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KOREA AND ITS NEIGHBORS

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those limits would not be reached until China herself should approach Japan directly for peace.

This declination was followed on the same date by a request from Japan to the American minister that in the event of China desiring to communicate with Japan upon the subject of peace, it should be done through the legation of the United States at Peking. The intimation was favorably and promptly acted upon by the Chinese government, as within two days Minister Denby was authorized to transmit direct to Japan overtures for peace. This step led to the assurance from Japan that a peace commission appointed by China would be received in a friendly spirit.

In December, 1894, a peace commission, consisting of Chang Yen Huan,^[1] former minister to the United States and a member of the Tsung-li Yamen, and Shao Yu-lien, a provincial governor, was appointed, and

↑ Chang's residence in the United States, where he was held in high esteem, convinced him that China's great need was reform in government in accordance with Western civilization, and on his return to China he became a leading member of the liberal section in Chinese politics. He was a trusted adviser of the emperor in his reform movement after the Japanese war, and when the empress dowager virtually dethroned the emperor and resumed the control of the government, Chang was condemned to decapitation on the charge of malfeasance in office as an adviser of the throne. The American and British ministers intervened to save his life, and his punishment was commuted to perpetual banishment at hard labor in distant Mongolia. When the reactionary party was in the ascendancy in 1900, and the foreign legations besieged, the empress dowager caused him to be beheaded. His death was a great loss to China, as he was a liberal and enlightened statesman and could have rendered his country valuable service in the trying period following the "Boxer" movement. At the suggestion of the American government, Chang has recently been posthumously restored to his honors and the disgrace attaching to his execution removed from his family.

[1] Chang's residence in the United States, where he was held in high esteem, convinced him that China's great need was reform in government in accordance with Western civilization, and on his return to China he became a leading member of the liberal section in Chinese politics. He was a trusted adviser of the emperor in his reform movement after the Japanese war, and when the empress dowager virtually dethroned the emperor and resumed the control of the government, Chang was condemned to decapitation on the charge of malfeasance in office as an adviser of the throne. The American and British ministers intervened to save his life, and his punishment was commuted to perpetual banishment at hard labor in distant Mongolia. When the reactionary party was in the ascendancy in 1900, and the foreign legations besieged, the empress dowager caused him to be beheaded. His death was a great loss to China, as he was a liberal and enlightened statesman and could have rendered his country valuable service in the trying period following the "Boxer" movement. At the suggestion of the American government, Chang has recently been posthumously restored to his honors and the disgrace attaching to his execution removed from his family.

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