Ten black and white photos of imperial personages have surfaced in Nanjing, including photos of Dowager Cixi, imperial concubines and Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. Although very old, the pictures are clear enough to distinguish who the people are, although opinion is divided on whether they are real or faked.
Before this, it was reported that photos of Dowager Cixi and Pu Yi were found in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. So, Yuan Junhong, a reader in Nanjing, called a Xinhua News Agency reporter to say that he held some pictures of imperial personages. In Yuan's home, the reporter saw these ten black and white photos, which were mounted on puckered long paper. The covers were made of damask silk; the mounted paper had turned yellow; but, while old, the photographs were still clear.
There are five photos of Dowager Cixi. The first is a 2.5-inch up-chest photo of her, in which she appeared a little bit stout. In another photo, she is sitting between two vases of big curly leafs, and in front of a banner on which is written: "Long live the Goddess Empress" and affixed with a square seal; on the right were five Chinese characters marking the year of 1903.
The third photo is that of Dowager Cixi sitting in an imperial carriage surrounded by maids and bodyguards. In the fourth, she is walking, surrounded and protected by her intimate maids under a baldachin, with a black-haired pet in the foreground. The fifth is a photo of Dowager Cixi sitting in a huge lotus to disguise Kwan-yin, two maids standing on her left: one holding a sutra box and the other a censer; a witch-like potbellied woman standing on her right in a gesture of praying.
The other five photos are the daily pictures of the emperor and his concubines. Of of them is a photo of Pu Yi and one of his concubines, the latter sitting in a rounded-armrest chair, with Pu Yi in a Western-style suit standing behind. Another is the photo of father and sons: a man wearing the normal clothing of the Qing Dynasty, sitting before a red-crowned crane screen, and holding a baby in his arms; while another boy sits beside him. In another photo Pu Yi stands behind the imperial table under the plaque of Zhengda Guangming (upright and bright). And there are other two single photos of concubines.
Yuan Junhong told the reporter he liked collecting, and he had bought the photos 10 years ago from a collector in northeast China for a really high price.
(China.org.cn by Chen Lin January 14th, 2003)
