In the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi was the ruler, but unfortunately this female ruler basically did not play a positive role, not only ignoring the trend of civilized democracy, but also still resisting progress in the face of the general trend. Because of this, modern people hate Empress Dowager Cixi, and hate Wu and Wu, and people also hate Empress Dowager Cixi's personal eunuch Li Lianying.
In many folklore, Li Lianying was a vicious eunuch who helped the empress dowager to oppress the emperor every time, and even exploited the people and ministers. These rumors are very popular among the people, and it is more coincidental that Li Lianying also left a photo at that time.
In the photo, Li Lianying's appearance is very fierce, and she is not a good person at first glance. So the question is, how could such a fierce eunuch be favored by Empress Dowager Cixi? Is this person a good person or a bad person in history?
Now is the Internet age, so a lot of information can be circulated at will, especially some of the old photos of the last years of the Qing Dynasty have gradually entered our eyes, so we can see more real late Qing dynasty characters.
Among these characters, Li Lianying's photo has also been widely circulated, but when everyone saw this photo, many people scoffed at it. The reason is very simple, because Li Lianying looks too ugly, and in the photo he looks like a ghost, very fierce. To put it bluntly, when I saw Li Lianying on the big night, I didn't pay attention and thought that the ghost was coming, and I would be frightened. So the question is, why did such a fierce face get the favor of Empress Dowager Cixi?
Regarding this matter, combined with the real historical records, there are generally three possibilities, namely Li Lianying's means, Empress Dowager Cixi's hobbies, and past techniques.
First, let's look at Li Lianying's means. According to historical records, Li Lianying was also born as a sad child in her early years, and because there were several brothers in the family, she really could not survive, so Li Lianying, as the second oldest, could only enter the palace to become a eunuch.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, Li Lianying was originally still called Li Jinxi, and it was very auspicious to hear this name, but unfortunately Li Lianying did not bring joy to her family, but left a lot of notoriety in history.
After coming to the palace, Li Lianying did not immediately get the favor of Empress Dowager Cixi as we imagined, but first came to the palace of the prince and started from the most basic eunuch.
What is more interesting is that when Li Lianying was a low-level eunuch, she once got a chance, which is said to come from an old eunuch. We also know that the old eunuch has no descendants in his life, and he is very lonely, perhaps Li Lianying feels that the other party is pitiful, so he often goes to visit this old man, and he never thought that this old eunuch had a special skill in his hand, that is, braiding.
The old eunuch saw that Li Lianying was still a good person, so he passed on all his skills to him. Although there are not many historical records of this period, it is certain that Li Lianying's braiding methods have been perfectly trained, and even many of the old palace women in the palace are inferior to him.
Of course, with a good skill, it was only the beginning, because he had not yet come to Empress Dowager Cixi's side. But history is such a coincidence, it turned out that there was a change in the imperial court, the little emperor and the devil six united to kill Cixi's personal eunuch An Dehai, which led to a shortage of people around Empress Dowager Cixi, so Li Lianying got the opportunity to perform.
At that time, Li Lianying was very lucky to serve Empress Dowager Cixi, and then he publicly showed his means of braiding and playing with the hair of Empress Dowager Cixi, which made the empress dowager very happy, and the people around her also praised Li Lianying's good means.
At that time, Cixi was in a stage of bitterness, and seeing that Li Lianying was still a good person, she let him come to her side and slowly let him replace An Dehai.
Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi liked Li Lianying, and at the beginning it was because of Li Lianying's craftsmanship.
But we also know that competing for favors in the harem is not only dependent on one's own craftsmanship, but sometimes requires the loyalty of the slaves. Therefore, Li Lianying was able to get Cixi's favor, and on the other hand, he took the initiative to conform to Cixi's hobbies. So the question is, what hobbies did Empress Dowager Cixi have at that time? Perhaps there are many answers to this question, but there is no doubt that at that time, Empress Dowager Cixi's greatest hobby was power in her hands. And if you want to do this, you must constantly fight the emperor.
There is no doubt that Li Lianying grasped this detail, and really did a good job. According to historical records, in order to gain Empress Dowager Cixi's liking for him, Li Lianying openly contradicted the Guangxu Emperor more than once.
For example, when the Battle of Jiawu was about to break out, Empress Dowager Cixi was just sixty years old. On the issue of war and peace, Empress Dowager Cixi clashed with the Guangxu Emperor, so Li Lianying openly delayed the opportunity to appear while the emperor was waiting for the empress dowager to arrive, so that the emperor made a big face. However, the Guangxu Emperor was still very temperamental at that time, so he grabbed Li Lianying and beat him.
However, Li Lianying's move was also pleased by Empress Dowager Cixi, so she turned her head and asked the Guangxu Emperor to settle the account, so that Li Lianying took revenge, and also played a mighty trick in front of the emperor.
Of course, this matter was not over, Li Lianying was still frantically catering to the needs of Empress Dowager Cixi, and he saw that the empress dowager only wanted to live a big birthday and did not want to start a war, so he desperately advocated that peace should be the mainstay, and resolutely prevented the main war faction from coming to Cixi's side.
It can be said that through the above behaviors, Li Lianying successfully made Empress Dowager Cixi feel that Li Lianying was the eunuch who best met her needs, and even said something that made people numb: Little Plum is the most intimate!
In line with Empress Dowager Cixi's hobbies and the needs of the empress, Li Lianying's position was basically unstoppable.
Of course, in addition to the above two reasons, there is actually another reason that cannot be ignored, that is, the technical problem of taking pictures. In the historical records, Li Lianying may not be very handsome, but she will definitely not look ugly. This is actually very easy to understand, because Empress Dowager Cixi is a person who looks at her face, if she is surrounded by a very ugly eunuch, can Empress Dowager Cixi bear it?
Moreover, at that time, Li Lianying was already more than fifty years old, and when people got old, they would naturally have age spots and various aging appearances, so it could not be concluded that Li Lianying was ugly in the past.
Of course, the main reason is that there was a problem with the photographic technology at that time, because the photo exposure at that time was not enough, so the character image in the photo was sluggish, and the color was not clear, which inevitably made people look terrible.
If you don't believe it, you can take a look at the photo of Empress Dowager Cixi and the wives of ministers and ministers of various countries, where everyone is like a monkey, and it is difficult for us to imagine that the aesthetics of foreigners are so distorted, it is obvious that there is a problem with taking pictures.
It is precisely because of the above reasons that Li Lianying has been favored by Cixi. However, although Li Lianying may not be as terrifying as in the photo, he is not a good person in history, after all, he has contributed to the fainting and incompetence of Empress Dowager Cixi.
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