The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in ancient China, and with the development of the Xinhai Revolution, China's thousands of years of feudal monarchy completely disappeared. As the last de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi had many powerful helpers around her, of which Li Lianying was one of them.
People familiar with the history of the late Qing Dynasty know that Li Lianying accompanied Cixi for more than decades since entering the imperial palace, until Cixi's death. When Li Lianying was a child, she entered the palace as a eunuch and became the grand master step by step. More than a hundred days after Cixi's death, when Empress Longyu was in power with Puyi in her arms, Li Lianying asked Empress Longyu to resign, saying that she was old and wanted to return to her hometown, and also dedicated many treasures that Cixi had given her to herself during her lifetime. Thus, Li Lianying left the Forbidden City where he had lived for about fifty years.
As the grand administrator of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Lianying naturally did not have to worry about the economy after he left the palace. So, after his death, did these gold and silver treasures also go underground with him? In fact, according to historical records, he distributed his gold and silver treasures to more than a hundred of his relatives before his death. In 1966, more than fifty years after Li Lianying's death, there was a tomb on the campus of Sixty-One Middle School in Beijing at that time, and the teachers who were undergoing renovation at that time had a task to dig up the grave. This tomb is Li Lianying's tomb, and after the tomb was excavated, people only cared about the treasures in the tomb, and did not care about the corpse at all. However, one teacher noticed that, according to the teacher's recollection, only the head of the body he touched at that time could touch the shape, and in addition, it was almost all rotten bedding. That is to say, Li Lianying in the tomb only has a head, and where the body is is missing, which has caused various speculations among historians.
Some scholars have therefore explored the cause of Li Lianying's death, it is said that Li Lianying's funeral ceremony after his death is very simple, which further increases people's doubts, as the chief administrator who was heavily valued by Cixi at the end of the Qing Dynasty, why is he so simple in his funeral at all, and how did he die? The canonical records only say that he died of illness, but it does not say that he died of any illness. According to historians interviewing the descendants of the Li family and their neighbors, some people blinked their words, and some people said that they died of dysentery. If you die of illness, why do you have a different head?
Some scholars suspected that he was killed by the imperial party, so the descendants of the Li family did not dare to speak out, so the funeral ceremony could only be done simply. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the dispute between the imperial party and the Cixi party intensified, so was it because after Cixi's death, the then Guangxu Emperor's party killed Cixi's henchmen in order to take revenge? First of all, the time of cixi and Guangxu's death was very close, the imperial party had no main backbone after Guangxu's death, and there was no need for them to kill a eunuch who had no power to return to his hometown; secondly, Li Lianying was actually a person who would be left and right, otherwise it would be impossible to live peacefully in the deep palace for decades, and it would be able to thrive. He was ostensibly a cixi man, but he did not ignore Guangxu as rumors had it. It is rumored that during the eight-nation alliance invading China and Cixi fleeing west with Guangxu, Li Lianying saw that Guangxu slept without bedding at night, and quickly prostrated her head to say that this was all the fault of the slaves, and also brought her own bedding to Guangxu, which was also made into a poem. It can be seen that the relationship between Li Lianying and Guangxu is not so bad. Moreover, he also knew that Cixi was older after all, and after her death, the ruler must still be the emperor, so he could not offend the Guangxu Emperor.
So why is he in a different place? In the end, historians have concluded that he did die of dysentery, so why was he in a different place? That's because the eunuchs of ancient times felt that they had been purified, their bodies were incomplete, and they had no face to see their ancestors, so they buried their heads only after death, not their bodies. There seems to be some truth to this statement, so do you think it is reasonable? Let's share your opinion in the comments section!
(All pictures are from the Internet)