XI JEHOL JEHOL. A palace of magnificence, where the rulers went for vacations from cares of state and whither, often, they fled when foreign barbarians or civil rebels threatened the safety of the Imperial Clan. Jehol. More beautiful than the Forbidden City, more luxurious. The furni- ture at Jehol, of precious wood, was inlaid with jade and precious stones; the dragons on the ceiling-panels were of pure gold, while the walls were resplendent in shimmer- ing silk. A quiet summer place, Jehol, where all the most' valuable treasures of the Manchus were, and other treas- ures, too, handed down from dynasty to dynasty by China's rulers. To Jehol, in spite of the fact that Tzu Hsi tried to dis- suade him, fled Hsien Feng, to escape the foreign bar- barians as a result of the "Opium War." Tzu Hsi be- lieved that the throne of China should in no case be left vacant. Prince Kung, the brother of the Emperor, be- lieved otherwise, and advised Hsien Feng, who was ill and dying of his dissipations, to go to Jehol, and himself re- mained in the Forbidden City to negotiate with the for- eign diplomats. Jehol, the beautiful, where Hsien Feng died, where plots and counterplots without end were born. Jehol, a place of bitter-sweet memories to Tzu Hsi. It was a journey, that flight to Jehol, which Tzu Hsi -87- |