Editor 丨 Harem Cold Aunt
Typography 丨 Thunderbolt Little Hyland
The history of Zhenfei's fall is divided into four steps.
These four steps were also the four punishments she received.
Each of these four punishments became more severe than the last, and the last one directly threw her into a well and drowned her alive.
How did she get to this point? In a word, it's all done by yourself
Five years after Zhen Concubine entered the palace, she was officially promoted to Zhen Concubine, and at this time she was not yet a thorn in the eye of Empress Dowager Cixi.
Cixi loves calligraphy and has a special skill, she can write with both hands at the same time.
She only taught this skill to one person, that is, Zhenfei.
For a long time, cixi gave her courtiers the words fu, shou, dragon, tiger, etc., many of which were written by Zhenfei.
The etiquette rules in the palace are very large, when prostrating to please Ann, the headdress and earrings cannot be swinged, and the head must be uneven, and the queen cannot master this rule well, but Zhenfei will learn it as soon as she learns it.
With Cixi's approval, Princess Zhen often took the place of the empress in the palace.
It can be seen that Cixi initially liked Zhenfei very much.
Princess Zhen, who was liked by her husband and mother-in-law, slowly began to drift in her mentality.
I roughly calculated that in the life of Princess Jane at the age of 24, she had been subjected to a total of four humiliating punishments.
And the first punishment she received directly deprived her of the opportunity to give birth.
In the Qing Dynasty, the annual salary of the concubine was 300 taels, of course, this was only the number on the surface, at that time, the Treasury of the Qing Dynasty was empty, and the actual tickets in hand were simply not enough for the concubines to chop their hands.
Zhenfei is not a frugal person, and when she can't terregate, she hits the idea on the wrong road. That is, the road of selling officials.
At that time, the matter of selling officials was said to be small but small, and it was said that it was a big thing, mainly to see who committed this matter, Cixi herself and the grand eunuch Li Lianying had all done this, but when it came to Zhenfei, it was not possible!
Under the identification of her enemy Empress Longyu, Cixi found evidence that Zhenfei had betrayed her official position.
Princess Zhen was ordered to be demoted to a nobleman and tortured with a "scepter".
This punishment was not possible, and the prisoners had to be stripped of their clothes and beaten in public with a flattened stick, which was originally aimed at the ministers of the DPRK who had made mistakes.
In order to let Zhenfei remember for a long time, and to warn the disobedient Guangxu, Zhenfei was punished in this way.
The only concubines in the whole Qing Dynasty who suffered this kind of torture were Zhenfei, and in addition to the pain of the skin, zhenfei was more importantly a very humiliating punishment for the woman.
Cixi this is a murderous curse!
In Zhenfei's pulse case record of that year, "people are not awake, cold and feverish, and the veins of her body are trembling", and it can also be known that she was subjected at that time, how miserable it was after this humiliating staff!
In "The Last Empress Longyu I Know", the author relays Longyu's words that before this cane punishment, Zhenfei was already pregnant, and it was also this punishment that Zhenfei lost her child and could no longer get pregnant.
Cixi is also too fierce! This was the first time Zhenfei had been punished.
But then there was even more misery waiting for her in front!
What happened to Princess Zhen, who was thrown into the well?
In August 1900, at Cixi's order, Princess Zhen was dragged hard by Cixi's palace eunuchs, thrown into a well, and drowned alive.
This is not only a real event, the Forbidden City still retains the well that Zhenfei once threw, and thus became a tourist attraction.
Why did Princess Zhen end up like this, drowning alive?
In fact, from the day Zhenfei entered the palace, she fell into the abyss of the harem.
After Entering the palace at the age of 13, Princess Zhen was severely beaten four times, and how tragic her fate was, could only be calculated by repeated punishments.
After being tortured by Cixi for allegedly selling officials and being given a cane, her husband Guangxu felt even more sorry for her.
It wasn't long before Princess Jane was reinstated as a concubine. Long Yu hated this, the little goblin was actually spoiled again.
In order to continue to take revenge on Zhenfei, the empress colluded with Li Lianying and the eunuchs in Zhenfei's palace to put a man's shoe in Zhenfei's palace to slander her for adultery.
The material of Princess Zhenfei's clothes was the same as that of a play performed by Chang Jingong, and the Empress seized on this matter and condemned Zhenfei.
She ripped open Zhenfei's clothes and whipped her with a bamboo pole painted with yellow paint, which was the second punishment of Zhenfei by the empress.
Of course, the empress's suppression of Zhenfei was also authorized by Cixi.
Zhenfei often had some trendy ideas that caused the resentment of the Queen, and then Zhenfei was beaten again.
Guangxu once used pearls and jadeite from stock to make a pearl cheongsam for Zhenfei.
One day two people were playing in the imperial garden, and when they were bumped into by Cixi, the empress dowager was furious: even she was reluctant to use pearls to make beaded robes, and a concubine dared to do so.
Guangxu and Zhenfei quickly prostrated on the ground to confess their sins, and this pearl robe was also ripped off by the eunuch, and Zhenfei was beaten with 30 bamboo poles after returning to the palace. This is the third time that the recorded Princess Jane has been given a staff.
Princess Zhen's favor led to the empress being unfavored, the empress dowager participating in the sale of officials, and wearing luxurious pearl robes, although these made Cixi unaccustomed, but not enough to kill her, and what really made Cixi kill was Zhenfei's support for Guangxu's change of law.
The Reformers wrote to the Jurchens hoping that Concubine Zhen would replace Longyu as empress and oppose Cixi's obedience to the government.
Good guy, this is directly on the limit of Cixi's patience!
In 1898, the Wushu Reform Law failed, Guangxu was imprisoned, the emperor was locked up, and Zhenfei naturally could not run.
Once again, she was "dressed with a staff" and was imprisoned in the North Three Houses behind the Zhong Pu Palace.
After Princess Zhen entered the small courtyard, the main entrance was sealed with a cross, and eating and washing her face were all handed in and out of the small window by the lower person.
On the days of the New Year's Festival, the first and fifteenth day of the new year, the old eunuch who was guarding had to point to her nose and count her sins, and Zhenfei had to kneel to listen to the training, and after the training, she had to kowtow to Xie En, except that she could not talk to people, and Zhenfei could only go to the toilet once a day.
Such a miserable day, Zhenfei passed for two years.
In 1900, Cixi planned to escape with Guangxu and others, under the pretext of "taking Zhenfei inconvenient", and fearing that her young and beautiful appearance would be insulted by foreigners, she planned to let her commit suicide, and Zhenfei refused to die, so she was pushed into the well by the eunuch.
Whether Princess Zhenfei volunteered or not, this young girl, who was only 24 years old, died in a well in the palace.
The following year, when Cixi returned to the Forbidden City with Guangxu, Cixi did not forget the Zhenfei who was thrown in the well, so she found someone to salvage the body and buried it in the palace cemetery.
And changed the story of her death, in the name of "martyrdom", described Zhenfei as a suicide, and promoted to Zhenfei.
This kind of ear-covering and bell-stealing statement is just an excuse that Cixi made for herself.
After the death of his wife, Guangxu's younger brother, Zaifeng, changed the cause of Zhenfei's death from "suicide by throwing herself into a well" to "drowning by Cui Yugui in a well". The cause of Zhenfei's death was revealed.
Regardless of the outcome of Zhenfei's affairs, her tragic death added a dark stroke to harem life.
A generation of favorite concubines Zhenfei died of this incense, if she was born decades later, it may be another wonderful life path.