After “Early rice” came the hour of her siesta. She would retire to her bedroom, and her reader, bringing several volumes from which to choose, would come to read to her. She would remain in her room for an hour and a half, whether sleeping or being read to. When she awoke, she would make another careful toilet, the Ladies would join her, and she would go for a long walk before taking “Late rice.”
On the first and fifteenth of the month, the Imperial players were at the Theater. On these days, the Emperor, instead of returning to his own Palace, would accompany the Empress Dowager and the Ladies from the Audience Hall to the Theater. The Imperial Hymn was played on Their Majesties’ entrance into the court of the Theater, and when they had entered the Imperial loge, the players would come in a body on the stage and “kow-tow.” Then the actors, splendidly gowned, would make the customary wishes for the Imperial Peace, Prosperity, Longevity, after which there would be a posture-play in costume, and then the plays for the day would begin. On Theater days Their Majesties would lunch and dine together in the Imperial loge. They did not sit at the ends of the great table, but at right angles to each other—the Emperor at the head of the table, and the Empress Dowager at his left. His Majesty was not much of an epicure. He ate fast, and apparently did not care what it was. When he finished, he would stand up near Her Majesty, or walk around the Throne-room until she had finished.
The Empress Dowager was very rigorous in the observance of all fasts, as well as feasts, prescribed by the rites. On fast-days, no meat nor fish was eaten at her table. The meals consisted entirely of vegetables, bread, and rice; but there was always a great variety of these dishes, and they were temptingly prepared. Meat dishes and fish were always prepared for me when I was invited to eat at the Imperial table on fast-days, until I learned that the Empress Dowager and the Ladies were fasting, when I asked to eat only what was prepared for them when I dined with them at Her Majesty’s table.
On Festivals and Theater days, Princesses of the Imperial Family, wives of Manchu Nobles, and high Officials were invited to spend the day at the Palace. Sometimes their children would accompany them, little girls and boys under twelve. I never saw a boy over seventeen in the Palace; and only once, one sixteen years old. This was a son of Prince Ching. When these young people came to the Court, they observed the same rules of etiquette as their elders, and behaved with great decorum. Her Majesty is very fond of children, but very particular as to their manners. When a little girl did not make a graceful bow, Her Majesty would not correct her, but would ask the young Empress, an authority on etiquette and very graceful, to bow. Her Majesty would then tell the little girl to notice how the Empress bowed and try to do it in that manner. The child, or her parents, generally followed this suggestion, and the grace of the bow was improved on the next visit to Court!
On one occasion, a lady of high rank, married to a kinsman of the Empress Dowager, was invited to the Palace with her family. She had two little girls, and when the family went up to bow and repeat the salutation to Her Majesty, the younger daughter, only five years old, refused either to make the bow or repeat the salutation, but sat down on the floor and cried! The Empress Dowager waited patiently for the mother to correct the little girl, for she is very fond of children and disposed to condone their faults. The little girl would not, however, listen to reason and continued to show temper. Her Majesty could not allow such a breach of the “Proprieties,” even in a child of this age, and the high rank of the family of the little girl made it the more imperative that she should conform to the rules of Propriety and observe the etiquette of the Court. When Her Majesty saw that all efforts at bringing her to reason were fruitless, she ordered the child to be taken away. Whereupon the mother began crying, and begged her not to be offended with the little girl. She replied, “Do you think a person of superior intelligence could be offended with a baby? I send you out of the Palace to teach you a lesson, which you must teach your child. I do not blame her; I blame you and pity her; but she must suffer as well as yourself. You must teach your child that ‘it is by the rules of propriety that the character is established’ (Confucius)”; and she was inexorable. The family left the Palace and was not invited again for some time.
CHAPTER XXIII HER MAJESTY’S ANXIETY—HER BIRTHDAY
Her Majesty was looking tired and anxious these days; the Audiences were unusually long, and despatches were arriving all during the day. She would often go to the Gardens immediately after her Audience for solitary walks, unattended by the Ladies, and when she went out for the walk, accompanied by the Empress and Princesses, she would sit distraught and abstracted before the finest views and those she loved most. She seemed absent-minded, and when some eunuch with the official message would kneel before her, awaiting her order to deliver his message, she would recall herself with an effort. One day when we were out, after days of this anxiety, and she was sitting alone in front of the “Peony Mountain,” the Empress and Princesses standing in a group at a little distance, she looked a pathetic figure. Her strong face looked tired and worn. Her arms hung listlessly by her sides and she seemed almost to have given up, and I saw her, furtively, brush a tear away. The days were so like each other at the Palace, the Chinese dates being different from ours, I lost my reckoning until I had a Tientsin paper, and I saw that the date on which the Russians had promised to evacuate Manchuria had passed and they were making no move toward doing so; and that there were rumors of war between Japan and Russia. This, then, must be what was weighing upon the mind of the Empress Dowager. A few days later a telegram was handed her in the Throne-room while she was posing, that seemed to greatly agitate her. It was from Kwang Hsi, and reported the ineffectual attempts of the authorities to put down a serious rebellion there. Thus, there were interior as well as exterior troubles to make her anxious. She seemed to take these State troubles to heart; and it was touching to see her anxiety, which she made but little effort to conceal when surrounded only by the Ladies. The Emperor, on the contrary, preserved his usual calm exterior, and if he was racked by anxiety, showed no evidence of it. This may have been because he had schooled himself to hide his feelings. Be that as it may, his face had always that enigmatic smile lurking around the corners of his mouth. I fancied, though, his eyes looked more resigned and sadder than usual.
The date of the Empress Dowager’s Birthday (November 16) was approaching, and preparations to celebrate it were beginning. She was determined to keep this celebration very simple. She issued edicts prohibiting the high Officials and Viceroys from sending the extravagant presents which always pour in at the celebration of the birthday of any one of her age in China. She recommended great economy in expenditures for the celebration, saying it would be improper and unworthy at this time of National distress, when the Foreign Indemnity was not yet paid, to make a large outlay for her Birthday. The celebration of a birthday in China is a great event, almost a religious ceremony, and is observed with great rejoicings by all classes. The poorest in the land, if they are not able to keep any other festival, always celebrate with as much pomp as possible the birthdays of their parents. This is one of the duties enjoined by the Book of Rites, and, in spite of Her Majesty’s expressed wishes on the subject, the Emperor could not allow her Birthday to pass without a fitting celebration.
The Emperor beseeched Her Majesty “on bended knee” to allow him to have her Birthday celebrated with the same pomp as usual—to permit him to add another honorific title to the sixteen she already possessed—but though she was very proud of her titles, which the Ministers and Emperor had conferred upon her at different times, she was inexorable on this point, for the adding of a new title would necessitate an annual grant of twelve thousand dollars in gold. She also insisted that everything must be on a smaller scale than usual. She was, one could well see, in no happy frame of mind. There was none of the enthusiasm she had shown over the preparations for the Emperor’s Birthday. Then she was in gay good humor. She then evidently fully believed that things were going well for the State, that China would soon obtain her full rights in Manchuria again; then everything seemed brighter for the Nation’s outlook than now. It was her duty, however, to go through these Birthday celebrations, which, curtail as she would, must, nevertheless, be very elaborate, owing to her age as well as to her high rank. The Empress Dowager’s wishes as to the adding of a new title were observed, and it was not conferred, but the preparations for the Birthday went on, on a magnificent scale. Presents came pouring into the Palace, and even more elaborate festive decorations than those used for the Emperor’s Birthday were being put in place.
Her Majesty was to receive the prostrations of the Emperor and Empress,[6] Princesses, and members of the Imperial Family, on a Throne in the Palace, that was built half-way up the terraced hill crowned by the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas. She did not receive these prostrations in the Great Audience Hall: this was set aside, by tradition, for the Emperor, alone. Had she been reigning for him, she would have received them there, but as she was reigning with him, she received them in the other Palace. The elevation of this Palace permitted all who were allowed to enter the Precincts to offer their congratulations, to get a glimpse of Her Majesty. As the weather was getting cold, the marble steps leading up to this Palace, the courts, and even a large part of the terrace over the lake, were covered with carpets of gala red.