Chapter 63 Three, Chuxiu Cixi

In the tenth year of Guangxu (1884), Empress Dowager Cixi moved from Changchun Palace to Chuxiu Palace.In this year, Emperor Guangxu was fourteen years old. The precedent of the Qing Dynasty was that Emperor Shunzhi was fourteen years old and Emperor Kangxi was fourteen years old.Emperor Tongzhi was in charge at the age of eighteen, four years later than his ancestors Shunzhi and Kangxi.This year, Cixi moved from Changchun Palace to Chuxiu Palace. This was a gesture to show that she would return to politics for the elderly.At this time, the Empress Dowager of Chuxiu Palace came down, with 12 court ladies (actually more), 4 Ruyi mothers, and 12 nuns.The Empress Dowager Palace stipulates 128 eunuchs. ("National Palace History" Volume 21)

Live in Chuxiu Palace.Chuxiu Palace has five rooms, three bright and two dark.There are three Ming rooms, and the main seat is set in the middle, which is used for receiving worship.The easternmost one is Donganjian (quiet room), which is the place where Empress Dowager Cixi worshiped Buddha and thought.She believes in Buddhism and Shamanism.To the north is the statue of a white-clothed man. When something goes wrong, or when you are upset about reading memorials, you will burn Tibetan incense in front of the Buddha statue, close your eyes, put your hands together, and meditate silently, sometimes for a long time.There is a kang in the east room facing the south window, which is quiet and bright.Drink tea, smoke, have breakfast, talk, meet emperors and empresses, etc. here.The west one is connected to the bedroom and is the outer room of the bedroom.In the box on the table in the room, there are Cixi's beloved jewelry.The westernmost one is the west dark room, which is Cixi's bedroom and dressing room.There is a large glass at the head of the bed in this room. Cixi sleeps with her head facing west, leans on the kang, lifts the curtain, and can see everything in the courtyard outside.The quilts on the kang are changed according to the seasons and according to the system, such as three layers of mats in winter, one layer of mats in summer, squirrel tents in winter solstice, gauze tents in summer solstice, etc.In the southeast corner of the window is Cixi's most beloved dresser.The cosmetics developed by her are here.

How does Cixi live every morning?Referring to the oral history (written by Jin Yi and Shen Yiling) of a court lady Ronger who was with Cixi for eight years, list eight points to get a glimpse of the whole picture. get up.At Yin time (3:00 to 5:00), the lights in Cixi's bedroom were turned on, and two maids on duty at night were waiting at the door of the bedroom, and two maids outside the palace gate were preparing.Yinzheng, the palace door is locked, and the maid brings a bucket of hot water to the door.The eunuch Zhang Fu boiled the white fungus, and it was the first time after Empress Dowager Cixi got out of bed to offer it.She believes that eating white fungus can keep your face young and keep you young forever.The waiting maid knelt on the ground and kowtowed, shouting "Auspicious ancestors", and Cixi sat up and went down to the ground.The two maids on duty at the gate let the other maids into the bedroom.After the maids bowed neatly to the dormitory, they began their day's work.Some of the court ladies of Si Que tidied up the things on the bed and under the bed, folded the quilt, and some brought a basin of hot water in a silver basin. Cixi wrapped her hands in a hot towel and soaked them in the hot water basin for a long time. Two or three basins of water until the backs of the hands and the knuckles of the fingers are comfortable.Such soaking must be done every day.Then wash your face, actually tui (tui) the face (that is, hot compress), which can reduce the wrinkles on the face.Then the eunuch combed his hair.

Comb your hair.Cixi has a strong temper and does not let others see her unkempt.The palace maid raised the curtain of the palace gate for the eunuch Liu who was combing his hair. Eunuch Liu walked in with a bundle of Huang Yunlong on his head (with a combing tool inside), knelt down to Cixi with his legs, and asked the bundle to come down from the top of his head. Come over, and then yelled crisply: "Good luck, Lafayette, my servant is here to welcome you!" The maid in the bedroom shouted: "Come in, Liu Desheng!" Eunuch Liu is the only one.After entering the room and kowtowing, Eunuch Liu opened Huang Yunlong's bundle, took out hairpins, combs, combs and other tools for combing Cixi's hair, and began to comb Cixi's hair.At this time, the old queen spoke: "Have you heard anything new outside? Tell me about it!" Eunuch Liu said slowly while combing Cixi's hair.The maids were handing things to the side, and often at this time, the old eunuch Zhang Fu sent a bowl of rock sugar white fungus outside the gate of Chuxiu Palace and handed it to the maid on duty.A tea table was placed in front of Cixi, and she drank white fungus with a silver spoon.The maids thanked Eunuch Liu for combing their hair, because he served Cixi happily early in the morning, and their errands were easy.

make up.Cixi is a beauty lover. She often said: "A woman doesn't care about dressing herself up, so what's the point of living?" Cixi spends two or three hours in the dressing room in the morning, noon and evening.After combing her hair, Cixi painted her eyebrows again, brushed her temples, applied powder, rubbed red, and put some rouge on her cheeks and palms (the rouge and powder were developed by Cixi herself).When Cixi looked in the mirror back and forth, the maids would always praise left and right to coax the old lady to be happy.

To smoke.Cixi does not smoke Kanto cigarettes, but hookah.Golden shredded tobacco, one or two packs, green packaging.It is customary for Cixi to hold the cigarette holder on the left, and the maid serving the cigarette must stand on the left, about two square bricks away from the Empress Dowager. After packing the cigarettes, hold the cigarette pouch with her right hand, and gently bring the cigarette holder to the Empress Dowager's mouth.Then shake the Yanmeizi with your left hand, and light the cigarette with your hands around the Yanmeizi of the open flame. breakfast.After smoking, drink milk tea (keep Manchurian habit).Milk is human milk and cow's milk.Milk tea is not supplied by the imperial tea room, but by the small tea stove in Chuxiu Palace, which is convenient, clean and reliable.At the same time, the birthday party should respect the breakfast.Breakfast includes porridge - rice porridge, red rice porridge, fragrant glutinous rice porridge, barley porridge, Bazhen porridge, yellow rice porridge, shredded chicken porridge and eight treasure lotus seed porridge, etc.; there are tea soups - almond tea, fresh soybean milk, beef Bone marrow tea soup, etc.; dim sum - there are more than 20 kinds in the food box, sesame sauce sesame cakes, pastry sesame cakes, white horseshoes, shredded radish cakes, clear oil cakes, burnt rings, sugar buns, sugar cakes, and halal fried Sanzi, There are vegetarian assorted soy products, as well as stewed products such as stewed duck liver and stewed chicken breast.When eating breakfast, Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, stood guard at the door of the bedroom, Cui Yugui stood outside the door of the bedroom, and Zhang Fu stood at the old lady's table.Cui Yugui first took over the eunuch's burden and passed it to Li Lianying, then Zhang Fu untied the burden, and Li Lianying held it in front of Cixi.There is a very strict rule in the palace, and the noodle box is absolutely not allowed to be opened without the presence of the queen mother.The Empress Dowager sat on the kang in the Mingjian, facing east and west, placed a kang table, and lifted a rosewood coffee table from below, and Cixi had her breakfast.

wear.After eating breakfast, rinsing mouth, drinking half a cup of tea, and smoking a pipe, the maids invited Cixi to the dressing room.The ladies in charge of clothing are ready for the current clothing, shoes and socks at this time.Put on phoenix shoes full of pearls at the bottom of the lotus, put on two phoenix crowns, adorned with strings of pearls on both sides, insert seasonal palace flowers, and put on the phoenix cape of colorful phoenixes.When Cixi stood up, she had to compare her feet to see if the shoes and socks (socks made of damask silk, with a line in the middle to align the shoe openings) were straight, and then she walked out lightly.At this moment, the court lady opened the curtains of the dormitory. Outside the corridor, Li Lianying, Cui Yugui, Zhang Fu, etc., who had been staring at the curtains for a long time, knelt down on the steps under the dripping water of the corridor as if they had received an order, and shouted loudly. Shouting: "Lucky Lafayette!" Cixi greeted them with a spring breeze, a radiant face, and a smile.At this time, Li Lianying commanded: the sedan chair was carried to the gate of Chuxiu Palace.

up court.Cixi got on the sedan chair, Li Lianying, the chief eunuch of the court, was on the left, and Cui Yugui, the eunuch of the inner court, was on the right. The two leaned on the pole of the sedan chair tightly, followed by a group of guards, and rushed to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.Throughout the year, no matter it is windy or rainy, you must get up at that time and arrive at the Hall of Mental Cultivation on time, every day, every month, every year, decades like a day. Spirit.Empress Dowager Cixi cares about energy and spirit, so many major events throughout the day have to be taken care of by the old lady. Every day is still leisurely, spare time, pay attention to food, clothing, grooming, and play. She is always full of energy. Not at all tired.

This is the morning that Empress Dowager Cixi spent in Chuxiu Palace. The Empress Dowager Cixi once ruled China in the late Qing Dynasty for nearly half a century. She lived in the Chuxiu Palace for 32 years, and the Chuxiu Palace has left the imprint of the Empress Dowager Cixi so far.Regarding her evaluation, I said in "Zheng Shu Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty": As a woman, Cixi is undoubtedly outstanding and excellent. She has a calm personality and is full of energy. .We use the ruler of a politician to measure Cixi and find that she lacks the foresight, broad-mindedness, strategy of governing the country and integrity of a politician.Ci Xi's culture is not high, and Zhu Yi's decree is full of typos and poor calligraphy.Confined in the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace for many years, I don’t know agriculture, industry, education, business, military, or the real situation abroad. I only rely on power and tactics to control the great China and face the emerging world. How can you be undefeated?Six-year-old Tongzhi, four-year-old Guangxu, and three-year-old Xuantong, how could they not lose in the face of Western powers?This is the inevitable result of family and monarchy.In the family and monarchy of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor could only choose from the Aixinjueluo clan, but could not choose the best and most outstanding head of state from among the whole people.In the cruel and fierce international competition, the survival of the fittest, the laggards will be beaten, and the Qing Dynasty will perish after being defeated.