Marriages in the ancient royal family rarely had love, most of them had political overtones, such as Cixi and Empress Longyu.
First, who is Empress Dowager Longyu?
Empress Longyu was Guangxu's original empress, Empress Xiaoding, a yellow banner in Manchuria and the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi's younger brother Gui Xiang. Her name is not clearly recorded in official history, and later, the famous "Princess Deling" and empress Xiaoding's descendants called her "Jingfen", and most people gradually accepted "Jingfen" as her name.
Guangxu was born to Cixi's younger sister, and Jingfen was born to Cixi's younger brother, three years older than Guangxu, so they were also cousins.
In 1888, Guangxu was already eighteen years old, which was the age of absolute "late marriage" in the Qing Dynasty royal family, but he did not choose a concubine. The reason for this is that Cixi is secretly doing something. Because once Guangxu got married, it meant adulthood, and the adult emperor had to be pro-government, and Cixi was to return to power. Cixi, who has a strong desire for power, is naturally unwilling to withdraw from the power stage. She had to make plans for the future, even if Guangxu was pro-government, it was still up to her to decide.
Cixi herself gradually rose from ordinary concubines, and she was well aware of the influence of the harem on the emperor. In order to control Guangxu and consolidate his power, it was crucial to arrange a "reliable" empress.
As early as when Guangxu first entered the palace, Cixi had already begun to lay out her marriage. At that time, Cixi arranged for Jingfen to enter the palace and play with Xiao Guangxu, in an attempt to allow them to establish a relationship with Qingmei Bamboo Horse from an early age. Guangxu only glanced at Jing Fen, and his heart was not happy. He felt that this little girl was definitely not the ideal companion. Cixi's arrangement did not have the desired effect.
However, it is not up to you to look at it. For those emperors who are arbitrary, they can freely choose the empress. What about Guangxu? As a puppet, he grew up living in the shadow of Cixi, with a cowardly personality and no autonomy in marriage issues.
Cixi used her authority, ancestral family law, and filial piety to "bind" Guangxu and Jingfen together. She did this, as with the same purpose of postponing Guangxu's marriage, for the sake of power:
First, kissing and kissing can make Guangxu listen more to the words of the elders;
Second, to make her niece empress is tantamount to installing a "monitor" around Guangxu. Guangxu's every move can be controlled by Cixi, especially after returning to the government and retiring to the Summer Palace, it is especially important to keep abreast of Guangxu's movements.
Under the premise that the candidates had already been "determined internally", Cixi personally presided over the "post-election" activities and arranged a purely political marriage. In this activity, the parties Guangxu and Jingfen were not happy.
Jing Fen is a member of the Yehenara family and a member of the "Hou Party", and everything is consistent with Cixi and contradicts Guangxu. They are clearly husband and wife, in fact, they share the same bed and dream, and even political enemies. Ben had no feelings, coupled with different positions, resulting in Jingfen never being favored by Guangxu, and this state continued until Guangxu's death.
Second, in the case of helplessness, Empress Longyu was forced to do a good thing
In 1908, Guangxu died, and the next day, Cixi followed. At that time, Jing Fen was only forty-one years old, and was honored as Empress Longyu, gaining a considerable part of the power of the Qing court.
Empress Longyu originally wanted to emulate Cixi's obedience to the government, but she was really mediocre, and her courage and talent were far inferior to Cixi's. Empress Dowager Longyu failed to do so and was unhappy, so she became angry with the regent, blamed the government during Zaifeng's reign, and repeatedly restricted it, indirectly giving external forces (Sun, Huang and others) the opportunity to develop.
In 1911, after the Wuchang Uprising, the governors of each province declared independence one after another. The Qing court lost half of the country, the situation was precarious, and Empress Longyu had no opinion. As a last resort, the Qing court had no choice but to ask Yuan Datou to come out of the mountain and give him full military and political powers.
Lao Yuan was an old jianghu who was deeply involved in the way of crossing the river, and on the one hand he used the armed forces of the Qing court to blackmail the southern provinces; on the other hand, he forced the Qing Emperor to abdicate on the grounds that the south was strong. In addition, Lao Yuan also bribed Yi Li, Na Tong and other important ministers, and bribed the court eunuch Xiao Dezhang, using them to exert pressure on Empress Longyu.
On the issue of abdication, the Qing court held several pre-imperial meetings to discuss. The controversy was understood at the meeting, but there was never a unity of opinion. Empress Longyu was overwhelmed, and there was no other way but to hold Xuantong and cry.
In order to preserve the Qing court, Empress Longyu did her best to win yuan Datou over, and specially made him a first-class marquis, making him loyal to the imperial court. Although Lao Yuan accepted the "sweetness", he not only did not have the intention of being loyal to the Qing court, but instead was soft and hard and imposed a tight pressure on the palace, while uniting with the Beiyang generals to threaten the Qing court, while using "preferential conditions" as bait. Empress Dowager Longyu had nowhere to go and was forced to accept the conditions for abdication.
On February 12, 1912, Empress Longyu issued a decree announcing the abdication of the Qing Emperor. Whether she was voluntary or not, the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for two hundred and sixty-eight years, came to an end in her hands, objectively alleviating the tense situation at that time and pushing history forward.
Therefore, when Empress Longyu died, both the government and the public paid more attention to it, and her funeral was solemn and solemn. Old Yuan ordered the flag to be lowered to half-mast to mourn, and on the twenty-seventh day of filial piety, more than three hundred princes and dignitaries in Beijing participated in the ceremony; countless people sent condolence telegrams to the Qing court, and Deputy General Li Yuanhong also praised Empress Longyu for her "virtue and merit, and the female Yao Shun".
Qiu Mei said: As a woman, Empress Longyu is a failure, she cannot have the love, affection and happiness of a normal woman, she only has the shell of marriage; as a politician, she is also a failure, neither capable of controlling the courtiers, nor the ability to turn the tide. The only thing recognized was that she was forced to abdicate and follow the trend of the times.