Cixi built a wall, from the ground to the roof, and the back door of the main hall was also sealed with bricks, only to imprison Guangxu, Cixi had hatred for Guangxu, but after Guangxu died, Cixi also died the next day. What preparations did Cixi make to deal with her own death before she died?
First, Cixi's arrangement for everything
Empress Dowager Cixi had just celebrated the Halloween Festival, that was when she was 74 years old, all the bustle and prosperity seemed to be in front of her, and it was also unexpected, and suddenly her body was uncomfortable in the blink of an eye, which was a sudden illness, although Empress Dowager Cixi was not in good health, but with illness, she also had to deal with things, and arranged the things that she could not put down, so Empress Dowager Cixi immediately issued a will.
Bring Puyi into the palace
"Puyi, the son of Prince Zaifeng of Alcohol, was educated in the palace and studied in the upper study."
Cixi seems to have a relatively close relationship with prince shuo, and both Guangxu and Puyi are from the prince's mansion, but Cixi's several important decisions on prince shuo's palace have her intentions and motives, so what is her motivation?
When Cixi was still a noble concubine, she took pains to win over Prince Alcohol, who was the seventh brother of Emperor Xianfeng, and Cixi married her sister to Prince Alcohol, making Prince Alcohol her brother-in-law, and kissing herself, and what she did was nothing more than Cixi's plan to let Prince Alcohol stabilize her power for herself.
Emperor Tongzhi died of illness at a young age, and Empress Dowager Cixi took the trouble to make a decision. Empress Dowager Cixi summoned more than twenty candidates one after another, but this was just a cover for Empress Dowager Cixi.
Later, Empress Dowager Cixi made her sister and the son of Prince Shuo emperor, the Guangxu Emperor, when he was only 4 years old. Empress Dowager Cixi chose Guangxu as emperor, also because he was close to him by blood, and Cixi chose him for a deeper consideration in addition to blood relations.
Generally speaking, the emperor died and was inherited by his son, but at that time, the Tongzhi Emperor did not have a son, and generally speaking, it should be a stepson for the Tongzhi Emperor, but in this way, Empress Dowager Cixi became a grandmother, that is, the empress dowager could not listen to the government.
Therefore, he can only establish one, as the younger brother of the Tongzhi Emperor, and also the son of the Xianfeng Emperor, so that he will continue to be the empress, and he can only choose the younger one, he can control, so that at a young age, she can justifiably obey the government, so the reason why Guangxu became the best candidate was because he was young, malleable, and also Cixi's selfish heart, and could continue to monopolize power.
But then a series of things happened, there was a mustard between prince Shuo's palace and Empress Dowager Cixi, and in order to ease the relationship, Empress Dowager Cixi made another decision to marry her adopted daughter Guarjia to Guangxu's younger brother, that is, Zaifeng, the Prince of Alcohol at that time, and after the marriage, Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol was continuously crowned.
The Guarjia clan was the daughter of Rong Lu, who was Cixi's confidant, so they formed a family, and Cixi hoped to ease the relationship with Prince Shuo, and could monitor them, killing two birds with one stone.
From Cixi's decisions and measures for Prince Alcohol's palace, we can find that what Cixi did, step by step, was for her own selfishness and for the sake of her own status, so was cixi's last decision on Prince Alcohol's palace, taking Puyi into the palace, also for her own selfishness?
Puyi is the son of the Guarjia clan, as mentioned above, the Guarjia clan is the adopted daughter of Cixi, and the daughter of the confidant minister Rong Lu, and Puyi is also the grandson of Empress Dowager Cixi's sister, and there are also close considerations for choosing Puyi, in addition, Cixi has other considerations.
At first, Empress Dowager Cixi was unwell, and first made a will, let Puyi be raised in the palace, study in the upper study, there is also a possibility here, Cixi may not have felt that his limit was coming, Li Puyi also had selfish intentions, Puyi was young, set him up as emperor, Cixi can continue to hold the power, but Cixi died soon, there was no chance to implement.
After the death of the Guangxu Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi made Puyi the heir to the throne, and there was another purpose, to inherit Tongzhi and also to make Guangxu a descendant of Tongzhi, of course, Guangxu was also included. But Puyi was young, and he still had to study, so he let his father Zaifeng be responsible for supervising the country, and when Puyi was older, it was up to Puyi himself to decide and adjudicate things.
Prince Zaifeng was made regent
"Prince Zaifeng was made regent." "The great ceremony of the dynasty, the frequent ceremony of the dynasty, the regent before the kings."
Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol was Puyi's father, the husband of Empress Dowager Cixi's adopted daughter, and the object of Empress Dowager Cixi's solicitation. As mentioned earlier, Empress Dowager Cixi married the Guarjia clan to Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol, but in fact, Empress Dowager Cixi at that time had long intended to continue to find an heir in Prince Alcohol.
Because the Guangxu Emperor at that time had no heirs and was not in good health, everyone knew that Empress Dowager Cixi could only continue to look for objects among her close relatives in order to have a successor in the future, and the Prince of Alcohol Palace was the best candidate in the eyes of Empress Dowager Cixi, and Zaifeng's personality was also liked by Cixi.
In this way, if Zaifeng and the Guarjia clan had a son, Cixi made him his successor, Guangxu would also agree, and he could also guarantee his position.
After the marriage of Prince Zaifeng and the Guarjia clan, his attitude towards Cixi was also very respectful, and we will look at the record.
"But regard the empress dowager as a saint, and see her relatives in the future"
Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi had long been interested in the Zaifeng family of Prince Zaifeng, but at that time, there were also some extreme views, and some people even suggested that Empress Dowager Cixi establish Zaifeng as emperor, of course, Empress Dowager Cixi would not agree. After all, Puyi is the emperor, the younger generation, can "inherit the same rule, and also qi Guangxu", of course, Cixi may also have selfish intentions, that is, Puyi is young.
After some decision and compromise, Zaifeng was made regent, and Empress Dowager Cixi gave him the supreme position, and his status was above everyone, that is, Empress Dowager Cixi, who wanted their father and son to take over her power, and those who had ambitions did not have a chance.
After that, Empress Dowager Cixi knew that her health was not good, and she made a will, and the major matters were handled by the regent, and if there were important matters, the empress dowager's will must be asked, and the regent could discuss it, so that it was also the beginning of the regency of Prince Zaifeng.
Second, Cixi's admonition
Just after lipuyi, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly said a paragraph to everyone:
"I have bowed the curtain several times to listen to the government, but I have to do it because of the compulsion of the times. In the future, women's interference in state affairs and eunuchs' unauthorized power should be restricted and properly guarded against..."
According to Empress Dowager Cixi's words, it was forced by the situation to say that she was listening to the government, and she also knew that this was not good, so she restricted women's intervention in the future.
At that time, the Xianfeng Emperor died of illness in the Rehe Palace, and the Tongzhi Emperor took the throne, at that time he was only 6 years old, where did he have any ability, so Empress Dowager Cixi had a reason to bow to the government, but was there any selfish intention of Empress Dowager Cixi? There should be.
The Tongzhi Emperor died at the age of 19, Guangxu took the throne, Guangxu was also young, and Empress Dowager Cixi had a reason to continue to listen to the government.
Empress Dowager Cixi took Guangxu to the palace to raise him, and gave him such a noble throne and such an excellent minister, so Empress Dowager Cixi believed that Guangxu should be filial to him and listen to him. But at that time, in the midst of a crisis, Guangxu could only find a way to change, get rid of the crisis, and even wanted to get rid of Empress Dowager Cixi's interference in politics, which made Empress Dowager Cixi extremely angry, Empress Dowager Cixi thought, I am so good to you, but you treat me like this? Isn't that filial piety?
Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi was furious and imprisoned the Guangxu Emperor.
It can also be seen from here that Empress Dowager Cixi attaches great importance to power, just as Puyi said in "The First Half of My Life":
Cixi was a very powerful person, and she was not willing to give up any power in her hands.
After Guangxu, Cixi set up Puyi for a few more years, which is the same reason.
And before Empress Dowager Cixi died, she warned everyone that she had no choice but to bow to the government, was it a summary of herself? Or make excuses for yourself? Or do you really think that's not good? This is unknown.
However, after that, Empress Longyu did not learn from Cixi to continue to monopolize power, which may be the reason for Cixi's exhortation before her death, which also allowed the regent Zaifeng to have a better play.
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