Two years after entering the imperial harem,
Tsu-Hd — f (ff such was her name — gave birth to a
son, and as the Emperor's first wife was childless,
this boy, at his father's death, five years later,
succeeded to the throne. The first wife and Tsu-
Hsi were made coregents for the boy Emperor
and each was given the title of Dowager Empress,
tile former being known theraf ter as the Empress



Riddle of Empress Tsu-Hsl 53

of the Eastran Palace and Tsu-Hsi as the Empreee
of the Weetem Palace.
The Empress of the Eastern Palace was a
woman of quiet tastes and retiring disposition,
interested mostly in literary pursuits and g^ted
with no executive ability, while Tsu-Hsi had an
active interest in politics and affairs — was made
(^ the metal out of which stem and shrewd rulers
are wrought. Being oppoates in disposition, the
two empresses got along amicably and fost^«d
for each other a sincere affection, which had not
been diminshed when the Empress of the Eastern
Palace died, in 1881.
Tsu-Hsi suffered a terrible shock when her son,
the young Emperor, succumbed to an ominously
brief and m^terious illness. But, undaxmted by
her great grief, she outwitted the manHftrinq by
snatching from his cradle at midnight a three-
year-old boy, Kwang-Hsu, first cousin of the dead
Emperor, and by hurrying this infant into the
council chamber, where she presented him as the
new ruler of the empire. It is said that the man-
darins protested, but that Tsu-Esi quelled thdr
objections with blows &om a whip. She con-
tinued her regency thereafter as foster-mother of
the Emperor, who, to the day of his death, she is
said to have spanked whenever be expressed his
own opinions too emphatically.
