17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE AUDIENCE HALL
ON the fourteenth day of the eleventh moon,
after the morning audience, Her Majesty
informed us that there was a likelihood of war
breaking out between Russia and Japan and
that she was very much troubled, as although it
actually had nothing whatever to do with China,
she was afraid they would fight on Chinese territory
and that in the long run China would suffer
in some way or other. Of course we did not
bother ourselves about it much at the moment,
but the next morning the head eunuch reported
to Her Majesty that fifty eunuchs were missing.
As there was no apparent reason for this,
everybody was much excited. There was no rule
against any of the eunuchs going into the city
after their duties were ended, providing they
returned before the Palace Gate was closed, but
when on the following morning it was reported
that another hundred eunuchs had also disappeared,
Her Majesty at once said: "I know now
what the trouble is; they must have heard what
I said about this war coming on and are afraid
there may be a repetition of the Boxer trouble,
and so they have cleared out.'' It was the custom
whenever a eunuch was missing to send
out search parties and have him brought back
and punished, but in the present instance Her
Majesty gave instructions that nothing was to
be done about recapturing them. One morning,
however, one of Her Majesty's personal
attendants was missing, which made her furious.
She said that she had been very kind to this
particular eunuch in many ways, and this was
all the thanks she got; he ran away at the first
sign of trouble. I myself had noticed how good
she had been to this eunuch, but I was not really
sorry that he had left, as he used to take advantage
of every opportunity of getting some of
the Court ladies into trouble.
These disappearances continued from day to
day until Her Majesty decided that it would
be safer for us to remain in the Forbidden City
until the following spring at any rate.
On inquiring from my eunuch the cause of
these disappearances, he said that it was just as
Her Majesty suspected; they were afraid of getting
mixed up in another such affair as the Boxer
trouble, and added that he was not a bit surprised
at Her Majesty's favorite eunuch going
along with the rest. He further told me that
even Li Lien Ying himself was not to be absolutely
relied upon, as at the time of Her
Majesty's leaving Peking for Shi An during the
Boxer movement, he had feigned sickness, and
followed a little later, so that in the event of
anything happening, he would be able to return
and make his escape. While talking about Li
Lien Ying, my eunuch told me in confidence that
he was responsible for the death of many innocent
people, mostly eunuchs. He had unlimited
power at the Court, and it was very easy for him
to get anybody put away who offended him or
to whom, for some reason or another, he took a
dislike. Furthermore, the eunuch informed me
that, although not generally known, Li Lien
Ying was addicted to opium-smoking, which
habit he indulged in very freely. Even Her
Majesty was unaware of this, as opium-smoking
was strictly forbidden in the Palace.
Each morning there was fresh news regarding
the trouble between Russia and Japan, and of
course everybody gradually became very much
excited at the Palace. One day Her Majesty
summoned the whole of the Court to a special
audience and there informed us that there was
no need for us to get excited at all; that if any
trouble did occur, it was none of our business
and we should not be interfered with, as the
spirits of our ancestors were watching over us,
and she did not want to hear any more talk
and gossip on the subject. However, she summoned
all of the Court ladies to her apartment
and there commanded us to pray to the spirits
of our ancestors to protect us, which plainly
showed that she was just as much worried as
we were ourselves. In spite of what she had
said with reference to gossipping about this
trouble, Her Majesty often spoke about it herself,
and during one of our conversations she said
she wished she could get information each day
as to what was actually occurring, so I suggested
that it would be very easy to get all the latest
news by taking the foreign papers and also
Reuter's specials. Her Majesty jumped at the
suggestion and told me to have these sent each
day to my father's house in his name, and have
them brought to the Palace, where I could translate
them for her. I told her that my father
received all these papers as they were published,
so I arranged that they should be brought along
as directed by Her Majesty. Each morning during
the audience I translated into Chinese all the
war news, but the telegrams began to arrive so
rapidly that it soon became quite impossible for
me to write them all out in Chinese, so I told
Her Majesty that I would read and translate
them into Chinese as they arrived. This was
much quicker and interested Her Majesty so
much that she insisted on my not only translating
the war news, but everything else of interest in
the papers. Especially was she interested in all
news appertaining to the movements, etc., of the
crowned heads of Europe, and was very plainly
astonished when she learned that their every
movement was known. She said: "Here, at any
rate, it is more private, for nobody outside the
Palace ever knows what is going on inside, not
even my own people. It would be a good thing
if they did know a little more, then perhaps all
these rumors about the Palace would stop.''
Of course, during our stay in the Forbidden
City, Miss Carl attended each morning to work
on the portrait. We had given her a nice room,
which seemed to suit her very well, and Her
Majesty had instructed me to let her have every
convenience possible to assist her, as she was
getting tired of the business and would like to
see it finished quickly. Her Majesty hardly
ever went near the place herself, but when she
did go, she would be most affable and, really, one
would think that it was the greatest pleasure
of her life to go and inspect the portrait.
Things went very slowly during this eleventh
moon on account of the Court being in mourning,
so one day Her Majesty suggested that
she should show us round the Forbidden City.
First we proceeded to the Audience Hall. This
differs somewhat from the Audience Hall of the
Summer Palace. To enter, one must mount
some twenty odd steps of white marble, with
rails on either side of the steps made of the same
material. At the top of the steps a large
veranda, supported by huge pillars of wood,
painted red, surrounded the building. The windows
along this verandah were of marvellously
carved trellis-work, designed to represent the
character "Shou'' arranged in different positions.
Then we entered the hall itself. The floor is of
brick, and Her Majesty told us that all these
bricks were of solid gold and had been there for
centuries. They were of a peculiar black color,
doubtless painted over, and were so slippery that
it was most difficult to keep on one's feet. The
furnishing was similar to that in the Audience
Halls in the Summer Palace and in the Sea Palace,
with the exception that the throne was made
of dark brown wood inlaid with jade of different
colors.
The Hall was only used for audience on very
rare occasions, such as the birthday of the
Empress Dowager and New Year's Day, and no
foreigner has ever entered this building. All the
usual audiences were held in a smaller building
in the Forbidden City.
After spending some little time in the Audience
Hall, we next visited the Emperor's quarters.
These were much smaller than those
occupied by Her Majesty, but were very elaborately
furnished. There were thirty-two rooms,
many of which were never used, but all were furnished
in the same expensive style. In the rear
of this building was the Palace of the Young
Empress, which was smaller still, having about
twenty-four rooms in all, and in the same building
three rooms were set apart for the use of the
Secondary wife of the Emperor. Although
close together, the Palaces of the Emperor and
his wife were not connected by any entrance, but
both buildings were surrounded by verandas
connecting with Her Majesty's apartments,
which were quite a distance away. There were
several other buildings, which were used as
waitingrooms for visitors. In addition to the above,
there were several buildings which were not used
at all; these were sealed and nobody seemed to
know what they contained, or whether they contained
anything at all. Even Her Majesty said
she had never been inside these buildings, as they
had been sealed for many years. Even the
entrance to the enclosure containing these buildings
was always closed, and this was the only
occasion that any of us ever even passed through.
They were quite different in appearance from
any other buildings in the Palace, being very dirty
and evidently of great age. We were commanded
not to talk about the place at all.
The apartments of the Court ladies were connected
with those of Her Majesty, but the rooms
were so small one could hardly turn round in
them; also they were very cold in winter. The
servants' quarters were at the end of our apartments,
but there was no entrance and they could
only be reached by passing along our veranda,
while the only entrance we ourselves had to our
rooms was by passing along Her Majesty's veranda.
This was Her Majesty's own idea, in order
that she could keep an eye on all of us and
could see when we either went out or came in.
Her Majesty now conducted us to her own
Palace, and pausing a little said: "I will now
show you something which will be quite new to
you.'' We entered a room adjoining her bedroom,
which was connected by a narrow passage
some fifteen feet in length. On either side the
walls were painted and decorated very beautifully.
Her Majesty spoke to one of the eunuch
attendants, who stooped down and removed from
the ground at each end of this passage two
wooden plugs which were fitted into holes in the
basement. I then began to realize that what I
had hitherto regarded as solid walls were in reality
sliding panels of wood. These panels when
opened revealed a kind of grotto. There were
no windows, but in the roof was a skylight. At
one end of this room or grotto was a large rock,
on the top of which was a seat with a yellow
cushion, and beside the cushion an incense
burner. Everything had the appearance of
being very old. The room contained no furniture
of any description. One end of this room
led into another passage similar to the one
already described, having sliding panels, which
led into another grotto, and so on; in fact the
whole of the palace walls were intersected by
these secret passages, each concealing an inner
room. Her Majesty told us that during the
Ming dynasty these rooms had been used for
various purposes, principally by the Emperor
when he wished to be alone. One of these secret
rooms was used by Her Majesty as a treasure
room where she kept her valuables. During the
time of the Boxer trouble, she hid all her valuables
here before she fled. When she returned
and opened this secret room she found everything
intact, not one of the vandals who ransacked
the Palace even suspecting there was such
a place.
We returned to our veranda, and on looking
around for the rooms we had just vacated, could
see nothing excepting black stone walls, so well
were they hidden. One of the principal reasons
for Her Majesty's dislike to the Forbidden City
was the mysteries which it contained, many of
which she did not know of herself. She said:
"I don't even talk about these places at all, as
people might think that they were used for all
kinds of purposes.''
While at the Palace in the Forbidden City I
met the three Secondary wives of the previous
Emperor Tung Chi, son of the Empress Dowager,
who, since the death of the Emperor, had
resided in the Forbidden City and spent their
time in doing needlework, etc., for Her Majesty.
When I got to know them I found that they
were highly educated, one of them, Yu Fai, being
exceptionally clever. She could write poetry
and play many musical instruments, and was
considered to be the best educated lady in the
Empire of China. Her knowledge of western
countries and their customs surprised me very
much; she seemed to know a little bit of everything.
I asked how it was that I had never
seen them before, and was informed that they
never visited Her Majesty unless commanded by
her to do so, but that when Her Majesty stayed
in the Forbidden City, of course they had to call
and pay their respects each day. One day I
received an invitation to visit them in their Palace.
This was separated from all the other
buildings in the city. It was rather a small
building, and very simply furnished, with just a
few eunuchs and servant girls to wait upon them.
They said they preferred this simple life, as they
never received any visitors and had nobody to
please but themselves. Yu Fai's room was literally
packed with literature of all descriptions.
She showed me several poems which she had
written, but they were of a melancholy character,
plainly showing the trend of her thoughts. She
was in favor of establishing schools for the education
of young girls, as only very few could
even read or write their own language, and she
suggested that I should speak to Her Majesty
about it at the first opportunity. In spite of her
desire to see western reforms introduced into
China, however, she was not in favor of employing
missionary teachers, as these people always
taught their religion at the expense of other subjects,
which she feared would set the Chinese
against the movement.
Toward the end of the eleventh moon Her
Majesty granted an audience to the Viceroy of
Chihli, Yuan Shih Kai, and as this particular day
was a holiday and Miss Carl was absent, I was
able to attend. Her Majesty asked him for his
opinion of the trouble between Russia and Japan.
He said that although these two countries might
make war against each other, China would not
be implicated in any way, but that after the
war was over, there was sure to be trouble
over Manchuria. Her Majesty said she was
quite aware of that, as they were fighting on
Chinese territory, and that the best thing for
China to do would be to keep absolutely neutral
in the matter, as she had quite enough of war
during the China-Japan war. She said it would
be best to issue orders to all the officials to see
that the Chinese did not interfere in any way,
so as not to give any excuse for being brought
into the trouble.
She then asked his opinion as to what would
be the result in the event of war — who would
win. He said that it was very hard to say, but
that he thought Japan would win. Her Majesty
thought that if Japan were victorious, she would
not have so much trouble over the matter,
although she expressed doubts as to the outcome,
saying that Russia was a large country and had
many soldiers, and that the result was far from
certain.
Her Majesty then spoke about the condition
of things in China. She said that in case China
were forced into war with another nation, we
should be nowhere. We had nothing ready, no
navy and no trained army, in fact nothing to
enable us to protect ourselves. Yuan Shih Kai,
however, assured her there was no need to anticipate
any trouble at present so far as China was
concerned. Her Majesty replied that in any
event it was time China began to wake up and
endeavor to straighten things out in some way
or other, but she did not know where to begin;
that it was her ambition to see China holding a
prominent position among the nations of the
world and that she was constantly receiving
memorials suggesting this reform and that
reform, but that we never seemed to get any
further.
After this audience was over, Her Majesty
held an audience with the Grand Council. She
told them what had been said during her interview
with Yuan Shih Kai, and of course they all
agreed that something should be done. Several
suggestions were discussed with regard to national
defense, etc., but a certain Prince said
that although he was in perfect sympathy with
reform generally, he was very much against the
adoption of foreign clothing, foreign modes of
living, and the doing away with the queue. Her
Majesty quite agreed with these remarks and
said that it would not be wise to change any
Chinese custom for one which was less civilized.
As usual, nothing definite was decided upon
when the audience was over.
For the next few days nothing was talked of
but the war, and many Chinese generals were
received in audience by Her Majesty. These
audiences were sometimes very amusing, as these
soldiers were quite unaccustomed to the rules of
the Court and did not know the mode of procedure
when in the presence of Her Majesty.
Many foolish suggestions were made by these
generals. During one of the conversations Her
Majesty remarked on the inefficiency of the
navy and referred to the fact that we had no
trained naval officers. One of the generals
replied that we had more men in China than in
any other country, and as for ships, why we had
dozens of river boats and China merchant boats,
which could be used in case of war. Her
Majesty ordered him to retire, saying that it was
perfectly true that we had plenty of men in
China, but that the majority of them were like
himself, of very little use to the country. After
he had retired, everybody commenced to laugh,
but Her Majesty stopped us, saying that she did
not feel at all like laughing, she was too angry
to think that such men held positions as officers
in the army and navy. One of the Court ladies
asked me why Her Majesty was so angry with
the man for mentioning the river boats, and was
very much surprised when I informed her that
the whole of them would be worse than useless
against a single war vessel.
Just about the end of the eleventh moon
Chang Chih Tung, Viceroy of Wuchang,
arrived, and was received in audience. Her
Majesty said to him: "Now, you are one of the
oldest officials in the country, and I want you
to give me your unbiased opinion as to what
effect this war is going to have on China. Do
not be afraid to give your firm opinion, as I want
to be prepared for anything which is likely to
happen.'' He answered that no matter what the
result of the war might be, China would in all
probability have to make certain concessions to
the Powers with regard to Manchuria for trade
purposes, but that we should not otherwise be
interfered with. Her Majesty repeated what
had been discussed at the previous audiences on
this subject and also regarding reform in China.
Chang Chih Tung replied that we had plenty
of time for reform, and that if we were in too
great a hurry, we should not accomplish anything
at all. He suggested that the matter be
discussed at length before deciding upon anything
definite. In his opinion it would be foolish
to go to extremes in the matter of reform.
He said that ten or fifteen years ago he would
have been very much against any reform whatsoever,
but that he now saw the need for it to
a certain extent, as circumstances had changed
very much. He said that we should adhere
strictly to our own mode of living and not abandon
the traditions of our ancestors. In other
words, he simply advised the adoption of western
civilization where it was an improvement on our
own, and nothing more. Her Majesty was
delighted with the interview, for Chang Chih
Tung's opinions coincided exactly with her own.
During the whole of these audiences the
Emperor, although present each time, never
opened his lips to say a word, but sat listening
all the time. As a rule, Her Majesty would ask
his opinion, just as a matter of form, but he
invariably replied that he was quite in accord
with what Her Majesty had said or decided upon.
Of the many religious ceremonies in connection
with the Buddhist religion the "La-pachow''
was the most important. This was held
on the 8th day of the twelfth moon each year.
According to the common belief, on this eighth
day of the twelfth moon, many centuries ago,
a certain Buddhist priest Ju Lai set out to beg
for food, and after receiving a good supply of
rice and beans from the people, he returned and
divided it with his brother priests, giving each
an equal share, and he became celebrated for his
great charity. This day was therefore set apart
as an anniversary to commemorate the event.
The idea was that by practising self-denial on
this day, one would gain favor in the sight of
this Buddha Ju Lai, therefore the only food
eaten was rice, grain and beans, all mixed together
in a sort of porridge, but without any salt
or other flavoring. It was not at all pleasant
to eat, being absolutely tasteless.
