The Chinese Empress Dowager, Lung Yii, died suddenly last Saturday
at Peking. She had been unwell for a few days, but her death was quite unexpected. Lung Yii was consort of the late Emperor Knang Hsii, and was a niece of the famous Empress-Dowager Tzu Hsi, known as the " Old Buddha." There was no affection between her and Kuang Hsii, whom she married at the diction of the "Old Buddha." When Kuang Hsii declared himself an advanced reformer Lung Yu became a mere spy upon his movements, which she reported regularly to the " Old Buddha." There is no doubt that she took a considerable part in the events that culminated in the coup d'etat by which the "Old Buddha" resumed power over the head of the ineffectual Kuang Hsii. Lung Vii is said to have been a forbidding personality, devoted to the cause of reaction. After the "Old Buddha's" death there were continuous wrangles between Lung Yu and the Regent; the residents in the Palace were hopelessly divided into factions, and were able to offer no resistance whatever to the Republican revolution. Lung Yu generally outwitted the Regent, but, after all, she was vastly inferior to Tzn Hai in their common pastime of intrigue. After the revolution she and the infant Emperor, of course, beoame pensioners of the Republic.
