me to help you as a reward for your filial piety." With that she soared up to heareu aud disappeared, and the name of the place was thenceforward changed to ^ J^ . 2107 T*ung Chih |^ yj^. A.D. 1856-1875. The title of the reign of ^ 1^ Tsai-sbun, only son of the Emperor Hsien F§ng. He succeeded his father in 1861 , under the regency of the two Empresses Dowager who were ably assisted by his uncle, Prince Kung. The title at first adopted for his reign was "^ jf^ ; it was changed after the successful coup d'etat which seated him firmly upon the throne (see Kung^ Prince). The T*ai-p*ing rebellion was finally suppressed in 1864 (see Tseng Kuo-fan). It was followed by a rising of mounted banditti, known as Nien fei, who after doing much mischief in more than one province of the north , and eyen threateniDg the capital, were at length dispersed. Meanwhile the Maritime Customs had been organised under the management of foreigners, and had proved successful. Not so an attempt to purchase a ready- made fleet, known as the Lay-Osbom flotilla, for which China was quite unable to pay and which Great Britain obligingly took o£f her hands. In 1868 the former sent her first mission to foreign countries. It was headed by Mr. Burlingame, late American Minister at Peking, and its object was to show that China would be ready at an early date for western civilisation. As a commentary upon this text, the year 1870 brought with it the Tientsin Massacre, in which many Catholic sisters and other foreigners lost their lives (see Cli^ung Hou aud Ch^en Kuo-jui). In 1872 the Emperor was married to a young Manchu lady, named A-lu-t§. In 1873 the foreign Ministers were received in audience, and the great Panthay rebellion in Yiinnan, which had lasted eighteen years, was brought to an end with the tragic death of Tu W§n-hsiu. In 1874 the Japanese landed a force upon the island of Formosa, in order to punish the savages — China having declared herself incapable of doing so -
