Instalment 21 (1898)

Scene 1: At Ronglu’s residence in Tianjin; Yuan Shikai and Ronglu

Yuan Shikai is paying Ronglu a visit. Yuan has betrayed Tan Sitong despite initially promising him to cooperate. Ronglu is angry with Yuan and scolds him. He calls Yuan a clever opportunist who would certainly know what to do under any given circumstances, being well aware that Cixi has more power than the emperor. This, he believes, is the real reason why Yuan has paid him a visit on this day, instead of cooperating with the reformers. But Yuan defends himself by comparing the state with a family. The emperor is the father, the Empress Dowager the grandmother and the officials are the children. If there are tensions between the father and the grandmother, then the children are obliged to do everything possible to mediate. Yuan goes to great lengths to prove his honesty to Ronglu and win his trust. Finally, Ronglu decides to travel to Beijing with Yuan to keep Cixi from being subjected to a coup d’état.

Scene 2: At the Imperial Palace; Cixi is seated on the imperial throne high on top, the emperor is standing on the ground

Cixi is angry with the emperor and scolds him for his attempted coup d’état. She says that “tianxia”, i.e. everything under heaven, belongs to the ancestors. She has selected officials to help the emperor with the task of governing the country but he merely proved to be an unfilial son. The emperor, however, denies the charges. Thereupon, she produces the secret edict and throws it at his feet. But the emperor insists that he did not plan a coup d’état. Cixi then turns very sad. She recalls past days when the emperor was still a child and she was taking care of him. The emperor is moved.
But in this instant, Ronglu and Yuan Shikai enter the palace. When the emperor sees the two entering together he is totally taken aback and in despair. Yuan confirms that the edict is the same edict which Tan Sitong showed him as a proof of the emperor’s command to carry out a coup d’état. The emperor looks at Yuan in shock. Gangyi seizes the moment and asks Cixi to dethrone the emperor. The other ministers also kneel down in support of Gangyi’s request. Cixi scolds Yuan for his opportunism and orders palace guards to have him taken out of the room. Yuan is startled and calls upon Rong-lu for help. Ronglu pleads Cixi to have mercy with Yuan and claims that Yuan has acted out of faithfulness to her. Cixi asks Ronglu for his opinion on how matters should be taken from here and he argues that there should not be an abdication. Rather, the Empress Dowager should resume her previous function of officially aiding the emperor in state affairs (xunzheng).

Scene 3: In Beijing; soldiers and horses are everywhere in search of the reformers

All over Beijing, the Qing soldiers are searching for the reformers. Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao meet in the Japanese embassy. Tan asks Liang to guard his (Tan’s) manuscripts and to forward his letters to his wife. Then Tan decides to return to his lodgings in the Liuyang Huiguan. [1] Liang tries to convince him to save his own life and escape. But Tan pushes him aside and leaves the embassy.

Two English speaking foreigners are looking for Kang Youwei in a storage room. They find him in a chest and tell him that the emperor has been put in custody. They also say that Kang will be discovered if he does not act immediately. Then they take Kang with them to help him escape to overseas.

Tan Sitong washes his hands, lights some incense and starts to play the zither. As a background to the beautiful music, one hears his last poem: ”Facing the door in refuge, I feel pity for Zhang Jian, having by unabashed remonstrance even shamed Du Gen; at the hand holding the sword I laugh, facing heaven: may the coming generations judge my guilt.” [2]. Then, an official enters followed by a group of soldiers. Tan burns his zither and follows the soldiers. On September 28, 1898, six reformers are executed by command of the Qing government: Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Yang Shenxiu, Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu and Kang Youwei’s brother Kang Guangren.

With tears in his eyes the emperor proclaims an edict. In this edict he admits to being incapable of reigning the country on his own and “requests” the Empress Dowager’s guidance.

The emperor walks in the direction of a pavilion. Li Lianying follows him. When the emperor turns around to face Li, Li kneels down in front of him. The emperor does not understand why and asks Li, but Li does not say a word, expressing by this the emperor’s isolation which has now begun. The emperor understands Li’s message and continues his walk to the pavilion alone. He is no under custody.

Li Lianying is carried back to the Palace in his sedan chair. Suddenly the sedan chair comes to a halt. Li gets off and walks over to an artificial boat. Cixi is standing there, looking into the distance with tears in her eyes. Far in the distance in front of her there is the pavilion in which the emperor is now under custody.

Yuan Shikai is officially greeted by his officers. But they only say “Found!” He then gets onto the sedan chair again and continues to ride to his residence. There he finds (Shen) Yingzi, his lover from the brothel. After a few moments of silence, he walks towards her, embraces her and starts to cry. He says that they were almost doomed to never meet again. Meanwhile, Xu Shichang walks around in the courtyard. In the room, Yuan tells his lover about the three incidents that happened meanwhile, in which he almost lost his life. In Shen Yingzi, Yuan has found his source of consolation.

The eunuch Xiao Dezi arrives with an edict for Yuan Shikai. Xu Shichang greets Xiao explaining that Yuan is not present (Xu is trying to give Yuan time to enjoy the reunion with his lover). Xiao Dezi complains about the tedious commission of working as a messenger and complains that he even lost his luggage and money – a discreet hint that he deserves some form of “compensation”. He is rather taken aback that Yuan does not come immediately to receive the edict. Xu tells him that Yuan is out to pursue some public matter. But Xiao Dezi does not wish to hear any of it and considers reporting this incident of “disrespect” to the authorities. Xu goes outside, but before he leaves the house he inquires about Xiao Dezi’s luggage once more.

While Xu Shichang is tending to Xiao Dezi, Yuan Shikai enjoys his pleasurable time with Yingzi. They recite Li Hongzhang’s poems (a scene which reinforces Li as a figure of legitimisation for Yuan). Yuan says that he will not return to his home and to Yingzi if not seated in a carriage led by four horses.[3] In the meantime, Xiao Dezi is impatiently waiting for Yuan. Suddenly, two men carry a box into the room. Xu Shichang says that the box is probably Xiao Dezi’s “lost luggage”. The box is filled with silver. Xiao Dezi is so delighted that he praises Xiaozhan exceedingly. Finally, Yuan arrives and Xiao Dezi reads out the edict: Yuan is to lead his troops to Shandong to suppress the Boxer Movement.

After exchanging codes in a secret language, Kang Youwei opens the door. It is Liang Qichao and they both cry. Kang is very sad that they have lost everything and are now left without hope. But Liang brings him some good news: his student Xu Qin, whom he had sent to Sun Yatsen in Japan, has taken command of Sun’s school. Upon hearing this, Kang is hopeful again.

The secret edict is placed on an altar. Many Chinese are present. A young man wearing a hat enters the room. Kang is telling the audience, among them many foreigners, the history of the edict and the story of the six executed reformers. When he is so grief-stricken that he is unable to continue, Liang Qichao recites the alleged last poem of Tan Sitong: "Facing the door in refuge, I commemorate Zhang Jian; in defiance of death I await to be treated like Du Gen; to the impending sword I laugh, facing heaven; and leave my intestines behind for China!”[4] The man with the hat, Wang Zhao, stands up and proclaims that Tan Sitong did not compose the poem in this way. Instead, he claims that Liang Qichao rewrote the poem. Wang emphasises that in his original poem,Tang Sitong made clear that a coup d’état (which the Han dynasty reference person Zhang Jian as well as the recent reformers had been accused of) should be considered a crime (“may the coming generations judge my guilt”).
He continues to state that it was precisely this crime which caused the death of the reformers. Moreover, he contends that Liang cannot prove that the secret edict shown was indeed written by the emperor (after all, it was really only a copy). Kang walks over to Wang Zhao and states that the copy is indeed the emperor’s secret edict. Of course, Wang Zhao cannot prove the opposite, but accuses Kang of risking the emperor’s life by provoking Cixi. Thereupon, Kang has Wang sent out. The Times journalist Morrison, however, returns to the room and wishes to take a look at the edict. He promises Kang that he will truthfully report about the occurrences. He also says that the Westerners profoundly hope that the secret edict is genuine.

The emperor is exercising archery. In the middle of the target there is one character: Yuan 袁. Every time he manages to hit the centre the emperor is delighted. Suddenly Cixi appears behind him. She says that Yuan Shikai did not do him any harm and asks why he hates him so much. The emperor replies that Cixi herself called Yuan an opportunist. But Cixi now flares into a rage. She throws a newspaper at him – it seems to be because of Morrison’s report. Morrison writes that the emperor is a reformer and supports the construction of a new system; Cixi, however, is the conservative who supports the traditional old system! Cixi scolds the emperor and before departing she tells Li Lianying that he is to send older eunuchs to Yingtai, for the emperor is currently permitted to “play” far too much. She also claims that the emperor is “in bad health”. He should “rest more and move less”. Although the emperor protests saying that he is not ill, Cixi insists that he is ill, very ill!

---