The famous statesman, Prince Kung was the uncle of the Emperor Kuang Hsii and conducted the Government during his minority. He was by far the ablest member of the Imperial clan and it was therefore a misfortune for the country that the Emperor Tao Kuang had not selected him, who was hhis favourite son, as his successor. As long] as the prince was at the head of the govern ment, even the Empress-Dowager Tzu Lis was forced to follow his advice. Tt was not after the disastrous war with France in 1885 which Tost Annam for the Empire, that hho was dismissed, when she took the bit between her teeth with even more disastrous results. It is not of Prince Kung, a. well-known historical. personage, however, that 1 want to waite, but of his' eldest son, Tsai Cheng.
Prince Kung, like so many other famous fathers, was not lucky in his sons: Tsar Cheng, with whom this story deals, was 0 thorough wastrel who died young, and his brother 'Tsai Ying was little better' and was cashiered later on having been.one of the prime movers in the Boxer troubles, Tsai Chang was only a few years older than the Emperor Tung Chih, Kuang Ho's predecesser, and had been his playmate in ehildhood. When they grew up he remained his bosom pal and had a very bad influence on the Emperor whom he used to encourage and bet in his wild life. Dressed in long black robes, the dress of the dandies of those days, they would issue forth from the Palace incognito, to spend an evening at restaurants, brothels and other doubtful haunts, often only returning just in time for the early morning audience, On these jaunts the Emperor sometimes got Into awkward scrapes, so that these escapades of his were a common topic in the oficial World, "As uncle of the Emperor and head of the Imperial clan, Prince Kung. made repeated attempts to bring his young nephew {o'a sense of his high position. At the end of one such lecture he added "Even the occupant of the Throne must obey the house Jaws of ur dynasty." Said the Emperor, suppose you know all about. the dynastic What else have you to criticize about "Well, for instance, that black robe; Your Majesty is now wearing is not at all the correct kind of dress." Like a flash the Emperor replied, "It is the same kind of dress, your son wears when he accompanies me fon my excursions. You, should put your own household in order first," and dismissed him! leaving him no time to reply.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.