Adrift in Pacific and Other Great Adventures – 17 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
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of Thibet, compose the floating population.
The plan of these two cities, one above the other, presents almost the exact figure of an old-fashioned sideboard, whose upper part would be formed by the Chinese city, and the base by the Tartar city.
Six leagues of a fortified enclosure, from forty to fifty feet in height and width, with an outside wall of brick, defended for two hundred metres on both sides by jutting towers, surround the Tartar city with a magnificent paved promenade; and throw out at their angles four enormous bastions, which have guard-houses on their platforms. The emperor, the Son of Heaven, as one sees, is well guarded.
In the centre of the Tartar city, the Yellow City, with a surface of six hundred and sixty hectares, with an outlet of eight gates, contains a coal-mountain three hundred feet high, the highest point of the capital; also a superb canal called the Central Sea, spanned by a marble bridge; two bonze convents; a pagoda of examinations; the Pei-tha-sse, a bonze temple built on a peninsula which seems as if suspended over the clear waters of the canal; the Peh-Tang, an establishment of Catholic missionaries; the imperial pagoda, superb with its roof of sonorous bells and lapis-lazuli tiles; the great temple dedicated to the ancestors of the reigning dynasty; the Temple of Spirits; the Temple of the Spirit of Winds; the Temple of the God of Thunder, of the Inventor of Silk, of the Lord of Heaven; the five Pavilions of Dragons; and the Monastery of Eternal Repose.
In the centre of this quadrilateral is hidden the Forbidden City, whose surface measures eighty hectares, and which is surrounded by the ditch of a canal spanned by seven marble bridges. It need not be explained, that, the reigning dynasty being from Mandshuria, the first of these three cities is principally inhabited by a population of the same race. As for the Chinese, they are consigned to the lower part of the sideboard, outside in the annexed city. One reaches the interior of this Forbidden City—which is surrounded by red brick walls, crowned by a capital of golden-yellow, varnished tiles—through a gate at the south, called the Gate of Great Purity, which is only opened to emperors and empresses. There may be found the temple of the ancestors of the Tartar dynasty, sheltered under a double roof of variegated tiles; the temples Che and Tsi, consecrated to terrestrial and celestial spirits; the Palace of Sovereign Concord, reserved for state ceremonies and official banquets; the Palace of Medium Concord, where are seen the pictures of the ancestors of the Sons of Heaven; the Palace of the Protecting Concord, whose central hall is occupied by the imperial throne; the Pavilion of Nei-Ko, where the Great Council of the Empire is held, and presided over by Prince Kong,1 the minister of foreign affairs, and paternal uncle of the last sovereign; the Pavilion of Literary Flowers, where the emperor goes once a year to interpret the sacred books; the Pavilion of Tchouane-Sine-Tiene, in which the sacrifices in honor of Confucius take place; the Imperial Library; the Office of Historians; the Von-Igne-Tiene, where the wood and copper plates used in printing books are kept; shops in which court garments are prepared; the Palace of Celestial Purity, a place for the deliberation of family affairs; the Palace of the Superior Terrestrial Element, where the young empress dwelt; the Palace of Meditation, into which the sovereign retires when he is ill; the three palaces where the emperor’s children are brought up; the temple of deceased relatives; the four palaces reserved for the widow and wives of Hien-Fong, who died in 1861; the Tchou-Sieou-Kong, the residence of imperial spouses; the Palace of Preferred Goodness; intended for the official receptions of court ladies; the Palace of General Tranquillity, a singular name for a school for the children of superior officers; the Palace of Purification and Fasting; the Palace of the Purity of Jade, inhabited by the princes of the blood; the temple of the protecting god of the town; a temple of Thibetan architecture; the magazine of the crown; the offices of court officials; the Lao–Kong-Tchou, the dwelling of the eunuchs, of which there are no less than five thousand in the Red City; and, to be brief, other palaces, amounting to forty-eight in all, can be counted within the imperial enclosure, without including the Tzen–Kouang-Ko, the Pavilion of Purpled Light, situated on the borders of the lake of the Yellow City, where, on the 19th of June, 1873, the five ministers of the United States, Russia, Holland, England, and Prussia were admitted to the presence of the emperor.
What ancient forum ever presented such a mass of buildings, so varied in form, and so rich in precious objects? What city, or what capital of the European States, could offer such a list of names?
And to this enumeration must still be added the Ouane-Cheou-Chane, the Summer Palace, situated two leagues from Pekin. Having been destroyed in 1860, one can hardly find among its ruins its Gardens of Perfect Clearness and Tranquil Clearness; its hill, the Source of Jade; and its mountain, Ten Thousand Longevities.
Surrounding the Yellow City is the Tartar city, where are located the French, English, and Russian legations; the Hospital of London Missions; the Catholic Missions of the East and North; the ancient stables of elephants, which contain but one, blind in one eye, and a centenarian. There are found the Bell Tower, with a red roof, in a framework of green tiles; the Temple of Confucius; the Convent of the Thousand Lamas; the Temple of Fa-qua; the ancient observatory, with its big square tower; the yamen of the Jesuits; and the yamen of the literary people, where examinations are made. There also rise the triumphal arches of the West and East; there, carpeted with nelumbos and blue nymphœas, flow the Northern Sea and the Sea of Rushes, which come from the Summer Palace to feed the canal of the Yellow City. There, one sees the palaces where reside the princes of the blood; the ministers of finance, of ceremonies of war, of public works, and foreign relations. There also are the Court of Accounts, the Astronomical Tribunal, and the Academy of Medicine. All are mingled together pellmell in narrow streets, which are dusty in summer and wet in winter, and are generally bordered by low, wretched houses, among which looms up some great dignitary’s hotel, shaded by beautiful trees. Then, through the crowded avenues, one meets stray dogs, Mongolian goats laden with charcoal, palanquins with four or eight bearers, according to the rank of the dignitary, chairs, carriages with mules, and chariots; besides, there are poor people, who, according to M. Choutzé, form an independent vagrant population of seventy thousand beggars. It is not rare, says M. P. Arena, for some mendicant to be drowned in these streets, which are ingulfed in a black, offensive mud,—streets cut up by pools of water, where one sinks knee-deep.
In many directions the Chinese city of Pekin, which is called Vai-Tcheng, resembles the Tartar city; but it differs, however, from it in others, Two celebrated temples occupy the southern portion,—the Temple of Heaven and that of Agriculture: to which must be added the Temples of the Goddess Koanine, of the Spirit of Earth, of Purification, of the Black Dragon, and of the Spirits of Heaven and Earth; the ponds of gold-fish; the Monastery of Fayouan-sse; the markets, the theatres, etc.
This rectangular parallelogram is divided in the north and south by an important artery, named Grand Avenue, which runs from the Gate Houng-Ting at the south to the Tien Gate at the north. In a transverse direction it is crossed by another longer artery, which cuts the first at a right angle, and runs from the Cha-Coua Gate at the east to the Couan-Tsu Gate at the west. It is called Cha-Coua Avenue; and it was at a hundred steps from its point of intersection with Grand Avenue that the future Madame Kin-Fo resided.
It will be remembered, that, a few days after having received the letter which announced Kin-Fo’s ruin, the young widow received a second contradicting the first, and telling her that the seventh moon would not end before her “little younger brother” would return to her.
We have no need to ask whether Le-ou counted the days and hours after that date, the 17th of May. But Kin-Fo had not given her any news of himself during this wild journey, whose singular manner of travelling he would under no pretext disclose. Le-ou had written to Shanghai; but her letters remained unanswered. One can therefore understand what her anxiety must have been, when at this date, the 19th of June, no letter had reached her.
So, during these long days, the young woman had not left her house in Cha-Coua Avenue, where, with the greatest anxiety, she was waiting for news. The disagreeable Nan was not very well calculated to cheer her solitude. This “old mother” was more whimsical than ever, and deserved to be turned out of doors a hundred times in the course of a moon.
But what endless and anxious hours before Kin-Fo would reach Pekin! Le-ou counted them, and the number seemed to her very many.