The eunuch dictatorship was a major feature of ancient Chinese feudal society and had a profound impact on ancient Chinese politics. From a historical point of view, the three dynasties of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were the three most serious periods in Chinese history, and were the three most important periods of eunuch dictatorship. Eunuchs who can monopolize power must have had excellent relations with the royal people, who could communicate with these noble people smoothly and who could protect themselves.
The palace was full of dangers, and these humble eunuchs could only compare themselves to an ant, wary at every turn, always looking for opportunities to climb up desperately, trying to obtain higher benefits and more noble status.
The eunuch we want to introduce today was the most powerful eunuch at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and during his time in the palace, he was deeply valued by Empress Dowager Cixi, and Cixi even broke the royal ancestral system of eunuchs with a limit of four grades, and named him the chief eunuch of Zhengerpin and ruled over all the eunuchs in the palace.
Presumably, everyone is already very familiar with this person, he is the most powerful eunuch Li Lianying during the Cixi period of the Qing Dynasty.
Li Lianying was the first eunuch to call Empress Dowager Cixi Lafayette. He had a sleek and cautious personality, and was good at reading the mind of his master, and Empress Dowager Cixi liked him very much. At the age of 13, Empress Dowager Cixi assigned him to marry Prince Gong Yi. It was at this time that Li Lianying became Empress Dowager Cixi's confidant.
In 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi died, and in the past few decades, Empress Dowager Cixi had changed successive batches of slaves, but Li Lianying was always with Empress Dowager Cixi. After handling the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi, Li Lianying dutifully and sincerely kept filial piety for her for 100 days, after which Li Lianying quietly left the palace where she had lived for 52 years.
Li Lianying died three years after Xuan reunification at the age of 63, when the Qing Dynasty was in turmoil and in danger. But how did this great eunuch who had once been in power die? Where was he buried after his death? The mystery of Li Lianying's death has always been controversial, and now it has become a fog.
In 1966, Li Lianying's grave was excavated, and after the coffin was opened, people were surprised to find that there was only one head and a long braid in the coffin, and the body of the body disappeared for no reason, and the specific direction could not be verified, but Li Lianying's inscription said that her body was complete.
That is to say, after his death, his head was in a different place, the cemetery was tampered with, And Li Lianying had an archive with no body record, which is still preserved in the archives of the Qing court today, and some historians believe that it is because Li Lianying offended many people before his death, and was retaliated against after his death.
Then the death of Li Lianying has also become a mystery. According to historical records, the following causes of death have been proposed.
The first: killed by Guangxu's younger brother Zaifeng. Zaifeng always believed that Li Lianying and Empress Dowager Cixi were the culprits in poisoning the Guangxu Emperor, so after Empress Dowager Cixi's death, he sent assassins to assassinate Li Lianying and retaliate against his body.
The second: being victimized by robbers. After leaving the palace, Li Lianying went to Shandong to visit his niece, and at the junction of Shandong and Hebei, he met robbers, who robbed Li Lianying of her belongings and then killed him.
The third kind: smoking large cigarettes suffers from "post-smoke diarrhea". According to Li Lianying's descendants, in Li Lianying's later years, he unfortunately contracted malaria, and the medical conditions at that time were not developed, and once infected with this disease, no one survived at all, so Li Lianying died.
The fourth kind: pray to the Cixi Mausoleum of the Tanglin Tombs, and be killed by the revolutionaries when he returns, because Li Lianying died during the Xinhai Revolution!
However, according to the damage to Li Lianying's body in the coffin, it is clear that he died horizontally, but the specific circumstances are unknown. This once powerful eunuch, although he was rich and noble before his death, had a tragic end after his death, which was also regrettable in comparison.
However, for these different versions of li lianying's cause of death, although no direct evidence of Li Lianying's murder has been found, from the folk rumors and the flaws in the words of Li Lianying's descendants, they have all hinted at the various mysteries of Li Lianying's cause of death.
Some people say that the Qing Dynasty was destroyed at the hands of Cixi and Li Lianying, but then again, what did he gain compared with the great eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty who had brought calamity to the country and the people and deceived the people, such as Wei Zhongxian, Liu Jin, Wang Zhen, and others? At best, it can be regarded as a small person who ignores the general body and only knows self-interest.
Although Li Lianying is sleek in his handling of things, he is full of beauty and evil, cautious and cautious when encountering concubine Gong'e, he will also say a few words for people, and he will respond with a twist, so in comparison, his popularity is actually not very bad.