Imperial Woman Quotes

“I would ask my teacher a question," Yehonala said.
"Ask," Lady Miao replied. She was brushing fine quick strokes upon a large sheet of paper spread upon a square table which the eunuch had brought to her side.
"When may I paint a picture of my own?" Yehonala asked. Her teacher held her hand poised for an instant and cast a sidelong look from her narrowed eyes. "When I can no longer command you.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman

“They were prisoners, trapped by old ways of life, jailed within the imperial palace. He was no more free than she was. Yet only she could do what she would. If she said she would be Empress, then none could hold her back.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“You see how loving kindness conquers fear, even in animals. Let this lesson be engraved upon your hearts.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“This scroll, five hundred years old and more, had been inspired by her favorite, the great Wang Wei, master of landscape art, who had painted the scenes from his own home, where he lived for thirty years before he died. Now behind the palace walls on this winter’s day, where she could see only sky and falling snow, Tzu His gazed upon the green landscapes of continuing spring. One landscape melted into another as slowly she unrolled the scroll, so that she might dwell upon every detail of tree and brook and distant hillside. So did she, in imagination, pass beyond the high walls which enclosed her, and she traveled through a delectable country, beside flowing brooks and spreading lakes, and following the ever-flowing river she crossed over wooden bridges and climbed the stony pathways upon a high mountainside and thence looked down a gorge to see a torrent fed by still higher springs, and breaking into waterfalls as it traveled toward the plains. Down from the mountain again she came, past small villages nestling in pine forests and into the warmer valleys among bamboo groves, and she paused in a poet’s pavilion, and so reached at last the shore where the river lost itself in a bay. There among the reeds a fisherman’s boat rose and fell upon the rising tide. Here the river ended, its horizon the open sea and the misted mountains of infinity. This scroll, Lady Miao had once told her, was the artist’s picture of the human soul, passing through the pleasantest scenes of earth to the last view of the unknown future, far beyond.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman

“wept, and in the wrinkles of old people. In the house of the Manchu Bannerman,”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“With increasing passion she loved beauty, for beauty, she told herself, and only beauty, was pure and good and worthy of her love.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“Who rules well is always hated.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“This imperial woman, so diverse and rich in her genius, might have chosen her own greatness had she been able to single one gift above another, but she could not make her own choice of what she loved best to do, and so she did something of each and in all she excelled. As for those affairs of state which had absorbed her until”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“He had long been her favorite, yet every eunuch knew that the favor of a ruler is less stable than sunlight in early spring. At any moment it can be withdrawn, and as soon can a eunuch’s head tumble from his shoulders.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“The Empress Mother said with still more irritation, “I cannot understand why we must have a foreign religion here when we have three good religions of our own.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“But is strength comfort for a woman?”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“They stood, eyes meeting eyes, yet neither took the next step toward the other. “When I know what reward is great enough,” she said, “then I will give it to you.” “Because you live I am rewarded,” he replied.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“They were young no more, their passion spent unused, but the memory of love remained eternal. Indeed, her mellowed heart was more tender now than ever toward him and there was nothing left that she could not forgive him.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“I do not say this is a decree,” she wrote, her beautiful writing brushing the page with firm yet delicate strokes. “Let it be greeting and invitation, a hope that we may meet again with quiet hearts and wise minds. Come, then, before the ceremonies for my sixtieth birthday. Let us spend an hour together before we mingle with the Court.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“There in the silence of her own heart, she prayed the goddess to enlighten her and teach her mercy, and she prayed that Sakota might awaken to the grace of mercy shown her so that life could be saved. Strengthened by her prayers, the”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“The time had come for him to use a dangerous weapon. “Venerable,” he said, “if the Emperor’s manhood was destroyed, how is it that he begot a son and one so sturdy as the young Emperor?”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“If it were true that there could be good men among the enemy, then indeed she must still be afraid. If righteous, the white men were stronger than she reckoned, and she kept this fear hidden in her so long as she lived thereafter.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“Even our enemies call him ‘great soul,’ and declare that they are honored in defeat by such a one.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

“the Western contingent and took the two leaders captive, and then seized all who were with them. The flag was torn and stamped into the dust, the captives were imprisoned and put to torture for their boldness in daring to invade the country. In great joy this good news was carried back to the capital. Once again the Western men were routed. The Emperor praised Tzu Hsi heartily and gave her a gold coffer filled with jewels. Then he announced seven days of feasting in the nation and in the palaces special theatricals”
― Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China