AN OLD PEKING PROPHECY.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOD.."]
do not know whether you have room in your valuable columns for a few lines on the present Manchu troubles, but on going over some old notes of Peking in 1904 I came across the subjoined prophecy : " The Ming dynasty came to an end when the temples were restored. The Ching dynasty will end when the roads are put in order."
My informant was Mr. Heng, a teacher recommended by the British Legation. He also was responsible for a little semi-prophetic story concerning the coming of the railway to Peking.
In 1904 the roads were far from being put in order, because on one occasion, driving out to dinner in a rickshaw, I got bogged at the bottom of Legation Street, near the Ha-ta Gate, the mud coining right up to the axles of my carriage. Since then the advent of the motor car has- created great changes, and now it may reasonably be said that the roads have been put in order.
As regards the railway coming to Peking, we must go back to the time when the northern capital was built. At that period, it will be remembered, Nanking was the chief city, But, poetically, the Emperor is sometimes referred to as the Diagon," whereas the Empress is symbolized by the "Phoenix." When, therefore, Peking was built, according to the Chinese astrologers, it was constructed in the form of a Phcenix, the half moon of the Chinese city outside the Tartar wall representing the wings.
When the railway came it cut through the Chinese city wall and ran parallel to the Tartar city wall, thereby cutting the bird's wings.
The astrologers declared that the Phcenix would never fly again, and undoubtedly the Chinese were very hostile at first to the foreign iron road.—I am, Sir, &c., R. R. GIBSON (late Chinese Inspector, Transvaal).
6 Kensington Square Mansions, W.
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