CHINA'S CHRISTIAN EMPRESS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 233, 30 March 1912, Page 9

CHINA'S CHRISTIAN EMPRESS

INTERESTING DOCUMENTS. Some interesting documents which indicate how near China was to becoming a Christian land just about the time when the present Manchu dynasty seized the thrones are discussed in the January Contemporary Review by Professor E. H. Parker, formerly of the British consular service in China. It appears that early last year the Chinese Minister in Rome obtained permission from the prefect of the Vatican Library for one of his staff to search the Vatican archives for documents received from State personages :n China. The result was the discovery of two original letters sent to Pope Innocent X. by the last Dowager Empress of the Ming dynasty and her chief eunuch. The Ming was the native Chinese dynasty which preceded the Manchu, and its last Emperor committed suicide at Pekin in 1644, just as the Manchus were marching, nominally to assist him against the rebels, but in reality to make themselves masters of his empire. Upon his death the young Manchu chieftain was declared sole Emperor of both Manchuria and .China. Fugitive scions of the Ming dynasty continued, however, for some years to set up as emperors in various parts of China.

Among these was the last genuine Ming Emperor's brother, known as Prince Kuei, who set up as emperor in the southern province of Kuang-hsi. In his suite this prince had a faithful and able Christian eunuch known to the Jesuits as Pan Achilles. He was also accompanied by the two genuine Empresses Dowager, one his titular mother, the first I wife of the last but one of the genuine emperors, and the other his real mother, a secondary wife, in addition to his own wife, his son and heir, and his daughter. 'Under the last Ming emperors the Jesuits Ricci, Schall, Verbeist and others had attained great influence at Pekin, and that influence they continued to exercise during the passing of the Miags and the establishment of the Mjrachus. As Professor Parker observes, "At the time the ruling classes of China were within 'measurable distance' of becoming Christian." Prince Kuei had his Jesuit adviser in his train. This was a German named Andrew Xavier Koffler, who must, it would seem, have counselled his Royal converts to try what they could towards recovering their dynastic rights by appealing to the Papal throne direct. Both Dowager Empresses, Prince Kuei's wife, and his son and heir had been baptised under the respective names of Helen, Mary, Anne and Constantine. The officer of the Chinese Embassy who discovered the letters in the Vatican took photographs of them, and they were subsequently published in a native Shanghai journal on August 22 last, but that journal ceased to exist that very day. Professor Parker gives translations of both documents. In her letter the Dowager Empress Helen informed his Holiness of the abovementioned baptisms, and declared that she had often thought of proceeding in person to the front of the Holy Father's throne, there reverentially to hearken to his holy instruction, the sole reason for her not doing so* being the difficulty of access from her remote country. She humbly craved that the Holy Father would, before the Lord of Heaven, have ■, compassion upon her and her companion ! sinners, and at the time of their death grant them plenary indulgence. She also ; asked the Holy Father, together with the Holy and Catholic Church, to entreat the Lord of Heaven to protect her country to its restoration and peace, so that the eighteenth Emperor of the dynasty (i.e., Prince Kuei) might, together with his subjects, know how to revere the truth of the Lord Jesus. She further expressed the hope that the Holy Father would send numerous members of the Society of Jesus to preach the faith far and wide in China. In conclusion, she mentioned that she was sending a certain Jesuit on a mission to the Holy Father, and that when peaceful times returned they would send an official envoy to Rome. The eunuch Pan Achilles wrote in a similar There was some delay about receiving the Jesuit missioncr in Rome, and upon his return to China with the Pope's replies the Empress Dowager Helen was dead. Prince Kuei subsequently fled to Burma, but was handed over to the Chinese by the king of that country. He was afterwards strangled by a bow-string in the market-place of Yunnan Fu. The rea-' son why Prince Kuei was hot received into the church was that he would not abandon his concubines. Constantine, his heir, met with a fate similar to that of his father, but the Empress' mother, Mary, the "Empress" Anne, and her daughter were sent overland to Pekin, where the Manchu Government received them hospitably, deputing Schall the Jesuit to look after their comforts.