beige. His Majesty expects cheerfulness!”
“But Orchid told us that His Majesty would not be present in our house,” Mother said. “Did Orchid misunderstand?”
The eunuch shook his head. “You must learn to see that you are no longer your old self. You have become part of His Majesty, and you represent the Imperial aesthetics and principles. What you did with your house could ruin the appearance of the Son of Heaven! My head wouldn’t be where it sits if I allowed you to do whatever you like. Look at your curtains! They are made of cotton! Didn’t I tell you that cotton is for ordinary people and silk is for the Imperial family? Did my words go through your ears like the wind? It’ll bring your daughter bad luck if you try to be cheap!”
At my repeated pleading the head eunuch agreed to let us get out of the house while his men conducted the renovation. Mother took us to Peking’s most prestigious teahouses, in an expensive shopping district called Wangfooching. For the first time Mother spent like a rich lady. She tipped the busboy, the kitchen hands, even the stove man. The owners themselves brought the finest wines to our table. I was glad to see Mother happy. My being chosen had changed the condition of her health overnight. She looked well and was in exuberant spirits. We drank and celebrated. I had no real reason to be proud, because my good looks had nothing to do with me. But I thanked myself for having had the courage. I would have missed the opportunity if I had hesitated or carried myself poorly.
Mother wanted to know if the newly selected Imperial concubines would get along living together in the Forbidden City. I didn’t want her to worry, so I told her that I had already made friends. I described Nuharoo’s beauty, her admirable manners and knowledge. I also described Lady Yun. I didn’t know much about her character or family background, so I concentrated on her beauty. I mentioned Lady Li as well. I described the difference in their characters. While Yun was daring and cared little about the opinions of others, Li wondered if she was the reason that people coughed.
Rong was a bit jealous when I mentioned Lady Soo, the youngest, who wept in front of the Majesties. Soo’s sensitivity needed tenderness and care. She was an orphan, adopted by her uncle at the age of five, and she was obviously both sad and scared. The Grand Empress sent doctors to examine her; they concluded that she had a disturbed mind. Soo’s weeping didn’t stop after she was officially chosen. The eunuchs called her the Weeping Willow. The Grand Empress became concerned about the quality of the “eggs” that Soo would produce. “No quality eggs, no ladyship,” she had said to all of us. If Soo continued to be who she was, Her Majesty would give her away.
“Poor child.” My mother sighed.
I went on to speak of Lady Mei and Lady Hui, the two who looked like twins. They had less beauty but strong bodies. They were the Grand Empress’s favorites. Their breasts were as big as melons and their buttocks were the size of washbasins. They were gifted in flattery and hovered around Nuharoo like pets. Cheerful and animated in front of the Grand Empress, they were wooden and silent by themselves. They didn’t like to read, paint or do embroidery. Their only hobby was to dress alike.
“Did the Grand Empress Lady Jin look like the paintings we have seen, beautiful and elegant?”
“She must have been a beauty when young,” I replied. “Today I would say that the pattern on her dress is more interesting than her looks.”
“What was she like?” both Mother and Rong asked. “What does she expect from you?”
“That is a hard question. On the one hand, we are expected to follow the rules. ‘As royal members,’” I mimicked Her Majesty, “‘you are the models for our nation’s morality. Your purity reflects our ancestors’ teachings. If I catch you passing around books of a salacious nature, you will be hanged like those before you.’ On the other hand, the Grand Empress expects us to mate with Emperor Hsien Feng as often as we can. She told us that her achievement will rest in the number of heirs we produce. The Emperor is expected to outperform his father and grandfather. Emperor Kang Hsi, Hsien Feng’s great-great-grandfather, sired fifty-five children, and Emperor Chien Lung, Hsien Feng’s grandfather, twenty-seven.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Kuei Hsiang smiled slyly as he threw a fistful of roasted nuts into his mouth. “His Majesty has more than three thousand ladies all to himself. I bet he can hardly make the rounds.”
“But there are obstacles,” I told Mother. Hsien Feng’s performance in the Record Book of Imperial Fertility, a diary kept by Chief Eunuch Shim that traced His Majesty’s bedchamber activity, was poor. The Grand Empress had accused the Emperor of “deliberately wasting the dragon seeds.” Too often, His Majesty was said to favor a single concubine, forgetting his duty to spread his seeds by sleeping with different ladies each night. The Grand Empress spoke angrily of past concubines who had been possessive of His Majesty. She saw them as “wicked-minded” and didn’t hesitate to punish them severely.
I told Mother that the Grand Empress had taken us to the Hall of Punishment, where I saw for the first time the famous beauty Lady Fei. She used to be the favorite concubine of Emperor Tao Kuang, but now she lived in a jar. When I saw that Lady Fei had no limbs I almost fainted. “Lady Fei was caught having the Emperor all to herself, and she fooled nobody but herself,” the Grand Empress said coldly. The only reason Lady Fei was kept alive was to serve as a warning.
I would never forget my horror that afternoon at the sight of Lady Fei. Her head rested on the rim of the jar, her face was filthy, and green mucus dripped from her chin.
Mother grabbed my shoulders. “Promise me, Orchid, that you will be careful and wise.”
I nodded.
“What about the thousands of beauties selected?” Kuei Hsiang asked. “Is His Majesty encouraged to take ladies at a moment’s interest? Can he take a maid who is a courtyard sweeper?”
“He can do anything he wants, although his mother doesn’t encourage him to take courtyard sweepers,” I answered.
Rong turned to Mother. “Why would His Majesty want a maid when he has beautiful wives and concubines?”
“I can only say that the Emperor might resent the fact that he doesn’t get the chance to sleep every night with the woman he loves.”
We went quiet for a while. “His Majesty probably hates the ladies forced on him by his mother and the eunuchs,” Mother continued. “He must feel like a hog led by the nose.”
“Orchid, what are you going to do?” Rong asked. “If you obey the rules, you will attract no attention from the Emperor; but if you try to be alluring, and His Majesty desires you, the Grand Empress may remove your limbs!”
“Let’s go to the Temple of Mercy and consult your father’s spirit,” Mother said.
We had to climb hundreds of steps to reach the temple, on the top of Goose Mountain. We lit incense and paid the most expensive contribu-tion. But I didn’t receive any advice from my father’s spirit. My mind was troubled, and I was very aware that I was on my own.
Father’s grave was on the side of the mountain facing the northwest part of Peking. His coffin lay under knee- high grass. The graveyard keeper was an old man who smoked a clay pipe. He told us not to worry about robbers. “The dead are known for their debts in this area,” he said, and advised that the best way to pay our father respect was to purchase a lot higher up on the hillside, in the sunnier area.
I gave fifty taels to the man and asked him to guard my father from wild dogs, who dug up the bodies for food. The man was so shocked by my generosity that he dropped his pipe.
Gifts in huge boxes from the Imperial palace arrived. Every inch of our house was filled. The boxes were piled on the tables and beds. There was no place to sit or sleep. Still the gifts kept pouring in. One morning, six Mongolian horses were delivered. There were paintings, antiques, bolts of silk and embroidery from Soochow. Besides magnificent jewelry, splendid garments and headwear and shoes were given to me. My mother was given gold tea sets, silver pots and copper basins.
The neighbors were ordered to lend us their homes for storage. Large pits were dug in the ground around the neighborhood to serve as coolers, to stock meat and vegetables for the coming celebration banquet. Hundreds of jars of century-old wine were ordered, plus eighty lambs, sixty pigs and two hundred chickens and ducks.
On the eighth of the month the banquet was held. The head eunuch, who was in charge, invited a thousand people, among them nobles, ministers, court officials and Imperial relatives. Each guest was served twenty courses, and the meal lasted three days.
My time, though, was unbearable. I could hear the singing, laughing and shouting of drunkards through the
