【Empress Dowager Cixi】
Cixi, of the Yehenara clan, was born in 1835. At the age of 17, he entered the palace and married the Xianfeng Emperor, and later gave birth to the emperor's eldest son, Ai Xinjueluo Zaichun (Tongzhi Emperor), and his mother became a concubine of Yi Gui. When the Xianfeng Emperor died, she seized power step by step, and eventually became the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty.
On November 15, 1908, Cixi died of illness at the age of 73, and this extravagant woman who had been poor and extravagant in her life had already arranged everything for herself in advance, and her funeral was incomparably grand and comparable to that of an emperor.
【128 people carrying coffins】
Cixi's coffin, which belongs to the imperial level specifications, is carried by 128 people, and there is a "hall cover" on the outside of the coffin, the top of the hall cover is a flame orb, and the surrounding area is based on yellow cloud satin, embroidered with multicolored dragon patterns, exquisite. Compared with Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, who died 1 day before her, did not have this treatment.
【Public ticket sales crowds】
As we all know, before Cixi's death, the Qing government was already stretched, but she did not care at all, still spent a lot of money to organize her own funeral, and repeatedly repaired and even rebuilt her mausoleum. After her death, in order to alleviate the pressure, the Qing government publicly sold tickets, and anyone who wanted to watch Cixi's funeral had to buy tickets to enter, and you really don't say, the Qing government made a lot of money because of this, and thousands of people came to watch, blocking the water.
【There are foreigners, journalists, etc. who specialize in viewing the venue】
Of course, not everyone has to buy tickets, some foreign officials and dignitaries, journalists, and magnates do not need to buy tickets, and the Qing government even specially built a grandstand for them outside xizhimen to facilitate them to watch the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi and "show the majesty of the Qing Dynasty" by the way.
【Funeral Procession】
Below, there is Cixi's incomparably large funeral procession. At the forefront were a group of spear and light cavalry in modern military uniforms, all neatly dressed and in good spirits; then, a column of small ponies, each led by servants, who also wore uniform clothes; and then behind them were the people responsible for carrying Cixi's coffin, dressed in scarlet satin clothes with yellow feathers inserted in their hats, and they took turns to carry cixi coffins in units of 128 people.
Then there were the spear hussars, the lancers, the servants carrying various flags, the white ponies of a column, and the camels carrying various items. Whether it is a man, a horse or a camel, they all wear gorgeous clothes and are very dazzling.
【Hundreds of paper ties】
To say that the most frightening thing in the funeral procession is this group of paper people, paper horses, their size, are strictly in accordance with the proportions of real people, real horses, because of the "well-made", these paper ties have a "vivid expression", is smiling at everyone, really chilling. And these paper ties also have an "important role", that is, "Yin Soldiers Open the Way", it is said that they were sent to the Underworld palace to give Cixi a front station.
【The road is far away】
The place where Cixi was buried was the Qing Dongling Tombs, which was more than 100 kilometers from the Forbidden City to the Qing Dongling Tombs, and the funeral procession was so large that it took them 5 days to arrive at the Qing Dongling Tombs. Moreover, as early as a few months before the funeral, the Qing government repaired the road to the Qing Tombs in advance to ensure that there were no accidents on the way.
【Sky-high price funerary products】
In Li Lianying's dictation and nephew's "Notes on Loving Yuexuan", Cixi's funeral products are recorded in detail, and under Cixi's body, there are 7 inches thick gold silk orb brocade, which is inlaid with 12604 large and small pearls, 85 gemstones, and 203 pieces of white jade; there is also a layer of silk mattress embroidered with lotus flowers, and the silk mattress is covered with 2400 pearls; the clothes cixi wears are even more gorgeous, embellished with 420 large beads, 1000 middle pearls, 4500 small beads, and 1135 large gemstones.
Around her, she is surrounded by all kinds of rare treasures, the most famous of which is the emerald watermelon, which is reported to be worth up to 6 million taels of silver each; and the night pearl in Cixi's mouth, worth more than 100 million. Such a treasure naturally aroused the covetousness of countless people, and later the warlord Sun Dianying directly led people to blow up Cixi's mausoleum and stole it, and Cixi's body was also thrown on the ground by him. Presumably, Cixi never imagined that her "brilliant life" would end up like this in the end.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Notes on Ai Yuexuan