The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure
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Authors: Adam Williams
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Contents
The British Legation, Peking, July 1899
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To HHA, PDLW and FR lePW
Permissions
Tang and Li Ho verses from
The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'Ang Exotics
by Edward H Schafer. Copyright © 1963 The Regents of the University of California.
âTo The Tune “A Lonely Flute on the Phoenix Terrace”' by Kenneth Rexroth, from
One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese,
copyright © 1970 by Kenneth Rexroth. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
In the UK:
The Yin Yang Butterfly: Ancient Chinese Sexual Secrets for Western Lovers
by Valentin Chu, originally published by Putnam Publishing Group, copyright © 1993 Valentin Chu.
          In all other territories: âThe bee steals wild nectarâ¦' translated by Valentin Chu from
The Yin Yang Butterfly: Ancient Chinese Sexual Secrets for Western Lovers
by Valentin Chu, copyright © 1993 Valentin Chu. Used by permission of Jeremy P Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin Putnam inc.
Boxer doggerel, quoted in
The Origins of the Boxer Uprising,
copyright © 1987 The Regents of the University of California.
Wang Wei poem in
Three Chinese Poets,
trs Vikram Seth, Faber and Faber, copyright © 1992 Vikram Seth
Note on Chinese Names
In transliterating the sounds of the Chinese language into English I have used where I can the modern Chinese Pinyin system rather than the Wade Giles spelling that would have been current in 1900.
For well-known place names and historical personages, however, I have used the spelling that would have been current at the time. The Chinese capital is therefore Peking rather than Beijing. I have the Boxers originating in Shantung Province rather than the modern Shandong. The reformist Chinese minister is Li Hung-chang rather than Li Hongzhang (as his name is spelt in Chinese history books today). And I have used the word Ch'ing for the name of the Chinese dynasty rather than the modern Qing.
In China the surname comes before the given names. Hence Fan Yimei is Miss Fan rather than Miss Yimei. And as in our own society a hundred years ago, even friends are more likely to use surname than forename. A title comes after the surname. For example, taking the words for Mister (Xiansheng, literally Firstborn), Miss (Xiaojie, literally little sister) or Master (of trades: Shifu), âMr Lu' would be âLu Xiansheng'. âMandarin Liu' would be âLiu Da Ren' (Liu the Great One); âMaster Zhao' would be âZhao Shifu'; âAuntie Ma' (Frank's housemaid) would be âMa Ayi'. Nicknames follow the same rules: for example, the brothel-keeper, âMother Liu', is âLiu Mama' in Chinese.
Chinese also tend to show intimacy and respect through a descriptive epithet before or after the surname. The gatekeeper calls Fan Yimei âFan Jiejie', i.e. âElder Sister Fan'. An older friend might call her âXiao Fan', or âLittle Fan'. This is not derogatory at all. Nor is its opposite: âLao Fan', or âOld Fan', the term of address that might be given by a younger friend to an older one. But sometimes there can be a different meaning if the adjective is put after the surname rather than before. The Chamberlain is customarily addressed as âJin Lao', or literally âJin Old'âbut put this way it actually means âthe Venerable Jin' and is a term of enormous respect, given by an inferior to a superior. To use âLao Jin' in this case would be overfamiliar.
The Characters
(1) In Peking
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(a)
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
The Empress Dowager Tz'u-Hsi: the power behind the throne, effective ruler of China
Li Hung-chang: elder statesman: âfather' of China's international diplomacy and modernization under the Ching Dynasty, in disgrace after China's defeat by Japan in 1895
Prince Tuan: head of the xenophobic faction in the Chinese court
Prince Yi: a court official
Li Lien-ying: Tz'u Hsi's Chief Eunuch
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(b)
THE FOREIGN COMMUNITY
Sir Claude MacDonald: British minister, head of the British Legation
Lady MacDonald: his wife
Douglas Pritchett: Ostensible interpreter at the British Legation, also head of intelligence
Monsieur Pichon: French minister, head of the French Legation
Madame Pichon: his wife
Dr G. E. Morrison:
Times
correspondent, traveller, adventurer
Herbert Squiers: first secretary at the American Legation
Countess Esterhazy: european aristocratic adventuress visiting Peking
B. L. Simpson: employee of the China Customs Service under Sir Robert Hart
Mr and Mrs Dawson: representatives of Babbit and Brenner, a chemicals company
Colonel Taro Hideyoshi: a military attaché at the Japanese Legation
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(2) In Shishan
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(a)
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
The Mandarin, Liu Daguang: the âTao Tai,' or chief magistrate of Shishan
Jin Zhijian (called Jin LaoâVenerable Jin): the Mandarin's chamberlain and master of his household
Major Lin Fubo: head of the Mandarin's militia
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(b)
THE MISSIONARY COMMUNITY
Dr Edward Airton: a Scottish Missionary Society doctor, practising in Shishan
Nellie Airton: his wife
George and Jenny Airton: his young children
Father Adolphus: deceased head of the Catholic mission in Shishan
Sisters Elena and Caterina: Italian nuns now working at Airton's mission
Zhang Erhao: Dr Airton's major-domo
Ah Li and Ah Sun: Dr Airton's Cantonese servants
The Rev. Septimus Millward: American Congregationalist missionary living in Shishan
Laetitia Millward: his wife
Hiram, Mildred, Isaiah, Miriam, Thomas, Martha, Lettie and Hannah Millward: his children
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(c)
THE MERCHANT COMMUNITY
Frank Delamere: a âsoap merchant,' representative of Babbit and Brenner in Shishan
Tang Dexin, Jin Shangui, Lu Jincai: merchants of Shishan
Mr Ding: textile dyer from Tsitsihar, one of Frank Delamere's customers
Hermann Fischer: chief of the railway building project in Shishan
Zhang Dongren (âCharlie'): the westernised
compradore
at the railway and Fischer's interpreter
Zhang Haobin: foreman of the Chinese workers on the railway
Ma Ayi: Frank Delamere's housemaid
Lao Zhao: muleteer working for the railway company
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(d)
THE PALACE OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE
Mother Liu: proprietress of the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, a notorious brothel
Ren Ren: her son
Fan Yimei: a courtesan in the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure, Major Lin's mistress
Shen Ping, Su Liping, Chen Meina: courtesans
Monkey: one of Ren Ren's disreputable friends
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(e)
IN THE BLACK HILLS
Wang Tieren (Iron Man Wang): a shadowy figure, leader of a gang of bandits in the Black Hills
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(f)
IN BASHU, AN OUTLYING VILLAGE
Pastor John Wang: head of the Christian community
Mother Wang: his wife
Mary and Martha: his daughters
Headman Yang: the village headman
Miller Zhang, Lao Yi: Christian villagers
Mother Yang, Xiao Hudie, Lao Dai, Wang Haotian, Zheng Fujia: non-Christian villagers
The village
bonze
: the local Buddhist priest
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(3) Newcomers to Shishan
Henry Manners: formerly an officer in the British army, now working for the China Railways
Helen Frances Delamere: Frank Delamere's daughter fresh from convent school
Tom Cabot: Frank Delamere's new assistant
The Rev. Burton Fielding: representative of the American Board of Commissioners for Missions in China
Frederick Bowers: engineer, train driver
The Boxer Priest
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(4) Other Players
Orkhon Baatar: a Mongolian herdsman
Sarantuya: his wife
Lieutenant Panin, Colonel Tubaichev: Russian officers
The Rev. Richard Brown: a medical missionary
Arthur Topps: an employee of Babbit and Brenner
James Airton: Edward Airton's brother, a bookseller in Glasgow
The Gillespies: medical missionaries in Tientsin, friends of the Airtons
Admiral Seymour, General Chaffee, General von Waldersee: leaders of the Allied Expeditionary Force to Peking
Edmund and Mary Airton: Edward Airton's children at school in Scotland
The British Legation, Peking, July 1899
Geography books will tell you that the dust storms of summer, though rare, are generally violent.
So it was this summer.
Strong winds from Siberia, sucked into the heatbowl of a north China plain already unprotected after three years of drought, effortlessly lifted sand from the Gobi desert and powdery loess soil from the Yellow River escarpments, and deluged the cracked farmlands under an amber cloud.
The advance of the storm was like that of a barbarian horde; or one of those peasant movements that, from time to time in imperial history, have erupted from obscure beginnings and overwhelmed the decadent armies that stood futilely in their way. Like the Yellow Turbans, or the Taipings, or the White Lotus, like any of the revolts in which bandit leaders have aspired to and sometimes attained the Dragon Throne, it grew on its successes, increasing in size and fury until its armies were strong enough to escalade the high walls and tall gatehouses of the Imperial capital, bursting into the narrow streets, penetrating even the courtyards of the Forbidden City, where a weak emperor still held the Mandate of Heaven in feeble hands. So this sandstorm, on a summer night in the last year of the old century, enveloped the streets of Peking. Its myriad conquering soldiers were let loose to pillage the invested town. Dust devils howled a devastating path through the
hutongs,
whipping down the signs on the ornamented shops, splintering the gates of courtyard houses, slicing the skin of those few passersby who had the temerity to go outside and brave the flying sand darts.
