When Miss Carl arrived at the Palace the next day and saw the room which had been selected for her to work in, she was not at all pleased. In the first place she said it was too dark, so Her Majesty ordered the paper windows to be replaced by glass. This made the room too bright, and Miss Carl asked for some curtains so as to focus the light on the picture. When I informed Her Majesty of this request, she said: "Well, this is the first time I have ever changed anything in the Palace except to suit myself. First I alter the windows, and she is not satisfied, but must have curtains. I think we had better take the roof off, then perhaps she may be suited." However, we fixed up the curtains to Miss Carl's satisfaction.
When Her Majesty examined the portrait to see how it was progressing, she said to me: "After all the trouble we have had over this picture, I am afraid it is not going to be anything very wonderful. I notice that the pearls in my cape are painted in different colors; some look white, some pink, while others are green. You tell her about it." I tried to explain to Her Majesty that Miss Carl had simply painted the pearls as she saw them, according to the different shades of light, but Her Majesty could not understand that at all and asked if I could see anything green about them, or pink either. I again explained that this was simply the tints caused by the light falling on the pearls, but she replied that she could not see any shade except white. However, after a while she did not seem to trouble any further about the matter.
Situated in a room near Her Majesty's bedroom in the Sea Palace was a Pagoda, about ten feet in height, made of carved sandalwood. This contained various images of Buddha, which Her Majesty used to worship every morning. The ceremony consisted of Her Majesty burning incense before the Pagoda, while a Court lady was told off each day to kowtow before the images. Her Majesty told me that this Pagoda had been in the Palace for more than a hundred years. Among the different images was one representing the Goddess of Mercy. This image was only about five inches in height and was made of pure gold. The inside was hollow and contained all the principal anatomical parts of the human body, made out of jade and pearls. This Goddess of Mercy was supposed to possess wonderful powers and Her Majesty often worshiped before it when in any trouble, and maintained that on many occasions her prayers had been answered. She said: "Of course, when I pray to the image, I pray earnestly, not the same as you girls, who simply kowtow because it is your duty and then get away as quickly as possible." Her Majesty went on to say that she was quite aware that many of the people in China were discarding the religion of their ancestors in favor of Christianity, and that she was very much grieved that this was so.
Her Majesty was a firm believer in the old Chinese superstitions connected with the Sea Palace, and during one of our conversations she told me I was not to be surprised at anything I saw. She said it was quite a common occurrence for a person walking beside you to suddenly disappear altogether, and explained that they were simply foxes who took human shape to suit their purpose. They had probably lived in the Sea Palace for thousands of years and possessed this power of changing their form at will. She said that no doubt the eunuchs would tell me they were spirits or ghosts, but that was not true: they were sacred foxes and would harm nobody. As if to confirm this superstition, one evening, a few days later, my fire having gone out, I sent my eunuch to see if any of the other Court ladies were awake, and if so, to try to get me some hot water. He went out taking his lantern along with him, but he returned almost immediately with a face as white as chalk. On inquiring what was the matter, he replied: "I have seen a ghost: a woman, who came up to me, blew the light out and disappeared." I told him that perhaps it was one of the servant girls, but he said "No"; he knew all the women attached to the Palace and he had never seen this one before. He stuck to it that it was a ghost. I told him that Her Majesty had said there were no ghosts, but that it might be a fox which had taken human shape. He replied: "It was not a fox. Her Majesty calls them foxes, because she is afraid to call them ghosts." He went on to tell me that many years previously the head eunuch, Li Lien Ying, while walking in the courtyard back of Her Majesty's Palace, saw a young servant girl sitting on the edge of the well. He went over to ask her what she was doing there, but on getting closer he found that there were several other girls there also, and on seeing him approach, they all deliberately jumped down the well. He immediately raised the alarm, and on one of the attendants coming forward with a lantern, he explained what had occurred. The attendant showed him that it was impossible for anybody to jump into the well, as it was covered with a large stone. My eunuch said that a long time before this several girls did actually commit suicide by jumping down this well, and that what Li Lien Ying had seen were the ghosts of these girls, and nothing more. It is believed by the Chinese that when a person commits suicide their spirit remains in the neighborhood until such time as they can entice somebody else to commit suicide, when they are free to go to another world, and not before. I told him that I did not believe such things and that I would very much like to see for myself. He replied: "You will only want to see it once; that will be sufficient."
Things went along in the usual way until the first day of the eleventh moon, when Her Majesty issued orders to the Court that as the eleventh moon contained so many anniversaries of the deaths of previous rulers of China, the usual theatrical performance would be eliminated and the Court dress would in addition be modified to suit the occasion. On the ninth day the Emperor was to go and worship at the Temple of Heaven. So, as was customary on all these occasions, he confined himself to his own private apartments for three days before the ninth, during which time he held no communication whatsoever with anybody excepting his private eunuchs. Not even the Young Empress, his wife, was allowed to see him during these three days.
This ceremony did not differ very materially from the other sacrifices, except that pigs were killed and placed on the numerous altars of the Temple, where they remained for a time, after which they were distributed among the different officials. The eating of the flesh of these pigs, which had been blessed, was believed to bring good luck and prosperity, and the officials who were presented with them considered themselves greatly favored by Her Majesty. Another difference was that the Emperor could not appoint a substitute to officiate for him; but must attend in person, no matter what the circumstances might be. The reason for this was, that according to the ancient law, the Emperor signs the death warrant of every person sentenced to death, record of which is kept in the Board of Punishments. At the end of the year the name of each person executed is written on a piece of yellow paper and sent to the Emperor. When the time for worshiping at the Temple arrives, he takes this yellow paper and burns it in order that the ashes may go up to Heaven and his ancestors know that he has been fearless and faithful, and has done his duty according to the law.
As this ceremony of worshiping at the Temple of Heaven was to take place in the Forbidden City, in spite of Her Majesty's dislike to the place, she commanded that the whole of the Court be transferred there, her reason for this being that she did not wish to be away from the Emperor's side even for an hour. So we all moved to the Palace in the Forbidden City. After the ceremony was over, the Court was to return to the Sea Palace, but as the thirteenth day was the anniversary of the death of the Emperor Kang Hsi, it was decided that we should remain in the Forbidden City, where the ceremony was to be held. The Emperor Kang Hsi ruled over the Chinese Empire for sixty-one years, the longest reign of any Chinese Ruler up to the present time, and Her Majesty told us that he was the most wonderful Emperor China had ever had and that we must respect his memory accordingly.
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.