the Chinese Government was extremely conservative and reactionary,
Lord Yu Keng labored indefatigably for reform. He was instrumental
in reorganizing China's postal service on modern lines, but failed
in efforts to revise the revenue system and modernize the army and
navy, from being ahead of his times. He died in 1905. The
progressive spirit of Lord Yu Keng was shown in the education of
his children. When it became known that his daughters were
receiving a foreign education--then an almost unheard--of
proceeding among high Manchu officials-attempts were made to
impeach him as pro-foreign and revolutionary, but he was not
deterred. 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 returning to China, she became First Lady-in-Waiting
to the Empress Dowager, and while serving at the Court in that
capacity she received the impressions which provide the
subject-matter of this book. Her opportunity to observe and
estimate the characteristics of the remarkable woman who ruled
China for so long was unique, and her narrative throws a new light
on one of the most extraordinary personalities of modern times.
While on leave from her duties to attend upon her father, who was
fatally ill in Shanghai, Princess Der Ling took a step which
terminated connexion with the Chinese Court. This was her
engagement to Mr. Thaddeus C. White, an American, to whom she was
married on May 21, 1907. Yielding to the urgent solicitation of
friends, she consented to put some of her experiences into
literary form, and the following chronicle, in which the most
famous of Chinese women, the customs and atmosphere of her Court
are portrayed by an intimate of the same race, is a result.
THOMAS F. MILLARD. SHANGHAI, July 24, 1911.