6. CHAPTER SIX
IN ATTENDANCE ON HER MAJESTY
THE building where we had our rooms, as I
have said before, contained four large rooms and
a hall, and we three, my mother, sister and myself,
each took a room and gave the fourth to
our maids. Her Majesty had ordered a eunuch
to accompany us and this eunuch told us that
Her Majesty had ordered four young eunuchs to
attend on us and that if they did not behave, we
should tell him. He also said his name was Li,
but as there were so many by this name, including
the head eunuch, it was very hard to tell
them apart.
When we arrived, which took some time, he
pointed to a building on our right and said that
it was Her Majesty's own Palace and the one
which we had just left. I could not understand
why it had taken us so long to come, when the
Palace was so near, and asked him about it. He
told us that our little buildings were at the left
side of the Emperor's Palace and that Her
Majesty had had the entrance leading from our
place to her Palace closed up for certain reasons
which he would not tell, but said: "You see this
place ought to face East instead of towards the
lake.'' The view on the lake was beautiful and
I told him I liked it much better the way it was.
He smiled and said: "You will have to learn a
lot before you find out this wicked place.'' I
was surprised at what the eunuch said, but did
not like to ask him any questions. He also told
us that the Emperor's Palace was just behind
our place and was a large building similar to
Her Majesty's Palace. We looked and could
see the trees of his courtyard above the roof.
Then he pointed to another building behind the
Emperor's, which was larger but lower than the
Emperor's Palace, and also had a large courtyard,
and said it was the Young Empress's Palace.
It had two buildings flanking it on each
side and the eunuch told us that the one on the
left was the Secondary Wife's bedroom. That
there had been an entrance between the two
Palaces, but that Lao Fo Yeh (The great old
Buddha), as the eunuchs called Her Majesty,
had blocked it up so that the Emperor and
Empress could not communicate with each other,
except through Her Majesty's own Palace. I
suppose this was the way she kept watch over
them and knew at all times what they were doing.
This was all news to me and I did not know what
to think of it. I was afraid that this eunuch Li
would tell me more of these curious things, so
I told him I was tired and would go to my room
and rest, and he went away.
When I finally got inside my room and had
a chance to look around, I saw that it was very
prettily furnished with ebonywood furniture,
which was covered with red satin cushions and
the windows were hung with red silk curtains.
All the bedrooms were just alike. The kong
(bed) was made of brick covered with the same
kind of wood and ran along the wall under the
front window. It had high teaster posts with
slats running across on which red curtains were
hung. These kongs are very curiously built.
They are made of brick and have a hole in the
front center in which fire is placed to heat the
brick in winter time. During the day a sort of
table is placed on top of the kong and removed
again at night.
Shortly after we had gone to our rooms, some
eunuchs came and brought our dinner, which they
placed on a table in the center of the hall. They
told us the food had been sent by Her Majesty
and that she had ordered them to tell us to make
ourselves comfortable. We were so tired that
we could not eat very much and were about to
retire for the night when this eunuch Li came
again and told us that we must be up at five
o'clock, not later, so I told my eunuch to knock
on my window at five. Immediately after this
we went to bed, but did not sleep immediately,
as we wanted to talk over the events of the day,
which had been many and strange. After we
did finally get to bed, it seemed as if we had just
fallen asleep when I heard someone knocking on
my window. I woke up with a start and asked
what the matter was and a eunuch told me it
was five o'clock and time to get up.
I immediately got up and opened my window
and looked out. The day was just dawning and
the sky was a beautiful deep red which was
reflected in the lake, which was perfectly calm.
The scenery was lovely and in the distance I
could see Her Majesty's peony mountain, which
was literally covered with these beautiful flowers.
I dressed at once and went to Her Majesty's
Palace and there met the Young Empress sitting
on the veranda. I courtesied to her as a good
morning salute. The Emperor's Secondary wife
was there also, but we had been ordered not to
courtesy to her, as she was considered not to have
any standing there. There was also a number of
young Court ladies, many of whom I had never
seen before. The Young Empress introduced
me to them, saying that they were also Court
ladies. They were daughters of high Manchu
officials and some were very pretty and bright.
The Young Empress told me that these ten
(there were just ten there) were never allowed
to go near Her Majesty, as they were just learning
the court etiquette. They were all dressed
very nicely in pretty Manchu gowns, the same
design as that worn by the Young Empress.
After I had been introduced to these young
ladies and talked with them a while, I went inside
with the Young Empress and there met Sze
Gurgur, fourth daughter of Prince Ching and a
young widow twenty-four years of age, Yuen
Da Nai Nai, widow of Her Majesty's nephew.
Both were busy getting things ready for Her
Majesty. The Young Empress told us that
we must go at once to Her Majesty's bedroom
and assist Her Majesty to dress, so we went
at once and courtesied to her and said: "Lao
Tsu Tsung Chi Hsiang'' (old ancestor, all joy
be with you). Her Majesty was still in bed
and smiled to us and asked us if we had slept
well. We told her the rooms were very comfortable,
etc. I thought to myself, we had slept
very well for the little time we had, but I had
not had half enough. The day before had been
very hard for us and we were quite unused to it
and it had made us very lame and sore running
around so much.
She asked us if we had had any breakfast and
we told her not yet. She scolded Li for not
having given the order for our breakfast to be
brought to our rooms and said: "You must not
feel like strangers, order anything you may
want.'' Then she arose and started to dress.
She put on her white silk socks first, having slept
in her pantaloons as is the custom, and tied them
at the ankle with pretty ribbon. I must tell
you here that although she always slept in her
clothes, she changed them for clean ones every
day. Then she put on a pale pink shirt of soft
material and over that a short silk gown, that was
embroidered with bamboo leaves, as she always
wore low heeled shoes in the morning and
consequently could not wear her long gowns. After
she had dressed she walked over to a window in
front of which were two long tables covered with
toilet articles of every kind and description.
As she was washing her face and dressing her
hair, she said to my mother that she could not
bear to have the servant girls, eunuchs, or old
women, touch her bed, that they were dirty, so
the Court ladies must make it. When she said
this she turned to my sister and myself, we were
standing a little to one side, and said: "You two
must not think for a moment that the Court ladies
do servant's work, but you know I am an old
woman and could easily be your grandmother
and it will do you no harm to work a little for
me. When it comes your turn, you can superintend
the others and don't have to do the work
with your own hands.'' Then Her Majesty said
to me: "Der Ling you are a great help to me in
every way and I make you my first lady-in-waiting.
You must not work too much for you will
have to make all the arrangements for the audiences
for foreigners and you will have to interpret
for me. I also want you to look after my
jewels and don't want you to do rough work
at all. Roon Ling (my sister) can choose what
she likes to do. I have two more besides you,
Sze Gurgur and Yuen Da Nai Nai, making four
altogether and you must all work together. It
is not necessary to be too polite to them and if
they are not nice to you, you let me know.''
Although I was very happy at receiving this
appointment, I knew that according to custom I
must refuse it, so I thanked Her Majesty very
kindly for the honor she had given me and said
that I did not know enough to hold such an
important position and would prefer to be just
an ordinary Court lady, and that I would learn
as quickly as possible to be useful to her. She
hardly let me finish what I was saying, when she
laughed and said: "Stop! don't say anything like
that; you are too modest, which shows you are
very clever and not a bit conceited. I am surprised
to see what a perfect little Manchu lady
you are, knowing even such small etiquette as
this, although you have spent many years outside
of China.'' She was very fond of making fun
and liked very much to tease, and said that I
could try and if she saw that I could not do the
work, she would scold me and put someone else
in my place. After all this that she had said, I
accepted the appointment and went over to her
bed to see how it was made, and I found that it
was very easy work to do. As this would be one
of my duties, I watched while the bed was being
fixed. First of all, after Her Majesty had
risen, the bedclothes were taken out into the
courtyard by the eunuchs and aired, then the bed,
which was made of beautifully carved wood, was
brushed off with a sort of whiskbroom, and
a piece of felt placed over it. Then three
thick mattresses made of yellow brocade were
placed over the felt. After this came the sheets
made of different colored soft silk, and over the
whole thing was placed a covering of plain yellow
satin embroidered with gold dragons and
blue clouds. She had a great many pillows, all
beautifully embroidered, which were placed on
the bed during the daytime; but had a particular
one stuffed with tea leaves on which she slept.
It is said that stuffing the pillow on which you
sleep with tea leaves is good for the eyes. In
addition to all these, she had another very curiously
shaped pillow about twelve inches long in
the middle of which was a hole about three inches
square. It was stuffed with dried flowers, and
the idea of the hole was that when she laid on it
she could place her ear in this hole and in this
way hear any and every sound. I suppose in that
way no one could come on her unawares.
Besides this last yellow embroidered cover,
there were six covers of different colors, pale
mauve, blue, pink, green and violet, and were
placed one on top of the other. Over the top
of the bed was a frame of wood handsomely
carved and from this frame white crêpe curtains,
beautifully embroidered, hung, and numerous little
gauze silk bags filled with scent were suspended
from the carved work of the frame. The
odor from these bags was very strong and made
one feel sick until they became used to it. Her
Majesty was also very fond of musk and used
it on all occasions.
It took us about fifteen minutes to make the
bed, and when I had finished, I turned around
and saw that Her Majesty was dressing her hair.
I stood beside her Majesty while the eunuch
was dressing it and saw that as old as she was,
she still had beautiful long hair which was as soft
as velvet and raven black. She parted it in the
center and brought it low at the back of her ears,
and the back braid was brushed up on the top
of her head and made it into a tight knot. When
she had finished doing this, she was ready to have
the Gu'un Dzan (Manchu headdress) placed on
and pinned through the knot with two large pins.
Her Majesty always dressed her hair first and
then washed her face. She was as fussy and
particular as a young girl and would give it to
the eunuch if he did not get it just to suit her.
She had dozens of bottles of all kinds of perfume,
also perfumed soap. When she had finished
washing her face, she dried it on a soft towel and
sprayed it with a kind of glycerine made of
honey and flower petals. After that she put
some kind of strong scented pink powder on her
face.
When she had completed her toilet, she turned
to me and said: "It must seem to you quite funny
to see an old lady like me taking so much care
and pains in dressing and fixing up. Well! I
like to dress myself up and to see others dress
nicely. It always gives me pleasure to see pretty
girls dressed nicely; it makes you want to be
young again yourself.'' I told her that she
looked quite young and was still beautiful, and
that although we were young we would never
dare compare ourselves with her. This pleased
her very much, as she was very fond of compliments,
and I took great pains that morning to
study her and to find out what she liked and
what she didn't.
After this Her Majesty took me into another
room and showed me where her jewels were kept.
This room was covered with shelves on three
sides of the room from top to bottom, on which
were placed piles of ebony boxes all containing
jewels. Small yellow strips were pasted on some
of the boxes on which was written the contents.
Her Majesty pointed to a row of boxes on the
right side of the room and said: "Here is where
I keep my favorite everyday jewels, and some
day you must go over them and see that they are
all there. The rest are all jewels which I wear
on special occasions. There are about three thousand
boxes in this room and I have a lot more
locked up in my safety room, which I will show
you when I am not busy.'' Then she said: "I
am sorry you cannot read and write Chinese,
otherwise I would give you a list of these things
and you could keep a check on them.'' I was
very much surprised at this and wondered who
had told her I couldn't. I was anxious to know,
but did not dare to ask her, so I told her that
although I was not a scholar, I had studied
Chinese for some time and could read and write
a little, that if she would give me a list I would
try and read it. She said: "That is funny, someone
told me the first day you were here, I forget
now who it was, that you could not read or write
your own language at all.'' While she was saying
this, she was looking all around the room and
I was sure she knew who it was that had told
her, but she would not tell me. Then she said:
"When we have time this afternoon, I will go
over this list with you. Bring me those five
boxes on the first row of shelves.'' I brought the
boxes to her room and placed them on the table.
She opened the first one and it contained a most
beautiful peony made of coral and jade and each
petal trembled like a real flower. This flower
was made by stringing the petals which were
made of coral on very fine brass wire, also the
leaves which were made of pure jade. She took
this flower and placed it on the right side of her
headdress. Then she opened another box and
took from it a magnificent jade butterfly made in
the same way. This was an invention of her
own and it was done by carving the coral and
jade into petals and leaves and boring holes in
the lower ends through which brass wire was run.
The other two boxes contained bracelets and
rings of different patterns. There was a pair of
gold bracelets set with pearls, another pair set
with jade, with a piece of jade hanging from the
end of a small gold chain, etc. The last two
contained chains of pearls, the like of which I
never saw before, and I fell in love with them at
once. Her Majesty took one which was made
into a plum blossom string by winding a circle
of five pearls around a larger one, then one single
pearl, then another circle of five pearls around a
large one, and so on, making quite a long chain,
which she suspended from one of the buttons of
her gown.
At this juncture one of the Court ladies came
in carrying several gowns for Her Majesty to select
from. She looked at them and said that none
of them suited her, to take them back and bring
more. I had a look at them and thought they
were perfectly lovely, such pretty colors and so
beautifully embroidered. In a short while the
same Court lady came back carrying more, and
from these Her Majesty selected a sea-green one
embroidered all over with white storks. She put
this gown on and looked at herself in the mirror
for a while, then took off her jade butterfly. She
said: "You see I am very particular about little
details. The jade butterfly is too green and it
kills my gown. Put it back in the box and bring
me a pearl stork in No. 35 box.'' I went back
to the jewel room and fortunately found No.
35 box and brought it to her. She opened the
box and took from it a stork made entirely of
pearls set in silver, the bird's bill being made of
coral. The pearls making the body of the bird
were so cleverly set that the silver could not be
seen at all unless one looked at it very closely.
It was a most magnificent piece of workmanship
and the pearls were of perfect color and shape.
Her Majesty took it and placed it in her hair
and did look very graceful and pretty. Then she
picked out a mauve-colored short jacket, also
embroidered with storks, which she put on over her
gown. Her handkerchief and shoes were also
embroidered with storks and when she was entirely
dressed she looked like the stork lady.
Just as she had finished dressing, the Emperor
Kwang Hsu came into the bedroom dressed in
his official clothes. These clothes were exactly
like other official clothes, except that he had no
button on his hat and did not wear the peacock
feather. He knelt down before Her Majesty
and said: "Chin Baba, Chi Hsiang'' (dear father,
all joy be with you). It may seem curious that
the Emperor and all of us should call Her Majesty
father, and the reason why this was done
was because Her Majesty always wanted to be
a man and compelled everyone to address her as
if she were actually one. This was only one of
her many peculiarities.
I did not know whether to courtesy to the Emperor
or not, not having received any orders as
to what I should do. However, I thought it
better to be too polite than not enough, so I
waited until either he or Her Majesty went out
of the room, as we were not allowed to salute or
courtesy to anyone in her presence. In a little
while the Emperor went out and I followed him
out into the hall and just as I was in the act of
courtesying Her Majesty came out. She looked
at me in a very peculiar way, as if she did not
approve of what I had done, but said nothing.
I felt very uncomfortable and made up my mind
that being too polite did not always pay after
all.
I then returned to the room again and saw a
small eunuch placing several yellow boxes on a
table at the left side of the room. Her Majesty
seated herself in a large chair, which was called
her little throne, and this eunuch opened the
boxes, took a yellow envelope from each box and
handed them to Her Majesty. She opened these
envelopes with an ivory paper knife and read
their contents. They were memorials from the
heads of the different Boards, or from the Viceroys
of the different Provinces. The Emperor
had come back and was standing at the side of
this table and after she had finished reading, she
handed them over to him. While all this was
being done I stood at the back of her chair. I
watched the Emperor as the different papers
were handed to him and noticed that it did not
take him very long to finish reading their contents.
After he was finished reading the papers,
they were placed back in the boxes. During all
this time absolute silence was maintained. Just
as they had finished the head eunuch came in,
knelt down and announced that Her Majesty's
chair was ready. She immediately got up and
went out of the house, we following her, and I
took her arm while she was descending the steps
to go to her chair. When she had entered the
chair to go to the Audience Hall, the Emperor
and Young Empress and we all followed in our
usual places, the eunuchs, amahs and servant
girls carrying all the things exactly the same as
was done the first day I came to the Palace.
When we arrived at the Audience Hall, we took
our places behind the big screen and the audience
commenced. I was very curious to find out just
how the audiences were conducted and wanted to
listen to what was going on, but the Court ladies
would not leave me alone. However, when they
were all talking together with my sister, I stole
away into a corner where I could sit and rest
and listen to the conversation between the
different Ministers and Her Majesty. Trust a
woman for being inquisitive.
The first part of the audience I could not hear
very well, as so many people were whispering and
talking at the same time, but by peeping through
the carved-work of the screen, I could see a
General talking to Her Majesty. I also saw the
members of the Grand Council come in headed by
Prince Ching, who was the Councillor-in-Chief.
After the General had finished, Her Majesty
talked with Prince Ching about the appointment
of some minor officials, a list of whose names had
been handed to her. She looked over this list and
spoke about several of the people, but Prince
Ching suggested some others, saying: "Although
these people whose names have been submitted to
Your Majesty should receive appointments,
those that I have suggested are better fitted for
the positions.'' Her Majesty said: "All right,
I leave it all to you.'' Then I heard Her Majesty
say to the Emperor, "Is that correct?'' and
he replied, "Yes.'' This finished the Audience
for the morning and the Ministers and Grand
Councillors took their leave. We came out from
behind the screen to Her Majesty and she said
that she wanted to go for a walk to get some
fresh air. The servant girls brought her a mirror,
placed it on a table, and Her Majesty took
off her heavy headdress, leaving the simple knot
on the top of her head, which was quite becoming.
She wanted to change some of the flower
jewels and I opened a box which one of the
eunuchs had brought and took out some very
dainty flowers made of pearls. I handed her
one which she placed at the side of this knot, then
she selected a jade dragonfly which she placed
on the other side. She said these small flowers
were favorites of hers and she liked to wear them
when she took off her heavy headdress. I was
watching her very closely and wondered what I
was going to do with the flowers she had taken
off. I had not brought the boxes to put them
in, as I did not know she was going to change
again after the audience, and felt a little nervous
as to what was the right thing to do, or as
to what she would say. However, I saw a
eunuch come in carrying these boxes and felt
much relieved. I quickly placed the things in
the boxes where they belonged.