The Blue Dragon: A Tale of Recent Adventure in China

by Kirk Munroe

  CHAPTER XXV

  IN CHINA'S CAPITAL CITY

  China's capital, the great northern city of Pekin, is situated on aplain one hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and near the easternbase of a low mountain-range known as the Western Hills. It is dividedinto two nearly equal parts, the northern being the Manchu, or TartarCity, while the other is called the southern, or Chinese City. Thenorthern city is surrounded by a vast brick wall ten miles in length,fifty feet thick at the base, sixty feet high, and forty feet wide ontop, pierced by nine massive gateways, two on the north side, two on theeast, two on the west, and three on the south. These last open into thesouthern city, which is of about the same size as the other, and alsois surrounded by a lofty wall having seven gates. In the southern city,standing in the middle of a forty-acre park, is the great Temple ofHeaven, in which the Emperor alone may worship.

  In the centre of the northern, or Tartar City, and occupying one-eighthof the enclosed space, is located the Forbidden City, surrounded by afifty-foot wall of red brick coped with tiles of imperial yellow. Thiswall has but four gates, and within it are the yamens, or palaces ofhigh-rank mandarins, besides parks and pleasure-grounds. Inside of theForbidden City is yet another, known as the Imperial City, stronglyfortified, and containing the palaces, pleasure-grounds, lakes, andlotus ponds of the imperial family.

  While Canton, in the far south, has been called the most wonderful cityof the world, Pekin is almost as remarkable, although in an entirelydifferent way. Canton streets are noted for their extreme narrowness,and those of Pekin for their width, some of the latter being one hundredfeet wide. In Canton there are no wheeled vehicles and no beasts ofburden, while Pekin streets swarm with blue-covered, two-wheeledcarts, very heavy, and drawn by large, fine-looking mules, two-cooliejinrikishas, bullock-carts, wheelbarrows loaded with passengers orfreight, pushed by one coolie and pulled by another, long caravansof shaggy, two-humped camels, besides innumerable riding ponies anddonkeys. Also, in Pekin, may occasionally be seen the smart Europeanbrougham, drawn by a high-stepping American horse, of some wealthymandarin, though most of those who can afford to ride prefer to do soin sedan-chairs. Of these chairs, those used by members of the imperialfamily are roofed and curtained in yellow, those of the higher-classmandarins are red, those of the next lower grade are blue, and so thedescent is continued through green to black, while mourning chairs ofevery class invariably are white.

  In Canton a large proportion of the houses have two stories, while inall directions tower lofty, six-to-nine-storied pawn-shops, lookinglike flat-topped grain elevators; but in Pekin all dwellings and shops,even including the imperial palaces, have but a single story. The onlybuildings in all the city that exceed this height are the pagoda-likeTemple of Heaven, the great drum-tower, the great bell-tower, thefortified gate-towers surmounting the city walls, and certain foreignestablishments belonging to missions, legations, or business firms thathave been erected since 1900.

  Pekin is well provided with wide breathing spaces in the shape of templeand palace grounds, and shade trees are fairly abundant throughoutthe city. Most of its broad avenues are unpaved, and it is visited bysuffocating dust-storms at certain seasons of the year, while at othersit wades through fathomless mud.

  In 1897 the capital was connected with Tien-Tsin, eighty miles away,and with the sea by rail, but the track was compelled to end two milesoutside the southern wall. In 1900 came the great Boxer uprising, thesiege of the foreign legations in Pekin, and the capture, occupation,and terrible punishment of the city by the troops of nine foreignpowers. These retained possession for a year, during which time theycarried the railroad into the very heart of the city, largely increasedthe area of legation "concessions," established a clean-swept neutralzone three hundred feet wide around the legation territory, pavedLegation Street, built commodious barracks for the foreign troopsthat were to remain as permanent legation guards, and erected handsomelegation buildings; while the United States and Germany took possessionof and will permanently control a quarter of a mile of the city walladjoining their legations. After a year of foreign control Pekin wasrestored to its Chinese rulers, and the self-exiled imperial courtreturned to their capital city. During 1903 a number of large foreignbuildings, including a European hotel, banks, hospitals, chapels,schools, etc., were erected, and many more were projected for this year(1904). Electric lighting on an extensive scale, as well as electrictrams, are already planned for. The Pe-Han (Pekin-Hankow) Railway, overa portion of which our lads travelled, and which was wholly destroyed byBoxers immediately afterwards, has been restored and the track extendedsouthward to the Yellow River. Beyond this construction is being sorapidly pushed from both ends that the completion of the whole line ispromised by 1906.

  Thus China's capital, rudely roused by foreign guns from the sleep ofages, is now awake and in a fair way speedily to take a prominent placeamong the progressive cities of the world.

  None of these things were thought of, however, on that June day of1900 when Rob Hinckley, accompanied by his stanch friend, Chinese Jo,hesitatingly approached the great city; for at that moment it wasshadowed by the darkness of despair. The tidal wave of Boxer uprisinghad reached and overwhelmed it. The I-Ho-Chuan were in completepossession, and Pekin, with its teeming population, its accumulatedwealth of years, and, above all, with its hundreds of hated foreigners,diplomats, missionaries, business men, and legation guards, lay attheir mercy. They had nothing to fear from imperial troops, for these,always in sympathy with their movement, already had begun to co-operatewith them in their killing of Christian converts, their burnings andtheir lootings. Bolder and bolder they became, wilder and wilder grewtheir excesses, until shortly before the arrival of Rob and Jo they hadstarted fierce conflagrations in all parts of the city, had destroyedtwo Roman Catholic cathedrals, and were regularly besieging a thirdwith cannonade and rifle-fire. In this great fortress, and within itsspacious, wall-enclosed grounds, ninety foreigners, forty-three of whomwere French and Italian marines, and more than three thousand nativeconverts had taken refuge. For sixty days this isolated strongholdof Christianity was shelled and bombarded with cannon-ball andrifle-bullet; but it held out to the end, and stands to-day a monumentto the heroic endurance of its defenders. The attack on it had beenbegun three days before the arrival of our lads, and the sounds of heavyfiring that had so aroused their anxiety was the cannonade directedagainst its walls.

  With many misgivings they skirted the southern city, which seemed aseething caldron of riot and flame, and sought an entrance to theTartar City through one of its western gates. Here, to Jo's greatsatisfaction, he found, in the officer of the guard who examined them,an acquaintance not only willing to admit them, but of whom he couldask questions. Believing Jo to feel even more bitterly than himselfconcerning foreigners, this officer did not hesitate to give him thevery latest news. He confirmed the report heard at Pao-Ting-Fu of thedefeat and driving back towards Tien-Tsin of the combined American andBritish relief expedition, under Admiral Seymour, told of the siege ofthe northern cathedral, and, most startling of all, informed Jo of theimperial edict, issued that very day, ordering the destruction of everyforeigner within the walls of Pekin.

  "Already," he said, "have the invincible troops of Jung Lu enteredthe city, and with them are the Kwang-su tigers, under the terribleTung-Fu-Hsang, who thirsts for foreign blood as does a babe for itsmother's milk. To-day they are placing guns to command the legations,and to-morrow at four o'clock, if the ocean devils have not left thecity, they will be attacked and killed like rats in their holes."

  It was fortunate that Rob failed to comprehend what the officer said,for he could not have listened unmoved as did Jo. That the latter did sowas because he was not quite certain that he did not approve of the planfor driving all foreigners from China. Foreigners expelled Chinese fromtheir countries, so why should not his people in turn expel foreignersfrom China? Still, he did not express any views on the subject at thattime, but changed the topic of conversation by asking
the officer if hecould tell him where his father might be found.

  For a moment the latter hesitated, and his face assumed a peculiarexpression. Then he said: "Did you not know that his excellency LiChing Cheng had been given a position on the Board of Punishment? It isdoubtless at the yamen of that illustrious body that you will find him."

  Thanking the officer for his courtesy, Jo and his companion took theirdeparture, and, making their way through alleys and the quieter streetsas remote as possible from conflagrations and all scenes of disturbance,they finally reached the yamen of the Board of Punishment, whichcorresponds to what in an American city would be a combined court-houseand jail.

  A main entrance through the street wall led to a court, reached by thedescent of several steps. This court was surrounded by low buildings,occupied as offices of the board, and in its centre was a pond of water.As no person of whom they could ask questions was to be seen here,our lads passed on to a second or inner court that opened from thefirst. It also contained a stone-bordered reservoir of water, and wassurrounded by fantastically ornamented buildings. In one feature thatwas immediately noticeable, these low buildings differed from any otherthat Rob ever had seen in China. They were provided with cellar-likebasements, divided into small compartments, from each of which alittle, grated window opened into a tiny outside well-hole.

  About one of these well-holes stood a group of half a dozen Chineseofficials, towards whom Jo made his way, intending to ask them wherehis father might be found. As he drew near and was about to speak, heglanced downward to see what so had attracted their curiosity that noone of them had turned at his approach. What he saw was a human face,tortured and livid, pressed against the grating, and straining upward inmute agony. The man was supporting himself by hands clinched about twobars of the grating, and evidently was standing on tiptoe.

  Rob, looking over Jo's shoulder, also saw the awful face, and for aninstant wondered at the black line that seemed to cut it at the upliftedchin. Then it flashed across him that this was a line of black water,slowly but surely rising, and that in another moment the man would bedrowned. And no one dared try to save him, even were it possible to doso, for he was a condemned prisoner suffering one of the innumerable,ingeniously awful forms of Chinese capital punishment.

  "What was his crime?" asked one of the fascinated spectators of another.

  "He was that member of the Tsung Li Yamen who, before circulating thepalace edict, '_Feng yang jen pi sha_'" (whenever meeting foreigners,kill them), "dared alter '_pi_'" (kill) "into '_pao_'" (protect).

  "It is enough, and his punishment is righteous," declared the other.

  Rob did not quite understand this, but Jo did, and, seizing hiscomrade's arm with so fierce a grip that the latter winced, he draggedhim from the awful scene. As they gained the street he whispered, inchoking voice:

  "From this moment I am with you and with the foreign people, until theEmpress is overthrown. Let us get to your legation."

  "Was it any one you knew?" asked Rob, not yet comprehending.

  "He was my father."