Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City in Beijing has been a royal palace. In the second year after the last emperor Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City (1924), the world's most gorgeous and heavily guarded royal palace was finally revealed to the world. Nearly five hundred years of dust, how many historical stories have happened in this dark and deep palace...
imperial palace
Mr. Yi Zhongtian once said in pin sanguo that history is sometimes really far away from us. What is the truth of history? No one can say clearly, and can only be boldly speculated based on the only historical data. For example, the portrait of the ancient emperor, it is difficult to say that this is his true appearance. There is only one emperor in Chinese history who has left a real portrait of him, and that is the last emperor Puyi, because in his time, the camera had been invented.
Portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang
The last emperor Puyi not only left a large number of photos and videos, including his own accounts, books and other historical materials. Relatively speaking, under the premise that there is a map and a truth, these materials are closer to the real history. In these historical materials, Puyi revealed to us a lot of secrets about the Forbidden City that he knew and experienced.
Puyi
Puyi entered the palace at the behest of Cixi Yi when he was less than three years old and was made emperor, and the ancient emperor was extremely luxurious, exquisite and supreme in the imagination of each of us, although we watched a lot of court dramas and probably understood the scenes of the emperor's daily life. But we see the scene of the emperor's life in the TV series, which is actually not the case.
Puyi became emperor in large part because the Guangxu Emperor had no heirs. Guangxu was Puyi's great uncle, and after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, Puyi was passed on to Guangxu, thus naturally sitting in the position of emperor, and at the same time serving as the widow of Qi Tongzhi and the Guangxu Emperor. Puyi's birth mother, naturally, cannot be recognized.
Puyi stills
After Puyi entered the palace, although he suddenly had four "mothers", he was very lonely. The only thing that made him feel the warmth of maternal love was the nursing mother King Jiao Shi, who entered the palace with him. Puyi was weaned at the age of nine, and even after being expelled from the Forbidden City, he also took the nursing mother to his side. The four old concubines in the palace were very cold to Puyi, and they all "cared" for Puyi in accordance with daily etiquette and customs, Puyi went to the palaces of the concubines every day to ask for peace, and the concubines sat in front of the dressing mirror and said the same thing with their backs to Puyi, who was kneeling on the ground: Did the emperor sleep well, how well did the emperor read, how did the emperor eat, and the last sentence the emperor retired.
Puyi in the Royal Garden
And the real care for Puyi is the eunuchs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Puyi grew up in the company of eunuchs. In addition to taking care of Puyi's eating, drinking, and sleeping, the eunuch gradually became Puyi's playmate as Puyi grew up. When Puyi was a child, because he was very naughty, he ran around and jumped around, and the eunuch made up ghost stories to scare the little emperor, so that Puyi hid in bed before dark and did not dare to go out, resulting in Puyi's timid and lonely personality, and very superstitious.
The eunuchs also had a way to deal with the young and mischievous Puyi, every time Puyi was energetic and running around, they locked Puyi in a small black room, let him cry inside for a while, and when he came out, he extinguished the anger. Puyi's daily meals, each meal has more than twenty dishes, but Puyi is often hungry. These dishes are largely pompous, so that the emperor does not eat much, a little more is stopped, daily porridge, burnt bread and steamed bread are more. So that once Puyi encountered a team of eunuchs serving food to the concubine, Puyi snatched it up, took the sauce inside the pork knuckle and nibbled it, but before eating a few bites, it was taken away by the eunuchs.
In Puyi's view, many of the emperor's daily routines are pomp and circumstance. Meals are made in large quantities without eating, and clothes are also made in large quantities without wearing. According to Puyi's list of expenses listed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Puyi's daily vegetables and meat reached 22 kilograms, accounting for 660 kilograms a month; plus 3960 kilograms of meat dishes per month for 6 people of the princess and the empress, including 388 chickens and ducks. At this time, Puyi was only 5 years old, and he alone consumed 240 chickens and ducks per month. Together with the Military Aircraft Minister, the Imperial Guard, the Master, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and others, the monthly consumption of meat and vegetables is 14642 pounds. In Puyi's view, most of these expenses were embezzled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the trend of corruption prevailed among people of all levels in the Forbidden City.
In addition, Puyi also revealed another dark curtain in the Forbidden City, where there is a Ruyi Hall, which was set up in the Kangxi Year for the study of art in court painting, although the name and venue have changed several times, but this institution exists consistently. If the princess or empress wants to draw a picture and write a word, she first asks the painter of the Ruyi Pavilion to draw a line, and the princess or the emperor adds a few strokes, which becomes the treasure of the royal pen.