Chapter 7 life of two emperors
The "temporary palace ban" mentioned in the "preferential treatment conditions" does not stipulate a specific period.Except for the three main halls in the Forbidden City, which belonged to the Republic of China, the rest of the places belonged to the scope of "Forbidden City".I lived in this small world until I was expelled by the Republic of China Army in the 13th year of the Republic of China, and spent the most ridiculous boyhood in the world.The reason why it is absurd is that China is called the Republic of China, and mankind has entered the twentieth century, but I still live an untouched imperial life, breathing the dust left over from the nineteenth century.
Whenever I think back to my childhood, a layer of yellow appears in my mind: the glazed tile roof is yellow, the sedan chair is yellow, the chair cushion is yellow, the inside of the clothes and hats, the belt around the waist, the clothes for eating and drinking tea are yellow. Porcelain dishes, porridge covers, furoshiki wrapping books, curtains, horse bridles...all of them are yellow.This so-called bright yellow, which is exclusively owned, has buried the self-awareness of being the only one in my heart since I was a child, and gave me a unique "nature".
When I was eleven years old, according to the decision of the concubines, my grandmother and mother began to go to the palace for a "marriage meeting", and my second brother Jie and my eldest sister also came to the palace to play with me for a few days.The day they first came, it started off very tasteless.My grandmother and I sat on the kang, and my grandmother watched me place dominoes on the kang table, while my second brother and eldest sister stood on the ground in an orderly manner, watching them motionless, just like the shifts in a yamen.Later, I thought of a way to bring my younger brother and younger sister to the Hall of Mental Cultivation where I lived, and I asked Pu Jie: "What are you playing at home?"
"Pu Jie can play hide-and-seek." My second brother, who is one year younger than me, said respectfully.
"You play hide and seek too? That's so fun!" I was very happy.I played with eunuchs, but not with children younger than me.So we played hide and seek in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.The more they played, the happier they were, and the second brother and eldest sister also forgot about restraint.Later we simply drew down all the outside curtains, making the room very dark.The eldest sister who was two years younger than me was happy and scared, and my second brother and I frightened her, laughing and yelling with joy.Tired from playing hide-and-seek, we climbed onto the kang to catch our breath, and I asked them to think of a new game.Pu Jie thought for a while, didn't say anything, just looked at me and smirked.
"What do you think?"
He was still smirking.
"Say, talk!" I urged him anxiously, thinking that he must have come up with a new game, but he said:
"What I thought, oh, what Pu Jie thought was that the emperor must be very different, just like the old beard on the stage,..."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and made a gesture of holding his beard.Unexpectedly, this action got him into trouble, because I saw at a glance that the inside of his cuffs looked like that familiar color.I immediately sank my face:
"Pu Jie, what color is this, can you make it?"
"This, this is apricot yellow, right?"
"Nonsense! Isn't this Minghuang?"
"Hey, hey..." Pu Jie hurriedly stood aside with his hands down.The eldest sister slipped behind him, almost crying in fright.I'm not done yet:
"This is bright yellow! You shouldn't have made it!"
"Hey!"
Amidst the humming sound, my brother resumed his status as a servant. ...
The sound of 嗻 嗻 has long since become extinct.Thinking about it now, that tone is very funny.But I've been used to it since I was a child, and if others don't answer me with this tone, they won't tolerate it.The same is true for kneeling and kowtowing.I have been used to seeing people kowtow to me since I was a child. Most of them are more than ten times older than me. There are Qing Dynasty elders, and there are elders in my relatives.
It's not surprising that you are used to it, and there are daily ostentations.
It is said that there was a young man who was very surprised when he read it. He didn't understand why there was always such a large group of people behind and around people like Jiamu and Wang Fengjie. A swarm of people followed like a tail.In fact, Ri's tail is much smaller than Gongli's.The ostentation in the palace is like the epitome of the ostentation in the palace, and this tail is also quite similar.Every day when I go to Yuqing Palace to study, greet the concubine, or visit the Imperial Garden, there is a tail behind me.Every time I go to the Summer Palace, not only do I have to have a tail of dozens of cars, but I also ask the police from the Republic of China to guard along the way, which costs thousands of dollars each time.I went to the imperial garden in the palace to play once, and I wanted to form a line like this: at the front was a eunuch from the respect room, who played the role of a car horn, saying "eat—eat—" from time to time. The sound of the policeman warned people to avoid them early. Twenty or thirty steps behind them were two eunuchs in charge, walking on both sides of the road, walking like ducks and geese; about ten steps behind them was the center of the procession (I or the Queen Mother).If you are sitting in a sedan chair, there will be a young eunuch in front of the imperial court on each side of the sedan chair, so as to take care of you at any time; if you are walking, they will walk with their support.Behind this, there is another eunuch holding a large umbrella. A few steps behind the umbrella, there is a large group of eunuchs holding various objects and bare hands: some are holding horses for resting at any time, and some are holding clothes for changing at any time , there are those holding umbrellas; behind these eunuchs are the eunuchs of the imperial tea room, holding a number of food boxes containing various snacks and tea, of course there are hot water pots, tea sets, etc.; Carrying a burden, it contains all kinds of standing small medicines and first-aid medicines. The indispensable ones are Dengxin water, chrysanthemum water, reed root water, bamboo leaf water, and Zhuru water. In summer, there must be Leixiang Zhengqi pills, Liuhe Dingzhong pills, and Jinyi Qu Shuwan, Xiangruwan, Wanying Tablet, Shayao, Biwensan, Sanxianyin for digestion regardless of the seasons, etc.; at the end, there are eunuchs with urinals.If there is no sedan chair, the sedan chair will follow at the end.According to the season, there are warm sedan chairs and cool sedan chairs.This tail of dozens of people mixed in here and there walked quietly and peacefully, in an orderly manner.
However, this tail is often disturbed by me.When I was young, I was like any other child, running away when I was happy.At first, they followed each other step by step, and they were panting and panting.When I got older, I learned how to give orders, and when I wanted to run, I asked them to stand aside and wait, so except for the little eunuch in front of the imperial court, those who carried boxes and burdens stood aside and waited for me to run enough. behind me.Later, I learned to ride a bicycle, and ordered that all the thresholds of the palace gates be sawed off, so that I could ride everywhere without hindrance, and naturally I couldn't follow the tail, so I had to temporarily avoid it.In addition, every day, every day when you go to the concubine to greet her and go to Yuqing Palace to go to school, etc., you still have to follow her.If there was no such tail behind him at that time, it would feel unnatural.I used to hear people tell the story of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, and at the end, it was said that there was only one eunuch left beside Chongzhen, and I felt very uncomfortable.
The ostentation that consumes the most manpower, material and financial resources is eating.Regarding the emperor's meals, there is another set of terms, and others are absolutely not allowed to make mistakes.A meal is not called a meal but a "dinner", a meal is called "Jinshan", a meal is called "Chuanshan", and the kitchen is called "Yushanfang".When it was time to eat—there was no fixed time, it was entirely up to the emperor to decide—I ordered “Chuan the meal!” The little eunuch in front of the imperial eunuch in front of me also said “Chuan the meal!” !" The eunuch in the hall passed the words to the eunuch standing outside the Yangxin Gate, and he passed it on to the eunuch in the imperial dining room waiting on West Chang Street...and so it spread into the imperial dining room.Before the echo disappeared, a dowry-like procession had already walked out of the imperial dining room.This is a team composed of dozens of well-dressed eunuchs, carrying seven dining tables, large and small, and dozens of red lacquer boxes painted with golden dragons, heading straight for the Hall of Mental Cultivation.After entering the Ming Palace, the little eunuch with white sleeves took it over and arranged it in the East Nuan Pavilion.There are two tables of dishes on weekdays, and another table of hot pot in winter. In addition, there are three tables of various snacks, rice meals, and porridge, and a small table of pickles.The tableware is bright yellow porcelain painted with dragon patterns and the words "Longevity without Borders". In winter, it is silverware with a porcelain jar filled with hot water.Each dish or bowl had a silver medal, which was set up as a precaution against poisoning, and for the same reason, the dishes were tasted by an eunuch before being delivered, called "taste meals."After these tasted things were arranged, before I was seated, a little eunuch called out, "Cover the bowl!" The other four or five little eunuchs took off the silver lids on each dish and put them in a big box. take it away.So I started to "eat".
What are the so-called front feet?Empress Dowager Longyu has about a hundred kinds of dishes for each meal, and she has to use six dining tables to display them. This is the pomp she inherited from Cixi.Now I have found a "Rough Sheet for February of the Fourth Year of Xuantong" (that is, a draft of the menu in March of the first year of the Republic of China), and the content recorded on it is as follows:
Fried spring rolls, yellow chives, fried meat, smoked elbow, flower, small belly, stewed tofu, smoked shreds, cooked pinched vegetables, pepper oil, fried shredded cabbage, five spices, dried meat, sliced meat soup, boiled Sai Le, boiled white meat
After these dishes have been put on the table after various procedures, they have no purpose other than to show ostentation.The reason why it can be placed on the table quickly under the sound of passing the meal is because the imperial dining room has been prepared half a day or a day ago, and it is waiting on the fire.They also knew that since Guangxu, the emperor did not rely on these things that had passed the fire to satisfy his hunger.What I actually ate every meal was the dishes sent by the Queen Mother, and the four concubines continued to send them after the Queen Mother died.Because the empress dowagers or concubines have their own dining rooms, and all of them are senior chefs, the dishes are delicious, and there are always about twenty dishes for each meal.This is the dish placed in front of me, and the dishes made by the Imperial Dining Room are placed far away, just for show.
In order to show their love and concern for me, the concubines, in addition to delivering food for each meal, also stipulated that after each meal, a eunuch in charge should report to me about my meals.This is also a formula article.No matter what I ate, the head eunuch knelt down at the concubine's place and always said the same thing:
"Slave reports to old master: Lord Long Live has entered a bowl of old rice meal (or white rice meal), a steamed bun (or a sesame seed cake) and a bowl of porridge. It is delicious!"
Every New Year's Day or the concubine's birthday (this is called "Qianqiu"), in order to show due filial piety, my dining room will also make a batch of dishes for the concubine.These dishes can be identified by these four sentences: flashy, expensive but not beneficial, nutritious but not nourishing, bland and tasteless.
How much does this way of eating cost a month?I found a copy of "Inventory of Meat Cats, Chickens and Ducks by Meat Cattery and Chickens and Ducks in the Internal and External Dining Room and Various Departments from the 1st to the 30th Day of September in the Second Year of Xuantong". The records on it are as follows:
Below is the breakdown of the Empress Dowager and several concubines. For the sake of eyesight, it is now combined into a statistical table (all monthly breakdowns) as follows:
My family of six consumes 3,960 catties of meat and 388 chickens and ducks a month, of which 810 catties of meat and 240 chickens and ducks belong to my five-year-old child. use.In addition, there are a large number of military ministers, imperial guards, masters, Hanlin, painters, inscribers, eunuchs with status, and shamans who come to worship the gods every day in the palace to serve the family of six. Cases.Even our family of six ate a total of 14,642 catties of pork, and used a total of 2,342 taels and two cents of silver.In addition, there are more vegetables added every day, and the ratio of additions is much higher.The meat added this month is 31,844 catties, 814 catties of lard, 4,786 chickens and ducks, and 11,600 silver for fish, shrimp and eggs. Forty-one taels and seven cents, plus three hundred and forty-eight taels of miscellaneous expenses, together with the proportion, the total is 14,794 taels and nine cents.Obviously, apart from embezzlement, almost all of this money was wasted to show the dignity of the emperor.This is not counting the constant consumption of snacks, fruits, sweets, and drinks throughout the year.
A lot of food is made but not eaten, and a lot of clothes are made but not worn.I don't remember much about this, I only know that concubines are divided, but the emperor has no restrictions, and he makes clothes all year round. I don't know what he does, anyway, he always wears new ones.I have a statement of reimbursement after the change to silver dollars, which does not record the date of the Ming Dynasty. It is titled "From the sixth day of October to the fifth day of November, the actual price of the used materials for the clothes used to be made." According to this list, Made for me this month: eleven leather jackets, six leather robes, two leather tights, thirty cotton-padded trousers and tights.It is not considered a formal work material, only the welt.For small items such as shawls, buckles and threads, it cost 2137 yuan, 60 cents and 35 cents in silver dollars.
As for the proportion of concubines, it is also quite impressive.In an account after I got married, there are regulations on the clothing used by concubines every year. Now it is counted as follows:
When I change my clothes, there is also a clear regulation that the eunuch of the "Four Deacons" will be responsible for changing it for me.For a single item of robes and gowns that are usually worn, twenty-eight types of gowns have to be replaced a year according to the list, from the green and white inlaid leather gowns on the nineteenth day of the first lunar month to the mink fur gowns on the first day of November.As for the festival ceremony, not to mention the complexity of the costumes.
Since there are these extravagant ostentations, there must be a set of corresponding institutions and personnel.The housekeeper for the emperor is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which governs Guangchu, Duyu, Zhangli, and accounting.Qingfeng, Punishment, Construction and other seven divisions (each division has a set of warehouses, workshops and other units, such as Guangchu Division has six warehouses for silver, leather, porcelain, satin, clothing, tea, etc.) and forty-eight divisions in the palace .According to the records in the "Juezhi Quanjian" in the autumn of the first year of Xuantong, there were a total of 1,023 officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (not counting the imperial guards, eunuchs and eunuchs). In the early years of the Republic of China, it was reduced to more than 600 people. There were more than three hundred people there.The organization is so large and employs so many people that ordinary people can imagine it, but its tasks are so boring that people don't know much about it.For example, the Ruyi Pavilion, one of the 48 places, is dedicated to serving the emperors and concubines to draw and write. If the Queen Mother wants to draw something, the staff of the Ruyi Pavilion will first draw the manuscript for her, and then she will color the inscription.The large-character plaques were drawn by the engraving craftsmen of Maoqin Hall, or written by Hanlin in Nanshufang.Most of the empress dowager's imperial brushes or imperial treasures were produced in this way in the late Qing Dynasty.
In addition to these pomp and circumstance, the surrounding buildings and palace furnishings also had an educational effect on me.Yellow glazed tiles can only be used by emperors. Needless to say, the height of the building is also unique to emperors. This has convinced me since I was a child that not only everything on the ground, the so-called "Is it the king's land under the whole world", even a piece of sky above my head Nor does it belong to anyone else.Every piece of furnishing is my intuitive teaching material.It is said that Emperor Qianlong once stipulated that all objects in the palace, even an inch of grass, are not allowed to be lost.In order to make this sentence a reality, he took a few grasses and put them on the table in the palace, and asked people to check them once a day, and no one would be missing. This is called "an inch of grass as a mark".During the more than ten years I have been in the palace, this thing has been placed in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. It is a small cloisonne pot, which contains thirty-six one-inch long hay sticks.This pile of little hay sticks has aroused my infinite respect for that ancestor, and it has also aroused my infinite indignation towards the Revolution of 1911.But I didn't expect that although there was no shortage of hay sticks left by Qianlong, the grassy land left by Qianlong would cost thousands of square miles to be given to "Yuguo" by his children and grandchildren.
The waste caused by the emperor's life can no longer be accurately counted.According to the materials compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, "The Seven Years of Xuantong and the Comparison of the Past Three Years" records: the expenditure in the fourth year of the Republic of China reached more than 2.79 million taels, and the figures in the eighth, ninth and tenth years of the Republic of China decreased year by year , the lowest number is still more than 1.89 million taels.In short, under the connivance of the Republic of China authorities, the group of people headed by me still put on a show and lived a parasitic life according to the original standard, wasting a lot of blood and sweat of the people.
There are some rules in the palace, which were not purely for ostentation, such as putting silver medals in the dishes and the system of tasting food, and a large number of people are required to set up guards every time they go out. This is originally to prevent assassination.It is said that the emperor did not have a toilet, because a generation of emperors met assassins when they went out to use the toilet.But these stories and those spectacles all had the same effect on me: to affirm in every way that I am dignified, sovereign and possessive.
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