that P'u-chun undergo a character evaluation, a test I was sure the spoiled boy would fail. As I predicted, he did fail, miserably, and he was removed from consideration.
Guang-hsu's throne was secure, for the time being at least, but he appeared bored and would slip away from audiences the first chance he got. Afterward, I would find him playing with his clocks. He wouldn't open the door, nor would he talk to me. His sad eyes showed emptiness, and he told me that his mind 'wanders like a homeless ghost.' The only thing he didn't tire of saying was 'I wish I were dead.'
I summoned my daughters-in-law. 'We must try to help,' I said.
'You should leave His Majesty alone,' Pearl Concubine was quick to respond.
I asked why I should do so, to which Pearl replied, 'Maybe Your Majesty should consider going back to your retirement. The throne is a grown man. He knows how to run his empire.'
I asked Pearl if she remembered that it was she who introduced Kang Yu-wei to my son.
The girl was furious. 'The reform failed because Guang-hsu was never left alone to run his business. He has been under investigation, imprisoned in his own quarters, separated from me. I am sorry… this is-I can't think of any other way to put it-a conspiracy against Emperor Guang-hsu.'
I didn't know what to make of this wild outburst. Was she really trying to provoke me?
When Pearl asked to attend Guang-hsu, I refused. 'Not in your state of mind. My son can take no more harm.'
'You are afraid I will tell him the truth.'
'I don't think you know what the truth is.' I told Pearl that unless she cooperated with me and acknowledged her past wrongdoings, she would not be allowed to see Guang-hsu again.
'His Majesty will ask for me,' Pearl protested. 'I will not be a prisoner!'
38
The shouting grew louder in the streets of Peking: 'Uphold the great Ch'ing Dynasty!' 'Exterminate the barbarians!' The Ironhats used these outcries to force me to take their side. Until reformer Kang Yu-wei's murderous intentions were exposed, I hadn't the chance to ask myself: Who are my real friends?
Kang's repeated calls for international intervention disappointed and disillusioned my son. By the time Kang's seventh hit man was arrested for making an attempt on my life, my son vowed to get even with the 'wily fox.'
Not one nation responded to Guang-hsu's demand for Kang Yu-wei's arrest. Britain, Russia and Japan refused to offer any information of his whereabouts. Instead, foreign newspapers continued to print Kang's lies that 'the Emperor of China is being imprisoned and tortured.'
Japan also began to apply military pressure by calling for my 'forever disappearance.' Guang-hsu was believed to have been 'drugged, dragged and tied to his dragon seat' to attend audiences with me. In the world's eyes he had been given a 'poisonous breakfast' with 'mold as a topping.' What the Emperor of China desperately needed, it was said, was an invasion by the Western powers.
The situation drove my son deeper into melancholy. He resumed his solitude and refused contact of any kind, including the affection of his beloved Pearl Concubine.
No words could describe my feelings as I watched my son deteriorate. Every morning before we ascended the throne, I would ask him about his night and brief him about the issues before the court. Once in a while Guang-hsu would answer my questions politely, but it was as if his voice came from a great distance. Usually he would simply utter 'fine.'
From his eunuchs I learned that he had stopped taking the medicine the Western doctors had prescribed. He ordered his bedroom to be draped with black velvet curtains to seal out the sunlight. He stopped reading
