With the Empress Dowager of China quotes

but I had made up my mind that the pose and surroundings must be as typical and characteristic as possible, and as I had had no time to study my August Sitter I thought she would know best as to her position and accessories.

Beginning anything is momentous.

Every artist knows how the wonderful possibilities of the bare canvas in its virgin purity standing before him inspires him with almost a feeling of awe; how he hesitates about beginning, so great is the responsibility.

This was the one of her characteristics which seemed most incompatible with the idea I had formed of her from what I had heard, and her love of flowers and all nature caused me first to change that idea.

It seemed to me no one could love flowers and nature as she did and be the woman she had been painted.

She had flowers always about her.

She was a woman of such infinite variety! There was always something new and fresh to study in her. She was the very embodiment of the Eternal Feminine.

She was at once a child and a woman with strong, virile qualities.

She would go into the Audience Hall, transact weighty affairs of State for three hours, and then go for her walks or excursions, and take a childish interest in the simplest pleasures.

I spent the next day at the Legation, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was glad to think that I was to spend the following day at the Palace again.

The study of Her Majesty had now become to me like a thrilling novel. I could not bear to lay it down; and when I was forced to do so, I was longing to be able to resume it.

She was such a delightful surprise to me.

… eunuchs still wearing their richly embroidered gala costumes, the chair-bearers still clad in the festive red, the yellow and red chairs with the big yellow, orange, and red umbrellas made a quaint procession, bright with color, that started off through the courts into the gardens.

Her Majesty loves every phase of nature and every kind of weather; but it seemed to me as if she particularly loved rain.

She once said it lent such a poetic charm to the landscape, bathing it in a soft mystery and washing away all defects. Peking is a dry place, and rain is a rarity, which probably accounts for this predilection.

We had come to another gourd-arbor! Her Majesty got out of her chair and examined the gourds in this arbor with the same deliberation and interest as she had looked at those where we first stopped. The rain was now falling in torrents, but

Her Majesty’s spirits seemed to go up in proportion to its coming down.

The Ladies were again obliged to get out of their chairs! They stood in two dejected lines, with the eunuchs holding, as best they might, the red umbrellas over each, and they vainly tried to keep up an appearance of interest and enjoyment.

When we reached our objective point, one of the highest eminences in the grounds, with the whole panorama of the Western Hills spread out beneath us, and the setting sun glowing over all in brilliant splendor, it was a glorious scene.

She called me up to her side and made a graceful, sweeping gesture of the hand that said, “This is all mine, but you may share it with me.”

She had that sense of possession of nature’s beauties which all artistic souls feel, for their appreciation makes what they view their own.

Her Majesty ordered the engines reversed, and this was tried, but it was some time before the launch moved. The Princesses and eunuchs became quite excited, but Her Majesty was perfectly unconcerned, and laughed at their fears for her safety.

She said it would be no great matter for her to walk over to the island. It would only mean one pair of shoes the less!

When the launch finally moved, the Chief Eunuch, not wishing to run the risk of another mishap, wanted to give word to the engineer to return;

Some of them were clever and interesting even, and they all had very good manners.

In fact, I cannot too highly praise the manners of the Chinese, as a race.

I quite concur in the opinion of a clever Frenchman, who said of China, “Aujourd’hui c’est là où les bonnes manières se sont refugiées.”

The Chinese say “colors, odors, and perfumes are good for the soul.” The Empress Dowager’s soul was certainly well cared for in this respect.

The Chinese are so near to nature, so simple in every way, that their influence over animals and birds is extraordinary, and seems to us almost magical.

They are very fond of all animals, and especially so of birds. They train and teach these latter in wonderful ways.

The Chinese are so perfectly tolerant in matters of religion, they cannot understand our attitude toward any other religion but our own, and our contempt for any other kind of worship except that in which we ourselves indulge.

The Chinese are said to hate the foreigner. They certainly have not much reason to like him; nor to admire our much vaunted civilization.

The European Christian soldier in China has burned, destroyed, and killed with as much barbarity as the heathen, and in many instances has given the latter points in cruelty.

She said the foreign costume was very becoming to well-made and well-proportioned people; but she thought, while it showed off to advantage a good figure, it was unfortunate for anyone who was not so blessed.

She thought the Chinese costume, falling in straight lines from the shoulder, was more becoming to stout people, for it hid many defects.

One universal comment, among these Chinese ladies, on us, was that we look old for our years. The well-bred Chinese repress, from early childhood, all outward evidences of emotion.

She had been preoccupied and sad that day, but when she saw it she smiled, and said, “Who decorated you with the peacock feather?” I told her the young Empress had done so. She said that was her prerogative, but she added,

“If you were a man you would win it, and probably a yellow jacket also, for you are fearless.”

Why did she think me fearless?

Her Majesty is a light and irregular sleeper. When she wakes and finds it impossible to go to sleep again, she rises, is dressed, and often goes for a walk in the grounds, at what we would call the most unseasonable of hours.

She says Nature is beautiful at every hour of the twenty-four, with a different charm for each moment.

As she loves it in all its phases, she likes to see it at every hour of the twenty-four, at least once a year!

It was not a matter of whether the lines or color suited the picture, the point was to have everything Ho-shih (proper), as the Chinese say.

With the Chinese, propriety is a religion, and a thing that is “proper” must conform to tradition, for tradition and propriety are synonymous.

The question of the throne was left in abeyance for the moment, as Her Majesty said there was one she would like to have painted, which she would have found before I began the big picture.

She was told that when I knew what anniversary it was, I had put it on on that account. She seemed much touched, took my hand in both hers, and said,

“You have a good heart to think of my grief and to have wished to sympathize,”

and tears fell from her eyes on my hand, which she held in hers.

Being so near to Nature, the Chinese are naturally a pastoral people, a race of agriculturists; and agriculture, being thus honored by the Sacred Persons of Their Majesties, becomes a lofty ideal.

Labor, which the Emperor publicly performs, loses all taint and grows into an Inspiration.

At the first presentation to her of this plan of taxation, she repeated several times,

“I fear it may harass the people; we cannot harass the people; they have enough burdens to bear.”

She was not so particular about not harassing the Officials, for they were called upon all over China to make great contributions to the Imperial Treasury for the purpose of assisting in paying the foreign indemnity.

She could be most sarcastic, sometimes cruelly so, but I generally found there was some reason for her sarcasm. She was very impulsive and had her share of temper, but there was never any unladylike display of it.

When she was angry her voice was never raised; it simply lost its silvery sweetness and took the quality of some ordinary metal, and she was always quiet and well-bred.

From what I saw of the Empress Dowager, it seemed to me she would not brook interference in the accomplishment of a design she had set her heart upon—that she would not hesitate even at crushing an individual who stood in the way of the …

The significance of the legend seems to be: The Double Dragon represents the Powers of Earth or Evil which try ever to absorb the Flaming Pearl, Emblem of the Dynasty, symbol of Heaven or Perfection.

The Flaming Pearl, the Unattainable, keeps ever beyond and above their grasp, seeming to serve always as an incentive for further effort.

For a fortnight after the lantern festival, there were fireworks every night on the banks of the lake.