Chapter 04: Reassessing Empress Dowager Cixi — Reflecting on the Catastrophe of the “Eight-Nation Alliance” and the Edicts of Self-Blame and Self-Reproach

1. Indecision between suppression and appeasement

In mid-June 1900, under the instigation of the pro-war faction led by Prince Zhuang and Prince Duan of the Qing court, more than 100,000 Boxers in Beijing killed indiscriminately, leaving blood and flesh strewn across the ground. Cixi wavered over whether to suppress the Boxers, appease them, or remain ambiguous. She knew that the Boxers’ magical tricks could neither support the Qing nor destroy the foreigners, yet she still hoped to use their momentum to put pressure on the Western powers.

Just as Cixi convened a large “imperial court conference” on June 16 to discuss peace or war and the policy toward the Boxers, the Boxers set fire to thousands of shops around Qianmen Street in Beijing, completely losing public support. Cixi was forced to issue an imperial edict “to enlighten the Boxers and order their disbandment.”

2. A piece of false intelligence triggers a great disaster

That very midnight, the court received top-secret intelligence claiming that the foreign legations had decided to support Emperor Guangxu and drive Cixi from power. The source was said to be this: at midnight someone secretly knocked on the door of Ronglu. After receiving him, Ronglu learned that the visitor was the son of Luo Jiajie, Grain Intendant of Jiangsu, who had come on his father’s orders to report confidentially that the foreign envoys were demanding the Empress Dowager return power to Emperor Guangxu.

After deliberating with Ronglu, Cixi decided to convene a second “imperial court conference” the next day, completely overturning the previous day’s edict ordering the Boxers to disband and be strictly controlled. Instead, she chose to reuse the Boxers and fight the Eleven Powers to the bitter end. Large numbers of Boxers from the outskirts poured into Beijing.

3. The German minister shot dead in the street by Qing troops

On June 20, the German minister Clemens von Ketteler was shot dead by Qing troops on a Beijing street. After the German minister’s death, Cixi resolved to go all the way and ordered Qing forces to besiege the legation quarter. On June 21 she wrote twelve declarations of severing relations and simultaneously declared war on the Eleven Powers.

4. The false intelligence came from a newspaper editorial

In fact, the Eleven Powers had never demanded that Cixi be driven out in favor of Guangxu. This was fabricated by Prince Duan’s faction to deliberately provoke Cixi. Investigation later showed that the “false intelligence” originated from an editorial in the English-language North China Daily News, run by British merchants in Shanghai. The article was embellished as it circulated and eventually reached Grain Intendant Luo Jiajie. The editorial did indeed mention that “the Empress Dowager and her clique” were deliberately preparing to “go to war with all the Powers,” and that “we hope Emperor Guangxu will be restored.”

5. Britain and the United States had no intention of ousting Cixi to restore Guangxu

This was merely a newspaper editorial. Replacing Cixi with Guangxu would have contradicted Britain’s China policy at the time. Britain controlled over 70 percent of China’s foreign trade and hoped to “maintain the status quo.” In fact, after the Eight-Nation Alliance, Britain and the United States worked together to keep Cixi, the principal culprit, in power. Cixi was thrown into panic by a single piece of false intelligence; there was no one capable in the court, and knowledge was lacking. Had Li Hongzhang still been in the position of grand councillor, he could have sent his foreign-affairs experts—Timothy Richard, Robert Hart, or W. A. P. Martin—to check directly with the legations, and everything would have become clear. Why should it have come to the point where the old Empress Dowager contemplated throwing herself into a well?

Only afterward did Cixi realize the importance of Li Hongzhang. The calamity of the Eight-Nation Alliance had already been unleashed, and to clean up the situation she again had to invite Li Hongzhang to step forward. After the defeat in the Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi stepped aside, and Liu Kunyi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Zhang Zhidong in Wuhan, and Li Hongzhang in Guangzhou had already formed the “Mutual Protection of the Southeast.” They were preparing to recommend Li Hongzhang as president to stabilize the crisis.

6. More than fifty days of besieging the legations; the Eight-Nation Alliance grows to 19,000 troops

From the declaration of war on the Eleven Powers to the more than fifty days of besieging the legation quarter, by August the Eight-Nation Alliance had grown to 19,000 troops and finally occupied the entire city of Beijing. Cixi originally intended to throw herself into a well but ultimately fled Beijing westward to Xi’an. During the Boxer turmoil, 240 missionaries and more than 20,000 Chinese Christians were killed.

7. Cixi flees to Xi’an with Guangxu

At 5 a.m. on August 15, allied troops had already reached Donghua Gate. Only after persuasion by princes and nobles did she board a mule cart and flee westward. She suffered from cold and hunger and was utterly miserable in the first few days. The journey to Xi’an took two months, and only later did conditions improve.

8. Cixi issues an “Edict of Self-Blame” and another “Edict of Self-Reproach” in Guangxu’s name

After arriving in Xi’an, Cixi issued, in the name of Emperor Guangxu, an “Edict of Self-Blame,” reflecting on the Boxer turmoil in detail. Later in 1900 she issued another “Edict of Self-Reproach,” expressing repentance.

Seeing that the Powers “did not infringe upon our sovereignty nor seize our territory,” she wrote of “remembering the forbearance of the Powers, deploring the ignorance and violence of the foolish mobs; upon reflection afterward, shame and indignation mingle together.” She also said: “Looking north toward the devastation of the capital, thousands of scholar-official households are displaced, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians are dead or wounded. I have no time to reproach myself—how could I bear to reproach others?” And further: “It is all my fault: above I have failed my ancestors, below I have failed the people.”

Having reflected deeply, Cixi promulgated the “New Policies,” stating: “From court regulations and state administration, official conduct and people’s livelihood, schools and the examination system, to military and fiscal affairs—there is nothing not included.” “Only reform and self-strengthening can serve the interests of officials and people; apart from this, there is no other path.”

9. Li Hongzhang signs the treaty with the Eight-Nation Alliance

In September 1900, Li Hongzhang signed the “Boxer Protocol” with representatives of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Article One required China to send Prince Chun Zaifeng to Germany to apologize for the killing of the German minister; Article Two punished ministers who had encouraged the Boxers; Article Three required China to send an envoy to Japan to apologize for the killing of Japanese legation staff, and so on, for a total of twelve articles.

10. Indemnity of 450 million taels, paid directly through increased customs duties

The Qing was to pay an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver. To reduce the burden on government finances, Robert Hart, the British Inspector-General of Customs, devised a method acceptable to all parties: raise import duties on luxury goods by 30 percent and have the customs service pay the indemnities directly to the Powers, without passing through the treasury. Hart calculated that it would take forty years including interest. Later, the United States took the lead in remitting part of its share, so the actual payments were reduced and the impact on China’s finances was not severe.

11. Cixi returns to Beijing; the Eight-Nation Alliance welcomes her by train

The Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing for over a year. In October 1901, Cixi and her entourage left Xi’an and returned to Beijing by carriage, arriving in January 1902 after a two-month journey. The allied forces specially went to Fengtai to welcome her and had her board a newly refurbished train into the capital.

Li Hongzhang, exhausted by overwork, fell ill and died two months after signing the treaty. While on the road, Cixi granted 5,000 silver dollars for his funeral and the construction of a shrine.

12. Qu Qiubai’s “Edict of Self-Blame”

The Chinese Communist Party has brought a century of suffering to the Chinese nation, with hundreds of millions of compatriots dead, yet Mao Zedong or any other leader never issued an “edict of self-blame.” Only the young leader Qu Qiubai, who died early in prison, left behind a piece titled Superfluous Words. It may be regarded as the CCP’s only “edict of self-blame.” To this day it is still recited by middle-school students, with many reading reflections written about it. Sample reflections can be found online, showing the power of an “edict of self-blame”: far more capable of resonating with broad readership than a hundred pieces of sycophantic propaganda praising the CCP’s supposed “greatness, glory, and correctness,” and certain to be passed down from generation to generation.

To this day, Xi Jinping continues to cover up and conceal Mao Zedong’s monstrous crimes over decades—among them the man-made Great Famine alone, which starved tens of millions to death. Mao Zedong still lies in his mausoleum for people to worship and gaze upon, but his crimes will eventually be exposed, and one day he will be spurned by the people. This includes Xi Jinping as well; all will ultimately be abandoned by the people.

Only those who repent can be reborn. Look—doesn’t Qu Qiubai still live in people’s hearts? Cixi repented, and she too lives in people’s hearts. As for Mao Zedong and his cohort, in people’s hearts they have long been dead.

13. The two great mistakes of Cixi’s life

Cixi committed two great mistakes in her life. First, she supported the Boxers, bringing about the calamity of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Second, on her deathbed she poisoned Emperor Guangxu, depriving the Qing of its main pillar and causing its irretrievable collapse.

The poisoning of the 37-year-old Emperor Guangxu was a grave mistake of the highest order—far greater than the mistake of the Eight-Nation Alliance. The latter could still be remedied; once Guangxu was poisoned, the Qing was finished. Had Guangxu lived, Yuan Shikai would have had no chance to usurp power, and Sun Yat-sen would have been even less of a threat. Soviet Russia could not have entered; Mao Zedong could not have emerged; modern Chinese history would have been entirely rewritten.

Had Emperor Guangxu completed constitutional reform in nine years, he might well have ruled as a constitutional monarch like the British king. Guangxu could have governed for at least forty more years and then passed it on. We today might still be living under the Qing Empire, just as there is still a British Empire today, with King Charles. The century-long disaster of communism could have been avoided, and hundreds of millions of compatriots would not have died under Mao’s rule.