CET

Li Lien-ying. !)

News has reached London that Li Lien-ying, Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Household at Peking, died at his residence in that city on March 4, at the age of 69. Since the passing of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi (November 15, 1908) he had been slowly failing in health, his vigorous constitution enfeebled by chronic dysentery, and his spirits depressed by the loss ot the Imperial Mistress, who had made of him a lifelong companion, as well as by the changes introduced into the Palace by the new Empress Dowager, Lung Yü. These gradually deprived him of nearly all his former authority and influence, leaving him in old age little interest in life beyond that of watching the accumulation of his wealth.

For forty years his name was one to conjure with. In his unscrupulous hands lay the making and marring of China’s dignitaries, Grand Councillors, Viceroys, and Governors competing for his favour, Government contractors surrounding him with adulation and largesse. From Kalgan to Canton men went in fear of his displeasure; the subterranean channels of his pernicious influence reached out to every Yamên in the Empire, carrying to its remotest outposts the germs of political corruption and intrigue. So great was the power which this favourite enjoyed as confidential Chamberlain and intimate adviser of the “Old Buddha”, so firmly established his impunity, despite the repeated denunciations and righteous indignation of Censors and high officials, that in the latter half of his career, and especially after the Empress Dowager’s resumption of the supreme power in 1898, his position behind the Throne became a recognized feature in the life of the Forbidden City. And this man began life as a cobbler’s apprentice in the small provincial town of Ho Chien fu, becoming a eunuch at the age of sixteen for the sake of gain and a life of ease.

His hopes were realized, for he attained to the post of Chief Eunuch in 1869, his equally notorious predecessor, An Te-hai, having been summarily decapitated by the Governor of Shantung for assuming Imperial dignities and

1) Times Weekly Edition, April 14, 1911.

insignia while engaged on a tribute-levying expedition in that province. Before that date, however, Li Lien-ying had attracted the notice and won the favour of Tzu Hsi by loyal services rendered at a time when her own authority was not yet firmly established, by his remarkable physical beauty, good manners, and intelligence, He was an adept at organizing and conducting the routs, masques, theatricals, and picnics wherein the heart of the pleasure-loving Empress rejoiced. To the end of her life, his services in this capacity made him indispensable to her, and won for him a familiar camaraderie which she vouchsafed to none other, not even to her faithful kinsman, Jung Lu. He was a good raconteur, able and willing to distract her mind in dull moments, of a nimble wit and cheerful disposition. And, let it be recorded to his credit, that, ignoble and vicious as he was, he served his mistress with a lifetime of dog-like devotion and affectionate care.

His METHODS.

The hand of Li Lien-ying was powerful not only in the finances and administrative affairs of the Palace and the provinces, but in higher matters of State. He, above all others, was instrumental im inducing the Empress Dowager to suppress with violence the reform movement of 1898 and to condemn the unfortunate Emperor Kuang Hsü to the humiliation of a gilded prison, which ended only with his life. It was he who, in his colossal ignorance, persuaded her to believe in the mystic powers of the Boxers and in their ability to “drive the foreigner into the sea”. His blind hatred of the Reformers and of Europeans was, no doubt, largely due to self-interest, since they had dared repeatedly to denounce the eunuch system and to make its abolition a plank in their programme of reform, with the very general support of public opinion. His faith in the Boxers was, however, entirely genuine, and to the very last days of the siege of the Legations he continued to reassure the Empress of their eventual success, exhorting her to stand firm, and doing his utmost to counteract the prudent counsels of Jung Lu. After the capture of the city by the Allies and the flight of the Court, his courage forsook him, and for many months he went in fear that the Empress Dowager would be forced by the demands of the avenging Powers to hand him over for punishment with the other leaders of the movement. He owed his eventual safety to the influence exercised on his behalf by the Russian Government, which, with an eye to past and future benefits of his good will at Peking, intervened to shield him and others from their well-merited punishment. Nevertheless, he did not escape scot-free, for his hoard of treasure, hidden in the vicinity of the Palace, was betrayed to the French troops and by them joyously looted. He subsequently recouped himself, to the best of his ability and to the increasing scandal of the better class of officials, by provincial exactions of the most unblushing rapacity, while the Court was in residence at Hsi-an, so that in 1908 his

restored fortune was estimated to amount to about 21/, millions sterling, For many years he contested with Prince Ch'ing the doubtful honour of being China’s squeezer-in-chief, archtype and fountain-head of official corruption; the impunity with which he and his princely rival for years conducted their nefarious operations has probably contributed, more than any other cause to the general demoralization of the Peking Government. It is clear that all talk of reform must be vain so long as public opinion in China continues to tolerate the Manchu parasitic system and the eunuch régime of the Palace.