Two Years in the Forbidden City
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The Princess Der Ling >> Two Years in the Forbidden City
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As I was about to return to Miss Carl, Her Majesty called me and
said: "There is one thing I want to tell you and that is whenever
any foreign ladies are visiting the Palace, always keep close to
the Emperor so that in the event of their speaking to him you can
interpret." I answered that so far whenever any foreigners were
present I was present also and did not think that anybody had held
any conversation with the Emperor whatsoever. She explained that
her reason for mentioning this was that she wanted me to be just
as courteous to the Emperor as I was to herself, and I was to
place myself entirely at his disposal whenever visitors were
present. Of course I knew very well that this was not the true
reason at all but that she wanted to take every precaution to
preclude the possibility of foreigners influencing the Emperor in
matters of reform, etc.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL
ON the fifteenth day of the eighth moon came the celebration of
the Mid-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 when full, but that on this
particular day it is a perfect circle. The ceremony which is gone
through is conducted entirely by the Court ladies 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 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 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 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. At this point, the
beautiful maiden in the moon, on discovering her loss, sent the
soldiers of Heaven to re-capture 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 young man into
the courtyard, who kowtowed to Her Majesty. This was such an
unusual occurrence that everybody noticed it. I could see 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 veranda I saw two or three of
the Court ladies whispering together 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 they ought to know better than I did
as they had been at the Court much longer. Anyhow I gave it as my
opinion that he was decidedly ugly. That same evening Her Majesty
asked me whether I had noticed this young man, and told me that he
was the son of a very high Manchu 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
lengthy explanation about this young man, 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 saw that Her Majesty was holding a 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 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, I made up my own mind that rather than
marry anyone 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 me whether I would like to stay with her always or whether I
would like to go away again to 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 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 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 rather 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 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 for this fact I would simply have arranged everything
with your mother and the matter would have been settled so far as
you were concerned." I could not say anything in answer to this,
so 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 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 away at all had it not been that my father was
transferred to Paris. Her Majesty said: "Oh, well, I am very glad
that 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 not help me very much as I
could see 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 a marriage had been arranged 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, Emperor
Shung Chih, who 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 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 this rule. This is done in order to remind the
present generation of the privation suffered by their ancestors
who established the Manchu Dynasty.
Towards the close of the eighth moon Her Majesty's gourd plants,
which had been planted early in the spring, were ripening, and
each day she would take 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 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 Majesty 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 would assume a brownish color, when they were ready for
hanging as ornaments in the Summer Palace. In one room alone there
were over 10,000 of these gourds, of different shapes. It was the
duty of the Court ladies to periodically wipe these gourds with a
cloth, in order to give them a shiny appearance, and also to
scrape any new 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 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 Majesty did not make
much bother about it. She said: "Well it was quite an old one in
any case and the top was ready to drop off at any time; it so
happens that you were the one to wipe it, and of course it came
off. It can't be helped." 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 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 of the ninth moon the chrysanthemums commence 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 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 bloom about the end of the ninth moon or beginning of the
tenth 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
declare to be a white one and we would place a similar bamboo
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 will see when the flowers
commence 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.
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 as regards remuneration
for such a portrait. I replied that it was customary to pay very
handsomely, but she would not hear of such a suggestion, 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 Carl as a reward for her services, which she
considered would be appreciated far more than a money present.
There was nothing for me to say at this time but I determined to
mention the matter again when a favorable opportunity occurred.
During the ninth moon a Russian circus visited Peking 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 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. 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, 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 enquiring
what was the matter she informed my mother and myself that some
censors had raised objections against having this circus in the
Palace grounds, as there had never been anything of this kind
allowed before and they had begged 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 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 tent up already; they will talk just the same
whether we have the circus or not; I will have it anyway." So the
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. 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 bare-back riding, which
she thought simply wonderful. The only objection to the whole show
which she raised was when it was suggested to bring in the lions
and tigers, etc. 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 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 elephant as a
present, which she accepted. However, after the performance was
over we tried to make him go through his tricks again but he would
not budge an inch, so we had to give it up as a bad job and send
him away to be placed along with 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 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 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 Taels 10,000 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 entirely different and 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
see 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. (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, etc.,
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 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. Be sure not to tell her anything connected with the Court
life and do not teach her any Chinese. I hear that she often 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 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 cool weather is
coming on and we have to 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 will be the usual celebrations. After that we return to
the Sea Palace, and what can we do with this artist? I suppose she
will have to go 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
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 Carl was
just as anxious to get the work finished as she was to have it
finished, but explained that Miss Carl had very little time to
paint as Her Majesty could spare very little time to give personal
sittings, and again, when Her Majesty went to lie down each
afternoon, Miss Carl 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 whole thing at once," and then added: "I think you yourself
are getting tired of sitting, and 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 Carl did not like me to pose in her place, as she could not
get along so quickly as if she were to sit 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 red satin
embroidered with golden dragons and blue clouds, and were trimmed
with gold braid and lined with grey squirrel. The cuffs and
collars (which were turned down) were of sable. While Her Majesty
was giving one of the eunuchs instructions as to how these were to
be made, the Young Empress beckoned to me, and I went out. She
said: "You go and kowtow to Her Majesty as it is a great favor for
her to give you a dress trimmed with sable. This is usually only
worn by a Princess." So when I returned to the room I availed
myself of the first opportunity to kowtow and thank Her Majesty
for the great favor she had granted me. She answered: "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 other
Court lady I have ever had, and I can see that you are faithful in
the discharge of 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 different from the
Princesses, but rather better in many ways." Turning to a eunuch
she said: "Bring my fur cap here." This cap was made of sable,
trimmed with 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 everyday wear, one lined with sheepskin and the other lined
with grey squirrel. Then she gave us four other dresses of finer
material, lined with black and white fox skin, and all trimmed
with gold braid and embroidered ribbons. In addition there were
two other dresses, one of a pale pink color, embroidered with 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 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 her that when I arrived at the Palace I had nothing
but foreign clothes and how was I 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
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 Her Majesty about it. This seemed to have a good effect
for they never troubled me much afterwards with their talk.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE SUMMER PALACE
JUST about the end of the ninth moon Her Majesty began to tire of
doing nothing day after day, and said: "What is the use of waiting
until the first of the month to have the theatrical performance?
Let us have a performance to-morrow." So she gave instructions for
the eunuchs to prepare for the play, which should be staged
without the assistance of any outside actors. I might here mention
that certain of the eunuchs were specially trained as actors and
used to study their parts every day. Indeed, they were far
cleverer than the professionals from outside.
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