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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: narrow-minded and wild, as if he lacked the intelligence to grasp
that feature of the paper. He then turned them all over to the
Board of Civil Office ordering that body to decide upon a
suitable punishment for their offense, and assuring them that if
they made it too mild, his righteous wrath would fall upon them.
The latter decided that they be degraded three steps and removed
to posts befitting their lowered rank, but the Emperor revised
the sentence and dismissed them all from office, and this was the
beginning of his downfall.
The Empress Dowager had been spending the hot season at the
Summer Palace, and during the two months and more that the
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