On March 13 of the 10th year of the Guangxu Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly issued a decree to depose all the ministers of the Military Aircraft Department headed by Prince Gong Yixuan, known in history as "Jiashen Yishu". Through this palace coup, Cixi completely took power into the hands of one person and established her supreme power in the Great Qing Dynasty.
From the second year onwards, Cixi began to be busy with another thing, that is, the great wedding of the Guangxu Emperor, the emperor's father had to choose a competent empress for his son, and finally after four years and six selections, Cixi's niece Yehenara clan entered the middle palace and became a veritable last empress.
1. The niece of the Empress Dowager
Empress Xiaodingjing of the Yehenara clan, a Manchurian yellow bannerman, was born on the tenth day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Tongzhi, three years older than the Guangxu Emperor, and her father was Guixiang, the deputy capital of the First Rank of the Duke of Jinfeng.
As we said earlier, although the cixi family is surnamed Yehenara, they are not descendants of the Lord of Yehe, but only have the same surname. Moreover, the Yehenara clan of Cixi was not prominent in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and before Cixi entered the palace, it belonged only to a middle-class bureaucratic family.
Of course, Cixi became the empress dowager of the Virgin Mary, and this branch of the Yehenara clan was carried into the yellow flag and soon became one of the first-class families.
It is said that Cixi's father, Hui Zheng, had three sons and three daughters, three sons were Zhaoxiang, Guixiang, and Foyou, and these three were Cixi's brothers, and the three daughters were Empress Xiaoqinxian (Cixi herself), the Prince of Alcohol, Yizhen Fujin, the Prince of Alcohol, and Yixun Fujin, the younger brother of Prince Yili of Qing.
It can be seen that Cixi has a lot of brothers and sisters, plus cousins and cousins, that is more, Cixi has always adhered to a principle for the men and women of her family: men are not reused (do not give real power), and daughters are married to the near branch. In fact, in order to control the power in his own hands, if the emperor's heirs are scarce, he can select a member of the clan with Yehenara ancestry as the successor in the near branch.
Therefore, we can see that from the eleventh year of Guangxu's draft, there are many showgirls with Yehenara bloodline. For example, the daughter of Cixi's uncle Huichun (Cixi's cousin), the daughter of Cixi's eldest brother Zhaoxiang, the two daughters of Cixi's second brother Guixiang (the eldest of whom was Empress Xiaodingjing), and the daughter of Cixi's third brother Buddha.
After four years and six selections, Yehenara, the eldest daughter of Cixi's second brother Guixiang, was designated as the empress, and she was Empress Xiaodingjing.
In fact, there were at least seven or eight showgirls who entered the final, and the Guangxu Emperor himself was not looking at his cousin Yehenara, who was three years older than himself, but a pair of sister flowers from the Jiangxi Inspector Dexin family. At that time, Guangxu was ignorant and ignorant, originally thinking that he could choose the empress according to his own wishes, and was thinking of handing Ruyi to the Daughter of the Dexin family, Fu Chashi, who knows, Cixi just came to the truth: Emperor!
As a result, this Ruyi was finally given to GuiXiang's daughter Yehenara, and the sister flowers of the Dexin family that Guangxu favored were all unsuccessful. However, Cixi did choose another pair of sisters for Guangxu, they were the daughter of the attendant Changshu, the Tatra sisters, who later became Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen.
As for Cixi's other cousins, nieces, or whatever, Cixi all pointed them out to the Near Branch Sect.
For example, Huichun's daughter (Cixi's cousin) married Shanheng, son of Long Shu the Prince of Su, Zhaoxiang's daughter married Belle Zaishu (originally the eldest grandson of the Kangxi Emperor, Yin Zhen V, who was later passed on to Daoguang's ninth son, Wang Yixuan of Fu County), and another daughter of Guixiang (sister of Empress Xiaodingjing) married Tozai Ze, the Duke of Zhenguo (originally the fifteenth grandson of Kangxi, Yin Yu, and later his father Yi Feng, who succeeded Jiaqing's fifth son MianYu as a successor), and the daughter of Buddha You was married to Pei Zi Pulun (the grandson of Yong Yao, the eleventh son of Qianlong).
If you have seen the picture of Empress Xiaodingjing, you know that she is not so simple in appearance, it can even be said to be a little ugly, and it is much stronger to be married by Cixi to the other nieces of the Near Branch Sect. Then, why did Cixi designate such an ugly-looking and cowardly niece as the Empress of the Qing Dynasty?
The author believes that it is also for the power in the hands.
If Cixi chose a good-looking and capable niece as empress, it might pose a threat to the power in her hands, although she was a niece, and it was another matter if she did not listen. On the other hand, Empress Xiaodingjing is different, she is cowardly by nature, and when she sees Cixi, she is shivering, and such a woman is of course the best candidate for Cixi puppets.
That is to say, Cixi is interested in the character of her niece, and how her appearance falls second.
But what Cixi did not expect was that after her death, this personality of her niece Empress Xiaodingjing actually accelerated the collapse of the Qing Empire.
2. Empress Qing, who reigned the longest
In the fourteenth year of Guangxu, shortly after Guixiang's daughter Yehenara was identified as empress, an unlucky thing happened in the Forbidden City.
Late at night on December 15, a fire broke out in the Forbidden City, burning down the Taihe Gate in front of the Taihe Palace, and the emperor's change before the wedding was probably not auspicious, and the ministers talked about it. Moreover, the Taihe Gate was the only door for the empress to enter the palace, and at this time there was only a little more than a month before the emperor's wedding, and if it was to be repaired, I was afraid that it would be too late. Or Cixi experienced a lot of things, this is a thing, she ordered the wedding to be held as scheduled, and ordered the craftsmen to build a color shed in the original location of the Taihe Gate, so that the fake and the real could not be seen.
On the 26th day of the first month of the fifteenth year of Guangxu, GuiXiang's daughter Yehenara was made empress, and the next day, the emperor's wedding was staged in the Forbidden City as scheduled. On this day, the Guangxu Emperor dressed in dragon robes and wearing a beaded crown on his head, ascended to the Imperial Taihe Hall, and the Wenwu Hundred Officials knelt down three times and prostrated nine times, welcoming the Empress Yehenara of the Middle Palace into the palace.
At the same time, the two concubines, Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen, entered the palace from the Shenwu Gate, forming a pattern of one concubine and two concubines in the Guangxu harem.
In fact, like the cousin marriage between the Guangxu Emperor and the Yehenara clan, the Qing Dynasty has appeared before, for example, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the Shunzhi Emperor, married his cousin (or cousin) as the queen, but the fate of this empress, everyone should know, she and the Shunzhi Emperor's husband and wife relationship is not good, only two years as an empress, she was deposed.
Looking at the two sons of the Guangxu Emperor and his cousin Yehenara, the situation was not much better than that of the Shunzhi Emperor.
Logically, the Guangxu Emperor and the Yehenara clan had a cousin blood relationship and should be closer, but in fact, on the contrary, they were strangers from the beginning, and their relationship even gradually deteriorated. Why?
First of all, men like beautiful women, which is a biological law. Cixi pointed out such an ugly-looking woman to herself, how could Guangxu like it?
Secondly, from the day Yehenara clan entered the palace, her identity was fixed, although nominally the empress of the Qing Dynasty, it was actually an eyeliner that Cixi had placed next to Guangxu, which Guangxu knew very well, so he deliberately alienated the Yehenara clan.
Logically, Yehenara was the niece and daughter-in-law of Empress Dowager Cixi, and should be pleased by Cixi, but in fact, Yehenara also did not receive Cixi's favor, so why?
Yehenara's personality is too introverted and cowardly, seeing Cixi is not like seeing relatives, but like a rat seeing a cat, they all snort, not much to say, it is estimated that the task given by Cixi (monitoring Guangxu) is also not well done, Cixi really likes not to come. Cixi liked the kind of lively, clever and capable women, such as Huifei, such as Zhenfei, because from them you can see your young self, but in her niece Yehenara, Cixi really can't find her own shadow.
In fact, after the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned, the relationship between the Yehenara clan and her husband Guangxu was somewhat relaxed, but it was also more out of affection, and there was no love between them at all. That is to say, in the more than ten years of marrying into the royal family, the Yehenara clan was like a widow, which caused great damage to her body and mind, long-term repression, not to mention for a woman, even for men, it is unbearable.
In the 26th year of Guangxu, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded the city of Beijing, cixi fled to Xi'an with the Guangxu Emperor, empress Yehenara, and Concubine Jin, while another woman in the Guangxu harem, Zhenfei, remained in the Forbidden City forever (pushed into the well by Cixi's order).
But even so, the years are fleeting, and the middle-aged Yehenara clan is even thinner and even more hunched, which can make Guangxu interested, and Guangxu, who has returned to The Beijing Division, still lives like a prisoner, and the couple has no chance to meet at all.
In October of the 34th year of Guangxu, the Guangxu Emperor died in the Hanyuan Hall of Yingtai in the South China Sea. Subsequently, Cixi, who had run out of oil, designated her nephew Puyi as the heir, in order to be Emperor Xuantong. Before dying, Cixi also made the following arrangements for major military and state affairs: "Zhang Zhao was not decided on internal affairs, and Zhou Yu was not decided on foreign affairs." "Oh, I'm sorry, I went to the wrong set, it should be like this:
"Yesterday, after a decree was issued, the regent was specially appointed to supervise the country, and all military and state affairs were carried out in accordance with the instructions given. Now that he is in a critical condition, he is afraid that he will not be able to afford it, and the subsequent military and state affairs will be decided by the regent. In the event of a major incident, the Empress Dowager must be asked to carry out the decree at any time in person. ”
Seeing no, even Cixi couldn't look up to this niece, of course, Cixi also knew this niece very well, knew her cowardly character, and couldn't stand things, so she entrusted the affairs of the military state to the regent Zaifeng. Who knew that this Zaifeng was also a cowardly master, this weak and weak combined, but not strong, that is even weaker, of course, this Zaifeng is still a little stronger than yehenara, after all, he is a man.
From the 26th day of the first month of the 15th year of Guangxu to the death of the Guangxu Emperor on October 21, 34 of The Guangxu Dynasty, Yehenara clan reigned as empress for a total of 19 years and 9 months, becoming the longest-reigning empress in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
3. Empress Longyu of the Sage of the Kingdom
After the death of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi, the Yehenara clan moved to Changchun Palace and was honored as Empress Dowager Longyu, known as "Empress Dowager Qimu". At that time, Xuantong was only a three-year-old child, so Longyu and the regent Zaifeng jointly led the stormy Qing Dynasty.
After Long Yu took over the power of the empress, he also wanted to exert the authority in his hands like his aunt Cixi, but he did not have that ability, so he could only favor the eunuch Xiao Dezhang around him.
Cixi also favored the eunuchs (An Dehai and Li Lianying), but they were only tools for Cixi to maintain his power, and Longyu was directly deceived by Xiao Dezhang, who bribed Xiao Dezhang, advocated the benefits of republicanism, etc., and played the empress dowager around, and gave Yuan Shikai the reputation of a loyal subject.
Under the joint efforts of the eunuch Xiao Dezhang and Yuan Shikai, Longyu unexpectedly issued the edict of abdication on December 25, the third year of Xuanun, and the day after the edict of abdication was promulgated, Longyu was still waiting in the palace for Yuan Shikai to play the matter, and when the people around him told him the truth of the matter, Longyu was dumbfounded, saying: "Did I cut it off in the Great Qing Dynasty?" ”
Hey, to say that this Longyu is really not a star and a half away from his aunt Cixi, or a political idiot, the Great Qing Dynasty has forgotten, and he still doesn't understand it. If she had any ability, it was to cry, encounter a tricky matter, and wipe her tears vigorously in front of Emperor Xiaoxuan and the eunuchs, but it did not help, after all, crying could not solve the problem. In addition, she was quite good at spending money, and at that time, it was a national funeral, and there was no money in the treasury, but she wanted to renovate the Yanxi Palace, and she spent a lot of silver for this.
Since the promulgation of this abdication edict, Longyu has been closed in the second half of the Forbidden City, sighing vigorously all day, or in a daze.
In the first month of 1913, when Longyu celebrated his birthday, few people came to congratulate him, which really called the tree falling down and scattering, feeling desolate, Longyu finally fell ill, on the seventeenth day of the first month of the same year, the birthday only seven days passed, Longyu died of illness in Changchun Palace, at the age of 46.
At that time, the small imperial court chose a title for Longyu, and the alternative titles were "Xiao jian", "Xiao Ming", "Xiao Dun", "Xiao Yu", "Xiao Shun", "Xiao Ding", and finally "Xiao Ding", and the nickname was "Xiao Ding Long Yu Kuan Hui Shen Zhe Xie Tianbao Shengjing Empress".
Longyu said qiankun, of course, it was to send Qiankun out, maybe "filial piety" came from this way.
After Longyu's death, those who had benefited, such as Yuan Shikai, jumped out and ordered the flag to be lowered at half-mast for three days, and civil and military officials to wear filial piety for twenty-seven days.
Yuan Shikai even personally wore a black veil on his arm and raised a mourning salute, while Li Yuanhong, who was vice president at the time, came to say: "Virtue is supreme, and the female middle school Yao Shun." It is estimated that if Longyu knew that he would get such an evaluation after his death, he would definitely smile bitterly.
On November 16 of the second year of the Republic of China, Empress Xiaodingjing, Yehenara, was buried in the Chongling Underground Palace with the Guangxu Emperor, and this poor man and woman, who were nominally husband and wife, but had no husband and wife feelings, finally stayed together.
Ta Kung Pao:
Neither dependent on the emperor nor the achievements of the curtain, but the only way to make virtue high, to summon the grace of the billion trillion people, did not take the change of the national system, but slightly worse than its beloved, since Igu, is actually the former Qing Longyu Empress.
Zichen said:
In fact, Empress Xiaodingjing Yehenara was just an ordinary woman in the court, if placed in the Taiping Dynasty, she might be a competent empress, but she was born in a chaotic world, but she was powerless against the disaster of the country, even if she cried out in tears, she could not save the Qing Dynasty that had passed away.
Moreover, she and the Guangxu Emperor were also a pair of Mandarin ducks with the same fate, and they could only act as puppets of others in their lives, and they could not get the life they wanted, nor could they have the love they wanted, from this point of view, they were all victims of political life. What we give more should be sympathy, understanding, that any one person, put in that environment, can not change anything, the only thing that can be done is to go with the wind and the waves, just go with the flow.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Dezong, Ta Kung Pao