MUKDEN, THE MANCHU HOME 



307 



the: gre;at PxWilion of rut imperial palace at mukden before the repairs 



able penance of imperial proxy, came to 

 bring the records of the preceding ten 

 years to add to the ancestral chronicle, 

 and to bring more precious things to the 

 palace storehouses. Prince Ching was 

 starting on that errand — but comfortably, 

 in a through railway train, in October, 

 1908 — to deposit the records of Manchu 

 rule from 1898 to 1908! From the coup 

 d'etat to the promise of a constitution ! 

 And a fine series of fairy stories the 

 imperial historians must have concocted, 

 too, to save face before the ancestors! 



For the bald, disgraceful truth about 

 these last ten years would make the 

 Manchu forbears rise from their grave 

 mounds. 



The red entrance gate and the pailows 

 of honor admitting to the Chin Lan pal- 

 ace face the south gate of the Tartar 

 city, and five courts on rising terraces 

 lead back to the garden at the far north 

 end of the compound. All the pavilions, 

 save the first audience hall, and the Hall 

 of Worship, where the Emperor Taitsung 

 died, have been nearly rebuilt in the 



