What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
On March 6, 1889, the sky was clear and there was a windy afternoon. The yellow calendar said that this was a good day.
The Imperial Family of the Qing Dynasty decided to hold a festive dinner on this day, the marriage banquet of the Guangxu Emperor. A few days ago, he had just finished his wedding and was made empress. According to the ceremonial system, the royal family had to thank the queen's mother-in-law and the prince's ministers.
The meal was grand and the dishes were gorgeous. At noon, Gui Xiang, the "abbot of the country," took a large group of relatives and waited for a long time in the Taihe Hall, already hungry. But wait and wait, the emperor just won't come. The atmosphere is starting to be wrong, the groom's official is not coming, how can this meal be eaten? Who thanked them? Who is rare in them? It was hard to hear the rushing footsteps outside the temple, and everyone cheered up a little. As a result, the emperor's teacher, Hubu Shangshu Weng Tonggong, came in.
Weng Tonggong was also stunned, he had an official delay today, he thought that being late would punish him with alcohol, so he hurried to the Taihe Temple, but he did not expect that as soon as he came in, he saw this situation. The Empress's relatives walked away angrily, and the civil and military officials walked away in embarrassment. Weng Tonggong asked the eunuch on duty, "What happened to the emperor?" The eunuch said that the emperor vomited in the morning and was dizzy, so he had to cancel it temporarily.
Even if this deceives others, as an imperial master who gets along day and night, Weng Tonggong naturally does not believe it. Watching this dinner party open luxuriously, but it ended hastily, Weng Tonggong had an ominous premonition: Was the emperor expressing his dissatisfaction with Empress Dowager Cixi's arranged marriage?
Sure enough, the Guangxu Emperor then ordered that the preserved fruits from the wedding banquet be rewarded to the princes and ministers, which was considered a round field. But it was not rewarded to the empress dowager. Weng Tonggong sensed that this deliberate absence of the wedding banquet heralded the arrival of a power struggle.
The emperor's "great wedding ceremony" was a top priority in the Qing Palace. In the entire Qing Dynasty, the only four emperors who held "great wedding ceremonies" in the Forbidden City were Shunzhi, Kangxi, Tongzhi and Guangxu. At this big wedding, Empress Dowager Cixi could be described as well-intentioned, and began to prepare a year and a half in advance, appointing Prince Yizhen of Alcohol to be fully responsible, and ordering the household department to "plan 2 million taels of silver in advance, and have an advance donation of 2 million taels to prepare special items." In the end, the "big wedding ceremony" cost at least 6 million taels. In order to take care of Cixi's face, Yi Zhen and others did not hesitate to intercept the disaster relief silver sent to Shandong and Henan.
According to the custom of the Qing Dynasty, after the "big wedding ceremony", the emperor will be pro-government. But Cixi didn't think so. After the death of her own son, Emperor Tongzhi, she left no heirs, and she carried the 4-year-old Guangxu into the palace and continued to listen to the government. From the death of her husband, the Xianfeng Emperor, in 1861 to the time of the Guangxu wedding, she had been sitting in the highest position of the Qing Dynasty for 28 years. She was reluctant to give up power.
Therefore, Cixi found Guangxu a "steward". In the winter of 1887, she pretended to be enlightened, handed a white jade ruyi to Guangxu and told him that the 5 girls, who Ruyi handed over, who is the empress. Guangxu hurriedly pushed back: "Empress Mother, please be the master of such important matters, and the subordinates cannot decide on their own." Cixi pretended to be polite and let Guangxu choose himself. Guangxu tried to hand ruyi over to the daughter of Jiangxi Governor Dexin, but as soon as she handed it out, she heard Cixi coughing hard. Guangxu followed Cixi's gaze and said, Oh, it was her niece Jingfen, so he threw Ruyi into Jingfen's hand in frustration.
This time, Guangxu said that the illness had messed up the dinner table that feasted on the empress's mother's family, which was the public attack of his dissatisfaction and his bold challenge to the power of the empress. Cixi, who had experienced great winds and waves, although extremely dissatisfied, did not move. On the same day, after the embarrassing end of the dinner, Weng Tonggong saw that "the western drama has not stopped, and the listeners of the drama are still the same."
Cixi knew that some plays still had to be performed. A month later, accompanied by Guangxu, she went to the Summer Palace to recuperate and posed as a disregard for state affairs. Soon, a yushi named Tu Shouren, who was unaware of Cixi's reluctance to relinquish power, pleaded with Cixi to continue his political training. Cixi was furious and dismissed Tu Shouren from his post, never to be used. She also acted very well in this scene.
In fact, although Cixi was "in the Summer Palace, her spirit was firmly focused on the Forbidden City." How could someone who was so impulsive and flippant that he wouldn't even attend the wedding thanks make the right decision? How can we govern the country? She hastened her power grab. On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the empress dowager's partisan struggle became public, and even the Englishman Pu Rand could detect: "Li (Hongzao) and Weng (Tonggong) joined the military plane, so the fighting became more and more intense, and even dragged the court." Empress Gai favored the Northern Faction, while the Emperor Favored the Southern Faction also. At that time, people were all called 'Li Dang' and 'Weng Dang', and later they were called 'Hou Dang' and 'Imperial Party'. The 'Hou Dang' is also known as the 'Old Mother Class', and the 'Imperial Party' is also known as the 'Children's Class'. ”
This meal in which the emperor was absent aggravated the changes in the imperial family, and the family changes led to national changes, affecting the direction of the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty. Someone said: "There are three bowls of noodles in life that are the most difficult to eat, human noodles, scenes and love noodles." In the banquet of the Xie Wedding Banquet, the Guangxu Emperor obviously did not eat the "three bowls of noodles" well, appearing impulsive, naïve, and willful, which directly caused his personal tragedy and deepened the tragedy of the country.