August 19, 2025 • 46 mins
The author of this captivating narrative possesses a unique perspective shaped by her remarkable lineage. As the daughter of Lord Yu Keng, a prominent figure in the Manchu White Banner Corps and a progressive Chinese official, she brings unparalleled insights to her experiences. Serving as First Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Dowager, she had the rare opportunity to observe and understand the complexities of the woman who ruled China for decades. This intimate chronicle, inspired by the encouragement of friends, illuminates the extraordinary personality of the Empress and the rich customs of her court, offering readers a fresh lens on this pivotal moment in history.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter twelve of Two Years in the Forbidden City. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by J. C. Guan.
Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Durling, Chapter twelve.
The Empress and Missus Conjur. On the twenty sixth day
of the fifth Moon, during the morning audience, Prince King
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told her Majesty that Missus conjer the wife of the
American Minister to Beijing, had asked for a private audience
and would her Majesty please mention a day. She told
him not to give any answer until the next day,
just to give her time to think it over. I
was sitting behind the large screen listening, but the other
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court ladies made too much noise, so Her Majesty ordered
them not to say a word during the audience. I
was very glad myself because I could listen to some
of the interesting conversations between the Empress Dowager and her ministers.
After the audience, her Majesty ordered her lunch to be
served on the top of the hill at bay Undien
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Spreading Cloud Pavilion. She said that she preferred to walk,
so we followed her very slowly to get to this place.
We had to mount two hundred and seventy two steps,
besides ten minutes climbing over rough stones. She did not
seem to mind the climbing part at all. It was
the funniest thing to see two little eunuchs on either
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side to support her arms, trying to keep pace with her.
I noticed that she was very much preoccupied and did
not speak to any of us. When we arrived at
our destination, we were very tired and quite exhausted. Her Majesty,
who was a good walker herself, laughed at us. She
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was always very much pleased when she excelled in games
of skill or endurance. She said, you see, I am
old and can walk much faster than you young people.
You are all no use. What is the matter with you?
Her Majesty was very fond of receiving compliments. I had
been there long enough to know and had learned to
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say things which would please her. She also hated any
one to pay her compliments at the wrong moment, so
one had to be very careful even in paying her compliments.
This Spreading Cloud Pavilion was a beautiful place. It had
an open space in front of the building, just like
one of the courtyards with pink and white leanders all
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over the place. There was a porcelain table and several
porcelain stools. Her Majesty sat on one of her own
yellow satin stool and was drinking her tea in silence.
It was very windy that day, although the sky was
blue with warm sunshine. Her Majesty sat there just for
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a few minutes and then said it was too windy
and went into the building. I was more than glad
to go in too, and whispered to the Young Empress
that I thought the wind might blow off my head dress.
The eunuchs brought the luncheon and placed everything upon the table.
The Young Empress made a sign for us to follow her,
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which we did. When we came to the back veranda,
we sat down on the window seats. I will explain
about these seats. All the windows were built low at
the palace, and on the verandah there was something like
a bench built along the window, about a foot wide.
There were no chairs to be seen, excepting Her Majesty's thrones.
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The young Empress asked me whether I had noticed that
her Majesty had something on her mind. I told her
that perhaps she was thinking about the private audience which
Prince King had mentioned that morning. She said that I
had guessed right, and asked, do you know anything about
this audience? When will it take place? I said that
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Her Majesty had not yet given her answer. By this time,
Her Majesty had finished eating and was walking up and
down the room watching us eating. She came over to
my mother and said, I am just wondering why Missus
Conder asks for a private audience. Perhaps she has something
to say to me. I would like to know just
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what it is so I can prepare an answer. My
mother said that probably Missus Conjure had some one visiting
her who wished to be presented to her Majesty. No,
it can't be that, because they must give the list
of names of those who wish to come to the palace.
I don't mind the formal audiences, but I don't think
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that I should have private ones at all. I don't
like to be questioned. As you all know, the foreigners are,
of course very nice and polite according to their own way,
but they cannot compare with us so far as etiquette concerned.
I may be conservative in saying that I admire our
custom and will not change it as long as I live.
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You see, our people are taught to be polite from
their earliest childhood and look back at the oldest teachings
and compare them with the new. People seem to like
the latter the best. I mean that the new idea
is to be Christians, to chop up their ancestral tablets
and burn them. I know many families here who have
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broken up because of the missionaries who are always influencing
the young people to believe their religion. Now, I will
tell you why I feel uneasy about this audience is
because we are too polite to refuse any one who
asks any favors in person. The foreigners don't seem to
understand that I'll tell you what I will do. Whenever
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they ask me anything, I'll simply tell them that I
am not my own boss, but have to consult with
my ministers that although I am the Empress Dowager of China,
I must also obey the law to tell the truth.
I like Madame Uchida, wife of the Japanese Minister to Beijing,
very much. She is always very nice and doesn't ask
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any silly questions. Of course, the Japanese are very much
like ourselves, not at all. Forward. Last year, before you
came to the court, a missionary lady came with Missus
Conjure and suggested that I should establish a school for
girls at the palace. I did not like to offend
her and said that I would take it into consideration. Now,
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just imagine it for a moment. Wouldn't it be foolish
to have a school at the palace. Besides, where am
I going to get so many girls to study. I
have enough to do as it is. I don't want
all the children of the imperial family studying at my palace.
Her majesty laughed while she was telling us this, and
every one else laughed too. She said, I am sure
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you will laugh. Missus Conjure is a very nice lady.
America is always very friendly towards China, and I appreciate
their nice behavior at the palace during the twenty sixth
year of Guangxu nineteen hundred. But I cannot say that
I love the missionaries too. Liliaying told me that these
missionaries here give the Chinese a certain medicine, and that
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after that they wished to become Christians, and then they
would pretend to tell the Chinese to think it over
very carefully, for they would never force any one to
believe their religion against their own will. Missionaries also take
the poor Chinese children and gouge their eyes out and
use them as a kind of medicine. I told her
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that that was not true, that I had met a
great many missionaries and that they were very kind hearted
and willing to do anything to help the poor Chinese.
I also told her what they had done for the
poor orphans, given them a home, food and clothing. That
sometimes they went into the interior and found the blind
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children who might be useless to their parents, and when
they get them, they have to support them. I know
several cases like that. These country people offer their deformed
children to the missionaries as they are too poor to
feed and take care of them. I told her about
their schools and how they helped the poor people. Her
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Majesty then laughed and said, of course I believe what
you say, but why don't these missionaries stay in their
own country and be useful to their own people. I
thought it would be of no use for me to
talk too much, but at the same time, I would
like her to know of the dreadful times some of
the missionaries had in China some time ago. Two of
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them were murdered at Wushui in June eighteen ninety two,
a little below Hanko, the church being burnt down by
the mob. My father was appointed by the Viceroy Chang
Shudon to investigate the matter. After much trouble, he caught
three of the murderers, and according to Chinese law, they
were put to death by hanging in wooden cages, and
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the government paid an indemnity to the families of the
murdered missionaries. The year after eighteen ninety three, a Catholic
church was burnt down at mar Chhung on the Yangsu
near Yichung. The mob said they saw many blind children
at the church who were made to work after having
their eyes gouged out. The prefect of Yichung Province said
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it was true that missionaries did get the Chinese children's
eyes from making medicine. So my father suggested having those
blind children brought into the Yamen and asked them. The
prefect was a most wicked man and was very anti foreign. Also,
he gave the poor children plenty of food and taught
them to say that the missionaries did gout their eyes out,
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but when they were brought in the next day, they
said that the missionaries treated them very kindly and gave
them a nice home, good food and clothing. They said
they were blind long before they became Catholics, and also
said that the prefect had taught them to say that
the missionaries were cruel through them, which was not true.
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The blind children begged to go back to the school
and said that they were very happy there. Her Majesty
said that may be all right for them to help
the poor and relieve their suffering. For instance, like our
great Buddha Joul who fed the hungry birds with his
own flesh. I would love them if they would leave
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my people alone. Let us believe our own religion. Do
you know how the Boxer rising began? Why the Chinese
Christians were to blame. The Boxers were treated badly by
them and wanted revenge. Of course, that is always the
trouble with the low class of people. They went too
far and at the same time thought to make themselves
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rich by setting fire to every house in Beijing. It
made no difference whose house they wanted to burn, so
long as they could get money These Chinese Christians are
the worst people in China. They rob the poor country
people of their land and property, and the missionaries, of
course always protect them in order to get a share
of themselves. Whenever a Chinese Christian is taken to the magistrates, yamen,
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he is not supposed to kneel down on the ground
and obey the Chinese law as others do, and is
always very rude to his own governance officials. Then these
missionaries do the best they can to protect them, whether
he is wrong or not, and believe everything he says
and make the magistrates set the prisoner free. Do you
remember that your father established rules in the twenty fourth
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year of Guangxu how the Chinese officials should treat the
bishops whenever they had dealings with each other. I know
the common class of people become Christians, also those who
are in trouble, but I don't believe that any of
the high officials are Christians. Her Majesty looked around and
whispered cong Yowe, the reformer of eighteen ninety eight tried
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to make the emperor believe that religion no one shall believe.
As long as I live, I must say that I
admire the foreigners in some way, for instance their navies
and armies and engineers. But as regards civilization, I should
say that China is the first country by all means.
I know that many people believe that the government had
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connections with the boxers, but that is not true. As
soon as we found out the trouble, we issued several
edicts and ordered the soldiers to drive them out, but
they had gone too far already. I made up my
mind not to go out of the palace at all.
I am an old woman and did not care whenever
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I died or not. But Prince Tuan and Duke Lan
suggested that we should go at once. They also suggested
that we should go in disguise, which made me very angry,
and I refused. After the return of the court to Beijing,
I was told that many people believed that I did
go in disguise, and said that I was dressed in
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one of my servant's clothes and rode in a broken
cart drawn by a mule, and that this old woman
servant of mine was dressed as the Empress dowager and
rode in my sedan chair. I wonder who made that
story up. Of course, every one believed it, and such
a story would get to the foreigners in Beijing without
any trouble. Now, to come back to the question of
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the box rising, how badly I was treated by my
own servants. No one seemed anxious to go with me,
and a great many ran away before the court had
any idea of leaving the capital at all, and those
who stayed would not but stood around and waited to
see what was going to happen. I made up my
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mind to ask and see how many would be willing
to go. So I said to every one, if you
servants are willing to go with me, you can do so,
and those who are not willing can leave me. I
was very much surprised to find that there were very
few standing around the listening, only seventeen eunuchs, two old
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women servants, and one servant girl. That was show true.
Those people said they would go with me no matter
what happened. I had three thousand eunuchs, but they were
nearly all gone before I had the chance of counting them.
Some of the wicked ones were even rude to me
and threw my valuable vases on the stone floor and
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smashed them. They knew that I could not punish them.
At that important moment, for we were leaving, I cried
very much and prayed for our great ancestors souls to
protect us. Every one knelt with me and prayed. The
young Empress was the only one of my family who
went with me. A certain relative of mine, whom I
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was very fond of and gave her everything she asked,
refused to go with me. I knew that the reason
she would not go was because she thought the foreign
soldiers would catch up the runaway court and kill every one.
After we had been gone about seven days, I sent
one eunuch back to find out who was still in Beijing.
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She asked this eunuch whether there were any foreign soldiers
chasing us and whether I was killed. Soon after the
Japanese soldiers took her palace and drove her out. She
thought she was going to die anyway, and as I
was not yet assassinated, she might catch up with the
court and go with us. I could not understand how
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she traveled so fast. One evening, we were staying at
the little country house when she came in with her husband,
a nice man. She was telling me how much she
had missed me, and how very anxious she had been
all that time to know whether I was safe or not,
and cried. I refused to listen to what she was saying,
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and told her plainly that I did not believe a word.
From that time she was finished for me. I had
a very hard time traveling in a sedan chair from
early morning before the sun rose until dark, and in
the evening had to stop at some country place. I
am sure you would pity me, old as I am
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that I should have had to suffer in that way.
The Emperor went all the way in a cart drawn
by a mule. Also the Empress. I went along and
was praying to our great ancestors for protection. But the
Emperor was very quiet and never opened his mouth. Something happened.
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It rained so much, and some of the chair carriers
ran away, some of the mules died. Suddenly, it was
very hot, and the rain was pouring down on our heads.
Five small eunuchs ran away also, because we were obliged
to punish them the night before on account of their
bad behavior to the magistrate, who did all he could
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to make me comfortable. But of course food was carse.
I heard these eunuchs quarreling with the magistrate, who bowed
to the ground, begging them to keep quiet, and promised
them everything. I was, of course very angry. Traveling under
such circumstances, one ought to be satisfied that one was
provided for. It took us more than a month before
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we reached Shu'an. I cannot tell you how fatigued I was,
and was of course worrying very much, which made me
quite ill for almost three months. So long as I live,
I cannot forget it. We returned to Beaijing nearly in
the twenty eighth year of Guangxhu, and I had another
dreadful feeling when I saw my own palace again. Oh,
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it was quite changed. A great many valuable ornaments broken,
were stolen. All the valuable things at the sea palace
had been taken away, and some one had broken the
fingers on my white jade Buddha, to whom I used
to worship every day. Several foreigners sat on my throne
and had their photos taken. When I was at the Shan,
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I was just like being sent into exile. Although the
Viceroy's yam and was prepared for us, but the building
was very old, damp and unhealthy. The Emperor became ill.
It would take a long time to tell you everything.
I thought I had enough trouble, but this was the worse.
When I have time, I will tell you more about it.
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I want you to know the absolute truth. Now, let
us come back to the question of Missus Condre's private audience.
There must be something special, but I hope that she
will not ask for anything, for I hate to refuse her.
Can you guess what it is? I told her Majesty
that there could not be anything special. Besides, Missus Conjure
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considered herself to be a person who knew Chinese etiquette
very well, and I didn't believe she would ask for
anything at all, Her Majesty said. The only objection I
have is that Missus Conjure always brings one of the
missionaries as her interpreter. When I have your mother, your sister,
and yourself, which I think would be sufficient, I don't
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think it is right for her to do that. Besides,
I cannot understand their Chinese very well. I like to
see the ladies of the diplomatic body sometimes, but not
the missionaries. I will stop that when the opportunity comes.
The next morning, Prince King told her Majesty that the
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American Admired Gerrell and Missus Evans and Sooth wished to
be presented to her. The American minister asked two private audiences.
He said he had made a mistake by telling her
that Missus Conjur had asked an audience for herself the
day before. After the regular morning audience was over, Her
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Majesty laughed and said, didn't I tell you yesterday that
there must be a reason for asking an audience. I
rather would like to meet the American Admiral and his wife.
Turning to us, she said, be sure to fix everything
up pretty change everything in my bedroom so as not
to show them our daily life. We all said to
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a yes, but we knew it was going to be
a hard task to turn the palace upside down. It
was just the night before the appointed audience. We started
to work, taking off the pink silk curtains from every
window and changing them for sky blue, the color she hated.
Then we changed the cushions on the chairs to the
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same color. While we were watching the eunuchs doing the work,
several of them came into the room carrying a large
tray full of clocks. By this time, Her Majesty had
come into the room and ordered us to remove all
her white and green jade buddhas and take some of
the jade ornaments away, for those things were sacred and
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no foreigners should see them, so we replaced them with
these clocks instead. We also took away the three embroidered
door curtains and changed them for ordinary blue satin ones.
I must explain that these three curtains were sacred too.
They were embroidered to represent five hundred Buddhist deities an
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old gold satin, and had been used by Emperor to Kwang.
Her Majesty believed that by hanging these curtains at her door,
they would guard against evil spirits entering her room. The
order was that one of us should remember to place
them back again when the audience was over. We fixed
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every piece of furniture in her bedroom. Her toilet table
was the most important thing. She would not let any
one see it, not even the wives of the officials
who came in, so of course we had to put
it in a safe place and lock it up. We
changed her bed from pink color into blue. All her
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furniture was made of sandal wood also carvings on her bed.
This sandalwood, before it was made into furniture, was placed
in different temples to be sanctified, so of course no
foreigner could see it. As we could not take this
carving from her bed, we covered it up with embroidered hangings.
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While we were working, her Majesty came in and told
us not to hurry in her bedroom because the audience
the next day would only be for Admiral Robley Evans
and his staff, and they would not visit the private rooms.
The audience for Missus Evans and the other ladies would
be the day after. She said it was important to
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see that the audience hall was fixed up properly. She said,
place the only carpet we have here in the hall.
I don't like carpets anyway, but it cannot be helped.
After we had furnished her Majesty started to tell us
what to wear for the lady's audience. She said to me,
you need not come to the throne tomorrow. There will
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be only gentlemen. I will get one of the ministers
from Woavupoo bewer of Foreign Affairs. I don't want you
to talk to so many strange men. It is not
the Manchu custom. These people are all strangers. They might
go back to America and tell everybody what you look like.
At the same time, Her Majesty gave orders for the
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Imperial yellow gown to be brought in the next day
for the gentleman's audience. She said that she must dress
in her official robe for this occasion. This robe was
made of yellow satin embroidered with gold dragons. She wore
a necklace composed of one hundred and eight pearls, which
formed part of this official dress. She said, I don't
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like to wear this official robe. It is not pretty,
but I am afraid I will have to. She said
to all of us, you need not dress. Especially The
next morning, Her Majesty got up early and was busier
than ever. It seemed to me that whenever we had
an audience, we always had so much trouble. Something was
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sure to go wrong and make Her Majesty angry. She said,
I want to look nice and be amiable, but these
people always make me angry. I know the American Admiral.
We'll go home and tell his people about me, and
I don't want him to have a wrong impression. It
took her almost two hours to dress her hair, and
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by that time it was too late for her usual
morning audience, so she proposed holding that after the foreigners
had gone away. She looked at herself in the looking
glass with her imperial RoboN and told me that she
did not like it, and asked me whether I thought
the foreigners would know that it was an official robe.
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I looked too ugly and yellow. It makes my face
look the same color as my robe, she said. I
suggested that it was only a private audience. If she
wished to dress differently, it would not matter at all.
She seemed delighted, and I was afraid lest I had
not made a proper suggestion, But anyway, I was too
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busy to weary. Her Majesty ordered that her different gowns
should be brought in, and after looking them over, she
selected one embroidered all over with the character's show long life,
covered with precious stones and pearls on pale green satin.
She tried it on and said that it was becoming
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to her, so she ordered me to go to the
drawl room and get flowers to match her hair. On
one side of the head dress was the character's show,
and on the other side was a bat. The bat
in China is considered to be lucky. Of course, her shoes, handkerchiefs,
and everything else were embroidered in the same way. After
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she was dressed, she smiled and said, I look all right,
now we had better go to the audience hall and
wait for them, and at the same time we can
play a game of dice. Then to us all, she said,
all of you will stay at the back of the
screen during the audience. You can see all right, but
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I don't wish that you should be seen. The eunuchs
had laid the map down on the table and were
just going to commence playing dice when one of the
high ranked eunuchs came into the hall and, kneeling down,
said that the American Admiral had arrived at the palace gate,
together with the American Minister, ten or twelve people altogether.
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Her Majesty smiled and said to me, I thought it
was just going to be the American Minister and the
Admiral and one or two of his staff. Who can
the rest of the people be? However, never mind, I
will receive them anyway. We helped her to mount her
throne upon the Days, fixed her clothes and handed her
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the paper containing the speech she was to give. Then
we went back of the screen with the young Empress.
It was so very quiet, not a sound anywhere, that
we could hear the boots of the visitors as they
walked over the stones in the courtyard. We were peeping
from behind the screen and could see several of the
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princes mounting the steps, conducting these people to the hall.
The Admiral and the American minister came in and stood
in a line. They bowed three times to the Empress dowager.
The Emperor was also on his throne, sitting at her
left hand. His throne was very small, just like an
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ordinary chair. Her Majesty's speech was simply to welcome the
Admiral to China. They then came up to the Days
and shook hands with their majesties, ascending on one side
and retiring down the other. Prince Ching took them into
another palace building, where they had lunch and the audience
was over. It was very simple and formal. After the
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audience was over, her Majesty said that she could hear
us laughing behind the screen, and that maybe the people
would talk about it and did not like it at all.
I told her that it was not myself who laughed.
She said, the next time, when I have men in audience,
you need not come into the audience hall at all.
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Of course, it is different when I have my own
people at the morning audiences. Her Majesty did not go
to her bedroom that afternoon. She said she wanted to
wait until these people had gone and hear what they
had to say. After a couple of hours, Prince Ching
came in and reported that they had lunched and that
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they were very pleased to have seen her Majesty and
had gone away. I must here explain that the Admiral
had entered by the left gate of the palace. The
middle gate was only used for their majesties, with one
exception viz. In the case of any one presenting credentials.
Then they entered by the center gate. The Admiral left
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by the same gate he had entered. Her Majesty asked
Prince Ching whether he had showed them around the palace
buildings or not. This was in the summer palace, and
what they had thought about it? Did they say anything?
And were they pleased or not? She said to Prince, ching,
you can go now and make the necessary preparations for
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the lady's audience next day. That same evening, her Majesty
said to us, you must all dress alike to morrow
and wear your prettiest clothes. These foreign ladies who are
coming to the palace may never see us again, and
if we don't show them what we have now, we
will not have another opportunity. She ordered us all, including
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the young Empress, to wear pale blue. Also the secondary
wife of the Emperor. She said to me, if the
ladies ask who the secondary wife is, you can tell them.
But if they don't ask, I don't want you to
introduce her to them at all. I have to be
very careful. These people at the palace here are not
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used to seeing so many people, and they might not
have nice manners, and the foreigners will laugh at them.
Then she said to us again, I alway give presents
when ladies come to the court, but don't know whether
I will give this time or not, For at the
last audience I did not give anything at all. Addressing me,
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she said, you can prepare some pieces of jade in
case I need them, put them in a nice box
and have them all ready. Don't bring them to me
until I ask for them. She said, we have talked
enough now and you can all go to rest. We
could see good night. I was only too glad to
go to my own room. The next morning, everything went
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on very nicely, and there was no trouble at all.
Her Majesty was well satisfied, for we had all taken
great care in fixing ourselves up. She said to me,
you never put enough paint on your face. People might
take you for a widow. You will have to paint
your lips, as that is the custom. I don't need
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you yet, so go back and put some more paint on.
So I went back to my room and painted myself
just like the rest of them. But I could not
help laughing at seeing myself so changed. By the time
I got to her room again, she said, now you
look all right. If you think that powder is expensive,
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I will buy some for you. She said that with
a laugh, for she always liked to tease me. By
the time her Majesty had finished her toilet, one of
the ladies brought a number of gowns for her to
select one from. She said that she would wear pale
blue that day. She looked over twenty or thirty gowns
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but found nothing which suited her, so she gave orders
for some more to be brought in. Finally, she chose
a blue gown embroidered with one hundred butterflies, and wore
a purple s leaveless jacket which was also embroidered with butterflies.
At the bottom of this gown were pearled tassels. She
wore her largest pearls, one of which was almost as
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large as an egg and was her favorite jewel. She
only wore this on special occasions. She wore two jade
butterflies on each side of her head dress. Her bracelets
and rings were also all designed in butterflies. In fact,
everything matched among her beautiful jewels, she always wore some
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kind of fresh flowers. White gisamine was her favorite flower.
The young Empress and the court ladies were not allowed
to wear fresh flowers at all, unless given to them
by her Majesty as a special favor. We could wear
pearls and jade, et cetera, but she said that the
fresh flowers were for her, her idea being that we
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were too young and might spoil fresh flowers if we
wore them. After she was dressed, we went into the
audience hall. She ordered her cards to be brought in
as she wanted to play solitaire. She talked all the
time she was playing and said that we must all
be very nice and polite to the American ladies and
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show them everywhere. She said, it doesn't matter now, for
we have everything changed. She said, I want to laugh myself.
What is the use of changing everything? They will imagine
we are always like this, by and by. If they
question knew about anything, just tell them that it is
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not so, and that we change everything at each audience,
just to give them a bit of surprise. You must
tell it some day, otherwise no one will know it
at all, and the trouble will not be worth the while.
It was a private audience for ladies, and Her Majesty
did not use the big throne, but was sitting on
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her little throne at the left side of the audience hall,
where she received her own ministers. Every morning the Emperor
was standing. A eunuch came in the same as the
day before and announced that the ladies had arrived at
the palace gate. Nine in all, Her Majesty sent some
of the court ladies to meet them in the courtyard
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and bring them to the audience hall, which they did.
I was standing at the right side of Her Majesty's
chair and could see them mounting the steps. Her Majesty
whispered to me and asked which one is Missus Evans,
as I had never seen the lady. I answered that
I could not tell. But when they got nearer, I
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saw a lady walking with the American minister's wife and
concluded that she must be Missus Evans, and told her Majesty.
As they got nearer, her Majesty said again that missionary
lady with Missus conjure. I think she must like to
see me. She comes every time. I will tell her
I am very glad to see her always, and if
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she understands what I mean. Missus Conder shook hands with
her Majesty and presented Missus Evans and also the wives
of the American officers. I was watching her Majesty and
saw that she was very nice and amiable, with such
a pleasant smile, so different from her every day manner.
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She told them she was delighted to see them. Her
Majesty ordered the eunuchs to have chairs brought in for
the ladies, and at the same time other eunuchs brought
in tea. Her Majesty asked Missus Evans whether she liked China,
what she thought of Beijing, how long she had been there,
how long she was going to stay, and where she
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was staying. I was so accustomed to her Majesty's questions
that I knew exactly what she would ask. Missus Conjure
told her interpreter to tell her Majesty that she had
not seen her for such a long time, and inquired
about her majesty's health. Her Majesty said to me, you
tell Missus Conjure that I am in good health and
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that I am delighted to see her. It is a
pity that I can not hold an audience more frequently,
otherwise I could see more of her, She continued. The
Imperial Princes her adopted daughter daughter of Prince Kong, would
accompany them to lunch. This ended the audience. Lunch was
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served at the back of her own palace building, yng Yinshan,
the place where the clouds gather to rest. This room
was specially furnished as a banqueting room where refreshments could
be served. All the court ladies went to the lunch,
except Her Majesty, the Young Empress and the secondary wife.
It had taken me two hours to fix the table
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for the luncheon. Her Majesty ordered that a white foreign
tablecloth should be used, as it looked cleaner. The eunuchs
gardeners had decorated the table with fresh flowers, and Her
Majesty gave instructions as to how the seats were to
be placed. She said, Missus Evans is the guest of honor.
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Although Missus Condrey is the wife of the American Minister,
she is more of a resident, so Missus Evans must
have the principled seat. She also told me to arrange
to seat everybody according to their respective ranks. The Imperial
Princes and Princess Shwnn, her Majesty's niece, sister of the
Young Empress, were hostesses and were to sit opposite each other.
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We placed golden menu holders and little gold plates for
almonds and watermelon seeds. The rest old silverware, including chopsticks.
Her Majesty ordered that foreign knives and forks should be
provided also. The food was served in vanchu style and
was composed of twenty four courses. Besides sweetmeats, candies, and fruits.
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Her Majesty instructed us that only the best champagne was
to be served. She said, I know that foreign ladies
love to drink. I think I was the only one
who was really happy to meet these ladies, more so
than the rest of the court ladies, the reason being
that Her Majesty lectured them too severely, telling them how
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to behave, so that they had grown to hate the
very mention of a foreign audience. While we were eating,
a eunuch came in and told me that Her Majesty
was waiting at her private palace and that I should
bring these ladies there after the lunch was over. So
when we had finished, we entered her own palace and
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found her waiting there for us. She got up and
told me to ask Missus Evans whether she had had
anything to eat. That the food was not very good.
This is accustomed with the Chinese when entertaining always to
underrate the food. She said that she would like to
show Missus Evans her private apartments so that she could
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form some idea of the way we lived. So she
took Missus Evans to one of her bedrooms. She invited
Missus Evans and Missus Conjure to sit down, and the
eunuchs brought in tea. As usual, her Majesty asked Missus
Evans to stay a little while in Beijing and to
visit the different temples. She said, our country, although very old,
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has not much fine buildings as they are in America.
I suppose you will find everything very strange. I am
rather too old now. Otherwise I would like to travel
around the world. I have read much about different countries,
but of course there is nothing like visiting the different
places and seeing them for yourself. However, one cannot tell.
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I may be able to go after all, by and by,
but I am afraid to leave my own country. By
the time I returned, I should not know the place
any more. I am afraid. Here everything seems to depend
on me. Our Emperor is quite young. She then turned
and crossed us to take these ladies to visit the
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different buildings of the palace, also the famous Temple of
the King of Dragons. This is on a little island
in the center of the lake of the Summer Palace.
Missus Condre said that she had something to ask her Majesty,
and taught the missionary lady to proceed. While Missus Condre
was speaking to this lady, her Majesty became rather impatient,
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as she wanted to know what they were talking about,
so she asked me. It was very hard for me
to listen to both of the ladies and to her
Majesty at the same time. The only words I heard
were the portrait, so I guessed the rest. Before I
had a chance to tell her Majesty, this missionary lady said,
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Missus Condre has come with the special object of asking
permission to have her Majesty's portrait painted by an American lady, artist,
Miss Carl, as she is desirous of sending it to
the Saint Louis Exhibition, in order that the American people
may form some idea of what a beautiful lady the
Empress Dowager of China is. Miss Carl is the sister
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of mister F. Carl, who was for so many years
Commissioner of Customs. In true fool, her Majesty looked surprised,
for she had been listening very carefully whilst this lady
was talking. She did not like to say that she
did not quite understand, so she turned to me as
had been previously arranged a sign for me to interpret.
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I did not, however, do so immediately, so Missus contret
told her missionary friend to repeat the request in case
her Majesty had not quite understood it. Her Majesty then
said to me, I cannot quite understand what this lady says.
I think perhaps you can tell me better. So I
explained everything, but I knew that her Majesty did not
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know what a portrait was like, as up to that
time she had never even had a photograph taken of herself.
I must here explain that in China a portrait is
only painted after death in memorium of the deceased, in
order that the following generations may worship the deceased. I
noticed that her Majesty was somewhat shocked when the request
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was made known to her. I did not want her
Majesty to appear ignorant before these foreign ladies, so I
pulled her sleeve and told her that I would explain
everything to her later. She replied, explain a little to me. Now.
This was spoken in the court language, which the visitors
were unable to understand, it being somewhat different from the
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ordinary Chinese language. This enabled her Majesty to form some
idea of the conversation, so she thanked Missus Conjur for
her kind thought and promised to give her answer later.
She said, to me, tell missus Conjuur that I cannot
decide anything alone, as she is probably aware that I
have to consult with my ministers before deciding anything of
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an important character. Tell her that I have to be
very careful not to do anything which would give my
people an opportunity to criticize my actions. I have to
adhere to the rules and customs of my ancestors. I
noticed that her Majesty did not seem inclined to discuss
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the subject further at the moment. Just then, the head
Eunuch came in and, kneeling down, informed her Majesty that
the boats for the ladies were ready to take them
across the lake to see the temple. This action on
the part of the eunuch was owing to his having
received a signal from one of the court ladies which
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implied that her Majesty was getting tired of the conversation
and wished to change the subject. I must explain that
on every occasion when a foreign audience was taking place.
One of the court ladies was always told of to
watch her Majesty, and whenever she appeared to be displeased
or tired of any particular subject under discussion, she the
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court lady, would give the signal to the head eunuch,
who would break in upon the conversation in the above
manner and thus save the situation from becoming embarrassing. So
her Majesty said good bye to the ladies, as she
thought it would be too late for them to have
to return to say good bye, besides which it would
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give them more time to see the various sights. The
ladies then proceeded to the island in the Empress Dowager's
pleasure boat known as the Imperial Barge previously described and
visited the temple. This temple is built on top of
a small rock, in the center of which is a
natural cave, and it was generally supposed that no human
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being had ever been inside of this cave. The Empress
Dowager believed the popular superstition that this hall was the
home of the King of Dragons, from which the temple
derives its name. End of Chapter twelve read by J. C.
Iguan Montreal, January two thousand nine,
Chapter twelve of Two Years in the Forbidden City. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by J. C. Guan.
Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Durling, Chapter twelve.
The Empress and Missus Conjur. On the twenty sixth day
of the fifth Moon, during the morning audience, Prince King
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told her Majesty that Missus conjer the wife of the
American Minister to Beijing, had asked for a private audience
and would her Majesty please mention a day. She told
him not to give any answer until the next day,
just to give her time to think it over. I
was sitting behind the large screen listening, but the other
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court ladies made too much noise, so Her Majesty ordered
them not to say a word during the audience. I
was very glad myself because I could listen to some
of the interesting conversations between the Empress Dowager and her ministers.
After the audience, her Majesty ordered her lunch to be
served on the top of the hill at bay Undien
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Spreading Cloud Pavilion. She said that she preferred to walk,
so we followed her very slowly to get to this place.
We had to mount two hundred and seventy two steps,
besides ten minutes climbing over rough stones. She did not
seem to mind the climbing part at all. It was
the funniest thing to see two little eunuchs on either
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side to support her arms, trying to keep pace with her.
I noticed that she was very much preoccupied and did
not speak to any of us. When we arrived at
our destination, we were very tired and quite exhausted. Her Majesty,
who was a good walker herself, laughed at us. She
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was always very much pleased when she excelled in games
of skill or endurance. She said, you see, I am
old and can walk much faster than you young people.
You are all no use. What is the matter with you?
Her Majesty was very fond of receiving compliments. I had
been there long enough to know and had learned to
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say things which would please her. She also hated any
one to pay her compliments at the wrong moment, so
one had to be very careful even in paying her compliments.
This Spreading Cloud Pavilion was a beautiful place. It had
an open space in front of the building, just like
one of the courtyards with pink and white leanders all
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over the place. There was a porcelain table and several
porcelain stools. Her Majesty sat on one of her own
yellow satin stool and was drinking her tea in silence.
It was very windy that day, although the sky was
blue with warm sunshine. Her Majesty sat there just for
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a few minutes and then said it was too windy
and went into the building. I was more than glad
to go in too, and whispered to the Young Empress
that I thought the wind might blow off my head dress.
The eunuchs brought the luncheon and placed everything upon the table.
The Young Empress made a sign for us to follow her,
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which we did. When we came to the back veranda,
we sat down on the window seats. I will explain
about these seats. All the windows were built low at
the palace, and on the verandah there was something like
a bench built along the window, about a foot wide.
There were no chairs to be seen, excepting Her Majesty's thrones.
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The young Empress asked me whether I had noticed that
her Majesty had something on her mind. I told her
that perhaps she was thinking about the private audience which
Prince King had mentioned that morning. She said that I
had guessed right, and asked, do you know anything about
this audience? When will it take place? I said that
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Her Majesty had not yet given her answer. By this time,
Her Majesty had finished eating and was walking up and
down the room watching us eating. She came over to
my mother and said, I am just wondering why Missus
Conder asks for a private audience. Perhaps she has something
to say to me. I would like to know just
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what it is so I can prepare an answer. My
mother said that probably Missus Conjure had some one visiting
her who wished to be presented to her Majesty. No,
it can't be that, because they must give the list
of names of those who wish to come to the palace.
I don't mind the formal audiences, but I don't think
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that I should have private ones at all. I don't
like to be questioned. As you all know, the foreigners are,
of course very nice and polite according to their own way,
but they cannot compare with us so far as etiquette concerned.
I may be conservative in saying that I admire our
custom and will not change it as long as I live.
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You see, our people are taught to be polite from
their earliest childhood and look back at the oldest teachings
and compare them with the new. People seem to like
the latter the best. I mean that the new idea
is to be Christians, to chop up their ancestral tablets
and burn them. I know many families here who have
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broken up because of the missionaries who are always influencing
the young people to believe their religion. Now, I will
tell you why I feel uneasy about this audience is
because we are too polite to refuse any one who
asks any favors in person. The foreigners don't seem to
understand that I'll tell you what I will do. Whenever
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they ask me anything, I'll simply tell them that I
am not my own boss, but have to consult with
my ministers that although I am the Empress Dowager of China,
I must also obey the law to tell the truth.
I like Madame Uchida, wife of the Japanese Minister to Beijing,
very much. She is always very nice and doesn't ask
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any silly questions. Of course, the Japanese are very much
like ourselves, not at all. Forward. Last year, before you
came to the court, a missionary lady came with Missus
Conjure and suggested that I should establish a school for
girls at the palace. I did not like to offend
her and said that I would take it into consideration. Now,
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just imagine it for a moment. Wouldn't it be foolish
to have a school at the palace. Besides, where am
I going to get so many girls to study. I
have enough to do as it is. I don't want
all the children of the imperial family studying at my palace.
Her majesty laughed while she was telling us this, and
every one else laughed too. She said, I am sure
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you will laugh. Missus Conjure is a very nice lady.
America is always very friendly towards China, and I appreciate
their nice behavior at the palace during the twenty sixth
year of Guangxu nineteen hundred. But I cannot say that
I love the missionaries too. Liliaying told me that these
missionaries here give the Chinese a certain medicine, and that
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after that they wished to become Christians, and then they
would pretend to tell the Chinese to think it over
very carefully, for they would never force any one to
believe their religion against their own will. Missionaries also take
the poor Chinese children and gouge their eyes out and
use them as a kind of medicine. I told her
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that that was not true, that I had met a
great many missionaries and that they were very kind hearted
and willing to do anything to help the poor Chinese.
I also told her what they had done for the
poor orphans, given them a home, food and clothing. That
sometimes they went into the interior and found the blind
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children who might be useless to their parents, and when
they get them, they have to support them. I know
several cases like that. These country people offer their deformed
children to the missionaries as they are too poor to
feed and take care of them. I told her about
their schools and how they helped the poor people. Her
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Majesty then laughed and said, of course I believe what
you say, but why don't these missionaries stay in their
own country and be useful to their own people. I
thought it would be of no use for me to
talk too much, but at the same time, I would
like her to know of the dreadful times some of
the missionaries had in China some time ago. Two of
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them were murdered at Wushui in June eighteen ninety two,
a little below Hanko, the church being burnt down by
the mob. My father was appointed by the Viceroy Chang
Shudon to investigate the matter. After much trouble, he caught
three of the murderers, and according to Chinese law, they
were put to death by hanging in wooden cages, and
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the government paid an indemnity to the families of the
murdered missionaries. The year after eighteen ninety three, a Catholic
church was burnt down at mar Chhung on the Yangsu
near Yichung. The mob said they saw many blind children
at the church who were made to work after having
their eyes gouged out. The prefect of Yichung Province said
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it was true that missionaries did get the Chinese children's
eyes from making medicine. So my father suggested having those
blind children brought into the Yamen and asked them. The
prefect was a most wicked man and was very anti foreign. Also,
he gave the poor children plenty of food and taught
them to say that the missionaries did gout their eyes out,
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but when they were brought in the next day, they
said that the missionaries treated them very kindly and gave
them a nice home, good food and clothing. They said
they were blind long before they became Catholics, and also
said that the prefect had taught them to say that
the missionaries were cruel through them, which was not true.
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The blind children begged to go back to the school
and said that they were very happy there. Her Majesty
said that may be all right for them to help
the poor and relieve their suffering. For instance, like our
great Buddha Joul who fed the hungry birds with his
own flesh. I would love them if they would leave
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my people alone. Let us believe our own religion. Do
you know how the Boxer rising began? Why the Chinese
Christians were to blame. The Boxers were treated badly by
them and wanted revenge. Of course, that is always the
trouble with the low class of people. They went too
far and at the same time thought to make themselves
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rich by setting fire to every house in Beijing. It
made no difference whose house they wanted to burn, so
long as they could get money These Chinese Christians are
the worst people in China. They rob the poor country
people of their land and property, and the missionaries, of
course always protect them in order to get a share
of themselves. Whenever a Chinese Christian is taken to the magistrates, yamen,
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he is not supposed to kneel down on the ground
and obey the Chinese law as others do, and is
always very rude to his own governance officials. Then these
missionaries do the best they can to protect them, whether
he is wrong or not, and believe everything he says
and make the magistrates set the prisoner free. Do you
remember that your father established rules in the twenty fourth
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year of Guangxu how the Chinese officials should treat the
bishops whenever they had dealings with each other. I know
the common class of people become Christians, also those who
are in trouble, but I don't believe that any of
the high officials are Christians. Her Majesty looked around and
whispered cong Yowe, the reformer of eighteen ninety eight tried
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to make the emperor believe that religion no one shall believe.
As long as I live, I must say that I
admire the foreigners in some way, for instance their navies
and armies and engineers. But as regards civilization, I should
say that China is the first country by all means.
I know that many people believe that the government had
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connections with the boxers, but that is not true. As
soon as we found out the trouble, we issued several
edicts and ordered the soldiers to drive them out, but
they had gone too far already. I made up my
mind not to go out of the palace at all.
I am an old woman and did not care whenever
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I died or not. But Prince Tuan and Duke Lan
suggested that we should go at once. They also suggested
that we should go in disguise, which made me very angry,
and I refused. After the return of the court to Beijing,
I was told that many people believed that I did
go in disguise, and said that I was dressed in
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one of my servant's clothes and rode in a broken
cart drawn by a mule, and that this old woman
servant of mine was dressed as the Empress dowager and
rode in my sedan chair. I wonder who made that
story up. Of course, every one believed it, and such
a story would get to the foreigners in Beijing without
any trouble. Now, to come back to the question of
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the box rising, how badly I was treated by my
own servants. No one seemed anxious to go with me,
and a great many ran away before the court had
any idea of leaving the capital at all, and those
who stayed would not but stood around and waited to
see what was going to happen. I made up my
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mind to ask and see how many would be willing
to go. So I said to every one, if you
servants are willing to go with me, you can do so,
and those who are not willing can leave me. I
was very much surprised to find that there were very
few standing around the listening, only seventeen eunuchs, two old
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women servants, and one servant girl. That was show true.
Those people said they would go with me no matter
what happened. I had three thousand eunuchs, but they were
nearly all gone before I had the chance of counting them.
Some of the wicked ones were even rude to me
and threw my valuable vases on the stone floor and
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smashed them. They knew that I could not punish them.
At that important moment, for we were leaving, I cried
very much and prayed for our great ancestors souls to
protect us. Every one knelt with me and prayed. The
young Empress was the only one of my family who
went with me. A certain relative of mine, whom I
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was very fond of and gave her everything she asked,
refused to go with me. I knew that the reason
she would not go was because she thought the foreign
soldiers would catch up the runaway court and kill every one.
After we had been gone about seven days, I sent
one eunuch back to find out who was still in Beijing.
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She asked this eunuch whether there were any foreign soldiers
chasing us and whether I was killed. Soon after the
Japanese soldiers took her palace and drove her out. She
thought she was going to die anyway, and as I
was not yet assassinated, she might catch up with the
court and go with us. I could not understand how
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she traveled so fast. One evening, we were staying at
the little country house when she came in with her husband,
a nice man. She was telling me how much she
had missed me, and how very anxious she had been
all that time to know whether I was safe or not,
and cried. I refused to listen to what she was saying,
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and told her plainly that I did not believe a word.
From that time she was finished for me. I had
a very hard time traveling in a sedan chair from
early morning before the sun rose until dark, and in
the evening had to stop at some country place. I
am sure you would pity me, old as I am
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that I should have had to suffer in that way.
The Emperor went all the way in a cart drawn
by a mule. Also the Empress. I went along and
was praying to our great ancestors for protection. But the
Emperor was very quiet and never opened his mouth. Something happened.
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It rained so much, and some of the chair carriers
ran away, some of the mules died. Suddenly, it was
very hot, and the rain was pouring down on our heads.
Five small eunuchs ran away also, because we were obliged
to punish them the night before on account of their
bad behavior to the magistrate, who did all he could
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to make me comfortable. But of course food was carse.
I heard these eunuchs quarreling with the magistrate, who bowed
to the ground, begging them to keep quiet, and promised
them everything. I was, of course very angry. Traveling under
such circumstances, one ought to be satisfied that one was
provided for. It took us more than a month before
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we reached Shu'an. I cannot tell you how fatigued I was,
and was of course worrying very much, which made me
quite ill for almost three months. So long as I live,
I cannot forget it. We returned to Beaijing nearly in
the twenty eighth year of Guangxhu, and I had another
dreadful feeling when I saw my own palace again. Oh,
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it was quite changed. A great many valuable ornaments broken,
were stolen. All the valuable things at the sea palace
had been taken away, and some one had broken the
fingers on my white jade Buddha, to whom I used
to worship every day. Several foreigners sat on my throne
and had their photos taken. When I was at the Shan,
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I was just like being sent into exile. Although the
Viceroy's yam and was prepared for us, but the building
was very old, damp and unhealthy. The Emperor became ill.
It would take a long time to tell you everything.
I thought I had enough trouble, but this was the worse.
When I have time, I will tell you more about it.
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I want you to know the absolute truth. Now, let
us come back to the question of Missus Condre's private audience.
There must be something special, but I hope that she
will not ask for anything, for I hate to refuse her.
Can you guess what it is? I told her Majesty
that there could not be anything special. Besides, Missus Conjure
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considered herself to be a person who knew Chinese etiquette
very well, and I didn't believe she would ask for
anything at all, Her Majesty said. The only objection I
have is that Missus Conjure always brings one of the
missionaries as her interpreter. When I have your mother, your sister,
and yourself, which I think would be sufficient, I don't
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think it is right for her to do that. Besides,
I cannot understand their Chinese very well. I like to
see the ladies of the diplomatic body sometimes, but not
the missionaries. I will stop that when the opportunity comes.
The next morning, Prince King told her Majesty that the
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American Admired Gerrell and Missus Evans and Sooth wished to
be presented to her. The American minister asked two private audiences.
He said he had made a mistake by telling her
that Missus Conjur had asked an audience for herself the
day before. After the regular morning audience was over, Her
(20:19):
Majesty laughed and said, didn't I tell you yesterday that
there must be a reason for asking an audience. I
rather would like to meet the American Admiral and his wife.
Turning to us, she said, be sure to fix everything
up pretty change everything in my bedroom so as not
to show them our daily life. We all said to
(20:41):
a yes, but we knew it was going to be
a hard task to turn the palace upside down. It
was just the night before the appointed audience. We started
to work, taking off the pink silk curtains from every
window and changing them for sky blue, the color she hated.
Then we changed the cushions on the chairs to the
(21:03):
same color. While we were watching the eunuchs doing the work,
several of them came into the room carrying a large
tray full of clocks. By this time, Her Majesty had
come into the room and ordered us to remove all
her white and green jade buddhas and take some of
the jade ornaments away, for those things were sacred and
(21:25):
no foreigners should see them, so we replaced them with
these clocks instead. We also took away the three embroidered
door curtains and changed them for ordinary blue satin ones.
I must explain that these three curtains were sacred too.
They were embroidered to represent five hundred Buddhist deities an
(21:47):
old gold satin, and had been used by Emperor to Kwang.
Her Majesty believed that by hanging these curtains at her door,
they would guard against evil spirits entering her room. The
order was that one of us should remember to place
them back again when the audience was over. We fixed
(22:07):
every piece of furniture in her bedroom. Her toilet table
was the most important thing. She would not let any
one see it, not even the wives of the officials
who came in, so of course we had to put
it in a safe place and lock it up. We
changed her bed from pink color into blue. All her
(22:27):
furniture was made of sandal wood also carvings on her bed.
This sandalwood, before it was made into furniture, was placed
in different temples to be sanctified, so of course no
foreigner could see it. As we could not take this
carving from her bed, we covered it up with embroidered hangings.
(22:48):
While we were working, her Majesty came in and told
us not to hurry in her bedroom because the audience
the next day would only be for Admiral Robley Evans
and his staff, and they would not visit the private rooms.
The audience for Missus Evans and the other ladies would
be the day after. She said it was important to
(23:09):
see that the audience hall was fixed up properly. She said,
place the only carpet we have here in the hall.
I don't like carpets anyway, but it cannot be helped.
After we had furnished her Majesty started to tell us
what to wear for the lady's audience. She said to me,
you need not come to the throne tomorrow. There will
(23:30):
be only gentlemen. I will get one of the ministers
from Woavupoo bewer of Foreign Affairs. I don't want you
to talk to so many strange men. It is not
the Manchu custom. These people are all strangers. They might
go back to America and tell everybody what you look like.
At the same time, Her Majesty gave orders for the
(23:53):
Imperial yellow gown to be brought in the next day
for the gentleman's audience. She said that she must dress
in her official robe for this occasion. This robe was
made of yellow satin embroidered with gold dragons. She wore
a necklace composed of one hundred and eight pearls, which
formed part of this official dress. She said, I don't
(24:17):
like to wear this official robe. It is not pretty,
but I am afraid I will have to. She said
to all of us, you need not dress. Especially The
next morning, Her Majesty got up early and was busier
than ever. It seemed to me that whenever we had
an audience, we always had so much trouble. Something was
(24:38):
sure to go wrong and make Her Majesty angry. She said,
I want to look nice and be amiable, but these
people always make me angry. I know the American Admiral.
We'll go home and tell his people about me, and
I don't want him to have a wrong impression. It
took her almost two hours to dress her hair, and
(25:00):
by that time it was too late for her usual
morning audience, so she proposed holding that after the foreigners
had gone away. She looked at herself in the looking
glass with her imperial RoboN and told me that she
did not like it, and asked me whether I thought
the foreigners would know that it was an official robe.
(25:20):
I looked too ugly and yellow. It makes my face
look the same color as my robe, she said. I
suggested that it was only a private audience. If she
wished to dress differently, it would not matter at all.
She seemed delighted, and I was afraid lest I had
not made a proper suggestion, But anyway, I was too
(25:42):
busy to weary. Her Majesty ordered that her different gowns
should be brought in, and after looking them over, she
selected one embroidered all over with the character's show long life,
covered with precious stones and pearls on pale green satin.
She tried it on and said that it was becoming
(26:02):
to her, so she ordered me to go to the
drawl room and get flowers to match her hair. On
one side of the head dress was the character's show,
and on the other side was a bat. The bat
in China is considered to be lucky. Of course, her shoes, handkerchiefs,
and everything else were embroidered in the same way. After
(26:25):
she was dressed, she smiled and said, I look all right,
now we had better go to the audience hall and
wait for them, and at the same time we can
play a game of dice. Then to us all, she said,
all of you will stay at the back of the
screen during the audience. You can see all right, but
(26:46):
I don't wish that you should be seen. The eunuchs
had laid the map down on the table and were
just going to commence playing dice when one of the
high ranked eunuchs came into the hall and, kneeling down,
said that the American Admiral had arrived at the palace gate,
together with the American Minister, ten or twelve people altogether.
(27:11):
Her Majesty smiled and said to me, I thought it
was just going to be the American Minister and the
Admiral and one or two of his staff. Who can
the rest of the people be? However, never mind, I
will receive them anyway. We helped her to mount her
throne upon the Days, fixed her clothes and handed her
(27:33):
the paper containing the speech she was to give. Then
we went back of the screen with the young Empress.
It was so very quiet, not a sound anywhere, that
we could hear the boots of the visitors as they
walked over the stones in the courtyard. We were peeping
from behind the screen and could see several of the
(27:54):
princes mounting the steps, conducting these people to the hall.
The Admiral and the American minister came in and stood
in a line. They bowed three times to the Empress dowager.
The Emperor was also on his throne, sitting at her
left hand. His throne was very small, just like an
(28:15):
ordinary chair. Her Majesty's speech was simply to welcome the
Admiral to China. They then came up to the Days
and shook hands with their majesties, ascending on one side
and retiring down the other. Prince Ching took them into
another palace building, where they had lunch and the audience
was over. It was very simple and formal. After the
(28:39):
audience was over, her Majesty said that she could hear
us laughing behind the screen, and that maybe the people
would talk about it and did not like it at all.
I told her that it was not myself who laughed.
She said, the next time, when I have men in audience,
you need not come into the audience hall at all.
(29:00):
Of course, it is different when I have my own
people at the morning audiences. Her Majesty did not go
to her bedroom that afternoon. She said she wanted to
wait until these people had gone and hear what they
had to say. After a couple of hours, Prince Ching
came in and reported that they had lunched and that
(29:21):
they were very pleased to have seen her Majesty and
had gone away. I must here explain that the Admiral
had entered by the left gate of the palace. The
middle gate was only used for their majesties, with one
exception viz. In the case of any one presenting credentials.
Then they entered by the center gate. The Admiral left
(29:44):
by the same gate he had entered. Her Majesty asked
Prince Ching whether he had showed them around the palace
buildings or not. This was in the summer palace, and
what they had thought about it? Did they say anything?
And were they pleased or not? She said to Prince, ching,
you can go now and make the necessary preparations for
(30:05):
the lady's audience next day. That same evening, her Majesty
said to us, you must all dress alike to morrow
and wear your prettiest clothes. These foreign ladies who are
coming to the palace may never see us again, and
if we don't show them what we have now, we
will not have another opportunity. She ordered us all, including
(30:27):
the young Empress, to wear pale blue. Also the secondary
wife of the Emperor. She said to me, if the
ladies ask who the secondary wife is, you can tell them.
But if they don't ask, I don't want you to
introduce her to them at all. I have to be
very careful. These people at the palace here are not
(30:49):
used to seeing so many people, and they might not
have nice manners, and the foreigners will laugh at them.
Then she said to us again, I alway give presents
when ladies come to the court, but don't know whether
I will give this time or not, For at the
last audience I did not give anything at all. Addressing me,
(31:11):
she said, you can prepare some pieces of jade in
case I need them, put them in a nice box
and have them all ready. Don't bring them to me
until I ask for them. She said, we have talked
enough now and you can all go to rest. We
could see good night. I was only too glad to
go to my own room. The next morning, everything went
(31:34):
on very nicely, and there was no trouble at all.
Her Majesty was well satisfied, for we had all taken
great care in fixing ourselves up. She said to me,
you never put enough paint on your face. People might
take you for a widow. You will have to paint
your lips, as that is the custom. I don't need
(31:55):
you yet, so go back and put some more paint on.
So I went back to my room and painted myself
just like the rest of them. But I could not
help laughing at seeing myself so changed. By the time
I got to her room again, she said, now you
look all right. If you think that powder is expensive,
(32:16):
I will buy some for you. She said that with
a laugh, for she always liked to tease me. By
the time her Majesty had finished her toilet, one of
the ladies brought a number of gowns for her to
select one from. She said that she would wear pale
blue that day. She looked over twenty or thirty gowns
(32:36):
but found nothing which suited her, so she gave orders
for some more to be brought in. Finally, she chose
a blue gown embroidered with one hundred butterflies, and wore
a purple s leaveless jacket which was also embroidered with butterflies.
At the bottom of this gown were pearled tassels. She
wore her largest pearls, one of which was almost as
(33:00):
large as an egg and was her favorite jewel. She
only wore this on special occasions. She wore two jade
butterflies on each side of her head dress. Her bracelets
and rings were also all designed in butterflies. In fact,
everything matched among her beautiful jewels, she always wore some
(33:21):
kind of fresh flowers. White gisamine was her favorite flower.
The young Empress and the court ladies were not allowed
to wear fresh flowers at all, unless given to them
by her Majesty as a special favor. We could wear
pearls and jade, et cetera, but she said that the
fresh flowers were for her, her idea being that we
(33:43):
were too young and might spoil fresh flowers if we
wore them. After she was dressed, we went into the
audience hall. She ordered her cards to be brought in
as she wanted to play solitaire. She talked all the
time she was playing and said that we must all
be very nice and polite to the American ladies and
(34:04):
show them everywhere. She said, it doesn't matter now, for
we have everything changed. She said, I want to laugh myself.
What is the use of changing everything? They will imagine
we are always like this, by and by. If they
question knew about anything, just tell them that it is
(34:24):
not so, and that we change everything at each audience,
just to give them a bit of surprise. You must
tell it some day, otherwise no one will know it
at all, and the trouble will not be worth the while.
It was a private audience for ladies, and Her Majesty
did not use the big throne, but was sitting on
(34:44):
her little throne at the left side of the audience hall,
where she received her own ministers. Every morning the Emperor
was standing. A eunuch came in the same as the
day before and announced that the ladies had arrived at
the palace gate. Nine in all, Her Majesty sent some
of the court ladies to meet them in the courtyard
(35:07):
and bring them to the audience hall, which they did.
I was standing at the right side of Her Majesty's
chair and could see them mounting the steps. Her Majesty
whispered to me and asked which one is Missus Evans,
as I had never seen the lady. I answered that
I could not tell. But when they got nearer, I
(35:29):
saw a lady walking with the American minister's wife and
concluded that she must be Missus Evans, and told her Majesty.
As they got nearer, her Majesty said again that missionary
lady with Missus conjure. I think she must like to
see me. She comes every time. I will tell her
I am very glad to see her always, and if
(35:51):
she understands what I mean. Missus Conder shook hands with
her Majesty and presented Missus Evans and also the wives
of the American officers. I was watching her Majesty and
saw that she was very nice and amiable, with such
a pleasant smile, so different from her every day manner.
(36:12):
She told them she was delighted to see them. Her
Majesty ordered the eunuchs to have chairs brought in for
the ladies, and at the same time other eunuchs brought
in tea. Her Majesty asked Missus Evans whether she liked China,
what she thought of Beijing, how long she had been there,
how long she was going to stay, and where she
(36:34):
was staying. I was so accustomed to her Majesty's questions
that I knew exactly what she would ask. Missus Conjure
told her interpreter to tell her Majesty that she had
not seen her for such a long time, and inquired
about her majesty's health. Her Majesty said to me, you
tell Missus Conjure that I am in good health and
(36:56):
that I am delighted to see her. It is a
pity that I can not hold an audience more frequently,
otherwise I could see more of her, She continued. The
Imperial Princes her adopted daughter daughter of Prince Kong, would
accompany them to lunch. This ended the audience. Lunch was
(37:17):
served at the back of her own palace building, yng Yinshan,
the place where the clouds gather to rest. This room
was specially furnished as a banqueting room where refreshments could
be served. All the court ladies went to the lunch,
except Her Majesty, the Young Empress and the secondary wife.
It had taken me two hours to fix the table
(37:40):
for the luncheon. Her Majesty ordered that a white foreign
tablecloth should be used, as it looked cleaner. The eunuchs
gardeners had decorated the table with fresh flowers, and Her
Majesty gave instructions as to how the seats were to
be placed. She said, Missus Evans is the guest of honor.
(38:00):
Although Missus Condrey is the wife of the American Minister,
she is more of a resident, so Missus Evans must
have the principled seat. She also told me to arrange
to seat everybody according to their respective ranks. The Imperial
Princes and Princess Shwnn, her Majesty's niece, sister of the
Young Empress, were hostesses and were to sit opposite each other.
(38:24):
We placed golden menu holders and little gold plates for
almonds and watermelon seeds. The rest old silverware, including chopsticks.
Her Majesty ordered that foreign knives and forks should be
provided also. The food was served in vanchu style and
was composed of twenty four courses. Besides sweetmeats, candies, and fruits.
(38:48):
Her Majesty instructed us that only the best champagne was
to be served. She said, I know that foreign ladies
love to drink. I think I was the only one
who was really happy to meet these ladies, more so
than the rest of the court ladies, the reason being
that Her Majesty lectured them too severely, telling them how
(39:10):
to behave, so that they had grown to hate the
very mention of a foreign audience. While we were eating,
a eunuch came in and told me that Her Majesty
was waiting at her private palace and that I should
bring these ladies there after the lunch was over. So
when we had finished, we entered her own palace and
(39:31):
found her waiting there for us. She got up and
told me to ask Missus Evans whether she had had
anything to eat. That the food was not very good.
This is accustomed with the Chinese when entertaining always to
underrate the food. She said that she would like to
show Missus Evans her private apartments so that she could
(39:52):
form some idea of the way we lived. So she
took Missus Evans to one of her bedrooms. She invited
Missus Evans and Missus Conjure to sit down, and the
eunuchs brought in tea. As usual, her Majesty asked Missus
Evans to stay a little while in Beijing and to
visit the different temples. She said, our country, although very old,
(40:16):
has not much fine buildings as they are in America.
I suppose you will find everything very strange. I am
rather too old now. Otherwise I would like to travel
around the world. I have read much about different countries,
but of course there is nothing like visiting the different
places and seeing them for yourself. However, one cannot tell.
(40:40):
I may be able to go after all, by and by,
but I am afraid to leave my own country. By
the time I returned, I should not know the place
any more. I am afraid. Here everything seems to depend
on me. Our Emperor is quite young. She then turned
and crossed us to take these ladies to visit the
(41:01):
different buildings of the palace, also the famous Temple of
the King of Dragons. This is on a little island
in the center of the lake of the Summer Palace.
Missus Condre said that she had something to ask her Majesty,
and taught the missionary lady to proceed. While Missus Condre
was speaking to this lady, her Majesty became rather impatient,
(41:24):
as she wanted to know what they were talking about,
so she asked me. It was very hard for me
to listen to both of the ladies and to her
Majesty at the same time. The only words I heard
were the portrait, so I guessed the rest. Before I
had a chance to tell her Majesty, this missionary lady said,
(41:46):
Missus Condre has come with the special object of asking
permission to have her Majesty's portrait painted by an American lady, artist,
Miss Carl, as she is desirous of sending it to
the Saint Louis Exhibition, in order that the American people
may form some idea of what a beautiful lady the
Empress Dowager of China is. Miss Carl is the sister
(42:09):
of mister F. Carl, who was for so many years
Commissioner of Customs. In true fool, her Majesty looked surprised,
for she had been listening very carefully whilst this lady
was talking. She did not like to say that she
did not quite understand, so she turned to me as
had been previously arranged a sign for me to interpret.
(42:31):
I did not, however, do so immediately, so Missus contret
told her missionary friend to repeat the request in case
her Majesty had not quite understood it. Her Majesty then
said to me, I cannot quite understand what this lady says.
I think perhaps you can tell me better. So I
explained everything, but I knew that her Majesty did not
(42:53):
know what a portrait was like, as up to that
time she had never even had a photograph taken of herself.
I must here explain that in China a portrait is
only painted after death in memorium of the deceased, in
order that the following generations may worship the deceased. I
noticed that her Majesty was somewhat shocked when the request
(43:16):
was made known to her. I did not want her
Majesty to appear ignorant before these foreign ladies, so I
pulled her sleeve and told her that I would explain
everything to her later. She replied, explain a little to me. Now.
This was spoken in the court language, which the visitors
were unable to understand, it being somewhat different from the
(43:39):
ordinary Chinese language. This enabled her Majesty to form some
idea of the conversation, so she thanked Missus Conjur for
her kind thought and promised to give her answer later.
She said, to me, tell missus Conjuur that I cannot
decide anything alone, as she is probably aware that I
have to consult with my ministers before deciding anything of
(44:02):
an important character. Tell her that I have to be
very careful not to do anything which would give my
people an opportunity to criticize my actions. I have to
adhere to the rules and customs of my ancestors. I
noticed that her Majesty did not seem inclined to discuss
(44:22):
the subject further at the moment. Just then, the head
Eunuch came in and, kneeling down, informed her Majesty that
the boats for the ladies were ready to take them
across the lake to see the temple. This action on
the part of the eunuch was owing to his having
received a signal from one of the court ladies which
(44:44):
implied that her Majesty was getting tired of the conversation
and wished to change the subject. I must explain that
on every occasion when a foreign audience was taking place.
One of the court ladies was always told of to
watch her Majesty, and whenever she appeared to be displeased
or tired of any particular subject under discussion, she the
(45:06):
court lady, would give the signal to the head eunuch,
who would break in upon the conversation in the above
manner and thus save the situation from becoming embarrassing. So
her Majesty said good bye to the ladies, as she
thought it would be too late for them to have
to return to say good bye, besides which it would
(45:26):
give them more time to see the various sights. The
ladies then proceeded to the island in the Empress Dowager's
pleasure boat known as the Imperial Barge previously described and
visited the temple. This temple is built on top of
a small rock, in the center of which is a
natural cave, and it was generally supposed that no human
(45:49):
being had ever been inside of this cave. The Empress
Dowager believed the popular superstition that this hall was the
home of the King of Dragons, from which the temple
derives its name. End of Chapter twelve read by J. C.
Iguan Montreal, January two thousand nine,
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