About This Book

. . . When we commenced to eat, Her Majesty ordered the eunuchs to place plates for us and give us silver chopsticks, spoons, etc., and said: 'I am sorry you have to eat standing, but I cannot break the law of our great ancestors. Even the Young Empress cannot sit in my presence. I am sure the foreigners must think we are barbarians to treat our Court ladies in this way and I don't wish them to know anything about our customs. You will see how differently I act in their presence, so that they cannot see my true self.' . . .

About The Princess Der Ling

THE author was a daughter of Lord Yu Keng, one of the most advanced and progressive Chinese officials of his generation. His children got their early education in missionary schools, and the daughters later attended a convent in France, where the author of this work finished her schooling and entered society. On their return to China, Der Ling became First Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Dowager, who so admired her good sense and became so fond of her that she was made a princess. This narrative shows the good qualities of the writer herself as it throws a new light on the Empress, one of the most extraordinary personalities of modern times.