Cixi was a famous "extravagant" empress dowager in history. During her lifetime, she loved pearls, agate, precious stones, jade, gold and silver utensils, known as the "royal jewelry maniac", and the treasures buried in the coffin after her death were worth up to 100 million taels of silver. Some people say that Cixi's luxury is not a one-person luxury, but at the cost of the demise of the entire Great Qing, and the Great Qing is her funeral!
Xiao Dezhang, the last chief eunuch of the Qing Dynasty, recalled that Cixi's one-day palace expenses in that year were about 40,000 taels of silver.
The jewelry prepared for Cixi's 60th birthday was 10,000 taels of gold and 380,000 taels of silver; 230,000 taels of gold were spent on buying clothes; and 2.4 million taels of silver were spent on the setting and decoration of the scenic spots on the road back to the Forbidden City from the Summer Palace...
On Cixi's birthday, about 10 million taels of silver were spent, equivalent to the entire Beiyang Fleet. But this number is really small and big as what we are going to say next.
In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in the Qing Dynasty, which was called the "Gengzi Rebellion". Cixi acquiesced in killing foreigners, which caused the Eight-Nation Alliance to attack Dagukou and invade the capital, and Cixi had to flee with the Guangxu Emperor and a group of pro-noble emperors.
During the national crisis, the international image of Cixi, the de facto ruler, was corrupted to the extreme. The image of the Chinese empress dowager, which was interpreted according to rumors, appeared in the Western press, an old woman who was ugly and barbaric, sinister and murderous.
After the "Gengzi Rebellion" subsided, Cixi had the Guangxu Emperor (then known as the "Two Palaces") issue an edict, vowing to let mother and son work together to implement the New Deal, and began to focus on changing her international image with China.
Later, the American Minister, Duke Conger, and his wife visited Cixi, and the Duchess introduced the empress dowager to a highly skilled American oil painter, Ms. Ke, who was good at painting portraits, and her works had been selected for the Paris Exhibition, and she was willing to make a painting for Empress Dowager Cixi.
Cixi did not understand what oil painting was, but when she saw that the other party was so polite, she left Ms. Ke by her side. Privately, she asked Princess Deling, who had drunk foreign ink, how long it took to paint oil, and Princess Deling said that it usually took several months.
Originally, Cixi's living habit was to get up every day and freshen up for three hours before going out. Now for the portrait, it came out half an hour in advance.
Cixi sat on the throne of Leshou Hall, and Madam Ke sat down to paint a portrait of her. After sitting motionless for several mornings, Cixi gradually became impatient, so she ordered Princess Delin to put on her clothes and sit on the throne, saying that she would sit on it when she painted her face, which should be regarded as the earliest modeling industry in China.
However, it turned out that Cixi's patience was very limited, and later when it came to painting her face, she also sat down for a few minutes, and Ms. Ke's skills were good, and in the end, she also drew the outline and facial lines of Princess Deling.
Cixi, who was idle, saw that Ms. Ke's painting herself was not perfect enough, so she asked Ms. Ke to modify it, and the final portrait Cixi was very satisfied after reading it (after many times, can it not look good).
After painting the first painting, Ms. Ke finally understood what kind of work Cixi wanted, it didn't matter if she didn't look like herself, as long as she painted well, she could pass the pass, so she painted a gourd and painted another one for Cixi.
Cixi really liked it even more, and the happy Cixi rewarded Ms. Ke with ten thousand taels of silver at that time, and Ms. Ke, who had already collapsed, saw so much money and estimated that she would go crazy and make a lot of money thoroughly.
Originally, the purpose of painting these two paintings was to improve their international image, so Cixi ordered the craftsmen to frame both paintings in luxury, one in the palace, and the other to participate in the St. Louis Exhibition in the United States, so that the American people could also see the sky.