Two Years in the Forbidden City
1911
This is the memoir that pulled back the curtain on the most mythologized woman in Chinese history. Princess Der Ling was nineteen years old when she entered the Summer Palace as First Lady-in-Waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi and stayed for two years at the beating heart of a dying empire. Her father, a progressive aristocrat who'd lived in Paris, pushed for reform while China cratered around him. Der Ling moved between two worlds, Chinese enough to serve the Empress, Western enough to be something of a curiosity, and what she witnessed has no equal in Western literature. Cixi emerges here not as the villain of operatic stereotype but as a cunning, wounded, often hilarious woman who held together a collapsing dynasty through sheer will. The palace teemed with eunuchs, concubines, rival factions, and the particular madness of a court that knew it was dying but could not stop its own rituals. This book is the closest thing we have to walking those corridors yourself, torch in hand, watching an entire world fold.
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“Her Majesty to the theatre. The performance took place on a stage erected in the courtyard, and Her Majesty closed in one part of her veranda for the use of the guests and Court ladies. During the performance I began to feel very drowsy, and eventually fell fast asleep leaning against one of the pillars. I awoke rather suddenly to find that something had been dropped into my mouth, but on investigation I found it was nothing worse than a piece of candy, which I immediately proceeded to eat. On approaching Her Majesty, she asked me how I had enjoyed the candy, and told me not to sleep, but to have a good time like the rest. I never saw Her Majesty in better humor. She played with us just like a young girl, and one could hardly recognize in her the severe Empress Dowager we knew her to be.””
— Princess Der Ling
“While browsing through the Seattle Art Museum in 1945, a scholar discovered a 5-inch jade seal, missing from China since the Boxer Rebellion, as a priceless Imperial seal. “My spectacles fell off my nose and I started to yell,” said Hugh Alexander Matier, 62-year-old scholar and traveler.””
— Princess Der Ling
“This book is important due to the historical insights of Der Ling rather than her literary skill. Her life and works underscore a shrewd ability to adapt and make the most out of her various experiences.””
— Princess Der Ling
“Armed with her title as princess, the married name of Mrs. Thaddeus White, and the United States as a new frontier to conquer, Der Ling won many admirers.””
— Princess Der Ling
“In this eyewitness story, we meet Tzu-hsi in the twilight of her reign. Advanced in age, the Empress on the Dragon Throne is no longer the young beauty whose skill at seduction and aptitude for court intrigue saw her rise from a lowly Imperial concubine to the second most powerful place under the Hsien-feng Emperor.””
— Princess Der Ling
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483fe"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483fe)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483fe][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Two Years in the Forbidden City by Princess Der Ling free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483feCite this book
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Ling, Princess Der. Two Years in the Forbidden City. Lex, lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483fe.Ling, P. D. (1911). Two Years in the Forbidden City. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483feLing, Princess Der. Two Years in the Forbidden City. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/two-years-in-the-forbidden-city-af1a047f-e419-4eeb-a180-11a547e483fe.
