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40. The Boxer Incident in China Li Hung-chang had been the single most vocal leader of China and was the most preeminent individual, save for the emperor, among the 400 million Chinese. Foreign nations, therefore, praised his fame and included him as one of the great men of the world. Moreover, all negotiations with foreign nations had been handled and decisions made by Mr. Li, who was also the first among political leaders of the Orient to become awakened. No wonder that people in and out of China expected a great deal from him. As the situation in the Orient gradually became critical, some of the eminent Western officials and citizens, as well as some public-spirited scholars in Korea and Japan, had made sincere pleas from time to time urging [Li] that Korea should be treated as a nation of equal status. They also suggested [to Li] that the Asian status quo should be maintained by [every Asian nation] working hard for enlightenment under the aegis of Emperor Kuang-hsü [of China] as the foremost leader of the Orient. However, [Li] could not break out of the persistent old legacies and remained obstinate; only when he suffered the humiliation that was the worst ever in [the war of] 1894 did he realize that the reason small Japan could defeat China was none other than Japan ’s earnest adherence to the new ways [of the West]. He thereupon became, on imperial command, an emissary to various Western countries. As he toured the civilized world, he at last felt ashamed and envious. Everywhere he explained how impressed he was and boldly declared his determination to work hard, upon his return to China, for enlightenment. Foreign countries already had respect for his fame; although he had been humbled once by Japan, that was not out of the ordinary in the chronicles of military affairs. Now that he had toured 187 the world and had admired [what he saw], he would surely lead a fundamental reform of his nation once he returned home and bring wealth and power to the Orient. That would be a magnificent achievement. He received incomparably cordial reception everywhere, from the monarchs on down to the people. On the day of his return, he had an audience with the emperor and tried to work for reform. Emperor Kuang-hsü [himself] had come to realize, particularly after the [Sino-Japanese] war, that the old system had to be abolished, the new laws must be implemented so that the common people would have the right to free discussion, and anyone without regard to their status or rank should be allowed to submit directly to the throne a petition as long as its subject was a matter that would be helpful to the people. The [old] law that disallowed anyone of low rank from submitting a memorial to the throne was to be abrogated. At this juncture, the empress dowager took power; the conservative ministers of the court were all her faithful supporters who disliked the emperor’s reform plans and formed a faction to harm the emperor. At this time, K’ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, on the emperor’s command , organized an assembly of the people and recruited public-spirited scholars to support the emperor and carry out reforms. But they incurred the wrath of the empress dowager; some were seized and killed, some fled and went on exile in foreign lands, and the rest scattered. The emperor was incarcerated and rumors were rife that he was poisoned to death. The empress dowager, the adoptive mother of the emperor, usurped the power of the throne and nipped the bud of reform, all of which occurred in 1898. Li Hung-chang now erased the memory of his recent foreign tour altogether and sided with the empress dowager to preserve power. He relied on Russia and joined forces with the empress dowager’s faction; all those agreements that impaired China’s sovereignty and domain were made at this time. The ignorant people, unable to tell what had happened or which nation’s people were acting out of greed, feared that all westerners had come to extinguish China and viewed them as the enemies. The Christians were strongly disliked in China for a long time. Western priests came to preach the gospels, not for any ulterior motives but only to share, by investing their wealth and talent, what they knew with the ignorant people [of China...

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