Etiquette Keeps Empress Off Road

As etiquette dictated that no one was permitted to sit down in the presence of a Chinese monarch, how could any one stand up straight and drive one of the many high-powered motor cars gifted to the Chinese Empress? 

Couldn't Use Motor Cars —

Etiquette Would Not Allow Driver to Sit in Presence of Chinese Dowagar Empress

When the Dowagar Empress of China died in 1908, she left 48 motor cars, among other things, to her heirs. Most of these had been made specially for her, many were gifts from her Chinese potentates and all were gorgeous, palatial, expensive cars. Her favorite was an eight-passenger French machine, with its body painted deep orange, and its seats upholstered in violet satin brocade, edged with round flat blue turquoise stones. 

But the Dowager never rode in a motor car in her life and not one of the 48 varieties ever left the Imperial garage. It was not because there were no embryo chauffeurs in China. The young Chinese who had been in England and America imbibing Occidental college educations had learned to joyride and dozens of them might have qualified as high chancellor of the wheel in the Dowagar Empress' buzz wagon. But —no one may sit down in the presence of a Chinese monarch! And how could any one stand up straight and drive in a high-powered motor car? 

In 1908 there were not more than a dozen motor cars in all China besides the collection in the Imperial garage; today there are about 400, at least 60 percent of which are driven by Occidental traders, commercial agents and members of the various Western legations. Driving is restricted to a very few of the largest coast cities, where it is rough going at best, and there is not a road in China fit for a motor ride. — Mariposa Gazette, 1918

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Violating Imperial Etiquette

Imperial Chinese eunuchs carrying and attending to the Chinese Empress, circa 1900 —  No society clung more tenaciously to the long-established custom of having eunuchs at Royal and Imperial courts than the Chinese. Confucianism promoted all things ancient, chiding every dynastic Monarch to meticulously follow those precedents set not only by saintly historical Kings of old, but also by God-Kings glorified in China's legendary past. Chronicles of those courts reveal that Chinese Kings as early as the 8th Century B.C. kept castrated servitors. — Source Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China

Punished for Curiosity:

A Learned Chinese Doctor Pays Dearly for a Little Innocent Sightseeing

It is dangerous to gratify curiosity or to violate precedent at the Chinese Imperial court. The Empress dowager is a great stickler for etiquette. Recently she required the services of Dr. Li Teoh'ang, Vice President of the Imperial Academy of Physicians, at Peking, for one of the members of her suite at Eho Park Palace. 

The learned doctor had never been inside these famous palace grounds, and his curiosity was fired to see the many curious objects of which he had heard wonderful tales. So he bribed a palace eunuch to show him around the grounds. While the two were leisurely walking about and enjoying themselves, the Empress spied them. She at once dispatched servants to punish their effrontery.

The eunuch was seized, thrown on his face and accommodated with 50 blows with the bamboo on the calves of his fat legs. The doctor was docked three months' pay and received a severe reprimand, while his assistant was ordered never to venture again into the Empress' presence. 

The affair created a sensation because of the high position of the physician and of the humiliating punishment dealt out to him. —New York Sun, 1894

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

The Chinese Emperor's Etiquette

The kowtow, comes from "kòu tóu" in Mandarin. To the Chinese, this deep, lowest bow possible, was viewed as an act of deep respect. In Imperial Chinese protocol, the kowtow was performed before the Emperor of China. Depending on the solemnity of the situation different grades of kowtow would be used. In the most solemn of ceremonies, for example at the coronation of a new Emperor, the Emperor's subjects would undertake the ceremony of the "3 kneelings and 9 kowtows", the so-called "grand kowtow," involving kneeling from a standing position 3 times, and each time, performing the kowtow 3 times while kneeling. The "full kowtow" has been described as "3 kneelings and 9 knockings of the head on the ground."

Groping in the Darkness:

In the Gilded Age, Travelers Found the Chinese Still Clung to Customs of Centuries Ago

Capt. Maddox, of the Marine Corps, has just returned from a three years' service in China, where he has been employed as an instructor for the Chinese military in the use of modern arms. The captain says that he found the Chinese very teachable. They will make very good soldiers, he believes. 

The men of the northern provinces of China are tall, and have fine figures. In these regions, six feet is not an uncommon height. The inhabitants of Southern China are small and inferior physical types. It is from them, that the immigrants to this country come. 

Capt. Maddox says that the Chinese prejudice against foreigners is not much less than when seaports were first opened. The Chinese Emperor has never given audience to the representatives of foreign nations. This audience was only secured after several years of diplomatic talks.

Consent was given to the reception of the foreigners if they would consent to follow the Chinese etiquette for such an audience. This compels the person received to crawl upon bis stomach as be enters the room, pausing on the road to bump his head on the floor at requisite intervals until reaching a sacred line in front of the emperor, where he must remain prostrate until told to retire by the "all-stomach route." Naturally the foreign representatives refused to accede to this etiquette. 

The matter was finally compromised by requiring the diplomatic people to make continuous bows upon entering and retiring from the Emperor's presence. When the ministers came to be presented, they were kept waiting for nearly two hours in a very cold ante-room. 

The British minister, who was a very old gentleman (nearly 80) became thoroughly chilled. His teeth were chattering with the cold when he entered for the first time, the sacred presence of the Emperor. His shivering was noted by the keen-eyed Chinese, and published in all the Peking papers as evidence of his terror upon entering the awful presence of Chinese Majesty. This audience of foreigners has never been repeated. It created great dissatisfaction in China. 

The present Emperor is a lad of 17, who is guided by the Empress Regent. He has never been seen by any of the foreigners and by none except the highest officials of his own race. The old question of an audience to the ministers can not be raised until the present Emperor is of age and has displaced the Empress Regent. —Marin Journal, 1885

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia