《紫禁城的黄昏》章节试读

《紫禁城的黄昏》的笔记-第63页 - Chapter V The Empress-Dowager T'zu-Hsi

....He (Kuang-Hsu) might have left a name equal to that of his illustrious Japanese contemporary, the emperor Meiji, under whom Japan entered upon her wonderful period of reform and development. The reign of Meiji began only seven years before Kuang-Hsu ascended the Dragon throne and ended four years after Kuang-Hsu's pitiful death.

《紫禁城的黄昏》的笔记-第55页 - Chapter V The Empress-Dowager T'zu-Hsi

Several years before I entered the service of the Manchu court and had access to fuller information, I described the empress-dowager as one "who through the pitiful misuse of her unrivalled opportunities must be held mainly responsible for the ignominious collapse of the most ancient of imperial thrones." I should now substitute "largely" for "mainly"; and I should add that her responsibility as a moral agent was limited by the facts that she was in the grip of a vicious system which was not her creation...Had she been..."the most remarkable woman sovereign the world has known," she could have loosened that vicious grip and set herself free from those corrupt traditions. She had neither the strength of character nor the will that would have been necessary for so great an accomplishment.