3. CHAPTER THREE
A PLAY AT THE COURT
THIS day to me was a medley of brilliant
impressions. I was a great novelty among these
exclusive Court ladies, brought up rigidly apart
from foreign life and customs, and I was subjected
to a rapid fire of questions. I soon found
that these women were the same as others the
world over in point of curiosity and love of gossip.
The fourth daughter of Prince Ching (Sze
Gurgur), a young widow and a strikingly handsome
woman, spoke to me. "Were you brought
up in Europe and educated?'' she asked. "I am
told that when people go to that country and
drink the water there, they quickly forget their
own country. Did you really study to acquire
all those languages or was it drinking the water
that gave them to you?'' I mentioned that I met
her brother, Prince Tsai Chen, in Paris on his
way to London for the coronation of King Edward,
and that we should have liked to have gone
also, as my father had a special invitation, but
were prevented from doing so by his urgent duties
in Paris in settling the Yunnan question, to which
the Princess replied: "Is there a king in England?
I had thought that our Empress Dowager
was Queen of the world.'' Her sister, wife of
the brother of the Young Empress, a most intelligent,
quiet and dignified lady, stood by smiling
and listening to the eager questions. After
numerous questions had been asked the Young
Empress finally said: "How ignorant you are.
I know that each country has its ruler and that
some countries are republics. The United
States is a republic and very friendly toward
us, but I am sorry that such a common class
of people go there, as they will think we are all
the same. What I should like to see is some
of our good Manchu people go, as then they
would see what we really are.'' She afterwards
told me she had been reading a history of the
different countries, which had been translated
into Chinese, and she seemed to be very well
informed.
After the Audience was over, Her Majesty
called us out from behind the screen and told
us to go with her to see the theatre. She said,
as it was such a beautiful day, she preferred to
walk, so we started, walking a little behind her,
as is the custom. Along the way she pointed
out from time to time different places and things
that were her particular favorites, and as she had
to keep turning around all the time, she finally
told us to come and walk alongside of her. This,
as I afterwards found out, was a great condescension
on her part and a thing that she very
seldom ever did. She, like everybody else, had
her pets and hobbies, such as flowers, trees,
plants, dogs, horses, etc., and there was one dog
in particular that was her favorite pet. This
dog was with Her Majesty always and followed
her wherever she went, and a more homely dog
I never saw. It had absolutely nothing to
recommend it in any way. Her Majesty thought
it beautiful, and called it Shui Ta (Sea Otter).
A short distance from the Audience Hall we
came to a large courtyard. On each side of this
courtyard were two immense baskets fifteen feet
in height, built of natural logs and literally
covered with purple wisteria. They were simply
gorgeous and great favorites of Her Majesty.
She was always very proud of them when in
bloom and took great delight in showing them
to the people.
From this courtyard we entered a sort of
passageway which ran along the sides of a big
hill and led directly to the theatre, where we soon
arrived. This theatre is quite unlike anything
that you can imagine. It is built around the four
sides of an open courtyard, each side being separate
and distinct. The building has five stories.
It is entirely open on the front and has two
stages, one above the other. The three top stories
are used for holding the drops and for store
rooms. The stage on the first floor is of the
ordinary kind; but that on the second floor is
built to represent a temple and used when playing
religious plays, of which Her Majesty was
very fond.
On the two sides were long, low buildings
with large verandas running their entire length,
where the Princes and Ministers sat when invited
by Her Majesty to witness the play. Directly
opposite this stage was a spacious building, containing
three large rooms, which was used exclusively
by Her Majesty. The floor was raised
about ten feet above the ground, which brought
it on a level with the stage. Large glass windows
ran along in front, so made that they could
be removed in the summer and replaced with
pale blue gauze screens. Two of these rooms
were used as sitting rooms and the third, the one
on the right, she used as a bedroom, and it had
a long couch running across the front, on which
she used to sit or lie according to her mood. This
day she invited us to go to this room with her.
Later I was told that she would very often come
to this room, look at the play for a while and
then take her siesta. She could certainly sleep
soundly, for the din and noise did not disturb
her in the least. If any of my readers have ever
been to a Chinese theatre, they can well imagine
how difficult it would be to woo the God of Sleep
in such a pandemonium.
As soon as we were in this bedroom the play
commenced. It was a religious play called "The
Empress of Heaven's Party or Feast to all the
Buddhist Priests to eat her famous peaches and
drink her best wine.'' This party or feast is
given on the third day of the third moon of each
year.
The first act opens with a Buddhist Priest,
dressed in a yellow coat robe with a red scarf
draped over his left shoulder, descending in a
cloud from Heaven to invite all the priests to
this party. I was very much surprised to see
this actor apparently suspended in the air and
actually floating on this cloud, which was made
of cotton. The clever way in which they moved
the scenery, etc., was most interesting, and before
the play was finished I concluded that any
theatre manager could well take lessons from
these people; and it was all done without the
slightest bit of machinery.
As this Buddhist Priest was descending, a large
pagoda began to slowly rise from the center of
the stage in which was a buddha singing and
holding an incense burner in front of him. Then
four other smaller pagodas slowly rose from the
four corners of the stage, each containing a
buddha the same as the first. When the first
Buddhist Priest had descended, the five buddhas
came out of the pagodas, which immediately disappeared,
and walked about the stage, still singing.
Gradually from the wing came numbers
of buddhas singing until the stage was full, and
they all formed into a ring. Then I saw a large
lotus flower, made of pink silk, and two large
green leaves appearing from the bottom of the
stage, and as it rose the petals and leaves gradually
opened and I saw a beautiful lady buddha
(Goddess of Mercy) dressed all in white silk,
with a white hood on her head, standing in the
center of this flower. As the leaves opened I
saw a girl and a boy in the center of them.
When the petals of the lotus flower were wide
open this lady buddha began to gradually
ascend herself, and as she ascended, the petals
closed until she seemed to be standing on a lotus
bud. The girl standing in the leaf on the Goddess'
right side held a bottle made of jade and
a willow branch. The legend of this is that if
the Goddess dips the willow branch into the jade
bottle and spreads it over a dead person it will
bring the person to life. The boy and the girl
are the two attendants of the buddha.
Finally the three came down from the flower
and leaves and joined the rest of the buddhas.
Then the Empress of Heaven came, a
good old lady with snow-white hair, dressed from
head to foot in Imperial yellow, followed by many
attendants, and ascended the throne, which was
in the center of the stage, and said: "We will go
to the banquet hall.'' This ended the first scene.
The second scene opened with tables set for
the feast to be given by the Empress of Heaven.
These tables were loaded down with peaches and
wine and four attendants guarding them. Suddenly
a bee came buzzing near and scattered a
powder under the nostrils of the attendants,
which made them sleepy. When they had fallen
asleep, this bee transformed itself into a big
monkey and this monkey ate all the peaches and
drank all the wine. As soon as he had finished
he disappeared.
A blast of trumpets announced the coming of
the Empress of Heaven and she soon arrived
accompanied by all the Buddhist Priests and
their attendants. When the Empress of Heaven
saw all the peaches and wine had disappeared,
she woke the attendants and asked them why
they were asleep and where the peaches and wine
had gone. They said that they did not know,
that they were waiting for her to come and fell
asleep. Then one of the guests suggested that
she should find out what had become of the feast,
and attendants were sent out to the guard to find
out from the soldiers if anyone had gone out of
the gate recently. Before the messenger had
time to return, the Guard of Heaven came and
informed the Empress that a big monkey, who
was very drunk and carrying a big stick, had just
gone out of the gate. When she was told this,
she ordered the soldiers of heaven and several
buddhas to go and find him at his place. It
seems that this monkey had originally been made
from a piece of stone and lived in a large hole
in a mountain on the earth. He was endowed
with supernatural powers and could walk on the
clouds. He was allowed to come to heaven and
the Empress of Heaven gave him a position looking
after the Imperial orchards.
When they got to his place on the earth, they
found that he had taken some of the peaches with
him and he, with other monkeys, was having a
feast. The soldiers challenged him to come out
and fight. He immediately accepted this challenge,
but the soldiers could do nothing with him.
He pulled the hair out of his coat and transformed
each hair into a little monkey and each
monkey had an iron rod in its hand. He himself
had a special iron rod, which had been given
to him by the King of Sea Dragons. This rod
he could make any size he wanted from a needle
to a crowbar.
Among the buddhas who had gone with the
soldiers was one named Erh Lang Yeh, who was
the most powerful of them all and had three eyes.
This buddha had a dog which was very powerful
and he told the dog to bite this monkey, which he
did, and the monkey fell down and they caught
him and brought him up to heaven. When they
got there the Empress of Heaven ordered that
he should be handed to Lao Chun, an old taoist
god, and that he should burn him in his incense
burner. The incense burner was very large, and
when they took the monkey to him he placed him
inside this burner and watched him very carefully
to see that he did not get out. After he
had watched for a long time he thought the
monkey must be dead and went out for a few
minutes. The monkey, however, was not dead
and as soon as Lao Chun went out, he escaped
and stole some golden pills which Lao Chun kept
in a gourd and went back to his hole in the mountains.
These pills were very powerful and if one
of them were eaten it would give eternal life,
and the monkey knew this. The monkey ate one
and it tasted good and he gave the little monkeys
some. When Lao Chun came back and found
both the monkey and the pills gone he went and
informed the Empress of Heaven. This ended
the second scene.
The third scene opened with the buddhas and
soldiers at the monkey's place in the mountains
and they again asked him to come out and fight.
The monkey said: "What! Coming again?'' and
laughed at them. They started to fight again,
but he was so strong they could not get the best
of him. Even the dog who had bit him before
was powerless this time, and they finally gave
it up and returned to heaven and told the
Empress of Heaven that they could not capture
him the second time, as he was too strong. Then
the Empress of Heaven called a little god about
fifteen years old by the name of Neur Cha, who
had supernatural powers, and told him to go down
to earth to the monkey's place and see if he could
finish him. This god was made of lotus flowers
and leaves, that is, his bones were made of flowers
and his flesh made of leaves and he could transform
himself into anything that he wished.
When Neur Cha got to the monkey's place and
the monkey saw him, he said: "What! A little
boy like you come to fight me? Well, if you
think you can beat me, come on,'' and the boy
transformed himself into an immense man with
three heads and six arms. When the monkey
saw this, he transformed himself also into the
same thing. When the little god saw that this
would not do, he transformed himself into a very
big man and started to take the monkey, but the
monkey transformed himself into a very large
sword and cut this man into two pieces. The
little god again transformed himself into fire
to burn the monkey, but the monkey transformed
himself into water and put the fire out. Again
the little god transformed himself, this time into
a very fierce lion, but the monkey transformed
himself into a big net to catch the lion. So this
little god, seeing that he could not get the best
of the monkey, gave it up and went back to
heaven, and told the Empress of Heaven that
the monkey was too strong for him. The Empress
of Heaven was in despair, so she sent for
Ju Li, an old ancestor of the buddhas, who was
the all-powerful one of them all; and Kuan Yin,
Goddess of Mercy, and sent them down to the
monkey's place to see if they could capture him.
When they arrived at the hole in the mountain
the monkey came out and looked at Ju Li, but
did not say a word, as he knew who this god was.
This god pointed a finger at him and he knelt
down and submitted. Ju Li said: "Come with
me,'' and took the monkey and put him under
another mountain and told him he would have
to stay there until he promised he would be good.
Ju Li said: "You stay here until one day I lift
this mountain up for you to come out to go with
a Buddhist Priest to the West side of heaven and
demand the prayer books that are kept there.
You will have to suffer a great deal on the way
and face many dangers, but if you come back
with this Buddhist Priest and the prayer books,
by that time your savage temper will be gone
and you will be put in a nice place in heaven and
enjoy life forever afterwards.''
This finished the play, which was very interesting,
and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
It was acted very cleverly and quite realistic, and
I was very much surprised to know that the
eunuchs could act so well. Her Majesty told us
that the scenery was all painted by the eunuchs
and that she had taught them about all they
knew. Unlike most theatres in China, it had a
curtain which was closed between the acts, also
wing slides and drop scenes. Her Majesty had
never seen a foreign theatre and I could not
understand where she got all her ideas from.
She was very fond of reading religious books
and fairy tales, and wrote them into plays and
staged them herself, and was extremely proud
of her achievement.
Her Majesty sat talking, we standing, for
some little time and she asked me if I understood
the play, and I told her that I did and she seemed
quite pleased. Then she said in such a charming
way: "Oh! I am so interested in talking with you
that I have forgotten to order my lunch. Are
you hungry? Could you get Chinese food when
you were abroad, and were you homesick? I
know I would be if I left my own country for
so long a time; but the reason why you were
abroad so long was not your fault. It was my
order that sent Yü Keng to Paris and I am not
a bit sorry, for you see how much you can help
me now, and I am proud of you and will show
you to the foreigners that they may see our
Manchu ladies can speak other languages than
their own.'' While she was talking I noticed
that the eunuchs were laying three large tables
with nice white table cloths, and I could see a
number of other eunuchs standing in the courtyard
with boxes of food. These boxes or trays
are made of wood painted yellow and are large
enough to hold four small and two large bowls
of food. After the tables were laid ready, the
eunuchs outside formed themselves into a double
line from the courtyard to a little gate running
into another courtyard and passed these trays
from one to the other up to the entrance of the
room, where they were taken by four nicely
dressed eunuchs and placed on the tables.
It seems that it was a habit of Her Majesty
to take her meals wherever she happened to be,
so that there was no particular place that she used
as a dining room. I should also mention that
these bowls were of Imperial yellow with silver
covers. Some were ornamented with green
dragons and some with the Chinese character
Shou (Long Life).
There were about one hundred and fifty different
kinds of food, for I counted them. They
were placed in long rows, one row of large bowls
and one row of small plates, and then another
row of small bowls, and so on. As the setting
of the tables was going on, two Court ladies came
into the bedroom, each carrying a large yellow
box. I was very much surprised to see Court
ladies doing this kind of work and I said to
myself, if I come here will I have to do this sort
of thing? Although these boxes appeared to be
quite heavy, they brought them in very gracefully.
Two small tables were placed in front
of Her Majesty, then they opened the boxes and
placed a number of very cute plates containing
all sorts of sweets, lotus flower seeds, dried and
cooked with sugar, watermelon seeds, walnuts
cooked in different ways, and fruits of the season
cut and sliced. As these plates were being
placed on the tables Her Majesty said that she
liked these dainties better than meat and gave
us some and told us to make ourselves at home.
We thanked her for her kindness and enjoyed
them very much. I noticed that she ate quite a
quantity from the different plates and wondered
how she would be able to eat her lunch. When
she had finished, two of the Court ladies came
and took the plates away and Her Majesty told
us that she always gave what was left to the
Court ladies after she had finished eating.
After this a eunuch came in carrying a cup of
tea. This tea cup was made of pure white jade
and the saucer and cover was of solid gold. Then
another eunuch came in carrying a silver tray
on which were two jade cups similar to the others,
one containing honeysuckle flowers and the other
rose petals. He also brought a pair of gold
chopsticks. They both knelt on the floor in front
of Her Majesty and held the trays up so that
she could reach them. She took the golden cover
off of the cup containing tea and took some of
the honeysuckle flowers and placed them in the
tea. While she was doing this and sipping the
tea, she was telling how fond she was of flowers
and what a delicate flavor they gave to the tea.
Then she said: "I will let you taste some of my
tea and see if you like it,'' and ordered one of
the eunuchs to bring us some tea, the same as she
was drinking. When it came, she put some of
the honeysuckle flowers in the cup for us and
watched us drink it. It was the most delicious
tea I had ever tasted and the putting of flowers
in it gave it an extremely delicate flavour.