How beautiful was Yu Rongling, the first beauty of the late Qing Dynasty? Black and white photos are hard to hide the beauty, no wonder they are loved by Cixi
As the de facto ruler at that time, Cixi managed the Qing court for decades, and could be described as a "emperor" with no real name. Because she was the supreme ruler of the empire, the maids who could follow her were also very unusual, or the style of the royal palace. Or it was the daughter of the ministers, and among the high-ranking female officials, there was such a pair of beautiful sister flowers. They were the two daughters of Yu Geng, a Qing court diplomat at that time, Yu Deling and Yu Rongling, and their younger sister Rong Ling was not only good-looking but also proficient in dance.
It is a pity that this first beauty of the late Qing Dynasty lived in a turbulent and chaotic world alternating between the old and the new, and her life also fluctuated, and her life was very bumpy. In fact, Yu Rongling was still happier than many people at the beginning, she was born in 1889, an aristocratic family. His father was a high-ranking official in the imperial court, who ate and dressed well, and lived the life of a young lady from an early age. At the same time, due to the particularity of her father's work, she began to follow her father abroad at the age of six, and saw novelties that many Chinese at that time could not see in their lifetime.
The year after arriving in Japan, she saw a famous Japanese maiko performing a Japanese classical dance at a dance party, which planted seeds in her heart. So she began to let the maids below teach her Japanese dance, and Rong Ling was also talented, and soon mastered the rhythm and technique. The little girl could not hide her affairs, and the next time the wife of a Japanese minister came to visit Rong Ling's mother, she put on a kimono and performed a japanese classical dance. The guests naturally praised her continuously, but afterwards Rong Ling was reprimanded for losing her identity.
How could a Manchu nobleman's character dance with his face open? However, Rong Ling was scolded or insisted on learning, and his parents who had no way had to ask for it to learn, but they could not perform on stage. In any case, she had the opportunity to learn and gradually laid the foundation. Four years later, Yu Geng left Japan to become a French minister, and Rong Ling naturally followed. Not long after, he met the wife of another diplomat, who wanted to ask the American Isadora Duncan to teach his two daughters to dance, and when he saw them, he proposed that four girls learn together.
Duncan was amazed when he saw Yu Rongling's dance, and sighed that even Bai Jiao was willing, so she studied with Duncan for three years. He was also fortunate to be the only Chinese to participate in Duncan's performance, but unfortunately, after the performance, he was still scolded by his parents. However, none of this failed to defeat her, and by the time she returned to China in 1903, Yu Rongling was already a superb dancer. Because their sisters were proficient in foreign languages and Western etiquette, Cixi recruited them into the palace and became one of the eight female officials of the Forbidden City.
She spent nearly four years in the Forbidden City, experiencing a relationship that ended in a hurry and practicing her dancing skills. The relationship that ended without illness was a small eunuch named Xiao Dezhang, who was about the same age as her. Although he is not a boy, the two still have a happy time in the court, but unfortunately this relationship will not bear fruit after all. However, the boring court also brought her a benefit, that is, to learn dance, and the dancers in the palace were among the best.
Yu Rongling was able to integrate Classical Chinese dance and Western dance, of course, all of which were performed for Cixi, but still showed her outstanding artistic talent and pursuit of perfection in dance art. These three years or so, but also the most frequent time in her life to engage in dance creation, performance activities, in 1905 Yu Geng took advantage of the illness to get her daughter back. She later performed two charity performances, found an ordinary person to marry, and broke her legs in the sixties and seventies.
After that, her life was very sad, she died on January 16, 1973, but now future generations can see her beauty in the old photos. Even if you are old, you always keep that beauty, and your temperament is unique.