With the Empress Dowager of ChinaCarl, Katharine A. (Katharine Augusta)
History
With the Empress Dowager of China
Carl, Katharine A. (Katharine Augusta)
China -- Court and courtiers; Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908; Empresses -- China -- Biography
The Sea Palace is a comparatively new Palace, most of it having
been built within the last fifty years. Our chairs were met at the
northern entrance by the same eunuchs who had been set aside for our
service at the Summer Palace. They led us to the boats in waiting to
carry us across the lake, to the buildings occupied by Her Majesty
and the Court. These boats were of the houseboat variety, with an
inclosed cabin forming the center, and a platform running all around,
on which the rowers walked up and down propelling it. The interior
was carpeted, with a cushioned lounge, tea-tables, and chairs. The
eunuchs and attendants sat outside on the prow. It takes twenty minutes
to row across the lake in one of these boats, but the movement is
delightful. When we reached the other side, we landed and went through
several courts to that of one of Her Majesty’s private chapels. She,
herself, had just been making an offering here, and was coming out,
preceded by acolytes swinging incense-burners, the musicians playing
the “Imperial Hymn.” When she saw us, Her Majesty called us to her
side, asked if I had had a good trip into Peking, and how Mrs. Conger
was. She then ordered the eunuchs to show us our apartments. We were
led through corridors and courts to a charming pavilion which was to
be our resting-place while at the Sea Palace. It had exquisitely and
elaborately carved woodwork arches with heavy satin curtains, which
divided it into five rooms. After we had rested a few moments here, we
returned to the Throne-room. Her Majesty told me she had arranged for
me to go out in one of the boats, and that I was to be shown all that I
cared to see, or at least as much as I could see in that day. A eunuch
standing near her held a number of strips of embroidery in his hand.
They were embroidered head-dresses, which are placed upon the heads
of the Buddhas during the great ceremonies in the Palace temples. She
explained their use to me and then dismissed us, and we went out to the
landing-place on the lake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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