For the next four days, until the day of the ceremony, these visitors passed their time in learning the Court etiquette and going to the theatre.
Every morning, as usual, we waited on Her Majesty and reported anything of interest which had occurred during the previous day. Then we all preceded Her Majesty to the theatre, where we awaited her arrival standing in the courtyard. On Her Majesty appearing, we would all kneel down until she had passed into the building opposite the stage, kneeling in rows—first the Emperor, behind him the Young Princess, next the Secondary wife, then the Princesses and Court ladies, and last of all the visitors. The first two days everything went of all right, but on the third morning the Emperor, from whom we received the signal, suddenly turned and said: "Her Majesty is coming." Down we all went on our knees, the Emperor alone remaining standing and laughing at us. Of course there was no sign of Her Majesty and everybody joined in the laugh. He was never so happy as when he could work off a joke like this.
On the evening of the ninth, none of the Court ladies went to bed, as we all had to be up betimes on the morning of the tenth. The visitors were told to proceed by chair to Her Majesty's special Audience Hall on the top of the hill, where they were to await our arrival. They arrived at the Audience Hall at three o'clock in the morning, and we followed soon afterwards, arriving there about daybreak. By and bye Her Majesty arrived and the ceremony commenced. This ceremony in no way differed from the one previously described in connection with the Emperor's birthday, so there is no need to give particulars, except one thing. Very early on the morning of the tenth, we had to bring another present to her and each of us brought a hundred birds of various kinds. Each year, on her birthday, Her Majesty did a very peculiar thing. She would buy 10,000 birds with her own money, from her private purse and set them free. It was a very pretty sight to see those huge cages hung in the courtyard of the Audience Hall. Her Majesty would select the most lucky hour and order the eunuchs to carry the cages and to follow her. The hour selected was four o'clock in the afternoon. Her Majesty took the whole Court with her to the top of the hill, where there was a Temple. First she burnt sandal wood and offered up prayers to the Gods, then the eunuchs, each with a cage of birds, knelt in front of Her Majesty and she opened each cage one after another and watched the birds fly away, and prayed to the Gods that these birds should not be caught again. Her Majesty did this very seriously and we asked each other in whispers which bird we thought was the prettiest and would like to keep it for ourselves. Among this lot there were a few parrots. Some were pink; others were red and green; all were chained on stands, and when the eunuchs broke the chains, the parrots would not move. Her Majesty said: "How funny; each year a few parrots will not go away at all and I have kept them until they died. Look at them now. They won't go away." By this time the head eunuch arrived. Her Majesty told him what had happened and he immediately knelt down and said: "Your Majesty's great luck. These parrots understand Your Majesty's kindness and would rather stay here and serve Your Majesty." This ceremony is called "Fang Sheng." It is considered a very meritorious action and will not fail of reward in Heaven.
One of the Court ladies asked me what I thought of the parrots that would not fly away, and I told her that it was really very strange. She said: "It is very simple and not strange at all. These eunuchs, ordered by the head one, have bought these parrots long ago and trained them. During Her Majesty's afternoon rest, these parrots were brought to the top of the very same hill every day to accustom them to the place. The object of this is just to please and otherwise fool Her Majesty, to make her feel happy and believe that she is so merciful that even such dumb things would rather stay with her." Continuing, she said: "The huge joke is this: while Her Majesty is letting the birds free, there are a few eunuchs waiting at the rear of the hill to capture them and sell them again, and so, no matter how Her Majesty prays for their freedom, they will be caught at once."
The celebrations were continued until the thirteenth day. Nobody did any work and all was gaiety and enjoyment, the theatre being open every day. Towards the close of the thirteenth day the visitors were informed that the celebrations were at an end and they made arrangements to leave early the next morning. They all bade Her Majesty good-bye that evening and departed early the following day.
For the next few days we were all busy preparing for removing to the Sea Palace. Her Majesty consulted her book and finally selected the 22d as being the most favorable day for this removal. So at six o'clock on the morning of the 22d the whole Court left the Summer Palace. It was snowing very heavily and the journey was only accomplished with great difficulty. Of course we were all in chairs, as usual, and the eunuchs who were not employed as chair-bearers rode horseback. Many of the horses fell on the slippery stones and one of Her Majesty's chair-bearers also slipped and brought Her Majesty to the ground. All of a sudden I thought something dreadful had happened, horses galloping and eunuchs howling: "Stop! Stop!!" I heard someone saying: "See if she is still alive." The whole procession stopped and blocked the way. This happened on the stone road just before entering the Western Gate. Finally we saw that Her Majesty's chair was resting on the ground, so we all alighted and went forward to see what had happened. A great many people were talking excitedly all at the same time, and for a moment I was rather frightened (for just about that time we heard a rumor that some of the revolutionists were going to take the life of the whole Court, and, although we heard that, we did not dare tell Her Majesty), so I immediately went to her chair and found her sitting there composedly giving orders to the chief eunuch not to punish this chair-bearer, for he was not to blame, the stones being wet and very slippery. Li Lien Ying said that would never do, for this chair-bearer must have been careless, and how dare he carry the Old Buddha in this careless way. After saying this, he turned his head to the beaters (these beaters, carrying bamboo sticks, went everywhere with the Court, for such occasions as this) and said: "Give him eighty blows on his back." This poor victim, who was kneeling on the muddy ground, heard the order. The beaters took him about a hundred yards away from us, pushed him down and started to do their duty. It did not take very long to give the eighty blows and, much to my surprise, this man got up, after receiving the punishment, as if nothing had happened to him. He looked just as calm as could be. While we were waiting a eunuch handed me a cup of tea, which I presented to Her Majesty, and asked her if she was hurt. She smiled and said it was nothing, ordering us to proceed on our journey. I must explain about this tea; the eunuchs had it prepared all the time and always carried a little stove along with hot water. Although this went every time when the Court moved, it was seldom used.
As usual, all the Court ladies take a short cut to the Palace, so as to be ready to receive Her Majesty, when she arrived. After waiting in the courtyard for quite a long time, during which we were nearly frozen, Her Majesty arrived, and we all knelt until she had passed, and then followed her into the Palace. Her Majesty also complained of the cold and ordered that fires should be brought into the hall. These fires were built in brass portable stoves lined with clay, and were lighted outside and brought into the hall after the smoke had passed off somewhat. There were four stoves in all. All the windows and doors were closed, there being no ventilation of any description, and very soon I began to feel sick. However, I went on with my work getting Her Majesty's things in order until I must have fainted, for the next thing I remembered was waking up in a strange bed and inquiring where I was, but on hearing Her Majesty giving orders in the next room, I knew it was all right. One of the Court ladies brought me a cup of turnip juice which Her Majesty said I was to drink. I drank it and felt much better. I was informed that Her Majesty had gone to rest, and so I went off to sleep again myself. When I awoke, Her Majesty was standing by my bedside. I tried to get up, but found that I was too weak, so Her Majesty told me to lie still and keep quiet and I would soon be all right again. She said that I had better have a room close to her bedroom, and gave instructions for the eunuchs to remove me there as soon as it was prepared. Every few minutes Her Majesty would send to inquire how I was progressing and whether I wanted anything to eat. It was the custom to stand up whenever receiving a message from Her Majesty, but it was out of the question for me to do so, although I tried, with the result that I made myself worse than ever.
Towards evening the head eunuch came to see me and brought several plates of sweetmeats. He was very nice, and told me that I was very fortunate, as Her Majesty very rarely bothered herself about any of the Court ladies and that evidently she had taken a fancy to me. He sat talking for some little time, and told me to eat some of the sweetmeats. Of course I was not able to eat anything at all, let alone sweetmeats, so I told him to leave them and I would eat them later. Before leaving he said that in case I wanted anything I was to let him know. This visit was a great surprise to me, as usually he took very little notice of any of us, but I was told afterwards that the reason he was so nice was because Her Majesty showed such an interest in me.
The next morning I was able to get up and resume my duties. I went in to see Her Majesty and kowtowed to her, thanking her for her kindness during my indisposition. Her Majesty said that the head eunuch had told her the previous evening that I was much better and that she was glad I was up and about again. She said it was nothing serious, simply that I was unaccustomed to the fumes from the fires, which had gone to my head.
As the snow had stopped falling, Her Majesty decided that the next day we would go and choose a place for Miss Carl to continue the painting. I suggested that perhaps it would be better if we waited until Miss Carl arrived herself, so that she could choose a suitable place for her work, but Her Majesty said that would not do at all, because if it were left to Miss Carl, doubtless she would choose some impossible place. Of course there were many parts of the Palace which were kept quite private and Miss Carl would not be allowed to go there. So the next day Her Majesty and myself set out to find a place. After visiting many different rooms, all of which were too dark, we finally fixed on a room on the lake side of the Palace. Her Majesty said: "This is very convenient, as you can go to and fro either by chair or by water." I found that it took about three-quarters of an hour by chair to get to the Palace Gate, and rather less than that by boat. I was expecting to return to stay at the Palace with Her Majesty, but it was finally decided that this would not do, as it would not be policy to allow Miss Carl, who was staying at the American Legation, to go in and out of the Palace Gate alone, so Her Majesty said it would be better for me to stay at my father's place in the city and bring Miss Carl to the Palace each morning, returning with her in the evening. This was anything but pleasant, but I had no other alternative than to obey Her Majesty's instructions.