Chapter 35 Section thirty-fifth

On New Year's Eve, Empress Dowager Cixi made two important decisions, that is, two major events to be done in the next year. One is to start with a draft girl to be a queen for the emperor, and the other is to prepare to withdraw from the curtain and return to power. Therefore, on the fifth day of the first lunar month in the twelfth year of Guangxu, the Empress Dowager Cixi summoned the military plane, ordered her face to face, and decided to take the emperor to visit Dongling.There are three major ceremonies in this trip. The first is to go to the Dingdong Mausoleum of the Empress Dowager Ci'an in Puxiang Valley to perform the "earth laying ceremony".Empress Dowager Ci'an collapsed in March of the seventh year of Guangxu, and was buried in September of that year.Empress Dowager Cixi was not able to travel long distances because of her initial recovery from illness, so she was never sent to the mausoleum.The emperor was too young to be buried. "For four years, Empress Dowager Cixi has always believed that this is something she should apologize to Empress Dowager Ci'an, and decided to make up for this apology before withdrawing from the curtain and returning to power.

The second is that after the emperor ascended the throne, he has never paid a visit to Huiling of Mu Zong, so he should do his best this time.The third is to hold a grand banquet for the ancestors in the Longen Hall of Dongling. The so-called "soil-covering ceremony" is a folk tomb-sweeping ceremony, which is suitable for the Qingming Festival, so the imperial edict was issued on the same day, and it is scheduled to start on February 27th, and the soil-covering ceremony will be held on the second day of March in Qingming. Return to the palace on the seventh day of March.In order to accommodate the Qingming Festival on the second day of March, the trip back to Luan was quite hasty, and it was necessary to return to the palace on the seventh day of March. Because of this year's examination, the first session was scheduled to start on the ninth day of March, and the examiner had to enter the palace the day before.Return to Beijing on the seventh day of March, and send an examiner the next day, so as not to miss the test period.

This time, three yamen are going to be extremely busy.The first one is Zhili governor’s yamen, and the main thing is to renovate the roads along the way to run the "ling mission"; the second one is the Ministry of Rites, which needs to prepare various ceremonial notes; the third one is the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which serves the empress dowager and the emperor It is not an easy task to provide car, board and lodging for the palace family members. However, it was neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Governor's Yamen of Zhili who felt the embarrassment, but the Ministry of Rites.Empress Dowager Cixi's visit to the mausoleum has its own rules. The embarrassing thing is that the first visit to the mausoleum of Empress Dowager Ci'an in Puxiang Valley has no precedent to follow. After searching all the old cases, there is only four years of Tongzhi. The queen example seems to be available.

Empress Xiao Dexian's Sakda family was the son of Jin, who was registered by Yizong when Wenzong was the prince in the 27th year of Daoguang.But this Fujin, Fu Bo, had never been a queen. In the 29th year of Daoguang, Xuanzong's stepmother, Empress Xiaoherui, died, and the next day, this Fujin passed away.And when Empress Xiao and Rui passed away, Xuanzong was already seventy-two years old, and was sick. At the end of the year, it was too sad to suffer successive funerals, so in less than a month, he was also the guest of the dragon. So Wen Zong came to the throne, and Sakda was posthumously named Empress Xiaode, and her funeral ceremony was halfway through, because her status was changed from the prince's concubine to the empress, so it was changed to a grand funeral ceremony, Zigong has been parked in the east. Longfu Temple near the mausoleum.In the fourth year of Tongzhi, Emperor Wenzong was buried. Empress Xiaode was buried together in Dingling, and the empress dowagers of the two palaces paid a memorial ceremony.

This time Empress Dowager Cixi pays homage to Empress Dowager Ci'an's mausoleum, it should also be used as a precedent, Man Shangshu Yanxu advocated the strongest. The reason he held was that the two palaces were honored together during his lifetime, but the situation after his death was different. Until the death of Emperor Wenzong in the eleventh year of Xianfeng, he always had two different identities, the empress and the noble concubine Yi.If it is said that the Empress Dowager Cixi can offer sacrifices with ordinary ceremonies at this time, then it was wrong for the two palaces to pay homage to Empress Xiaode with the ceremony of concubines.

So it was decided to repeat it in detail.The Empress Dowager Cixi first looked at the note on the rituals of performing the great feast ceremony, which read: "In the autumn of the ninth year of Kangxing, the holy ancestor Feng Tai and the Empress Dowager led the empress to pay a visit to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. , not having fun. In the Daling House, the Empress Dowager sat on the east side of Fangcheng, offering wine and offering mourning.Empress Dowager Fan of later generations visited the mausoleum to imitate this. " Empress Dowager Cixi had nothing to say about this ceremonial note. Next, when she saw the empress dowager "declaring the etiquette and etiquette in Puxiangyu to set the Dongling Tomb", she naturally thought of the scene of honoring Empress Xiaode at Longfu Temple. , fell hard to the ground.

Seeing this scene, the eunuchs and maids on the left and right were so frightened that they all held their breath and their legs trembled. Of course, Li Lianying was an exception, but she didn't dare to speak casually. She pouted, signaled the eunuchs and maids to retreat, then picked up the memorial, and looked at it quietly. She didn't know what was going on, but guessed that it must be a note drawn up by the Ministry of Rites. , It doesn't suit her meaning. "Look!" Empress Dowager Cixi pointed at the memorial, gritted her teeth and said, "What ritual note did the Ministry of Rites draw up?"

"It's not right there, just tell them to change it." Li Lianying said, "The officials in the Ministry of Rites are all nerds, why should you be so angry about them?" The Empress Dowager Cixi was also angry for a while, and she felt that if she got angry, she would be criticized behind her back for being too narrow-minded, so she held back her breath and accepted Li Lianying's suggestion. So the military aircraft received the decree and informed the Ministry of Rites to re-draft the ceremonial note, which is slightly different from the etiquette used by the empress dowagers of the two palaces to pay homage to Empress Xiaode at Longfu Temple.This is not a big deal in the first place, and if changes are considered at the time of drafting, no one will criticize it.However, this kind of refutation attracted the attention of scholars, especially when the examination was approaching, talented scholars gathered in the capital, and many of them were respected by the elders and scholars, and they took this matter very seriously.Because you look deeply, you also look very seriously.

This can also be said to be a rehash.Back then, because King Chun was the emperor's biological father, he was afraid that the story of "Great Rites" during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty would repeat itself, so he tried his best to suppress King Chun.From relatives and dignitaries down to Hanlin, almost everyone thinks that King Chun must never interfere with political affairs, to prevent him from gradually developing wings due to interference in government affairs.This re-borrowing of the title of Mu Zong's establishment of an heir is actually equivalent to the public case of "struggling for the foundation of the country". It did not come to an end until Mu Zong's funeral and Wu Ke's corpse remonstrance.

At the beginning of the current emperor's entry into the great unification, even King Chun himself knew that he was in a place of great suspicion, and his self-distribution must be cut off from the country's political affairs from now on, and he would be idle for life. Whole, begging for bones, for heaven and earth to accommodate a person who has lost his title, and for Emperor Xuanzongcheng to leave a dull and talentless son" bitter words.Unexpectedly, in ten years, the situation has changed. Now King Chun not only intervenes in political affairs, but also becomes the "Minister of Military Affairs".Everyone also knows that as long as the Empress Dowager Cixi listens to the government behind the curtain, King Chun will never dare to overstep. Alien?Even if he himself had no such intention, who would dare to say that he would not encourage him?Zhao Kuangyin is so cautious and not good at authority, isn't he also "adding a yellow robe", can't he stop?

Therefore, in order to eliminate this hidden worry, today, etiquette and etiquette must be combined. Only etiquette, that is, the family law of the ancestors, can prevent unexpected deviations.If the Empress Dowager Cixi can be allowed to break the etiquette and make laws for the sake of unimportant rituals at this time, it will be a bad example. May I ask how the officials of etiquette can offend Yan Zhizhi? Of course, these discussions are of great importance, and can only be discussed quietly in the gatherings of the closest friends. Of course, the six officials of the Ministry of Rites also understand the importance of this matter, and at the same time they are quite vigilant that scholars' opinions should not be ignored. The revision of Yizhi and the annotation of the instrument caused dissatisfaction among scholars, and they wrote letters one after another. At that time, there will be some expressions on the road of speech, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites will bear the brunt of it. But it seems even more inappropriate to openly violate the order.Thinking about it left and right, there are difficulties, but Qiluan's day is approaching day by day.As a last resort, I had to get an idea from Li Lianying. A secretary in the Ministry of Rites who was related to Li Lianying specially prepared a generous water gift, paid a sincere visit, talked with people in secret, and explained the difficulties in detail. In these places, Li Lianying knew the general situation very well, so she agreed and tried to resolve the matter. When he returned to the palace, it was inconvenient for him to speak, and he wanted to discuss the matter with Princess Rongshou. Princess Rongshou has a special status in the palace because Empress Dowager Cixi has special affection for her.At first it was doting, coupled with the attention she received for her general knowledge of etiquette, and when she was married and widowed early, she was naturally sympathetic, and because her biological father, Prince Gong, was deposed, the Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't help feeling ashamed and apologetic.The four words of love, respect, pity, and apology add up to make people feel strangely afraid.When the Empress Dowager Cixi does something that is not in accordance with the etiquette system, or makes a dress that is too bright in color and pattern, and does not suit the status of an old queen, she always tells her left and right: "Don't let Da Gege know, let her say a few words about me, I'm going I can't stand it." Of course, this is also because whenever Princess Rongshou makes admonitions, firstly, there must be an irrefutable reason, and secondly, the words are sarcastic and tactful, secretly pointing out that it never hurts Empress Dowager Cixi's face.Therefore, when faced with such a difficult matter, although she was obliged to take it on her shoulders, she did not dare to worry about it. She just calculated silently and patiently waited for the opportunity.