Speaking of the late period, we have to mention the Cixi who everyone spurned, as the actual ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, under her own strong desire to control, used the 2 emperors of the Qing Dynasty as puppets until her final death. However, it is worth mentioning that after the successive deaths of Guangxu and Cixi, the three widows of Tongzhi were clamoring for martyrdom, for reasons that made people sympathetic.
The three widows of Tongzhi were: Yufei Hershelishi, Concubine Xilinjue Luoshi, and Xunfei Arut. Speaking of which, their lives in the harem are also undesirable, the emperor's husband died early, and the rest of them live in the palace, is it not true that Guangxu and Cixi treat them preferentially, so that they must be martyred? The answer, of course, is no, in fact, their lives have been extremely tragic, and the reasons for their martyrdom are also chilling.
First: The emperor's husband shall not be favored. These three women entered the palace together, and at the same time there were empresses Alute and Huifei Fucha, which is the "5-person harem" of Tongzhi, of which Cixi liked Huifei, but Tongzhi and Ci'an liked the Alute clan, and finally won two-to-one victory, and the Alut clan became the empress. After the big marriage, Tongzhi was extremely fond of the empress, but Cixi was not satisfied, and often let him favor Concubine Hui.
Tongzhi did not listen, as always, Cixi did everything to the empress, and finally caused Tongzhi to be dissatisfied, and directly moved to the empress's palace, ignoring the others even more. Later, after his death at the age of 19, the empress also committed suicide not long after, leaving 4 unfavored widows in the harem for a while.
Second: Her mother-in-law, Cixi, is bored with them. Tongzhi died without heirs, so Cixi chose Zai Xiang and passed it on to Xianfeng, which was Guangxu. Originally, the new emperor was on the throne, and the widows could be called concubines, but they did not expect to become imperial concubines, and in addition to Concubine Hui, the remaining Cixi felt that their family lineage was not prominent, and they were also very tired of them.
Princess Hui was liked by Cixi and often bullied them, and the 3 widows had a very bleak life. What's more, Cixi said that when she saw them, she thought of her dead sons and beat them into the cold palace in order not to make herself uncomfortable. Princess Hui died after Cixi's 60th birthday, leaving a poor trio in the palace that her husband disliked and her mother-in-law disliked.
Third: Become a slave and be instructed by others. Guangxu married, married Longyu, and later Zhenfei and Jinfei sisters, Guangxu after the pro-government Guangxu once had a vigorous change, but ultimately failed and was imprisoned by Cixi, until the final death, but 1 day, Cixi also died. Puyi came on, Longyu became the empress dowager, and Concubine Jin became the concubine, but the three of them did not receive the honorific title.
Not only that, LongYu, who had been oppressed by Cixi before, straightened up and shouted at the three of them, claiming that they were slaves, and the three of them were forced to be helpless and could only give it a go. Therefore, when Cixi was buried, Concubine Yu clamored in front of everyone to be martyred, and said that instead of going back to be a slave, it would be better to be martyred.
The regent Zaifeng asked before he understood that Puyi had originally inherited Guangxu at the same time, but also shouldered the same rule, so Zaifeng also felt that the three of them should become concubines. Seeing that there was a drama, the other two also began to cry, and finally Zaifeng consulted with Longyu, and Longyu reluctantly agreed, so they got good treatment in the palace, but they did not expect that the Qing Dynasty would not be long after it also went out of business.
Xiaobian feels that their life is a typical harem life of unfortunate women, born well to enter the palace, but their lives are not favored, living in the palace desolate, until death.