Two Years in the Forbidden City
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The Princess Der Ling >> Two Years in the Forbidden City
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Next the eunuchs were received by the Emperor, and they similarly
congratulated him, but without the accompaniment of music. After
the eunuchs came the servant girls, and the whole of the ceremony
was over. The Emperor next proceeded to Her Majesty's Palace,
where he knelt before Her Majesty and thanked her for the
celebration which had been given in his honor, after which Her
Majesty, accompanied by the whole Court, went to the theatre to
see the play. On arrival at the theatre we were all presented by
Her Majesty with sweetmeats, this being the custom on these
occasions, and after a little while Her Majesty retired for her
afternoon rest. Thus the celebration ended.
Two days after the celebration the seventh moon commenced. The
seventh day of the seventh moon was the occasion of another
important anniversary.
The two stars, Niu Lang (Capricorn) and Chih Nu (Lyra) are
supposed to be the patrons of agriculture and weaving and,
according to tradition, were at one time man and wife. As the
result of a quarrel, however, they were doomed to live apart,
being separated from each other by the "Milky Way." But on the
seventh day of the seventh moon of each year they are allowed to
see each other and the magpies are supposed to build a bridge to
enable them to meet.
The ceremony is rather peculiar. Several basins full of water were
placed so that the sun's rays would fall upon them. Her Majesty
then took several tiny needles and dropped one into each basin.
These floated on the water, casting a shadow across the bottom of
the basins. These shadows took different forms, according to the
position of the needle, and if the shadow took certain prescribed
forms, the person throwing in the needle was supposed to be very
lucky and clever, while if they represented certain other forms,
they were despised by the gods as being ignorant. In addition, Her
Majesty burned incense and offered up prayers to the two gods
referred to.
This was always a sad moon for Her Majesty, it being the
anniversary of the death of her husband, the Emperor Hsien Feng,
who died on the 17th of that month. The fifteenth of the seventh
moon each year is the day of the festival for the dead, and early
in the morning the Court moved to the Sea Palace in order to
sacrifice. The Chinese hold that when a person dies, his soul
still remains on the earth, and on these anniversaries they burn
imitation money, the belief being that the soul of the departed
one will benefit to the extent of the amount of money so
represented. On the anniversary above referred to Her Majesty sent
for hundreds of Buddhist priests to pray for those unfortunate
people who had died without leaving anyone who could sacrifice for
them. On the evening of this day, Her Majesty and all her Court
ladies set out in open boats on the lake, where imitation lotus
flowers were arranged as lanterns, with a candle placed in the
centre, which formed a sort of floating light, the idea being to
give light to the spirits of those who had departed during the
year, so as to enable them to come and receive the blessings which
had been prepared for them. Her Majesty ordered us to light the
candles and place the flowers on the water ourselves, as she said
it would be appreciated by the spirits of the dead. Some of the
eunuchs had told Her Majesty that they had actually seen some of
these spirits, which assertion was thoroughly believed. Although
she had never seen them herself, she accounted for this by the
fact that she was of too high a rank and the spirits were afraid
of her, but she ordered all the rest of us to keep a sharp lookout
and tell her if we saw anything. Of course we didn't see anything,
but many of the Court ladies were so frightened that they closed
their eyes for fear they might see something supernatural.
Her Majesty was devoted to the late Emperor Hsien Feng, and she
was very sad and morose during this period. We all had to be very
careful indeed not to upset her in any way, as she would find
fault on the slightest provocation. She hardly had a word to say
to any of us, and cried almost incessantly. I could hardly
understand the reason for such grief, seeing that the Emperor had
died so many years previously. None of the Court ladies were
allowed to dress in light-coloured gowns during the whole of the
seventh moon. We all dressed either in dark blue or pale blue,
while Her Majesty herself dressed in black every day without
exception. Even her handkerchiefs were black. The theatres which
were usually opened on the first and fifteenth of each month, were
closed during the seventh moon. There was no music, and everything
was conducted in the most solemn manner; in fact, the whole Court
was in deep mourning.
On the morning of the seventeenth day of the seventh moon, Her
Majesty visited the late Emperor's tablet, and knelt there crying
for quite a while. In order to show respect for the late Emperor,
none of us were allowed to eat meat for three days. This being my
first year at the Palace, it appeared to me very strange, after
the customary gaiety and noise. Of course I felt very sorry for
Her Majesty, as I could see that it was a genuine display of grief
and was not in any way put on. As I was her favorite at that time,
she kept me close to her side during this sad period. The Young
Empress said to me one day: "Her Majesty is very much attached to
you, and I think you had better stay with her for the time being."
This I did, and I was so miserable myself that when Her Majesty
commenced crying I would cry also. When she saw that I was crying,
Her Majesty would immediately stop and ask me not to cry. She
would tell me that I was too young to cry, and that in any case I
did not know what real sorrow was as yet. During the conversations
we had at that time she would tell me quite a lot about herself.
On one occasion she said: "You know I have had a very hard life
ever since I was a young girl. I was not a bit happy when with my
parents, as I was not the favorite. My sisters had everything they
wanted, while I was, to a great extent, ignored altogether. When I
first came to the Court, a lot of the people were jealous of me
because I was considered to be a beautiful woman at that time. I
must say myself that I was a clever one, for I fought my own
battles, and won them, too. When I arrived at Court the late
Emperor became very much attached to me and would hardly glance at
any of the other ladies. Fortunately, I was lucky in giving birth
to a son, as it made me the Emperor's undisputed favorite; but
after that I had very bad luck. During the last year of his reign
the Emperor was seized with a sudden illness. In addition to this
the foreign soldiers burnt down the Palace at Yuen Ming Yuen, so
we fled to Jehol. Of course everybody knows what took place at
that time. I was still a young woman, with a dying husband and a
young son. The East Empress Dowager's nephew was a bad man, who
coveted the throne, which he had no right to in any event, as he
was not of royal blood. I would not wish anyone to experience what
I myself passed through at that time. When the Emperor was in a
dying condition, being practically unconscious of what was taking
place around him, I took my son to his bedside and asked him what
was going to be done about his successor to the throne. He made no
reply to this, but, as has always been the case in emergencies, I
was equal to the occasion, and I said to him: `Here is your son,'
on hearing which he immediately opened his eyes and said: `Of
course he will succeed to the throne.' I naturally felt relieved
when this was settled once and for all. These words were
practically the last he spoke, for he died immediately afterwards.
Although it is now so many years ago, I can see him now in that
dying condition, just as though it all happened only yesterday.
"I thought that I could be happy with my son as the Emperor Tung
Chi, but unfortunately he died before he was twenty years of age.
Since that time I have been a changed woman, as all happiness was
over as far as I was concerned when he died. I had also quite a
lot of trouble with the East Empress Dowager and found it very
difficult to keep on good terms with her. However, she died five
years after the death of my son. In addition to all this, when the
Emperor Kwang Hsu was brought to me as a baby three years old, he
was a very sickly child, and could hardly walk, he was so thin and
weak. His parents seemed to be afraid of giving him anything to
eat. You know his father was Prince Chung, and his mother was my
sister, so of course he was almost the same as my own son, in fact
I adopted him as such. Even now, after all my trouble on his
account, he is not in perfect health. As you know, I have had
plenty of other troubles beside these, but it is useless to
mention them now. I am disappointed with everything, as nothing
has turned out as I had expected." With this remark Her Majesty
commenced crying afresh. Continuing, she said: "People seem to
think that just because I am the Empress Dowager that I am bound
to be happy, but what I have just told you is not all. I have gone
through much more than that. If ever anything went wrong, I was
always the one who was blamed. The censors even dare to impeach me
once in a while. However, I am philosopher enough to take things
for what they are worth, otherwise I would have been in my own
grave long, long ago. Just imagine how small minded these people
are. Amongst other things they objected to my transferring my
Court to the Summer Palace during the hot weather, although I
could do no harm by being there. Even in the short time you have
spent at Court, you can see that I am unable to decide anything
alone, while whenever they want anything they consult with each
other and then present their petition to me, which, unless it is
something of a very serious nature, I never think of refusing."
After the time set apart for mourning had expired, we all went
back to the Summer Palace, where Miss Carl re-commenced her work
on Her Majesty's portrait. Her Majesty apparently soon got tired
of this portrait painting, for one day she asked me when I thought
it would be finished. She was afraid that it would not be finished
by the time the cold weather came on, when we always removed the
Court to the Forbidden City, and she said it would be a lot of
trouble and inconvenience to have to continue the portrait there.
I told Her Majesty that it could easily be arranged and that she
need not worry herself.
After I had been posing in Her Majesty's place for several days
Her Majesty asked me whether Miss Carl had said anything about it,
and if she did, I was to inform her that it was a command from Her
Majesty, and that I dare not make any further suggestions in that
respect. So we had no further trouble with Miss Carl after that. I
had, however, quite a lot of trouble with the eunuchs, who, in
spite of Her Majesty's instructions, were anything but polite to
Miss Carl. Of course Miss Carl herself did not know this. I tried
to make them behave better by threatening to tell Her Majesty
about them, which had a good effect for a while, but they were
soon as bad as ever.
At the commencement of the eighth moon, Her Majesty always
attended to the transplanting of her chrysanthemums, which was one
of her favorite flowers, so each day she would take us with her to
the west side of the lake and, assisted by us, would cut the tops
of the young plants and set them in flower pots. I was very much
surprised at this, as there were no roots, only the stems of the
flowers, but Her Majesty assured me that they would soon grow into
very pretty plants. Every day we went over to water these flowers
until they began to bud. In case it rained heavily, Her Majesty
would order some of the eunuchs to go over and cover up these
chrysanthemum plants with mats, so that they would not be broken.
It was characteristic of Her Majesty that, no matter what other
business she had to attend to, her flowers had her first
consideration and she would, if necessary, even go without her
usual rest in order to superintend them personally. She also spent
quite a time in looking after her orchard, where she had planted
apple trees, pear trees, etc. Another thing which I began to
notice was that when the spring and summer days had passed, she
got quite irritable and sad, while in the winter she was simply
unbearable. She loathed cold weather.
One day, during the eighth moon, Her Majesty was taken slightly
ill, and complained of suffering from severe headaches. This was
the only time I ever saw Her Majesty actually sick. She, however,
got up as usual in the morning, and held audience, but was unable
to take her luncheon, and very soon had to retire to her bed.
Several doctors were summoned, each of whom took her pulse. This
was quite a ceremony in itself. The doctors knelt at the bedside,
and Her Majesty stretched forth her arm, resting her hand upon a
small pillow which was provided for that purpose. After this each
doctor wrote out his prescription, all of which were different
from each other. We handed them to Her Majesty, who chose the one
which she thought was the nicest to take, and two attendants and
the doctor himself had to take a dose in her presence before she
would touch it. Then she would take it all right.
During this time it rained a great deal and was very hot. The
climate at this time of the year is very damp, which causes the
flies to make their appearance in millions. If there was one thing
more than another that Her Majesty detested it was these flies.
During the actual summer they were not so troublesome as at this
particular time. Of course every precaution was taken to keep them
away, a eunuch being posted at each door, provided with sort of a
switch made of horse hair fastened at the end of a bamboo pole. We
were never troubled by mosquitoes, however; in fact I never saw a
mosquito curtain in the Palace during the whole of my stay there.
These flies were an abomination, and in spite of all that could be
done a few would find their way into the rooms. Whenever they
alighted on Her Majesty she would scream, while if by any chance
one were to alight on her food she would order the whole lot to be
thrown away. This would spoil her appetite for the whole day and
put her into a terrible temper as well. Whenever she saw one
anywhere near her, she would order whoever happened to be present
to go and catch it. I myself often received this order, but I
detested them almost as much as Her Majesty did, they were so
dirty, and stuck to one's hands whenever they touched them.
After her illness Her Majesty was indisposed more or less for
quite a long time, and doctors were constantly in attendance. She
took so many different kinds of medicine that instead of getting
better she got worse and eventually contracted a fever. Her
Majesty was very much afraid of fevers of any kind and we had to
stay with her all night and all day and had to take our meals
whenever we could get away from her bedside for a few minutes.
Another peculiarity was Her Majesty's aversion for any kind of
perfume near her when she was sick, while when she was feeling
well she was simply smothered in it. The same applied to fresh
flowers; in spite of her love for them under ordinary conditions,
when she was sick she could not bear them anywhere near. Her
nerves became absolutely unstrung, as she was unable to sleep
during the day, and consequently the time passed very slowly to
her. In order to make the time pass a little less tediously, she
gave instructions for one of the better educated eunuchs to read
to her during the daytime. This reading generally consisted of
ancient Chinese history, poetry and all kinds of Chinese lore, and
while the eunuch was reading to her we had to stand by her
bedside, one of us being told off to massage her legs, which
seemed to soothe her somewhat. This same program was gone through
every day until she was completely herself again--some ten days
later.
One day Her Majesty asked me: "What kind of medicine does a
foreign doctor usually give in case of a fever? I have heard that
they make you take all kinds of pills. This must be very
dangerous, as you never know what they are made of. Here in China
all medicines are made from roots, and I can always find out
whether I am receiving the right medicine, as I have a book which
explains what each different medicine is for. Another thing I have
heard is that foreign doctors generally operate on you with a
knife, while we cure the same sickness by means of our medicine.
Li Lien Ying told me that one of our little eunuchs had a boil on
his wrist and someone advised him to go to the hospital. Of course
they didn't know what they would do, and the foreign doctor there
opened the boil with a knife, which frightened the child very
much. I was very much surprised when I heard he was all right
again in a couple of days." Continuing, Her Majesty said: "A year
ago one of the foreign ladies came to the Palace, and hearing me
cough a lot, gave me some black pills and told me to swallow them.
I did not like to offend her, so I took the pills and told her I
would take them by and bye. However, I was afraid to take them and
threw them away." Of course I answered that I didn't know much
about medicines, to which she replied that she had seen me take
foreign medicines whenever I was not feeling well. She then said:
"Of course I know there are people in Peking who do take the
medicines given them by foreign doctors and even some of my own
relatives patronize these foreigners also. They try not to let me
know, but I do know for all that. In any case, if they choose to
kill themselves by taking these things, it is none of my business;
that is the reason why, when they are sick, I never send my own
doctors to attend them."
When Her Majesty had completely recovered from her illness she
used to go out on the lake a great deal, sometimes in an open boat
and at other times in a steam launch. She always appeared to enjoy
this kind of thing. For some reason or other she always insisted
on taking the west side of the lake, which was very shallow, and
invariably the launch would get stuck fast in the mud, which
seemed to afford Her Majesty great enjoyment; she simply loved to
feel the launch strike the bottom. The open boats would then come
alongside and we would have to get out of the launch and enter the
boats and proceed to the top of the nearest hill to watch the
efforts of the eunuchs trying to refloat the launch. It was a
characteristic of Her Majesty to experience a keen sense of
enjoyment at the troubles of other people. The eunuchs knew this
quite well, and whenever opportunity offered, they would do
something which they thought would amuse Her Majesty. So long as
it was nothing of a serious nature Her Majesty would always
overlook it, but in case it proved serious or was carelessness,
she would always order them to be severely punished. Thus it was
very hard to tell just what to do in order to please her.
Another of Her Majesty's peculiarities was inquisitiveness. For
example: As I have stated before, it was the custom for Her
Majesty to have sweetmeats brought to her before every meal, and
after she had finished with them, the remainder were distributed
among the Court ladies. Whenever it happened that we were very
busy, we did not bother with the sweetmeats at all, which Her
Majesty very soon found out. One day, after she had finished
dining, she came and looked through the window to see what we were
doing, and saw some of the eunuchs eating the sweetmeats which she
had given to us. She did not say anything, but simply ordered that
the sweetmeats should be brought back again, making us believe
that she wanted some more herself. I knew that there was something
wrong, as she never ordered them back before. When she saw what
was left of them, she asked who had been eating so many, as they
were nearly all finished, but she got no reply--we were all too
scared. However, after thinking it over, I came to the conclusion
that it would be best to tell her the truth, for I was quite
certain that she knew anyhow. So I told her that we had all been
very busy and had forgotten all about the sweetmeats, and that the
eunuchs had come and taken them themselves, and I added that this
was not the first time they had done so. I was rather glad that
she had given me this opportunity to report the eunuchs, for Her
Majesty replied that if she intended the eunuchs to have
sweetmeats, she herself could give them some, but thought it a
lack of appreciation on our part not eating them ourselves after
she had been so kind as to provide them for us. She turned to me,
and said: "I am glad that you have told the truth, as I saw myself
what was happening." She gave orders that the offending eunuchs
should each have three months' wages deducted as a punishment, but
of course I knew very well they didn't mind that, as they were
making many times the amount of their salary in other ways. On my
return to the sitting room, one of the Court ladies said: "You
should not have told Her Majesty about the eunuchs, they are sure
to revenge themselves in some way." I asked how they could
possibly injure me in any way, as they were only servants, but she
told me that they would find some underhand way in which to get
even with me, this being their general custom. Of course I knew
the eunuchs were a bad lot, but could not see what cause they had
to be against me in any way. I knew they dare not say anything
against me to Her Majesty, so I forgot all about the matter. I
found out afterwards that one of the tricks they used to play on
any of the Court ladies who offended them was to try and prejudice
Her Majesty against us. For instance, if Her Majesty told one of
the eunuchs that a certain thing should be done, instead of
telling me what Her Majesty wanted, the eunuch would go off to one
of the other ladies and tell her. In this way Her Majesty would
get the impression that I was too lazy to wait upon her myself,
and of course the other lady would get all the credit. Although
Her Majesty was very kind to me, also the Young Empress, it was
very hard to get along with eunuchs, and it was not good policy to
offend them in any way. They regarded themselves as being
exclusively the servants of Her Majesty, the Empress Dowager, and
refused to take instructions from anybody else, consequently they
were often very rude to the other ladies of the Court, not even
excepting the Young Empress.
Everything proceeded as usual until the eighth moon, when the
Emperor was to sacrifice at the "Temple of the Sun." On this
occasion the Emperor wore a red robe.
About this time Mrs. Conger asked for a private audience, as she
wanted to see Her Majesty and at the same time see how the
portrait was progressing. Her Majesty replied that she would
receive her and gave orders accordingly. At this private audience
Mrs. Conger brought into the Court two of her relatives to be
presented to Her Majesty, besides Miss Campbell and a missionary
lady. As it was a private audience, the guests were conducted to
Her Majesty's private Palace. They were received in the hall which
was being used as studio for this lady artist, although Her
Majesty was out of patience with the portrait painting, and talked
to us a great deal about it, yet when she saw Mrs. Conger and the
others she was extremely polite and told them that the portrait
was going to be a masterpiece. She was in an unusually good humor
that day and told me to give orders to the eunuchs to open all the
buildings and show them to her guests. Her Majesty led the way
from one room to another and showed them her curios in the
different rooms, until she came to rest in one of the bedrooms,
when she ordered chairs to be brought in for the guests. There
were many chairs in this room, but they were really small thrones
of Her Majesty's, although they looked like any ordinary chairs.
The custom is that no matter what kind of a chair it may be, as
soon as she uses it, it is at once called her throne and no one is
allowed to sit on it thereafter unless the order is given by her.
During the time the eunuchs were bringing in the chairs kept
purposely for foreigners to use, one of the ladies of the party
made a mistake and sat upon one of Her Majesty's thrones. I
noticed her at once, and before I had a chance to warn her, Her
Majesty made a sign of annoyance to me. I went to this lady at
once and told her I wanted to show her something and naturally she
was obliged to get up. The trouble was this, although Her Majesty
felt that no one had the right to sit upon her throne, she
expected me to get this lady off the chair and at the same time
not to tell her the reason why. While I was busy interpreting for
her, she said in an undertone: "There she is again, sitting on my
bed. We had better leave this room." After this the ladies were
conducted to the refreshment room, and when they had partaken of
lunch, bade Her Majesty good-bye, leaving Miss Carl with us. As
usual we reported to her that we had seen the guests safely off.
She said to me: "That was a funny lady: first she sat upon my
throne, and then upon my bed. Perhaps she does not know what a
throne is when she sees one, and yet foreigners laugh at us. I am
sure that our manners are far superior to theirs. Another
thing--did you notice that Mrs. Conger handed a parcel to Miss
Carl out in the courtyard when she came in?" I replied that I had
noticed her passing something like a parcel, but could not tell
what the parcel contained. She thereupon told me to go and ask
Miss Carl what it was. At that time I had received so many
peculiar orders from Her Majesty that I was beginning to get
accustomed to them and used my own discretion in carrying out her
instructions. Therefore I did not ask Miss Carl, but set about
finding out for myself. However, when I began to look around for
the parcel, it had mysteriously disappeared and I could not find
the thing anywhere. This naturally worried me, knowing as I did
that Her Majesty liked her instructions carried out quickly. While
I was searching, one of the eunuchs came in and told me that Her
Majesty wanted to see me, and of course I had to go to her. Before
she could say anything to me, I informed Her Majesty that I had
not been able to ask Miss Carl about the parcel as she was asleep,
but would do so immediately she got up. Her Majesty said: "I don't
want Miss Carl to think I have told you to ask what the parcel
contains, otherwise she might think I am suspicious of what is
going on, so you must manage to get the information somehow
without mentioning the matter; you are clever enough to do that
much." Shortly afterwards, while I was walking along with Miss
Carl to Her Majesty's Palace, to proceed with the portrait, I
noticed that she was carrying the parcel in question, which was a
great relief to me, I can assure you. On arrival at the Palace,
Miss Carl said to me: "You need not trouble to pose at present, as
it is rather dark, and I can be painting the throne; you can look
through this magazine, if you like, to pass the time away." So I
opened up the parcel, which proved to contain nothing more than an
ordinary American monthly magazine. After glancing through the
book, I made an excuse to hurry away and inform Her Majesty.
However, she had already gone out for her usual trip on the lake,
so I took my chair and followed. When I reached the lake, Her
Majesty, who had seen me, sent a small boat and I was rowed out to
the launch. Before I could get a chance to speak, Her Majesty said
with a smile: "I know all about it, it was a book and Miss Carl
handed it to you to read." I was very much disappointed that I had
had my journey for nothing. I knew that the eunuchs would report
it to Her Majesty at the first opportunity, but I hardly expected
they would have done so already. Her Majesty was now quite
satisfied, and simply asked whether Miss Carl suspected that she
had enquired about the matter.
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