NEW LIGHT ON THE OLD BUDDHA
The Flight of an Empress. By Wu Yung. Edited and transcribed by Ida Pruitt. With an Introduction by K. S. Latourette. (Faber and Faber. 8s. 6d.)
THE author of this book, a man of seventy whose life is already legendary, was formerly a district magistrate at a place called Huai-Lai, to the north-west of Peking. His object in life was evidently to be what he was perfectly fitted to be, the very pattern of a Chinese gentleman. His private life was tranquil and well-ordered, and in his public life he was a faithful servant of the State and a wise administrator. In a quieter age he might easily have grown old in a kind of splendid isolation from disorder, but he has lived in troubled times, and
a series of emergencies has put all his qualities to the test again and again.
First of all there was the Boxer movement to cope with. It was one of those hysterical mass movements that are one of the chief curses of this world. Raging xenophobes, the Boxers called foreigners " Old Hairy Ones " and Chinese converts to Christianity " Secondary Hairy Ones." They dabbled much in bogus magic, respected nobody, and spread through the country like wildfire.
" People began to call the Boxer women the Heavenly People, and as they went abroad in the crowded streets the populace knelt with their heads touching the ground. . . . The Boxers became very arrogant and -deceived each other. But no one dared to condemn them. That everyone should be so stupid was very strange."
Against this invasion Wu Yung stood firm, a guardian of law and order and reason and tradition against the passions of a mob which, however sure its unconscious racial instinct for self-preservation, was barbarous in its behaviour. He needed heroic courage, and was continually in danger of his life.
" I am the magistrate and I ought to control all wrong things. What will it matter if I die ? I am not afraid."
It became alarmingly clear that " to be a magistrate in this troubled world is perilous."
While the Boxers raged furiously together the Old Hairy
Ones were presently advancing into Peking, though it seems that this was ignored in the Palace. One day that grand old woman the Empress Doivager -TZ'ii Hsi, known as the Old Buddha, was doing her hair, When she heard " noises like the cries of cats." She was wondering how there could be so many cats, when a bullet popped in through the window.: She " examined it closely " and " had decided to enquire into the matter " (being for once a little slow in the Imperial uptake) when she was warned to flee, as the foreign soldiers had entered the city.
And so it came about that Wu Yung away at Huai-Lai was warned at very short notice to prepare to receive the entire Court in as fitting a manner as possible. Always temperate in his mode of expressing himself, he admits that the effort was almost enough to kill him. But the shrewd Old Buddha took to him at once. She was grateful to him, rewarded him, and carried him off with her on her journeyings. She also carried off his cook, to whom she awarded a button of the sixth rank for his knack with noodles.
In a short review it is impossible to convey the fascination of this story. A model of literary composition, it is told with the elegant simplicity of which the Chinese have for ages shown a mastery, and it has both historical and human interest. Court etiquette and court intrigues in a time of stress and the resourcefulness of Wu Yung as a loyal courtier provide a perfect accompaniment to travelling Maiesty. Anyone who has already made the acquaintance of the Old Buddha, either in the works of Messrs. Backhouse and Bland on elsewhere, will be delighted with every detail of this new portrait of. her.. There is one fearful moment when she is angry : " her eyes poured out straight rays, her cheek bones were Sharp; the veins on her forehead projected, and she showed her teeth as if she were suffering from lockjaw." She was accompanied by the feeble Emperor Kuang Hsii, who had a voice like the hum of a mosquito, spent much of his time snipping at bits of paper with scissors, and had only two questions to address to officials : " Is it peaceful outside ? Are the crops good ? " Sensible questions, one Must admit. This badgered and unhappy puppet was once so heartily slapped on the .back by the Heir
Apparent that he fell down and couldn't get up again. Where- upon the Old Buddha had- the slapper whipped and sacked. A good account of Li Hung-Chang helps to round off the whole tale.
-I have only one small fault to find. Was it necessary to tell us in .a footnote that " Chinese " Gordon was " a British officer " ? After all, there is still in this country what a lately deceased man of letters once called " a residuum of educated folk."
WILLIAM PLOMER.
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