Two Years in the Forbidden City

by Princess Der Ling

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 gossiping 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 waiting rooms 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."