FESTIVITIES AT COURT
Preparations were now beginning at the Palace for the celebration of
His Majesty the Emperor’s Birthday. This is not celebrated on the
anniversary of the day he was born, but two days earlier. His Majesty
must make the Autumnal Sacrifices to his Ancestors three days after
the real date of his Birthday, and he must prepare himself for these
sacrifices by a rigorous fast of three days. As it would be impossible
to accomplish the ceremonial prescribed for the Imperial Birthday while
fasting, the celebration of the Birthday was advanced, a special edict
having been issued by the two Empresses, when Co-Regents for the young
Emperor, ordering the Birthday celebrations to be advanced by two days,
for the date of the sacrifices could not be changed--the sacrifice to
one’s Ancestors being the most sacred of obligations to the Chinese,
and most rigidly and religiously observed. Even the Chinese Emperor’s
Birthday is not celebrated for two years after the death of his
predecessor, so rigorous are the rules of respect to the dead and the
rites accorded to one’s Ancestors in China.
I knew no painting could be done during these festivities, and I
expected to go back to the United States Legation. I never dreamed I
should be invited to participate in this celebration, hitherto unseen
by any foreigner. A week before the Birthday itself, when out for
one of our walks with Her Majesty, she called me up to her side and
said the Emperor’s Birthday was to be celebrated the next week, and
invited me to remain in the Palace for these festivities. I was, of
course, overjoyed at this gracious mark of her favor, and delighted to
be able to see the Oriental pomp and pageantry that accompanied these
ceremonial celebrations in China.
There were to be magnificent theatrical performances, splendid
fireworks and decorations, and all sorts of pageants. The Imperial
company of actors had already begun rehearsing special poems and plays,
written to celebrate the occasion. Eunuchs were constantly bringing Her
Majesty specimens of the work of the decorators and painters who were
carrying out her designs as to special scenes and tableaux, or coming
to ask for further instructions. The literati, who were preparing the
original poems, sent in their manuscripts, that she might judge of
their merits and make suggestions. She herself overlooked every detail,
and seemed most interested and anxious to have everything successful.
The festivities began four days before the Birthday with gala
performances at the Theater. Each day the decorations of the buildings,
the courts, and gardens increased in beauty. In the principal courts,
magnificent bronzes, all sorts of antique instruments of music, used
only on these great occasions, were brought out as decorations;
for music forms part of every ceremonial, official or religious, in
China. Among the curious instruments were splendid bronze frames, with
several superposed octaves of triangular musical-stones suspended
therefrom; elaborately carved supports for different-toned bells; huge
“triangles”; immense bronze “tam-tams,” curiously and beautifully
wrought; big drums on splendid bronze stands; wonderfully chased bells;
and many other quaint instruments, used only for official and state
processions in honor of Their Celestial Majesties.
The slanting and projecting, upturned roofs of the different buildings
forming the Palaces were decorated with scarfs of vari-colored silk,
knotted into a curious sort of fringe of rosettes, about two feet long;
yellow, the Imperial color, and red, the festive color, predominating,
but other colors were introduced into the color-scheme to accentuate
these.
The large Square in front of the Imperial gateway, outside the
Precincts, was filled with huge, tent-like, yellow satin umbrellas,
with deep curtains around the edge. These umbrellas are used for
all great festivities in China, and are generally of red. Those for
the Emperor’s Birthday were, of course, of the Imperial yellow, and
were richly embroidered with emblematic designs. Presents for the
Emperor were arriving daily from all parts of the Great Empire, and
though everything was directed by splendid system the commotion was
nevertheless great.
Finally, there was the first gala performance at the Theater. Her
Majesty occupied her loge nearly all day, overlooking every detail,
sending now and then to the stage one of her eunuchs to transmit her
Imperial commands as to the speaking of certain lines or the using
of certain postures. On the day of this gala performance she invited
all the Ladies of the Palace to lunch, for the first time since I had
been there, in the court of the Theater. Her Majesty lunched in the
Imperial loge, and then ordered our repast to be served in the court,
where tables were laid and served with all the pomp and ceremony
that characterized the meals at the Palace. Even this “al-fresco”
entertainment was ceremonious.
Most of the large courts of the Summer Palace have roofs of matting
erected over them, to keep out the sun. These mat-roofs make, of
the flower-filled courts, delightfully cool, outdoor parlors. The
mat-sheds at the Palace are almost works of art. Tall poles, reaching
from twenty to thirty feet above the roofs surrounding the courts to
be protected from the sun, are painted in festive designs, and they
support transversal beams, also gaily painted. Over these roof-beams
are stretched strips of the beautiful matting which the Chinese excel
in making. Matting-curtains drop from the roof of the sheds to a level
with the Palace roofs. These side-curtains, as well as huge sections of
the matting-roof, are movable, and may be opened and raised by means
of cords and pulleys attached to the supporting pillars. The whole
structure, supporting pillars and transversal beams, is tied together
with ropes the same color of the beams, and not a nail is used. The
mat-sheds are put up in June and taken down in September.
New ladies were arriving at the Palace every day for a week before
the Birthday--members of the Imperial Family from a distance, and the
wives and daughters of Manchu nobles who were of sufficient rank to
present their congratulations in person. The young Empress never failed
to introduce me to these ladies. A foreigner in the Chinese Court is a
much more extraordinary circumstance than a Chinese at a European Court
would be, and this was, in most instances, the first meeting of these
Princesses with any foreigner; but they were uniformly courteous and
even cordial, never evincing the slightest curiosity as to my dress
or my habits. I doubted whether a Chinese at a European Court, or at
our White House, would have been treated with the same consideration
by all, even to the servants. The children, of whom there were several
at Court at this time, were as well-bred as their elders in their
treatment of the “foreign lady.”
After our first lunch in the court of the Theater, when the theatrical
performance of the day was finished and the actors had left, I
approached the stage of the Theater and began examining, with interest,
its construction and appointments. The Palace Theater is raised about
twelve feet from the ground, and its main floor is on a level with the
Imperial loge. The building consists of three stories and a cellar. The
latter is used for the few pieces of scenery of the scenic plays, and
is where the simple devices used for moving it are manipulated. Like
the Greek theater, the stage is open on three sides; and the actors
come out and speak their parts, their entrance being to the left and
the exit to the right of the stage.
Her Majesty was within her loge while I was examining the construction
of the Theater; but she evidently noticed my movements, for the eunuchs
soon threw open the great plate doors and she descended the steps of
the Imperial loge and came across the court to where I was standing.
She asked me if I would not like to go on the stage and look over the
building and examine things thoroughly. She added, “You probably may
never have such a chance to see a good Chinese theater again.” She,
herself, went up the steps leading from the court to the stage, and
told me to follow her.
The stage is about twenty-five feet square, is roofed over, and
projects into the court, its three sides being open. The fourth side
has doors and curtains for the entrance and exit of the actors. There
are no actresses in China. The men perform the parts of women, and
represent them with such success that I was much surprised when I
learned there were no actresses. At the back of the stage sit the
musicians, who accompany all the theatrical performances in China.
Her Majesty, herself, led the way across the stage and we went behind
the scenes. Here, I examined closely a number of “Floats” that were to
be used, in the procession in honor of the Emperor, on the day of the
Birthday. These floats had all been designed by the Empress Dowager.
After we had looked at these, she suggested that I had better see the
upper floors. These latter are not in general use in Chinese theaters.
The theaters, even at the other Palaces, have but one stage. The steps
which lead to the second stage, and thence to the third stage, are
behind the scenes. The two upper stages are used for spectacular
plays and tableaux, when certain of the players group themselves
in pyramidal form on these superposed stages and speak their lines
therefrom. The upper stages have also trap-doors and pulleys for use in
the spectacular plays. Her Majesty went up, herself, to show me these
stages. She mounted the steep and difficult steps with as much ease and
lightness as I did, and I had on comfortable European shoes, while she
wears the six-inch-high Manchu sole in the middle of her foot, and must
really walk as if on stilts.
Neither the Empress Dowager nor any of the Manchu ladies bind their
feet; that custom prevailed in China before the Manchu conquest. The
Manchus have adopted many of the manners and customs of the Chinese,
but the Manchu women have retained their own individuality; and to-day,
after more than two hundred and fifty years in China, they still wear
their native costume, entirely different from the Chinese women. They
still dress their hair in the picturesque Manchu fashion. They not only
have never bound their feet, but they have as great a horror of it as
Europeans have. Manchu ladies are not bound by the same rigid social
conventions as are the Chinese women. They are less circumscribed and
have more individual freedom than any other Oriental women. In fact,
the Manchu woman seems to be, to other Oriental women, what the modern
American woman is to her European sisters.