PRESENT-GIVING IN CHINA
Present-giving is really carried to great excess all over China,
and whatever obtains in China obtains at the Palace. The Palace is
spoken of in Peking as the “Inside,” that is, the heart of the Empire.
From this “Inside,” customs and habits flow and pulse over the rest
of China, as the blood does from the heart, by a thousand arteries
reaching to the very confines of the Empire, and it also receives the
impress of what passes on outside among the people. Whether it be,
in the instance of present-giving, that the custom has grown from
the “Inside” to the “Outside” or vice versa, I know not, but it is
universal in China. However, it probably reaches its greatest excess in
the Palace.
Births, marriages, and deaths are all marked by presents, and there is
a very riot of present-giving at the New Year! Every one then exchanges
them, from the lowest to the highest. Next comes the anniversary of
the birth. This is celebrated with an unheard-of pomp in China. The
more exalted the rank and the greater the age, the more splendid is
the celebration and the more magnificent the presents. The Emperor’s
Birthday was the first I saw celebrated, and I was astonished at
the number and elegance of the presents that flowed into the Palace
on this occasion. But at the Empress Dowager’s Birthday all this was
far surpassed; and her presents exceeded in number and elegance His
Majesty’s, for she was celebrating more years than the Emperor, and the
number and value of birthday presents increase in proportion to the
years. Their elegance and number are also regulated by the rank. The
presents the Grand Secretary and the Prime Minister receive on such
occasions would quite astonish a Westerner, and, of course, far surpass
in number and magnificence what would be offered to the president
of a department, as his would exceed, in elegance, those offered to
secretaries of the Board.
Every festival, every ceremony, and all anniversaries are marked by
presents, in the Palace. There is scarcely a day that presents are not
sent into the Palace, that some are not sent out, and rarely a day when
some presents are not exchanged by those “Inside.” The Empress Dowager
and the Emperor receive the greatest number, and, of course, they
give the greatest number. This seemed to me the greatest extravagance
of the Empress Dowager. At every change of season, she presents the
young Empress, the Princesses, and Ladies, without reference to her
favorites, with silks, dresses, shoes, and ornaments appropriate to the
season, and not only do the Ladies receive these articles of wearing
apparel at the changes of the season: she gives them many presents
at each festival. Besides this, she gives nearly all the expensive
Court dresses that are worn at the Palace, which cost, with their
embroideries, from three to six hundred dollars each. She presents
the Ladies with coiffures and many jeweled ornaments as well. On
the occasion of a wedding among the Manchu nobility, which must be
announced to the Court before it takes place, Her Majesty presents
the bride handsome rolls of silk, embroideries, and jewels. On the
occasion of births among the courtiers, she sends handsome ornaments
to be worn by the new-born child. Even on the death of certain people,
she sends handsome presents to the family, or something to be worn by
the departed, if it should be a widow, who had led a long and exemplary
life of widowhood, and had devoted herself to charity and good works.
When the ladies of the Legation were first received at the Palace,
the Empress Dowager naturally followed the Chinese Imperial custom of
giving each lady a present. This precedent having been established
and seeming to have given pleasure, when the ladies were received
the next time, which was after the Boxer rebellion, she gave them
presents again. Unfortunately, this act was construed into a desire
on her part to wheedle the foreigners, and curry favor, so that she
might receive better treatment at the hands of the Powers. The truth
is, she loves to play the Lady Bountiful, and she never mixes up the
social with the political, and I am sure she had no “arrière-pensée”
but was simply indulging her usual bent. After the first few Audiences
(when the presents were really of value), Her Majesty gave small and
unimportant presents at the garden parties, which were made the subject
of ridicule. Her Majesty had heard that the ladies did not wish to
receive such handsome presents as she had first given, and she hence
gave inexpensive souvenirs. Finally, the Ministers asked the Chinese
Foreign Office to request the Empress Dowager to give no more presents
at the Audiences, and the custom was abolished; though Her Majesty
continued to give presents in private, and she still sends, on the four
great Chinese festivals, flowers, fruits, and confectionery to all the
ladies of the Legation, as well as to every lady who has ever been
received at the garden parties, and on the departure of any Minister
from Peking, she sends his wife some parting presents.
But though present-giving has been stopped at the Audiences of the
foreign ladies, it goes on with the same excess in the Palace and among
officials in China. At each of Their Majesties’ Birthdays, in spite of
their protests and edicts to prevent it, presents pour into the Palace!
Every official who has ever been presented in Audience, or who has the
right, by his official position, to send anything, does so. Edicts
from the Throne to prevent it will remain as ineffectual as those with
reference to the binding of the feet of the Chinese women (which Her
Majesty has for years been “recommending” in edicts to be abolished),
for it has become so thoroughly a part of Chinese life as to be almost
indispensable. Present-giving in China is one of those “unwritten
laws” whose tyranny is hardest to break away from. Though the system
of present-giving is a great tax on the officials, as well as their
subordinates, in this instance the change must come from the people.
As I was an inmate of the Palace for so long, of course I came in for
my share of presents from the Empress Dowager. At every festival I was
remembered, as well as the Princesses and Ladies of the Court, and when
presents were sent to the ladies of the Legation, she sent similar ones
to me. Many of the presents she made me showed a real consideration
for my comfort and displayed much forethought. When the weather became
cool, and the Ladies of the Court put on wadded dresses, Her Majesty
sent one of her maids to my apartments to get one of my tailor-made
dresses. She had the Palace tailors copy this in wadded silk. It was
wonderful how well they did it, too, for, as I knew nothing about it,
I could give no advice. She ordered a few changes made in the severity
of the tailor-costume, thinking it was too hard in its lines. She had
a long, soft sash to tie at the side, which, she decided, made it look
more graceful. When the Princesses put on furs, Her Majesty, herself,
designed for me a long fur-lined garment which she thought would be
comfortable to paint in. She had some trouble in arriving at a result
which pleased her, which would be warm enough, and which, at the same
time, would not interfere with the freedom of movement necessary for
me to work with ease. At the time of the Chinese New Year, she sent me
two curiously fashioned fur-lined dresses. She had the skirts copied
from old pictures. They were not unlike our pleated skirts, with an
embroidered panel down the center of the front. The jackets were a sort
of compromise between European and Chinese, and the costumes were not
only pretty but very comfortable.[7]
[7] Her Majesty said my individuality was not lost in these costumes,
and that I was clothed in attire suitable to the Chinese interior. She
had now devised a costume for me which was really in harmony with my
new environment. Our rough tweeds and somber garments, outlining and
defining the figure, looked mesquin and out of place in these great
halls. The bright colors and simple lines of the gowns of the Chinese
ladies are much more in keeping with their interiors. Her Majesty’s
artistic taste had divined this, and she had made several attempts to
devise something for me that was in harmony with the Chinese “milieu”
and at the same time comfortable.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR IN CHINESE COSTUME]
For wearing with these she ordered a sable hat, for the Chinese ladies
wear some sort of coiffure on the head, winter and summer. This had an
embroidered crown of pale lavender satin, with long satin streamers
embroidered in gold with good-luck emblems. The brim could be worn
either turned off the face or pulled over the ears and tied under the
chin with lavender strings. She said she had some trouble in finding
a design which she thought would suit me. This hat she had also had
copied from old prints. I learned later she had tried three sorts of
sables before she got a color which she thought would be becoming to my
unfortunate blonde hair! On the front of the brim she placed a Princess
Button. This is worn only by Ladies of the Court, and represents the
Flaming Pearl of the Dynasty. It was established by the founders of the
Dynasty and is the distinguishing jewel of the members of the Imperial
family. It consists of a large pearl, surrounded by three alternating
rows of seed-pearls and corals, which are supposed to represent flames!
This Flaming Pearl, symbol of the “Unattainable,” is the eternal quest
of the double dragon!
Her Majesty also presented me with a number of other charming things
that I shall always treasure as coming from her, and as evidence of her
consideration for “the stranger within her gates,” or as spontaneous
offerings from her naturally generous nature--ever desirous of giving
pleasure. I wish I might have preserved the flowers and curious grasses
which she, herself, gathered and gave me on our many promenades around
the beautiful grounds of the Summer Palace, but which, alas! are
withered and gone!