What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Cixi's methods of seizing power from court struggles were cruel. In 1861, after the Xianfeng Emperor died at the Rehe Summer Resort, the Yehenara clan, who had become empress dowager, joined forces with Prince Gong Yi and other close branches of the imperial family to launch a coup d'état to seize power from the gu ming eight chancellor clique headed by Zaiyuan the Prince of The Yuanzhiyi of the Imperial Family, Duanyuan the Prince of Zheng, and actually with sushun as the core of the Nengchen, and executed three of them (Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun). Later, in order to establish and maintain her dictatorial power, Empress Dowager Cixi showed little mercy to the rectification of political opponents, even the manipulation and control of her own son, the Tongzhi Emperor, and the successor Emperor Guangxu, which was quite oppressive and severe. In addition to these, Cixi is also very particular about diet.
Among the court cuisines of the Qing Dynasty, the most representative is the diet of Empress Dowager Cixi. According to records, Empress Dowager Cixi usually had more than a hundred dishes at a meal, and the utensils and tableware used to hold food were also very elaborate. Before eating, eat melon fruits and tea. In the dish, there are about 10 kinds of pork, chicken, duck, mutton have several kinds, roasting, steaming, stir-frying and other cooking methods are complete, the imperial chefs also have to rack their brains, the dishes are placed into dragons, phoenixes, butterflies, flowers and other auspicious patterns, or spelled into "Fu", "Shou", "Ten Thousand Years", "Ruyi" and other words. Cixi's imperial chefs are not short of "famous chefs and big names", such as Wang Yushan, who is good at "catching and stir-frying", known as the "four major catches" - catching fried tenderloin, catching fried fish fillets, catching fried waist flowers, and catching fried shrimp. First of all, the standard recipe of The Qingting, each emperor's daily diet needs ingredients: 4 ducks, 3 chickens, 1 sheep, 2 kilograms of pork, 4 kilograms of soup meat, nearly 20 plates of meat, 50 radishes, 6 kilograms of garlic, 3 kilograms of sauce, 9 two yuquan wine, 100 kilograms of milk, 1 kilogram of butter, 12 cans of Yuquan Mountain. And Empress Dowager Cixi? There are only 60 kinds of Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve birthday snacks, Shouzi Cake, Swastika Cake, Jizi Cake, Changzi Cake, Fuzi Cake, Luzi Cake, Longevity Cake, Deqing Cake, Changchun Cake, Songshou Cake, Ruyi Cake, Wensheng Cake, Changxing Cake, Phoenix Cake, Hundred Flowers Cake, Three Peach Cake, Peach Cake, Pine Nut Cake.
It is recorded that Cixi spent 60,000 yuan for a meal, which may not mean that each meal was spent here, but Cixi spent a lot of money to eat. It can be said that half of the treasury of the Qing Dynasty was eaten by Cixi. Cixi as the empress dowager, can not be called the emperor, so love food and pay attention to pomp and circumstance, she set up a private kitchen, called the Western Dining Room, the specifications far exceed the royal dining room, according to historical records, Cixi's "Western Dining Room" can make more than 4,000 kinds of dishes, more than 400 kinds of dim sum, each meal of the dishes three tables can not be put together, dishes are more than 100 kinds. Some were placed on the table, some were eaten and eaten, and the large and small eunuchs lined up in a long line to pass the dishes to Cixi, who liked to stay, and if she did not like it, she withdrew and rewarded others. The cost is understandable. If nothing else, let's take watermelon, because she eats only the point in the center of the watermelon, so the watermelon for her to enjoy alone is at least 350 a day. Not to mention the famous chef of the "Western Dining Room", Wang Yushan, a chef who is good at cooking and stir-frying, is famous as the "King of Catching Stir-fry"; Stuffed bean sprouts and stuffed lentils are Zhang Yongxiang's specialty dishes;
When Cixi first ate this dish, there are still records in history: round light, golden can be brilliant, like a pole copper coin, because the ingredients are taken from the donkey's body, so it is named: donkey money meat. For a while, Cixi had to feed on it every day. At that time, donkey meat was particularly scarce, and the cooks in the palace sent people to find donkeys every day in the capital in order to satisfy the blessings of the empress dowager Lafayette. Some even travel hundreds of miles to buy donkeys. One day Cixi suddenly asked on a whim: What is this dish made of? Grand Eunuch Li Lianying said: It is a donkey treasure, something on the donkey' body. Cixi asked again: What is on the donkey must also have a name, right? Li Lianying was embarrassed and said: It is the genitals of a donkey. Cixi sprayed it on the spot. Furious, he directly ordered more than 100 cooks to be executed.
Cixi's dictatorship lasted for more than forty years, and too many people died under her senseless killing, which was really very cruel.