The Imperial Palace faces south and has four gates. The south gate was used only on important national occasions and when high officials were given an audience with the emperor. The emperor himself usually used the west gate, while officials went by way of the east gate. The Shenwu Gate, which faced north, was considered the back door, and was the exclusive preserve of the royal family. When P'u Yi left the palace that day, it was here that he made his exit.

The committee working on the project to catalog the articles in the palace ran by strict procedures. Each group had five members, with their duties clearly defined. At the end of each day, the group heads filed reports on the day's work, after which a Mr. Li was summoned to lock up for the night. "He knew the palace extraordinarily well," says Na Chih-liang, "Not only would he give us the main key to the section we'd be working on that day, but also the keys to all of the rooms that we might run across. After we received the keys, we would enter with the soldiers, the police and the workers. At sunset we would leave together. If one person was missing, that stopped the entire operation." As a result, one sometimes finds an entry in their log book which reads, "Police did not arrive. Unable to proceed with work."

One day Na Chih-liang found himself working on the Chai Kung part of the palace, where the emperor took his vegetarian meals. "The day we broke the seal and went inside, the floor was strewn with blue and white pots," says Na. He thought: P'u Yi probably wanted to take these with him. A second thought then came to him: these aren't so different from our family's kitchen pots and pans. "I was quite young then and of course those 'flower pots' were not at all like the ones at home. Nevertheless, many old articles that we did find were quite similar to ones we used in our everyday lives."

Many of the other workers on the project were also young students like Na. Committee directors believed their ignorance to be an asset, fearing that more knowledgeable experts might be tempted to take valuable articles and "establish" a collection of their own. Students also brought with them tremendous enthusiasm, gladly enduring subfreezing temperatures in the unheated palace to work on the project. The winter cold often froze their brush pens to an awl-like hardness. Na recalls one day when he looked down and found both feet frozen. Fearing possible frostbite, he promptly bought a pair of cotton shoes and some thick woolen socks, which he wore well into the spring.

The Imperial Palace itself consisted of seven smaller palaces, each with their own special function. Officials reporting to the emperor faced strict rules on where they could and could not go, and the young Na Chih-liang had far more freedom to see what he pleased than any general or provincial governor. After the 1911 revolution, the palace was largely deserted, except for P'u Yi and his retinue, who lived there for another thirteen years.

"Actually, the palace was like any other home, full of stuff," says Na. "The royal family more or less fled in a panic, and the place was very disorderly, quite a mess. The living quarters of the emperor and empress were particularly messy. There still was foreign wine and preserves and other food left there." Old articles were kept as any family would have kept them: without a trace of order. Many were found stuffed carelessly in drawers, and the jewelry in the emperor's sleeping quarters was thrown on the shelves in a haphazard way. Articles in the Ch'ienching palace, the emperor's office, by contrast were kept neatly in brocaded boxes and the atmosphere there was much more one of control and order.

Owing probably to security reasons, the emperor's sleeping quarters was designed in a labyrinth-like fashion. Large mirrors were placed opposite doors, so as to throw off one's sense of direction.

Yet mirrors sometimes were not enough to protect the palace and the emperor. In 1644, as the Ming dynasty crumbled before the Manchu onslaught, the last Ming emperor slayed his daughter in the palace. In 1931, after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the then-established museum and its articles were moved south for their safety.

Na Chih-liang worked in the Imperial Palace in Peking for eight years. His thoughts often wandered to P'u Yi, who was younger than him by only a year. Riding home at dusk, passing through Shenwu Gate, Na says he would take a deep breath of cool, crisp Peking air and always find himself relaxed and refreshed, ready for another day of work in the Forbidden City.

(Mark Halperin)

[Picture Caption]

Jade expert Na Chih-liang relates the exciting past of the Imperial Palace Museum.

The emperor's sleeping quarters, noted for its huge collection of jewelry and gems.

The Imperial Palace Museum as it appeared in Peking. At center is the Shenwu Gate.

The emperor's sleeping quarters, noted for its huge collection of jewelry and gems.

The Imperial Palace Museum as it appeared in Peking. At center is the Shenwu Gate.