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 his favourite son, as his successor. As long as the prince was at the head of the government, even the Empress-Dowager Tzu Hsi was forced to follow his advice. It was not till after the disastrous war with France in 1885 which lost Annam for the Empire, that he 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 I want to write, but of his eldest son, Tsai Cheng.
Prince Kung, like so many other famous fathers, was not lucky in his sons: Tsai Cheng, with whom this story deals, was o 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.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.