the court at three o'clock in the morning, conducted by _Van-ta-gin_,
_Chou-ta-gin_, and our usual attendants. We reposed ourselves about two
hours in a large saloon at the entrance of the palace enclosure, where
fruit, tea, warm milk, and other refreshments were brought to us. At
last notice was given that the festival was going to begin, and we
immediately descended into the garden, where we found all the great men
and mandarins in their robes of state, drawn up before the Imperial
pavilion. The Emperor did not shew himself, but remained concealed
behind a screen, from whence I presume he could see and enjoy the
ceremonies without inconvenience or interruption. All eyes were turned
towards the place where his Majesty was imagined to be enthroned, and
seemed to express an impatience to begin the devotions of the day. Slow,
solemn music, muffled drums, and deep-toned bells, were heard at a
distance;--on a sudden the sounds ceased, and all was still--again they
were renewed, and then intermitted with short pauses; during which
several persons passed backwards and forwards, in the proscenium or
foreground of the tent, at if engaged in preparing some _grand
coup-de-theatre_.
"At length the great band, both vocal and instrumental, struck up with
all their powers of harmony, and instantly the whole court fell flat
upon their faces before this invisible Nebuchadnezzar, whilst
"He in his cloudy tabernacle shrined
Sojourned the while."
"The music might be considered as a sort of birth-day ode, or state
anthem, the burthen of which was, '_Bow down your heads all ye dwellers
upon earth, bow down your heads before the great Kien-long, the great
Kien-long_.' And then all the dwellers upon China earth there present,
except ourselves, bowed down their heads and prostrated themselves upon
the ground at every renewal of the chorus. Indeed, in no religion either
ancient or modern has the divinity ever been addressed, I believe, with
stronger exterior marks of worship and adoration than were this morning
paid to the phantom of his Chinese majesty. Such is the mode of
celebrating the Emperor's anniversary festival, according to the court
ritual. We saw nothing of him the whole day, nor did any of his
ministers, I imagine, approach him, for they all seemed to retire at the
same moment that we did.
"In the course of a tour we made in the gardens with the prime minister
and other great officers of state, whom the Emperor had directed to
attend us, we were entertained at one of the palaces with a collation of
petitpatis, salt relishes, and other savoury dishes, with fruits and
sweetmeats, milk and ice-water; and as soon as we rose from table, a
number of yellow boxes, or drawers, were carried in procession before
us, containing several pieces of silk and porcelain, which we were told
were presents to us from the Emperor, and we consequently made our bows
as they passed. We were also amused with a Chinese puppet-shew which
differs but little from an English one. There are a distressed princess
confined in a castle, and a knight-errant, who, after fighting wild
beasts and dragons, sets her at liberty and marries her; wedding-feasts,
jousts, and tournaments. Besides these, there was also a comic drama, in
which some personages not unlike punch and his wife, Bandemeer and
Scaramouch performed capital parts. This puppet-shew, we were told,
properly belongs to the ladies' apartments, but was sent out as a
particular compliment to entertain us; one of the performances was
exhibited with great applause from our conductors, and I understand it
is a favourite piece at court.
"On the morning of the 18th September we again went to court, in
consequence of an invitation from the Emperor, to see the Chinese comedy
and other diversions given on occasion of his birth-day. The comedy
began at eight o'clock and lasted till noon. The Emperor was seated on a
throne, opposite the stage, which projected a good deal into the pit.
The boxes were on each side without seats or divisions. The women were
placed above, behind the lattices, so that they might enjoy the
amusements of the theatre without being observed.
"Soon after we came in, the Emperor sent for Sir George Staunton and me
to attend him, and told us, with great condescension of manner, that we
ought not to be surprised to see a man of his age at the theatre, for
that he seldom came there except upon a very particular occasion like
the present, for that, considering the extent of his dominions and the
number of his subjects, he could spare but little time for such
amusements. I endeavoured, in the turn of my answer, to lead him towards
the subject of my embassy, but he seemed not disposed to enter into it
farther than by delivering me a little box of old japan, in the bottom
of which were some pieces of agate and other stones much valued by the
Chinese and Tartars; and at the top a small book written and painted by
his own hand, which he desired me to present to the king my master as a
token of his friendship saying, that the old box had been 800 years in
his family. He, at the same time, gave me a book for myself also written
and painted by him, together with several purses for Areca nut. He
likewise gave a purse of the same sort to Sir George Staunton, and sent
some small presents to the other gentlemen of the embassy. After this
several pieces of silk or porcelain, but seemingly of no great value,
were distributed among the Tartar princes and chief courtiers, who
appeared to receive them with every possible demonstration of humility
and gratitude.
"The theatrical entertainments consisted of great variety, both tragical
and comical; several distinct pieces were acted in succession, though
without any apparent connexion with one another. Some of them were
historical, and others of pure fancy, partly in _recitativo_, partly in
singing, and partly in plain speaking, without any accompaniment of
instrumental music, but abounding in battles, murders, and most of the
usual incidents of the drama. Last of all was the grand pantomime which,
from the approbation it met with, is, I presume, considered as a
first-rate effort of invention and ingenuity. It seemed to me, as far as
I could comprehend it, to represent the marriage of the ocean and the
earth. The latter exhibited her various riches and productions, dragons,
and elephants, and tygers, and eagles, and ostriches, oaks and pines,
and other trees of different kinds. The ocean was not behind hand, but
poured forth on the stage the wealth of his dominions, under the figures
of whales and dolphins, porpesses and leviathans, and other sea
monsters, besides ships, rocks, shells, spunges, and corals, all
performed by concealed actors, who were quite perfect in their parts,
and performed their characters to admiration. These two marine and land
regiments, after separately parading in a circular procession for a
considerable time, at last joined together and, forming one body, came
to the front of the stage when, after a few evolutions, they opened to
the right and left, to give room for the whale, who seemed to be the
commanding officer, to waddle forward; and who, taking his station
exactly opposite to the Emperor's box, spouted out of his mouth into the
pit several tons of water, which quickly disappeared through the
perforations of the floor. This ejaculation was received with the
highest applause, and two or three of the great men at my elbow desired
me to take particular notice of it; repeating, at the same time, '_Hao,
kung hao!_'--'_charming, delightful!_'
"A little before one o'clock in the afternoon we retired, and at four we
returned to court to see the evening's entertainments, which were
exhibited on the lawn, in front of the great tent or pavilion, where we
had been first presented to the Emperor. He arrived very soon after us,
mounted his throne, and gave the signal to begin. We had now wrestling
and dancing, and tumbling and posture-making, which appeared to us
particularly awkward and clumsy, from the performers being mostly
dressed according to the Chinese _costume_, one inseparable part of
which is a pair of heavy quilted boots with the soles of an inch thick.
The wrestlers, however, seemed to be pretty expert and afforded much
diversion to such as were admirers of the _Palæstra_.
"A boy climbed up a pole or bamboo thirty or forty feet high, played
several gambols, and balanced himself on the top of it in various
attitudes, but his performance fell far short of what I have often met
with in India of the same kind.
"A fellow lay down on his back, and then raised his feet, legs, and
thighs from his middle, perpendicularly, so as to form a right angle
with his body. On the soles of his feet was placed a large round empty
jar, about four feet long and from two and a half to three feet
diameter. This he balanced for some time, turning it round and round
horizontally, till one of the spectators put a little boy into it, who,
after throwing himself into various postures at the mouth of it, came
out and sat on the top. He then stood up, then fell flat upon his back,
then shifted to his belly, and after shewing a hundred tricks of that
sort, jumped down upon the ground and relieved his coadjutor.
"A man then came forward and after fastening three slender sticks to
each of his boots took six porcelain dishes of about eighteen inches
diameter, and balancing them separately at the end of a little ivory
rod, which he held in his hand, and twirling them about for some time,
put them one after the other upon the points of the six bootsticks
abovementioned, they continuing to turn round all the while. He then
took two small sticks in his left hand, and put dishes upon them in the
same manner as upon the other, and also one more upon the little finger
of his right hand, so that he had nine dishes annexed to him at once,
all twirling together, which in a few minutes he took off one by one and
placed them regularly on the ground, without the slightest interruption
or miscarriage.
"There were many other things of the same kind, but I saw none at all
comparable to the tumbling, rope-dancing, wire-walking, and straw
balancing of Sadler's-Wells; neither did I observe any seats of
equitation in the style of Hughes's and Ashley's amphitheatres, although
I had been always told that the Tartars were remarkably skilful in the
instruction and discipline of their horses. Last of all were the
fire-works which, in some particulars, exceeded any thing of the kind I
had ever seen. In grandeur, magnificence, and variety, they were, I own,
inferior to the Chinese fire-works we had seen at Batavia, but
infinitely superior in point of novelty, neatness, and ingenuity of
contrivance. One piece of machinery I greatly admired; a green chest of
five feet square was hoisted up by a pulley to the height of fifty or
sixty feet from the ground; the bottom was so constructed as then
suddenly to fall out, and make way for twenty or thirty strings of
lanterns inclosed in the box to descend from it, unfolding themselves
from one another by degrees so as at last to form a collection of at
least five hundred, each having a light of a beautifully coloured flame
burning brightly within it. This devolution and developement of lanterns
(which appeared to me to be composed of gauze and paper) were several
times repeated, and every time exhibited a difference of colour and
figure. On each side was a correspondence of smaller boxes, which opened
in like manner as the others, and let down an immense network of fire,
with divisions and compartments of various forms and dimensions, round
and square, hexagons, octagons and lozenges, which shone like the
brightest burnished copper, and flashed like prismatic lightning, with
every impulse of the wind. The diversity of colours indeed with which
the Chinese have the secret of cloathing fire seems one of the chief
merits of their pyrotechny. The whole concluded with a volcano, or
general explosion and discharge of suns and stars, squibs, bouncers,
crackers, rockets, and grenadoes, which involved the gardens for above
an hour after in a cloud of intolerable smoke. Whilst these
entertainments were going forward the Emperor sent to us a variety of
refreshments, all which, as coming from him, the etiquette of the court
required us to partake of, although we had dined but a short time
before.
"However meanly we must think of the taste and delicacy of the court of
China, whose most refined amusements seem to be chiefly such as I have
now described, together with the wretched dramas of the morning, yet it
must be confessed, that there was something grand and imposing in the
general effect that resulted from the whole _spectacle_. The Emperor
himself being seated in front upon his throne, and all his great men and
officers attending in their robes of ceremony, and stationed on each
side of him, some standing, some sitting, some kneeling, and the guards
and standard-bearers behind them in incalculable numbers. A dead silence
was rigidly observed, not a syllable articulated, nor a laugh exploded
during the whole performance."
Such was the reception and the entertainment of the British Embassador
at the court of Gehol, in _Mantchoo_ Tartary, during the days of the
festival of the Emperor's anniversary. I now proceed to give some
account of the manner in which the Dutch Embassadors were received, and
the entertainments that took place on the occasion of the festival of
the new year, as related in the manuscript journal above alluded to.
This journalist observes that, on approaching the capital of the empire,
they were not a little astonished to find that the farther they advanced
the more miserable and poor was the apparent condition of the people,
and the face of the country; the clay-built huts and those of ill-burnt
bricks were crumbling to dust; the temples were in ruins, the earthen
gods were demolished, and their fragments strewed on the ground; and the
district was thinly inhabited. The following day they entered Pekin but
were turned out again to take up their lodgings in the suburbs, in a
sort of stable. From this place they were ordered to proceed to the
palace in their old travelling dresses, as their baggage was not yet
arrived. They were drawn in small carts as crazy and as much out of
order as their own dresses. Sitting in the bottom of these carts,
without any seats, they waited within the walls of the palace a full
hour, while an empty room was swept out for their reception. Having
remained here for some time, a few planks were brought in, on which were
arranged a number of dishes of meat and fish, stewed in different ways.
Having finished their repast, thus ended their first day's visit.
The following morning, at five o'clock, they were again summoned to
court, and ushered into a small room like that of the preceding day,
without any kind of furniture. The weather being extremely cold, the
thermometer many degrees below the freezing point, the Embassadors
prevailed on the people to make a little fire which after some time was
brought in, not however without letting them understand that it was an
extraordinary mark of favour, it being the custom of the Chinese to let
all Embassadors wait the arrival of the Emperor in the open air.
At length the Emperor made his appearance, carried by eight men in a
yellow sedan chair. On his approaching the place where the Embassadors
and their suite were standing, they were directed by the master of the
ceremonies to fall down on their knees, and in this posture the first
Embassador was instructed to hold in both his hands, above his head, the
gold box in which was contained the letter for the Emperor: the second
minister then stepped forwards, and took the letter out of his hands,
which he delivered to the Emperor; and, at the same time, they were
directed to bow their heads nine times to the ground, in token of
acknowledgment for the gracious reception they had met with from his
Chinese Majesty.
This ceremony being ended, they were desired to follow the Emperor's
chair, which was carried to the side of a pond or bason in the gardens,
then frozen over. From this place the Emperor was drawn on a sledge to a
tent pitched on the ice, whilst the Embassador and his suite were
conducted into a dirty hovel little better than a pig-stye, where they
were desired to sit down on a sort of bench built of stone and mortar;
for, like the room they were put into on a former day, it was destitute
of the least furniture; and they were told that something presently
would be brought for them to eat. On complaining to their conductors
that this was not the manner in which they were accustomed to sit down
to meat, and that they did not conceive such apartments to be at all
suitable to the situation they had the honour to hold, they were shortly
afterwards conducted into another room, little better however than the
first, but partly furnished with a few old chairs and tables. The
candlesticks were small blocks of wood, to which the candles were
fastened with a couple of nails. A few dishes of stewed meat were served
up and, as a great delicacy from the Emperor's table, were brought in,
without any dish, a pair of stag's legs, which the Chinese threw down
upon the naked table; and for this mark of imperial favour they were
required to make the customary genuflections and nine prostrations.
Van Braam, in the journal which he or some of his friends published in
Paris, gives a curious account of the manner in which they were fed from
the Emperor's table: "La viande consistait en un morceau de côtes sur
lequelles il n'y avait point un demi-pouce d'épaisseur d'une chair
maigre, en un petit os de l'épaule ou il n'y avait presque pas de chair,
et en quatre ou cinq autres ossemens fournis par le dos ou par les
pattes d'un mouton, et qui semblaient avoir été déja rongés. Tout ce
dégoûtant ensemble était sur un plat sale et paraissait plutôt destiné à
faire le regal d'un chien que le repas d'un homme. En Holland le dernier
des mendians recevrait, dans un hôpital, une pittance plus propre, et
cependant c'est une marque d'honneur de la part d'un Empereur envers un
Ambassadeur! Peut-être mème etait-ce le reste du Prince, et dans ce cas,
selon l'opinion des Chinois, c'était le dernier terme de la faveur,
puisque nous pouvions achever l'os que sa Majesté avait commencé à
nettoyer."--"The meat consisted of a small piece of the ribs, on which
there was not half an inch in thickness of lean flesh, and a small
shoulder-blade almost without any upon it; and in four or five other
pieces of bones from the back, or the legs of a sheep, which appeared to
have been already gnawed. The whole of this disgusting mess was brought
upon a dirty plate, and seemed much rather intended to feast a dog than
as a refreshment for man. In Holland the meanest beggar would receive in
an hospital his allowance in a neater manner; and yet it was intended as
a mark of honour on the part of an Emperor towards an Embassador!
Perhaps it was even the remains of the Sovereign, and in that case,
according to the opinion of the Chinese, it was the greatest possible
act of favour, since we should then have had an opportunity of finishing
the bone which his Imperial Majesty had begun to pick."
The Dutch gentlemen, equally disgusted with the meanness and filthiness
of the place, and with the pride and haughtiness of the people, became
now reconciled to the shabby appearance of their old travelling dresses,
which they began to consider as fully good enough for the occasion.
Having finished their elegant repast, the amusements of the day
commenced on the ice. The Emperor made his appearance in a sort of
sledge, supported by the figures of four dragons. This machine was moved
about by several great Mandarins, some dragging before, and others
pushing behind. The four principal ministers of state were also drawn
upon the ice in their sledges by inferior mandarins. Whole troops of
civil and military officers soon appeared, some on sledges, some on
skaits, and others playing at football upon the ice, and he that picked
up the ball was rewarded by the Emperor. The ball was then hung up in a
kind of arch, and several mandarins shot at it, in passing on skaits,
with their bows and arrows. Their skaits were cut off short under the
heel, and the forepart was turned up at right angles. Owing to this
form, or to the inexpertness of the skaiters, they could not stop
themselves on a sudden, but always tumbled one over the other whenever
they came near the edge of the ice, or towards the quarter where the
Emperor happened to be.
Leaving this place, they were carried through several narrow streets,
composed of miserable houses, forming a surprising contrast with the
proud walls of the palace. They were conducted into a small room of one
of these houses, almost void of furniture, in order to pay their
compliments to _Ho-tchung-tang_, the Collao, or prime minister, whom
they found sitting cross-legged on a truckle bedstead with cane bottom.
Before this creature of fortune, whose fate I shall have occasion
hereafter to notice, they were obliged to go down on their knees. Like a
true prime minister of China, he waved all conversation that might lead
towards business, talked to them of the length of their journey, was
astonished how they bore the cold weather in such scanty clothing, and
such like general topics, which, in fact, signified nothing. From the
first minister they paid their visit to the second, whom they found
lodged in a similar manner; after which they returned to their mean
apartments in the city, more satisfied on a comparison with the
miserable little chambers in which they had found the two first
ministers of this far-famed empire lodged, and the mean hovels which
they met with in the very center of the space shut in by the walls of
the imperial palace. The impressions that the events and transactions of
this day made on the minds of the visitors were those of utter
astonishment, on finding every thing so very much the reverse of what
they had been led to expect.
The following day they were again drawn to court in their little carts,
before four o'clock in the morning, where, after having waited about
five hours in empty rooms, similar to those of the preceding day, two or
three great men (_Ta-gin_) called upon them, but behaved towards them in
a distant, scornful, and haughty manner. "We had once more," observes
the Dutch journalist, from which I quote, "an occasion to remark the
surprising contrast of magnificence and meanness in the buildings, and
of pride and littleness in the persons belonging to the imperial
palace."
After these interviews, they were suffered to remain a day or two at
home; but on a bag of dried grapes being brought by a mandarin from the
Emperor, they were required to thank him for the present with nine
prostrations, as usual. Another time a little pastry from the imperial
kitchen demanded the same ceremony. In short, whether at home or in the
palace, the Chinese were determined they should be kept in the constant
practice of the _koo-too_, or ceremony of genuflexion and prostration.
On the 26th of January, the Embassadors received notice that it was
expected they should attend the procession of the Emperor to the temple,
where he was about to make an offering to the God of Heaven and of
earth. Having waited accordingly by the road side, from three o'clock in
the morning till six, the weather dismally cold, Fahrenheit's
thermometer standing at 16° below the freezing point, the Emperor at
length passed in his chair, when they made the usual prostrations and
returned home.
The next morning they were again required to proceed to the same place,
and at the same early hour, to witness his return and again to go
through the usual ceremony.