Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (51 page)

More gifts were to come. Knowing Mrs Conger’s fondness for the Pekinese, a ‘beautiful little black dog’ arrived in the American Legation in a ‘basket with red satin pad’, complete with ‘a gold-mounted harness with a long silk cord and gold hook’. For Mrs Conger’s newborn granddaughter, Cixi sent over ‘yellow silk boxes containing two beautiful jade ornaments . . . her first gifts sent to a foreign little one’.

Every now and then potted peonies and orchids from her gardens, baskets of fruits from her orchards, boxes of cakes and balls of tea would arrive at the legations, bearing Cixi’s good wishes. For the Chinese New Year, fish – a most auspicious symbol as it shares its sound with ‘abundance’ – would be delivered to the diplomatic families. The American Legation received a colossal specimen: almost 3 metres long and weighing 164 kilos. In her very Chinese way, Cixi tried to build good relations, and in Sarah Conger she made one most valuable friend, who undoubtedly eased her dealings with the foreign powers. The friendship helped to generate sympathy for China in America, and facilitated America’s return of the Boxer Indemnity.

In her goodwill offensive, Cixi encouraged other Chinese women to make friends with Westerners. Soon after the first reception, Sarah Conger, who was sympathetic to the Chinese (‘
While there is much that I find undesirable, I also find in their characters much to admire . . . I really wish to know them. I like the Chinese’), invited some court ladies to the
American Legation for dinner. Cixi’s adopted daughter, the Imperial Princess, acted as her representative and headed the guest list of eleven. Known to be
‘plain in appearance, dignified in bearing’ and noted for ‘making the most graceful courtesy of any lady in the court’, she arrived in a yellow sedan-chair. The other princesses were in red chairs, and those of lesser ranks were in green, with the interpreter in an official mule-cart. They came with 481 servants, including eight eunuchs each and sixty soldiers at the gate. For the Chinese, the more senior a person was in rank, the larger the number of servants. Mrs Conger exclaimed: ‘What a sight!’ The Imperial Princess brought greetings from Cixi, who ‘hopes that the pleasant relations that now exist between America and China will always continue as they now are’. When the ladies left, ‘the grand procession passed from under the American flag and into the streets of the Dragon flag . . . all Chinese were kept from the streets through which the procession passed, but thousands were standing elsewhere enjoying the sight.’

Before long the ladies of the court invited the foreign ladies in return, and Mrs Conger went with nearly 100 servants ‘to conform to Chinese custom’. Thereafter the women began to mingle and became friends. In early 1903 Mrs Conger wrote about her recent life to her daughter, who had been with her in China earlier:

Do you note the departure from old-time customs and the opening, little by little, of the locked doors? I detect and appreciate it . . . the wives of high officials, both Manchu and Chinese, are opening their doors to us, and I am entertaining them in return. My former ideas of Chinese ladies are undergoing a great change . . . I find that they are interested in the affairs of their own country and also in the affairs of other countries. They study the edicts and read their newspapers. At times I refer to items and events to bring out their ideas and I find that they have much information to give.

‘I find that we have many thoughts and ideas in common,’ Mrs Conger discovered. The Chinese women had read books translated by missionaries. They ‘spoke of Columbus’s discovery of America, of the landing of the Pilgrims, of our troubles with England, the seceding of the colonies, of our Declaration of Independence . . .’ One was ‘greatly interested in Professor Jenks’ monetary system’ – a system that the professor of Cornell University, Jeremiah Jenks, was proposing for China that year. The American minister, Edwin H. Conger was as impressed as his wife. When an American admiral asked Mrs Conger, ‘What do you ladies talk about – dress and jewels?’, he replied, ‘Quite the contrary. They talk about the Manchurian troubles, political questions, and many things pertaining to their Government.’ At least some of the court ladies must have been told to do their homework, as Cixi knew Westerners respected women with intelligence and opinions.

Sarah
Conger and Cixi met often and had long conversations. Cixi told the American about her experiences in 1900, relating ‘in a vivid way the incidents of her flight and that of the Court; she told me of their trials and privations . . . Her Majesty cited to me many things of which I thought her totally ignorant.’ Cixi listened as well as talked: she was ‘deeply interested in hearing of her China as I really saw it’. When they met after Conger had travelled extensively in the country in 1905, the American lady described her impressions: ‘The Chinese are reaching out for foreign ideas as never before . . . The whole world detects the dawn of broader thoughts . . .’ Sarah Conger was giving Cixi something most valuable to the empress dowager: feedback from a Westerner about the monumental reforms she had put in train.

Conger felt ‘indignant over the horrible, unjust caricatures’ of her friend in the foreign press, and ‘a growing desire that the world might see her more as she really is’. So she gave interviews to American newspapers and described Cixi ‘as I have many times seen her’. The American’s portrayal of Cixi and the fact that they had become close friends created a new, sympathetic image of the empress dowager, especially in the United States. The press began to acknowledge her reforms, although they habitually gave credit to Mrs Conger, claiming that ‘
Through Mrs Conger’s influence numerous changes have taken place . . .’
‘China’s Woman Ruler Americanizing Her Empire’ read one headline. However grudgingly, the papers began to present Cixi as a progressive, one sketch even showing her in a fighting posture with a captain reading:
‘She orders women’s feet unbound.’ (The unbinding of women’s feet was one of Cixi’s first edicts when she returned to Beijing.) Sarah Conger was instrumental in bringing Cixi a better press in the West.

Cixi was appreciative and felt genuine friendship for the American lady. In 1905, the Congers had to leave China for another post. Sarah was decorated with a most exalted title and was presented with beautiful farewell presents. Before departure, she called on the palace to say goodbye to Cixi and, after the formalities, ‘
we were seated and as one woman with another, the Empress Dowager and I conversed’. Then, ‘Our good-byes were said, and as I was leaving Her Majesty’s presence I was asked to return. Her interpreter placed in my hand a “good-luck stone” – a blood jade, with these words: “Her Majesty has taken the good-luck stone from her person and wishes to give it to you to wear during your long journey across the great waters, that you may safely arrive in your honorable country.”’ Unremarkable in appearance, this piece of jade had been passed down through generations of the Qing dynasty, and had been worn by Cixi herself during her reign, as a talisman that would protect her in her tribulations. To part with such an object was no small thing. To do so impulsively showed Cixi’s real feelings.
The Congers continued to receive her messages after they were gone.

In her effort to improve Cixi’s reputation in the West, Sarah Conger conceived the idea of having the empress dowager’s portrait painted by an American artist for the St Louis Exposition in 1904. Cixi agreed, at considerable psychological cost. Traditionally, portraits were only painted of
dead
ancestors (although there were watercolours depicting daily life), and Cixi, for all her departures from convention, was superstitious. But she did not want to turn down her friend’s kindness – and she also welcomed the chance to promote her image.

Katharine Carl, whose brother worked in the Chinese Customs, was recommended, and came into the court in August 1903. Cixi had only committed to one sitting, and for this she was splendidly decked out, as befitted the empress dowager of China. She wore a brocade gown of imperial yellow, richly embroidered with threads of pearls in a wisteria pattern. Hanging from the top button on her right shoulder was a string of eighteen enormous pearls separated by pieces of jade. Also suspended from the button was a large ruby, with yellow silk tassels that terminated in two immense pear-shaped pearls. A pale-blue embroidered silk handkerchief was tucked under one arm and a scent-bag with long, black silk tassels under another. The headdress was packed with jewels of different kinds, as well as large fresh flowers. Her arms and hands were adorned with bracelets and rings and, as if to extend the area for more decoration, bejewelled nail-protectors capped two fingers on each hand. The feet were not neglected: the square-fronted embroidered satin shoes were covered with small pearls, leaving bare only the centimetres-high soles. Walking on those impossible soles, Cixi advanced animatedly towards Miss Carl and asked where the Double Dragon Throne, her seat, should be placed. And so the painter began work, in a hall where she counted eighty-five clocks ticking and chiming, and feeling the eyes of her sitter ‘fixed piercingly upon me’.

Those eyes judged Miss Carl to be a straightforward person with an open and strong character. Cixi liked her. After the sitting, wrote Carl, she ‘asked me, looking straight into my eyes the while, if I would care to remain at the palace for a few days, that she might give me sittings at her leisure’. The artist, who had very quickly warmed to Cixi, was overjoyed. ‘The reports I had heard of Her Majesty’s hatred of the foreigner had been dispelled by this first Audience and what I had seen there. I felt that the most consummate actress could not so belie her personality . . .’

Carl stayed on for nearly a year. Through her, Cixi was allowing the outside world into the mysterious Chinese court. She also enjoyed Carl’s company. The painter lived in the palaces, saw Cixi practically every day and mingled with people in the court. With an observant and sensitive eye, she came closer to Cixi than most. She noticed her awesome authority, not least through the fact that her portrait was treated ‘with the respect a reverent officiant accords the Holy Vessels of the Church’. Even the artist’s painting materials were invested with a sort of semi-sacred quality. ‘When Her Majesty felt fatigued, and indicated that the sittings were finished, my brushes and palette were taken by the eunuch from my hands, the portrait removed from the easel and reverently consigned to the room that had been set aside for it.’ The brushes and palette were gingerly placed in specially made large flat boxes, which were locked and the keys entrusted to the head eunuch.

Katharine Carl saw how Cixi got her way, in this case by presenting her requests about the painting diffidently, as if asking for a favour. ‘She took my hand in hers, and said in an almost pleading way, “There is a bit of trimming that is not well finished. You will arrange it for me, will you not . . .?”’ She would apologise for her requests: ‘I am giving you a great deal of trouble, and you are very kind.’ One request most tentatively and anxiously made concerned the date when the portrait would be finished. It had to be an auspicious one: the painter could not simply finish when she wished. The almanacs were consulted, and it was decided that 19 April 1904 was the right day, and four o’clock in the afternoon the ideal time. Miss Carl readily accepted and Cixi looked hugely relieved.

Carl was very struck by Cixi’s passion for her gardens: ‘however careworn or harassed she might be, she seemed to find solace in flowers! She would hold a flower to her face, drink in its fragrance and caress it as if it were a sentient thing. She would go herself among the flowers that filled her rooms, and place, with lingering touch, some fair bloom in a better light or turn a jardiniere so that the growing plant might have a more favorable position.’

The painter also shared Cixi’s love of dogs. The empress dowager had a large and luxurious kennel, which Carl often visited. Noticing this, Cixi gave her a pet of her own. One day ‘some young puppies were brought to be shown the Empress Dowager. She caressed the mother and examined critically the points of the puppies. Then she called me up to show them to me, asking me which I liked best . . . she called my attention to their fine points and insisted upon my taking each of them up.’ As Carl felt awkward about taking one, Cixi had one delivered to her as a present: ‘a beautiful white-and-amber-colored Pekingese pug’. This was in fact Carl’s favourite puppy, in which she had shown particular interest when she visited the kennel. Cixi had clearly made it her business to find out.

Carl experienced the most thoughtful side of Cixi, in a personal and feminine way. One day they were out walking: ‘As the day was fading and as I was thinly clad, Her Majesty thought I was cold, and, seeing I had no wrap, she called to the Chief Eunuch to bring me one of hers. He selected one from the number that were always brought along for these promenades, and gave it to Her Majesty, who threw it over my shoulders. She asked me to keep it and to try to remember to take better care of myself in the future.’ When the cold season was coming, Cixi sent a maid to Carl’s apartments to get one of her tailor-made European dresses, and had the palace tailors copy this in padded silk. She gave Carl a long, soft sash to tie at the side, which she said made it look more graceful. As the weather got colder still, Cixi designed for Carl a long fur-lined garment, a hybrid of European and Chinese styles, which the painter thought not only pretty, but comfortable to paint in. The empress dowager also picked a sable hat for Carl, choosing a colour that she felt would complement Carl’s blonde hair, and a design that she said would bring out her strong character.

These non-European outfits were presented to the painter delicately, as Cixi was mindful that the American lady might not like the costume of another culture. Cixi’s own clothes were expressions of her ethnic identity. The only time she did not wear Manchu dress was during her flight, when she wore the clothes belonging to County Chief Woo’s family, which were Han. She told Carl that her new clothes were only for practical purposes and would not violate her personality. Showing the same sensitivity, when she gave a garden party for the diplomatic ladies, Cixi would arrange for Carl to be taken out of the palace to join Mrs Conger and re-enter with the American Legation ladies – in case Carl might be embarrassed to appear as though she were a member of the empress dowager’s entourage. Going for walks in the gardens, Cixi would pick small flowers and tuck them behind Carl’s ears, in a gesture of intimacy that Carl realised was ‘to insure a similar treatment of me by the Ladies and eunuchs’. Cixi also saw to it that Carl was included in all enjoyable activities. The beginning of the kite-flying time in spring was one such, when grandees and literati ran around like children. It was customary for the first kite to be sent up by the empress dowager. On that day Cixi invited Carl to the garden and, after letting out the string and expertly handling the kite, handed it to Carl and offered to teach her how to fly it.