Tuen, Slave and Empress

Long before the sun was up Tuen and her mother were huddled together, talking in low tones about the wealth Niu would receive from the Viceroy, and Tuen ever found herself plann...

On the day that Tuen arrived at the yamen, the wife of the Viceroy came out into the court to take her airing, and because her poor little feet were so small they would not bear...

Many conflicting emotions have torn the heart of poor little Tuen since she sat among the fallen idols in the lonely temple, and she has learned that life may be a hateful thing...

Now followed the happiest time Tuen had ever known, and as the daughter of the Viceroy she became at once a person of importance. It was such a new, such a delightful sensation...

"There are two stories that I have not yet told you, and they might be of interest to you, since they are of women, and of women, too, who dwelt within the Forbidden City."

The next morning Tuen commenced her simple round of duties, in which she was instructed by the women of the inner court. At first her work was only to draw water, help with the...

The calm monotony of Tuen's life continued uninterrupted after the episode with the sailor. She would talk with Wang for hours, of the kind friends she had left in the Viceroy's...

Tuen went about as one in a dream after her interview with the Viceroy, but she uttered no complaint. She had decided to go willingly, even cheerfully, on account of the many fa...

The sun had set in the land where the dragon reigns, and darkness and silence and rest and sleep, the ministers of the night, waited to come to their own. But their presence was...

One who has never been in China on New Year's Day cannot understand the indescribable joy with which the teeming population of this vast Empire lays aside its never-finished wor...

But as months went by and she heard of no one having offered to purchase her, Tuen forgot her fears, and came to think that she would always live in the yamen. It was now winter...

"He has returned from the temple and is in the audience hall, where he has been receiving calls from all the high authorities of the city. Now he is alone, and wishes to speak w...

The barge that bore Tuen to Peking proceeded slowly on its way, for why should one economize time or labor in a country where there are more hands than work for them to do? The...

It was a crisp, chill November afternoon, with just a hint of frost in the air that made it bracing. Milky clouds dimmed the intense blue of the heavens, an occasional gust of w...

As Niu Tsang sat with his head bowed upon his breast, lost in painful thoughts, and the woman closed her eyes and leaned against the temple wall that she might better rest, a sh...

For several days after she had listened to the story of Woo How, Tuen maintained an unwonted gravity, and was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she paid but little attention...

By the time the festival of Pai-shan came--the day when all go to worship at the graves of their ancestors--Tuen had already commenced to struggle with the queer, sprawling hier...

Stately her person, tall and fair, Clad in her robes embroidered and plain Fingers as softest buds that grow, Skin as an unguent firm and white, Neck as the tree worm's breed, M...

"Stranger things happen than have ever been told," Szu replied. "The affairs of life are past finding out, and who Ten Wang leads must follow, whether he will or not."

The Viceroy sipped his tea meditatively in his favorite court, and occasionally fanned himself in a mechanical way, but his thoughts were evidently elsewhere. The goldfinch abov...