Eunuch Nine thousand years old Li Lianying
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the grand eunuch Li Lianying (1848-1911) (also known as Li Lianying), whose original name was Li Jinxi, was given the name Lianying by Empress Dowager Cixi, commonly known as Lianying. He was the chief eunuch of the Cixi period of the Qing Dynasty and accompanied Empress Dowager Cixi for nearly fifty-three years. He was the most powerful eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty. He was also the first person to call Empress Dowager Cixi "Lafayette".
Daoguang was born on October 17, 1848 (November 12, 1848), Xianfeng Five Years (1855) 8 years old as a eunuch, Xianfeng Six Years (1856) 9 years old into the palace, Xianfeng Ten Years (1860) 12 years old, The Anglo-French coalition army burned the Yuanmingyuan, with the Driving OfeHe, Xianfeng Eleventh Year (1861) 13 years old, Xianfeng Emperor Yan driving, with the Two Palace Empresses returned to Beijing, Tongzhi Six Years (1867) 19 years old, was appointed second general manager, Tongzhi Eight Years (1869) 21 years old, An Dehai was killed, Li Lianying was appointed Grand Governor, Guangxu fourteen years (1888) 40 years old, with the king of alcohol to inspect the navy, Guangxu twenty-six years (1900) 52 years old, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, with Guangxu and Cixi fled to Xi'an, Guangxu twenty-seven years (1901) 53 years old, with the return of the dynasty, Guangxu thirty-four years (1908) 60 years old, Cixi returned to heaven, to Longyu to return cixi calendar year rewards, Xuan reunification first year (1909) 61 years old, for Cixi to keep filial piety for a hundred days, retired, Xuan reunification three years (1911) in the first four months of February 64 years old, died. He was buried at the Li Gong Ancestral Hall on the north side of the Guandi Temple in Enjizhuang, Balizhuang West Erli, Haidian District, FuchengmenWai.
Li Lianying, formerly known as Li Jinxi, was born in 1848 in Dacheng County, Shuntian Province, and is now a native of Lijia Village, Zangtun Township, Dacheng County, Hebei Province, and his ancestral home is Qihe, Shandong. According to his epitaph, he was born in the twenty-eighth year of Daoguang (1848 AD) and entered the palace at the age of 9. The Qing palace archives also prove that he was indeed sent to the imperial palace as a eunuch in the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857) by Prince Duanhua of Zheng, but at the age of 13.
Li Lianying's four brothers, the second eldest, his father was an unemployed vagrant in the Hejian Province, because he often helped a distant uncle with no children to work, his uncle later recognized him as a son and married him a wife. Due to Li Lianying's father's hard work, the Li family's life is also very good. After the death of her uncle, Li Lianying's family was forced to move to Beijing. In Beijing, Li Lianying's parents did leather-making work and was known as "Leather Salt Plum". At this time, the living conditions of the Li family were not very good, so Li Lianying entered the Duanhua Mansion of Prince Zheng as a eunuch. According to folklore, Li Lianying came to Beijing, because she mastered a set of techniques for combing new hairstyles, and entrusted the introduction of Shen Lanyu, a fellow eunuch, to enter the palace as the combing eunuch of Empress Dowager Cixi, and was thus favored by Cixi. There is also a saying that Li Lianying relies on combing her hair. In fact, Li Lianying did not specifically comb the hair of Empress Dowager Cixi.
There was a eunuch in the palace who combed his hair, "This is a relatively favored old eunuch, gentle, docile, gentle, polite, always from the wrinkles of his eyes to reveal a happy smile, serving people tepidly, just right, so that the people who are served feel very comfortable." The palace ladies were very affectionate with him and sincerely called him Uncle Liu. He often brought some needles and needles and threads to the palace women, which was what the palace women lacked, but he did not give it to a person, anyone could use it. When the palace ladies saw him, they sometimes asked him for an auspicious word, and he always returned the salute very modestly, no matter who it was. The old lady knew that his popularity was good, and often said, "Go down and let them brew you a cup of tea!" "This is a big face, and it can make the palace maid enjoy tea, which is a very decent thing in the palace." Eunuch Liu repeatedly asked him to kneel down and said, "Slaves don't dare to bear it, slaves don't dare to bear it!" The more the empress dowager gave her face, the more modest and careful he was, which was the reason why Eunuch Liu had been favored for a long time. --"The Tale of the Palace Women" (Jin Yi, Shen Yiling)
However, folklore is far from the actual situation of Li Lianying's entry into the palace as a teenager recorded in the epitaph and qing palace archives, and is obviously fabricated. However, this theory was widely circulated, and even when the korean ministers impeached Li Lianying later, they still called Li Lianying "Little Grate Li" ("Grate" was a tool used by women to comb their hair in the past).
Li Lianying's former name when she entered the palace was Li Jinxi, and it was only after 14 years after entering the palace that she was named Lian Ying by Cixi. He worked as an errand boy at the Concert Office and the Jingren Palace on the East Road until he was 16 years old in the third year of Tongzhi (1864) when he was transferred to Cixi in Changchun Palace.
At this time, the eunuch An Dehai was favored by Cixi and was a big red man in front of the empress. Although the two entered the palace at the same time, their status was far behind. Later, Because of excessive arrogance, An Dehai was finally beheaded by Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong, in the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869) for the crime of "violating the ancestral system and leaving the Beijing Division without authorization".
Li Lianying was a very clever and well-behaved person, and he understood from the An Dehai incident how to correct the relationship between the master and the slave. Li Lianying not only learned to figure out her master's temper and hobbies, and tried her best to please her master, but she was also cautious and cautious at all times. The epitaph says that he "respects things in things and lenient in things, and if he has a year, he has not slackened off." That is to say, to be respectful to the master, to the subordinates, and to dare not slacken off for many years. This is also the secret of Li Lianying's success.
Empress Dowager Cixi loved to watch Peking Opera and often rewarded artists with something. Once, after watching the famous actor Yang Xiaolou's play, she summoned him to her eyes, pointed to the table full of pastries and said, "These are given to you, take them back!" ”
Yang Xiaolou prostrated his head to Xie En, he did not want the cake, so he had the courage to say: "Thank you Lafayette, these valuable things, slaves do not dare to take, please... Plus gift points..."
"What do you want?" Cixi was in a good mood and was not angry.
Yang Xiaolou prostrated his head again and said, "Lafayette Hong Fuqitian, I don't know if I can give a 'word' to the slaves." Cixi listened, and for a moment of happiness, she asked the eunuch to bring a pen, ink and paper. With a flick of her pen, Cixi wrote a word for "fu" (福).
The little prince who was standing by the side looked at the words written by Cixi and quietly said, "The word Fu is next to the word 'see', not next to the word 'clothes'!" "When Yang Xiaolou looked at it, this word was written incorrectly, and if he took it back, he would be discussed by others, wouldn't it be a crime of deception?" It was not good not to take it back, and Empress Dowager Cixi wanted her own life in anger. Either or not, no, he was in a cold sweat.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and Empress Dowager Cixi also felt very embarrassed, not only did not want Yang Xiaolou to take the wrong word, but also embarrassed to come over again.
Li Lianying next to her had a brain move, and said with a smile: "The blessing of Lafayette is a little more than anyone in the world!" When Yang Xiaolou heard this, his mind turned around, and he quickly kowtowed: "Lafayette Fuduo, this blessing above ten thousand people, how dare a slave take it!" Empress Dowager Cixi was worried about not being able to get off the stage, and when she heard this, she hurriedly pushed the boat along the water, smiled, and said, "Well, I'll give it to you the next day." In this way, Li Lianying relieved the two of them from their predicament.
Thirteen years after tongzhi, 26-year-old Li Lianying served as the grand eunuch of the head of the Chuxiu Palace. This position generally requires 30 years of service in the palace to be eligible to serve, and Li Lianying has just completed 17 years of entering the palace at this time.
In the fifth year of Guangxu, Li Lianying served as the chief manager of the Four Pins of Hualing in Chuxiu Palace. As Cixi became more and more powerful, Li Lianying's prestige became prominent. When Li Lianying was 31 years old, she could already sit on an equal footing with the Grand Master of the Worship Room (the chief eunuch of the Qing Palace).
Twenty years after Guangxu, 46-year-old Li Lianying was rewarded with wearing a flower plume on the top of erpin. Although this is only a symbol of honor, it is something that has never been seen among eunuchs. The Yongzheng Emperor stipulated that the rank of eunuchs should be limited to four products, but Cixi broke the rules handed down by his ancestors for Li Lianying.
What is puzzling is that although Li Lianying was favored by Cixi, she never left Cixi and became the chief manager of the worship room. It is not known whether Cixi is unwilling, Li Lianying herself is unwilling, or whether someone is obstructing it.
The relationship between Cixi and Li Lianying over the decades was extraordinary. Cixi is politically a dictator with a strong desire for power and a fierce heart, but at the same time an old woman with fragile feelings and fear of loneliness.
For decades, the slaves around Cixi have changed stubble after stubble, and the only ones who are understanding except For Dehai are Li Lianying. The late Qing eunuch Liu Xingqiao and others recalled that the relationship between Cixi and Li Lianying was very deep, and only Li Lianying could resolve Cixi's troubles and serve her the most.
In "Insights on Court Life in the Late Qing Dynasty", Liu Xingqiao said: "Three meals a day, morning and evening, they both exchange eunuchs or face-to-face greetings... When she lived in the Xiyuan and Summer Palaces, Empress Dowager Cixi often came to Li Lianying: 'Lian Ying! Let's take a walk! Empress Dowager Cixi sometimes summoned Li Lianying to her palace to talk about the art of huang lao's immortality, and the two often talked about late at night. ”
From this account, it can be seen that Li Lianying actually became a "companion" who could not leave for a moment in Cixi's later life.
Li Lianying had to hollow out her mind in order to curry favor with Cixi. Once Cixi visited the Summer Palace for her birthday. Li Lianying arranged a program for Cixi to release birds and fish. When the bird cage basket was opened, the bird fish came out one after another, and within a minute they returned. This is Li Lianying saying, 'Lafayette Hong Fuqitian, even the fish and birds are reluctant to go' Although Cixi knew that there must be hidden feelings in it, she was also very listening to Li Lianying's words. He rewarded Li Lianying. In fact, this is all trained by Li Lianying. The bird fish is hungry for a day, then opened to let it fly out, and then put food in the basket to lead it home.
Cixi's favor for Li Lianying grew day by day, which indeed caused discussion and uneasiness among the government and the public. Some people say that Li Lian's power has fallen to the opposition, accepted bribes, and thrown himself under his door to become a high-ranking official; some people say that he "interfered in the government and extensively planted private parties"; and even some people said that he framed the ministers who supported the restoration and sided with Guangxu.
In April of the twelfth year of Guangxu (1886), Li Hongzhang, the governor and minister of Beiyang, said that the Beiyang Navy had been trained into an army, and asked the imperial court to send ministers to review it. Cixi sent the Prime Minister of the Navy, Prince Shuo, to inspect it. Since Prince Shuo was the biological father of the Guangxu Emperor and had a noble status, he had to send eunuchs and imperial doctors to accompany him. Prince Shuo, on the other hand, was a very deep and cautious man in the city government, and he took the initiative to ask Li Lianying to accompany him to reduce the empress's suspicion of himself, and Cixi immediately approved.
When Prince Shuo returned to Beijing in early May, there was a cry of discontent in the imperial court. Inspector Yushi Zhu Yixin played a song to Guangxu and criticized Li Lianying for accompanying Prince Shuo to inspect the navy. They also said that Li Lianying was arrogant and self-respecting, befriended local officials, accepted bribes, and deserved to be investigated.
In this regard, Wang Zhao, a well-known reformist figure in the Qing Dynasty, said that after Prince Shuo left Beijing, every time he received a civil and military official, he asked Li Lianying to accompany him. His intention was to avoid the suspicion of power grabs, and Li Lianying could testify. Li Lianying, on the other hand, remembered Andehai's lesson, dressed modestly every day, took a dry cigarette bag for the prince, filled and handed cigarettes at any time, and returned to the residence without seeing a visitor.
Judging from Li Lianying's always cautious performance, Wang Zhao's statement is more credible. Moreover, Zhu Yixin's recital did not cite a single fact that Li Lianying had violated the law. After Cixi inquired about the situation, she ordered that Zhu Yixin be demoted from Yushi to the post of chief minister.
In the twenty years of Guangxu, the Beiyang Navy suffered a great defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, and public opinion throughout the country was in an uproar. People did not dare to directly criticize Cixi, so they pointed the spearhead at Li Hongzhang, the minister of Beiyang and the governor directly subordinate to him, and at the same time took Li Lianying with him.
Inspector Yu Shi Enpu of Shaanxi Province, Inspector Yu Shi'an Weijun of Fujian Province, and Chu Chengbo of the Bureaucracy, accusing the Beiyang admiral of missing the military plane, and secretly communicating with the chief eunuch Li Lianying to shield each other. Among them, An Weijun has "peace talks come from the empress dowager, and Li Lianying is left and right", saying that the decision on Japan seems to have been decided by the empress dowager, but in fact it has been swayed by Li Lianying. This sentence has become a major piece of evidence for people to criticize Li Lianying's interference in the government affairs.
In fact, An Weijun's original intention was to ask Cixi not to restrain the emperor in everything and to severely punish Li Hongzhang. Although Li Lianying is involved in the compromise, it is only used as a foil.
Cixi was extremely angry and issued an edict in the name of the emperor, saying that everything in the world should be listened to by the empress dowager. Subsequently, An Weijun was dismissed from his post and enlisted on the charge of "separating" the empress dowager from the emperor.
The courtiers' attacks on Li Lianying were fruitless, mainly because the attacks were based solely on hearsay and could not produce real evidence.
According to the analysis of Qing historians, many people who wanted to seek official positions in the local areas walked through Li Lianying's path, but no one could say whether he really went to Cixi to pass through. With Cixi's moody personality, even Li Lianying did not dare to act rashly. When things were done, people thought that it was the role of General Manager Li, and if things did not work out, it was that General Manager Li did not give face. And how much is true and how much is false, except for the people around the empress, who can say it clearly?
Although there is insufficient evidence to say that Li Lianying interfered in political affairs, it is absolutely true that he is greedy for money. Wu Yong, who was once the governor of Huailai County, once recorded a personal experience of him in the "Discussion of Gengzi Xi hunting cong".
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, Cixi led Guangxu and hundreds of officials to flee, and Wu Yong served as the grain bureau on the way to the west, holding the power of money and grain. He recalled that after arriving in Shanxi, the empress dowager's pomp and circumstance became bigger and bigger, and all the expenses had to be borne by the local government, and the eunuchs took the opportunity to extort money.
Like the chief eunuch and the little eunuch with some power, they all need a few or a dozen silver to send. But the chief eunuch is different, and it is absolutely impossible not to have a hundred or two or so.
Not only that, Li Lianying and others also tried every means to extort and extort officials from the DPRK and China. Jiangning Weaving is the Nanjing-based agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for handling satin garments and purchasing various royal items. Every time Jiang Ning Weaving weaved clothing, he had to ask the eunuchs in the palace for instructions and take back the painting samples, making them according to the drawings, which was the opportunity for Li Lianying and his gang of eunuchs to ask for money.
On the third day of August in the twelfth year of Guangxu, Lai Yu, a member of the Jiangning Weaving Station in Beijing, said in a letter to Jiangning Weaving Guanghou that Li Lianying had extorted 120 taels of silver through them. Lai Yu said in the letter that if others can still use good words to grind, only this Li Manager is not easy to deal with.
With Cixi's shrewdness and sophistication, she could not have been unaware that the eunuchs around her were doing something wrong, but as long as they did not interfere in political affairs and served herself comfortably, the eunuchs' greed for money was nothing in her eyes.
Cixi and Guangxu are at odds, and how does Li Lianying, who is deeply favored by Cixi, get along between the two? The two-sided approach of flattery and exquisite beauty is his strategy of always standing in an invincible position and self-preservation.
Some people said that he sided with the empress dowager, opposed the change of law, and framed the imperial party, and even some people said that Guangxu was poisoned and killed by Li Lianying. But some people also say that Li Lianying is sleek and pleasing on both sides, not only does the empress dowager like him, but even Guangxu loves him because he was cared for by him since childhood, and praises him as "loyal to the Lord".
Wang Zhao once told such a story: Cixi led Guangxu and Wenwu hundred officials to flee and returned to Beijing and went to Baoding to live. The place where the empress dowager slept was covered with gorgeous bedding, and Li Lianying lived a little worse, but it was also very good. The place where Guangxu slept was miserable. Li Lianying waited for Cixi to go to sleep and came to visit, and saw Guangxu sitting in front of the lamp, and none of the little eunuchs were on duty in the palace. When I asked, I realized that the emperor had not even laid out any covers, and it was the middle of winter, and it was impossible to sleep at all. Li Lianying immediately knelt down and hugged Guangxu's leg and cried bitterly: "Slaves deserve to die for their sins!" And he took his own futon for Guangxu to use. Guangxu later recalled the pain of fleeing west, saying: "Without Li Anda (calling and da to eunuchs, which means respect or obedience), I would not have lived today." ”
After the change of law, Li Lianying spoke cautiously and did not clearly express her position on cixi's side, and Cixi was emotionally distant from him from then on. After fleeing west and returning to Beijing, Li Lianying believed that she had fulfilled her duties in serving the royal family all her life and could consider retiring.
On October 22, 1908, the 34th year of Guangxu(1908), Cixi died at the Yiluan Hall in Xiyuan, Beijing. Li Lianying completed Cixi's funeral and left the imperial palace where she had lived for 51 years on the second day of February in the first year of Xuan reunification (1909).
In 1985, Tong Xun published an article entitled "The Mystery of Li Lianying's Cause of Death". In the article, not only the whole process of excavating Li Lianying's tomb in 1966 was disclosed for the first time, as well as the truth about Li Lianying's head, but also put forward the view that Li Lianying died of death. But in academia, there are different voices. Tang Yinian is a researcher at the First Historical Archive of China. Over the years, he went through almost all the archives of Qing eunuchs. He did not give a positive or negative judgment on whether Li Lianying died or not, but he believed that there were many debatable points in the various theories circulating among the people.
In Tang Yinian's eyes, the alert and sleek Li Lianying could never have been killed by the enemies in the palace. Tang Yinian believed that at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Shunzhi Emperor had set up an iron plaque stipulating that eunuchs were not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the dynasty, so Li Lianying could not participate in the partisan disputes in the imperial court at all, in this case, he could not have offended the revolutionaries, and when he left the palace, it had no impact on political affairs, so there was no point in killing him. At the same time, Tang Yinian also believed that the story of Li Lianying being killed by the bandits on the road to collect debts was even more fabricated. Whether it was Li Lianying's wealth and status, or the age when he was older than Jiazi after he left the palace, it was impossible to go out in person to collect debts.
In the folk, there are many theories about Li Lianying's death. Legend has it that he died at the hands of the Revolutionary Party. Because Li Lianying happened to die during the Xinhai Revolution. In addition, there are rumors that Li Lianying was killed by enemies in the palace, and some people say that he was killed on the way to Shandong to collect debts.
There are many legends surrounding Li Lianying's exit from the palace and his posthumous events. Some people said that he saw Guangxu's younger brother Zaifeng overseeing the regency of the state and was afraid of retaliation and retired to the palace; others said that after Li Lianying's death, the eunuchs in the palace snatched his inheritance one after another, and Empress Longyu confiscated all his property; others said that Li Lianying offended many people before his death, and after leaving the palace, he lived in simplicity, but was eventually assassinated near Houhai.
Although similar legends are very popular, from the perspective of the Arrangement of the Qing Palace for Li Lianying's departure from the palace and after his death, these legends are unbelievable. But why is li Lianying's tomb only his head left, and his body is missing, and no one knows the reason. But at least, the claim that Li Lianying died of illness doesn't hold water.
As a eunuch, Li Lianying's status was extremely humble. The difference was that due to the appreciation and favor of Empress Dowager Cixi, he enjoyed unprecedented power and status as a palace eunuch, and money and wealth also rolled in. But because of this special relationship with Cixi, he became one of the most notorious figures in modern Chinese history.
Li Lianying's tomb was destroyed as early as 1966, and only the rubbings of the epitaph have survived.
Li Lianying died three years after Xuan reunification, at the age of 64. At this time, the Qing Dynasty, which had lasted for more than two hundred years, was already in turmoil, and its demise was only in the blink of an eye.
During the Cultural Revolution, Li Lianying's grave was excavated, a teacher was assigned to clean up, and as a result, after opening the coffin, he found that there was only a head and a long braid in his coffin, and the body of the body disappeared for no reason, and the specific direction could not be verified, but Li Lianying's inscription described that her body was complete, and the biggest possibility was that there were too many people who had offended before he died. Tragically, the archives of Li Lianying's burial of heads and no body records are preserved in today's Qing court archives. But Li Lianying's stepdaughter, Li Lezheng, said her grandfather died of dysentery and died suddenly within three or four days of illness. But some experts doubt this explanation, because according to March 4, 1911, it was the early spring season, and it was puzzling to get dysentery in this season.
For these different versions of the rumors, although no direct evidence of Li Lianying's murder has been found, experts believe that the vague records in those historical materials, as well as the rumors scattered in the folk, and even the flaws in the words of Li Lianying's descendants, have hinted at the various mysteries of Li Lianying's death.