In the 24 years from 1884 to 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi was the largest ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, whether it was her own son Emperor Tongzhi or The Guangxu Emperor, it was just a pawn on the road to Empress Dowager Cixi's power, in addition to power, Empress Dowager Cixi also liked luxury, according to Xiao Dezhang, the last eunuch of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi spent forty-two thousand silver a day.
In addition, from the "sky-high price funeral list" can also know how luxurious Empress Dowager Cixi was before she died, if it is in accordance with the hierarchical concept of feudal society, according to Cixi's identity and status, her mausoleum should be slightly inferior to that of Empress Ci'an of the Main Palace, but the Cixi Mausoleum is at the top of the Qing Dynasty Empress Mausoleum in terms of the preciousness of building materials and the luxury of decoration.
According to relevant historical records, the bottom of cixi's coffin is covered with a 7-inch thick gold silk bead cotton mattress, and the bottom is also embellished with more than 10,000 large and small pearls, 85 red gemstones, more than 200 pieces of white jade, and the cotton mattress has a layer of silk mattress embroidered with lotus flowers, and 2400 pearls weighing five points are laid on it... Its corpse is surrounded by countless treasures such as the Nine Linglong Pagoda, the Jade Buddha, and the Emerald Watermelon.
Because Empress Dowager Cixi was also particularly interested in taking pictures, she also left many old photos, but the Guangxu Emperor did not leave many photos, the only one that can be sure of the real old photos of the Guangxu Emperor, or the photos of the Guangxu Emperor going to the Guandi Temple to pick incense and go down the bridge.
On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned, and the next afternoon, Cixi died of illness at the Yiluan Hall in Zhongnanhai, and Empress Dowager Cixi made three wills before her death.
First: Puyi was made emperor
After the failure of the Wushu Reform Law in 1898, Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to put the Guangxu Emperor to death, and supported a puppet emperor, and everyone was chosen, it was Pu Juan, the second son of Wang Zaiyi of Duanjun, and Pu Juan's mother was the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi's younger brother, but this move was opposed by the Western powers, and Cixi had to give up, thus becoming a prisoner of the Guangxu Emperor.
In 1908, when Empress Dowager Cixi was seriously ill, she felt that her time was short, and the Guangxu Emperor was in her prime, probably afraid that the Guangxu Emperor would dig up her tomb and whip the corpse in the future, and embarrass her mother's family, Empress Dowager Cixi already had the idea in her heart to let the Guangxu Emperor die in front of her, and since the Guangxu Emperor was going to die, then a new emperor had to be established.
So Empress Dowager Cixi chose the three-year-old Puyi, and the Guangxu Emperor's biological mother was Empress Dowager Cixi's sister and Puyi's grandmother.
Second: Women must not interfere in politics
In the ancestral training of the Qing Dynasty, there was a regulation that "women are not allowed to interfere in politics", Cixi is clear, but as a woman herself, she intervened in political affairs, step by step took power into her own hands, and even betrayed the country to seek glory, the emperor was like a puppet, and as a result, she was going to go into the soil, but she moved out of the ancestral training, and ordered women not to interfere in politics, which made people laugh at it.
Third: The dictatorship of eunuchs is strictly prohibited
At this time, Empress Dowager Cixi also took out the "matter of the end of the Ming Dynasty", indicating that there were lessons from the past, but Empress Dowager Cixi had two favored eunuchs around her, and when Prince Gong was deposed that year, Empress Dowager Cixi borrowed the hand of the eunuch An Dehai, which is not considered to be the eunuch's participation in political affairs?
Later, the eunuch Li Lianying was favored, and Empress Dowager Cixi broke the routine and rewarded Li Lianying with a flower plume.
Cixi's will is undoubtedly to punch herself in the face, women can not interfere in politics, but she herself for the power is also unscrupulous, strictly prohibit the eunuch dictatorship, but she herself broke the convention, really can not be convincing, but when Cixi died, the Qing Dynasty has reached the point of running out of oil, 4 years later, the Qing Dynasty is over.