A GARDEN PARTY AT THE SUMMER PALACE
Not long after this, Her Majesty gave a garden party for the ladies
and gentlemen of the Legations. These garden parties occupy two
days, for ladies and gentlemen are not received at the same time
by Their Majesties of China. The Corps Diplomatique and attachés
were entertained the first day, and the ladies of the Legations the
following day. The entertainment was the same for each. The gentlemen
were formally received in the Great Audience Hall by Their Majesties,
after which a repast was served them in a pavilion near. When this was
finished, they were taken for a tour of the gardens and lakes, and they
left the Palace about two o’clock. None of the Ladies of the Court,
except, of course, the Empress Dowager, were present at the receptions
of the gentlemen of the Corps Diplomatique. The ladies of the Legations
were received the following day.
I was rather embarrassed as to what I should do, at this first formal
reception, for the ladies of the Legations, since my arrival in the
Palace. Being a foreigner, I thought it looked incongruous for me to
receive with the Chinese Ladies. My uneasiness seemed to be divined by
Her Majesty (she was always wonderful for her tact); she said, as I had
been presented first in private Audience, it would be well for me to be
presented also in public Audience. She suggested that I should go to
the Foreign Office, meet Mrs. Conger on her arrival, and come into the
Throne-room with her. When the eunuchs announced that the ladies had
arrived at the Foreign Office, Her Majesty ordered my red Palace chair
to take me there.
The Foreign Office is only a few hundred yards to the left of the
Imperial entrance to the Palace. Mrs. Conger was one of the first
ladies to arrive. When the other ladies came, all walked over to the
gate of the Palace, and, after entering, went to a pavilion at the
right of the Audience Hall, where they arranged themselves in the order
in which they were to be presented.
The verandah and large marble platform of approach to the Audience
Hall were shaded with tent-like silken awnings and covered, for the
day, with red carpets, the latter a concession to foreign taste; for
Her Majesty, though having many beautiful carpets stored up, has none
in use, and only in winter and for certain functions are the courts
carpeted. She never uses them in the interior.
A double line of Princesses, led by the Princess Imperial, descended
the steps of the Audience Hall and met the ladies on the marble
platform. The Princesses then turned and preceded them into the
Audience Hall. Here they separated and stood in a picturesque group on
either side of the Throne dais.
Here, in the dim obscurity, sat the Empress Dowager on the Dynastic
Throne, with the Emperor seated at her left. In front of Her Majesty
stood the official table, with its cover of Imperial yellow reaching
to the floor. To the ladies standing below the dais only the heads and
shoulders of the Empress Dowager were visible above the table, with its
pyramids of fruits and flowers.
The ladies made three reverences on entering, and each advanced and
went up on the dais at her presentation. Her Majesty’s interpreter, the
elder Miss Yu, stood at her right, a little behind, and repeated the
Chinese name and title of each lady presented. Her Majesty, who has a
royal memory for faces, recognized each lady who had been presented
before, but treated all with equal cordiality. This cordiality was
sometimes construed by the ladies, on their first presentation, as
a special mark of interest in themselves; but it was the Empress
Dowager’s invariable position toward all the foreigners at these
diplomatic receptions. Like all well-bred hostesses, she was most
particular to show no difference even to those ladies she liked best.
When all had been presented, the eunuchs removed the official table
behind which the Empress Dowager received the formal presentations, and
she descended from the dais. One of her yellow satin chairs was brought
and she sat down at the right side of the Audience Hall. The ladies
were then, collectively, presented by Her Majesty to the young Empress
and the Princess Imperial, and tea was ordered. While the ladies were
drinking tea, standing around the Empress Dowager’s chair, she said a
few words to each, informally.
When the tea was finished, the ladies, conducted by the eunuchs and
accompanied by the Princesses, went through the court of the Theater,
past the Palace of the young Empress, through Her Majesty’s court to
her Throne-room, where luncheon was served. This was in alternate
courses of foreign and Chinese food. There were foreign wines and table
waters, as well as Chinese, and quantities of sweet champagne, without
which, the Chinese imagine, no foreigner can eat.
After luncheon, at which the Imperial Princess and Princesses acted as
hostesses, the visiting ladies went to the marble terrace overlooking
the lake. Here they were met by the young Empress and the secondary
wife of the Emperor, for they were never present at the table when the
foreign ladies were entertained, any more than Her Majesty herself.
The Empress Dowager’s barge did not lead the Palace fleet that day.
There were three big houseboats, each of which ponderous affairs had a
large cabin with a yellow-covered seat for Her Majesty, which, though
she never used, was never occupied by any one else. Anything covered
with yellow is sacred to Their Majesties, and is never used except by
them.
[Illustration: THE SECONDARY WIFE OF THE EMPEROR
In Summer Coiffure]
We were rowed across the lake, first to the island, where the Palace
and small temple adjacent were visited, after which the ladies took
the boats again and continued the tour of the lake to the Marble Boat.
This Marble Boat was built over the lake as a summer-house for one of
the Emperors, and is on the plan of the Palace houseboat, but with an
upper, as well as lower deck. It is one of the things in the Summer
Palace most talked about by foreigners, and it is a curiosity, though
not a thing of beauty. It was never made the objective point of any
of Her Majesty’s promenades, nor visited, except when foreigners were
invited to the Palace. On the lower deck of the Marble Boat, where was
the best view of the lake, light refreshments, sweets, and fruits were
served. When the tour of the lake was finished, the ladies made their
adieus to Their Majesties and the young Empress and Princesses, and
left the Palace grounds for the Foreign Office, where they took their
own chairs and carriages for Peking.
In spite of Her Majesty’s cordiality and the efforts of the Princesses
and Ladies, these garden parties were not always as pleasant as they
might be. There seemed an absolute lack of harmony among the ladies
of the Legation. Each seemed to watch the other with a jealous eye,
in constant fear that some one might overstep her place. Some did not
hesitate, even, to show their private animosities on the steps of the
Throne, or before their hostesses at the table. They seemed to act
on the principle that the Chinese, not understanding the language,
would not understand anything else. It was unfortunate that this most
punctilious of people, the Chinese, should have had this apparent lack
of friendliness to judge the European ladies by. They received all with
equal favor and perfect etiquette, and it was a pity that the lack of
harmony among the foreign ladies should have led them to commit what
seemed to be breaches of etiquette, which the Chinese could not have
failed to observe. I was astonished to see how observant the latter
were and how accurately they gauged our standing.
Their comments on our costumes were also very interesting. Her Majesty
seemed to like foreign dress, especially when in pretty colors, for
she reveled in color. She said the foreign costume was very becoming
to well-made and well-proportioned people; but she thought, while it
showed off to advantage a good figure, it was unfortunate for any one
who was not so blessed. She thought the Chinese costume, falling in
straight lines from the shoulder, was more becoming to stout people,
for it hid many defects. One universal comment, among these Chinese
ladies, on us, was that we look old for our years. The well-bred
Chinese repress, from early childhood, all outward evidences of
emotion. They lead such simple, wholesome lives--“Early to bed and
early to rise”--that there are rarely any lines visible in their faces
until they reach an advanced age, when they seem to go suddenly from
ripe womanhood into extreme old age.
They have a particular aversion to blond hair. They did not tell me so,
as I have blond hair; but on the stage all the demons are represented
with blond hair, and the more blond it is, the more wicked the demon.
One day, one of the Ladies suggested to me that there were some very
fine vegetable hair dyes for turning the hair black without injuring
it; in fact, the growth was increased thereby. She said if I used this,
my hair “might in time become black; at least, it would grow much
darker.”