Instalment 28 (1901)
Scene 1: On the train returning to Beijing
The officials, who are accompanying Cixi on her return to Beijing, are seated in a wagon filled with vegetables and animals.
In another cosy and magnificent wagon, Cixi is comfortably seated on a chair in her luxurious compartment. One official accuses Yuan Shikai of
only bothering about the Empress Dowager and making the rest sit in a place which is worse than
a cage. While most of the officials are dozing off, one man is reading a book. It is Qu Hongji. Yuan, in turn, is pensively studying the face of his onetime enemy.
Up front in the locomotive, coal nuggets are being heaped into the boiler while the train is making its way.
In the wagon where the officials are seated, one of them asks Yuan for the title of the piece of music which was played at the
train station prior to their departure. When Yuan is quietly informed by his advisor that he should avoid spelling out the real name which is the “Marseillaise”
(after all, the French national hymn of the republican revolution!), Yuan answers that the music is in fact the
Western pendant to "Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye" (Night of flowery moon over the river in spring),
a famous piece of scholarly entertainment music. The official is very impressed
that Yuan is such an “expert of modernisation”. Then Yuan checks his watch. In another compartment, Cixi is also staring at her watch in anticipation.
In the locomotive, the foreign conductor regulates the speed of the train. By orders of Yuan, the train is to arrive at precisely 14 o’clock at Yongdingmen train station. The train is slowly coming to a halt. When it finally stops at the train station, one hears
two bell strokes: the train has arrived just on time. Cixi is deeply moved and says: “We have come home”.
Scene 2: At the Palace
All the officials kneel down in front of Cixi and the emperor who have finally come back to the Forbidden City. Suddenly, Cixi begins to cry and her sobs are getting stronger and stronger. The emperor is slightly embarrassed and turns to the other side so as not to have to look at the crying Empress Dowager. During the audience, Cixi reproaches the Qing Prince Yikuang for not being steadfast enough during the negotiations with the eight powers. As a result, the Qing Court was subjected to massive reparations and forced to execute many able officials. Then, Cixi appoints Yuan Shikai to a post in the newly restructured foreign ministry. He is to head the ministry now, together with the Qing Prince. For Yuan this symbolises a reward of great importance. He seizes the moment to declare his loyalty: “Taihou, the Empress Dowager, is synonymous for the Qing reign and vice versa. My heart will always remain faithful to you.” Cixi is delighted. Then she sends for Cen Chunxuan,the official who came looking for them in a Shanxi village and then cared for them. She recounts the story of their escape from the eight powers and tells how Cen Chunxuan came to their aid, praising his loyalty. The emperor is disgusted by all this and behaves demonstratively uninterested. He even has the Chief Eunuch Li Lianying bring him some food. When Cixi sees this, she is annoyed and tells him to “go and rest”. When she adds that he does not have to return to Yingtai (the location of his previous “custody”) anymore, the emperor provokes her even further by saying that he has already gotten used to his life there! He thereby rejects her offer of reconciliation.
Scene 3: The emperor and Li Lianying are on their way to Yingtai
Li Lianying wants to clean Yingtai up and have new clothes ordered for the emperor. But the emperor declines. He wishes everything to remain as it was to commemorate the escape from the eight powers and everything that led up to it.
Cixi and the officials are celebrating their return. Some tell stories of how they gathered food such as rice and chicken. Then Cixi speaks to the foreign train conductor. She even bestows an aristocratic title onto him to reward his successful timing of the train. Cixi is delighted that there are even foreigners working for her!
Qu Hongji and Cen Chunxuan are discussing the new appointments at court. They both do not want the Qing Prince to become the most influential court official. Then Qu proposes that Cen should maybe ask Cixi (who, as a special treat, allowed him to freely voice his favoured appointment) for the position of Governor General of Guangong. In Canton, Qu argues, Cen could collect evidence against the corrupt Qing Prince. The local maritime customs administrator Zhou Rongyao is said to be closely connected to the Qing Prince. Qu and Cen therefore estimate that Zhou bribes the prince.
Ronglu is very ill. Yuan Shikai visits him and cares for him like a son would care for his father. In reality, however, Yuan has come to find out whom Rong-lu, now the most important official at Court, has recommended as his successor. Ronglu, who realises Yuan’s intent, counters that in truth Yuan is neither his nor Li Hongzhang’s man. But he continues saying that he hopes that Yuan will always support the Qing rule. Then he hints to him to go and call on the Qing Prince.
Because Sun Yatsen has continuously asked his brother for money to fund his revolution, his brother has even sold his farmland. There are no cows left, only some horses. It appears that Sun has returned to the States after another unsuccessful revolution in China. He meets with his son Sun Ke, who is temporarily living with Sun Mei. However, the father–son relation seems a little unusual. Sun Ke feels uneasy being around his father. Sun Yatsen is trying rather awkwardly to behave like a normal father and inquires after his son’s studies with Liang Qichao, whom Sun Mei has meanwhile engaged as a teacher! Then Sun Ke obligingly recites the text he has learnt.
A man dressed in Qing official clothing approaches Sun who is advertising his cause through a megaphone on the street. With disdain he calls Sun “Sun Dapao - canon Sun“, i.e. someone who boasts a lot. The man claims that he once gave Sun money but that he never saw any of the promised surpluses. He has now given Kang Youwei (who is also in the USA advertising his cause) 2000 dollars and therefore he has been awarded an official title of the second rank (Erpin). Sun ridicules the man telling him that he could have any official title from him for only 1000 dollars. Thereupon the man angrily returns home. Back at home with his brother, Sun again tries to get money from Sun Mei. But Sun Mei does not listen to him. Sun Yatsen suggests that they could also sell the horses for he needs money to set up a revolutionary newspaper. Finally, Sun Mei gives his brother his last 1000 dollars. Sun Yatsen is exalted and makes the inappropriate comment: “Who says we don’t have any cows anymore? You are the family’s cow!”
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