In feudal society, the emperor was the son of heaven, representing the supreme power, the status was noble, they could be above everyone else, and they had the power to kill and live. The wife of the Son of Heaven is called the Empress, and the Empress is the mother of a nation and also enjoys supreme honor. However, everyone only saw the brilliance of their surface, but ignored the loneliness of the cold in the high places.
Today I want to talk about a hapless empress, Longyu.
Longyu was born into the famous Manchu Family of Yehenara, and her father was the younger brother of empress dowager Cixi. When he was a child, Longyu often went into the palace to play with the little emperor, and for a long time, Longyu and Guangxu were cousins with a good relationship. Unfortunately, at the age of 19, at Cixi's personal will, Guangxu had to choose her as empress.
This was completely contrary to Guangxu's ideas, and in the eyes of the young emperor, Longyu was the person cixi sent to spy on him. Moreover, the identity change from cousin to wife also made Guangxu unacceptable. He once cried in front of Longyu: "My respected sister, you see, how difficult I am!" Therefore, Guangxu and Longyu were not happy after marriage.
Guangxu stayed at Zhenfei's side every day, and Longyu had no choice but to cry to Cixi from time to time, but after all, it was a matter between husband and wife, and No matter how strong Cixi was, she couldn't care who Guangxu liked, and could only remind him of the idea of taking care of the empress. Guangxu was ostensibly full of promises, but privately refused to sleep with the empress.
As soon as he saw Longyu, Guangxu played a small role and kicked his shoes, and even he did not participate in the banquet that specially invited the empress's mother's family. However, even if Guangxu treats her like this, she still maintains the demeanor that a mother of a country should have, dignified and generous. Judging from the photos left behind, LongYu is not very pretty, a little hunchbacked, not very tall, and has tooth decay.
But she always showed her gentle face, and when someone went to see her, she treated her with courtesy and never lost her words. In many film and television dramas, Longyu is a jealous woman, Guangxu likes Zhenfei, she goes to harass Zhenfei, and also makes a small report to Cixi. In fact, this was not the case, Longyu had always been a cautious person, and she was in an awkward position in the palace.
On the one hand, there was no conjugal relationship between her and the Guangxu Emperor, almost a stranger relationship. On the other hand, although Cixi was nominally her aunt, she did not have the kind of affection between her aunt and nephew. In addition, after Guangxu began to pro-government, Cixi was unwilling to relinquish power, and the relationship between mother and son gradually deteriorated, and Longyu, who was sandwiched between the two, was often overwhelmed.
She was originally shallow in her knowledge, and she also received a feudal girl's education, and only knew the set of Xiangfu godson, so she could only find ways to reconcile the contradictions between Guangxu and Cixi, but it did not help. Every time a little palace girl and a little eunuch came to ask her something, she said, "Where do I know these things, what can I decide!" ”
One year during the Dragon Boat Festival Cixi wanted to eat mulberries, and the eunuch said that there was a shortage of mulberries this year. The next day, Cixi saw Rong Ling chatting with the empress with the mulberry in her hand, and asked, "Where did the mulberry come from?" Rong Ling replied that it was in the Empress Palace. Cixi loudly questioned longyu why he didn't say it yesterday, and then left angrily.
Long Yu was too frightened to speak, and hurriedly asked people to beat down all the mulberries in the palace and send them to Cixi. This woman, who came from a famous aristocratic family, trembled at every step in the palace. She could not have any disrespect for Cixi and Guangxu; she did not dare to discipline the like of Concubine Zhen, but only dared to cry to Cixi, and if she cried too much, Cixi would be bored; even to those palace eunuchs, she whispered softly.
Her every move must be in line with the identity of the mother of a country, every morning with two concubines to greet Cixi, at noon will walk in the royal garden, the rest of the time will stay in the palace gu Ying self-pity, day after day, year after year. Longyu's life is very tired and very snuggly. Since she entered the palace at the age of nineteen, she has rarely seen her family, and even if she did, she was treated as a courtesy to the king.
One day, her sister told her that her father missed her and wanted to send a photo to the family. She did not dare to tell Cixi directly, nor did she want to ask For Concubine Zhen, who could get a camera, so she could only let Rong Ling secretly take a picture and send it to her home. After the coup d'état, Guangxu was imprisoned by Cixi, and thinking about it, Longyu still decided to see her husband.
Husbands and wives see each other again, things are not human, hugging each other and crying. It didn't take long for Guangxu to die, and after that, Cixi died too. Long Yu suddenly became the core figure of the Qing Empire, but she did not know what to do. At Li Lianying's suggestion, the regent was summoned to consult, and in the end, he obeyed Cixi's arrangement and made Puyi emperor.
Longyu is not good at subjugating people, so there are not many cronies, since she became the empress dowager, she sometimes has the great politics of the country, she knows that in order to keep the throne of the empress, it is necessary to keep Puyi's throne, which must establish her own power, especially with those who hold real power and foreign ministers. Because of Zaifeng's interference, she could only fulfill her mother's responsibilities to the young emperor, and she was already powerless to the country.
After the Xinhai Revolution, under the oppression of Yuan Shikai, Longyu agreed to the abdication of the emperor. The next day she saw that no one had gone to the court, and only then did she realize that Daqing had been buried by her own hands. Since then, Longyu has been depressed and uncertain, and died after only a year. Longyu's life can be called miserable, the husband did not give her any warmth in the first half of his life, and lost the country in the second half of his life, depressed and died.
Yuan Shikai, then president of the Republic of China, immediately ordered the flag to be lowered at half-mast for three days, and civil and military officials to wear filial piety for twenty-seven days. The ministers stationed in Beijing also expressed their regret for the death of Empress Longyu, and except for the personal sacrifice at the Taihe Hall, during the mourning meeting, all embassies lowered their flags to half-mast to mourn. Because the "Chongling Tomb" of the Guangxu Emperor had not yet been completed, Empress Longyu's Zi Palace could only be "respectfully respected for temporary security".
But in the final analysis, she was nothing more than a victim of the feudal system.
Resources:
【Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" and "Guangxu Chaodong Hualu"]