Manuscript Notes - Life of a Princess

Below are some of my notes (279 pages) of notes for my new book.


The Life of a Princess

Of
China



By Frederick Von Thrauthemburg Morris




The folowing is the story of Princess Der Ling of China,
Princess Der Ling (Chinese: 德龄, pinyin: Dé Líng)m, (1885-1944), was a Manchu noblewoman, daughter of Lord Yu Keng (裕庚). Lord Yu Keng was a member of the Chinese Plain White Banner Corps (正白旗). After serving as Chinese minister to Japan he was appointed minister to the French Third Republic for four years in 1899. He was known for his progressive, reformist views, as well as for his unvarying support of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In 1905, Lord Yu Keng died in Shanghai.
Yu Keng's daughters were Der Ling and Rong Ling (the future Madame Dan Paochao of Beijing), therefore they were afforded a western education, having studied dance in Paris with Isadora Duncan. Upon return from France, Der Ling became the First lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi, as well as a translator. She stayed at court until March 1905. In 1907, Der Ling married Thaddeus C. White, an American.
The title Princess, was not one Der Ling was born to, but one she adopted. The use of this title create controversy for her in both China and the United States. Through the urging of friends Der Ling wrote down her unique experience in court in her memoirs Two Years in the Forbidden City, which were published in 1911, and wrote about the experience through her next seven books. It is these text that I use here to retell her story. All credit for this book and everything in it, must be accredited to the Princess as she was able to put to paper historical insights into life at court that only someone with first hand knowledge would be able to support with facts and candor. Der Ling's service to the Dowager Empress, essentially a world that has disappeared, now gives us a picture of life as it was at the time, an insiders point of view even if she takes great pain to support and put a positive spin on the reign of a notorious ruler .
Here then, in her own words, is the story of Princess Der Ling. “MY father and mother, Lord and Lady Yu Keng, and family, together with our suite consisting of the First Secretary, SecondSecretary, Naval and Military Attaches, Chancellors, theirfamilies, servants, etc., altogether fifty-five people, arrivedin Shanghai on January 2, 1903, on the S.S. "Annam" from Paris,where for four years my father had been Chinese Minister. Ourarrival was anything but pleasant, as the rain came down intorrents, and we had the greatest difficulty getting our numerousretinue landed and safely housed, not to mention the tons ofbaggage that had to be looked after. We had found from previous



























experience that none of our Legation people or servants could be depended upon to do anything when traveling, in consequence of which the entire charge devolved upon my mother, who was without doubt the genius of the party in arranging matters and straightening out difficulties. When the launch from the steamer arrived at the jetty off the French Bund, we were met by the Shanghai Taotai (the highest official in the city), the Shanghai Magistrate and numerous other officials, all dressed in their official robes. The Taotai told my father that he had prepared the Tien Ho Gung (Temple of the Queen of Heaven) for us to reside in during our stay in Shanghai, but my father refused the offer, saying that he had telegraphed from Hong Kong and made all arrangements to go to the Hotel des Colonies in the French Concession. We had had previous experience staying in this temple while on our way to Japan, where my father went as Minister in 1895, and did not care to try it a second time. The building is very old and very much out of repair. It was a beautiful place in its prime, but had been allowed to go to rack and ruin. The custom is that the magistrate has to find a placeand supply the food, etc., for high officials when passingthrough, and it is not exactly the thing to refuse their kindoffer, but my father was always very independent and politelydeclined all proffers of assistance. At last we did safely arrive in the Hotel des Colonies, where myfather found awaiting him two telegrams from the Imperial Palace.These telegrams ordered my father to go to Peking at once, but, asthe river to Tientsin was frozen, it was out of the question forus to go by that route, and as my father was very old and quiteill at that time, in fact constantly under the doctor's care, theonly accessible way, via Chinwangtao, was equally out of thequestion, as it was a long and most tedious journey and quitebeyond his strength. In view of all these difficulties, hetelegraphed that, after the ice had broken up in the Peiho River,we would come by the first steamer leaving Shanghai for Tientsin.







We left Shanghai on the 22d of February and arrived at Tientsin onthe 26th, and, as before, were met by the Customs Taotai of the port and numerous other officials (the same as when we arrived at Shanghai). There is a very curious custom of reverence, which must be performed by all high officials on their return from abroad. Immediately upon landing on the shores of China, arrangements aremade with the nearest Viceroy or Governor to receive their obeisance to Ching Sheng An (to worship the Emperor of Peace), a Taotai being considered of too low a rank for such an honor. As soon as we arrived, Yuan Shih Kai, who was then Viceroy of Chihli Province at Tientsin, sent an official to my father to prepare the time and place for this function, which is an extremely pretty one. When arrangements had been made, both my father and Yuan Shih Kai dressed in their full ceremonial robes, which is the dragon long robe, with a reddish black three-quarter length coat over it, chao chu (amber beads), hat with peacock feather and red coral button, and repaired at once to the Wan Shou Kung (10,000 years palace), which is especially built for functions of this kind, where they were met by a large number of officials of the lower grades. At the back centre of this Temple, or Palace, stands a very long narrow table on which are placed the tablets of the Emperor and Empress Dowager, on which is written, "Wan sway, wan sway, wan wan sway" (10,000 years times 10,000 years times 10,000 years). The Viceroy, or in this case Yuan Shih Kai, and the other officials arrived first. Yuan stood at the left side of this table and the others arranged themselves in two diminishing lines starting from the front corners of the table. Soon afterward my father came and knelt directly in front of the centre of the tableand said, "Ah ha Ching Sheng An" (Your servant gives yougreeting). After this ceremony was over my father immediatelyarose and inquired after Their Majesties' health, and Yuan repliedthat they were quite well. This closed the function. We stayed in Tientsin for three days, arriving in Peking on thetwenty-ninth. My father's condition was much worse and he begged for four months' leave of absence, in which to recuperate, which was granted by Her Majesty, the Empress Dowager. As our beautiful mansion, which we had built and furnished just before leaving for Paris, was burned during the Boxer Rising of 1900, entailing a loss of over taels 100,000, we rented and moved into a Chinese house. Our old house was not entirely new. When we bought the place there was a very fine but old Chinese house, the palace of a Duke, standing on the ground, and by some clever re-arrangement and building on, it was transformed into a beautiful foreign style house with all the fine hardwood carving of the old house worked into it. By using the words "foreign style," it is meant that, in so far as the Chinese house could be made to look like a foreign house, without tearing it down entirely, it was changed, that is the doors and windows, passageways, furnishings, etc., were foreign, but the arrangement of the house itself and courtyard was Chinese. This, like all Chinese houses in Peking, was built in a very rambling fashion, and with the gardens, covered about ten acres of ground. We had just finished furnishing it and moved in only four days when we left for Paris; and it has always been a great sorrow to my family that we should lose this magnificent place, after having spent so much time and money in building and beautifying it. However, this is only one of the many trials that a high official in China is called upon to bear.