Chapter 35 Two or three empress dowagers

The Dongnuan Pavilion of the Hall of Mental Cultivation was the power center of the imperial court for half a century in the late Qing Dynasty.The stories of Empress Dowager Ci'an, Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Longyu of the Qing Dynasty happened in the East Nuan Pavilion of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Emperor Xianfeng died of illness in the Yanbozhishuang Hall of the Summer Resort, and Zaichun, who was six years old, came to the throne as Emperor Tongzhi.Empress Niu Hulu and Yigui concubine Yehenala are both respected as empress dowagers, namely Empress Dowager Ci'an and Empress Dowager Cixi, commonly known as the Eastern Empress Dowager and the Western Empress Dowager.At that time, Empress Dowager Ci'an was 25 years old, Empress Dowager Cixi was 27 years old, and Prince Gong Yixin was 30 years old.Empress Dowager Ci'an, Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong Yixin jointly launched a court coup to dispose of the eight ministers of Gu Ming and seize power. Because the coup took place in Beijing in the year of Xinyou, it was called "Xinyou coup" or "Beijing coup" in history.He seized power through a coup d'etat, and implemented a system in which the queen mothers of the two palaces listened to politics behind the curtain.However, the Qing court stipulated that the harem could not interfere in politics.The Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang has such old qualifications (five dynasties) and such a high status, she only trained politics in the Palace of Compassion and Ning, but did not govern at the front desk.The empress dowagers of the two palaces disregarded the ancestral system and listened to the government behind the curtain in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.Although there are historical precedents for listening to politics behind a curtain, this was a major event in the Qing Dynasty that changed the ancestral system.

Listening to politics behind a curtain is a new thing, and the empress dowagers of the two palaces are also learning.For example, the two Empress Dowagers Ci'an and Cixi ordered the Hanlin in the South Study Room and the Upper Study Room to select the content that can be used as legal precepts, the deeds of the emperors in power and the history of the past, and make concise annotations and submit them in a collection.So Zhang Zhiwan, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, compiled it into a book and named it "Zhiping Baojian". (Volume 23 of "Records of Emperor Muzong of the Qing Dynasty") Weng Tonghe lectured on "The Precious Mirror of Zhiping" to the empress dowagers of the two palaces in front of the curtain.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Nanshufang Hanlin compiled "Shu Jing Tu Shuo", and compiled "Shang Shu" into a book with rich pictures and texts.

Listening to the government behind the curtain, that is, the little emperor Tongzhi or Guangxu, was hugged on the throne of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, sitting like a puppet, and behind him sat the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the Empress Dowager Cixi (after the death of the Empress Dowager Ci'an, she was the Empress Dowager Cixi alone), the emperor Between the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother, there is a yellow curtain. The ministers will play military and state affairs, and the Queen Mother will issue instructions through the curtain, which is Yizhi. From then on, the king of politics and ministers of military affairs were summoned every day, and the internal and external chapters were played, and the queen mother read them.The two empress dowagers listened to the government behind the curtain for 12 years, and then returned to the emperor Tongzhi, but the emperor died of illness after one year of personal administration.The 4-year-old Zaitian, the cousin of Emperor Tongzhi and nephew of Empress Dowager Cixi, succeeded to the throne. This is Emperor Guangxu.As a result, the two queen mothers continued to listen to politics behind the curtain.In the seventh year of Guangxu (1881), the Empress Dowager Ci'an died, and the Empress Dowager Cixi took over the court.From the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861) to the 34th year of Guangxu (1908) when the Empress Dowager Cixi listened to the government, she actually ruled the Qing Dynasty for 48 years.

In the modern history of China, during the half century of the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi mainly controlled the court and dominated the national destiny of the Qing Dynasty. This was not only a tragedy of the Qing Dynasty, but also a tragedy of China. The Empress Dowager Cixi has been in power for half a century, the Qing Dynasty has signed contracts with foreign countries, ceded land, paid compensation, and humiliated, and internally oppressed, searched, tyrannyed, and massacred——China has fallen into the darkest abyss in the history of 5,000 years of civilization.Almost all important figures and major events that have influenced the course of modern Chinese history have direct or indirect connections with the Palace of Mental Cultivation and the Queen Mother.Specifically, Cixi has "eight things that should not be done".

Cixi's "Eight Don'ts" are: (1) You should not use it to invite Wang Yi, who is discussing politics, or discard it; (2) You should not be too indulgent to Emperor Tongzhi, and you should not hand over power; (3) You should not choose 4 Sui Zaitian succeeded to the throne, emphasizing blood ties and despising the community; (4) Emperor Guangxu's wedding should not be postponed again and again, and the power should not be returned to power; (5) The coup of 1898 should not be launched to imprison Emperor Guangxu and affect the process of modernization; (6) ) should not use the Yihequan to fight against foreigners, causing the disaster of the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces; 8) The 3-year-old young emperor Puyi should not be appointed as the ruler of the country, and ignore the trend of world democracy—in short, the Qing court represented by the Empress Dowager Cixi was conservative, stubborn and corrupt, refused to reform the political system, and accelerated the fall of the Qing Dynasty.A group of privileged nobles from Manchuria are sinners who stand in the way of Chinese history!

The emperor's bedroom is in the apse of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, with five east and west rooms lined up.There were as many as 724 furnishings in the bedroom during the reign of Emperor Tongzhi, which were magnificent and extravagant.In the main room of the bedroom, there is a kang bed, with a table in the middle and seats on both sides.The emperor's "dragon bed" is placed between the east and west ends: one is between the east end, and the room is inlaid with glass mercury mirrors; The bed curtain was lowered at the same time to prevent accidents.The Tishun Hall on the east side of the palace is the dormitory where the empress lived with the emperor in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the Empress Dowager Ci'an lived here; the Yanxi Hall on the west side is the bedroom where the concubines and concubines sleep.Generally, concubines and concubines stay on duty in the east and west enclosures of Tishun Hall and Yanxi Hall.

The last empress dowager in the Qing Palace was Empress Longyu. Her tragedy was not only manifested in her unsatisfactory marriage and middle-aged widowhood, but also in raising the young emperor and signing the "Abdication Edict". The aforementioned four young emperors and three empress dowagers will inevitably have three princes assisting the government.