Guangxu Cixi and Cixi died one after another, a difference of less than 24 hours, which caused a lot of speculation in later generations, so it became one of the "Eight Doubts in the History of the Qing Palace", but is all this just a coincidence? What's the secret behind it?
The Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor Zai Xiang was the penultimate emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the most resentful emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and he was carried into the palace at the age of four to take the throne. From the time he entered the palace, he was controlled by Empress Dowager Cixi, a puppet emperor who grew up under the obscenity of Empress Dowager Cixi, and even the basic diet and living were controlled, which was even worse after the failure of the Penghu Reform, and was directly imprisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, and never regained his freedom.
In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), the Guangxu Emperor died in Yingtai at the age of thirty-eight, and the emperor who had been living in the shadow of Empress Dowager Cixi had completed his rebellious and obedient life, and the cause of Death of the Guangxu Emperor had always been a mystery, the Guangxu Emperor was in his prime, even if he was controlled by Empress Dowager Cixi and was imprisoned in Yingtai in Zhongnanhai and was depressed, how could he suddenly die violently?
According to the records of the taiyi Qu Guiting, when entering the Guangxu Emperor's bedchamber, the Guangxu Emperor suddenly cried out for abdominal pain, and then covered his stomach with a sweaty head and rolled around on the bed, Qu Guiting quickly went forward to check and found that the Guangxu Emperor's face was black and his tongue was scorched yellow, which was obviously a symptom of poisoning, and in later archaeological findings, the total amount of arsenic in the Body of the Guangxu Emperor was obviously greater than the amount of lethality, and after the identification of the remaining hair, it was confirmed that the Guangxu Emperor did indeed die of arsenic poisoning, so the question came, who was the black hand behind the poisoning of the Guangxu Emperor?
Although the Guangxu Emperor was only a puppet, his status was still very noble, so the only person who could have the courage and power to poison the emperor was probably the empress dowager Cixi at that time, and what was even more strange was that less than 20 hours after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi also died, so close to the time was too coincidental, making people have to suspect that the death of the Guangxu Emperor was most likely inseparable from Empress Dowager Cixi.
Was the Guangxu Emperor really poisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi? What was Empress Dowager Cixi busy doing in the 20 hours after the death of the Guangxu Emperor? On the night of Emperor Guangxu's death, Empress Dowager Cixi was busy arranging for Emperor Guangxu's affairs to rest until very late, and early the next morning an emergency meeting was held to summon Prince Qing Yili, Prince Zaifeng of Alcohol, Yuan Shikai, Lu Chuanlin, Shi Xu, and Longyu, the ministers of military aircraft, with The main purpose being to establish an heir for the Tongzhi Emperor, with Prince Qing as the head of the minister advocating the establishment of Pulun or Puwei, and Empress Dowager Cixi still followed her policy of "establishing a young and not standing long", eliminating the adult Puwei and Pulun and choosing to establish the three-year-old Puyi as the new emperor. And let Puyi's father Zaifeng as the regent of the supervising state, did not give anyone the opportunity to refute, this emergency meeting from 6 a.m. to noon, Cixi's voice is still very loud, full of spirit to preside over the morning meeting, it can be seen that Cixi's brain is very clear, and cixi chose puyi who is only three years old to inherit the throne, his selfish heart must be thinking of continuing to hold power as "Emperor Taishang", but at this time Cixi, who is still thinking about continuing to govern, did not expect that his limit was approaching.
Empress Dowager Cixi
After the meeting, Cixi began to eat lunch as usual, and when she was eating, she suddenly fainted, and only woke up under the rescue of the Tai Doctor, and after waking up, Cixi seemed to have a premonition that her deadline had expired and hurriedly arranged the aftermath, according to the records that Cixi at that time ordered things to be calm and clear and orderly as usual, and after arranging things, she gradually lost her physical strength and died in the Yiluan Hall at the third moment of the Weizheng Temple, Cixi could not dream of it, and less than a day after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, her own life also began to count down.
Why did Cixi die less than 24 hours after Guangxu's death? Is this just a coincidence? Some people say that Cixi's illness is a chronic disease, there is no sign of getting sick in the early stages, and even in the days before death, there is no phenomenon of death, and it is recorded in the "Cixi Waiji" that Cixi's illness was caused by dysentery and gradually worsened, so when did Cixi get dysentery? According to relevant information, on the day of the seventy-fourth birthday feast of Empress Dowager Cixi, the best chefs in the capital were invited to prepare more than a hundred exquisite dishes, and the empress dowager Cixi at the banquet was in a very happy mood, so empress dowager Cixi ate a lot of dishes and drank a few wines on the same day, and the next day Cixi felt abdominal pain and the number of stools also increased, dozens of times a day with pus and blood, although after the Taiyi cut pulse diagnosis and treatment, it still did not work, in order to give Cixi anti-diarrhea Tai doctor even used opium, But this not only can not alleviate the diarrhea but also aggravated Cixi's condition, so that Cixi's body became worse and worse, coupled with the age of gastrointestinal dysfunction, long-term diarrhea caused the failure of other organs of the body, and Cixi in her later years for the country to work, insisting on working with the disease led to the gradual overdraft of the body, Empress Dowager Cixi died when it was already a rare year, which in ancient times can also be regarded as a high lifespan, so it can not be said that it died of a violent disease.