Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1882 — The Empress Ts’z Tan’s Funeral. [ARTICLE]

The Empress Ts’z Tan’s Funeral.

For the last twenty years the Chinese empire has been governed by two empresses regent. One is the mother of the boy emperor, and she is styled the empress of the western palace; while the lady now deceased was the widow of the late emperor, who appointed her co-regent during the minority of his son. Her name was Ts’n Tan, and her title, the empress of the eastern palace, or, colioquilly, the eastern empress. Her death occurred in April, unexpectedly and suddenly, as her majesty was a comparatively young woman. The remains were removed from Pekin on the 31st of October, being the nineteenth day of the nineteenth month in the Chinese calendar, that day having been found by the imperial astronomers to be auspicious for the ceremony. The funeral is called by the Chinese by a term which signifies “to seal her last rest.” When the day had been fixed, public notification was given in order that the shops and houses along the line of route might be closed, so that profane eyes might net gaze upon the august person of the young emperor and the funeral trappings of the illustrious dead. The crossings of streets and mouths of lanes opening upon the route were barricaded with blue loeth, and, at the request of the authorities, the British legation sent round a circular requesting all British subjects to keep away from the line of route. The young emperor and his mother announced that they would follow the remains to the tomb in the Imperial Mausolea, which are situated ninety miles northeast of Pekin. But the impression produced by the assassination of the czar, and more recently of President Garfield, combined with the recent agitation among the ennuchs in the palace, caused a chauge of plan; and the emperor was contented to go to a plateau beyond the suburbs, where, in a marquee surroxnded by the imperial body guard he bade the remains of his stepmother a last farewell. The catafalque containing the coffin had to be carried all the way by hand, by 128 bearers at a time, 6,0U0 men being the total number of bearers employed. These men had all been drilled for weeks to carry the

pondr'W machine with a gentle, uniform step, without any vibration, and tbe test was their carrying a heavy hearse containing a cup filled with water, which must not be spilled The roads were levelled and smoothed for the procession, and all traffic was suspended until the funeral was over, it is described as a straggling disorderly line of officers, dressed in scarlet silk and satin uniforms, variegated with embroidery, while the flags, the plumes and catafalque itself were of yellow, mostly in satin and displaying everywhere the device of the Imperial Dragon in gold thread. Some mandarins in full ceremonial dress, horsemen armed with enormous ancient spears, fans, umbrellas, and the deceased empress’s regalia in two portable niches covered with yellow silk, were the chief features in the procession. Pince Kune and his suite were a mile behind tbe coffin. The procession occupied three days on its way to the tombs; libations of wine were poured morning and evening, at every gate and bridge which the coffin passed. At the tomb the coffin was placed upon the dragon hearse, which glided down into the vault at “the auspicious moment.” and this was followed by a sacrificial offering on the terrace of the Mausolea. The tomb is very solidly constructed, and the entrance is closed by a heavy massive stone door, which, when pulled tight,moves over a balance, upsetting a heavy bolt in the interior, which so effectually bars the door as to make admission impossible except by demolishing the tomb. Thus “the last rest” of a Chinese sovereign was fealea.