德龄与慈禧
昨天，大女儿从学校回来，跟我说华文老师要求她们读一段短文，短文取自《德龄与慈禧》。 我从没读过对这个故事，便试着查看故事内容大纲。这故事还挺有趣的，结果我就陪俊詝一起读。
这个故事让我回想起 我在好几年前看过的一部 有关慈禧太后的舞台剧。
慈禧太后(1835-1908)是清廷最具权力的政治人物，统治了中国将近半个世纪。裕德龄是清末外交官裕庚的女兒，母親是法國人。德齡从小隨父親裕庚出使日本和法國，之间她学习了日文、英文、日本插花和日本舞蹈；也学习了法语、音樂和芭蕾舞，並曾在巴黎舞台上主演《水仙女》和《奧菲莉亞》，受到巴黎社交界的赞誉。1903年春，17岁的德龄隨父回到北京，不久和妹妹容龄一起被慈禧太后招進宮中充作「御前女官」。
德龄丶容龄这两位「海归派」的到来，给古老的紫禁城带来了一股时尚之风。当时美国公使康格夫人丶西班牙公使德卡赛夫人丶日本公使内田夫人等外国驻华使节夫人入宫拜见时均由德龄陪同并担当翻译，德龄还爲光绪皇帝讲授英文，并经常爲慈禧太后和光绪皇帝译读国外的报纸，爲清宫打开了一扇通向外部世界的窗口。德龄姐妹还与美国公使康格夫人和海军提督伊文思夫人接洽，邀请美国艺术家卡尔女士(Katharine Carl)为慈禧太后画像。
Katharine Carl was contacted by Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of American Ambassador Edwin H. Conger with an offer to come to China in the summer of 1903 to paint a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the Chinese exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.[7] She spent a total of nine months in China and painted four portraits of the Empress Dowager, later recording her memories as the only western foreigner to live within the precincts of the Chinese imperial court in its last days in a book that was published in 1906.
I was obliged to follow, in every detail, centuries-old conventions. There could be no shadows and very little perspective, and everything must be painted in such full light as to lose all relief and picturesque effect. When I saw I must represent Her Majesty in such a conventional way as to make her unusually attractive personality banal, I was no longer filled with the ardent enthusiasm for my work with which I had begun it, and I had many a heartache and much inward rebellion before I settled on the inevitable.
- Katharine Carl, With the Empress Dowager of China
受德龄姐妹的影响，慈禧对于西方的衣着和化妆品也逐渐接受。从前她的化妆品全是宫中自制，自德龄入宫後，慈禧对西人化妆品有了一些了解，也产生了兴趣，所以当德龄向她推荐法国染发膏时，她欣然同意，使用後赞赏不已，从此国外化妆品进入了古老的中国宫廷。慈禧对於西服也有兴趣。给她画像的卡尔女士就曾这样评论过：「太后极喜西装，谓亭亭玉立，飘飘如仙子之舞，极惹人爱。」正因为慈禧对西服的喜爱，所以德龄入宫後，慈禧特别恩准她可以穿西服，这在大清历史上是罕见的。
这个故事让我回想起 我在好几年前看过的一部 有关慈禧太后的舞台剧。
慈禧太后(1835-1908)是清廷最具权力的政治人物，统治了中国将近半个世纪。裕德龄是清末外交官裕庚的女兒，母親是法國人。德齡从小隨父親裕庚出使日本和法國，之间她学习了日文、英文、日本插花和日本舞蹈；也学习了法语、音樂和芭蕾舞，並曾在巴黎舞台上主演《水仙女》和《奧菲莉亞》，受到巴黎社交界的赞誉。1903年春，17岁的德龄隨父回到北京，不久和妹妹容龄一起被慈禧太后招進宮中充作「御前女官」。
德龄丶容龄这两位「海归派」的到来，给古老的紫禁城带来了一股时尚之风。当时美国公使康格夫人丶西班牙公使德卡赛夫人丶日本公使内田夫人等外国驻华使节夫人入宫拜见时均由德龄陪同并担当翻译，德龄还爲光绪皇帝讲授英文，并经常爲慈禧太后和光绪皇帝译读国外的报纸，爲清宫打开了一扇通向外部世界的窗口。德龄姐妹还与美国公使康格夫人和海军提督伊文思夫人接洽，邀请美国艺术家卡尔女士(Katharine Carl)为慈禧太后画像。
Katharine Carl was contacted by Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of American Ambassador Edwin H. Conger with an offer to come to China in the summer of 1903 to paint a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi for the Chinese exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.[7] She spent a total of nine months in China and painted four portraits of the Empress Dowager, later recording her memories as the only western foreigner to live within the precincts of the Chinese imperial court in its last days in a book that was published in 1906.
I was obliged to follow, in every detail, centuries-old conventions. There could be no shadows and very little perspective, and everything must be painted in such full light as to lose all relief and picturesque effect. When I saw I must represent Her Majesty in such a conventional way as to make her unusually attractive personality banal, I was no longer filled with the ardent enthusiasm for my work with which I had begun it, and I had many a heartache and much inward rebellion before I settled on the inevitable.
- Katharine Carl, With the Empress Dowager of China
受德龄姐妹的影响，慈禧对于西方的衣着和化妆品也逐渐接受。从前她的化妆品全是宫中自制，自德龄入宫後，慈禧对西人化妆品有了一些了解，也产生了兴趣，所以当德龄向她推荐法国染发膏时，她欣然同意，使用後赞赏不已，从此国外化妆品进入了古老的中国宫廷。慈禧对於西服也有兴趣。给她画像的卡尔女士就曾这样评论过：「太后极喜西装，谓亭亭玉立，飘飘如仙子之舞，极惹人爱。」正因为慈禧对西服的喜爱，所以德龄入宫後，慈禧特别恩准她可以穿西服，这在大清历史上是罕见的。