Two Years in the Forbidden City

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Her Majesty stood up when she saw us and shook hands with us. She
had a most fascinating smile and was very much surprised that we
knew the Court etiquette so well. After she had greeted us, she
said to my mother: "Yu tai tai (Lady Yu), you are a wonder the way
you have brought your daughters up. They speak Chinese just as
well as I do, although I know they have been abroad for so many
years, and how is it that they have such beautiful manners?"
"Their father was always very strict with them," my mother
replied; "he made them study their own language first and they had
to study very hard." "I am pleased to hear their father has been
so careful with them," Her Majesty said, "and given them such a
fine education." She took my hands and looked into my face and
smiled and kissed me on both cheeks and said to my mother: "I wish
to have your daughters and hope they will stay with me." We were
very much pleased at this and thanked her for her kindness. Her
Majesty asked all sorts of questions about our Paris gowns and
said we must wear them all the time, as she had very little chance
to see them at the Court. She was particularly in love with our
Louis XV high heel shoes. While we were talking to her we saw a
gentleman standing at a little distance and after a while she
said, "Let me introduce you to the Emperor Kwang Hsu, but you must
call him Wan Sway Yeh (Master of 10,000 years) and call me Lao Tsu
Tsung (the Great Ancestor)." His Majesty shyly shook hands with
us. He was a man about five feet, seven inches in height, very
thin, but with very strong features; high nose and forehead,
large, brilliant black eyes, strong mouth, very white, even teeth;
altogether good looking. I noticed he had a very sad look,
although he was smiling all the time we were there. At this
juncture the head eunuch came, knelt down on the marble floor and
announced that Her Majesty's chair was ready and she asked us to
go with her to the Audience Hall, distant about two minutes' walk,
where she was going to receive the heads of the different Boards.
It was a beautiful day and her open chair was waiting. This chair
is carried by eight eunuchs all dressed in official robes, a most
unusual sight. The head eunuch walked on her left side and the
second eunuch on her right side, each with a steadying hand on the
chair pole. Four eunuchs of the fifth rank in front and twelve
eunuchs of the sixth rank walked behind. Each eunuch carried
something in his hand, such as Her Majesty's clothes, shoes,
handkerchiefs, combs, brushes, powder boxes, looking glasses of
different sizes, perfumes, pins, black and red ink, yellow paper,
cigarettes, water pipes, and the last one carried her yellow
satin-covered stool. Besides this there were two amahs (old women
servants) and four servant girls all carrying something. This
procession was most interesting to see and made one think it a
lady's dressing room on legs. The Emperor walked on Her Majesty's
right and the Young Empress on the left, as did also the Court
ladies.

The Audience Hall was about two hundred feet long by about one
hundred and fifty feet wide, and at the left side was a long table
covered with yellow satin. When Her Majesty came down from the
chair she went into the Hall and mounted her throne just behind
this table, and His Majesty mounted a smaller one at her left
side, the Ministers all kneeling on the floor in front of her and
on the opposite side of the table.

At the back of the Hall was a large dais about twenty feet long by
about eighteen feet wide, enclosed by a magnificently carved
railing about two feet high running all the way round, open only
in the front in two places just large enough for a person to pass
through. These two openings were reached by a flight of six steps.
At the back of this dais was a small screen and immediately in
front of this, in the center, was Her Majesty's throne.
Immediately behind was an immense carved wood screen, the most
beautiful thing I ever saw, twenty feet long by ten feet high. In
front of Her Majesty's throne was a long narrow table. At the left
side was a smaller throne for the Emperor.

The theme of the carving and furnishings of this dais was the
phoenix and peony most exquisitely carved in ebony wood, in fact
the theme of the entire room was the same. On each side of Her
Majesty's throne were two upright ebony poles on the top of which
were peacock feathers made into the shape of a fan The upholstery
was entirely of yellow Chinese velvet.

Just before Her Majesty took her seat on her throne she ordered us
to go behind this screen with the Young Empress and the Court
ladies. This we did, and could hear the conversation between Her
Majesty and the Ministers very plainly, and as my readers will see
later, I made good use of this.

CHAPTER THREE

A PLAY AT THE COURT

THIS day to me was a medley of brilliant impressions. I was a
great novelty among these exclusive Court ladies, brought up
rigidly apart from foreign life and customs, and I was subjected
to a rapid fire of questions. I soon found that these women were
the same as others the world over in point of curiosity and love
of gossip. The fourth daughter of Prince Ching (Sze Gurgur), a
young widow and a strikingly handsome woman, spoke to me. "Were
you brought up in Europe and educated?" she asked. "I am told that
when people go to that country and drink the water there, they
quickly forget their own country. Did you really study to acquire
all those languages or was it drinking the water that gave them to
you?" I mentioned that I met her brother, Prince Tsai Chen, in
Paris on his way to London for the coronation of King Edward, and
that we should have liked to have gone also, as my father had a
special invitation, but were prevented from doing so by his urgent
duties in Paris in settling the Yunnan question, to which the
Princess replied: "Is there a king in England? I had thought that
our Empress Dowager was Queen of the world." Her sister, wife of
the brother of the Young Empress, a most intelligent, quiet and
dignified lady, stood by smiling and listening to the eager
questions. After numerous questions had been asked the Young
Empress finally said: "How ignorant you are. I know that each
country has its ruler and that some countries are republics. The
United States is a republic and very friendly toward us, but I am
sorry that such a common class of people go there, as they will
think we are all the same. What I should like to see is some of
our good Manchu people go, as then they would see what we really
are." She afterwards told me she had been reading a history of the
different countries, which had been translated into Chinese, and
she seemed to be very well informed.

After the Audience was over, Her Majesty called us out from behind
the screen and told us to go with her to see the theatre. She
said, as it was such a beautiful day, she preferred to walk, so we
started, walking a little behind her, as is the custom. Along the
way she pointed out from time to time different places and things
that were her particular favorites, and as she had to keep turning
around all the time, she finally told us to come and walk
alongside of her. This, as I afterwards found out, was a great
condescension on her part and a thing that she very seldom ever
did. She, like everybody else, had her pets and hobbies, such as
flowers, trees, plants, dogs, horses, etc., and there was one dog
in particular that was her favorite pet. This dog was with Her
Majesty always and followed her wherever she went, and a more
homely dog I never saw. It had absolutely nothing to recommend it
in any way. Her Majesty thought it beautiful, and called it Shui
Ta (Sea Otter).

A short distance from the Audience Hall we came to a large
courtyard. On each side of this courtyard were two immense baskets
fifteen feet in height, built of natural logs and literally
covered with purple wisteria. They were simply gorgeous and great
favorites of Her Majesty. She was always very proud of them when
in bloom and took great delight in showing them to the people.

From this courtyard we entered a sort of passageway which ran
along the sides of a big hill and led directly to the theatre,
where we soon arrived. This theatre is quite unlike anything that
you can imagine. It is built around the four sides of an open
courtyard, each side being separate and distinct. The building has
five stories. It is entirely open on the front and has two stages,
one above the other. The three top stories are used for holding
the drops and for store rooms. The stage on the first floor is of
the ordinary kind; but that on the second floor is built to
represent a temple and used when playing religious plays, of which
Her Majesty was very fond.

On the two sides were long, low buildings with large verandas
running their entire length, where the Princes and Ministers sat
when invited by Her Majesty to witness the play. Directly opposite
this stage was a spacious building, containing three large rooms,
which was used exclusively by Her Majesty. The floor was raised
about ten feet above the ground, which brought it on a level with
the stage. Large glass windows ran along in front, so made that
they could be removed in the summer and replaced with pale blue
gauze screens. Two of these rooms were used as sitting rooms and
the third, the one on the right, she used as a bedroom, and it had
a long couch running across the front, on which she used to sit or
lie according to her mood. This day she invited us to go to this
room with her. Later I was told that she would very often come to
this room, look at the play for a while and then take her siesta.
She could certainly sleep soundly, for the din and noise did not
disturb her in the least. If any of my readers have ever been to a
Chinese theatre, they can well imagine how difficult it would be
to woo the God of Sleep in such a pandemonium.

As soon as we were in this bedroom the play commenced. It was a
religious play called "The Empress of Heaven's Party or Feast to
all the Buddhist Priests to eat her famous peaches and drink her
best wine." This party or feast is given on the third day of the
third moon of each year.

The first act opens with a Buddhist Priest, dressed in a yellow
coat robe with a red scarf draped over his left shoulder,
descending in a cloud from Heaven to invite all the priests to
this party. I was very much surprised to see this actor apparently
suspended in the air and actually floating on this cloud, which
was made of cotton. The clever way in which they moved the
scenery, etc., was most interesting, and before the play was
finished I concluded that any theatre manager could well take
lessons from these people; and it was all done without the
slightest bit of machinery.

As this Buddhist Priest was descending, a large pagoda began to
slowly rise from the center of the stage in which was a buddha
singing and holding an incense burner in front of him. Then four
other smaller pagodas slowly rose from the four corners of the
stage, each containing a buddha the same as the first. When the
first Buddhist Priest had descended, the five buddhas came out of
the pagodas, which immediately disappeared, and walked about the
stage, still singing. Gradually from the wing came numbers of
buddhas singing until the stage was full, and they all formed into
a ring. Then I saw a large lotus flower, made of pink silk, and
two large green leaves appearing from the bottom of the stage, and
as it rose the petals and leaves gradually opened and I saw a
beautiful lady buddha (Goddess of Mercy) dressed all in white
silk, with a white hood on her head, standing in the center of
this flower. As the leaves opened I saw a girl and a boy in the
center of them. When the petals of the lotus flower were wide open
this lady buddha began to gradually ascend herself, and as she
ascended, the petals closed until she seemed to be standing on a
lotus bud. The girl standing in the leaf on the Goddess' right
side held a bottle made of jade and a willow branch. The legend of
this is that if the Goddess dips the willow branch into the jade
bottle and spreads it over a dead person it will bring the person
to life. The boy and the girl are the two attendants of the
buddha.

Finally the three came down from the flower and leaves and joined
the rest of the buddhas. Then the Empress of Heaven came, a good
old lady with snow-white hair, dressed from head to foot in
Imperial yellow, followed by many attendants, and ascended the
throne, which was in the center of the stage, and said: "We will
go to the banquet hall." This ended the first scene.

The second scene opened with tables set for the feast to be given
by the Empress of Heaven. These tables were loaded down with
peaches and wine and four attendants guarding them. Suddenly a bee
came buzzing near and scattered a powder under the nostrils of the
attendants, which made them sleepy. When they had fallen asleep,
this bee transformed itself into a big monkey and this monkey ate
all the peaches and drank all the wine. As soon as he had finished
he disappeared.

A blast of trumpets announced the coming of the Empress of Heaven
and she soon arrived accompanied by all the Buddhist Priests and
their attendants. When the Empress of Heaven saw all the peaches
and wine had disappeared, she woke the attendants and asked them
why they were asleep and where the peaches and wine had gone. They
said that they did not know, that they were waiting for her to
come and fell asleep. Then one of the guests suggested that she
should find out what had become of the feast, and attendants were
sent out to the guard to find out from the soldiers if anyone had
gone out of the gate recently. Before the messenger had time to
return, the Guard of Heaven came and informed the Empress that a
big monkey, who was very drunk and carrying a big stick, had just
gone out of the gate. When she was told this, she ordered the
soldiers of heaven and several buddhas to go and find him at his
place. It seems that this monkey had originally been made from a
piece of stone and lived in a large hole in a mountain on the
earth. He was endowed with supernatural powers and could walk on
the clouds. He was allowed to come to heaven and the Empress of
Heaven gave him a position looking after the Imperial orchards.

When they got to his place on the earth, they found that he had
taken some of the peaches with him and he, with other monkeys, was
having a feast. The soldiers challenged him to come out and fight.
He immediately accepted this challenge, but the soldiers could do
nothing with him. He pulled the hair out of his coat and
transformed each hair into a little monkey and each monkey had an
iron rod in its hand. He himself had a special iron rod, which had
been given to him by the King of Sea Dragons. This rod he could
make any size he wanted from a needle to a crowbar.

Among the buddhas who had gone with the soldiers was one named Erh
Lang Yeh, who was the most powerful of them all and had three
eyes. This buddha had a dog which was very powerful and he told
the dog to bite this monkey, which he did, and the monkey fell
down and they caught him and brought him up to heaven. When they
got there the Empress of Heaven ordered that he should be handed
to Lao Chun, an old taoist god, and that he should burn him in his
incense burner. The incense burner was very large, and when they
took the monkey to him he placed him inside this burner and
watched him very carefully to see that he did not get out. After
he had watched for a long time he thought the monkey must be dead
and went out for a few minutes. The monkey, however, was not dead
and as soon as Lao Chun went out, he escaped and stole some golden
pills which Lao Chun kept in a gourd and went back to his hole in
the mountains. These pills were very powerful and if one of them
were eaten it would give eternal life, and the monkey knew this.
The monkey ate one and it tasted good and he gave the little
monkeys some. When Lao Chun came back and found both the monkey
and the pills gone he went and informed the Empress of Heaven.
This ended the second scene.

The third scene opened with the buddhas and soldiers at the
monkey's place in the mountains and they again asked him to come
out and fight. The monkey said: "What! Coming again?" and laughed
at them. They started to fight again, but he was so strong they
could not get the best of him. Even the dog who had bit him before
was powerless this time, and they finally gave it up and returned
to heaven and told the Empress of Heaven that they could not
capture him the second time, as he was too strong. Then the
Empress of Heaven called a little god about fifteen years old by
the name of Neur Cha, who had supernatural powers, and told him to
go down to earth to the monkey's place and see if he could finish
him. This god was made of lotus flowers and leaves, that is, his
bones were made of flowers and his flesh made of leaves and he
could transform himself into anything that he wished. When Neur
Cha got to the monkey's place and the monkey saw him, he said:
"What! A little boy like you come to fight me? Well, if you think
you can beat me, come on," and the boy transformed himself into an
immense man with three heads and six arms. When the monkey saw
this, he transformed himself also into the same thing. When the
little god saw that this would not do, he transformed himself into
a very big man and started to take the monkey, but the monkey
transformed himself into a very large sword and cut this man into
two pieces. The little god again transformed himself into fire to
burn the monkey, but the monkey transformed himself into water and
put the fire out. Again the little god transformed himself, this
time into a very fierce lion, but the monkey transformed himself
into a big net to catch the lion. So this little god, seeing that
he could not get the best of the monkey, gave it up and went back
to heaven, and told the Empress of Heaven that the monkey was too
strong for him. The Empress of Heaven was in despair, so she sent
for Ju Li, an old ancestor of the buddhas, who was the
all-powerful one of them all; and Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, and
sent them down to the monkey's place to see if they could capture
him. When they arrived at the hole in the mountain the monkey came
out and looked at Ju Li, but did not say a word, as he knew who
this god was. This god pointed a finger at him and he knelt down
and submitted. Ju Li said: "Come with me," and took the monkey and
put him under another mountain and told him he would have to stay
there until he promised he would be good. Ju Li said: "You stay
here until one day I lift this mountain up for you to come out to
go with a Buddhist Priest to the West side of heaven and demand
the prayer books that are kept there. You will have to suffer a
great deal on the way and face many dangers, but if you come back
with this Buddhist Priest and the prayer books, by that time your
savage temper will be gone and you will be put in a nice place in
heaven and enjoy life forever afterwards."

This finished the play, which was very interesting, and I enjoyed
it from beginning to end. It was acted very cleverly and quite
realistic, and I was very much surprised to know that the eunuchs
could act so well. Her Majesty told us that the scenery was all
painted by the eunuchs and that she had taught them about all they
knew. Unlike most theatres in China, it had a curtain which was
closed between the acts, also wing slides and drop scenes. Her
Majesty had never seen a foreign theatre and I could not
understand where she got all her ideas from. She was very fond of
reading religious books and fairy tales, and wrote them into plays
and staged them herself, and was extremely proud of her
achievement.

Her Majesty sat talking, we standing, for some little time and she
asked me if I understood the play, and I told her that I did and
she seemed quite pleased. Then she said in such a charming way:
"Oh! I am so interested in talking with you that I have forgotten
to order my lunch. Are you hungry? Could you get Chinese food when
you were abroad, and were you homesick? I know I would be if I
left my own country for so long a time; but the reason why you
were abroad so long was not your fault. It was my order that sent
Yu Keng to Paris and I am not a bit sorry, for you see how much
you can help me now, and I am proud of you and will show you to
the foreigners that they may see our Manchu ladies can speak other
languages than their own." While she was talking I noticed that
the eunuchs were laying three large tables with nice white table
cloths, and I could see a number of other eunuchs standing in the
courtyard with boxes of food. These boxes or trays are made of
wood painted yellow and are large enough to hold four small and
two large bowls of food. After the tables were laid ready, the
eunuchs outside formed themselves into a double line from the
courtyard to a little gate running into another courtyard and
passed these trays from one to the other up to the entrance of the
room, where they were taken by four nicely dressed eunuchs and
placed on the tables.

It seems that it was a habit of Her Majesty to take her meals
wherever she happened to be, so that there was no particular place
that she used as a dining room. I should also mention that these
bowls were of Imperial yellow with silver covers. Some were
ornamented with green dragons and some with the Chinese character
Shou (Long Life).

There were about one hundred and fifty different kinds of food,
for I counted them. They were placed in long rows, one row of
large bowls and one row of small plates, and then another row of
small bowls, and so on. As the setting of the tables was going on,
two Court ladies came into the bedroom, each carrying a large
yellow box. I was very much surprised to see Court ladies doing
this kind of work and I said to myself, if I come here will I have
to do this sort of thing? Although these boxes appeared to be
quite heavy, they brought them in very gracefully. Two small
tables were placed in front of Her Majesty, then they opened the
boxes and placed a number of very cute plates containing all sorts
of sweets, lotus flower seeds, dried and cooked with sugar,
watermelon seeds, walnuts cooked in different ways, and fruits of
the season cut and sliced. As these plates were being placed on
the tables Her Majesty said that she liked these dainties better
than meat and gave us some and told us to make ourselves at home.
We thanked her for her kindness and enjoyed them very much. I
noticed that she ate quite a quantity from the different plates
and wondered how she would be able to eat her lunch. When she had
finished, two of the Court ladies came and took the plates away
and Her Majesty told us that she always gave what was left to the
Court ladies after she had finished eating.

After this a eunuch came in carrying a cup of tea. This tea cup
was made of pure white jade and the saucer and cover was of solid
gold. Then another eunuch came in carrying a silver tray on which
were two jade cups similar to the others, one containing
honeysuckle flowers and the other rose petals. He also brought a
pair of gold chopsticks. They both knelt on the floor in front of
Her Majesty and held the trays up so that she could reach them.
She took the golden cover off of the cup containing tea and took
some of the honeysuckle flowers and placed them in the tea. While
she was doing this and sipping the tea, she was telling how fond
she was of flowers and what a delicate flavor they gave to the
tea. Then she said: "I will let you taste some of my tea and see
if you like it," and ordered one of the eunuchs to bring us some
tea, the same as she was drinking. When it came, she put some of
the honeysuckle flowers in the cup for us and watched us drink it.
It was the most delicious tea I had ever tasted and the putting of
flowers in it gave it an extremely delicate flavour.

CHAPTER FOUR

A LUNCHEON WITH THE EMPRESS

WHEN we had finished drinking tea, she told us to go with her
into the next room, where the tables had been prepared for lunch,
and I wondered if she had any room for lunch, after all that she
had just eaten, but I soon found out. As soon as she was inside
the room, she ordered the covers to be removed and they were all
taken off at one time. Then she took her seat at the head of the
table and told us to stand at the foot. She then said: "generally
the Emperor takes lunch with me when we have the theatre, but he
is shy to-day, as you are all new to him. I hope he will get over
it and not be so bashful. You three had better eat with me
to-day." Of course, we knew that this was an especial favor, and
thanked her by kowtowing before we commenced to eat. This
kowtowing, or bowing our heads to the ground, was very tiring at
first and made us dizzy, until we got used to it.

When we commenced to eat, Her Majesty ordered the eunuchs to place
plates for us and give us silver chopsticks, spoons, etc., and
said:

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