In China's long imperial system of more than two thousand years, more than 400 emperors have emerged, although most of them can live a rich life of bells and bells, but only a small number of emperors can enjoy the age of heaven, most of them are unnatural deaths, such as being poisoned, killed by ministers and so on. In contrast, the life expectancy of qing emperors is generally longer, but it is interesting that the emperors of the first and middle periods of the Qing Dynasty were very long-lived, such as the Kangxi Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor and the Jiaqing Emperor, but in the middle and late period, the emperors' life expectancy was getting shorter and shorter, taking the Xianfeng Emperor as an example, he died at the age of 31 at a strange and violent death in the Yanbo Zhishuang Hall.
How did the Xianfeng Emperor die? The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" does not mention anything about this, but only recounts the process of the Xianfeng Emperor from illness to death, "Xin ugly, shang he does not hesitate." Nong Yin, On the Great Gradual... 癸卯, 上崩于行宫,Chinese New Year's Eve. However, the book "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" does record this. According to this book, the Xianfeng Emperor was actually weak and sick since childhood, and he was often sick before he ascended the throne, and his face was sallow. Later, after asking around, "the doctor said that deer blood can be drunk, so he raised hundreds of deer and took blood every day to advance." In other words, the Xianfeng Emperor had to drink deer blood every day to replenish his life.
In the Xianfeng Decade (1860 AD), the British and French forces invaded Beijing, and the Xianfeng Emperor hastily fled from the Yuanmingyuan to Rehe for refuge in the name of "Mulan Qiuhu". Arriving at the summer resort, the Xianfeng Emperor indulged in the sound and color of dogs and horses every day to relieve the bitterness and trepidation in his heart. On August 22 of the following year, "(Emperor Wenzong) made a great fuss, ordered the deer to be taken, and the pawn could not be obtained, and collapsed." From these records, it is not difficult to see that the reason why the Xianfeng Emperor died young was largely because of his poor physical fitness, and this was a congenital deficiency, after all, he was born prematurely. Logically, if the congenital deficiency is good, it can also be made up for by the day after tomorrow, but the Xianfeng Emperor still has three bad habits, which hastened his death and made his early death a "destiny".
The first bad habit is the love of drinking. "Emperor Wenzong was fond of drinking, and every time he got drunk, he would be angry", the Xianfeng Emperor liked to drink, but the amount of wine and wine were not very good, and when he drank, he was drunk, he lost his temper and cursed people for a crime, and even punished the palace women and eunuchs around him. By the way, long-term drinking also had a negative impact on his descendants, such as the sons of The Poet Immortal Li Bai were all stupid children, and the son of the Xianfeng Emperor Zaichun also died early. The second bad habit is opium smoking. At that time, the Daoguang Emperor also explicitly ordered the prohibition of opium, but in the generation of the Xianfeng Emperor, he openly violated the ancestral precepts and gave the title of "Yishou Ruyi Cream" to hide the eyes and ears of the people. Of course, this did not prolong his life, but made his spirit more and more depressed, and his physical condition also plummeted.
If the first two bad habits were an important cause of the xianfeng Emperor's death, then the third bad habit hastened his death. The number of harem concubines of the Qing emperors as a whole was less than that of other dynasties, but the Xianfeng Emperor was unusual, and his harem was very full, in addition to the empress Sakda clan, the successor Niu Cobalt Lu clan, the Yi guifei Yehenara clan, the Li concubine Ta Tatara clan, the Wan concubine, the mei concubine, the Qi concubine, the Ji guiren, the Huan guiren, the Xi guiren, the Qinggui people, the ronggui people, the jade nobles, the Xuan guiren and other concubines with clear names, there were also many beautiful girls in the Forbidden City and the Yuanmingyuan, all of which were ordered by the Xianfeng Emperor to be collected from all over the country. Among them, the four most beautiful women are named Xinghuachun, Wulingchun, Peony Chun and HaitangChun, and have their own courtyards in the Yuanmingyuan, which are very open and luxurious, and the courtyards and courtyards are interconnected, which is convenient for the Xianfeng Emperor to walk back and forth.
For the Xianfeng Emperor, his physical condition was not ideal, but he did not know moderation, excessive indulgence eventually made him hollowed out by wine, often dizzy, weak limbs, even normal government can not handle, all rely on the assistance of Yi Guifei. In the final analysis, the Xianfeng Emperor was responsible for his own early death, after all, even he didn't care about himself, where would those slaves speak out and persuade him? Of course, the experience of the Xianfeng Emperor is also a warning for modern people, after all, most men have the habit of drinking and smoking, which is actually damaging their own life.
bibliography:
"Qing History Manuscript , Volume 20 , Honji 20 " Qing Barnyard Banknotes "