The Forbidden City People

As is implied by the title, the book is about the people who lived and worked in the Peking Imperial Palace, known to the West as the Forbidden City (Its correct name is the Purple Forbidden City). It is presented as history should be presented —accurately, but in a light style suitable for the lay reader as well as the expert.

The book is the result of over twenty years of research by me, Roy Bates, much of it while resident in Beijing, into the lives and activities of the men and women who resided there, or whose daily work took them in and out of the palace. It answers questions, for example, what did the emperors actually do? How did they spend their time during daylight hours? Was it all work and no play? What did they do after dark, when all un-emasculated men were rigidly excluded from the palace? Since some of the emperors sired more than forty children, the answer may seem obvious, but what about the others? At least one emperor, in spite of many years of partying and heterosexual junketing in his special and private “Tiger House,” sired no children at all. What went on there?

And what other amusements were available to the emperors? Banqueting? Theatres? Hunting? Travelling?

Why did the emperors take more notice of the advice from uneducated eunuchs compared to the advice given by the highly educated scholar-officials? Were the eunuchs as bad as the scholar-officials painted them? Were the scholar officials as virtuous as the official records (written by the scholar-officials) made out? How did some palace maidservants manage to rise to the rank of empress-dowager? How and why did some empresses get demoted to humble ranks? What was the religion inside the Forbidden City? Where did they worship? How did they reconcile the worship of several gods and super-natural beings?

These, and many other questions about the people of the Forbidden City are answered in this fascinating book which reveals the true stories about the Forbidden City People, those who lived and worked there from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the early part of the twentieth. Their intriguing lives offer more plots for twenty-first century soap operas than Hollywood writers have ever dreamed of.

This book, meticulously researched, historically accurate, but written in a delightfully readable style, will appeal to anyone who has been to Beijing, or even dreamed about going there.

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