Princess der Ling

PRINCESS DER LING. OLD BUDDHA. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1929.
Orange cloth, decorative title panel in black with red Chinese stamp, black lettering to spine. Yellow decorated end papers. Boards and text very clean, tighly bound. In protective polyester wraps. tall 8 vo, 347 pages. Please click for image.

Princess Der Ling (Author of two years in the Forbidden City) was a favourite and confidante of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. Tzu Hsi was born Yehonala on November 29, 1835. At the age of 16 she was chosen to be one of the concubines of Emperor Hsien Feng. Instead of marrying her true love Jung Lu she went to live in the Forbidden City, a vast complex of palaces and gardens run by thousands of eunuchs. Yehonala was the only concubine to gave birth to a surviving son. After his birth she was raised in rank from third-grade concubine to first-grade.Yehonala took the name Tzu Hsi, meaning "Kindly and Virtuous." (In later years she would be nicknamed The Old Buddha.)Tzu Hsi was a strong ruler who put down many rebellions. During her years in power Westerners gained great influence in China. Although many people disliked Princess Der Ling, this insightful biography portrays the magnificence and saddness of Imperial China and life in the Forbidden City. Frontispiece, the Empress in Robes and Pearl Necklace; 21 photo illustrations. Orange cloth, decorative title panel in black with red Chinese stamp, black lettering to spine. Yellow decorated end papers. Boards and text very clean, tighly bound. In protective polyester wraps. tall 8 vo, 347 pages Hard Cover Near Fine

[SW: Princess Der Ling, Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, Manchu Society, Forbidden City, Dowager Tzu Hsi, Concubines China, Old Buddha Emperor Hsien Feng, Imperial China,]

Details

Princess Der Ling; (Thaddeus White, Introduction): KOWTOW, New York, NY Dodd, Mead 1929 ; fester Einband / hard cover; 1. Ed. ISBN: B00005XL3I
B00005XL3I Collectible - Very Good S. Pinkus (Illustrator)

Text/Near New w/trace soiling. Gilt embossed green boards/VG w/rubs to all leading edges & light soiling/discoloration. DJ/None. Illustrated end papers; 6 bi-color plates. Memoir of Princess Der Ling (1885 - 1944 Berkely, CA), daughter of Lord Yu Keng, Manchu White Banner Corps, China's envoy to Paris and Tokyo, and Louisa Pierson, offspring of an American merchant and his Chinese consort. De Ling (western name Elisabeth Antoinette) was a "lady-in-waiting" to the Empress Tzu-hsi (Cixi) for two years (1903 - 1905) prior to her 1907 marriage to American Thaddeus Cohu White. The title "Princess" is a self-confered as well as the claim to "lordship" for her father --- highly unfortunate; it drove up her stock before the American public but invited much scorn in China, and led Grant Hayter-Menzies's biography of Der Ling (2006) to be titled: Imperial Masquerade. This volume, 2nd of 9 books Der Ling pens, covers her formative days through her father's death (1905) and is dedicated to her son who wrote the Introduction. The book, nevertheless, sheds historical light on life in a priviledged Manchu household on the eve of the collapse of the Ch'ing Dynasty. First Edition, First Thus No Jacket Hard Cover/Stitched; First Edition, First Thus

[SW: Autobiography/Memoir/China/Manchu]

Details

Princess Der Ling SIGNED By author, pictorial endpapers, Green & Black Frontispiece, Illustrated by S. Pinkus: Kowtow, Dodd, Mead NY 1929

HBDJ, 1st edition, 2nd printing , December 1929, Green decorated Cloth Gold Gilt, Cover minor Rub & Wear & Sun to Extremities & Spine, spine has small tear, Back cover small stain,VG+/VG-, AS-IS, Interior Nice, Tight Clean minor Wear with few pgs crease mrks & some pgs light stains top margin, DJ minor rub, Wear & small piece from DJ & narrow long piece few inches along fold, PC but orig price Intact, Small mended Tears DJ, Signed by Author First Edition Good Hard Cover

[SW: PRINCESS DER LING SIGNED]

Details

DER LING, Princess: TWO YEARS IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY, San Francisco, CA Chinese Materials Center 1977 ; fester Einband / hard cover

Orange boards. pp (4), (xiv), 383 + plates. Tidy ink owner name on front pastedown, else fine in like jacket. Facsimile reprint from plates of the US sixth printing (NY: Moffat, Yard, 1912). No. 68 in this publishers reprint series (printed in China). Princess Der Ling was first lady in waiting to the empress dowager of China. Hardcover. Octavo

[SW: ChinaAsia]

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