Two Years in the Forbidden City
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The Princess Der Ling >> Two Years in the Forbidden City
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I told her that I would be only too pleased to change the clothes,
but that not having received an order from Her Majesty I could not
make any suggestions. The Young Empress said: "No, don't ask
anything, and I am sure Her Majesty will tell you to change by and
by. Just now she wishes to see your Paris gowns, because she wants
to know how foreign ladies dress on different occasions. She
thought that some of the ladies came to the Garden Party dressed
in woolen clothes. We thought that foreign ladies were not so
extravagant as we are until we met Mdme. Plancon the other day. Do
you remember what Her Majesty said to you? `That Mdme. Plancon was
so different from many ladies she had met, and also dressed
differently.' " It was a chiffon dress, with hand paintings, which
Mdme. Plancon wore, which pleased Her Majesty very much. While I
was talking with the Young Empress all the electric lights turned
up, so I went to Her Majesty to see if she needed anything. She
said: "Let us play a game of dice before I go to bed." We began to
play the same thing as we had done in the afternoon. Her Majesty
won another game, this time it took only an hour to finish the
game. Her Majesty said to me: "Why can't you win once?" I knew she
wanted to tease, so I said that my luck was bad. She laughed and
said: "To-morrow you try to put your stocking on wrong side out;
that is a sure sign of winning." I told her that I would, and I
knew that pleased her. During the short time I was there I kept
studying her most of the while. I could see nothing would make her
happier than for me to obey her orders. Her Majesty said that she
felt tired, and that we must bring her milk. She said to me: "I
want you to burn incense sticks and bow to the ground every night
to the Buddha in the next room before I go to bed. I hope you are
not a Christian, for if you are I can never feel as if you are
mine at all. Do tell me that you are not." I did not expect that
question at all, and I must say that it was a very difficult
question to answer. For my own protection I had to say that I had
nothing to do with the Christians. I felt guilty at having
deceived her that way, but it was absolutely necessary, and there
was no other way out of it. I knew that I had to answer her
question at once, because it would never do for her to see any
hesitation, which would arouse her suspicions. Although my face
showed nothing, my heart stopped beating for a while. I felt
ashamed to have fooled her. The earliest training I had was never
to be ashamed to tell the truth. When Her Majesty heard me say
that I was not a Christian, she smiled and said: "I admire you;
although you have had so much to do with foreigners, yet you did
not adopt their religion. On the contrary, you still keep to your
own. Be strong and keep it as long as you live. You have no idea
how glad I am now, for I suspected you must believe in the foreign
God. Even if you don't want to, they can make you believe it. Now
I am ready for bed."
We helped her to undress, and I, as usual, put away her jewels,
and noticed she wore only one pair of jade bracelets to sleep. She
changed into her bed clothes and lay down between the silk covers
and said to us: "You can go now." We courtesied to her and
withdrew from her bedroom. Out in the hall there was on the cold
stone floor six eunuchs. They were the watchmen and must not sleep
at all during the night. In her bedroom were two eunuchs, two
servant girls, two old women servants and sometimes two Court
ladies. These people also must not sleep. The two girls massaged
her legs every night, and the two women were there to watch the
girls, the two eunuchs to watch the two old women, and the two
Court ladies to watch them all, in case they did any mischief.
They all took turns, and that was the reason why sometimes two
Court ladies must sit overnight when it happened that the eunuchs
were not reliable. Her Majesty trusted the Court ladies the most.
I was never more surprised in my life than when one of these six
eunuchs told me in the hall, for I had asked what they were all
doing there.
Later on one of the Court ladies said to me that it was customary
for them to take turns to attend at Her Majesty's bedchamber in
the morning to wake her up, and that I should take my turn the
next morning and my sister the following morning. While saying
this she smiled in a most peculiar way. I did not understand at
the time, but found out later. I asked her what I should do to
wake Her Majesty, and she said: "There is no particular way, you
will have to use your own judgment; but be careful not to make her
angry. It was my turn this morning. I knew that she was very
tired, having had a very trying time the day before, so I had to
make a little more noise than usual when waking her. She was very
angry and scolded me dreadfully when she arose, as it was rather
late. This very often happens when Her Majesty gets up late, as
she always says that we do not make enough noise to wake her.
However, I don't think she will do this to you, just now, as you
are new here; but wait until you have been here a few months."
What this Court lady said to me worried me quite considerably; but
from what I had seen of Her Majesty so far, I could not believe
that she would be angry with anyone who was doing her duty
properly.
CHAPTER NINE
THE EMPEROR KWANG HSU
THE next day I arose earlier than usual and dressed in a great
hurry, as I feared I might be late. When I got to Her Majesty's
Palace there were a few Court ladies there sitting on the veranda.
They smiled and asked me to sit down with them as it was still too
early, being only five o'clock. I had been told to wake Her
Majesty at five thirty. The Young Empress came up a few minutes
later and we all courtesied and wished her "good morning." After
talking with us a few minutes, she asked if Her Majesty was awake
and which one of us was on duty that day. When I informed her that
it was my turn, she immediately ordered me to go to Her Majesty's
room at once. I went very quietly and found some servant girls
standing about and one Court lady, who was sitting on the floor.
She had been on duty all night. When she saw me she got up and
whispered to me, that now that I had come, she would go and change
her clothes and brush up a bit, and for me not to leave the room
until Her Majesty was awake. After this Court lady had gone, I
went near to the bed and said: "Lao Tsu Tsung, it is half-past
five." She was sleeping with her face toward the wall, and without
looking to see who had called her, she said: "Go away and leave me
alone. I did not tell you to call me at half-past five. Call me at
six," and immediately went off to sleep again. I waited until six
and called her again. She woke and said: "This is dreadful. What a
nuisance you are." After she had said this, she looked around and
saw me standing by the bed. "Oh! it is you, is it? Who told you to
come and wake me?" I replied: "One of the Court ladies told me
that it was my turn to be on duty in Lao Tsu Tsung's bedchamber."
"That is funny. How dare they give orders without receiving
instructions from me first? They know that this part of their duty
is not very pleasant and have put it off on you because they know
you are new here." I made no reply to this. I got along as best I
could that day and found it no easy matter, as Her Majesty was
very exacting in everything. However, the next time I managed to
divert her attention to things new or interesting in order to take
her mind off of what she was doing, and in this way had much less
trouble getting her out of bed.
My reader can't imagine how very glad we were to get back to our
rooms, and it was just 10:30 P. M. I was very tired and sleepy, so
I undressed and went to bed at once. I think that as soon as my
head touched the pillow I was asleep.
The following day there was the same thing, the usual audience in
the morning, of course busy all the time, which went on for
fifteen days before I realized it. I began to take great interest
in the Court life, and liked it better every day. Her Majesty was
very sweet and kind to us always, and took us to see the different
places in the Summer Palace. We went to see Her Majesty's farm,
situated on the west side of the lake, and had to cross over a
high bridge to get there. This bridge is called Tu Tai Chiao (Jade
Girdle Bridge). Her Majesty often took us under this bridge in a
boat, or we walked round on the border. She seemed very fond of
sitting on the top of this bridge on her stool and taking her tea,
in fact this was one of her favorite places. She used to go and
see her farm once every four or five days, and it always pleased
her if she could take some vegetables and rice or corn from her
own farm. She cooked these things herself in one of the
courtyards. I thought that was good fun, and also turned up my
sleeves to help her cook. We brought fresh eggs also from the farm
and Her Majesty taught us how to cook them with black tea leaves.
Her Majesty's cooking stoves were very peculiar. They were made
of brass, lined with bricks. They could be moved anywhere, for
they had no chimneys. Her Majesty told me to boil the eggs first
until they were hard, and to crack them but to keep the shells on,
and add half a cup of black tea, salt and spices. Her Majesty
said: "I like the country life. It seems more natural than the
Court life. I am always glad to see young people having fun, and
not such grand dames when we are by ourselves. Although I am not
young any more, I am still very fond of play." Her Majesty would
taste first what we had been cooking, and would give us all to
taste. She asked: "Do you not think this food has more flavor than
that prepared by the cooks?" We all said it was fine. So we spent
the long days at the Court having good fun.
I saw Emperor Kwang Hsu every morning, and whenever I had the time
he would always ask some words in English. I was surprised to
learn that he knew quite a bit of spelling, too. I found him
extremely interesting. He had very expressive eyes. He was
entirely a different person when he was alone with us. He would
laugh and tease, but as soon as he was in the presence of Her
Majesty he would look serious, and as if he were worried to death.
At times he looked stupid. I was told by a great many people who
were presented to him at the different audiences that he did not
look intelligent, and that he would never talk. I knew better, for
I used to see him every day. I was at the Court long enough to
study him, and found him to be one of the most intelligent men in
China. He was a capital diplomat and had wonderful brains, only he
had no opportunities. Now a great many people have asked me the
same question, if our Emperor Kwang Hsu had any courage or brains.
Of course outsiders have no idea how strict the law is, and the
way we have to respect our parents. He was compelled to give up a
great many things on account of the law. I have had many long
talks with him and found him a wise man, with any amount of
patience. His life was not a happy one; ever since his childhood
his health was poor. He told me that he never had studied
literature very much, but it came natural to him. He was a born
musician and could play any instrument without studying. He loved
the piano, and was always after me to teach him. There were
several beautiful grand pianos at the Audience Hall. He had very
good taste for foreign music, too. I taught him some easy waltzes
and he kept the time beautifully. I found him a good companion and
a good friend, and he confided in me and told me his troubles and
sorrows. We talked a great deal about western civilization, and I
was surprised to learn he was so well informed in everything. He
used to tell me, time after time, his ambitions for the welfare of
his country. He loved his people and would have done anything to
help them whenever there was famine or flood. I noticed that he
felt for them. I know that some eunuchs gave false reports about
his character,--that he was cruel, etc. I had heard the same thing
before I went to the Palace. He was kind to the eunuchs, but there
was always that distinction between the master and the servants.
He would never allow the eunuchs to speak to him unless they were
spoken to, and never listened to any kind of gossip. I lived there
long enough, and I know just what kind of cruel people those
eunuchs were. They had no respect for their master. They came from
the lowest class of people from the country, had no education, no
morals, no feeling for anything, not even between themselves. The
outside world has heard so many things against His Majesty, the
Emperor Kwang Hsu's character, but I assure my readers that these
things were told by the eunuchs to their families, and of course
they always stretched it out as far as possible in order to make
the conversation interesting. The majority of the people living in
Peking get all kinds of information through them. I have witnessed
the same thing many a time during my stay at the Palace.
One day during the time of Her Majesty's afternoon rest we heard a
dreadful noise. It sounded just like the firing off of
fire-crackers. Such a noise was quite unusual in the Palace for
such things are not allowed to be brought into the Palace grounds.
Of course Her Majesty woke up. In a few seconds time everyone
became excited and were running to and fro as if the building was
on fire. Her Majesty was giving orders and telling the eunuchs to
be quiet, but no one listened to her and kept yelling and running
around like crazy people, all talking at the same time. Her
Majesty was furious and ordered us to bring the yellow bag to her.
(I must explain about this bag. It was made of ordinary yellow
cloth and contained bamboo sticks of all sorts and sizes and are
made to beat the eunuchs, servant girls and old women servants
with.) This bag was carried everywhere Her Majesty went, to be
handy in case of emergency. Everyone of us knew where this bag was
kept. We took all the sticks from the bag and Her Majesty ordered
us to go to the courtyard and beat the eunuchs. It was such a
funny sight to see all the Court ladies and servant girls each
with a stick trying to separate the excited crowd. On my part I
thought I was having good fun so I laughed and found the rest were
laughing too. Her Majesty was standing on the veranda watching us
but she was too far away to see well and with all that noise, we
knew she could not hear us laughing. We tried our best to separate
the crowd, but were laughing so much we did not have enough
strength to hurt any of them. All of a sudden all the eunuchs
became quiet and stopped talking, for one of them saw the head
eunuch, Li Lien Ying, followed by all his attendants coming
towards them. Everyone of them became frightened and stood there
like statues. We stopped laughing, too, and turned back each with
a stick in our hand, walking toward Her Majesty. Li Lien Ying was
having a nap, too, and had heard the noise and had come to enquire
what the trouble was and to report it to Her Majesty. It seemed
one of the young eunuchs caught a crow. (The eunuchs hated crows,
as they are considered an unlucky bird. The people in China called
eunuchs crows because they were very disagreeable. That was the
reason why the eunuchs hated them so.) They always set traps to
catch them and then tied a huge fire-cracker to their legs, set
fire to the cracker and then set the unfortunate birds free.
Naturally the poor birds would be glad to fly away and by the time
the powder exploded would be high up in the air and the poor bird
would be blown to pieces. It seemed this was not the first time
the eunuchs had played this cruel trick. I was told it always
delighted them so much to see blood and torture. They always
invited others to drink some wine with them to celebrate an
occasion such as this. This cruel deed was always done outside of
the wall of the Audience Hall but that day the crow flew towards
Her Majesty's own Palace while she was sleeping and the powder
exploded while the bird was passing the courtyard. After the head
eunuch had told Her Majesty what had happened, she was very angry
and ordered that this young eunuch be brought in and receive
punishment in her presence. I noticed one of the head eunuch's
attendants push the culprit out from the crowd. The head eunuch
immediately gave orders to lay this man on the ground and two
eunuchs stood on each side of him and beat him on his legs with
two heavy bamboo sticks one at a time. The victim never uttered a
word while this was going on. The head eunuch counted until this
man had received one hundred blows, then he gave orders to stop.
Then he knelt in front of Her Majesty waiting for her orders and
at the same time kowtowed on the ground until his head made a
noise on the stone steps, asking to be punished for his
carelessness and neglect of duty. Her Majesty said that it was not
his fault and ordered him to take the offender away. During all
this time the offender was still on the ground, and did not dare
to move. Two eunuchs each took hold of a foot and dragged him out
of the courtyard. We were all afraid even to breathe aloud for
fear Her Majesty would say that we were pretending to be
frightened at witnessing this punishment, at the same time when it
was over we would go and gossip about how cruel she was. No one
was surprised at what had happened, as we were accustomed to
seeing it almost every day and were quite used to it. I used to
pity them, but I changed my mind very soon after I had arrived.
The first person I saw punished was a servant girl, she had made a
mistake about Her Majesty's socks and had brought two which were
not mates, Her Majesty finding that out, ordered another servant
girl to slap her face ten times on each cheek. This girl did not
slap hard enough, so Her Majesty said they were all good friends
and would not obey her orders, so she told the one who had been
slapped to slap the other. I thought that was too funny for
anything and wanted to laugh the worst way, but of course did not
dare. That night I asked those two girls how they felt slapping
each other that way. The reason why I asked them was because they
were laughing and joking as usual immediately they were out of Her
Majesty's bedchamber. They told me that was nothing; that they
were quite used to it and never bothered themselves about such
small things. I in turn soon became used to it, and was as callous
as they were.
Now regarding the servant girls, they are a much better class of
people than the eunuchs. They are the daughters of Manchu
soldiers, and must stay ten years at the Palace to wait upon Her
Majesty, and then they are free to marry. One got married after my
first month at the Court. Her Majesty gave her a small sum of
money, five hundred taels. This girl was so attached to Her
Majesty that it was very hard for her to leave the Court. She was
an extremely clever girl. Her name was Chiu Yuen (Autumn's Cloud).
Her Majesty named her that because she was so very delicate
looking and slight. I liked her very much during the short time
that we were together. She told me not to listen to anyone's
gossip at the Court, also that Her Majesty had told her she was
very fond of me. On the twenty-second day of the third moon she
left the Palace, and we were all sorry to lose her. Her Majesty
did not realize how much she missed her until after she had gone.
For a few days we had nothing but troubles. It seemed as if
everything went wrong. Her Majesty was not at all satisfied
without Chiu Yuen. The rest of the servant girls were scared, and
tried their best to please Her Majesty, but they had not the
ability, so we had to help and do a part of their work so as not
to make Her Majesty nervous. Unfortunately, she stopped us, and
said: "You have enough to do of your own work, and I do not want
you to help the servants. You don't please me a bit that way." She
could see that I was not accustomed to her ways, for she had
spoken severely, so she smiled and said to me: "I know you are
good to help them so as not to make me angry, but these servants
are very cunning. It isn't that they cannot do their work. They
know very well that I always select the clever ones to wait on me
in my bedroom and they don't like that, so they pretend to be
stupid and make me angry so that I will send them to do the common
work. The eunuchs are worse. They are all afraid to take Chiu
Yuen's place. Now I have found them out, and I will only keep the
stupid ones to wait on me from now." I almost laughed when I
noticed that they all looked serious for a moment. I thought these
people must be really stupid, and not lazy, but I had dealings
with them every day and found them out all right. The eunuchs
don't seem to have any brains at all. They are such queer people
and have no feelings. They have the same mood all day long--I
should say they are in a cruel mood. Whenever Her Majesty gave an
order they always said "Jer" (Yes) and as soon as they got to our
waiting room they would say to each other: "What was the order? I
have forgotten all about it." Then they used to come to one of us
who had happened to be present when the order was given: "Please
tell us what the order was. I did not listen while Her Majesty was
talking." We used to laugh and make fun of them. We knew they were
afraid to ask Her Majesty, and of course we had to tell them. One
of the eunuch writers had to keep writing down the orders that had
been given during the day, for Her Majesty wanted to keep records
of everything. There were twenty eunuchs who were educated and
they were excellent scholars. These had to answer any questions
which Her Majesty happened to ask them about Chinese literature,
while she had a good knowledge of it herself. I noticed that it
pleased her a great deal if anyone could not answer a question, or
knew less than she did. She took delight in laughing at them. Her
Majesty was also very fond of teasing. She knew that the Court
ladies did not know very much about literature, so she used to try
it on us. We had to say something whether it was appropriate to
her questions or not, and that would make her laugh. I was told
that Her Majesty did not like anyone to be too clever, and yet she
could not bear stupid people, so I was rather nervous, and did not
know how to act for the first three weeks I was there, but it did
not take me very long to study her. She certainly admired clever
girls, but she did not like those who would show their cleverness
too much. How I won her heart was this way. Whenever I was with
her I used to fix my whole attention on her and watched her very
closely (not staring, for she hated that) and always carried out
her orders properly. I noticed another thing, and that was that
whenever she wanted anything to be brought to her, such as
cigarettes, handkerchief, etc., she would only look at the article
and then look at anyone who happened to be there at the time.
(There was always a table in the room, on which everything she
needed for the day was placed.) I got so used to her habits that
after a short time I knew just what she wanted by looking at her
eyes, and I was very seldom mistaken. This pleased her a great
deal. She was strong-minded, and would always act the way she
thought was right, and had perfect confidence in herself. At times
I have seen her looking very sad. She had strong emotions, but her
will was stronger. She could control herself beautifully, and yet
she liked people to sympathize with her--only by actions, not by
words, for she did not like anyone to know her thoughts. I am sure
my readers will think how hard it was to be the Court lady of Her
Majesty, the Empress Dowager of China, but on the contrary I
enjoyed myself very much, as she was so interesting, and I found
that she was not at all difficult to please.
The first day of the fourth moon Her Majesty was worried over the
lack of rain. She prayed every day after the audience for ten
days, without any result. Every one of us kept very quiet. Her
Majesty did not even give any orders that day, and spoke to no
one. I noticed that the eunuchs were scared, so we went without
our luncheon. I worked so hard that morning, and was so hungry--in
fact all the Court ladies were. I felt sorry for Her Majesty.
Finally she told me I could go, as she wanted to rest a while, so
we came back to our own quarters. I questioned our own eunuch Wang
as to why Her Majesty was worrying about rain, for we were having
lovely weather then, day after day. He told me that Lao Fo Yeh
(Old Buddha) was worried for the poor farmers, as all their crops
were dead without rain for so long. Wang also reminded me that it
had not rained once since I came to live at the Palace. I did not
realize that it was so long as two months and seven days, and on
the other hand it seemed to me longer than that, for the life was
very nice and pleasant, and Her Majesty was very kind to me, as if
she had known me for years already. Her Majesty took very little
food at dinner that night. There was not a sound anywhere, and
everyone kept quiet. The Young Empress told us to eat as fast as
we could, which puzzled me. When we came back to our waiting room,
the Young Empress said to me that Her Majesty was very much
worried for the poor farmers and that she would pray for rain, and
stop eating meat for two or three days. That same night, before
Her Majesty retired, she gave orders that no pigs were to be
slaughtered within the gates of Peking. The reason of this was
that by sacrificing ourselves by not eating meat the Gods would
have pity on us and send rain. She also gave orders that everyone
should bathe the body and wash out the mouth in order that we
might be cleansed from all impurities and be ready to fast and
pray to the Gods. Also that the Emperor should go to the temple
inside the Forbidden City, to perform a ceremony of sacrifice
(called Chin Tan). He was not to eat meat or hold converse with
anyone, and to pray to the Gods to be merciful and send rain to
the poor farmers. His Majesty, the Emperor Kwang Hsu, wore a piece
of jade tablet about three inches square, engraved "Chai Chieh"
(the meaning being just like Chin Tan-not to eat meat but to pray
three times a day), both in Manchu and Chinese, and all the
eunuchs who went with the Emperor wore the same kind of tablets.
The idea was that this jade tablet was to remind one to be serious
in performing the ceremonies.
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