The Last Manchu Read online

  “Pu Chieh,” he said, referring to himself, “knows how to play hide-and-seek.”

  My sister then said, respectfully addressing Pu Chieh, “Well then, Pu Chieh, you go and play hide-and-seek. That will be fun.”

  I had never played hide-and-seek before with other children, only with the eunuchs. We started off playing in the Mind Nurture Palace. The more we played the more fun we had, and my brother and sister soon forgot about court etiquette. Later on, we lowered the shades in one of the rooms and made it so dark that my sister, who was two years younger than I, became afraid. As soon as my brother and I became aware of this, we tried to scare her all the more. We were so happy that we laughed and screamed. Later, when we felt tired, we climbed up on the kang together to get back our breaths, and I told them to think of a new game to play.

  Pu Chieh thought for a while, but said nothing. He was grinning at me with a sort of silly smile on his face.

  “What are you thinking of?” I asked.

  He simply kept on grinning and said nothing.

  “Tell me, tell me,” I urged. I thought he was thinking of some new game to play.

  “I believe,” he said finally. “Forgive me, Pu Chieh believes . . . Your Majesty the Emperor . . . would not . . . it’s not like . . . Your Majesty is not like the long-bearded man on the stage,” he giggled.

  While he was talking he raised his hand and made a gesture of an old man stroking his beard. This was his undoing. For I noticed that his sleeve lining was of imperial yellow.

  “Pu Chieh,” I asked, “what are you doing with that color on? What makes you think you can use it?”

  “But this is apricot yellow; it’s not imperial yellow.”

  “Nonsense, it’s bright yellow!”

  “Yes, yes,” he finally admitted. Then he put his hands to his sides and bowed while my sister ran behind him and began to tremble with fright.

  “It is bright yellow. You shouldn’t have worn it.”

  “Yes sire, yes Your Majesty,” he replied.

  With those bows and words, the rank of Emperor and servant was restored. The words “yes sire, yes Your Majesty” have today become a lost echo. Whenever I recall them now they seem laughable. But I was used to them when I was young. Those who did not use them I found offensive.

  This same attitude applied toward kowtows. I was used to people kneeling before me and touching their heads on the ground. Many times the elder officials of the dynasty, my older relatives, men in Manchu court dress as well as those in the Western-style clothes of the Republic would kowtow. But I was used to it. It did not seem strange.

  Young people today who read the classic Dream of the Red Chamber are surprised. They cannot understand why the grandmother in the story had so many people surrounding her that her passage from one room to another in her mansion was like the movement of a swarm of bees. Yet the retinue in the Dream of the Red Chamber was much smaller than the one I had in the Forbidden City.

  The setting in the Red Chamber is similar to what my own was, but on a smaller scale. Every day, when I went to the Palace for the Cultivation of Happiness to study, or went to pay my respects to the High Consorts4 or when I strolled in the palace garden, I was followed by a long retinue.

  Each time when I went for a visit to the Summer Palace, outside the Forbidden City, not only did I need ten cars to form a retinue, but I had to ask the Republic police to post guard for me and line the road to protect me.

  If I went for a visit within the Forbidden City, a eunuch from the Administrative Bureau walked in front of me. His function was essentially that of an automobile horn in that he made continuous bleating noises to warn people to avoid me. Behind him would follow two eunuchs walking crabwise on each side of the path; then ten paces behind them, myself or my mother. If I should ride in a sedan chair, two junior eunuchs would run on each side of me to attend my wants. If I were walking, their job was to support me. Behind me walked a eunuch holding a large silk canopy; behind him a large group holding all kinds of things. One, for example, carried a small chair should I care to sit; another carried a change of clothing, another a rain umbrella, another a sun umbrella. After these eunuchs of the Imperial Presence came the eunuchs of the Imperial Tea Bureau with boxes of cakes and pastries and, of course, a tea service and jugs of hot water. Behind these came the eunuchs of the Imperial Pharmacy bearing cases of medicines and first-aid equipment suspended from carrying poles. The medicine they carried always included potions and elixirs prepared from lampwick sedge, chrysanthemums, the roots of reeds, bamboo leaves and bamboo skins. In summer there were always Essence of Betony Pills for rectifying the vapors, Six Harmony Pills for stabilizing the central organs, Gold-coated Heat-dispensing Cinnabar, Fragrant Herb Pills, Omnipurpose Bars, colic medicines and antiplague powders. And throughout all the four seasons there would be the Three Immortals Beverage to aid the digestion as well as many other pills and powders. Bringing up the rear of the procession came the eunuchs bearing the chamber pots and commodes. If I was walking, a sedan chair would follow behind all these people with special summer or winter draperies depending on the season. This fantastic retinue proceeded in complete silence.

  When I was very young, I was like any other child. When I felt good, I would start running. At first my retinue would try to follow me; it would run when I ran and walk when I walked. When I became a little older and had learned how to give orders, whenever I wanted to run I would first tell the eunuchs to stand aside and wait for me and then, except for the two junior eunuchs of the Imperial Presence, the rest would hold their boxes and poles and stand aside and wait until I had enough running. Then they would all fall into formation again and would follow me.

  Later I learned how to ride a bicycle. Then I issued orders to saw off the thresholds of the palace doors so that I could ride my bicycle without any interference. But every day, when I paid my respects to the Imperial High Consorts and also when I went to my schoolroom, I still needed my retinue. Consequently, whenever I didn’t have it, I felt peculiar. Thus, the story of the last Ming Emperor who had only one eunuch left with him when he died made me feel quite uncomfortable.

  Perhaps the greatest extravagance in the palace involved the preparation and serving of food. There were special terms used to refer to the Emperor’s eating, and it was forbidden to fail to use them. Food was not “food” but “viands.” For example, I never said “eat food,” but always “partake of the viands.” When I wanted to send for the food, I had to say “transmit the viands.” The “kitchen” was never the “kitchen” but always the “imperial viands room.” There was no definite time of serving. It all depended on my decision. I would merely say, “Transmit the viands.” The eunuchs near me would repeat the phrase, those guarding the palace in which I lived would pick it up from them, those outside would repeat it and so on into the distance where the word finally reached the imperial viands room on the Western Avenue of the Forbidden City.

  Before the echoes of the order had died away, a procession issued forth from the viands room, like a wedding procession that used to take a bride’s trousseau to her groom’s house. It consisted of about 100 eunuchs in clean livery. They would carry about seven dining tables of various sizes and scores of bright red lacquered boxes. They walked in procession to the Mind Nurture Palace where the food would be received by young eunuchs with white sleeves who set it out on the tables in one of the eastern rooms. Usually the main dishes occupied two of the tables. But in the wintertime there would be an additional table for the chafing dishes. Also there were extra tables for the soups, another for the rice and another for the preserves and pastries. All the porcelain plates and bowls were yellow and the phrase 10,000 Long Lives without Limit were painted on them as well as dragon designs. In winter I ate from silver dishes placed on top of porcelain bowls filled with hot water, and in summer there were strips of silver5 on the porcelain dishes from which I ate as a precaution against poison; and, for the same reason, all the food was tasted by a e
unuch before it was brought in. This was called “appraising the viands.” When everything had been tasted and laid out, and before I took my place at the table, a young eunuch called out, “Remove the covers.” This was the signal for four or five other junior eunuchs to take the silver lids off all the food dishes, put them in a large box and carry them out. It was only after this that I could begin to “use the viands.”

  What was in front of me? Each meal of the Dowager Empress Lung Yu would contain over 100 dishes and would require about six tables. She had inherited this extravagance from Tzu Hsi. I had over 25 at each meal. I still have one of my breakfast menus for March 1912. It reads as follows:

  Imperial Mushrooms with Four Hour Steamed Whole Chicken

  Duck of Triple Delight (duck, ham, chicken with mushrooms and a special sauce)

  Sliced Chicken Meat with Garden Vegetables

  Steamed Whole Ham

  Slow Simmered Tripe and Lung

  Sliced Beef with Hearts of Out-of-Season Cabbage

  Spiced Stewed Mutton

  Mutton with Young Spinach, Peas and Mushrooms

  Sweet Fresh Southern Cherries with Potatoes

  Steamed Meat and Vegetables in Chafing Dish

  Sea Urchins in Duck Stock

  Glazed Spiced Duck

  Imperial Rice with Southern Potatoes

  Fried Mushrooms

  Cubed Pork with Broccoli

  Thinly Sliced Lamb with Out-of-Season Spiced Vegetables

  Fried Egg Rolls

  Scallions with Sliced Meat

  Cold Tripe Marinated in Spices and Wine

  Bean Curds Sprinkled with Spices, Soya Sauce and Dried Vegetables

  Smoked Dried Bean Curd with Bean Sprouts, Ginger and other Spices

  Sautéed Out-of-Season Vegetables

  Spiced Cabbage

  Spiced Dried Game

  Ancestor Meat Soup6

  But all these dishes which were brought in with such ceremony were only for show. The reason why the food could be served almost as soon as I gave the word was that it had been prepared several hours or even a whole day in advance and was kept warm over the kitchen stoves. The cooks knew that since the time of the Emperor Kuang Hsu (1871-1908), this food had not been eaten by the Emperor. Actually the food which I ate was sent over by the Empress Dowager and, after her death, by the High Consorts. She and each of the High Consorts had kitchens of their own staffed by highly skilled chefs who produced twenty or more really delicious dishes for every meal. This was the food that was put in front of me, while that prepared in the imperial kitchens was set some distance away from me and it was only there for the sake of appearances.

  The High Consorts, in order to show their concern and their love for me, sent these special dishes for me to eat. And they stipulated that after each meal a responsible eunuch was to report to them on the manner of my eating. But this too was only a formality. For no matter how I ate, the eunuch would always kneel down in front of the High Consorts and report the same thing: “Your slave reports that the Lord of 10,000 Years consumed one bowl of rice, one sesame bun and one bowl of congee.7 He ate the viands with relish.”

  At New Year and other festivals and on the birthdays of the High Consorts, in order to show my filial piety and appreciation my kitchen would prepare a special table of foods for them. Of these dishes I can only use four phrases to describe them: flowery without substance, showy without utility, elaborate without taste, no nutritional value.

  But how much did this kind of ceremonial eating cost each month? I have found one volume of my menus showing the chicken, meat, etc., used during one month in the second year of my reign. The Empress Dowager, the four High Consorts and myself used over two tons of meat, 388 chickens and ducks of which roughly 1,000 pounds of meat was for myself as well as 240 chickens and ducks. In addition there was the monthly allocation for the numerous people in the palace who served us such as the members of the Grand Council, the imperial bodyguards, tutors, Hanlin academicians, 8 painters, men who drew the outlines of Chinese words for others to fill in, ranking eunuchs, priests who came every day to sacrifice to the spirits. Including the Dowager, the consorts and myself, the consumption of pork for the month was over eight tons and cost 2,342 ounces of silver.

  On top of this were the extra dishes we had every day which often cost several times as much again. In the month in question, there were 20 tons of extra meat, 1,000 pounds of extra lard, 4,786 extra chickens and ducks, to say nothing of the fish, shrimp and eggs. All these extras cost 11,641 ounces of silver, and with the miscellaneous items added, the total expenditure came to 14,794 ounces of silver. This figure moreover does not include the cost of the cakes, fruit, sweets and drinks that were constantly being served.

  Just as food was cooked in huge quantities and not eaten, so was a vast amount of clothing made which was never worn. I cannot remember details now, but I do know that the Dowager Empress and the High Consorts had no limitation on their expenditures for clothing. How many garments were made for them and for what purpose I have no recollection. Everything I wore was always new. I have before me an account from an unspecified year headed “list of materials actually used in making clothes for His Majesty’s use from the sixth day of the tenth month to the fifth day of the eleventh month.” According to this list the following garments were made for me: eleven fur jackets, six fur inner and outer gowns, two fur waistcoats, thirty cotton padded waistcoats and pairs of trousers. Leaving aside the cost of the main materials for these clothes and the cost of the labor, the bill for the minor items such as edgings, pockets, jeweled buttons and thread came to 2,137 silver dollars.

  I also still have a list of materials used shortly after my marriage by my Empress, my secondary wife and the High Consorts. For the Empress:

  16 bolts of crepe de chine

  8 bolts of silk

  23 bolts of satin

  60 bolts of cotton cloth

  20 pounds of woolen yarn

  40 pounds of cotton thread

  20 spools of gold thread

  90 pelts of ermine and sable

  For my secondary wife:

  15 bolts of silk

  21 bolts of satin

  5 bolts of crepe de chine

  30 bolts of cotton cloth

  8 pounds of woolen yarn

  20 pounds of cotton thread

  10 spools of gold thread

  30 pelts of ermine and sable

  To this must be added what was used by the other four ladies of my household so that the total comes to:

  136 bolts of satin

  169 bolts of silk

  81 bolts of crepe de chine

  41 bolts of lining silk

  234 bolts of cotton cloth

  130 pounds of woolen yarn

  250 pounds of cotton thread

  106 spools of gold thread

  400 pelts of fur

  My changes of clothing were all laid down in regulations and were the responsibility of the eunuchs of the clothing storerooms. Even my everyday clothes came in 28 different styles, from the one in black with white inlaid fur that I started wearing on the 9th day of the first lunar month to the sable one I changed into on the first day of the 11th month. Needless to say, my clothes were far more complicated on festival days and for ceremonial occasions.

  To manage all this there was of course a great proliferation of offices and personnel. The Household Department, which administered the domestic affairs of the Emperor, had under its control seven bureaus and 48 offices. The seven bureaus—the storage bureau, the guard bureau, the protocol, the treasury, the stock-raising bureau, the disciplinary bureau and the construction bureau—all had storerooms, workshops and so on under them. The storage bureau, for example, had stores for silver, fur, porcelain, satin, clothes and tea. According to a list of officials dating from 1909, the personnel of the Household Department numbered 1,023 (excluding the Palace Guard, the eunuchs and certain of the servants); in the early years of the Republic this was cut to someth
ing over 600 and at the time I left the Imperial Palace there were still more than 300. It is not hard to imagine an organization as large as this with so many people in it, but the triviality of some of the functions is difficult to realize.

  One of the 48 offices, for example, was the As You Wish Lodge. Its only purpose was to paint pictures and do the calligraphy for the Empress Dowager and the High Consorts; if the Dowager wanted to paint something, the As You Wish Lodge would outline a design for her so that all she had to do was to fill in the colors and write a title on it. The calligraphy for large tablets was sketched out by experts from the Great Dilligence Hall or else done by the Hanlin academicians. Nearly all the late Ch’ing inscriptions that purport to be the brushwork of the Dowager or of an emperor were produced in this way.

  The buildings all around me and the furniture of the palaces were all part of my indoctrination. Apart from the golden-glazed tiles that were for the exclusive use of the Emperor, the very height of the buildings was an imperial prerogative. It was said that the Emperor Chien Lung (1707-1799) once laid it down that nothing in the palace, not even a leaf from a weed, must be lost. To put this principle into practice he put some weed leaves on a table in the palace and gave orders that they were to be counted every day to see that not one single leaf was missing. Even in my time these 36 withered dried weed leaves were still preserved in a cloisonné box in the Mind Nurture Palace.

  There is no longer any way of calculating exactly the enormous cost of the daily life of an emperor, but a record called “A comparison between the expenditure of the seventh year of Pu Yi (1915) and the past three years,” compiled by a Household Department, shows that the expenditures in 1915 topped 2,790,000 ounces of silver and, while it dropped in each of the following three years, it was always over 1,890,000.

  Some of the rules of the palace were originally not simply for the sake of show. The food dishes with strips of silver on them, the tasting of food before I ate it, and the large-scale security precautions whenever I went out were to protect me against any attempt on my life. It was said that the reason my ancestors had no outside toilets was that an early emperor had been assassinated while visiting one.