Two years in the Forbidden City

It tells the story of Princess Der Ling stay in the Forbidden City. She spent 2 years serving as a Court Lady to *Lao Fo Yeh (Old Buddha).Princess Der Ling lived in France for about 4 years before returning to China. She is the daughter of Lord Yu Keng, a member of the Manchu White Bannerman who was once assigned as a Minister to France.

I have heard a lot about the Empress. Nothing good but mostly ill-natured. She was known to be evil. She kills those who defy her. One of them was Chen Fei, consort to Emperor Kwang Hsu. Empress Dowager had Chen Fei threw into a well when they (Empress and Emperor Kwang Hsu) fled the Imperial Palace. It seems that Chen Fei was helping Emperor Kwang Hsu to reform China. Something which failed and the Emperor became a prisoner of *Lao Fo Yeh.

It was also known that Empress Dowager was glad that her own son, Emperor Tung Chih was dead, so she can rule China herself. He was said to be contracted with venereal disease. She then replaced him with her nephew - Emperor Kwang Hsu and later, Emperor Puyi also known as the Last Emperor.

Princess Der Ling has nothing but praises for the Empress. To me is like, either she likes her cruelty (maybe she cruel as she is) or it is a need for her to praise her in her book. First, she said she stopped liking the eunuch when she stepped into the palace. She thinks the eunuch deserved to be punished once a while.Then she said she wanted to laugh when Her Majesty asked 2 maids to slap each other .

There's also one time when a eunuch pulled off some hair of Her Majesty while combing it - the Majesty told him to replace it and the eunuch was very frightened. He even started to cry. And what Princess Der ling said was, she almost laughed. She as a Manchu in the Imperial Palace should know, the life of any person can be taken almost immediately for the slightest mistake. It does not matter whether the person is a minister or the low-rank eunuch.

It just doesn't make sense to me. I felt stupid for buying this book now. I just bought the ebook on net for about $2. I felt sillier when I found a free copy of ebook at another website.

*Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi