HER MAJESTY’S THRONE-ROOM--SOME PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS
We arrived at the Palace in good time the next morning, as Her Majesty
and suite were coming out of the Great Audience Hall. She greeted us
with a charming smile and made her usual inquiry for my health. We
joined her suite and went along to the Throne-room where the portrait
had been begun. This Throne-room is a very spacious and lofty hall;
one side of the great room is almost entirely of glass, with only the
wooden columns that support the roof between the windows--the lower
half of plate-glass, the upper of lattice-work with Corean paper as
shades. In the center of this side of windows is a huge plate-glass
door, reaching from ceiling to floor. The other three sides of the
hall, which separate it from the apartments at the side and back,
are of the same beautiful, open woodwork carving I have mentioned
as serving as partitions in my pavilion. Those in Her Majesty’s
Throne-room were, however, of greater delicacy of workmanship and were
more beautiful as to the painted panels. The poems, written on white
silk, and alternating with the painted panels, were from Her Majesty’s
favorite authors, original poems written by an Emperor or Empress, or
laudatory verses dedicated to Her Majesty. There were satin portières
at the doorways, and blue silk curtains over the plate-glass windows.
Blue, being the Empress Dowager’s favorite color, is used for all the
hangings in the Palaces which are not intended for official purposes;
where yellow is the color.
On the right of the Throne-room is a small chapel with an altar, over
which presides a figure of the contemplative Buddha seated on the
lotus. This altar was always sweet with offerings of fresh flowers and
fruit. In front of the figure of Buddha stood the incense-burner, with
perfumes constantly burning. On the left of the Throne-room are Her
Majesty’s sleeping apartments, and behind the open-work partition at
the back of the hall is a large ante-chamber where the attendants and
Ladies await their turn to make their entrance into the Throne-room. In
the rear of the hall is a magnificent five-leaved screen of teakwood,
inlaid with lapis lazuli, chalcedony, and many other semi-precious
stones. In front of this screen, on a dais, stood an immense,
couch-like throne, with a large footstool. These couch-like thrones,
where Their Celestial Majesties may recline when holding Audiences, are
not at all favored by the Empress Dowager, who always sits extremely
erect, without leaning upon a cushion or the back of the throne. Except
in the Great Audience Hall, where she uses the traditional throne of
state of the Dynasty, she prefers a much lighter and quite modern one,
which she has introduced into the Palaces. The thrones favored by Her
Majesty are of open carved teakwood, circular in form, with cushions
of Imperial yellow. One of these stood in the front part of this hall,
on which she sat for the portrait.
The great throne, which I have described above, was hence relegated to
the back of the Throne-room and kept for the sake of tradition, but
never used by Her Majesty. On either side of it stood two immense,
processional fans of peafowl feathers, with ebony handles placed in
magnificent cloisonné supports. Superb cloisonné vases stood at either
side of these ceremonial fans; and huge bowls of rare old porcelain
held pyramids of fruits--apples, sweet-smelling quince, and the highly
perfumed “Buddha’s hand.”
And there were flowers everywhere! It was the season of the year when
bloomed a sort of orchid, of delicious fragrance, of which Her Majesty
is very fond. These were growing in rare porcelain jardinières, placed
at intervals around the hall. There were also vases of lotus flowers
and bowls of lilies. The combined odors of all these fruits and flowers
gave a subtle, composite perfume quite indescribable and delightful,
but not at all overpowering, for the Empress Dowager is so fond of
fresh air that there are always windows open in the Palace, even in the
coldest weather.
Aside from the fruits and flowers, clocks were the dominant feature
of this Throne-room, as well as of every other one I ever went into
in any of the Chinese Palaces. The love of the Chinese for clocks
and timepieces is well known, and there are thousands in each of
the Palaces I visited. In this Throne-room there were, as I have
said before, eighty-five: magnificent jeweled and gold clocks, and
specimens of all the varieties that were ever made; some with chimes;
some with crowing cocks and singing-birds; some with running water;
some with musical-box attachments, and others with processions of
figures that came out at every hour and moved around the dial; some
rare works of art and some commonplace examples of the clockmaker’s
trade. There are many foreign ornaments in the Palace, but, aside
from the clocks and watches, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager does not
seem to care much for European “objets de virtu.” Unfortunately, what
they have at the Palaces, aside from a few presents from European
sovereigns, are generally very poor specimens of European art, and
compare but lamentably with the beautiful Chinese curios. They are
principally cheap modern stuff, bought by the Chinese nobles when
abroad and sent as presents to Their Majesties. These presents, when
they are accepted, are placed in apartments of the Palace not in
general use.
When Her Majesty had her official garments removed (she always changed
her dress after the morning Audience), and when the portrait had been
placed upon the easel, she came over to look at it. After studying it
for some time, she concluded that the nail-protectors on both hands
were not artistic, and that she would have the gold ones (set with
pearls and rubies) taken off, and show the uncovered nails on the
right hand. I was delighted at this decision, for the nail-protectors
destroyed the symmetry of the hand and hid the beautiful tips of her
fingers. I had, of course, not presumed to make any suggestions as to
her costume or ornaments. As the nail-shields are characteristic of the
high-class Chinese ladies, it was well to have them on one hand.
After this change had been decided upon, she went over to a great
vase, standing near, and took from it a lotus flower, held it up, in
a charmingly graceful way, and asked me if that would not be pretty
in the portrait, adding that the lotus was one of her attributes. As
the color did not harmonize with the general scheme, I did not care
for this suggestion, but temporized by saying “I was not ready to put
it in then.” After a little more than an hour’s work, with the usual
interruptions, she decided that enough had been done for that morning.
When I suggested that I might work even after Her Majesty was tired,
she said “No,” that if she were tired sitting still, I could not fail
to be more so doing the work and standing as I did. She said there was
no hurry, that I had plenty of time to finish the picture, and must not
run the risk of making myself ill.
After a short sitting in the afternoon Her Majesty ordered the boats,
and we went out to the marble terrace, beneath which lay moored the
Palace fleet, manned by blue-gowned oarsmen. We again took the Imperial
barge, the Empress Dowager in the center, on her yellow chair, the
young Empress and Princesses sitting around, Turkish fashion, on
cushions. The barge, drawn along by the two great boats, glided as
gently as a swan over the still waters of the lake. The air was soft
and balmy. Two of the eunuchs were ordered to sing, and the minor
chords of a curious air mingled their rhythm with the soft swish of
the water. Beyond us lay the hills, the beautiful Western Hills,
unchanging in form, but ever varying in color--sometimes blurred and
gray, or a soft, warm violet; again a clear, deep blue, as if hewn out
of lapis lazuli, and now and then, as a cloud passed over the sun, dark
and threatening almost. I drank in deep breaths of delight!
The quaint picturesqueness of the marble-terraced banks, the
summer-houses, the green and yellow-tiled roofs, the vermilion walls
and lacquered columns of the buildings, the curious fleet silently
moving along, the eunuchs singing, the Empress Dowager sitting in
state surrounded by her Ladies, the camel-back bridges--everything was
strange, and, stranger still, I formed a part of this curious pageant!
Only the beautiful hills beyond seemed familiar.
After drifting about for some time, we landed and went into the
orchards and among the apple trees. The apple is a favorite fruit of
the Chinese, and esteemed as much for its fragrance as its taste. It
is emblematic of Peace and Prosperity, and is always placed among the
offerings to Buddha, hence has also a sacred quality; but, though
beautiful in form and color, the Chinese apple has very little taste,
and the least savor of any of their fruits.
Her Majesty walked about among the trees and ordered several apples
gathered, which she ate with greater relish than I could, for she
graciously offered me one, and then told me to pull some for myself. A
eunuch brought a basket and took them as I gathered them, and she told
me to have them taken to my own apartments.
From the orchard she continued her walk to the flower gardens, where
she picked some small blooms and placed them behind her ears, Spanish
fashion, telling the Ladies to do likewise, and herself choosing some
for me and placing them over my ears. I knew these little marks of
favor she showed me were not due so much to regard for me as to her
desire to make the “stranger” feel at home. She hoped by showing me
these special favors to insure a similar treatment of me by the Ladies
and eunuchs. I have already alluded to Her Majesty’s love of flowers.
This was the one of her characteristics which seemed most incompatible
with the idea I had formed of her from what I had heard, and her love
of flowers and all nature caused me first to change that idea. It
seemed to me no one could love flowers and nature as she did and be the
woman she had been painted.
She had flowers always about her. Her private apartments, her
Throne-rooms, her loge at the Theater, even the Great Audience Hall
where she only went to transact affairs of state and hold official
Audiences, all were decorated with a profusion of flowers, cut and
growing--never, though, of but one kind at a time. She wears natural
flowers in her coiffure always, winter and summer, and however careworn
or harassed she might be, she seemed to find solace in flowers! She
would hold a flower to her face, drink in its fragrance and caress it
as if it were a sentient thing. She would go herself among the flowers
that filled her rooms, and place, with lingering touch, some fair bloom
in a better light or turn a jardinière so that the growing plant might
have a more favorable position.
[Illustration: PRINCESSES OF THE COURT
THE PRINCESS IMPERIAL, FIRST LADY OF THE COURT
A PRINCESS IN WINTER COSTUME--A PRINCESS IN SUMMER COSTUME]
The Chinese do not place certain cut flowers in water, but keep them
dry in bowls or vases, to get their full fragrance. The Empress Dowager
had some quaint conceits about the arrangements of these. She would
have the corollas of the lily bloom or the fragrant jasmine placed in
shallow bowls in curious, star-like designs, beautiful to look at, as
well as most fragrant.
Her passion for flowers being generally known among the courtiers,
Princes, and high officials, they send daily offerings to the Palace of
all that is rare and choice in the way of plants and flowers, for they
know this is one present Her Majesty will always accept and appreciate.
There are some quaint customs in the Palace, as to flowers and fruits
that grow within the Precincts. Though the Princesses and Ladies have
the freedom of the gardens and may pull as many flowers and cull as
many fruits as they wish, it is not etiquette for them to gather the
smallest flower or to touch a fruit when in the presence of the Empress
Dowager, unless they are especially told to do so. When Her Majesty
tells them to pull a flower or fruit, the permission is gratefully
accepted and that special flower or fruit religiously kept. The first
fruits of every tree and vegetable, the first flowers of every plant
and growing shrub in the Palace grounds, are considered sacred to Their
Majesties, and no Princess, attendant, or eunuch would touch a flower
or fruit until the Empress Dowager had been presented with the first
of them. All these, apparently trivial, marks of respect to the Sacred
Persons of Their Majesties were religiously observed!