The Last Empress - Anchee Min [109]
I summoned Li Hung-chang to Peking again. The railroad he him self had championed and built delivered him almost in no time. On my behalf Li spoke before an audience of the court about how to influence the provincial feng shui experts. "Only money will flip their tongues" was his conclusion. "That is the only way we can continue to build railroads and raise telegraph poles throughout the country."
I also encouraged Li to send word to foreign officials and missionaries. "I want them to know that the killings might have been avoided if the foreigners had learned how to communicate with our people."
On the last day of the audience, the minister of historical records gave a presentation on the history of Christian missionaries in China. "The root of the problem is that these missionaries built their churches on the outskirts of villages, often on land already consecrated as a cemetery," the minister explained. "The foreigners did not mean to disturb the spirits or the locals, but ended up doing just that.
"Farmers had never seen churches in their lives," the minister went on. "They were awed by how tall they were. When the missionaries explained that the height enabled their prayers to reach God, the locals panicked. In their eyes, the long, sword-like shadow crossing the cemetery cast a spell, and the cursed spirits of their ancestors would come to haunt them."
For half a century Chinese peasants had been demanding that the missionaries relocate their churches. The peasants believed that the enraged Chinese gods would surely wreak revenge and punishment. Whenever a severe drought or flood came, the peasants feared that unless the churches were removed and missionaries expelled, they would starve to death.
Prince Ts'eng had been in the north stirring up the peasants' fear and superstition. Every memorandum he sent back to Peking repeated the same message: "The conduct of the Christian barbarians is irritating our gods and geniuses, hence the many scourges we are now suffering ... The iron road and iron carriages are disturbing the terrestrial dragon and are destroying the earth's beneficial influences."
I knew I couldn't afford to turn Prince Ts'eng into an enemy. He was my husband's only remaining brother. I was also aware that he had a growing number of rebels at his command and at any moment could attempt to overthrow Guang-hsu. My strategy was to keep peace and order so that Li Hung-chang and the court's moderates could buy some time in which to modernize the country.
"When farmers lose their land, they lose their soul," I said to my son, trying to make him see how difficult it was for Li Hung-chang to keep the railways and telegraph wires running. "If it hadn't been for Li's Northern Army, we wouldn't have been able to keep up with the local rebels' destruction."
Only a few years after the building of the railroad, towns had sprouted around the stations. When these towns grew prosperous, the peasants were transformed from "robbers" to "guards": they would do anything to protect the tracks that brought them a better life. But the towns that hadn't benefited saw themselves as victims of modernization. The townspeople viewed Li Hung-chang as the foreigners' spokesman and his business efforts "part of the spell the foreigners had cast upon China."
As a result, violent gangs and secret societies formed and grew. Serious crime spread. The rebels not only destroyed the tracks and sabotaged the rolling stock but also raided churches and took missionaries as hostages. The situation became so dire that even Li Hung-chang could no longer contain it. Signs posted on city gates threatened to hang the "rice Christians"—the locals who converted to obtain needed food.
I was in the middle of a dream. I was watching my mother getting dressed in the morning. Her bedroom faced Lake Wuhu and had a large window. Sunlight splashed on the woodcarvings and over the floral-patterned window panels. The small bamboo and golden trumpet trees in her room were green even in winter.
Mother stretched like a cat, her long, bare arms