Two Years in the Forbidden City

By Der Ling, Princess

Book Id: WPLBN0000621068
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.8 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Two Years in the Forbidden City
Author:	Der Ling, Princess
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections:	Classic Literature Collection, Blackmask Online Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Blackmask Online


Citation APA MLA Chicago Der Ling, B. P. (n.d.). Two Years in the Forbidden City. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Excerpt: A PLAY AT THE COURT. 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 subjected to a rapid fire of questions. I soon found that these women were the same as others the world over in point of curiosity and love of gossip. The fourth daughter of Prince Ching (Sze Gurgur), a young widow and a strikingly handsome woman, spoke to me. ?Were you brought up in Europe and educated?? she asked. ?I am told that when people go to that country and drink the water there, they quickly forget their own country. Did you really study to acquire all those languages or was it drinking the water that gave them to you?? I mentioned that I met her brother, Prince Tsai Chen, in Paris on his way to London for the coronation of King Edward, and that we should have liked to have gone also, as my father had a special invitation, but were prevented from doing so by his urgent duties in Paris in settling the Yunnan question, to which the Princess replied: ?Is there a king in England? I had thought that our Empress Dowager was Queen of the world.? Her sister, wife of the brother of the Young Empress, a most intelligent, quiet and dignified lady, stood by smiling and listening to the eager questions. After numerous questions had been asked the Young Empress finally said: ?How ignorant you are. I know that each country has its ruler and that some countries are republics. The United States is a republic and very friendly toward us, but I am sorry that such a common class of people go there, as they will think we are all the same. What I should like to see is some of our good Manchu people go, as then they would see what we really are.? She afterwards told me she had been reading a history of the different countries, which had been translated into Chinese, and she seemed to be very well informed.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: Two Years in the Forbidden City, 1 -- Princess Der Ling, 1