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. Such an act is regarded as very
meritorious in the eyes of the Chinese, and no women are more
highly honoured than those who have given themselves in this way
to a life of chastity.
The second of these ladies who remained in the palace with the
Empress Dowager is the fourth daughter of Prince Ching. Married
to the son of a viceroy, their wedded life lasted only a few
months. She was taken into the palace, and being a widow, she
neither wears bright colours nor uses cosmetics. She is a fine
scholar, very devout, and spends much of her time in studying the
Buddhist classics. She is considered the most beautiful of the
court ladies.
The Empress Dowager took charge of most of the domestic matters
of all her relatives, taking into the palace and associating with
her as court ladies some who were widowed in their youth, and
keeping constantly with her only those whom she has elevated to
positions of rank, or members of her own family. Nor was she too
busy with state affairs to stop and settle domestic quarrels.
Among the court ladies there was one who was married to a prince
of the second order. Her husband is still living, but as they
were not congenial in their wedded life, the Empress Dowager made
herself a kind of foster-mother to the Princess and banished her
husband to Mongolia, an incident which reveals to us another
phase of the great Dowager's character--that of dealing with
fractious husbands
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