August 19, 2025 • 28 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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Chapter fifteen 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 de Ling,
Chapter fifteen, The Mid Autumn Festival. On the fifteenth day
of the eighth Moon came the celebration of the Mid
(00:22):
Autumn Festival, sometimes called the Moon Festival. This name is
derived from the belief which the Chinese hold that the
moon is not permanently round one fall, but that on
this particular day it is a perfect circle. The ceremony,
which is gone through, is conducted entirely by the court ladies,
(00:44):
and consists of worshiping the moon as soon as it
appears in the sky. In other respects, the celebrations are
exactly the same as in the Dragon Boat Festival. Presents
were exchanged between Her Majesty and the court officials. The
festival concluded with a theatrical performance which describes a scene
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in the moon. The belief is that a beautiful maiden
lives in the moon, her only companion being a white
rabbit called a jade rabbit. According to the play, this
rabbit escapes from the moon to the Earth and becomes
a young and beautiful girl. A golden rooster, which lives
in the sun, becoming aware of the rabbit's descent to
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the earth, himself descends from the sun and changes into
a handsome prince. Of course, they very naturally meet and
immediately fall in love. Now on the earth lived another rabbit,
a red one, who, on finding out what was going on,
changed himself into a prince also and set about making
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love to the beautiful maiden, with the object of cutting
out the rooster. However, he was seriously handicapped inasmuch as
he was unable to change the color of his face,
which remained red. Therefore, his love making met with no success,
and the rooster prince had it all his own way.
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At this point, the beautiful maiden in the moon, on
discovering her loss, sent the soldiers of heaven to recapture
her rabbit, with the result that she was taken back
to the moon, and the rooster, being left alone, had
no alternative but to reluctantly return to his home in
the sun. During this performance, the head eunuch brought a
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young man into the courtyard who kotowed to her majesty.
This was such an unusual occurrence that everybody noticed it.
I could say that he was a stranger and did
not belong to the court, and I wondered who he
could be. At the other end of the Verandah, I
saw two or three of the court ladies whispering together
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and smiling. They finally came over to me and asked
if I knew who he was. I told them that
he was a stranger to me, and he ought to
know better than I did, as they had been at
the court much longer. Anyhow, I give it as my
opinion that he was decidedly ugly. That same evening, Her
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Majesty asked me whether I had noticed this young man
and told me that he was the son of a
very high man, true official, that his father was dead,
and that he had succeeded to the title and to
a large amount of money. I was surprised that Her
Majesty should give such a lenty explanation about this young man,
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but I told her that I did not think him
very handsome. Her Majesty was talking in a very serious manner,
but I did not think anything of the occurrence at
the time. But a few days later, while I was
posing for the portrait. I heard Her Majesty whispering to
my mother at the other end of the room. I
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saw that Her Majesty was holding in photograph in her hands,
which she showed to my mother at the same time,
asking whether my mother considered him good looking, my mother
answered not very on her Majesty, replying that beauty was
not everything. I began to suspect that there was something
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going on which directly concerned me. I began to think
of some excuse in order to get out of what
I could plainly see was a proposed marriage between myself
and this gentleman. I knew that if Her Majesty had
made up her mind that I was to marry him,
I could not help myself. But at the same time
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I made up my own mind that rather than marrying
any one whom I did not like, especially one I
had never seen before, I would leave the court altogether.
When Her Majesty retired for her usual afternoon rest, she
told me she wanted to see me for a moment.
After beating about the bush for some time, she asked
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me whether I would like to stay with her always,
or whether I would like to go away again on
some foreign country. I at once answered that I was
quite satisfied to stay with her as long as she
cared to have me, but that when she was tired
of me, she could then send me away. Her Majesty
informed me that it had been her intention to marry
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me to this young gentleman and asked my opinion. I
told her that I did not want to get married
at all, especially seeing that my father was sick at
this time, and leaving home to go to live apart
from my family would break his heart and perhaps be
the cause of his premature death. Her Majesty said that
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was no excuse, as I should not have to go
out of China, but would be able to see my
father and family any time I wished. I told her
Majesty that I would much rent to stay with her altogether,
and that I did not want to marry anybody. Her
Majesty then said, I won't listen to any excuse. I
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have already explained everything to your mother, but much to
my surprise, she said it would be better to mention
it to you first, on account of your having been
brought up differently from the rest of the court ladies.
Had it not been this fact, I would simply have
arranged everything with her mother, and the matter would have
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been settled so far as you were concerned. I could
not say anything in answer to this, so I commenced
to cry. I told her majesty that I was not
like the rest of the court ladies who pretended they
did not want to marry, when all the time they
were simply looking forward to getting married, if only for
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the change from the monotony of court life. I promised
that I would stay with her forever and that I
had no desire to go away from China. Again, I
explained that I should not have gone at all had
it not been that my father was transferred to Paris.
Her Majesty said, oh, well, I am very glad that
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you did go away, as you are more useful to
me than you would have been had you stayed in
China all your life. After a lot more discussion, her
Majesty said, well, I will leave you to think the
matter over if you don't like the young man I
have chosen. There are plenty of others. Which remark did
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not help me very much, as I could say that
she meant to marry me off anyway. However, I had
managed to get out of it this time, and thought
I would be able to arrange matters satisfactorily should the
question come up again. Nothing further was said about the
matter until nearly a month later, when I heard that
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in marriage had been a changed between this gentleman and
the daughter of one of the princes. So everything ended
very satisfactorily from my point of view. The twenty sixth
day of the eighth Moon was the occasion of another celebration.
At the time the Manchu dynasty began, emperors Shuntu, who
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had fought very hard to gain the throne, found himself
on the twenty sixth day of the eighth moon absolutely
out of provisions of every kind, and it was necessary
for him and his army to live on the leaves
of trees, which was the only form of food obtainable
at the time. Thus, the anniversary of this day, even
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up to the present time, is always celebrated by the
Manchu people, who deny themselves all luxuries, especially at the court.
We did not eat any meat on that day, but
only rice wrapped in lettuce leaves. Chopsticks were also discarded,
and the food was conveyed to the mouth by the
hands alone. Even the Empress dowager was no exception to
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this rule. This is done in order to remind the
present generation of the privations suffered by their ancestors who
established the Manchu dynasty. Towards the close of the eighth moon,
Her Majesty's gold plants, which had been planted early in
the spring, were ripening, and each day she would take
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us all to see what progress they were making. She
would pick out those which she considered to be the
most perfect in form i e. Those with the smallest waist,
and tie ribbons around them so as not to lose
sight of them. She pointed to one of these plants
one day and said to me, this reminds me of
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yourself when dressed in foreign clothes. Surely you feel more
comfortable in the clothes you are now wearing. When these
gourds were quite ripe, they were cut down and her
Magic would scrape the outer skin with a bamboo knife,
afterwards wiping the fruit with a wet cloth. They were
then allowed to dry, and after a few days they
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would assume a brownish color when they were ready for
hanging as ornaments in the summer palace. In one room alone,
there were over ten thousand of these gourds of different shapes.
It was the duty of the court ladies to periodically
wipe these gourds with a claw in order to give
them a shiny appearance, and also to scrape any new
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ones which were pulled and prepare them for the palace.
None of us cared very much about this work, excepting
Her Majesty. One day, whilst attending to these gourds, I
happened to knock the top off one of the old ones,
which was Her Majesty's particular favorite. I dared not go
and tell her Majesty what had happened, and one of
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the court ladies suggested throwing the thing away altogether and
saying nothing about it, as Her Majesty would not be
likely to find it out having so many of them. However,
I finally decided to go and tell Her Majesty about
it and take punishment if necessary. For a wonder Her
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Majesty did not make much bother about it. She said, well,
it was quite an old one in any case, and
the top was already to drop off at any minute,
so it happened that you were the one to wipe it,
and of course it came off. It can't be helped.
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I told her Majesty that I was very much ashamed
at being so careless, especially as I knew it was
one of her favorites. And there the matter ended. All
the rest of the court ladies were in the waiting
room and were anxious to know how I would get
out of it, and when I told them, they said
that had it been any of them, there would have
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been a fine row. They laughed and said it must
be nice to be a favorite, which made me feel
very uncomfortable. I told the young Empress exactly what had happened,
and she said I was quite right to tell her
Majesty the truth, and told me to be very careful,
as there was much jealousy going on. At the beginning
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of the ninth moon, the Chrysentmans commenced to bud and
it was the duty of the ladies of the court
to go and trim them each day by cutting away
all the buds except one on each stalk. This trimming
gives the flower a better chance of developing a much
larger blossom being the result. Even Her Majesty would help
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with this work. She was very particular about these plants
and would not allow any of us to meddle with
them if our hands were not perfectly cool, as to
touch them with hot hands would cause the leaves to
shrivel up. These flowers are generally in full blossom about
the end of the ninth moon or beginning of the
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tent moon. Her Majesty had a wonderful gift of being
able to tell what kind of flower would bloom from
each separate plant, even before the buds appeared. She would say,
this is going to be a red flower, and we
would place a bamboo stick in the flower pot with
the name written on it. Then another, her Majesty would
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declare to be a white one, and we would place
a similar bamboos stick in the flower pot with the description,
and so on. Her Majesty said, this is your first
year at the palace, and no doubt you are surprised
at what you have just seen and heard me say.
But I have never yet made a mistake, for you
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will see when the flowers commenced to bloom. It was
a fact as everything turned out exactly as she had predicted.
None of us ever knew how she was able to
distinguish one from the other, but she was always right.
I did once ask her to explain how she was
able to tell, but she answered that it was a secret.
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All this time, the portrait was proceeding very slowly, and
one day Her Majesty asked me how long I thought
it would be before it was finished, and what the
custom in Europe was I as regard renuneration for such
a portrait. I replied that it was customary to pay
very handsomely, but she would not hear of such a suggestion,
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saying that in China it was not the custom and
that it would be regarded as an insult to offer
money for such a service. She suggested decorating Miss Kal
as a reward for her services, which she considered would
be appreciated far more than a money present. There was
nothing more for me to say at this time, but
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I determined to mention the matter again when a favorable
opportunity occurred. During the ninth Moon, a Russian circus visited Beijing,
and of course everybody talked of little else. Her Majesty,
hearing so much talk about this circus, asked what it
was like, and after we had explained to her, she
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became very interested and said that she would like to
see it. My mother thought it would be a good
idea to have the circus brought up to the Summer
Palace where they could perform, so she asked Her Majesty
whether this might be done. Her Majesty was delighted with
the idea, and arrangements were accordingly made for the performance.
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While everything was being fixed, the people belonging to the
circus and the animals were quartered near our own house,
and we had to feed them at our own expense. However,
we wanted to show Her Majesty what a circus was like,
so the expense did not matter. It took them two
days to erect the tent and make all necessary preparations,
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and during this time Her Majesty received reports as to
what was being done and the progress they were making.
The day before the performance, we noticed that Her Majesty,
on coming from her audience, looked very angry, and on
our inquiring what was the matter, she informed my mother
and myself that some censes had raised objections against having
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this circus in the palace grounds, as there had never
been anything of this kind allowed before, and they had
packed her Majesty to give up the idea. Her Majesty
was very angry and said you see how much power
I have here. I cannot even have a circus without
somebody raising objections. I think we had better pay them
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something and let them go away. Of course, we agreed
to anything she thought best. After considering for a time,
her Majesty jumped up and said, they have the tentop already.
They will talk just the same, Whether we have the
circus or not, I will have it anyway. So the
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performance duly took place, and Her Majesty and all the
court were delighted. One item consisted of a young girl
walking and dancing on a large globe. This especially pleased
Her Majesty, and she insisted on the performance being repeated
several times. Another item of interest was the trapeze act.
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Of course, nobody present, with the exception of my mother,
sister and myself, had ever seen a circus performance before,
and Her Majesty was very much afraid that the man
would fall from the trapeze and kill himself. Another thing
which interested Her Majesty was the bareback riding, which she
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thought simply wonderful. The only objection to the hall show
which she raised was when it was suggested to bring
in the lions and tigers et cetera. She said it
was not safe to bring wild beasts into the palace
and that she would rather not see this part of
the performance. The proprietor of the circus, however, brought in
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a small baby elephant, which performed several clever tricks. This
delighted Her Majesty more than anything else, and when the
proprietor saw how pleased she was, he offered the elephants
as a present, which she accepted. However, after the performance
was over, we tried to make him go through his
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tricks again, but he would not budge an inch, so
we had to give it up as a bad job
and sent him away to be placed along the other
elephants belonging to the palace. Altogether, there were three performances
given by the circus, and before the final performance, the
circus manager told me that he would very much like
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to show the lions and tigers. There was no chance
of any accident and it really would be worth seeing.
So after a lot of discussion, her Majesty finally consented
to allow them to be brought in, but on the
distinct understanding that they should not be let out of
their cages when they were brought in the ring. All
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the eunuchs gathered around her Majesty, and after remaining in
the ring for a few minutes, her Majesty ordered them
to be taken away again. She said, I am not
afraid for myself, but they might get loose and hurt
some of the people. This item finished the whole of
the performance, and the circus departed richer by some tales
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ten thousand, which her Majesty had ordered to be given
to them. For the next couple of days we discussed
the merits of the circus, but afterwards her Majesty, when
referring to the subject, expressed great disappointment with the whole thing.
She said she had expected something in entirely different and
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far more wonderful. This was another characteristic of her Majesty.
Nothing pleased her for more than five minutes at a time.
She said to me, I don't say anything at all
wonderful in foreign accomplishments. Take for instance, this portrait which
this lady is painting. I don't think it is going
to be at all a good picture. It seems so rough.
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Her Majesty did not understand oil painting. Then again, why
should she always want to have the things before her
while painting them. An ordinary Chinese artist could paint my dress, shoes,
et cetera. After seeing the things once, she cannot be
very much of an artist, in my opinion. Though you
need not tell her that. I said so, Continuing, her
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majesty said, by the way, what do you talk about
when you are posing for this portrait of mine? Although
I don't understand what she is saying, still I can
see she has a lot to say. Mishare not to
tell her anything connected with the court life, and do
not teach her any Chinese. I hear that she often
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asks what different things are called in Chinese, but don't
tell her. The less she knows, the better for us.
I can see that she has seen nothing of our
ordinary court life as yet. I wonder what she would
say if she were to see one of the eunuchs
being punished or anything like that. She would think that
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we were savages. I suppose I noticed the other day
when I was angry that you took this lady artist away.
This was very wise of you. It is better that
she should not see me in a temper she might
talk about it afterwards. I wish this portrait was finished
the cold weather is coming on and we have to
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open up the boxes and get our winter clothes ready.
You girls need winter clothes, I know, as you have
none but foreign dresses. Then again, my birthday is next
month and there would be the uss after that. We
returned to the Sea Palace. And what can we do
with this artist? I suppose she will have to go
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back and stay at the American legation and come to
the Sea Palace each day until the work is finished.
This will be a lot of trouble as it is
not ten minutes drive as at present, but nearer an
hour's drive. And even if this can be satisfactorily arranged,
what about the winter palace in the Forbidden City? Try
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and get to know how long she expects to be
before it is finished. This gave me an opportunity to
tell her Majesty that Miss Krle was just as anxious
to get the work finished as she was to have
it finished, but explained that Miss Karle had very little
time to paint as her Majesty could spay very little
time to give personal sittings. And again, when her Majesty
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went to lie down each afternoon, Miskrle had to stop
painting as she was working in the next room to
her Majesty's bedroom. Her Majesty replied, well, if she expects
me to sit for her all day long, I will
give up the haw thing at once, and then added,
I think you yourself are getting tired of sitting and
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want me to take it up again. But I have
already had quite enough of it. Of course, I told
her that instead of being tired of it, I enjoyed
sitting on her throne, which I regarded as a great honor.
I explained to her Majesty that Miss Krle did not
like me to pose in her place, as she could
not get along so quickly as if she were to
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set herself, But she simply said that I was acting
under her commands and that should be sufficient for me.
For the next ten days, we were kept very busy
selecting materials for winter clothing and also official robes for
my sister and myself to be worn during the forthcoming
birthday celebrations. These dresses were full winter court dresses of
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red satin embroidered with golden dressigans and blue clouds, and
were trimmed with gold braids and lined with gray scrawl.
The cuffs and callers which were turned down were of sable.
While Her Majesty was giving one of the eunuch's instructions
as to how these were to be made, the young
Empress beckoned to me, and I went out. She said,
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you go and Koto to her Majesty, as it is
a great favor for her to give you a dress
trimmed with sable. This is usually worn by a princess.
So when I returned to the room, I availed myself
of the first opportunity to Koto and thank her Majesty
for the great favor she had granted me. She answered,
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you deserve it, and I see no reason why you
should not be treated as a princess. Anyway, many of
the princesses are not of the imperial family. Any title
may be bestowed for special services rendered to the country,
and you have been of more help to me than
any the court lady I have ever had, and I
can see that you are faithful in the discharge of
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your duties. You may think I do not notice these things,
but I do. You are certainly entitled to be ranked
as a princess, and in fact I never treat you
differently from the princesses, but rather better in many ways.
Turning to a eunuch, she said, bring me my fur
cap here. This cap was made of sable, trimmed with
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pearls and jade, and Her Majesty explained that our caps
would be something after the same style, except that the crown,
instead of being yellow as in the case of Her
Majesty's cap, would be red. I was naturally delighted. In
addition to the cap and full court dress, Her Majesty
had two ordinary dresses made for every day wear, one
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lined with sheepskin and the other lined with great squirrel.
Then she gave us four other dresses of finer material,
lined with black and white fogskin, and all trimmed with
gold braid and embroidered ribbons. In addition, there were two
other dresses, one of a pale pink color embroidered with
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one hundred butterflies, and the other of a reddish color
embroidered with green bamboo leaves. Several short jackets, also lined
with fur, were also included in Her Majesty's present, and
several sleeveless jackets went to complete the lot. On coming
out of the room, one of the court ladies remarked
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that I was very lucky to receive so many clothes
from her Majesty, and said that she had never received
so many during the whole time she had been at
the palace nearly ten years. I could see she was jealous.
The young Empress, overhearing this conversation, joined us and told
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her that when I arrived at the palace, I had
nothing but foreign clothes, and how to manage if her
Majesty did not get me the proper dresses. This incident
was the beginning of another unpleasant time for me with
the ladies of the court. At first I took no
notice until one day one of the girls attached to
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the palace joined in the unkind remarks. She said that
before my arrival, she had been her Majesty's particular favorite.
But I gave her to understand that she had no
right to discuss me in any way whatsoever. The Young Empress,
who was present, spoke to them about their treatment of me,
and said that some fine day I would be telling
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her Majesty about it. They seemed to have a good effect,
for they never troubled me much afterwards with their talk.
End of Chapter fifteen read by J. C. Guan, Montreal,
January two thousand, nine h
Chapter fifteen 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 de Ling,
Chapter fifteen, The Mid Autumn Festival. On the fifteenth day
of the eighth Moon came the celebration of the Mid
(00:22):
Autumn Festival, sometimes called the Moon Festival. This name is
derived from the belief which the Chinese hold that the
moon is not permanently round one fall, but that on
this particular day it is a perfect circle. The ceremony,
which is gone through, is conducted entirely by the court ladies,
(00:44):
and consists of worshiping the moon as soon as it
appears in the sky. In other respects, the celebrations are
exactly the same as in the Dragon Boat Festival. Presents
were exchanged between Her Majesty and the court officials. The
festival concluded with a theatrical performance which describes a scene
(01:05):
in the moon. The belief is that a beautiful maiden
lives in the moon, her only companion being a white
rabbit called a jade rabbit. According to the play, this
rabbit escapes from the moon to the Earth and becomes
a young and beautiful girl. A golden rooster, which lives
in the sun, becoming aware of the rabbit's descent to
(01:28):
the earth, himself descends from the sun and changes into
a handsome prince. Of course, they very naturally meet and
immediately fall in love. Now on the earth lived another rabbit,
a red one, who, on finding out what was going on,
changed himself into a prince also and set about making
(01:49):
love to the beautiful maiden, with the object of cutting
out the rooster. However, he was seriously handicapped inasmuch as
he was unable to change the color of his face,
which remained red. Therefore, his love making met with no success,
and the rooster prince had it all his own way.
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At this point, the beautiful maiden in the moon, on
discovering her loss, sent the soldiers of heaven to recapture
her rabbit, with the result that she was taken back
to the moon, and the rooster, being left alone, had
no alternative but to reluctantly return to his home in
the sun. During this performance, the head eunuch brought a
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young man into the courtyard who kotowed to her majesty.
This was such an unusual occurrence that everybody noticed it.
I could say that he was a stranger and did
not belong to the court, and I wondered who he
could be. At the other end of the Verandah, I
saw two or three of the court ladies whispering together
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and smiling. They finally came over to me and asked
if I knew who he was. I told them that
he was a stranger to me, and he ought to
know better than I did, as they had been at
the court much longer. Anyhow, I give it as my
opinion that he was decidedly ugly. That same evening, Her
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Majesty asked me whether I had noticed this young man
and told me that he was the son of a
very high man, true official, that his father was dead,
and that he had succeeded to the title and to
a large amount of money. I was surprised that Her
Majesty should give such a lenty explanation about this young man,
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but I told her that I did not think him
very handsome. Her Majesty was talking in a very serious manner,
but I did not think anything of the occurrence at
the time. But a few days later, while I was
posing for the portrait. I heard Her Majesty whispering to
my mother at the other end of the room. I
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saw that Her Majesty was holding in photograph in her hands,
which she showed to my mother at the same time,
asking whether my mother considered him good looking, my mother
answered not very on her Majesty, replying that beauty was
not everything. I began to suspect that there was something
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going on which directly concerned me. I began to think
of some excuse in order to get out of what
I could plainly see was a proposed marriage between myself
and this gentleman. I knew that if Her Majesty had
made up her mind that I was to marry him,
I could not help myself. But at the same time
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I made up my own mind that rather than marrying
any one whom I did not like, especially one I
had never seen before, I would leave the court altogether.
When Her Majesty retired for her usual afternoon rest, she
told me she wanted to see me for a moment.
After beating about the bush for some time, she asked
(05:02):
me whether I would like to stay with her always,
or whether I would like to go away again on
some foreign country. I at once answered that I was
quite satisfied to stay with her as long as she
cared to have me, but that when she was tired
of me, she could then send me away. Her Majesty
informed me that it had been her intention to marry
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me to this young gentleman and asked my opinion. I
told her that I did not want to get married
at all, especially seeing that my father was sick at
this time, and leaving home to go to live apart
from my family would break his heart and perhaps be
the cause of his premature death. Her Majesty said that
(05:49):
was no excuse, as I should not have to go
out of China, but would be able to see my
father and family any time I wished. I told her
Majesty that I would much rent to stay with her altogether,
and that I did not want to marry anybody. Her
Majesty then said, I won't listen to any excuse. I
(06:10):
have already explained everything to your mother, but much to
my surprise, she said it would be better to mention
it to you first, on account of your having been
brought up differently from the rest of the court ladies.
Had it not been this fact, I would simply have
arranged everything with her mother, and the matter would have
(06:30):
been settled so far as you were concerned. I could
not say anything in answer to this, so I commenced
to cry. I told her majesty that I was not
like the rest of the court ladies who pretended they
did not want to marry, when all the time they
were simply looking forward to getting married, if only for
(06:52):
the change from the monotony of court life. I promised
that I would stay with her forever and that I
had no desire to go away from China. Again, I
explained that I should not have gone at all had
it not been that my father was transferred to Paris.
Her Majesty said, oh, well, I am very glad that
(07:13):
you did go away, as you are more useful to
me than you would have been had you stayed in
China all your life. After a lot more discussion, her
Majesty said, well, I will leave you to think the
matter over if you don't like the young man I
have chosen. There are plenty of others. Which remark did
(07:36):
not help me very much, as I could say that
she meant to marry me off anyway. However, I had
managed to get out of it this time, and thought
I would be able to arrange matters satisfactorily should the
question come up again. Nothing further was said about the
matter until nearly a month later, when I heard that
(07:58):
in marriage had been a changed between this gentleman and
the daughter of one of the princes. So everything ended
very satisfactorily from my point of view. The twenty sixth
day of the eighth Moon was the occasion of another celebration.
At the time the Manchu dynasty began, emperors Shuntu, who
(08:20):
had fought very hard to gain the throne, found himself
on the twenty sixth day of the eighth moon absolutely
out of provisions of every kind, and it was necessary
for him and his army to live on the leaves
of trees, which was the only form of food obtainable
at the time. Thus, the anniversary of this day, even
(08:41):
up to the present time, is always celebrated by the
Manchu people, who deny themselves all luxuries, especially at the court.
We did not eat any meat on that day, but
only rice wrapped in lettuce leaves. Chopsticks were also discarded,
and the food was conveyed to the mouth by the
hands alone. Even the Empress dowager was no exception to
(09:05):
this rule. This is done in order to remind the
present generation of the privations suffered by their ancestors who
established the Manchu dynasty. Towards the close of the eighth moon,
Her Majesty's gold plants, which had been planted early in
the spring, were ripening, and each day she would take
(09:26):
us all to see what progress they were making. She
would pick out those which she considered to be the
most perfect in form i e. Those with the smallest waist,
and tie ribbons around them so as not to lose
sight of them. She pointed to one of these plants
one day and said to me, this reminds me of
(09:48):
yourself when dressed in foreign clothes. Surely you feel more
comfortable in the clothes you are now wearing. When these
gourds were quite ripe, they were cut down and her
Magic would scrape the outer skin with a bamboo knife,
afterwards wiping the fruit with a wet cloth. They were
then allowed to dry, and after a few days they
(10:10):
would assume a brownish color when they were ready for
hanging as ornaments in the summer palace. In one room alone,
there were over ten thousand of these gourds of different shapes.
It was the duty of the court ladies to periodically
wipe these gourds with a claw in order to give
them a shiny appearance, and also to scrape any new
(10:32):
ones which were pulled and prepare them for the palace.
None of us cared very much about this work, excepting
Her Majesty. One day, whilst attending to these gourds, I
happened to knock the top off one of the old ones,
which was Her Majesty's particular favorite. I dared not go
and tell her Majesty what had happened, and one of
(10:54):
the court ladies suggested throwing the thing away altogether and
saying nothing about it, as Her Majesty would not be
likely to find it out having so many of them. However,
I finally decided to go and tell Her Majesty about
it and take punishment if necessary. For a wonder Her
(11:15):
Majesty did not make much bother about it. She said, well,
it was quite an old one in any case, and
the top was already to drop off at any minute,
so it happened that you were the one to wipe it,
and of course it came off. It can't be helped.
(11:35):
I told her Majesty that I was very much ashamed
at being so careless, especially as I knew it was
one of her favorites. And there the matter ended. All
the rest of the court ladies were in the waiting
room and were anxious to know how I would get
out of it, and when I told them, they said
that had it been any of them, there would have
(11:58):
been a fine row. They laughed and said it must
be nice to be a favorite, which made me feel
very uncomfortable. I told the young Empress exactly what had happened,
and she said I was quite right to tell her
Majesty the truth, and told me to be very careful,
as there was much jealousy going on. At the beginning
(12:21):
of the ninth moon, the Chrysentmans commenced to bud and
it was the duty of the ladies of the court
to go and trim them each day by cutting away
all the buds except one on each stalk. This trimming
gives the flower a better chance of developing a much
larger blossom being the result. Even Her Majesty would help
(12:44):
with this work. She was very particular about these plants
and would not allow any of us to meddle with
them if our hands were not perfectly cool, as to
touch them with hot hands would cause the leaves to
shrivel up. These flowers are generally in full blossom about
the end of the ninth moon or beginning of the
(13:06):
tent moon. Her Majesty had a wonderful gift of being
able to tell what kind of flower would bloom from
each separate plant, even before the buds appeared. She would say,
this is going to be a red flower, and we
would place a bamboo stick in the flower pot with
the name written on it. Then another, her Majesty would
(13:29):
declare to be a white one, and we would place
a similar bamboos stick in the flower pot with the description,
and so on. Her Majesty said, this is your first
year at the palace, and no doubt you are surprised
at what you have just seen and heard me say.
But I have never yet made a mistake, for you
(13:49):
will see when the flowers commenced to bloom. It was
a fact as everything turned out exactly as she had predicted.
None of us ever knew how she was able to
distinguish one from the other, but she was always right.
I did once ask her to explain how she was
able to tell, but she answered that it was a secret.
(14:13):
All this time, the portrait was proceeding very slowly, and
one day Her Majesty asked me how long I thought
it would be before it was finished, and what the
custom in Europe was I as regard renuneration for such
a portrait. I replied that it was customary to pay
very handsomely, but she would not hear of such a suggestion,
(14:35):
saying that in China it was not the custom and
that it would be regarded as an insult to offer
money for such a service. She suggested decorating Miss Kal
as a reward for her services, which she considered would
be appreciated far more than a money present. There was
nothing more for me to say at this time, but
(14:56):
I determined to mention the matter again when a favorable
opportunity occurred. During the ninth Moon, a Russian circus visited Beijing,
and of course everybody talked of little else. Her Majesty,
hearing so much talk about this circus, asked what it
was like, and after we had explained to her, she
(15:16):
became very interested and said that she would like to
see it. My mother thought it would be a good
idea to have the circus brought up to the Summer
Palace where they could perform, so she asked Her Majesty
whether this might be done. Her Majesty was delighted with
the idea, and arrangements were accordingly made for the performance.
(15:38):
While everything was being fixed, the people belonging to the
circus and the animals were quartered near our own house,
and we had to feed them at our own expense. However,
we wanted to show Her Majesty what a circus was like,
so the expense did not matter. It took them two
days to erect the tent and make all necessary preparations,
(16:02):
and during this time Her Majesty received reports as to
what was being done and the progress they were making.
The day before the performance, we noticed that Her Majesty,
on coming from her audience, looked very angry, and on
our inquiring what was the matter, she informed my mother
and myself that some censes had raised objections against having
(16:26):
this circus in the palace grounds, as there had never
been anything of this kind allowed before, and they had
packed her Majesty to give up the idea. Her Majesty
was very angry and said you see how much power
I have here. I cannot even have a circus without
somebody raising objections. I think we had better pay them
(16:47):
something and let them go away. Of course, we agreed
to anything she thought best. After considering for a time,
her Majesty jumped up and said, they have the tentop already.
They will talk just the same, Whether we have the
circus or not, I will have it anyway. So the
(17:08):
performance duly took place, and Her Majesty and all the
court were delighted. One item consisted of a young girl
walking and dancing on a large globe. This especially pleased
Her Majesty, and she insisted on the performance being repeated
several times. Another item of interest was the trapeze act.
(17:30):
Of course, nobody present, with the exception of my mother,
sister and myself, had ever seen a circus performance before,
and Her Majesty was very much afraid that the man
would fall from the trapeze and kill himself. Another thing
which interested Her Majesty was the bareback riding, which she
(17:50):
thought simply wonderful. The only objection to the hall show
which she raised was when it was suggested to bring
in the lions and tigers et cetera. She said it
was not safe to bring wild beasts into the palace
and that she would rather not see this part of
the performance. The proprietor of the circus, however, brought in
(18:13):
a small baby elephant, which performed several clever tricks. This
delighted Her Majesty more than anything else, and when the
proprietor saw how pleased she was, he offered the elephants
as a present, which she accepted. However, after the performance
was over, we tried to make him go through his
(18:34):
tricks again, but he would not budge an inch, so
we had to give it up as a bad job
and sent him away to be placed along the other
elephants belonging to the palace. Altogether, there were three performances
given by the circus, and before the final performance, the
circus manager told me that he would very much like
(18:55):
to show the lions and tigers. There was no chance
of any accident and it really would be worth seeing.
So after a lot of discussion, her Majesty finally consented
to allow them to be brought in, but on the
distinct understanding that they should not be let out of
their cages when they were brought in the ring. All
(19:17):
the eunuchs gathered around her Majesty, and after remaining in
the ring for a few minutes, her Majesty ordered them
to be taken away again. She said, I am not
afraid for myself, but they might get loose and hurt
some of the people. This item finished the whole of
the performance, and the circus departed richer by some tales
(19:40):
ten thousand, which her Majesty had ordered to be given
to them. For the next couple of days we discussed
the merits of the circus, but afterwards her Majesty, when
referring to the subject, expressed great disappointment with the whole thing.
She said she had expected something in entirely different and
(20:01):
far more wonderful. This was another characteristic of her Majesty.
Nothing pleased her for more than five minutes at a time.
She said to me, I don't say anything at all
wonderful in foreign accomplishments. Take for instance, this portrait which
this lady is painting. I don't think it is going
to be at all a good picture. It seems so rough.
(20:24):
Her Majesty did not understand oil painting. Then again, why
should she always want to have the things before her
while painting them. An ordinary Chinese artist could paint my dress, shoes,
et cetera. After seeing the things once, she cannot be
very much of an artist, in my opinion. Though you
need not tell her that. I said so, Continuing, her
(20:47):
majesty said, by the way, what do you talk about
when you are posing for this portrait of mine? Although
I don't understand what she is saying, still I can
see she has a lot to say. Mishare not to
tell her anything connected with the court life, and do
not teach her any Chinese. I hear that she often
(21:07):
asks what different things are called in Chinese, but don't
tell her. The less she knows, the better for us.
I can see that she has seen nothing of our
ordinary court life as yet. I wonder what she would
say if she were to see one of the eunuchs
being punished or anything like that. She would think that
(21:27):
we were savages. I suppose I noticed the other day
when I was angry that you took this lady artist away.
This was very wise of you. It is better that
she should not see me in a temper she might
talk about it afterwards. I wish this portrait was finished
the cold weather is coming on and we have to
(21:47):
open up the boxes and get our winter clothes ready.
You girls need winter clothes, I know, as you have
none but foreign dresses. Then again, my birthday is next
month and there would be the uss after that. We
returned to the Sea Palace. And what can we do
with this artist? I suppose she will have to go
(22:08):
back and stay at the American legation and come to
the Sea Palace each day until the work is finished.
This will be a lot of trouble as it is
not ten minutes drive as at present, but nearer an
hour's drive. And even if this can be satisfactorily arranged,
what about the winter palace in the Forbidden City? Try
(22:29):
and get to know how long she expects to be
before it is finished. This gave me an opportunity to
tell her Majesty that Miss Krle was just as anxious
to get the work finished as she was to have
it finished, but explained that Miss Karle had very little
time to paint as her Majesty could spay very little
time to give personal sittings. And again, when her Majesty
(22:52):
went to lie down each afternoon, Miskrle had to stop
painting as she was working in the next room to
her Majesty's bedroom. Her Majesty replied, well, if she expects
me to sit for her all day long, I will
give up the haw thing at once, and then added,
I think you yourself are getting tired of sitting and
(23:12):
want me to take it up again. But I have
already had quite enough of it. Of course, I told
her that instead of being tired of it, I enjoyed
sitting on her throne, which I regarded as a great honor.
I explained to her Majesty that Miss Krle did not
like me to pose in her place, as she could
not get along so quickly as if she were to
(23:34):
set herself, But she simply said that I was acting
under her commands and that should be sufficient for me.
For the next ten days, we were kept very busy
selecting materials for winter clothing and also official robes for
my sister and myself to be worn during the forthcoming
birthday celebrations. These dresses were full winter court dresses of
(23:57):
red satin embroidered with golden dressigans and blue clouds, and
were trimmed with gold braids and lined with gray scrawl.
The cuffs and callers which were turned down were of sable.
While Her Majesty was giving one of the eunuch's instructions
as to how these were to be made, the young
Empress beckoned to me, and I went out. She said,
(24:21):
you go and Koto to her Majesty, as it is
a great favor for her to give you a dress
trimmed with sable. This is usually worn by a princess.
So when I returned to the room, I availed myself
of the first opportunity to Koto and thank her Majesty
for the great favor she had granted me. She answered,
(24:42):
you deserve it, and I see no reason why you
should not be treated as a princess. Anyway, many of
the princesses are not of the imperial family. Any title
may be bestowed for special services rendered to the country,
and you have been of more help to me than
any the court lady I have ever had, and I
can see that you are faithful in the discharge of
(25:05):
your duties. You may think I do not notice these things,
but I do. You are certainly entitled to be ranked
as a princess, and in fact I never treat you
differently from the princesses, but rather better in many ways.
Turning to a eunuch, she said, bring me my fur
cap here. This cap was made of sable, trimmed with
(25:29):
pearls and jade, and Her Majesty explained that our caps
would be something after the same style, except that the crown,
instead of being yellow as in the case of Her
Majesty's cap, would be red. I was naturally delighted. In
addition to the cap and full court dress, Her Majesty
had two ordinary dresses made for every day wear, one
(25:52):
lined with sheepskin and the other lined with great squirrel.
Then she gave us four other dresses of finer material,
lined with black and white fogskin, and all trimmed with
gold braid and embroidered ribbons. In addition, there were two
other dresses, one of a pale pink color embroidered with
(26:14):
one hundred butterflies, and the other of a reddish color
embroidered with green bamboo leaves. Several short jackets, also lined
with fur, were also included in Her Majesty's present, and
several sleeveless jackets went to complete the lot. On coming
out of the room, one of the court ladies remarked
(26:34):
that I was very lucky to receive so many clothes
from her Majesty, and said that she had never received
so many during the whole time she had been at
the palace nearly ten years. I could see she was jealous.
The young Empress, overhearing this conversation, joined us and told
(26:54):
her that when I arrived at the palace, I had
nothing but foreign clothes, and how to manage if her
Majesty did not get me the proper dresses. This incident
was the beginning of another unpleasant time for me with
the ladies of the court. At first I took no
notice until one day one of the girls attached to
(27:16):
the palace joined in the unkind remarks. She said that
before my arrival, she had been her Majesty's particular favorite.
But I gave her to understand that she had no
right to discuss me in any way whatsoever. The Young Empress,
who was present, spoke to them about their treatment of me,
and said that some fine day I would be telling
(27:37):
her Majesty about it. They seemed to have a good effect,
for they never troubled me much afterwards with their talk.
End of Chapter fifteen read by J. C. Guan, Montreal,
January two thousand, nine h
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