to the Old Buddha. Their relations at this period were
outwardly friendly. Kuang-Hsü never failed to consult
Her Majesty before the issue of any important Decree, and
Tzŭ Hsi was usually most cordial in her manner towards
him. She had, it is true, occasion to reprove him more
than once on account of reports which reached her, through
the eunuchs, of his violent temper and alleged bad treatment
of his attendants, reports which were probably instigated
and exaggerated by Li Lien-ying for his own purposes.
But Kuang-Hsü, as events subsequently proved, was fully
aware of the iron hand in the velvet glove. Whenever the
Empress came to Peking, he obeyed strictly the etiquette
which required him reverently to kneel at the Palace
gates to welcome her. When visiting her at the Summer
Palace, he was not permitted to announce his arrival in
person, but was obliged to kneel at the inner gate and there
await the summons of admission from the Chief Eunuch.
Li, who hated him, delighted in keeping him waiting,
sometimes as much as half an hour, before informing the
Old Buddha of his presence. At each of these visits he
was compelled, like any of the Palace officials, to pay
his way by large fees to the eunuchs in attendance on
Her Majesty, and as a matter of fact, these myrmidons
treated him with considerably less respect than they showed
to many high Manchu dignitaries. Within the Palace
precincts, the Son of Heaven was indeed regarded as of
little account, so that the initiative and determination which
he displayed during the hundred days of reform in the
summer of 1898 came as a disturbing surprise to many
at Court and showed that, given an opportunity, he was
not wholly unworthy of the Yehonala blood of his mother,
Tzŭ Hsi's sister.

The official who had hitherto exercised most influence
over the Emperor was Weng T'ung-ho, the Imperial tutor.
He had only rejoined the Grand Council in November 1894,
at the critical time when the disastrous opening of the war

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