The de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, Yehenara Cixi
Cixi (29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908) was empress dowager of the Yehenara clan, concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and biological mother of the Tongzhi Emperor. An important political figure in the late Qing Dynasty and the de facto ruler of the late Qing Dynasty.
On February 11, 1852 (February 1852, at the age of seventeen), the Yehenara clan was drafted into the palace and given the title of Lan Guiren.
On February 2 of the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854, at the age of nineteen), he was enfeoffed as a concubine.
In March of the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), he gave birth to the only prince of the Xianfeng Emperor, Zaichun (i.e., the Tongzhi Emperor), and was enfeoffed with the title of Concubine Yi.
At the beginning of the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857, at the age of twenty-two), he was enfeoffed as a concubine of Yi Guifei.
The Xianfeng Emperor was frail and sickly, and at that time, there were Anglo-French troops invading Beijing in the north of the Qing Dynasty, and the taiping Heavenly Kingdom anti-Qing peasant movement in the south, which was at the time of internal and external troubles, which made him feel haggard. Yi Guifei worked on calligraphy, so the Xianfeng Emperor often dictated and asked her to ghostwrite and approve the reading of the song chapter, and allowed Yi Guifei to express her opinions, so the ministers were often dissatisfied with the Yehenara clan.
In 1860, before the Anglo-French invasion of Beijing, the Yehenara clan fled with the Xianfeng Emperor to Rehe.
In August 1861, the Xianfeng Emperor died in Rehe, and before his death, he appointed Zaiyuan the Prince of Yi, Duanhua the Prince of Zheng, JingShou, and the assistant university scholars Shangshu Sushun, Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying as the ministers of the Zanxiang Government, assisting the Tongzhi Emperor Zaichun in handling the imperial government; he also gave the empress and the crown prince (managed by the emperor's biological mother, Yi Guifei), two seals representing the imperial power, hoping that they would contain each other.
After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, the crown prince Zaichun took the throne and was given the era name "Qi Xiang". The Yehenara clan and empress dowager (then Empress Dowager Ci'an) were honored as empresses. Gu ordered the eight ministers to attempt to monopolize power, and Cixi, who was extremely power-hungry, was very dissatisfied, so he joined forces with Prince Gong Yixuan, the younger brother of Emperor Xianfeng, who presided over peace talks in Beijing, and took advantage of the opportunity of the return of the empress dowager and Emperor Xianfeng's Palace to Beijing to launch a coup d'état of Xin You, designed to arrest the eight ministers, sentenced Prince Zaiyuan of Yi, Duanhua the Prince of Zheng, and Sushun to a decision, and the others to be dismissed. Yi Xun was made the King of Parliament.
On December 2, 1861, the era name was changed to "Tongzhi", and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces raised the heart hall and bowed to the government. In the early days of her reign, with the assistance of YiXuan, the King of The Council, she reorganized the administration of officials, reused Han Chen, and relied on Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and other Han landlords to arm herself; with the support of the great powers, she successively suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Twist army, the Miao people, and the Hui people uprising, alleviating the crisis of the Qing Dynasty's rule, and temporarily stabilizing the Qing Dynasty. In order to maintain feudal autocracy, she also reused the Western faction, with the principle of "self-improvement" and "seeking prosperity", developed some military and civilian industries, and trained the navy and army to strengthen the strength of the regime. Objectively speaking, it has played a positive role in China's modernization. During this period, the domestic uprising was put down, the two Opium Wars temporarily satisfied the greed of the great powers, diplomacy did not suffer a big loss, the military strength of the Qing Dynasty after the Foreign Affairs Movement was improved, and industry and commerce had a preliminary development, known as "Tongzhi Zhongxing".
In the eleventh year of Tongzhi (1872), Zaichun was 17 years old, and cixi had to choose him, and the following year, the empress dowager of the two palaces returned to the government. However, after the Tongzhi Emperor took power, it was still difficult to get rid of Cixi's interference. In order to enjoy himself, Cixi instructed the Tongzhi Emperor to repair the Yuanmingyuan for his residence, and the Tongzhi Emperor also wanted to take this opportunity to let the empress dowager leave the palace to live to get rid of Cixi's interference in the government, but at that time, the financial shortage, the Yuanmingyuan was seriously damaged, and the repair cost was very expensive, and the Tongzhi Emperor insisted on starting construction, which caused many opposition from Yi Chen and other princes and ministers, and the Tongzhi Emperor actually dismissed them all. Cixi intervened to stop Emperor Tongzhi's decision.
During her lifetime, Cixi experienced five wars of imperialist aggression against China from 1840 to 1900. During the First Opium War, she was a 5-year-old child. During the Second Opium War, she was already a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor. Later, in the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, and the invasion of the Eight-Power Alliance, she was the supreme decision-maker of the Qing Dynasty, and from Cixi's main battle and peace, we can see the changes in the relationship between Cixi and imperialism.
On September 21, 1860, the Qing army was defeated at the Battle of Bali Bridge, the British and French forces advanced into Beijing, and Xianfeng decided to flee to the Rehe Mountain Resort. When Xianfeng was about to leave, Yi Guifei vigorously obstructed and asked Xianfeng to stay in Beijing and continue to resist. For this, she angered Xian Feng and almost led to the disaster of killing herself. Yi Bi signed the Treaty of Beijing with the Anglo-French coalition forces, and Yi Guifei was deeply ashamed and advised Xianfeng to abrogate the treaty and fight again. Because Xianfeng was critically ill, he had to give up.
After the outbreak of the Sino-French War, the struggle between the main war faction and the main peace faction was very fierce. Cixi blamed yi bi for the successive defeats of the Qing army, dismissed him from all his posts, and all the other 4 military ministers were also dismissed. However, the internal peace and war struggle within the Qing government did not stop. On August 23, 1884, French warships launched a surprise attack on the Fujian Marine Division, and the Fujian Marine Division was completely destroyed. Cixi decreed that war on France was declared, and Zhang Yinhuan, who would continue to insist on peace, and 6 other prime ministers were dismissed from their posts. In February 1885, the French army captured Langshan, and Cixi turned to The Lord. With the loss of Zhennanguan, Cixi lost confidence in the victory of the war. Authorized The Englishman Officiant Of the Chinese Customs Office in London, Kim Denggan, to go to Paris to secretly negotiate peace with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 4 April 1885, Kimdengan was authorized to sign the Paris Armistice Agreement with the French government. On June 9, Li Hongzhang was also authorized to sign the Sino-French New Treaty with the French Minister to China, Badenau, in Tianjin.
Folklore or film and television works, generally called Empress Dowager Cixi as Lan'er or Magnolia. Probably because Cixi's first title after entering the palace was "Lan Guiren", many novel notes mistakenly thought that "Lan'er" was her breast name, but this was not the case. According to Yehenara Genzheng, a descendant of the Cixi family, Cixi's milk name was actually called "Xing'ergu", "Gu" is the Manchu common name for underage women, and the name of "Xing'er" was because there were several white apricot trees planted in the courtyard of the home at that time, so Cixi's grandfather gave her a big name "Xingzhen", a nickname "Xing'er", which means "loyalty". As for the Xianfeng Emperor's first appointment of Xingzhen as Lan Guiren, it was probably because Xianfeng liked magnolia flowers the most, so he gave her such a title to show his admiration for Xingzhen. Theory 1: In the early years of Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi had just turned 40 years old, and in order to achieve the goal of bowing to the government for the second time, she used various means, but she was intimidated by the opposition of some people in the DPRK and was unhappy all the time. The confidant eunuch Li Lianying guessed the truth and asked people to build a Buddha behind the Daxiong Treasure Hall of Wanshou Temple.
After the completion, Li Lianying went to pray to Cixi and said, "I heard that the Daxiong Treasure Hall of the Wanshou Temple often has double Buddhas manifesting light, which is a sign of great auspiciousness, and the slave wants to ask the empress dowager to come and watch." Cixi was very surprised to hear this, and she got up and drove out of the palace. Go out of Xizhimen and get off the Gaoliang Bridge, get on the imperial boat, and follow the long river to the Wanshou Temple (now the Beijing Art Museum). Cixi went up to the dock, entered the mountain gate, and went straight to the Daxiong Treasure Hall. When I entered the temple, I saw that the original Three Buddhas were still enshrined, and I didn't feel angry: "Obviously it is the original Three Buddhas, where is the double Buddha's manifestation?" At that time, the slave deceived the master to kill the head, but Li Lianying knew it in her heart and said busily: "The empress dowager is angry, please go to the harem." ”
After Empress Dowager Cixi slowly and leisurely turned to the Third Buddha, she saw Guanyin, who was sitting in the center of the temple, and the abbot of the temple, as well as Cixi's minister of culture and martial arts, were also here. At this time, Li Lianying shouted, "Lafayette has arrived." The others immediately knelt down and shouted, "Welcome Lafayette!" Cixi understood half of what she saw, but she pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Which Lafayette are you greeting?" Li Lianying replied, "It is to greet the Empress Dowager, your Lafayette!" "You are the Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva who saves suffering and distress today!" "Now that the former emperor is driving, the new emperor is still young, the country cannot be left without a master for a day, the subjects ask you to take care of the government, you can save the people from water and fire!" Cixi's heart was full of words. Since then, the title of Lafayette has spread from the Wanshou Temple to the capital, and the whole country has called Cixi "Empress Lafayette". Cixi also calmly bowed to the government.
It is said that this Guanyin was shaped by Li Lianying according to the appearance of Cixi, and later Cixi came to Wanshou Temple to burn incense to worship the Buddha, bu signed and asked for life, because Guan Shiyin was very appreciative of this, and also put on the Guanyin clothes prepared for her by the abbot of the temple, Li Lianying disguised herself as the protector of the Dharma god Wei Dao, her hands folded, and the pestle was crossed on her wrist, and the two people also took a picture in front of this Buddha statue, which had been seen by someone.
Theory 2: In addition to the "temple number", "courtesy name" and "honorific title" of the emperors in Chinese history, some emperors also have "special titles". For example, the "special name" of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty was called "Guanjia", the "Special Name" of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was called "Laoye", and the "Special Title" of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was called "Lafayette". In some historical novels, movies, and operas, Empress Dowager Cixi is referred to as "Lafayette". In fact, the title of "Lafayette" is not dedicated to Cixi, and the special titles of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty are called "Lafayette". The reason why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty used the title of "Lafayette" is because the ancestor of the Manchus, the Jurchen chief, was first called "Manzhu". "Manju" is a transliteration of the Buddha's name "Manshu", which means "Buddha" and "auspicious". Later, some prominent families, hereditary chiefs, were named "Manzhu". After the founding of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, "Manzhu" was translated into Chinese as "Buddha" and used it as a special name for the emperor.
It is generally believed that Cixi was a Manchurian with a blue flag, and the Jade Tablet clearly recorded that she was "the daughter of Huizheng of the Yehenara clan". According to the oral accounts of Yehenara Genzheng, Cixi was born in The West Fourth Arch building of Beijing, which is now Peicai Hutong.
However, some scholars have also put forward a different view, arguing that Empress Dowager Cixi is likely to be Han Chinese.
In June 1989, Zhao Fawang, a 77-year-old villager in Xiaqin Village on the outskirts of Changzhi City (formerly part of Changzhi County), came to the Local History Office of Changzhi City with a joint letter from him and Song Shuanghua, Song Liuze, Song Dewen, Song Dewu and others in Shangqin Village. Zhao Fawang said that Cixi was a native of Shangqin Village. He was the fifth-generation nephew of Empress Dowager Cixi, and Song Shuanghua, Song Liuze, and others were the fifth-generation nephews of Cixi. They asked the government to help Cheng Qing. Since then, Liu Qi has embarked on the road of research in Cixi's childhood. The continuous enrichment of supporting materials has further enhanced Liu Qi's confidence, and the relevant works have also been reported in the news. In April 2012, at the "Fifty Years seminar on Socialist Literature and Art of the Republic" hosted by the Chinese Academy of Arts of the Ministry of Culture, Liu Qi's "Unveiling the Mystery of Cixi's Childhood" won the first prize. The 7,000-word essay focuses on cixi's life.
According to Liu Qi,1835, Cixi was born in 1835 to a poor Han peasant family in Xipo Village, Changzhi County, Shanxi Province, and was named "Wang Xiaoyi" (王小慊). At the age of 4, she was sold to Song Siyuan of Shangqin Village in this county as a daughter, and changed her name to "Song Ling'e" At the age of 12, she was sold to Huizheng, the prefect of Lu'an Province, as a maid, renamed "Yulan" (Lan'er), and was carefully cultivated in a special study in Yaxi Garden. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), as the daughter of Yehenara Huizheng, she should be elected to the palace and march to the throne until the empress dowager.
In the Qing Dynasty, The gold and silver jewelry of Empress Dowager Cixi is innumerable, and there is such a pair of "emerald watermelons", the treasures in the palm of Empress Dowager Cixi. Legend has it that after Cixi's death, two "emerald watermelons" were buried in Cixi's tomb, and in 1928, after Sun Dianying excavated the Tanglin Tomb, the two "watermelons" disappeared without a trace.
Most of Empress Dowager Cixi's purchases of American tourmaline were made through the world-famous Tiffany Company, and most of the tourmaline gemstones went through the Tiffany Gemologist J. Thompson. Identification of L. TamlunBohm. The two-color combination unique to emerald watermelon was available almost exclusively to The Tourmaline Mine in San Diego at the time. So there is no doubt that Empress Dowager Cixi's emerald watermelon comes from San Diego, USA. The Ibaraya tourmaline mine in the Great Mesa Plain of California was already famous in the late 19th century. From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, most of the tourmalines mined from the Ibaraya mines were exported to China for the enjoyment of Empress Dowager Cixi's court. With the overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, the luxurious life of the dynasty came to an end. As a result, the tourmaline products of the Ibaraya Mine were slow to sell due to the failure of the Chinese market, and the mine was forced to close. It was not until December 2012 that the mine was redeveloped.
1904 was the 70th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi, and many officials tried everything to show gifts, including a cabinet phonograph that was deeply appreciated by Cixi, that is, the world's earliest cabinet phonograph (sample machine) produced by the Victor Company of the United States.
Empress Dowager Cixi enjoyed all her glory and wealth throughout her life, and her lifestyle was advanced, and in the face of developed Western industry, she also took advantage of the opportunity. Photography, electric lights, foreign cars, cabinet phonographs, everything, the world's earliest cabinet phonograph is placed in her bedroom, often out of the pleasant melody, the content of the record includes Chinese songs, there are foreign waltz dance music.
In 1904, Victor designed and trial-produced a very small number of cabinet machine samples, and this cabinet phonograph was fortunate to become a gift for Empress Dowager Cixi's 70th birthday in 1904.
From 1903 to the beginning of 1908, Liang Cheng was a trip to the United States, Peru, Cuba and other countries as a sanpinqing of the Great Qing Dynasty, and traveled to many countries for the Great Qing Dynasty. Liang Cheng, a native of Guangzhou, was educated in Western culture in his early years and was deeply influenced by Western culture, and he liked phonographs very much. During his time in the United States, he did a lot of great things that benefited the country.
In 1904, Victor introduced the first batch of cabinet phonograph samples, because it is not a commodity machine, the United States only some high-level government officials have the opportunity to use such a high-end phonograph, when the American officials gave this phonograph to Liang Cheng, Liang Cheng gave this phonograph to Lafayette Empress Dowager Cixi, as a gift for Empress Dowager Cixi's 70th birthday.
Queen Elizabeth once said: "Cixi is much stronger than me, I am only a person who is neither great nor small." In 1904, Empress Dowager Cixi, who had regarded foreigners as beasts of prey, became fascinated by Western circuses, waltz and photography. During this time, the palace ladies often heard melodious waltz music coming from Cixi's palace, which was the sound of her huge foreign phonograph. Once, at lunch, Empress Dowager Cixi also asked the two princesses, Deling and Rongling, to dance the waltz, and she squinted her eyes and watched with concentration. When they finished dancing, Cixi said happily that it was a very beautiful dance. Don't you feel dizzy when you turn the circle repeatedly like this?
According to the Memoirs of Princess Deling, Empress Dowager Cixi said to us, "Dance while I eat!" "We went through the whole score and found a waltz, which was the right music for us, while the rest were mostly Chinese pieces.
Readers who have seen the movie "Hanging curtains and listening to the government" must be impressed by the plot of the film in which Cixi cruelly persecuted another concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, LiFei. In the film, Cixi and Lifei are a pair of love enemies.
Princess Li was charming, could sing and dance, and was deeply loved by Xian Feng, and did not pay attention to Cixi at all. Cixi, who was bent on accepting favors and struggling to climb up, was jealous of her. After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi successfully launched the Xin You coup d'état, realizing the obedience to the government and becoming the de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty. After eliminating her political opponents and eliminating the hostile forces, she went back to rectifying the concubines who had competed with her for favors in the past. Following the example of Empress Lü of the Han Dynasty in persecuting Lady Qi, Cixi cut off all of Princess Li's hands and feet and put them in a jar, doing her utmost to insult her. This plot, in the film, is gloomy and terrifying, and tries its best to portray Cixi as a vicious woman who is mean and unkind and will repay. So, is there really such a person as LiFei in history, and is her relationship with Cixi really like the film depicts? Did Cixi really persecute her with such cruel means?
According to the history books and Qing palace archives, Concubine Li was the daughter of the chief Gyeonghae, who was of the Tala clan. Daoguang was born on February 27, 1837, 6 years younger than the Xianfeng Emperor and 2 years younger than Cixi, the same age as Ci'an. In the first year of Xianfeng (1851), when she was running for the show girl, LiFei and Cixi were both selected. Li Fei was given the title of Li Gui,
Cixi was given the title of Lan Guiren. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), the two entered the palace at the same time. In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), LiFei was given the title of Concubine Li and Cixi was given the title of Concubine Yi. On the seventh day of the first month of May in the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), Concubine Li gave birth to the eldest daughter of the Emperor xianfeng, and three days later she was promoted to the title of Concubine Li. On March 23, 1856, the sixth year of Xianfeng (1856), Cixi gave birth to the emperor's eldest son Zaichun, the later Tongzhi Emperor, who was promoted to Concubine Yi on the same day. Less than 3 months after the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi, in the name of the Tongzhi Emperor, promoted her to the title of Li Huang Guifei in the name of "Li Fei served the imperial examination for many years and gave birth to a grand princess", and crossed the level of guifei and rose two levels at a time. In November of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi (1874), Cixi again surrendered his will and honored Emperor Li as Emperor Li's noble concubine, and her status was only lower than that of empress dowager.
Over the years, Princess Li was frail and sick, often took medicine, and died of illness on November 15, 1890, the sixteenth year of Guangxu (1890), at the age of 54. On the third day after her death, the Guangxu Emperor personally went to the golden coffin to lay wine and perform rituals. Her golden coffin is temporarily housed in the Tamura Funeral Palace. On April 18, the nineteenth year of Guangxu (1893), Li Feijin's coffin was buried in the Dingling Concubine Garden of the Qing Dynasty. The backyard of this concubine's garden has 15 treasures, divided into three rows. The crown of the princess is located in the middle of the first row, in the most honorable position of this garden bed.
The daughter born to Concubine Li was the only daughter of the Xianfeng Emperor, so she was loved by the Xianfeng Emperor and all the concubines, and in the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), she was crowned princess of Rong'an Gulun. Qing Dynasty system: Only daughters born to empresses can be crowned princesses of Gulun, and concubines can only be crowned princesses of Heshuo. According to this rule, the daughter born to Concubine Li should be crowned Princess Heshuo, but Cixi made an exception and named her Princess Rong'an Gulun.
The above historical facts show that LiFei was not only not persecuted by Cixi, but also received special care and a series of courtesies from Cixi, indicating that the relationship between Lifei and Cixi was very harmonious. From this point of view, Cixi, who often shows herself as tyrannical and vicious, also has a warm and compassionate side. It may also be because Lifei herself is more docile and obedient, and after Cixi firmly grasped the power of the country and the harem, Lifei did not pose any threat to her, so she was so courteous. And once someone dared to disobey her will and challenge her authority, Cixi revealed a different face. This is evident in her attitude towards her daughter-in-law.
In January 1875, Emperor Tongzhi died of illness. Cixi made her nephew (her husband's nephew) and nephew 4-year-old Ai XinJueluo Zaixiang emperor, changing her era name to "Guangxu", and the empress dowager of the two palaces once again bowed to the government.
From 1865 to 1870, the central Asian Kokand Khanate invaded and stole most of Xinjiang; in 1871, Tsarist Russia sent troops to occupy the Ili region. In 1875, Cixi took the advice of Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and sent troops to Xinjiang, and the Qing army recaptured Xinjiang in January 1878; in 1881, China negotiated and China recovered most of Ili.
On April 8, 1881, Empress Dowager Ci'an died at the age of 45, and the official version was cerebral hemorrhage, which was believed to be the victim of Cixi.
From 1883 to 1885, the Sino-French War broke out, and the two sides won and lost each other militarily, but the Qing government headed by Cixi advocated "taking advantage of the victory and reaping the rewards" and signed the Sino-French New Treaty with France, which also enabled France to gain many aggressive benefits.
On April 8, 1884, Cixi launched the Jiashen Yishu Dynasty, deposing the entire class of ministers of the Military Aircraft Department headed by Prince Gong Yixuan and beginning the dictatorship of the Western Palace.
In February 1889, Guangxu was married, nominally ruled by the Guangxu Emperor, and Cixi trained the government for several more years. After the end of the training, all the employment of people in the government was still in his hands, "The (Guangxu Emperor) is the empress dowager, and the imperial court is in charge. ”
In 1894, Prince Shuo borrowed the sixtieth birthday of Cixi to plan to "be congratulated in the Summer Palace, imitate the kangxi and Qianlong years, from the Great Inner To the Garden, pass through the road, set up a colorful tent altar, and hold a celebration." Divert naval funds, repair the Summer Palace, arrange point scenes, and collect contributions. In the same year, Japan launched the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War. Guangxu was the main battle, and Cixi was also the main battle, "no weak words are allowed." However, when someone proposed to stop the Summer Palace project, stop the construction of scenic spots, and transfer them to military expenses, Cixi was furious and said, "Those who make me unhappy today, I will also make him unhappy for the rest of his life." Later, the Qing army lost one after another on the Korean battlefield, and the Beiyang Marine Division suffered serious setbacks in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. In order not to affect her own celebration of the sixtieth, Cixi hoped that foreign countries would intervene and end the war as soon as possible. She supported Li Hongzhang's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace, and used various pretexts to attack the main war faction headed by Guangxu. Due to the increasing tension of the situation and the heavy pressure from the government and the public, she could no longer insist on going her own way, and had to change the original plan and reduce the scale of the birthday celebration. With the fall of Jinzhou and Dalian one after another and the dire situation of Lushun, Cixi spent her 60th birthday at Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City. On February 7 of the following year, Weihai Wei Japanese ships and gun emplacements attacked Liugong Island, and the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed. In March, Cixi sent Li Hongzhang as minister plenipotentiary to Japan to beg for peace, and on April 17, it signed the treaty "Treaty of Maguan", which was unprecedentedly humiliating in Chinese history, and China gave up its status as a suzerainty to Korea, paid 200 million taels of silver, ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (after the intervention of Western powers such as Russia, Germany, and France, it was redeemed with 30 million taels of silver), Taiwan, and the Penghu Archipelago, opening 4 treaty ports, allowing Japan to open mines and factories at treaty ports.
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the great powers set off a frenzy to divide China. In order to save the survival, the bourgeois reformists launched the restoration and reform of the law (known in history as the Pengshu Change), for which Cixi hoped to strengthen the country but was worried that Guangxu would use the change law to get out of her control, and initially expressed her support, but she then took the military power and the use of human rights into her own hands. In June 1898, Guangxu issued the emperor's "Ming Ding Guo is the Upper Edict" (that is, "Ming Ding Guo is the Edict"), implementing the change of law. The Guangxu Emperor's change of law touched the interests of the old Manchurian nobles and many feudal bureaucrats, who gathered together to vigorously oppose the change of the law, and when they heard that the Guangxu Emperor tried to have Yuan Shikai send troops to kill Rong Lu after besieging the garden, Cixi and others launched a coup d'état, detained the Guangxu Emperor, and executed Tan Si and six others.
After the Coup d'état, the Boxer Rebellion arose in northern China, and Cixi initially led the crackdown, but the suppression repeatedly failed, and the Boxer Rebellion developed rapidly and entered Beijing. Cixi hoped to suppress and use them together and treat the Boxers differently, but the great powers demanded that the Qing government completely eliminate the Boxers, and insisted on sending troops to Beijing despite the Qing government's opposition. Cixi had always been dissatisfied with the foreigners, so she had the idea of using the Boxers against the great powers, declaring war on the great powers (without declaring an edict of war). Cixi's decision was opposed by Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and other local governors, who jointly sent a telegram to the Qing court, urging the suppression of the Boxers and concluding treaties with the great powers to implement "mutual protection in the southeast." On the one hand, Cixi demanded that the generals and governors of the provinces conscientiously arrange the matters of war and defense, and continue to use the Boxers to besiege the embassies and resist the Eight-Power Alliance; on the other hand, she ordered Rong Lu to go to the embassies to comfort the envoys of various countries, and also sent letters to the heads of state of Russia, Britain, Japan, Germany, the United States, and France, asking them to come forward to "resolve difficulties and solve the problem" and "save the situation," and transferred Li Hongzhang, the governor of Liangguang, to be the governor of Liangguang and the minister of Beiyang to prepare negotiations with the great powers. However, the Eight-Power Coalition did not stop the offensive.
On August 14, 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing; in the early morning of the next day, after attacking the Donghua Gate of the Forbidden City, Cixi fled to Xi'an with the Guangxu Emperor, the Empress, and others, making Yi Xi and Li Hongzhang ministers plenipotentiary, negotiating with the great powers, putting the responsibility for the war on the Boxers, and ordering the Boxers to be "severely eradicated." On February 14, 1901, he approved the "Outline of Peace" and issued an edict stating that he would "measure the material resources of China and unite with the happiness of the country." On September 7, the "Xinugu Treaty" was signed with 11 imperialist countries, which stipulated that according to the amount of Chinese at that time, 450 million taels of silver should be paid, and 980 million taels of silver should be paid within 39 years, the main war officials should be punished, and all the forts along the route from Dagu to Beijing should be dismantled. On October 6 of the same year, Cixi sent tens of thousands of people, 3,000 luggage trucks, from Xi'an, out of Tongguan via Henan, Zhili, lasted three months and returned to Beijing on January 8, 1902.
In order to maintain her rule and change her image of being conservative and incompetent, Empress Dowager Cixi announced the implementation of the "New Deal" during the "Western Hunt" and carried out economic, military, educational, and official reforms.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the battlefield was in northeast China, the Qing government headed by Cixi declared neutrality, and the result of the war was Japan's victory over Tsarist Russia. The country was widely aware of the superiority of constitutional monarchy over absolute monarchy, and demanded constitutional reforms from the Qing government; at the same time, the domestic revolutionary movement was also on the rise. In order to maintain her rule, Cixi made a gesture of constitutionality. In 1905, five ministers were sent to investigate abroad, in 1906 they announced the preparation of a constitution, and in 1908 they promulgated the Outline of the Constitution of the King," which was modeled on the constitutions of Germany and Japan to safeguard the emperor's "sovereign power."
In 1908, due to Cixi's pass of photo diplomacy, US President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill to refund Gengzi more than 10 million US dollars in reparations, mainly to support Chinese officials to send students studying in the United States; after that, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries successively; the total amount of "surplus" returned by the seven countries to China's Gengfu, about 300 million yuan in customs silver, which was quite effective in establishing education and should be affirmed.
On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor died, the Daxing Emperor had no heirs, and through her orders, zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol was made the regent, and her son Puyi was made emperor, and the era name was Xuantong, and Cixi was honored as the empress dowager.
At 17:00 on November 15, 1908 (three minutes before the right moment), Yehenara died of illness at the Luan Temple in Zhongnanhai at the age of seventy-four. Cixi's last words said: "After that, women cannot foresee the affairs of the country. This is contrary to the family law of this dynasty and must be strictly restricted. In particular, it is necessary to guard against eunuchs without authorization. The things of the end of the Ming Dynasty can be Yin Jian! ”
In October of the first year of Xuantong (1909), he was buried in the Dongling Tomb of Bodhidharma Yuding in Zunhua City, Hebei Province, with the title of "Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaozhuang Chengshou Gongqin Chongxi Empress Dowager", the title of "Xiaoqin Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyuzhuang Chengshou Gongqin Chongxi and Tianxing Shengxian Empress", referred to as "Empress Xiaoqinxian", with a total of 22 characters, and the length of the title exceeded that of the founding empresses of the Qing Dynasty, Xiaoci, Xiaode, and Xiaozhen, and was the most empress of the Qing Dynasty and China.
Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the few women who had been in power for a long time in the imperial era of Chinese history, and her political skills were especially good at manipulating the balance of power between pro-noble courtiers to maintain her absolute authority, and the Qing Dynasty continued to live for decades because of her ability. During the reign of Cixi, the centralization of power in the Qing court and China's sovereignty faced various threats from within and abroad, and from the standpoint of defending the authority of the Qing Empire and its own power, her measures were not entirely successful, but they were balanced in the historical context, and most of them were reasonable. In response to the challenges from the European and American powers since the Opium War, as well as the suppression of civil resistance forces such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Cixi reused Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other important Han courtiers and launched a local foreign affairs movement, which was the beginning of China's development of modern chemical industry. With the support of the achievements of the Foreign Affairs Self-Improvement Movement, the Qing court was able to pacify the internal rebel forces, maintain the relative stability of China under the imperial system, and build a modern army and navy armament, creating a climate of "Tongzhi Zhongxing".
Cixi's reform methods were actually very clever, and the speed of the Hundred Days Restoration reform was too fast, and it was basically just a farce, and it was impossible to succeed. After a catastrophe in the year of Gengzi, Empress Dowager Cixi realized that the situation no longer allowed her to adhere to the imperial tradition, and the so-called "ancestral law" allowed the Qing court to carry out a variety of new policy measures. The New Deal after Gengzi involved many aspects, among which the biggest ones included: reform of the official system, preparation of the constitution, abolition of the examination system, prohibition of women's foot binding, establishment of women's schools, new schools, gengzi refunds to build education, etc.
In terms of personal personality, Cixi's methods of seizing power from court struggles were cruel. In 1861, after the Xianfeng Emperor died at the Rehe Summer Resort, the Yehenara clan, who had become empress dowager, joined forces with Prince Gong Yi and other close branches of the imperial family to launch a coup d'état to seize power from the gu ming eight chancellor clique headed by Zaiyuan the Prince of The Yuanzhiyi of the Imperial Family, Duanyuan the Prince of Zheng, and actually with sushun as the core of the Nengchen, and executed three of them (Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun). Later, in order to establish and maintain her dictatorial power, Empress Dowager Cixi showed little mercy to the rectification of political opponents, even the manipulation and control of her own son, the Tongzhi Emperor, and the successor Emperor Guangxu, which was quite oppressive and severe.
From the perspective of China's national sovereignty, the results of Cixi's reign have also received many negative evaluations, including winning the victory at Zhennanguan in the war against France in 1885 and successfully preventing the French army from landing on Taiwan, but ending the war by taking the initiative to seek peace and signing the Sino-French Treaty of Tianjin, which deprived the Qing Empire of its suzerainty. In addition, the conclusion of the 1895 Sino-Japanese Maguan Treaty and the 1901 Xinugu Peace Treaty, which deprived China of its great interests, was caused by the defeat in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and the catastrophe of the Gengzi Fist Rebellion in 1900. Cixi's ruling and decision-making have an unshirkable responsibility for the occurrence of these two events. Although Cixi was politically capable, her highest goal was to maintain Manchu rule over China. Among them, the Qing-French War after the Great Victory at Zhennanguan and the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War were all more favorable than the humiliating conditions of accepting peace, but although the result of the continuation of the war would defeat France, which was in chaos at the time, or drag down Japan, which was about to exhaust its national strength at that time, so that the Chinese nation would have a better result, it was likely to cause the Manchu Qing central government to lose its authority and collapse due to protracted war. Cixi, as the person with the highest power, refused to cancel the short-sightedness and acceptance of shame that maintained 300 people, which reflected his political competence and repeatedly worsened the future of modern China. After the Gengzi Incident, when China was faced with huge reparations from the Xin ugly peace treaty, its extravagance had not yet been significantly curbed, which aggravated the financial problems that were already stretched in the late Qing Dynasty, and the people's livelihood withered.
The mausoleum is named Bodhidharma Yuding Dongling. In 1928, the warlord Sun Dianying led his subordinates to excavate the golden and brilliant Cixi Ding Dongling tomb in the name of the exercise, and stole a pearl of night that was as big as an egg when Cixi was dying.