The Guangxu Emperor was the eleventh emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Compared with other emperors of the Qing Dynasty, he was both an enviable lucky man and an unfortunate person with a bad fate. Fortunately, he was not qualified to inherit the throne at all, only because the Tongzhi Emperor had no heirs after his death, and as a relative of the imperial family, he unexpectedly obtained the throne and became a generation of emperors who ordered the world to dare not obey.
However, Guangxu was an extremely unfortunate emperor. First of all, he was not born at the right time, during his reign, the Qing Dynasty had entered the end of the temple, and it was difficult to return to the multiplication of all kinds of evils, and it was difficult to return step by step, and it slid into the abyss of destruction. Secondly, on Guangxu's head, there was also an arrogant and strong woman, Empress Dowager Cixi. Cixi single-handedly controlled the power of the heavens, and Guangxu had the name of the emperor, but in fact it was almost completely hollowed out, becoming a puppet emperor with no real name.
Cixi not only arbitrarily interfered in the affairs of the dynasty, but also grasped the major affairs of the military and the state, and even Guangxu's marriage affairs and private feelings she had to interfere arbitrarily. Guangxu's favorite concubine, zhenfei, was not pleased with Cixi and was killed alive by Cixi. In order to better control the Guangxu Emperor, Cixi also married jingfen, the daughter of her brother Guixiang, to Guangxu as empress dowager, also known as Empress Longyu.
It is reasonable to say that Empress Longyu has Cixi behind her back, and she is also the mother of a country in the Qing Dynasty, so she should live comfortably. Calling the wind and rain is right. But on the contrary, Empress Longyu's life was extremely bumpy and desolate, so much so that she was called "nest daughter-in-law" by eunuchs behind her back. Why is this happening?
There are two reasons for this. First, because Empress Longyu and Guangxu had a disagreement, the two were strangers. Guangxu only had Concubine Zhen in mind, and at the same time, he decided that Empress Longyu was Cixi's eyeliner and was extremely indifferent to her. Second, because Empress Longyu had a weak and cowardly personality, clumsy and clumsy tongue, and was not the kind of clever and clever character, Cixi did not have a good feeling for her. As a result, Longyu became a rat in the bellows, both ends angry, trembling on either side, spending all day in melancholy and depression.
The harem concubines of the Qing Dynasty court had a fixed "annual routine" and "monthly routine" every month, which was similar to the official's Feng Lu in a sense. The Qing Dynasty implemented a low-salary system, not only the officials' salaries were extremely low, but the annual and monthly routines given to the concubines were very low compared to the Tang, Song, Yuanming and Ming dynasties.
Moreover, these years and months of regular money are nominally issued to a certain concubine, but in fact, it is not only for the use of the concubine alone. For example, in the Zhong pu palace where Empress Longyu was located, the monthly money and rewards of dozens of eunuchs and maids in the palace came from this silver. Moreover, in order to maintain the necessary decency and pomp, the daily expenses of jewelry, clothing, and cosmetics are extremely large.
According to the custom, every three festivals and two birthdays of the emperor and the empress, the empress must prepare a generous gift with heavy money. This overhead is also a large amount. The princes of each family and the fujin and gege of the royal family enter the palace every month to worship, and the empress must give rewards according to the custom. All aspects of expenditure added together, the annual routines and months are stretched, the income is not enough, and the deficit is pulled every year.
The empress of the Qing Dynasty spent money, all income and expenditure must be recorded in the accounts, and every month and every year must be reported to the empress dowager Lafayette, called "annual total" and "monthly total". Because of the fear of upsetting Cixi Lafayette, Empress Longyu's annual and monthly routines were in deficit every year, but she still had to report a large balance every year. The old eunuch Xin Xiuming recalled that only from the fifteenth year of Guangxu to the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, according to the "Nian Total" account, Empress Longyu should have a balance of more than 300,000 taels of silver in her hands, but where did she have so much silver in her hands.
Empress Longyu was worried about this all day, often crying secretly, afraid that Cixi Lafayette would check the accounts one day. In case it is found that the silver account does not match, she will have to be punished by the empress, and if she is not good, her family will also be affected, and she will lose her family to make up for this illusory arrears.
Until the year of Gengzi, when foreign invading armies invaded the Forbidden City, the palace suffered a catastrophe, and the gold and silver goods suffered great losses. The old eunuch in the palace guided Longyu and let her use the excuse that the silver had been looted by the enemy army, so that she could write off this rotten account, which was a relief. From this point of view, Empress Longyu is known as the "daughter-in-law of the nest".
Reference: Court Trivia