THE next day I arose earlier than usual and dressed in a great hurry, as
I feared I might be late. When I got to Her Majesty's Palace there were
a few Court ladies there sitting on the veranda. They smiled and asked
me to sit down with them as it was still too early, being only five
o'clock. I had been told to wake Her Majesty at five thirty. The Young
Empress came up a few minutes later and we all courtesied and wished her
"good morning." After talking with us a few minutes, she asked if Her
Majesty was awake and which one of us was on duty that day. When I
informed her that it was my turn, she immediately ordered me to go to
Her Majesty's room at once. I went very quietly and found some servant
girls standing about and one Court lady, who was sitting on the floor.
She had been on duty all night. When she saw me she got up and whispered
to me, that now that I had come, she would go and change her clothes and
brush up a bit, and for me not to leave the room until Her Majesty was
awake. After this Court lady had gone, I went near to the bed and said:
"Lao Tsu Tsung, it is half-past five." She was sleeping with her face
toward the wall, and without looking to see who had called her, she
said: "Go away and leave me alone. I did not tell you to call me at
half-past five. Call me at six," and immediately went off to sleep
again. I waited until six and called her again. She woke and said: "This
is dreadful. What a nuisance you are." After she had said this, she
looked around and saw me standing by the bed. "Oh! it is you, is it? Who
told you to come and wake me?" I replied: "One of the Court ladies told
me that it was my turn to be on duty in Lao Tsu Tsung's bedchamber."
"That is funny. How dare they give orders without receiving instructions
from me first? They know that this part of their duty is not very
pleasant and have put it off on you because they know you are new here."
I made no reply to this. I got along as best I could that day and found
it no easy matter, as Her Majesty was very exacting in everything.
However, the next time I managed to divert her attention to things new
or interesting in order to take her mind off of what she was doing, and
in this way had much less trouble getting her out of bed.
My reader can't imagine how very glad we were to get back to our rooms,
and it was just 10:30 P. M. I was very tired and sleepy, so I undressed
and went to bed at once. I think that as soon as my head touched the
pillow I was asleep.
The following day there was the same thing, the usual audience in the
morning, of course busy all the time, which went on for fifteen days
before I realized it. I began to take great interest in the Court life,
and liked it better every day. Her Majesty was very sweet and kind to us
always, and took us to see the different places in the Summer Palace. We
went to see Her Majesty's farm, situated on the west side of the lake,
and had to cross over a high bridge to get there. This bridge is called
Tu Tai Chiao (Jade Girdle Bridge). Her Majesty often took us under this
bridge in a boat, or we walked round on the border. She seemed very fond
of sitting on the top of this bridge on her stool and taking her tea,
in fact this was one of her favorite places. She used to go and see
her farm once every four or five days, and it always pleased her if
she could take some vegetables and rice or corn from her own farm. She
cooked these things herself in one of the courtyards. I thought that
was good fun, and also turned up my sleeves to help her cook. We brought
fresh eggs also from the farm and Her Majesty taught us how to cook them
with black tea leaves.
Her Majesty's cooking stoves were very peculiar. They were made of
brass, lined with bricks. They could be moved anywhere, for they had
no chimneys. Her Majesty told me to boil the eggs first until they were
hard, and to crack them but to keep the shells on, and add half a cup of
black tea, salt and spices. Her Majesty said: "I like the country life.
It seems more natural than the Court life. I am always glad to see young
people having fun, and not such grand dames when we are by ourselves.
Although I am not young any more, I am still very fond of play." Her
Majesty would taste first what we had been cooking, and would give us
all to taste. She asked: "Do you not think this food has more flavor
than that prepared by the cooks?" We all said it was fine. So we spent
the long days at the Court having good fun.
I saw Emperor Kwang Hsu every morning, and whenever I had the time he
would always ask some words in English. I was surprised to learn that he
knew quite a bit of spelling, too. I found him extremely interesting. He
had very expressive eyes. He was entirely a different person when he was
alone with us. He would laugh and tease, but as soon as he was in the
presence of Her Majesty he would look serious, and as if he were worried
to death. At times he looked stupid. I was told by a great many people
who were presented to him at the different audiences that he did not
look intelligent, and that he would never talk. I knew better, for I
used to see him every day. I was at the Court long enough to study him,
and found him to be one of the most intelligent men in China. He was a
capital diplomat and had wonderful brains, only he had no opportunities.
Now a great many people have asked me the same question, if our Emperor
Kwang Hsu had any courage or brains. Of course outsiders have no idea
how strict the law is, and the way we have to respect our parents. He
was compelled to give up a great many things on account of the law. I
have had many long talks with him and found him a wise man, with
any amount of patience. His life was not a happy one; ever since his
childhood his health was poor. He told me that he never had studied
literature very much, but it came natural to him. He was a born musician
and could play any instrument without studying. He loved the piano, and
was always after me to teach him. There were several beautiful grand
pianos at the Audience Hall. He had very good taste for foreign music,
too. I taught him some easy waltzes and he kept the time beautifully. I
found him a good companion and a good friend, and he confided in me and
told me his troubles and sorrows. We talked a great deal about western
civilization, and I was surprised to learn he was so well informed in
everything. He used to tell me, time after time, his ambitions for the
welfare of his country. He loved his people and would have done anything
to help them whenever there was famine or flood. I noticed that he
felt for them. I know that some eunuchs gave false reports about his
character,--that he was cruel, etc. I had heard the same thing before
I went to the Palace. He was kind to the eunuchs, but there was always
that distinction between the master and the servants. He would never
allow the eunuchs to speak to him unless they were spoken to, and never
listened to any kind of gossip. I lived there long enough, and I know
just what kind of cruel people those eunuchs were. They had no respect
for their master. They came from the lowest class of people from the
country, had no education, no morals, no feeling for anything, not even
between themselves. The outside world has heard so many things against
His Majesty, the Emperor Kwang Hsu's character, but I assure my readers
that these things were told by the eunuchs to their families, and of
course they always stretched it out as far as possible in order to
make the conversation interesting. The majority of the people living in
Peking get all kinds of information through them. I have witnessed the
same thing many a time during my stay at the Palace.
One day during the time of Her Majesty's afternoon rest we heard a
dreadful noise. It sounded just like the firing off of fire-crackers.
Such a noise was quite unusual in the Palace for such things are not
allowed to be brought into the Palace grounds. Of course Her Majesty
woke up. In a few seconds time everyone became excited and were running
to and fro as if the building was on fire. Her Majesty was giving orders
and telling the eunuchs to be quiet, but no one listened to her and kept
yelling and running around like crazy people, all talking at the same
time. Her Majesty was furious and ordered us to bring the yellow bag
to her. (I must explain about this bag. It was made of ordinary yellow
cloth and contained bamboo sticks of all sorts and sizes and are made to
beat the eunuchs, servant girls and old women servants with.) This
bag was carried everywhere Her Majesty went, to be handy in case of
emergency. Everyone of us knew where this bag was kept. We took all the
sticks from the bag and Her Majesty ordered us to go to the courtyard
and beat the eunuchs. It was such a funny sight to see all the Court
ladies and servant girls each with a stick trying to separate the
excited crowd. On my part I thought I was having good fun so I laughed
and found the rest were laughing too. Her Majesty was standing on the
veranda watching us but she was too far away to see well and with all
that noise, we knew she could not hear us laughing. We tried our best
to separate the crowd, but were laughing so much we did not have enough
strength to hurt any of them. All of a sudden all the eunuchs became
quiet and stopped talking, for one of them saw the head eunuch, Li Lien
Ying, followed by all his attendants coming towards them. Everyone
of them became frightened and stood there like statues. We stopped
laughing, too, and turned back each with a stick in our hand, walking
toward Her Majesty. Li Lien Ying was having a nap, too, and had heard
the noise and had come to enquire what the trouble was and to report it
to Her Majesty. It seemed one of the young eunuchs caught a crow. (The
eunuchs hated crows, as they are considered an unlucky bird. The people
in China called eunuchs crows because they were very disagreeable. That
was the reason why the eunuchs hated them so.) They always set traps to
catch them and then tied a huge fire-cracker to their legs, set fire to
the cracker and then set the unfortunate birds free. Naturally the poor
birds would be glad to fly away and by the time the powder exploded
would be high up in the air and the poor bird would be blown to pieces.
It seemed this was not the first time the eunuchs had played this cruel
trick. I was told it always delighted them so much to see blood and
torture. They always invited others to drink some wine with them to
celebrate an occasion such as this. This cruel deed was always done
outside of the wall of the Audience Hall but that day the crow flew
towards Her Majesty's own Palace while she was sleeping and the powder
exploded while the bird was passing the courtyard. After the head eunuch
had told Her Majesty what had happened, she was very angry and ordered
that this young eunuch be brought in and receive punishment in her
presence. I noticed one of the head eunuch's attendants push the culprit
out from the crowd. The head eunuch immediately gave orders to lay this
man on the ground and two eunuchs stood on each side of him and beat him
on his legs with two heavy bamboo sticks one at a time. The victim never
uttered a word while this was going on. The head eunuch counted until
this man had received one hundred blows, then he gave orders to stop.
Then he knelt in front of Her Majesty waiting for her orders and at
the same time kowtowed on the ground until his head made a noise on the
stone steps, asking to be punished for his carelessness and neglect of
duty. Her Majesty said that it was not his fault and ordered him to take
the offender away. During all this time the offender was still on the
ground, and did not dare to move. Two eunuchs each took hold of a foot
and dragged him out of the courtyard. We were all afraid even to breathe
aloud for fear Her Majesty would say that we were pretending to be
frightened at witnessing this punishment, at the same time when it
was over we would go and gossip about how cruel she was. No one was
surprised at what had happened, as we were accustomed to seeing it
almost every day and were quite used to it. I used to pity them, but I
changed my mind very soon after I had arrived.
The first person I saw punished was a servant girl, she had made a
mistake about Her Majesty's socks and had brought two which were not
mates, Her Majesty finding that out, ordered another servant girl to
slap her face ten times on each cheek. This girl did not slap hard
enough, so Her Majesty said they were all good friends and would not
obey her orders, so she told the one who had been slapped to slap the
other. I thought that was too funny for anything and wanted to laugh
the worst way, but of course did not dare. That night I asked those two
girls how they felt slapping each other that way. The reason why I asked
them was because they were laughing and joking as usual immediately they
were out of Her Majesty's bedchamber. They told me that was nothing;
that they were quite used to it and never bothered themselves about such
small things. I in turn soon became used to it, and was as callous as
they were.
Now regarding the servant girls, they are a much better class of people
than the eunuchs. They are the daughters of Manchu soldiers, and must
stay ten years at the Palace to wait upon Her Majesty, and then they are
free to marry. One got married after my first month at the Court. Her
Majesty gave her a small sum of money, five hundred taels. This girl was
so attached to Her Majesty that it was very hard for her to leave
the Court. She was an extremely clever girl. Her name was Chiu Yuen
(Autumn's Cloud). Her Majesty named her that because she was so very
delicate looking and slight. I liked her very much during the short time
that we were together. She told me not to listen to anyone's gossip at
the Court, also that Her Majesty had told her she was very fond of me.
On the twenty-second day of the third moon she left the Palace, and we
were all sorry to lose her. Her Majesty did not realize how much she
missed her until after she had gone. For a few days we had nothing but
troubles. It seemed as if everything went wrong. Her Majesty was not
at all satisfied without Chiu Yuen. The rest of the servant girls were
scared, and tried their best to please Her Majesty, but they had not the
ability, so we had to help and do a part of their work so as not to make
Her Majesty nervous. Unfortunately, she stopped us, and said: "You
have enough to do of your own work, and I do not want you to help the
servants. You don't please me a bit that way." She could see that I was
not accustomed to her ways, for she had spoken severely, so she smiled
and said to me: "I know you are good to help them so as not to make me
angry, but these servants are very cunning. It isn't that they cannot do
their work. They know very well that I always select the clever ones to
wait on me in my bedroom and they don't like that, so they pretend to be
stupid and make me angry so that I will send them to do the common work.
The eunuchs are worse. They are all afraid to take Chiu Yuen's place.
Now I have found them out, and I will only keep the stupid ones to wait
on me from now." I almost laughed when I noticed that they all looked
serious for a moment. I thought these people must be really stupid, and
not lazy, but I had dealings with them every day and found them out all
right. The eunuchs don't seem to have any brains at all. They are such
queer people and have no feelings. They have the same mood all day
long--I should say they are in a cruel mood. Whenever Her Majesty gave
an order they always said "Jer" (Yes) and as soon as they got to our
waiting room they would say to each other: "What was the order? I have
forgotten all about it." Then they used to come to one of us who had
happened to be present when the order was given: "Please tell us what
the order was. I did not listen while Her Majesty was talking." We
used to laugh and make fun of them. We knew they were afraid to ask Her
Majesty, and of course we had to tell them. One of the eunuch writers
had to keep writing down the orders that had been given during the day,
for Her Majesty wanted to keep records of everything. There were twenty
eunuchs who were educated and they were excellent scholars. These had
to answer any questions which Her Majesty happened to ask them about
Chinese literature, while she had a good knowledge of it herself. I
noticed that it pleased her a great deal if anyone could not answer a
question, or knew less than she did. She took delight in laughing at
them. Her Majesty was also very fond of teasing. She knew that the Court
ladies did not know very much about literature, so she used to try it on
us. We had to say something whether it was appropriate to her questions
or not, and that would make her laugh. I was told that Her Majesty did
not like anyone to be too clever, and yet she could not bear stupid
people, so I was rather nervous, and did not know how to act for the
first three weeks I was there, but it did not take me very long to study
her. She certainly admired clever girls, but she did not like those who
would show their cleverness too much. How I won her heart was this way.
Whenever I was with her I used to fix my whole attention on her and
watched her very closely (not staring, for she hated that) and always
carried out her orders properly. I noticed another thing, and that
was that whenever she wanted anything to be brought to her, such as
cigarettes, handkerchief, etc., she would only look at the article and
then look at anyone who happened to be there at the time. (There was
always a table in the room, on which everything she needed for the day
was placed.) I got so used to her habits that after a short time I
knew just what she wanted by looking at her eyes, and I was very seldom
mistaken. This pleased her a great deal. She was strong-minded,
and would always act the way she thought was right, and had perfect
confidence in herself. At times I have seen her looking very sad.
She had strong emotions, but her will was stronger. She could control
herself beautifully, and yet she liked people to sympathize with
her--only by actions, not by words, for she did not like anyone to know
her thoughts. I am sure my readers will think how hard it was to be
the Court lady of Her Majesty, the Empress Dowager of China, but on the
contrary I enjoyed myself very much, as she was so interesting, and I
found that she was not at all difficult to please.
The first day of the fourth moon Her Majesty was worried over the lack
of rain. She prayed every day after the audience for ten days, without
any result. Every one of us kept very quiet. Her Majesty did not even
give any orders that day, and spoke to no one. I noticed that the
eunuchs were scared, so we went without our luncheon. I worked so hard
that morning, and was so hungry--in fact all the Court ladies were.
I felt sorry for Her Majesty. Finally she told me I could go, as
she wanted to rest a while, so we came back to our own quarters. I
questioned our own eunuch Wang as to why Her Majesty was worrying about
rain, for we were having lovely weather then, day after day. He told me
that Lao Fo Yeh (Old Buddha) was worried for the poor farmers, as all
their crops were dead without rain for so long. Wang also reminded me
that it had not rained once since I came to live at the Palace. I did
not realize that it was so long as two months and seven days, and on the
other hand it seemed to me longer than that, for the life was very nice
and pleasant, and Her Majesty was very kind to me, as if she had known
me for years already. Her Majesty took very little food at dinner that
night. There was not a sound anywhere, and everyone kept quiet. The
Young Empress told us to eat as fast as we could, which puzzled me. When
we came back to our waiting room, the Young Empress said to me that Her
Majesty was very much worried for the poor farmers and that she would
pray for rain, and stop eating meat for two or three days. That same
night, before Her Majesty retired, she gave orders that no pigs were to
be slaughtered within the gates of Peking. The reason of this was that
by sacrificing ourselves by not eating meat the Gods would have pity on
us and send rain. She also gave orders that everyone should bathe the
body and wash out the mouth in order that we might be cleansed from
all impurities and be ready to fast and pray to the Gods. Also that the
Emperor should go to the temple inside the Forbidden City, to perform a
ceremony of sacrifice (called Chin Tan). He was not to eat meat or hold
converse with anyone, and to pray to the Gods to be merciful and send
rain to the poor farmers. His Majesty, the Emperor Kwang Hsu, wore a
piece of jade tablet about three inches square, engraved "Chai Chieh"
(the meaning being just like Chin Tan-not to eat meat but to pray three
times a day), both in Manchu and Chinese, and all the eunuchs who went
with the Emperor wore the same kind of tablets. The idea was that
this jade tablet was to remind one to be serious in performing the
ceremonies.
The next morning Her Majesty got up very early and ordered me not
to bring any jewels for her. She dressed herself in great haste. Her
breakfast was very simple that day, just milk and steamed bread. Our own
breakfast was cabbage and rice cooked together, with a little salt. It
was tasteless. Her Majesty did not talk to us at all, except when giving
orders, and so, of course, we kept silent. Her Majesty wore a pale gray
gown, made very plain, with no embroidery or trimmings of any kind.
She wore gray shoes to match, not to mention her gray handkerchief. We
followed her into the hall where a eunuch knelt with a large branch of
willow tree. Her Majesty picked a little bunch of leaves and stuck it
on her head. The Young Empress did the same, and told us to follow her
example. Emperor Kwang Hsu took a branch and stuck it on his hat. After
that Her Majesty ordered the eunuchs and the servant girls to do the
same thing. It was a funny sight, and everyone did look queer with a
bunch of leaves on the head. The head eunuch came and knelt in front of
Her Majesty and said that everything was prepared for the ceremony in
the little pavilion in front of her own palace. She told us that she
preferred to walk, as she was going to pray. It took us only a few
minutes to cross the courtyard. When we arrived at this pavilion I
noticed a large square table was placed in the center of the room. A few
large sheets of yellow paper and a jade slab, containing some vermilion
powder instead of ink, with two little brushes to write with. At each
side of the table stood a pair of large porcelain vases, with two large
branches of willow. Of course no one was allowed to speak, but I was
curious and wanted to find out why everyone had to wear the willow
leaves on the head. Her Majesty's yellow satin cushion was placed in
front of this table. She stood there and took a piece of sandalwood and
placed it in the incense burner filled with live charcoal. The Young
Empress whispered to me to go over and help Her Majesty to burn them.
I placed several pieces in until she told me that was enough. Then Her
Majesty knelt on her cushion, the Young Empress knelt behind her, and we
all knelt in a row behind the Young Empress, and commenced to pray. The
Young Empress taught us that very morning how to say the prayer: "We
worship the Heavens, and beg all the Buddhas to take pity on us and save
the poor farmers from starving. We are willing to sacrifice for them.
Pray Heaven send us rain." We repeated the same prayer three times, and
bowed three times--nine times in all. After that Her Majesty went to her
usual morning audience. It was much earlier than usual that morning for
the Court was returning to the Forbidden City at noon. His Majesty, the
Emperor Kwang Hsu, was to pray at the Forbidden City and Her Majesty
always wanted to accompany him wherever he went. It was nine o'clock in
the morning when the audience was over. She ordered me not to bring any
jewels for her to the Forbidden City this time, for she would not need
them at all. I went to the jewel-room and locked everything up, and
placed the keys in a yellow envelope, sealed it, and placed the envelope
among the others, and gave them to a eunuch who takes care of these
things. We packed all her favorite things. Her gowns were the most
important things to pack, she had so many and it was impossible to take
all. I noticed that the Court lady who was looking after her gowns was
the busiest amongst us. She had to select gowns enough to last four or
five days. She told me that she had selected about fifty different ones.
I told her that Lao Tsu Tsung might stay at the Forbidden City four or
five days, and that she would not need so many gowns. She said it was
safer to bring many, for one was not sure what would be Her Majesty's
idea for the day. Packing at the Court was very simple. Eunuchs brought
many yellow trays, which are made of wood, painted yellow, about five
feet by four feet and one foot deep. We placed a large yellow silk scarf
in the tray, then the gowns, and covered them with a thick yellow cloth.
Everything was packed the same way. It took us about two hours to pack
fifty-six trays. These things always started off first, carried by the
eunuchs. His Majesty, the Emperor Kwang Hsu, the Young Empress and all
the Court ladies, had to kneel on the ground for Her Majesty's sedan
chair to pass the Palace Gate, then we went in search of our own chairs.
The procession as usual was pretty, soldiers marching in front of her
chair, four young Princes riding on horseback on each side of her, and
from forty to fifty eunuchs also on horseback behind her, all dressed in
their official robes. The Emperor's chair and the Young Empress' chair
were of the same color as Her Majesty's. The Secondary wife of the
Emperor had a deep yellow chair. The chairs of the Court ladies were
red, and were carried by four chair bearers, instead of eight like their
Majesties. Our own eunuchs also rode on horseback, behind us. We rode a
long time, it seemed to me, before I noticed the Emperor's chair begin
to descend from the stone-paved road, and we all followed him. I could
see that Her Majesty's chair was still going straight on, and we took a
nearer route to reach Wan Shou Si (The long life temple), to await Her
Majesty's arrival. We alighted from our chairs and started at once to
prepare Her Majesty's tea and her little dishes. I went to help her to
alight, and supported her right arm to mount the steps. Her Majesty
sat on Her Throne, and we placed a table in front of her and my sister
brought her tea. (The custom was, that if she went anywhere, or during
the festivals, we must bring to her everything, instead of the eunuchs.)
We placed all the dainties in front of her, and then we went to rest.
Her Majesty always stopped at this temple on the way from the Summer
Palace to the Forbidden City.