Photography technology came into China with the social unrest of the late Qing Dynasty, and the first place to be popular was the Forbidden City. According to the data, photography entered the court with great fanfare, and it was in the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu (1903), when Yu Geng, the minister of the Qing government in France, returned to China after his term of office, and Empress Dowager Cixi asked his daughters Deling and Rong Ling to accompany the attendants, and invited her son Xun Ling to take pictures for himself.
Subsequently, Xun Ling diligently took at least 50 photos of the nearly seventy-year-old empress dowager and rinsed more than 700 photos in a row. Cixi invited the ministers and ladies to her palace to chat and take photos, and rewarded them as gifts. For a time, the image of Empress Dowager Cixi frequently appeared in books and periodicals in European and American countries.
Puyi, the last emperor of China, sat in the Golden Ruan Treasure Hall of the Qianqing Palace.
Young Puyi.
Yi Zhen and the guards, taken in 1863. This is the earliest surviving photograph of the Palace Museum that can verify the age. At that time, Yi Zhen was still the King of Alcohol County, and because he was reused by Cixi and Yi in the 1861 Xin You Coup, he was given the title of Prince of Alcohol in 1864.
Wan Rong and attendant eunuchs.
Compared with the harmony inside the palace, the outside of the palace appears to be deep and hot. In the face of internal and external troubles, the ministers of the Qing government frequently needed to deal with foreigners, and group photos were indispensable. The appearances of historical celebrities such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong have been recorded eternally.
By the time of the last emperor Puyi, the camera had almost become his favorite toy. In 1922, his big wedding ushered in two important figures for the "Small Imperial Court"--Empress Wanrong and Imperial Concubine Wenxiu, one 16 years old and one 13 years old. Coupled with the Puyi siblings who often enter the palace, as well as accompanying reading, these lively and active children play in the palace with several portable cameras. In the photo, they wear military uniforms, make grimaces, hide and seek, visit the garden...
Puyi's Concubine Wenxiu once lived in changchun palace. Wen Embroidery is not favored by the emperor, and several dolls on the seat are toys she fiddle with, and in the background of the deep palace, several dolls look extremely strange.
Zhang Yuchun, an old palace girl who is swinging on a swing. Zhang Yuchun initially served Empress Dowager Cixi, after Cixi's death, empress dowager Longyu, and finally Duankang.
Chuxiu Palace was originally the residence of Empress Dowager Cixi. Puyi's empress Dowager Wanrong also lived here. In the picture is the chuxiu palace bathroom, with a very Westernized bathtub in the carved flower eight square cover with Chinese characteristics.
The Qing court draft is divided into eight flags draft and wrapping draft. The Eight Flags Draft is held every three years, and the chosen ones are concubines of the emperor or give blessings to the descendants of the imperial family. The Wrapping Draft is held every year, and the participants are the "Three Flags of the Inner House (Yellow, Yellow, and White) Showgirls", and the selected ones are palace women. In the picture is the show girl wrapped in a white flag.
Some photographs of eunuch palace ladies who served in the court in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty have also been preserved. On a photograph, or a strange face or a numb and melancholy face, we can more or less guess the living conditions of these people who have buried their youth in the deep feudal palace. Shortly after the photo was taken, Puyi dismissed them from the palace, and this group completely withdrew from the stage of history.
The last emperor was also expelled from the Forbidden City in November 1924. In 1925, at 14:00 on October 10, the Palace Museum was officially established. The forbidden place of the former emperor's palace has become a place for ordinary people to visit freely, and the treasures that have been only enjoyed by the royal family for hundreds of years have become the common wealth of the whole nation.
Empress Dowager Cixi in 1903 was originally like this, although it was well maintained, but at first glance she was a 70-year-old.
Cixi poses with foreign female guests.
A group photo of De Ling, Rong Ling and Empress Dowager Cixi.
According to statistics, the Forbidden City has left nearly 20,000 old photos and more than 20,000 glass negatives, up to the last years of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, down to the late Republic of China, with a broad historical background and rich content. At that time, the internal and external troubles of the court and society, the innovation of the old and the new, the integration of the East and the West, the customs and customs of the country and other family and country were reflected.