Two Years in the Forbidden City | Page 8

the three windows. We were not in this room
more than five minutes when a gorgeously dressed eunuch came and
said: "Imperial Edict says to invite Yu tai tai (Lady Yu) and young
ladies to wait in the East side Palace." On his saying this, the two
eunuchs who were with us knelt down and replied "Jur" (Yes).
Whenever Her Majesty gives an order it is considered an Imperial Edict
or command and all servants are required to kneel when any command
is transmitted to them the same as they would if in Her Majesty's
presence, Then they told us to follow them and we went through
another left gate to another courtyard laid out exactly the same as the
former, except that the Ren Shou Dien (audience hall) is situated on the
north side and the other buildings were a little larger. The eunuchs
showed us into the east side building, which was beautifully furnished
with reddish blackwood exquisitely carved, the chairs and tables

covered with blue satin and the walls hung with the same material. In
different parts of the room were fourteen clocks of all sizes and shapes.
I know this, for I counted them.
In a little while two servant girls came and waited on us and told us that
Her Majesty was dressing and that we were to wait a little time. This
little time proved to be a matter of more than two hours and a half, but
as this is considered nothing in China, we did not get impatient. From
time to time eunuchs came and brought milk to drink and about twenty
or more dishes of various kinds of food which Her Majesty sent. She
also sent us each a gold ring with a large pearl in the center. Later the
chief eunuch, Li Lien Ying, came dressed in his official clothes. He
was of the second rank and wore a red button and peacock feather and
was the only eunuch that was ever allowed to wear the peacock feather.
He was a very ugly man, very old and his face was full of wrinkles; but
he had beautiful manners and said that Her Majesty would receive us in
a little while, and brought us each a jade ring which she had sent us.
We were very much surprised that she should give us such beautiful
presents before she had even seen us, and felt most kindly disposed
toward her for her generosity.
Soon after Li Lien Ying had gone, two court ladies, daughters of Prince
Ching, came in and asked the eunuchs who were attending us if we
could speak Chinese, which we thought a great joke. I was the first one
to speak, and told them of course we could speak our own language,
although we knew several others. They were very much surprised and
said: "Oh! how funny, they can talk the language as well as we do." We
in turn were very much surprised to find such ignorant people in the
Imperial Palace and concluded that their opportunities for acquiring
knowledge were very limited. Then they told us Her Majesty was
waiting to receive us, and we went immediately.
After walking through three courtyards very similar to those we had
previously passed through, we came to a magnificent building just one
mass of exquisite carving. Large lanterns made of buffalo horns hung
all over the veranda covered with red silk from which red silk tassels
were hanging and from each of these tassels was suspended a beautiful

piece of jade. There were two smaller buildings flanking this large one,
also one mass of carvings and hung with lanterns.
At the door of the large building we met a lady, dressed the same as
Prince Ching's daughters, with the exception that she had a phoenix in
the center of her headdress which distinguished her from the others.
This lady came out to meet us, smiling, and shook hands with us in the
most approved foreign fashion. We were told later that this was the
Young Empress, wife of the Emperor Kwang Hsu. She said: "Her
Majesty has sent me to meet you," and was very sweet and polite, and
had beautiful manners; but was not very pretty. Then we heard a loud
voice from the hall saying, "Tell them to come in at once." We went
into this hall immediately and saw an old lady dressed in a beautiful
yellow satin gown embroidered all over with pink peonies, and wearing
the same kind of headdress with flowers on each side made of pearls
and jade, a pearl tassel on the left side and a beautiful phoenix in the
center made of purest jade. Over her gown she wore a cape, the most
magnificent and costly thing I ever saw. This cape