Memoirs Of A Palace Maid

Preface III

During the crisis year*, she fled with the Empress Dowager to Xi'an. Before heading off, she witnessed the tragic death of Consort Zhen**. One year after they returned to the palace, she had to return to Bei Chi Zi to live because she was overage.  (According to palace conventions, palace maids leave the palace before the age of 25.) She had served the Empress Dowager for eight long years. Eunuch Liu was an opium addict who smoked and gambled indiscriminately. He died not long after.

After "September 18th"***, Japan forces entered Beijing. Japanese ruffians colluded with local officials and forced her out of her home. She had to live in the dormitories near Dong Huang Cheng Geng in Hou Men Dong. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident****, the police and ruffians orchestrated another robbery. Two masked men broke into her room and used a knife to stab her pillow. The jewels she had exchanged with her life and years of humiliation were looted from her. Heaven did not answer her pleas. She was reduced to being a domestic helper to earn a livelihood.

Since I met her in the early 1940s, we often interacted, mainly because I have a family and kept asking her for help. In the winter of 1948, we went through a difficult period. At the end of 1949, when my little daughter was born, she helped me for a short period.  In the spring of 1950 I was sick in bed and received her care. Afterwards "the wind enters cavities, people's talk is to be feared", there was a rumour that people hiring help will fall under the suspicion of exploitation, so we didn't dare to ask for her help anymore. 

In the late autumn of this year, there was already a mess of yellow leaves in alley.  She came to my house, carrying a small packet. I thought it was strange because our relationship with each other had gone beyond the stage of exchanging gifts.

After some greetings and small talk about the family, she went to the back room, picked up my young daughter who was less than a year old and opened the packet she brought. She said: "I specially made a little pair of pants for the little fourth aunt. Keep it until next year for her to wear it."

After a while, she would say intermittently: "The eyes are no good. I don't know where to stick the needle. Cope with it while wearing it! People becomes useless when they grow old. Save it as a souvenir."

After I heard that, I became alert. My husband raised an eyebrow at and threw me a questioning look. She obviously came to us to "ci lu".

Translator's Notes:

* The crisis year refers to year 1900 involving the Boxer uprising and the eight nation military invasion of Beijing.

** The Empress Dowager allegedly ordered Consort Zhen (more popularly known as the Pearl Concubine) to be thrown down a well to her death.

*** The Mukden Incident happened on the 18th September 1931. It was a staged explosion on a Japanese railway line. The Japanese military who orchestrated the explosion accused Chinese dissidents of the act and used the event as a pretext to launch an invasion.

**** The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army. It is marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.