The Forbidden City: a golden prison

Within the palace walls, the emperors lived a strictly controlled life with little personal freedom.

It may not be obvious from a visit to the Forbidden City that although the emperor and his court moved daily around buildings of stunning beauty, contemplated extraordinary collections of art and played in gardens beyond compare, their privileged life of luxury came at a price.

Reginald Johnston, tutor to Pu Yi, wrote: “If ever there was a palace that deserved the name of a prison, it is that palace in the Forbidden City of Peking, in which emperor Shunzhi pined for freedom, and in which the last but one of his successors, the emperor Guangxu, ended his dismal days nearly twelve years ago.”

Slave to the system

From the first, a Chinese emperor was a slave to a system built around the cult of his divine personality. His life, and the lives of his empress and concubines, were effectively not their own. From the moment they rose to the moment they went to sleep – and even while they slept – they were kept under scrutiny by attendant eunuchs, so that they never experienced any real privacy.

The emperor could not leave the confines of the palace grounds without official escort and usually not unless it was to attend an official function or to travel to another palace. Empresses and concubines led even more sheltered lives, because their sex made it impossible for them to be seen by any males outside the immediate family circle.

Days in the palace were governed by routine. Rising as early as three or four in the morning to ready themselves for official audiences, they would be bathed by eunuchs and servants who carried water from the Golden Water River. When necessary, a chamber pot was brought, placed in the corner of the room, and emptied immediately.

Preparing to be emperor

The young sons of the emperor, and perhaps a privileged cousin or two, spent their days in lessons with the most learned of Confucian scholars, learning Chinese language, calligraphy and the Confucian classics, the philosophy on which the civil service was based and which governed official life. This prepared them for the day when one of them would be emperor and the others his officials, who would have to accept and write imperial memorials at court. Memorials, written on scrolls, were the way in which officials from all over China communicated with the emperor.

Even when the emperor moved from one part of the palace to another, it was a major expedition involving a considerable amount of organisation. Pu Yi described a walk in the garden in his autobiography: “At the head marched a eunuch, a herald whose function was like that of a car horn. He walked twenty or thirty yards in front of the others, constantly hissing ‘chi, chi’ to shoo away any other people in the vicinity. He was followed by two of the higher eunuchs walking like crabs on both sides of the path... If I was carried in my palanquin, two of the younger eunuchs walked at my side, ready to attend to my wishes at any time. If I was walking, they held me under the arms to support me. Behind me followed a eunuch with a great silken canopy. He was accompanied by a great crowd of eunuchs carrying all kinds of paraphernalia...”