'Sorrows of the Forbidden City' (1948)

I happenned to bump into a film called 'Qing Gong Mi Shi' (Sorrows of the Forbidden City) made in 1948, one year before the founding of the PRC. It recounts the story I have stated so far: Guangxu Emperor made up his mind to reform after the humiliation of Sino-Japanese War. But the reform was crushed by Cixi and her desciples. The film ends when the Eight-Allied forces invading Beijing, and Consort Zhen ordered to be pushed into the well while Cixi escaped from the capital, taking the Emperor with her.

It is said to be the first Qing court film ever made in China and received good feedback after it was shown in cinemas. It was also shown in foreign countries like Japan and the US. However, not long after the founding of PRC, Jiangqing, Mao's wife, said that it was a bad film that promotes the values of a traitor to one's country, instead of those of a patriotic one. Mao agreed and commented in his essay why this film is bad: First, it distorts the glorious patriotic figure of the Boxers, who are supposed to represent the power of the people according to Mao; Second, it sanctifies the reformists, notably Guangxu Emperor, who in essence still belonged to the ruling class and thus exploited the people, according to Marxist-Leninist values. Soon, this film was banned in mainland China.

During the Cultural Revolution, 'Sorrows of the Forbidden City' was condemned along with many other early films. My father told me that they were asked to watch this film in order to write an essay to condemn it. However, they all used the condemnation as an excuse to enjoy those films, as there was nothing worthy to be watched made during the Cultural Revolution. Liu Shao Qi, the Chinese president who was persecuted to death in that movement, was accused of praising this film as a patriotic one.

The Tragic Life of Guangxu Emperor---Part V 'Reign of Terro' and aftermath

It is said that Consort Zhen was pushed into this well...

The two years between 1898 and 1900 in China can be defined as a period of the ‘reign of terror’. For not only did Cixi staged several purges which executed, imprisoned and expelled nearly all the reform-minded officials in China, but that she and her supporters also plotted to force Guangxu Emperor abdicate the throne, and then probably, simply make him ‘perish’ in the palace. For some time, the outside world did not know whether the Emperor was still alive, for some, including several foreign embassies to China, believed that he had already died, either from disease or from assassination.
Fearing that the Empress Dowager would implement anti-foreign measures, foreign embassies in China urged the Chinese government to publish an authentic report on Guangxu Emperor. When this failed, they demanded to do a physical examination on the Emperor to see how sick he really was. Cixi had to acquiesce this time. Physicians from several foreign countries, including a French doctor, were permitted to check the physical condition of Guangxu Emperor. The results were both within and out of expectation: Not only was the Emperor alive, but that he had no serious illness (though not totally healthy either, as the Emperor had always had a weak constitution since childhood). Several foreign powers, especially Japan and Britain, began to urge that Guangxu Emperor should come back to the throne.
But Cixi had made up her mind this time that she would no longer put up with her nephew. Some Manchu imperial members had been persuading her to replace Guangxu Emperor for some time. The most vicious among them was Prince Duan, who managed to win Cixi’s heart by flattery and made his own son Pujuan, a playboy much like Prince Harry, the successor to the throne after Guangxu’s abdication. (Another convenience for Cixi to appoint a new Emperor was that Guangxu had produced no issues). However, this announcement aroused not only domestic, but also international resentment. Many entrepreneurs and intellectuals appealed that the current Emperor should not be deposed and that they were willing to die with the Emperor. These appeals, though useless, showed the popularity of Guangxu Emperor to Cixi, which not only irritated her but also made her aware that Guangxu was indeed a threat to her authority that should be eliminated.
However, Cixi could not ignore foreign resistance against her decision, thus she found herself not able to depose Guangxu Emperor immediately as she wanted. While she was wondering how to solve this problem, Prince Duan presented her with a devastating idea: sponsor the Boxers’ Rebellion to get rid of the ‘foreign devils’ once and for all.
I have mentioned in the earlier stage that Empress Dowager Cixi, though a shrewd woman in Machiavellian politics, was by no means intelligent or apprehensive. She was so drunk with power that she would sacrifice everything else to grip on to it. This time, she acted like a desperate political gambler, though already had experienced the foreign power herself in 1860 when the Anglo-French allies sacked Beijing, she was still determined to gamble at all costs. Thus she approved of the suggestion by Prince Duan and ‘The Boxers’, which was originally an anti-foreign and anti-government rebellion, turned into an anti-foreign but pro-government one overnight.
Based on extreme nationalism and dim superstitions, and used by malicious politicians, the Boxers sought to destroy whatever was foreign and modern. Their premier target was western missionaries, however, they ended up killing far more Chinese Christians than foreigners. They also set other standards for the so-called ‘foreign devils’ friends’: the Chinese who could speak foreign languages, who owned foreign appliances and who did chores for foreigners. They also denounced the Hundred Days’ Reform and condemned Kang Youwei as the enemy of the whole Chinese nation. On one occasion, Prince Duan even led a mob of Boxers to surround the house occupied by Guangxu Emperor, with an intention to assassinate him, declaring the Guangxu was ‘foreign devil’s friend’ and the head of Christianity in China. (of which scene I’ve found strikingly similar with the scene of Marie-Antoinette being surrounded by a mob led by Duke of Orleans during the French Revolution. Mobs and political opportunists are more or less the same anytime and anywhere).
The most ferocious wave of the Rebellion came when the Boxers set fire on the Belgian, Austrian, Dutch and Italian embassies, supported by the Empress Dowager. Foreign powers were irritated and began to dispatch troops to China. Again, Cixi had to gamble. However, in order to show that she really had no other way, she opened a conference to discuss this urgent issue. Surprisingly, Guangxu was allowed to participate in the conference.
Several Manchu nobles led by Prince Duan urged Cixi to declare war on the foreign powers. In order to let her make up her mind, Prince Duan even forged a foreign report in which it said that the foreign troops would force Cixi off her throne and return power to Guangxu. Cixi became immediately in favor of war after knowing this. However, Guangxu Emperor, unaware of his own dangerous position, spoke indignantly against war with the foreign powers, he addressed that his own life didn’t matter, but once the battle were on, millions of innocent Chinese people would lose their lives as the Boxers were no adversaries against the well-equipped foreign troops. He stated his own opinion that it would be best to first negotiate, and if that didn’t work, they could remove the centre government from Beijing. Though having nothing to say against Guangxu, Cixi certainly could not approve him. Guangxu Emperor felt desperate, though being in the real status of a prisoner, he made every hopeless effort to restore peace in China. He would write letters to several foreign heads of states, including the Japanese Emperor Meiji and US President McKinley, to beg them not to wage war on China. At most times, those foreign leaders would only reply that China should retreat its troops first and stop being hostile to foreigners, as Guangxu had no power, he certainly could not realize the conditions required.
Empress Dowager Cixi would soon pay her price for waging war on 11 foreign countries simultaneously. The Eight-Allied Forces, led by Britain and Germany, sacked Tianjin in July, 1900 and were approaching Beijing on Aug. 14th. Cixi could do nothing else but flee. Guangxu Emperor intended to stay in Beijing to negotiate with the foreign powers, but Cixi insisted on that he flee with her, fearing that he would regain power with support of foreigners. Before running away from Beijing, Cixi didn’t forget to execute Consort Zhen by ordering to push her into a well in the Forbidden City, after two years of her confinement in a cold palace, without seeing the Emperor but on some occasions when Guangxu fled Yintai at night to see her. (However, the death of Consort Zhen was controversial, for the official record was ambiguous while some believed that Consort Zhen jumped into the well herself. But what makes the above version believable was that before dying, Consort Zhen protested against Cixi that the Emperor should remain in Beijing to negotiate with foreign powers, corresponding to what the Emperor thought himself).
It was only some time after, perhaps on their way west to Xi’an, when Guangxu Emperor learnt of the death of the love of his life. The terrible news broke his heart, nearly crushed his mind, but didn’t shatter his faith. Until the very last moment of his life, despite his ‘forced confessions’ in the presence of Cixi, he would sincerely believe what he had done was right and beneficial to his country and people.

The Tragic Life of Guangxu Emperor---Part IV. Hundred Days Reform

Kang Youwei Empress Dowager Cixi Liang Qichao

For some time after the signing of ‘Treaty of Shimonoseki’, Guangxu Emperor sank into a period of deep depression. Just as he said, ‘People’s faith in the government has all gone with the ceding of Taiwan, how can I still be qualified to be the sovereign of China?’ Guangxu Emperor wanted change in the old system, however, he didn’t know where to start and how to get rid of the fetters set by Empress Dowager Cixi, his omnipresent aunt. While he was pondering, a flow of reformist thoughts among civilian intellectuals gave him inspiration.
Kang Youwei was the leading Confucian intellectual in this movement of thoughts. He not only wrote a treatise in which he declared that the real Confucian philosophy is in favor of reforms, but also established the ‘Society for the Study of National Strengthening’. Kang was a scholar in favor of the rights of civilians and constitutional monarchy. He believed that China could only be saved if she learnt from the model of Japan. After knowing of the ceding of Taiwan, he waged the ‘Gongche Shangshu Movement’ among intellectuals, presenting long letters of ways to reform China to Guangxu Emperor. However, the first four letters had been blocked by the conservative bureaucrats and only the fifth letter managed to reach the Emperor, again, through the efforts of Weng Tonghe.
The role of Weng in the reform movement was tricky. Indeed, Weng had always been the leader of the Emperor’s party, however, he might not necessarily be a man with reformist thoughts. In fact, some evidence shows that there was a considerable tension and disagreement between Weng and Kang Youwei. But despite this, Weng still recommended Kang Youwei to Guangxu for the interest of the Emperor’s party. Unfortunately, Weng was dismissed by Cixi the next day after the formal promulgation of ‘Hundred Days’ Reform’, with a clear intent to weaken the power of Guangxu Emperor.
Guangxu Emperor read and studies carefully the documents presented by Kang Youwei, notably ‘The Reform of Japan’ and ‘The Partition of Poland’. Apparently, Kang would like the Emperor to know that if China would not reform like Japan did, she would be partitioned by colonial powers like Poland by Prussia and Russia. Guangxu Emperor was profoundly affected and his determination to reform strengthened.
It is not correct to say, however, that Guangxu Emperor promulgated the edict to reform China on June 11th, 1898 merely out of youth impulse. Guangxu had always been an open-minded man, indeed, Philip. W. Sergeant, author of ‘The Great Empress Dowager of China’ described Guangxu as an iconoclast and perhaps the most pro-foreign among his Manchu and Han peers. This description is partially right and partially wrong. Guangxu was pro-foreign in aspects such as that he encouraged missionaries to preach in China not long after his formal reign, addressing that there is no difference between various kinds of teachings on love and charity, whether it be Confucian or Christian. (He himself studies the Bible for some time). However, the wrong side of this statement was that Guangxu did all these merely for the well-being of the Chinese people. He considered being open-minded and doing good to his people as coherent rather than contradictory notions.
Kang also recommended his disciples to Guangxu to assist him with the reform, most notably Liang Qichao, another important thinker in late Qing Dynasty. Though Liang was never given any important post in the reform, he was another spiritual leader. Compared to Kang Youwei, Liang was more radical in deeds and more conservative in thoughts, overall, more realistic and less contradictory. (Kang Youwei was a self-contradicting figure to a great extent. His thoughts went so radical as to advocate ‘quasi-communism’ in his work ‘Da Tong Shu’ while he became a typical conservative after the republican revolution in 1911, still supporting the Manchu monarch and participated in a failed restoration in 1917). Guangxu also appointed four ministers (the most important being Tan Sitong) to help him implement the reform measures, ignoring the opposition in the Grand Council appointed by the Empress Dowager.
The measures to reform include: to encourage commerce and industry; to establish a new school which would later become Beijing University and to add western sciences into the content of education; to abolish the eight-legged style writing in the imperial exams; to grant the freedom of speech in general (publication of books, newspapers, and that anyone can report discontent directly to court); to sponsor talented students to study abroad; to reform the military system thoroughly and to strengthen naval power.
Chinese high school textbooks nowadays widely argue that the reform measures promulgated by Guangxu Emperor only touched superficial issues such as education and economics, but did not mention political reforms at all, which indicated that Guangxu Emperor himself was still a representative of the ruling class and was not willing to share power with the people. However, this is a great misconception. In fact, Guangxu believed in constitutional monarchy to the extent that he was willing to give in his own power (just like the British monarchy) if necessary. (This corresponds to his words I quoted on the cover page) However, at a time when even those ‘superficial measures’ were being frustrated by the conservatives, how could he manage to establish constitutional monarchy in China so soon?
The reform immediately confronted opposition: Some Manchu officials who held vacant posts had been dismissed and deprived of privileges; traditional Confucian scholars were furious when hearing of the abolition of the ‘eight-legged’ literary style; conservatives in general were irritated by the fact that even the ‘meanest’ peasants could now directly report to the Emperor.
During the first meeting between Kang Youwei and Guangxu Emperor, knowing that the Emperor held no significant power, Kang suggested only to add new ministers but not to remove the strong conservatives. However, as the reform progressed, Guangxu Emperor found himself in a dilemma: that if he didn’t dismiss some ministers belonging to the Empress Dowager’s party, the reform would come to a standstill. Thus, the Emperor determinately deprived six conservative ministers of their posts against the will of Empress Dowager Cixi, of which action would prove to be disastrous soon after.
Cixi’s motivation in suppressing the reform is highly controversial. In another word, what sparked the coup d’état on the 21st of September, 1898, 103 days after the promulgation of this abortive reform? Indeed, from a general perspective, the reform was due to fail due to the weakness of the Chinese new civil class and the powerful orthodox opposition. The Manchu minister whose interest had been undermined by the reform all turned to the Empress Dowager for help, expecting that she would come to the political front stage again and handle the situation. Cixi didn’t oppose Guangxu Emperor’s reform at first, however, she grew more and more vigilant later on, partly because of the appeals from conservative Manchu ministers. She felt that her authority would be threatened by the sweeping reform initiated by her ‘unfilial’ and ‘heretic’ nephew. When Guangxu Emperor met with Ito Hirobumi, the Japanese Prime Minister at that time, hoping to seek advice of reform from him, Cixi became very suspicious of her nephew’s real intentions and supervised his whole conversation with Hirobumi.
But what is the exact event behind the coup d’état? The most popular version is that the reformists, desperate to push on the reform, were aching to get rid of Cixi and her conservative peers. So that they plotted a coup d’état to surround the Summer Palace (Cixi’s residence) with an army and hold Cixi under house arrest. Tan Sitong was sent for the task of negotiating with General Yuan Shikai, hoping that Yuan could remove his army for this mission. But Yuan the sly opportunist betrayed the reformists and the Emperor by leaking this confidential information to Ronglu, the most important figure in the Empress Dowager’s party and rumored to be Cixi’s lover. Ronglu, in turn, immediately transferred this plot to Cixi.
Such is the standard version, but the historical fact could be far more complicated. Firstly, Guangxu Emperor denied that he ever participated in such a plot. Shall we suppose that he was lying? Probably no. As we know of his character, that he had always been honest and upright (even Ronglu didn’t deny this fact, declaring that, ‘The Empress Dowager’s character is calm but insidious and unfathomable; while the Emperor’s character is impulsive but straightforward and simple.’) Plus, Guangxu Emperor had always been a filial son as he believed in Confucian teachings, so that it’s hard to imagine that he would do anything so unfilial to Cixi intentionally. In recent years, scholars speculate that Kang Youwei might take a great responsibility for the failure of reform as it was certainly him who initiated such a plot. More repulsively, Kang might have counterfeited an order from the Emperor to carry on his plot to imprison and even assassinate Cixi. Indeed, Kang’s role in the Hundred Days’ Reform had been exaggerated later by himself; the fact is that later in the reform, Guangxu Emperor became skeptical about his ability to ease the tensions between the reformists and the conservatives (As Kang was so pretentious that he despised all the opposition) that he sent Kang out of Beijing, with the intention of not having him cause trouble. But Kang regarded this as a sign of the Emperor’s giving up the reform, so that he hastily planned everything about the plot to sack the Summer Palace and imprison Cixi, thinking that he could save the reform but actually ruining it.
An even more controversial point of view has been raised in recent years, that Kang was planning a federation of China with Japan, Britain and the USA with the British missionary Timothy Richard, under which federation China would share fiscal, military and diplomatic powers with these three countries in order to push forward the reform. This might seem extremely unrealistic but we could infer that such a dreamer like Kang Youwei could have done this. Kang suggested the idea of a world united under one country in his utopian ‘Da Tong Shu’ , so that he might had tried to put it into practice. Later, the British and the US authorities claimed that they knew nothing of the federation while the Japanese might be aware of it, with an intent to relinquish the sovereign power of China. Though there is not much source to support this, we can infer this from the events that happened later: Japan increased its power in China after the Hundred Days’ Reform and soon substituted the status of Britain to become the top foreign power in China (which decades later proved to be distatrous). If seeing from this light, the repression of the Gapsin coup in Korea by Queen Min could somehow be compared to the repression of the Hundred Days’ Reform by Empress Dowager Cixi, making the coup d’état by Cixi seem less evil.
However, Guangxu’s intent to ally with the Japanese was no other than learning from their reform experience. It might also be possible that he wanted to ally the Japanese to resist Russian’s influence as well as the pro-Russian party in China led by Li Hongzhang and backed by Cixi. While the Japanese government backed this special Sino-Japanese relationship mainly to increase their own interest in China.
Whatever happened that prompted Cixi’s reactions was not important, for after the coup d’état on 21st of September, the reformists that supported Guangxu Emperor were captured and executed, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled to Japan, and Guangxu Emperor himself held under house arrest by Cixi in Yintai, an island within Zhongnanhai, declaring to the outside that the Emperor was seriously ill. At first, Cixi didn’t want to abolish all reform measures, however, some ministers suggested that if they were not all abolished, the legitimacy of repressing the reform would be lacking. Cixi agreed and all reform achievements except for the new school in Beijing were eliminated. Then, Cixi began to stage a series of reactionary measures against the previous reform.

The Tragic Life of Guangxu Emperor----Part III. Sino-Japnanese War

'Big China defeated by small Japan'

From the aspect of Guangxu Emperor himself, the First Sino-Japanese War was undoubtedly the turning point of his political career. Just as the American woman painter Carl who later painted the portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi commented, ‘before the war in 1894, the young Emperor had no idea of reforming China and didn’t really know what to do to fulfill his responsibility, however, after enduring the humiliating result of the war, he determinately took on the responsibility of saving an Empire and her people on his shoulders.’ On the other hand, the breach and conflict between the Emperor’s party and Empress Dowager’s party during the war worsened the personal relationship between Guangxu Emperor and Cixi.

The seed of the First Sino-Japanese War had been rooted long before it broke out in 1894, the Korean government managed to suppress The reformist Gapsin coup with the help of the Qing government in 1884, however, such an event allowed Japan to coerce China by asking her to sign the ‘Convention of Tianjin’ , enhancing Japan’s status in the matters of Korea, which paved its way to wage invasions to China. Finally, the ‘Donghak Rebellion’ in Korea in 1894 incited the spark of war, for Japan transported far more troops to Korea than China did and then unilaterally attacked Chinese naval vessels in the sea near Pungdo on July 25th, formally declaring war on China.

The common cliché was that the Emperor’s party, led by minister of Grand Council Weng Tonghe had always been in favor of war with Japan while the Empress Dowager’s party, led by Minister of Beiyang Navy Li Hongzhang had always been seeking for humiliating peace. The historical fact was far more complicated than that. Before real war broke out, Cixi also showed her aggressive attitude towards the potential Japanese invaders along with Guangxu, insisting that the Chinese army should not decline. However, after real battle broke out on July 25th, Li Hongzhang managed to persuade Cixi that seeking peace with Japan by means of demanding the interference of other powers (notably Russia and Britain, who showed such inclination) would be the better strategy. (It has been a common cliché to regard Li Hongzhang a traitor to his country by bribing foreign powers and being responsible for the defeat by Japan, however, recent studies show that it’s unfair for Li to bear those blames as his Beiyang Fleet was in fact the only force to fight the Japanese while the other generals didn’t respond to the orders to fight but rather removed the military fees for personal enrichment). About to celebrate her own 60-year-old birthday at that time (which also removed money supposed to finance the navy), Cixi soon favored Li’s proposals. Guangxu Emperor (with the support by the ‘Emperor’s party’, notably Weng Tonghe), on the other hand, was furious about Li’s ambiguity and sluggishness that he constantly urged Li to fight the Japanese with every effort, as any interference by foreign powers would be unreliable and likely to cause further coerce. In the end, Guangxu would deprive Li from his honorable title as a punishment (but could not deprive his real post) and would banish two members belonging to the Empress’s party out of the Grand Council.

However, Guangxu was far more fable and inexperienced than Cixi in political tricks. Cixi, in return, not only banished several important members of the Emperor’s Party out of Beijing, but also punished Guangxu’s beloved Consort Zhen as a warning to the emperor. The war between China and Japan really incited a fierce political struggle within the Forbidden City. Exhausted and frustrated, Guangxu finally declined his own will to that of the Empress Dowager.
The political struggle between the two factions had resulted in a bizarre panorama: on the one hand, soldiers and sailors at the front were still fighting the Japanese in brutal battles; on the other hand, ministers at the court were about to seek humiliating peace. Because of the inner political fight, in addition to the corruption of generals, China was defeated by Japan bitterly both at sea and on land. Beiyang Fleet was totally destroyed by the Japanese Imperial Navy in the Battle of Weihaiwei. On land, the Japanese army seizured the Korean peninsula and invaded Liaodong peninsula in China, committing atrocities such as the massacre of Port Author. Seeing the defeat at the front, the Empress party sought to end the war more hastily and Li Hongzhang was to negociate with the Japanese. However, some members of the Emperor’s party suggested the idea of ‘protracted warfare’ with Japan so that the enemy’s supplies would run out in a long term. Though Guangxu himself was in favor of this strategy, Cixi wouldn’t agree as then she would not be able to enjoy her life. Thus the first Sino-Japanese War ended with the signing of

‘The Treaty of Shimonoseki’, in which China not only had to pay a large sum of indemnity but also had to cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan. Liaodong Peninsula was later allowed to be kept by China, however, due to the disapproval from other colonial powers (Russia, Germany and France). But these powers only did that out of their own interest, especially Russia, who largely increased its influence in Manchuria by asking Li Hongzhang to sign a secret treaty.

Guangxu Emperor was more than devastated when he was forced to sign the treaty with his imperial seal, this event would indeed change the whole Chinese ideology: It is unbelievable the Heavenly Kingdom would ever be defeated by the ‘dwarves’ (The way the Chinese had always called the Japanese). This event, as mentioned before, would also change the whole course of Guangxu’s political career.

'The Happy Prince' by Oscar Wilde

I read this fairy tale in an illustrated book when I was a kid. Since then, I had forgotten its title. However, the story itself still haunted me for a long time. That loving 'prince' who gave his eyes to the poor and that selfless bird who died of being loyal to the prince are characters too impressive to be forgotten.

Today, I managed to find the original version of this tale and was surprised to see that it was written by Oscar Wilde in 1888, as I originally presumed that it would be a tale by Grimms or Andrew Lang. Here is a link to this story:

http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/177/

I tried to find this tale because I noticed the similarity between the story of the Happy Prince and that of Guangxu Emperor. To me, Emperor Guangxu, like the Happy Prince, though graceful, glamorous and noble, was meant to be no more than a frivolous ornament according to his masterful guardian Cixi, just like the motive of the mayor who set up the statue of the Happy Prince. However, like the Happy Prince, Guangxu wasn't willing to be a puppet but really wanted to help his people, to the extent that he would sacrifice himself. However, as Guangxu really held little power (much resembles the Happy Prince who couldn't even move a step), he wasn't expecting that his reform would succeed. He might only initiate the reforms out of his own conscience that he had to do sthg. for the people. And we see that Emperor Guangxu was not alone as he had loyal supporters like Tan Sitong (1865~1898), who died a martyr for the reform and the Emperor. Those supporters who sacrificed their livs are just like the swallow in this tale.

Reflections on Burke (link)

Several days ago, Elena Maria Vidal published an extracted passage from an article discussing Edmund Burke's (1729~1797) 'Reflections on the Revolution in France. I'd like to make a link here as I am a fan of Burke. Furthermore, Burke's 'conservative' thought can actually be compared to that of Confucius, as both thoughts revered the ideal form of possible coexistence of noble hierarchy and affection between these social classes. (While Karl Marx considers economically distinct social classes to be incompatible with each other)

Lantern Festival

Oops, today is supposed to be (What do you mean, today is!) the Chinese Lantern Festival. Traditionally, it's the last day of the Spring Festival as it is the 15th of January according to Lunar Calendar (Which means that the moon is round)


We put up lanterns in the street and eat a dessert named Tangyuan (a ball-shaped dessert with fillings inside). Tangyuan express good wishes for the get-together of family, as yuan indicates being together in Chinese. The fillings can either be sweet (sesame) or salty (pork), both are very delicious with ginger soup!

Unfortunately, I forgot everything about this traditional festival because of that stressful oral exam. So now I post a picture of Tangyuan to make up for my loss.


There is a story of Tangyuan concerning Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi. After being imprisoned by Cixi, Guangxu Emperor fell into a predicament harder than ever as he might be suspected by Cixi of being unfilial for any small 'misdemeanor'. On one Lantern Festival Day, Guangxu Emperor attended the levee of Cixi as usual, while Cixi was having some Tangyuan. Cixi asked him if he had already had any. While in fact that Guangxu had already had enough, he didn't dare to say it as Cixi might become furious for his eating earlier than her. Thus he said that he hadn't had any, so that Cixi 'granted' him some Tangyuan. Guangxu ate them and felt so bloated. However, Cixi again asked him if he was still hungry. Guangxu had to say that he was still hungry in Cixi's favor. So that Cixi granted him more Tangyuan. Guangxu couldn't eat any more so that he hid all the Tangyuan in his sleeves. Going back to his own room, Guangxu's inner clothes had all being stained by the juice of Tangyuan, so that he asked his servant to bring him some clean clothes. Unfortunately, all his inner clothes had being confiscated by Cixi for daily check in case that he was planning anything against her. It was only after a long while did the servant manage to find some clean clothes for the poor Emperor.

While typing these words, I couldn't help laughing. However, at the next moment, I felt my heart crying. How authoritarian and cruel Cixi must had been to Guangxu throughout all those years, to the extent that he didn't dare to utter even one word against her will ?