COURT LIFE IN CHINA

THE CAPITAL
ITS OFFICIALS AND PEOPLE

By

ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND

Professor in the Peking University

ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND'S THREE BOOKS THAT "LINK EAST AND WEST"

Court Life in China: The Capital Its Officials and People.
The Chinese Boy and Girl
Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes

PREFACE

Until within the past ten years a study of Chinese court life wouldhave been an impossibility. The Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and thecourt ladies were shut up within the Forbidden City, away from a worldthey were anxious to see, and which was equally anxious to see them.Then the Emperor instituted reform, the Empress Dowager came out frombehind the screen, and the court entered into social relations withEuropeans.

For twenty years and more Mrs. Headland has been physician to thefamily of the Empress Dowager's mother, the Empress' sister, and manyof the princesses and high official ladies in Peking. She has visitedthem in a social as well as a professional way, has taken with her herfriends, to whom the princesses have shown many favours, and they havethemselves been constant callers at our home. It is to my wife,therefore, that I am indebted for much of the information contained inthis book.

There are many who have thought that the Empress Dowager has beenmisrepresented. The world has based its judgment of her character uponher greatest mistake, her participation in the Boxer movement, whichseems unjust, and has closed its eyes to the tremendous reforms whichonly her mind could conceive and her hand carry out. The great Chineseofficials to a man recognized in her a mistress of every situation; theforeigners who have come into most intimate contact with her, voice herpraise; while her hostile critics are confined for the most part tothose who have never known her. It was for this reason that a morethorough study of her life was undertaken.

It has also been thought that the Emperor has been misunderstood, beingoverestimated by some, and underestimated by others, and this becauseof his peculiar type of mind and character. That he was unusual, no onewill deny; that he was the originator of many of China's greatestreform measures, is equally true; but that he lacked the power toexecute what he conceived, and the ability to select great statesmen toassist him, seems to have been his chief shortcoming.

To my wife for her help in the preparation of this volume, and to myfather-in-law, Mr. William Sinclair, M. A., for his suggestions, I amunder many obligations.

I. T. H.

CONTENTS