載湉 Tsai-t'ien, son of Gh'un I-haan, seventii son of the Emperor Tao Euang. He was posthumously adopted as son to his coasin the Emperor T^ang Ghih, whom he succeeded in 1875, under the regency of the Empress Dowt^er. In the early part of the same year, the expedition under Colonel Browne, which had started from Bhamo for Hankow with the ?iew of examining the trade capabilities of the country, was turned back soon after crossing the frontier by the open hostility of the natiyes, the interpreter to the expedition, A. B. Margary, being treacherously killed at Manwyne. This was settled by the Chefoo Agreement. In 1876 a priyate company bought up connecting strips of land between Shanghai and Woosung, and proceeded to lay down a miniature railway, which was for a time an object of much interest to the natives. Political influence was howeyer brought to bear, and the whole thing was purchased by the Chinese Goyemment, the rails torn up and sent to Formosa where they were left to rot upon the sea-beach. Then followed the re-conquest of Turkestan by Tso Tsung-Vang in 1877, and the terrible Shansi famine of 1878. In 1881 the skilled diplomacy of the Marquis Ts^ng Chi-ts6 succeeded in recoyering Euldja fit>m Russia at the price of nine million roubles. In 1884 difficulties arose with France in reference to China's alleged suzerainty oyer Tongking. A ^'state of reprisals" ensued; Formosa was blockaded; and a number of Chinese war-yessels were destroyed at their anchorage at Pt^oda Island in the riyer'Min, the upshot being that China . withdrew her claim. In March 1889 the Emperor assumed the reins of goyemment, haying been married a few days previously, namely on 26th February. In 1894 the maladministration of Korea was made a casus belli by the Japanese. By the early part of 1895, Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei had been captured, and the Chinese ironclad fleet had been either taken or destroyed (see Ting Ju-ch^ang). The war was ended by the cession to the
