光緒二十六年，八國聯(lián)軍攻占北京。慈禧太后棄城而走，一直逃到西安。和談開始后，她并未馬上返回北京。起初，外國列強的要求里面有一項是讓慈禧太后退位，由光緒帝重新執(zhí)掌朝廷。不過，在與李鴻章多次會談后，他們放棄了這一要求。
【中文】
第二年正式簽署和約，隨后過了一個月慈禧才終于從西安動身。她對外國人萬分懼怕，正像她對國人無比傲慢一樣。她在河南停留了很長一段時間，到了保定又逗留多日，好不容易才回到北京。據(jù)野史記載，在這漫長的旅途中還發(fā)生了一件趣事。一位地方官員送給慈禧一只猴子，她頗為高興，竟下旨給那只猴子穿黃馬褂。后來太監(jiān)報告說，有的官員發(fā)出了“人不如猴”的感慨，慈禧這才發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的決定有些荒唐，于是又下旨給隨行官員每人一件黃馬褂。得到這殊榮之后，大家真不知道該感謝慈禧還是感謝那只猴子。
【英文】
In the following year, a formal peace pact was signed. About a month later, Cixi left Xi’an at last. She was utterly fearful of foreigners just as she was extremely arro-gant toward her own countrymen. She stopped far a long time in Henan and halted in Baoding for quite a few days before finally arriving in Beijing. According to unofficial accounts，an amusing episode took place during this long and drawn out journey. When a local official offered a monkey to her as a gift，she was so pleased that she ordered a yellow mandarin jacket to be conferred upon the monkey.later, a eunuch heard some officials complaining that people were considered less worthy than a monkey and went to inform Cixi，who realized that her order had been indeed a little too whimsical. So she issued another edict granting each of the escorting officials a yellow mandarin jacket. Upon the receipt of such an unusual favor the officials did not know whether they should thank Cixi or rather the monkey for it.