52  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
four  in  number.  The  concubines  are  not  limited  in  number
by  any  law  or  custom,  and  are  selected  from  the  daughters
of  Manchu  nobles  and  freemen.  The  Dragon  is  the  armorial
emblem  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  Phoenix  of  the  Empress
Consort,  and  her  title  of  respect  is  “  Mother  of  the  State."
When  the  Emperor  Hienfeng  (properly  Wentsung  Hien
Hwangti)  died  in  1861,  he  left  only  one  son,  five  years  old,
to  succeed  him,  born,  not  of  the  Empress  Consort,  but  of
the  Secondary  Empress,  the  present  Empress  Dowager.
Motherhood  is  divine  in  China,  and  it  was  quite  in  accordance ­
  with  law  and  custom  that  the  Regency  over  the  infant
Emperor  should  be  exercised  jointly  by  the  Dowager
Empress  Consort  (the  “  Eastern  Palace,”  the  east  or  left
being  the  side  of  honor),  and  the  Empress  Mother  (the
“  Western  Palace  ”).  Only  one  of  the  two,  however,  had
capacity  for  government,  and  the  Semiramis  of  the  Far
East,  the  Empress  Mother,  exercised  alone  the  real  power,
even  before  the  death  in  1881  of  her  colleague  in  the  regency,
supported  then  and  after  by  the  counsel  of  Prince  Rung,
brother  of  Hienfeng.  The  regency  was  determined  in  1873»
when  the  young  Emperor,  Tungchih,  then  seventeen  years
old,  was  declared  of  age,  and  was  again  resumed  in  1875
(January),  on  the  death  of  Tungchih  and  the  accession  of  the
infant  Kwanghsii  ;  it  was  again  determined  in  1889,  and
again  resumed  in  1898  ;  and  the  rule  of  this  woman  of
seventy-one  over  the  youth  of  thirty-five,  her  nepheW'
adopted-grandson,  is  strengthened  by  the  capacity  of  the
ruler,  the  necessity  of  the  state,  and  the  devoted  reverence
due  to  parents  and  grandparents.
The  Imperial  Clansmen  are  those  who  can  trace  their
descent  back  directly  to  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  Hien'
tsu,  1583-1615,  and  are  distinguished  by  the  privilege  of
wearing  a  yellow  girdle  :  collateral  relatives  of  the  Imperial
house  are  privileged  to  wear  a  red  girdle.  The  titles  of
nobility  conferred  on  members  of  the  Imperial  house  are
of  twelve  degrees.  Sons  of  an  Emperor  are  created  Tsifl'
wang  or  Kiin-wang,  Prince  of  the  first  or  second  order  )
their  sons  descend  to  Bei-leh,  Prince  of  the  third  order  ;  and