A gentle gust of wind awakens the body that has been sleeping for a thousand years; a gentle gust of wind blows away the mysterious veil of history. Standing on the shoulders of time, I talk to history.
Women who cover the sky with one hand are usually extremely arbitrary and extremely sensitive, just like Empress Dowager Cixi.
In the presence of such a person, it is difficult to read her mind; it is even more difficult to obtain grace. Such a difficult task was done by a small eunuch, who was Li Lianying.
Although Li Lianying was a eunuch, she was in the harem, and even three words could influence Cixi's decision-making. He stood by Cixi's side for half a century and was Cixi's favorite person.
Why can he climb from the bottom of society to the side of the highest power? It is not relying on Wen Tao's martial strategy, but on three words: will be a man.
1
Born into a poor family in a remote area, Li Lianying was sent to the palace as a child as a eunuch. At that time, being a eunuch was almost the only way for poor boys to get close to the center of power.
The eunuchs in the Qing Palace had fifty or sixty jobs. The better mouths are often the kind that can shake in front of the "masters" and mix their faces.
For example, there are tea for the princes and nobles, there are those who are responsible for serving meals, and there are those who are specially responsible for shaking fans.
△ The eunuch of the inner official of the late Qing Dynasty
At that time, the teenager Li Lianying was thin and small, but because of the special tenderness and whiteness of her two hands, she was assigned to the combing room as a little eunuch.
At that time, Cixi had just entered middle age, her hair was dry, she often lost her hair, and she would always lose her temper and reprimand people because the palace maid could not comb her hair well. Li Lianying, on the other hand, accidentally got the opportunity to comb Cixi's hair, and thus began his path to the throne.
Why is it that others are always scolded for combing their hair, but Li Lianying can just get Cixi's appreciation? In addition to the fact that he specially went to the folk to learn a lot of combing skills and could please Cixi, the more important reason was that he could not comb his hair and lose his hair.
It's not that Li Lianying can do any spells, it's just that he is smarter than ordinary people.
Li Lianying would sew two pieces of cat skin on her sleeve, rub the comb on the cat skin before combing her hair, and then when her hair fell, she would be adsorbed by the cat skin so that it would not fall to the ground.
In this way, Cixi mistakenly thought that Li Lianying's unique hair-combing skills could make her "say goodbye to hair loss", so in the following decades, she hardly let others comb her hair.
△ Cixi of the middle-aged and young, which is made with contemporary restoration techniques
Not only that, he also used his only savings to dot up and down, entrusted the grand eunuch in charge of the internal affairs of the court, and purchased a comb made of a thousand-year-old boxwood tree.
Li Lianying's comb can secrete rich oil. He combed Cixi's head three times a day, fine combing, diligent combing, and fine combing, alternating, combing out many different shapes for Cixi.
△ Stills of "The Great Eunuch Li Lianying". Li Lianying, played by Jiang Wen, is combing the hair of Cixi, played by Liu Xiaoqing
Coupled with his obedient attitude and dexterous mouth, he was praised by Cixi after several times of service, and thus began the decades-long bond between the two monarchs and courtiers.
2
Cixi's eyes were clear, and Li Lianying was promoted all the way from the eunuch of the combing room to the position of the chief steward of the Great Interior, leading the affairs inside and outside the court.
At that time, Cixi, who had already won power through the coup, could be said to be full of ambition, and she also liked Jade in her spare time. She sent someone to Myanmar to collect and buy a large number of high-quality natural jadeite back, and she loved it.
But with more and more jadeite, it is impossible to play at all.
And it is said that Cixi, who has a strong personality, is still a bit of a cleanliness fetish and does not like to let people who cannot see her touch her things, but she can't find a solution, so she has to pile up her beloved jade jade there.
Later, a minister gave advice to Cixi: "Since this jadeite has the characteristics of a woman, give it to the eunuch!" ”
Therefore, the palace selected a large number of eunuchs who specialized in representing jadeite. As a big red person around Cixi, how could Li Lianying let go of such a beautiful errand? Nature took over.
He personally selected a small eunuch with good looks and smooth and fair skin, and after three years of rigorous training, he sent them to Cixi. These young people with fine skin and tender flesh work from morning to night to play with Lafayette's emerald plate.
Although this job sounds very boring, the treatment is still very good, equivalent to a job of the State Council, a Beijing hukou, a luxury house and hundreds of thousands of bonuses.
List of Rewards 1. A general official worships a pin and gives both eyes to wear. 2. Give your family thousands of acres of good land, 500 taels of silver and 100 horses of silk. 3. Give a concubine the seven pins, enjoy the state, and hereditary. 4. Give 6 servants to serve for life. 5. Give a dedicated eunuch temple near Yuquan Mountain for retirement. 6. After death, it can be buried with the treasure that has been cut off.
At that time, many eunuchs successfully embarked on the "road to riches" by relying on this method, and Li Lianying made a lot of money.
In addition to helping Cixi daipan jadeite, Li Lianying's own literary play also did not let go, he has a literary play called "four-sided lion's head" walnut, bright color.
It is said that ordinary people can't come out at all, and only the special physique of eunuchs can knead such colors
△ It is said that the wen play walnut of this four-sided lion's head is worth one hundred million.
3
In his later years, Li Lianying was truly one person above ten thousand people, and even the Guangxu Emperor had to sell his face.
And Li Lianying herself is also very good at being a person, "Respect in things, leniency in things, if there is a year, do not try to slacken off." "He not only knows how to observe words and colors, but also has been cautious and obedient all his life, very polite to everyone, and has served up and down well.
From the perspective of human nature, such people often have more opportunities. And whenever he receives other people's things, he will indeed help others to do things in a down-to-earth manner. However, in order to avoid suspicion, Li Lianying did not collect gold and silver in her life, but only collected jade jade and jade real estate calligraphy and paintings, deliberately making it very low-key.
△ Li Lianying's jade artifact hidden in the Palace Museum
Because he knew in his heart that he was just a slave, everything he had was given by Cixi, and the so-called companion was like a companion tiger, and only peace and stability could be maintained for a long time.
After Li Lianying's death, the imperial court buried him. His coffin was made of fine gold silk nan wood, and the surface was also depicted with golden flowers.
Inside the tomb, the coffin was placed on a white jade coffin bed, and there was a round hole in the coffin bed that was not pierced, which belonged to a very high burial specification - Jinjing jade burial.
Compared with other eunuchs who were hastily buried, Li Lianying's cemetery was of a high level, which was worthy of his life of hard work around Cixi.
Not only that, there are many rare treasures that accompany Li Lianying to be buried, in addition to the common gold and silver utensils, there are also various types of daily necessities made of jewelry, such as golden tobacco plates, green tobacco pots, town coffin beads, jade swords, etc., adding up to more than fifty pieces of large and small pieces, which are of great value.
△ Twelve zodiac white jade carvings, which are a feng shui array that can prosper official luck.
△ Emerald snuff bottle
△ Silver cigarette dish for snuff
The opal ring in the picture below, which was also unearthed from Li Lianying's tomb (it seems that opal had a very high status in ancient times), this ring is surrounded by diamonds, very delicate, according to experts, its value is no less than 120 million US dollars.
In addition to the above, Li Lianying's most famous funerary product is the sky-high jade wrench. Speaking of this emerald wrench, there is a story behind it.
This wrench finger was earlier obtained by Li Lianying from Prince Gong's hand, and it was worth a lot. Later, Li Lianying deliberately "displayed" this jade in front of Cixi and presented it to her.
Prince Gong usually shivered as soon as he saw Cixi, and wherever he dared to ask her, he had to hold his breath and not speak.
Later, this jade was tired of being played with by Lafayette, so he gave it back to Li Lianying, and eventually became his most beloved jade handle.
This emerald wrench is emerald green in color, and after decades of play, the transparency is excellent, and it naturally deserves to be the treasure of the museum.
Some experts estimate that this jadeite is worth 200 million yuan, although from its own material, it is not worth so much money, but after all, it has handled three big figures such as Prince Gong, Cixi, and Li Lianying, and this legendary experience is not every kind of jadeite, so its price is difficult to measure in money.