History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
Empress Dowager Cixi was a black hand behind the qing government that had led to the demise of the Qing dynasty and closed China to the country for decades, and had been listening to the government for decades, making wrong decisions at many decisive key turning points of the Qing Dynasty, which eventually led to the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
However, the profligate Empress Dowager Cixi not only squandered during her lifetime, but also arranged her funeral before her death to adopt the highest specifications, bringing countless gold and silver jewels from her life to the grave.
Empress Dowager Cixi died of illness in 1908 at the age of 73, but the empress dowager had already laid down all the arrangements for her funeral, and according to foreign journalists who had watched Cixi's funeral, the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi was very grand, even exceeding the emperor's specifications. From some old photos, we can see that the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi as the actual ruler of the late Qing government was indeed very solemn.
The funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi was also presided over by Li Lianying, a great eunuch she trusted very much in her later years, and since Empress Dowager Cixi's death in her own bedchamber, Li Lianying has become the biggest commander, calling on hundreds of people to prepare for the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi.
Even after Empress Dowager Cixi's body was sent into the coffin, a lot of gold and silver jewelry was put into Empress Dowager Cixi's coffin to accompany her. Moreover, the coffin used by Empress Dowager Cixi is also made of the best gold silk nan wood, and there is a "hall cover" above the coffin, and the top is also inlaid with a valuable gemstone, and the coffin is surrounded by a lot of precious silk, which is carved with many dragon patterns that can only be used after the death of the ancient emperor, which shows the high specifications of the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi.
Not only in the selection of the coffin and the carved pattern, it can be seen that the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi was very solemn, but also the courtesy title given to her by the Qing Dynasty after the death of Empress Dowager Cixi was also of a very high rank. It took 25 words long, and it can be said that all the adjectives of virtue in the world were used on Empress Dowager Cixi, but these kung fu were only for the living people to see, and whether Empress Dowager Cixi really deserved all the virtues in the world was a matter of opinion.
Since then, the funeral procession of Empress Dowager Cixi has also been very long, and a Dutch reporter who once opened a photo studio in Beijing has taken many photos of the grand funeral scene of Empress Dowager Cixi, and the photos show that many servants are holding a banner, as if all the flags in the entire palace have been moved and used on the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi. Even the Dutch journalist exclaimed that he had never seen such a large-scale funeral.
At that time, in order to let more great powers and some high-ranking officials and nobles watch the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi, the Qing government built a pavilion in the best viewing area, specifically allowing these people to watch the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi to show the majesty of the Qing Dynasty.
It has been described that Empress Dowager Cixi's funeral began with a group of soldiers with spears and military uniforms riding horses, more than a hundred, followed by many neatly arranged servants, and hundreds of coffin-carrying teams, because Empress Dowager Cixi's coffin was carried by 128 servants, all of whom were dressed in red silk and wore yellow feathers, and hundreds of servants took turns carrying the coffin.
Then there were the vast sacrifices, there were hundreds of gloomy paper-tied people and horses, all of which were the same size as real people, because the ancient people superstition that those who made great mistakes would be punished by the endless hell after their deaths, and Empress Dowager Cixi did many unforgivable crimes in her life, so she ordered people to make these sacrifices for themselves in advance before she died, so that these yin soldiers could open the way for themselves.
Unfortunately, such a sensational funeral and countless rare treasures also made many tomb robbers very moved, and finally in 1928, the great warlord Sun Dianying found an excuse to enter the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi, stole a large number of treasures, and also threw the body of Empress Dowager Cixi on the ground.