"The Emperor was of a studious disposition. Since the loss of Formosa he has been greatly distressed about the decline of the Empire. After this his faithful tutor, Wêng Tung Ho, who was a learned man, sought foreign books for study, and presented them, with atlases, to the Emperor. These the Emperor daily studied, discovered the cause of foreign prosperity, discovered the reason of China's weakness and conservatism, and made up his mind to reform. But this was not in accordance with the view of the Empress-Dowager. At the beginning of the war with Japan the Emperor and his Ministers wanted war. The Empress-Dowager and Li Hung Chang wanted peace. The Empress-Dowager was ready to give up Manchuria and Formosa. The Emperor could not think of it for a moment without crying with distress; he wanted to make an alliance with England and to reform, while the Empress-Dowager was equally bent on alliance with Russia without reform. Thus their views diverged more and more, so that when the Emperor wanted to reform in 1895 the Empress hated him; two of his favourite Imperial ladies were beaten: the Vice-Presidents, Chang Lin, Wang Ming Luan, and Tsz Tui, a brother of one of these Imperial ladies, were driven away: and the Imperial ladies' tutor, Wên Ting Shih, was stripped of his honours, never to be employed any more. This was because all these advised the Emperor to keep the power in his own hands. "The eunuch Kow Lang Tsai memorialised the Empress-Dowager to resign the government into the hands of the Emperor. For this he was put to death. The Emperor himself narrowly escaped being put aside then. … Chang Lin was a straightforward man in whom Prince Kung put great confidence. In a memorial to the Emperor he said: 'The relation of the Empress-Dowager to the late Emperor Tung Chih was that of his own mother, but her relation to you is that of the widowed concubine of a former Emperor.' When the Empress-Dowager came to know this she was in a great rage. Prince Kung was also in great fear. When the Emperor issued an edict, by command of the Empress-Dowager, to degrade Chang Lin, Prince Kung was weeping on his knees. When asked the reason of it, the Emperor waved his hand and said, 'Don't ask him.' The Emperor and the Prince wept together, and the Prince wept so bitterly that he had no strength to rise up. The Emperor commanded the eunuchs to help him up and lead him away. Wên Ting Shih begged the Emperor to exercise his rights. The Emperor waved his hand, saying, 'Don't speak,' for the Emperor knew long ago that when he took the reins of government into his own hands the Empress hated him." {91}