THE author of the following narrative has peculiar qualifications for
her task. She is a daughter of Lord Yu Keng, a member of the Manchu
White Banner Corps, and one of the most advanced and progressive Chinese
officials of his generation. Lord Yu Keng entered the army when very
young, and served in the Taiping rebellion and the Formosan war with
France, and as Vice Minister of War during the China-Japan war in 1895.
Later he was Minister to Japan, which post he quitted in 1898 to become
President of the Tsung-li-yamen (Chinese Foreign Office). In 1899 he was
appointed Minister to France, where he remained four years. At a period
when the Chinese Government was extremely conservative and reactionary,
Lord Yu Keng labored indefatigably for reform. He was instrumental
in reorganizing China's postal service on modern lines, but failed in
efforts to revise the revenue system and modernize the army and navy,
from being ahead of his times. He died in 1905. The progressive spirit
of Lord Yu Keng was shown in the education of his children. When it
became known that his daughters were receiving a foreign education--then
an almost unheard--of proceeding among high Manchu officials-attempts
were made to impeach him as pro-foreign and revolutionary, but he was
not deterred. His children got their early education in missionary
schools, and the daughters later attended a convent in France, where
the author of this work finished her schooling and entered society.
On returning to China, she became First Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress
Dowager, and while serving at the Court in that capacity she received
the impressions which provide the subject-matter of this book.
Her opportunity to observe and estimate the characteristics of the
remarkable woman who ruled China for so long was unique, and her
narrative throws a new light on one of the most extraordinary
personalities of modern times. While on leave from her duties to attend
upon her father, who was fatally ill in Shanghai, Princess Der Ling took
a step which terminated connexion with the Chinese Court. This was
her engagement to Mr. Thaddeus C. White, an American, to whom she was
married on May 21, 1907. Yielding to the urgent solicitation of friends,
she consented to put some of her experiences into literary form, and
the following chronicle, in which the most famous of Chinese women, the
customs and atmosphere of her Court are portrayed by an intimate of the
same race, is a result.