WE now reached the time set apart for cleaning the Palace in preparation
for the New Year festivals. Everything had to be taken down and
thoroughly overhauled, and all the images, pictures, furniture and
everything else were subjected to a thorough scrubbing. Her Majesty
again consulted her book in order to choose a lucky day on which to
commence these operations, finally choosing the twelfth day as being
most favorable. As we had all received our orders previously, we
commenced early on the morning of the twelfth. Several of the Court
ladies were told off to take down and clean the images of Buddha and
prepare new curtains for them. The rest of the cleaning was done by the
eunuchs. I asked Her Majesty whether I was to clean her jewelry, but
she answered that as nobody but herself ever wore it, it didn't need
cleaning.
After everything had been cleaned to Her Majesty's satisfaction,
she prepared a list of names of the people she desired to attend the
ceremony of Tzu Sui. This ceremony was held on the last day of each year
and was something like the midnight services usually held in Europe on
the last night of each old year--just a farewell ceremony to bid the old
year adieu. The guests were invited about a fortnight ahead, so as to
give them plenty of time to get ready. Her Majesty also ordered new
winter clothing for the Court ladies. The only difference between these
new garments and those we were then wearing was that they were trimmed
with the fur of the silver fox instead of the gray squirrel.
The next thing was to prepare cakes, which were to be placed before the
Buddhas and ancestors, during the New Year. It was necessary that Her
Majesty should make the first one herself. So when Her Majesty decided
that it was time to prepare these cakes the whole Court went into a
room specially prepared for the purpose and the eunuchs brought in the
ingredients-ground rice, sugar and yeast. These were mixed together into
a sort of dough and then steamed instead of baked, which caused it to
rise just like ordinary bread, it being believed that the higher the
cake rises, the better pleased are the gods and the more fortunate
the maker. The first cake turned out fine and we all congratulated Her
Majesty, who was evidently much pleased herself at the result. Then
she ordered each of the Court ladies to make one, which we did, with
disastrous results, not one turning out as it should. This being my
first year, there was some excuse for my failure, but I was surprised
that none of the older Court ladies fared any better, and on inquiring
from one of them the reason, she replied: "Why, I did it purposely, of
course, so as to flatter Her Majesty's vanity. Certainly I could make
them just as well as she, if not better, but it would not be good
policy." After we had all finished making our cakes, the eunuchs were
ordered to make the rest, and needless to say they were perfect in every
way.
The next thing was to prepare small plates of dates and fresh fruits
of every kind. These were decorated with evergreens, etc., and placed
before the images of Buddha. Then we prepared glass dishes of candy,
which were to be offered to the God of the Kitchen. On the twenty-third
day of the last moon the God of the Kitchen left this earth to go on a
visit to the King of Heaven, to whom he reported all that we had been
doing during the past year, returning to earth again on the last day of
the year. The idea of offering him these sweets was in order that they
should stick to his mouth and prevent him from telling too much. When
these candies were prepared, we all adjourned to the kitchen and placed
the offering on a table specially placed for the purpose. Turning to
the head cook, she said: "You had better look out now; the God of the
Kitchen will tell how much you have stolen during the past year, and you
will be punished."
The following day another ceremony had to be gone through, that of
writing out the New Year Greetings for the guests and Court, so in the
morning we all went with Her Majesty to the Audience Hall, where the
eunuchs had prepared large sheets of yellow, red and pale green paper.
Her Majesty took up a large brush and commenced to write. On some of
these sheets she wrote the character "Shou" (Long Life) and on others
"Fu" (Prosperity). By and bye, when she began to feel tired, she would
get either one of the Court ladies or one of the official writers to
finish them for her. When finished, they were distributed to the guests
and different officials, the ones Her Majesty had written herself being
reserved for her special favorites. These were given out a few days
before the New Year.
Her Majesty received New Year presents from all the Viceroys and
principal officials. She would examine each present as it was received,
and if it found favor in her eyes, she would use it, but if not, she
would have it locked away in one of the storerooms and probably never
see it again. These presents consisted of small pieces of furniture,
curios, jewelry, silks, in fact everything--even clothing. The present
sent by Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai was a yellow satin robe, embroidered with
different colored precious stones and pearls designed to represent the
peony flower; the leaves were of green jade. It was really a magnificent
thing, and must have cost a fortune. The only drawback was its weight;
it was too heavy to wear comfortably. Her Majesty appeared delighted
with this gown, and wore it the first day, after which it was discarded
altogether, although I often suggested that she should wear it, as it
was the most magnificent gown I ever saw. Once when Her Majesty was
granting an audience to the Diplomatic Corps, I suggested that she
should wear this dress, but she refused, giving no reason, so nobody
outside the Court has ever seen this wonderful garment.
Another costly present was received from the Viceroy of Canton, and
consisted of four bags of pearls, each bag containing several thousands.
They were all perfect in shape and color, and would have brought
fabulous prices in Europe or America. However, Her Majesty had so many
jewels, especially pearls, that she hardly paid any attention to them
beyond remarking that they were very nice.
The Young Empress and the Court ladies were also expected to give
presents to Her Majesty each New Year. These were for the most part
articles that we had made ourselves, such as shoes, handkerchiefs,
collars, bags, etc. My mother, my sister and myself made presents of
mirrors, perfumes, soaps and similar toilet accessories which we had
brought with us from Paris. These Her Majesty appreciated very much; she
was very vain. The eunuchs and servant girls gave fancy cakes and other
food stuffs.
The presents were so numerous that they filled several rooms, but we
were not allowed to remove them until Her Majesty gave orders to do so.
The Court ladies also exchanged presents among themselves, which often
led to confusion and amusement. On this occasion I had received some
ten or a dozen different presents, and when it came my turn to give
something, I decided to use up some of the presents I had received from
my companions. To my surprise, the next day I received from one of the
Court ladies an embroidered handkerchief which I immediately recognized
as the identical handkerchief I had myself sent her as my New Year's
present. On mentioning the fact, this lady turned and said: "Well, that
is rather funny; I was just wondering what had made you return the
shoes I sent you." Of course everybody laughed very heartily, and still
further merriment was caused when, on comparing all the presents, it was
found that quite half of us had received back our own presents. In order
to settle the matter, we threw them all into a heap and divided them as
evenly as possible, everybody being satisfied with the result.
About a week before New Year's day all audiences ceased and the seals
were put away until after the holidays. During this time no business was
transacted by Her Majesty. Everything was much more comfortable and we
could see that Her Majesty also appreciated the change from bustle to
quietness. We had nothing whatever to do but to take things easy until
the last day of the year.
Early on the morning of the thirtieth Her Majesty went to worship before
the Buddhas and Ancestral Tablets. After this ceremony was finished, the
guests began to arrive, until by midday, all the guests, numbering about
fifty, were present. The principal guests were: The Imperial Princess
(Empress Dowager's adopted daughter), Princess Chung (wife of Emperor
Kwang Hsu's brother), Princesses Shun and Tao (wives of the Emperor's
younger brothers), Princess hung (wife of the nephew of the Imperial
Princess), and Prince Ching's family. All these ladies were frequent
visitors to the Court. Next day many other Princesses, not of the
Imperial family, but whose titles were honorary titles bestowed by
previous rulers, came. Next, the daughters of the high Manchu officials
and many other people whom I had never seen before. By midday all the
guests had arrived, and, after being presented to Her Majesty, were
taken to their different apartments and told to rest a while. At two
o'clock in the afternoon everybody assembled in the Audience Hall, lined
up according to their different ranks and, led by the Young Empress,
kowtowed to Her Majesty. This was the ceremony Tzu Sui already referred
to, and was simply a last goodbye to Her Majesty before the New Year set
in. When it was all over, Her Majesty gave each of us a small purse made
of red satin embroidered with gold, containing a sum of money. This is
to enable each one to commence the New Year with a kind of reserve fund
for a rainy day, when they would have this money to fall back upon. It
is an old Manchu custom and is still kept up.
The evening was spent in music and enjoyment, and was carried on right
through the night, none of us going to bed. At Her Majesty's suggestion
we commenced gambling with dice, Her Majesty providing each of us with
money, sometimes as much as $200. She told us to be serious about it,
and to try and win, but of course we took good care not to win from Her
Majesty. When Her Majesty began to tire, she stopped the game and said:
"Now, all this money I have won I am going to throw on the floor, and
you girls can scramble for it." We knew that she wanted to see some fun,
so we fought for it as hard as we could.
At midnight the eunuchs brought into the room a large brass brazier
containing live charcoal. Her Majesty pulled a leaf from a large
evergreen tree, which had been placed there for the purpose, and threw
it into the fire. We each followed her example, adding large pieces of
resin, which perfumed the whole atmosphere. This ceremony was supposed
to bring good luck during the coming year.
The next item was making cakes or pies for New Year's day. On the first
of the New Year, nobody is allowed to eat rice, these cakes taking its
place. They were made of flour paste, with minced meat inside. While
some of us were preparing these cakes, others were peeling lotus seeds
for Her Majesty's breakfast.
It was now well on into the morning hours and Her Majesty said that she
was tired and would go and rest a while. She was not going to sleep,
however, so we could carry on our noise as much as we liked. This we did
for some time, and on visiting Her Majesty's bedroom, we found that she
was fast asleep. We then all repaired to our various rooms and commenced
to make ourselves tidy for the day. As soon as Her Majesty was awake,
we all proceeded to her bedroom, taking with us plates of apples
(representing "Peace"), olives ("Long Life"), lotus seeds (Blessing).
She suitably acknowledged these gifts and wished us all good luck in
return. She inquired whether we had been to bed and, on learning that
we had been up all night, she said that was right. She herself had not
meant to sleep, only to rest a little, but somehow she had not been able
to keep awake, and gave as a reason that she was an old woman. We waited
on her until she had finished her toilet and then wished her a Happy New
Year. We then proceeded to pay our respects to the Emperor and to
the Young Empress. There was nothing further to be done in the way of
ceremonies, and we therefore all accompanied Her Majesty to the theatre.
The performance took place on a stage erected in the courtyard, and Her
Majesty closed in one part of her veranda for the use of the guests and
Court ladies. During the performance I began to feel very drowsy, and
eventually fell fast asleep leaning against one of the pillars. I awoke
rather suddenly to find that something had been dropped into my mouth,
but on investigation I found it was nothing worse than a piece of candy,
which I immediately proceeded to eat. On approaching Her Majesty, she
asked me how I had enjoyed the candy, and told me not to sleep, but to
have a good time like the rest. I never saw Her Majesty in better
humor. She played with us just like a young girl, and one could hardly
recognize in her the severe Empress Dowager we knew her to be.
The guests also all seemed to be enjoying themselves very much. In the
evening, after the theatrical performance was over, Her Majesty ordered
the eunuchs to bring in their instruments and give us some music. She
herself sang several songs, and we all sang at intervals. Then Her
Majesty ordered the eunuchs to sing. Some were trained singers, and sang
very nicely, but others could not sing at all and caused quite a lot of
amusement by their efforts to please Her Majesty. The Emperor appeared
to be the only one present who was not having a good time; he never
smiled once. On meeting him outside, I asked him why he looked so sad,
but he only answered: "A Happy New Year" in English, smiled once, and
walked away.
Her Majesty rose very early next morning and proceeded to the Audience
Hall to worship the God of Wealth. We all accompanied her and took part
in the ceremony. During the next few days we did nothing but gamble and
scramble for Her Majesty's winnings. This was all very nice in its way,
until one day one of the Court ladies began to cry, and accused me of
stepping on her toes in the scramble. This made Her Majesty angry and
she ordered the offender to go to her room and stay there for three
days, saying that she did not deserve to be enjoying herself if she
could not stand a little thing like that.
The tenth of the first moon was the birthday of the Young Empress, and
we asked Her Majesty whether we would be allowed to give presents. She
gave us permission to give whatever presents we might wish to. However,
we submitted all our presents to Her Majesty for her approval, before
giving them to the Young Empress, and we had to be very discreet and not
choose anything which Her Majesty might think was too good. It was very
difficult to tell what to send, as Her Majesty might take a fancy to
any of the presents herself, even though they might not be of much value
intrinsically. In such a case Her Majesty would tell us that she would
keep it, and to give the Young Empress something else.
The celebration was very similar to that of the Emperor's birthday, but
not on such an elaborate scale. We presented the Ru Yee to the Young
Empress and kowtowed to her. She was supposed to receive these tokens of
respect sitting on her throne, but out of deference to Her Majesty
(we were Her Majesty's Court ladies) she stood up. She always was very
polite to us under all circumstances.
On this day, as on the Emperor's birthday, the Emperor, Young Empress
and Secondary wife dined together. These were the only two occasions
when they did so, always dining separately at other times. Her Majesty
sent two of her Court ladies to wait upon the Empress, I myself being
one of them. I was very pleased, as I wanted to see for myself how they
conducted themselves when together. I went into the Young Empress' room
and informed her that Her Majesty had ordered us to wait upon them, to
which she simply answered: "Very well." So we went to the dining room
and set the table, placing the chairs into position. The meal was much
different from what I expected. Instead of being stiff and serious
like Her Majesty when dining they were quite free and easy, and we were
allowed to join in the conversation and partake of some of the food and
wine. A very pretty ceremony was gone through at the commencement of the
meal. The Emperor and Young Empress seated themselves, and the Secondary
wife filled their cups with wine and presented it to them in turn as a
sign of respect, the Emperor first. When the meal was over we returned
to Her Majesty's apartment and told her that everything had passed off
nicely. We knew very well that we had been sent simply to act as spies,
but we had nothing interesting to tell Her Majesty. She asked if the
Emperor had been very serious and we answered "Yes."
The New Year celebrations terminated with the Festival of Lanterns on
the fifteenth day of the first moon. These lanterns were of different
shapes, representing animals, flowers, fruits, etc., etc. They were made
of white gauze, painted in different colors. One lantern representing
a dragon about fifteen feet long was fastened to ten poles, and ten
eunuchs were required to hold it in position. In front of this dragon
a eunuch was holding a lantern representing a large pearl, which the
dragon was supposed to devour. This ceremony was gone through to the
accompaniment of music.
After the lanterns came a firework display. These fireworks represented
different scenes in the history of China, grape vines, wisteria
blossoms, and many other flowers. It was a very imposing sight. Portable
wooden houses had been placed near the fireworks from which Her Majesty
and the rest of the Court could see them without being out in the cold
air. This display lasted for several hours without a stop, and thousands
of firecrackers were set off during the time. Her Majesty seemed to
enjoy the noise very much. Altogether it was a good finish to the
celebrations and we all enjoyed it very much.
The next morning all the guests departed from the Palace and we
re-commenced our everyday life.
As usual after the guests had departed Her Majesty began to criticise
their mode of dressing, their ignorance of Court etiquette, etc., but
added that she was rather glad, as she didn't want them to know anything
about Court life.
As Spring soon arrived it was time for the farmers to commence sowing
seed for the rice crop, and of course there was another ceremony. The
Emperor visited the Temple of Agriculture where he prayed for a good
harvest. Then he proceeded to a small plot of ground situated in the
temple and after turning the earth over with a hand plow he sowed the
first seeds of the season. This was to show the farmers that their
labors were not despised and that even the Emperor was not ashamed to
engage in this work. Anybody could attend this ceremony, it being quite
a public affair, and many farmers were present.
About this same time the Young Empress went to see the silkworms and
watch for the eggs to be hatched. As soon as they were out, the Young
Empress gathered mulberry leaves for the worms to feed upon and watched
them until they were big enough to commence spinning. Each day a fresh
supply of leaves were gathered and they were fed four or five times
daily. Several of the Court ladies were told off to feed the worms
during the night and see that they did not escape. These silkworms grow
very rapidly and we could see the difference each day. Of course when
they became full grown they required more food and we were kept busy
constantly feeding them. The Young Empress was able to tell by holding
them up to the light when they were ready to spin. If they were
transparent then they were ready, and were placed on paper and left
there. When spinning the silkworm does not eat, therefore all we had to
do was to watch that they did not get away. After spinning for four or
five days their supply of silk becomes exhausted and they shrivel up and
apparently die. These apparently dead worms were collected by the Young
Empress and placed in a box where they were kept until they developed
into moths. They were then placed on thick paper and left there to lay
their eggs.
If left to themselves, the silkworms when ready for spinning will spin
the silk around their bodies until they are completely covered up,
gradually forming a cocoon. In order to determine when they have
finished spinning it was customary to take the cocoon and rattle it
near the ear. If the worm was exhausted you could plainly hear the body
rattle inside the cocoon. The cocoon is then placed in boiling water
until it becomes soft. This, of course, kills the worm. In order to
separate the silk a needle is used to pick up the end of the thread
which is then wound on to a spool and is ready for weaving. A few of the
cocoons were kept until the worms had turned into moths, which soon ate
their way out of the cocoons when they were placed on sheets of paper
and left to lay their eggs, which are taken away and kept in a cool
place until the following Spring, when the eggs are hatched and become
worms.
When the silk had all been separated we took it to Her Majesty for
inspection and approval. On this particular occasion Her Majesty ordered
one of the eunuchs to bring in some silk which she herself had woven
when a young girl in the Palace, and on comparing it with the new silk
it was found to be just as good in every way although many years had
passed since it was made.
All this was done with the same object as the Emperor sowing the seeds,
viz.:--to set the people a good example and to encourage them in their
work.