To say that the last year of the Qing Dynasty most shocked the whole country, in fact, it is not Puyi's abdication, but the death of Cixi. On November 15, 1908, the woman who had controlled China in the late Qing Dynasty for nearly half a century finally swallowed her last breath. And how poor and extravagant she was before she died, and how pompous she was after her death. Compared with Puyi's low-key abdication, Cixi's funeral was obviously the last carnival of the late Qing Dynasty.
And how luxurious was Cixi's funeral? The preparations alone took up to 1 year. It was not until November 9, 1909, that the ceremony officially ended. This is followed by the Feng'an Ceremony for its week. It was not until November 15, 1909, exactly one year old, that Cixi officially entered the ground.
Some people may not know what the Feng'an Ceremony means, but it refers to the funeral ceremony today. Since the Forbidden City is nearly 150 kilometers away from the Qing Tombs where Cixi was buried, cars have not yet been popularized. At the same time, in order to reflect the scenery of the funeral, the funeral team walked for 5 days on the road alone.
So, how luxurious was Cixi's battle at the funeral? It is natural for the royal family and civil and military officials to prostrate themselves, and it is said that many foreigners were invited to come to watch the ceremony. The only person who cannot be seen in the whole funeral ceremony is ordinary people.
In order to prevent the people from seeing Cixi's remains damage Fengwei, before the funeral team set off, the Qing court blocked the intersections on the main road of the capital, and at the same time surrounded the main road of Cixi's funeral with blue cloth. Coupled with the fact that there will be no such thing as live television, ordinary people will not have the eyes to witness this important historical moment.
And how luxurious was Cixi's funeral team back then? According to the foreigners invited to watch the ceremony, at that time, the officers and soldiers who participated in the funeral were simply too many cattle feathers, there were hundreds of caravans alone, and there were countless officials and eunuchs who were weeping and mourning. All kinds of colorful flags flew in the sky, and it seemed that the materials and manpower of the entire palace had been emptied.
It sounds quite fascinating, so even though the Qing court officials did not let the people witness all this, there were still people who tried to find a way to fight for Cixi's funeral, including a man named Yin Shaogeng.
Who is Yin Shaogeng? Just an ordinary person. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yin Shaogeng opened a "Fusheng Photo Studio" in the most prosperous part of Tianjin, and in that era when photography was still a fresh technology, the business was still acceptable.
The business route taken by Yin Shaogeng is also quite unique, he specializes in taking photos of celebrities to sell to the press or satisfy the voyeurism of ordinary people. From today's point of view, it's actually paparazzi. I have to say that Yin Shaogeng's business philosophy is indeed ahead of its time.
When the news of Cixi's death reached Yin Shaogeng's ears, he immediately thought that if he could photograph Cixi's funeral, he would make a lot of money. Therefore, in the year between Cixi's death and his funeral, he had been thinking bitterly about how he could blend in with the side of the ceremony. The reason why Yin Shaogeng was able to blend in that year was because of an official named Duan Fang.
Who is the end? He was a red man around the Guangxu Emperor in the early years, and he was directly appointed by Guangxu as the superintendent of the Bureau of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. In addition, he also single-handedly founded Jinan University, which is one of the founders of China's new education.
At the time of Cixi's death, Duanfang, who had a smooth career in the Qing court, once sat in the position of viceroy directly under the direct command. This was the highest rank among all the viceroys of the Qing Dynasty, and Li Hongzhang was the highest at that time. As a directly subordinate governor, he naturally had the qualifications to participate in Cixi's funeral, and even Cixi's Feng'an ceremony in that year was basically handled by him.
Yin Shaogeng wanted to blend into the viewing platform to photograph Cixi's funeral, so naturally he wanted to buy duanfang. However, Duan Fang was a relatively upright person, and in the face of Yin Shaogeng's money bribes, he had been unmoved. Later, Yin Shaogeng threw in his favor and sent him a lot of celebrity calligraphy and paintings, plus Duan Fang was also a person who had experienced the Penghu Reform Law, and his thinking was relatively trendy, in his opinion, the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi was indeed worth recording, so he agreed to Yin Shaogeng's request.
In the end, Duan Fang asked Yin Shaogeng and his brother Yin Cangtian to disguise themselves as his retinue and mix into the ceremony with a camera.
On that day, Duan Fang, Yin Shaogeng and Yin Cangtian sat quietly on the viewing platform, generally looking at Cixi Haohao's soup and seeing the funeral procession without seeing the head, while looking for opportunities to prepare for photos. Suddenly, a group of "zombies" appeared in the funeral team in front of them, one by one, their faces pale, which frightened the foreigners on the viewing platform enough. Yin Shaogeng had a premonition that this scene was quite dramatic, so he quietly took out his camera and filmed the reactions of these "zombies" in the funeral team and foreigners.
Seeing this, I believe that many readers must be full of question marks, how can there be zombies in the funeral procession. In fact, the so-called "zombies" are the paper people in traditional Chinese funerals. We still maintain the tradition of burning paper, paper cars, and paper villas for our ancestors who were buried. A hundred years ago, it was the same.
In order to continue the scenery after her death, Cixi also prepared a considerable number of paper people for her. The size of the funeral procession composed of these papier-mâché people is unimaginable, and there are many eunuchs, papier-mâché generals, and papier-mâché officials. These lifeless papier-mâchés looked eerie from a distance, almost indistinguishable from a group of walking "zombies", and it was no wonder that the foreign ambassadors who were watching the ceremony were scared half to death.
Yin Shaogeng's camera just captured this scene, however, it also made him completely exposed. The vintage cameras of that era must have been impressed by everyone, and they were generally equipped with a huge magnesium lamp. And every time a photo is taken, with a loud bang, the magnesium powder in the magnesium lamp is ignited, and a dazzling flash is emitted at the same time. And the funeral scene was originally solemn and solemn, such a big movement naturally caused others to look sideways, and sure enough, Yin Shaogeng 3 people were exposed.
Soon, the officials took down Duan Fang, Yin Shaogeng and Yin Cangtian. They were escorted directly to the regent Zaifeng, who originally did not want to make a big deal out of the matter and wanted to deal with it directly. At that time, there was a eunuch named Zhang Lander on the side who did not forgive and borrowed the topic to play. It is said that this move disturbed Cixi's tranquility and punished the sins of the 3 people.
The reason why Zhang Lander held on to it was actually because he had an old grudge with Duan Fang. By his interference, duanfang's directly subordinate governor was directly demoted to a commoner, and he also became the shortest-serving governor of the Qing Dynasty.
As for the two Yin Shaogeng brothers, the two who were originally civilians were not as lucky as Duan Fang. They were both thrown into prison, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and fined tens of thousands of taels of silver, which is finally over.
Because a photo was taken at Cixi's funeral, the 3 people were subjected to such a departure. If the two brothers Duan Fang and Yin Shaogeng learned that the Cixi Mausoleum had been stolen by Sun Dianying, what kind of mood should they have had a mixed feeling?