Two Years in the Forbidden City

AFTER staying a little while at the temple, we returned to the Palace, and the ladies said goodbye and took chairs to the Palace gate, where their own chairs were waiting for th...

ON the twenty-sixth day of the fifth moon, during the morning audience, Prince Ching told Her Majesty that Mrs. Conger, the wife of the American Minister to Peking, had asked fo...

MY father's four months' leave having expired, he was received in audience by their Majesties on the first day of the sixth moon. He was much improved in health, but his rheumat...

I THOUGHT of so many things while I was riding in my chair. It was a glorious day. I felt sorry for Her Majesty, for she was very quiet that day. Generally she was happy, and ma...

JUST about the end of the ninth moon Her Majesty began to tire of doing nothing day after day, and said: "What is the use of waiting until the first of the month to have the the...

MY first day with Her Majesty was very trying as I did not know just what she wanted or how she wanted things done, and no one seemed willing to tell me; but by watching very cl...

THE next day I arose earlier than usual and dressed in a great hurry, as I feared I might be late. When I got to Her Majesty's Palace there were a few Court ladies there sitting...

MY second year at the Palace was very much the same as the first. We celebrated each anniversary and festival in the same way as before: the usual audience was held each morning...

This name is derived from the belief which the Chinese hold that the moon is not permanently round when full, but that on this particular day it is a perfect circle. The ceremon...

THE building where we had our rooms, as I have said before, contained four large rooms and a hall, and we three, my mother, sister and myself, each took a room and gave the four...

THIS year we had a very hot spring and Her Majesty was desirous of getting back again to the Sea Palace. However, as war had already been declared between Russia and Japan it wa...

WE retired from her room, but I noticed that two of the Court ladies did not come out with us. One of them said to me: "I am glad that I can rest a bit to-day, for I have been s...

THE next day we got up earlier than usual and dressed ourselves in our new gowns. I could not believe my own eyes, and asked several times whether that was myself or not. I foun...

WE now reached the time set apart for cleaning the Palace in preparation for the New Year festivals. Everything had to be taken down and thoroughly overhauled, and all the image...

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...

THIS day to me was a medley of brilliant impressions. I was a great novelty among these exclusive Court ladies, brought up rigidly apart from foreign life and customs, and I was...

WHEN we reached the City gates, which were about half way between our house and the Summer Palace, they were wide open for us to pass. This quite surprised us, as all gates are...

WHEN we had finished drinking tea, she told us to go with her into the next room, where the tables had been prepared for lunch, and I wondered if she had any room for lunch, aft...

No one informed us the day before that there was to be an audience to receive the Russian Minister's wife on that very day. We told Her Majesty that we must go and change our cl...