Princess Der Ling

"Princess" Der Ling (Chinese: 裕德齡; pinyin: Yù Délíng) (1885 – 1944) was a Hanjun bannerwoman, the daughter of Yü Keng (Chinese: 裕庚; pinyin: Yù Geng; Wade–Giles: Yu Keng) and Louisa Pearson, the half-Chinese daughter of a Boston merchant working in Shanghai.[1] Although not a member of the Qing royal family, Der Ling was given the title of Princess while serving as the first lady-in-waiting for Empress Dowager Cixi. She was a writer of several memoirs, books, and magazine articles.

Yü Derling, Princess Derling
Chinese Ambassador to France
In office
1899 – c. 1903
MonarchGuangxu
MonarchGuangxu
Personal details
Born8 June 1885
Wuhan, Hubei, Great Qing
Died22 November 1944 (aged 59)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Spouse(s)Thaddeus C. White
FatherYü Keng

Early life

Der Ling's father Yü Keng was a member of the Hanjun Plain White Banner Corps (正白旗), and according to his daughter he was a Lord. This is of some doubt. After serving as Chinese minister to Japan, he was appointed minister to the French Third Republic for four years in 1899. He was known for his progressive, reformist views; for his determination to educate his children, including the girls, in western schools, which was highly unusual in their generation; and for his unvarying support of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In 1905, Yü Keng died in Shanghai. Yü Keng's story is told in the movie Dai noi kwan ying. According to Der Ling's biographer, Der Ling's mother had an American father and a Chinese mother. However, in the book, whatever her background, she is repeatedly referred to by other people as a Manchu.

Yü Keng's daughters Der Ling and Rong Ling (1889–1973, the future Madame Dan Paochao of Beijing) received a western education, learning French and English, and studying dance in Paris with Isadora Duncan.

Lady-in-waiting and later life

Upon their return to China, Der Ling became the first lady-in-waiting to the Empress Dowager Cixi, as well as interpreting for her when she received foreign visitors. Der Ling stayed at court until March 1905. In 1907, Der Ling married Thaddeus C. White, an American. Der Ling had a brother, Xunling (ca. 1880–1943), who studied photography in France and later took the only photographs of Empress Dowager Cixi still in existence.[2]

Using the title of Princess, which would create controversy for her in both China and the United States in the future, Der Ling wrote of her experiences in court in her memoir Two Years in the Forbidden City, which was published in 1911. She states in her book that the status of Princess, which the Empress Dowager had given her, was valid only within the palace. As the Guangxu Emperor, who was under a form of house arrest, never confirmed the title, it was not valid in the outside world. Two Years provides unique insights into life at the Manchu court and the character of the Empress Dowager Empress, a world that ended abruptly with the 1911 revolution that overthrew the Manchu or Qing dynasty. Der Ling continued to write and published seven more books.

Der Ling was not a member of the Qing royal family. Although Der Ling claimed to be an ethnic Manchu, her father Yü Keng was actually a Han Chinese Bannerman[3] and not part of the ethnic Manchu Banners.[4] Her father was not royal but was a bannerman, just as Der Ling claimed she was a Manchu while she was actually a Chinese Bannerwoman.[5]

Death

Princess Der Ling, a.k.a. Mrs. Thaddeus C. White, died in Berkeley, California, as a result of being struck by a car while crossing an intersection. She had recently taught Chinese at University of California, Berkeley.[6]

Memoirs and writings
Princess Der Ling beside Cixi

After Cixi's death in 1908, Der Ling professed to be so angered by what she saw as false portraits of Cixi appearing in books and periodicals that she wrote her own account of serving "Old Buddha", which she called "Two Years in the Forbidden City". This book appeared in 1911, just before the fall of the Qing dynasty, and was a popular success.

In this book, Cixi is not the monster of depravity depicted in the popular press and in the second and third hand accounts left by foreigners who had lived in Beijing, but an aging woman who loved beautiful things, had many regrets about the past and the way she had dealt with the many crises of her long reign, and apparently trusted Der Ling enough to share many memories and opinions with her.

Der Ling would go on to write seven more books about this relatively brief period in her youth when she had been close to the centre of failing imperial Chinese power, and sharing this personal history and her habit of promoting herself and her writings caused most of her family to turn against her. All of this has made it difficult to assess Der Ling's contribution to late Qing historiography. But the fact remains that she was the first woman of Cixi's own ethnic background to live with and observe her and then write about what it was like; if many of Der Ling's recollections smack of the every day minutiae of a court that thrived on details and form, her writings are no less valuable for focusing on them, particularly as life within the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace was a closed book for most people in China, let alone in the rest of the world. It was misunderstanding of much of what emanated from the throne that created so many of the problems Cixi has been wholly blamed for.

Works

Books

Magazine pieces
  • "White Fox: A Legend of Old China," McCall's Magazine, April 1929
  • "The Forbidden City and Broadway," The Saturday Evening Post, September 14, 1929
  • "Aviation in China," Flyers, October 1929
  • "How China Went Air Minded," Flyers, November 1929
  • "Wings for Women," Flyers, December 1929
  • "Within the Golden City," The Saturday Evening Post, December 21, 1929
  • "A Quiet Day with a Chinese Family," The Mentor, February 1930
  • "Lady of the Lotus," The Household Magazine, February 1930
  • "Golden Bells," Holland's, September 1930
  • "Golden Phoenix," Good Housekeeping, December 1930
  • "From Convent to Court," Pictorial Review, January 1931
  • "Lustrous Jade," Good Housekeeping, February 1931
  • "Beyond All Riches," Good Housekeeping, August 1931
  • "The Chu Pao Tai," The Household Magazine, September 1931
  • "At the Gate of Kwan Yin," Good Housekeeping, November 1931
  • "The Honorable Five Blessings," Good Housekeeping, February 1932
  • "America Sends Health to China," Physical Culture, March 1932
  • "Pu-yi, The Puppet Emperor of Japan," The Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1932
  • "Singing Kites of Tai Shan," The Household Magazine, August 1932
  • "The Kingdom of the Swallows," Good Housekeeping, February 1935
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References
  1. "Qing Dynasty princess impresses in English". China Daily, May 22, 2018.
  2. Power|Play: China's Empress Dowager, exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, September 24, 2011–January 29, 2012
  3. Kenneth James Hammond; Kristin Eileen Stapleton (2008). The Human Tradition in Modern China. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 90–. ISBN 978-0-7425-5466-5.
  4. Grant Hayter-Menzies (1 February 2008). Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-962-209-881-7.
  5. Grant Hayter-Menzies (1 February 2008). Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-962-209-881-7.
  6. "Princess Der Ling Dies in Berkeley of Car Injuries" (obituary). Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1944.
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