Read Online The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China by Keith Laidler - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Keith Laidler
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might bring. Beyond the heavily embroidered silk hangings the sounds of the capital’s street-life were muted, the cries of street vendors, the barber’s rattling huan tou , the clack-clack-clack of hollow bamboo announcing the passage of a foot doctor, the charcoal seller’s drum. As the procession approached the Tien An Men, the street noises slowly died away, and suddenly the comforting roll of the palanquin ceased as the sedan chair was deposited on the ground. The covers were drawn back, and Yehonala found herself in the shadow-filled outer precincts of the Forbidden City.
Here, her own servants were dismissed and, now on foot, she and the other girls followed eunuch guides deeper and deeper into the maze of yellow- and blue-tiled pavilions, palaces and apartments that formed the inner precincts of the Great Within. They were led finally to the Nei Wu Fu, a pavilion of the Imperial household, to await the arrival of the Empress Dowager, the wife of the late Emperor Tao Kwang and mother of the new Son of Heaven, who, according to the Confucian traditions of filial piety, outranked the Emperor. It was she, with advice from the Chief Eunuch An Te-hai, who decided which of the girls were suitable consorts for her son, the Celestial Prince. The reception room was hung with banners and multi-hued lanterns, and crowded with courtiers in their formal robes of vari-coloured silk, strewn with pearls and jade ornaments, and all anxious for a first look at the new potential additions to the harem. Although the Emperor was also present during the proceedings, sitting pale and weakened from years of dissipation next to the Empress Dowager, the monarch was allowed no part in the business of the day. Nor was he asked for his opinion.
Once assembled, each of the girls was called in turn to be presented to the Empress Dowager. The approach of each prospective consort allowed the matriarch of the royal family ample time to study her features and deportment. Once each had done obeisance before their majesties, tea was served, and the court could view and pass judgement on the grace or otherwise with which the girls performed this most basic ritual of Chinese society.
A Chinese princess, Der Ling, wrote an account of the years she spent with Yehonala in her old age. She relates that Yehonala claimed that, from that first meeting, the Emperor showed great interest in her and ignored the rest of the new arrivals. 14 Although unable formally to express a preference, he used this assembly to indicate his interest in the bannerman’s daughter.
Yehonala was invited to sit at the Emperor’s table, and to converse with the Imperial family. Although education was not a prerequisite for the position of Imperial concubine, Yehonala was already well versed in the Chinese Classics and may have used this occasion to impress the young monarch with her intelligence as well as her beauty.
If true, it seems that the Emperor’s admiration did not count for much in the eyes of the Empress Dowager. The Imperial concubines were separated into four classes of decreasing importance. The Empress Dowager’s standards were high–of the sixty girls interviewed, none received the first rank of Kuei fei . Yehonala was one of twenty-eight aspirants chosen for the harem, but she was given a quite lowly grade ( Kuei Jen ). She was placed in the third rank, while Sakota her cousin (who by all accounts was both less attractive and less intelligent), was given the second rank ( P’in ). Yehonala and Sakota can only have been overjoyed that they would be entering the harem together. Life in the Forbidden City meant almost total isolation from normal family life. From the day the walls of the Meridian Gate closed behind them, each harem member was fated to live out her days within the Forbidden City, seeing friends and family but rarely. The two cousins now had each other to lean on and there was no doubt they would have need of each other.
The world they were
Here, her own servants were dismissed and, now on foot, she and the other girls followed eunuch guides deeper and deeper into the maze of yellow- and blue-tiled pavilions, palaces and apartments that formed the inner precincts of the Great Within. They were led finally to the Nei Wu Fu, a pavilion of the Imperial household, to await the arrival of the Empress Dowager, the wife of the late Emperor Tao Kwang and mother of the new Son of Heaven, who, according to the Confucian traditions of filial piety, outranked the Emperor. It was she, with advice from the Chief Eunuch An Te-hai, who decided which of the girls were suitable consorts for her son, the Celestial Prince. The reception room was hung with banners and multi-hued lanterns, and crowded with courtiers in their formal robes of vari-coloured silk, strewn with pearls and jade ornaments, and all anxious for a first look at the new potential additions to the harem. Although the Emperor was also present during the proceedings, sitting pale and weakened from years of dissipation next to the Empress Dowager, the monarch was allowed no part in the business of the day. Nor was he asked for his opinion.
Once assembled, each of the girls was called in turn to be presented to the Empress Dowager. The approach of each prospective consort allowed the matriarch of the royal family ample time to study her features and deportment. Once each had done obeisance before their majesties, tea was served, and the court could view and pass judgement on the grace or otherwise with which the girls performed this most basic ritual of Chinese society.
A Chinese princess, Der Ling, wrote an account of the years she spent with Yehonala in her old age. She relates that Yehonala claimed that, from that first meeting, the Emperor showed great interest in her and ignored the rest of the new arrivals. 14 Although unable formally to express a preference, he used this assembly to indicate his interest in the bannerman’s daughter.
Yehonala was invited to sit at the Emperor’s table, and to converse with the Imperial family. Although education was not a prerequisite for the position of Imperial concubine, Yehonala was already well versed in the Chinese Classics and may have used this occasion to impress the young monarch with her intelligence as well as her beauty.
If true, it seems that the Emperor’s admiration did not count for much in the eyes of the Empress Dowager. The Imperial concubines were separated into four classes of decreasing importance. The Empress Dowager’s standards were high–of the sixty girls interviewed, none received the first rank of Kuei fei . Yehonala was one of twenty-eight aspirants chosen for the harem, but she was given a quite lowly grade ( Kuei Jen ). She was placed in the third rank, while Sakota her cousin (who by all accounts was both less attractive and less intelligent), was given the second rank ( P’in ). Yehonala and Sakota can only have been overjoyed that they would be entering the harem together. Life in the Forbidden City meant almost total isolation from normal family life. From the day the walls of the Meridian Gate closed behind them, each harem member was fated to live out her days within the Forbidden City, seeing friends and family but rarely. The two cousins now had each other to lean on and there was no doubt they would have need of each other.
The world they were
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