On the surface, the phrase "Measure the material strength of China and bind it to the happiness of the country" seems to be nothing more than a light sentence, but those who are familiar with that period of history can see through the words all kinds of humiliations in China's modern history, stained with blood and tears, and see a ruler who is tyrannical at home and flattering to the outside.
It was no one else who uttered these words, but Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of the late Qing government. During her reign, China's territory fell, its national power was lost, and the people were humiliated, and it is not an exaggeration to describe her crimes with the phrase "too many bamboo to write".
However, when the people were miserable, Cixi sat in the court and enjoyed all kinds of new things from the West. For example, cameras and electric lights, it is said that Cixi made an ignorant joke when she first saw the electric lights.
Cixi's politics were buoyant
Cixi entered the palace as a showgirl, and when she first entered the palace, she was named a nobleman, and no one thought that such a small palace concubine would later be able to control Chinese politics for decades and stir up boundless storms.
As a concubine in the inner courtyard of the palace, Cixi was able to get close to politics and learned little by little to control the power of her courtiers, which was inseparable from her husband, the Xianfeng Emperor. The imperial power of the Qing Dynasty was highly concentrated, and once the emperor slackened off slightly, it was perfectly normal for the concubines around him to steal power, not to mention that Cixi also gave birth to an emperor, who was deeply favored by the emperor, touched politics, and even handled some chapters under the guidance of the Xianfeng Emperor.
But Cixi really came to the fore and held power in his hands, or after the death of the Xianfeng Emperor. The Xianfeng Emperor was in the Rehe Palace, Cixi's son ascended the throne as emperor, it was for Tongzhi, as the birth mother of Cixi and Xianfeng's Empress Dowager Ci'an were honored as empress dowagers. Tongzhi was young, giving Cixi the possibility of controlling the government.
However, before Xianfeng died, he left eight ministers who were left with him, and the existence of these eight ministers made Cixi's hopes of controlling the government through Emperor Youfei frustrated. Cixi, who was close to the highest power, naturally refused to give up, and together with Ci'an launched the Xin You coup d'état and killed the eight ministers. Subsequently, Ci'an also died mysteriously, and Cixi finally became the only person in charge of the Qing Empire's authority.
In fact, although Cixi was regarded as a representative of the feudal diehards, she was also completely opposed to the restoration. In fact, without the support of Empress Dowager Cixi, the foreign affairs movement of Li Hongzhang and others could not have been carried out. However, Cixi supported the purpose of the change of law to maintain her own rule, and when the change of law rose from the artifact to the political level, to open the knife against the feudal system, she relentlessly became the executioner who suppressed the change.
Therefore, in the face of Kang Liang and others' reform and reform methods that touched the interests of the ruling class, when the reformists discussed forcing Cixi to return to power to the emperor, Cixi launched the second coup in her life, causing the six gentlemen to bleed into the market, the Guangxu Emperor to be imprisoned, and the New Deal to die.
However, the politically stubborn Cixi was highly receptive to all kinds of strange Western artifacts, and even more willing to accept new things than many Chinese at that time, among the more typical examples of which were photography and electric lamps.
Cixi who loves to take pictures
It is no secret that Cixi loves to take pictures, as evidenced by the many old photographs of Cixi that have been handed down.
In fact, when photographic technology was first introduced to China, many Chinese people were resistant and afraid of this advanced technology, and people living in feudal society could not understand the products of modern science and technology, so they could only rely on their existing knowledge to speculate. Because there will be flashes when taking pictures, people speculate that the camera will take away people's souls, and people who have taken pictures will become stupid.
This kind of rumor is naturally nonsense now, but it was very marketable in the society at that time. First, at that time, China's productive forces were backward, and the people generally did not know what modern science and technology were. Second, Western things invaded China along with the cannons, and the introduction of Western machines bankrupted countless Chinese craftsmen, which made the Chinese people unable to speculate on the things of foreigners with the greatest malice.
And this resistance is not only reflected in the camera, for example, Mr. Lu Xun's article mentioned that some people have rumored that the wax figures in the church are made of real people. In short, the backwardness of production, cultural estrangement, and emotional resistance made Chinese make all kinds of jokes when they first faced Western things.
Cixi ignored the rumors that photography would take a soul- and soul-sucking rumor, and she fell in love with the photos for the first time, and wanted to try out novelties herself. After she had tried taking pictures herself and seen her own photos, she was even more fascinated. And gradually not satisfied with simple photography, but painstakingly create a delicate set, sometimes dressed up as Guanyin, by the eunuchs around the dressed as children, which can also be regarded as a relatively early cosplay.
At that time, in order to make a smiling expression when Westerners took pictures, they would say "cheese" in the photo, and Empress Dowager Cixi could not speak English, and the people around her cleverly "transliterated" the word, so that Cixi said "eggplant" when taking pictures. Cixi tried it, and sure enough, the effect was better than before, so she remembered it.
Who knew that it was this "eggplant" that made Cixi laugh when she first saw the electric lamp.
Electric light jokes
A German electrical appliance dealer took a fancy to China's huge market and wanted to sell his electric lamps in China, but at that time, Chinese's acceptance of electrical appliances was not high.
The well-thought-out businessman immediately thought of Cixi, who thought that as long as Cixi took the lead in using electric lamps, then the princes and nobles would surely follow suit, and then the whole society would gradually use electric lights. So he bribed Li Lianying with a lot of money, hoping that Li Lianying would persuade Cixi to use electric lamps.
Li Lianying was well versed in Cixi's habits and knew that she could not say it explicitly. So he installed electric lights in the Summer Palace in advance, and then took Cixi to play, and when it was about to dusk, Cixi commanded a "light", and the electric lamp installed on the wall suddenly lit up, Cixi also thought it was the camera flash, and subconsciously called out the two words "eggplant".
Li Lianying hurried up to explain that it was an electric lamp, and Cixi was attracted by the new thing that would glow, and then Chinese society gradually accepted the electric lamp, and the lights of Wanjia gradually changed from candlelight to light.
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