introduction
The few people who met the empress dowager described her as a tall, tall woman with a straight, beautiful face. She has eagle eyes and has distinct Tatar characteristics. She has a noble and arrogant attitude, and her voice carries an unshakable authority and absolute majesty. ———— Eliza Ruhama Sidmore, "China, The Empire of Longevity"
Empress Dowager Cixi is no stranger to the current Chinese, as the actual ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, her life is also very legendary, after all, there are not many women in Chinese history who can leave their names, and there are even fewer women who have been in a high position to have a very important influence on a generation of dynasties, through the records of the history books, but also let many people know that when women are in a high position, they will often be like male rulers like the "harem three thousand" hobby, and Cixi was widowed from the age of 26, ruling the Qing Dynasty for 48 years. But there are few scandals, what is going on?
The regular system can not be changed, and a coating cannot be applied to wanfang
For female rulers, the first thing people think of must be Wu Zetian, because she is truly moving towards the high position of the emperor, unlike other female rulers, more just have the actual right to rule, in name there is no, so Wu Zetian as the first female emperor of China, her harem is very full, and even there are records that she and her daughter Princess Taiping also gave each other male pets, it can be said that it completely subverted the past shackles on women, and some other rulers such as Empress Lü, Although only one person is recorded, there are also some, and Cixi is the closest female ruler to us, and she does not have a "harem".
Cixi herself is not a low-key ruler, her life on the one hand is very close to us in terms of age, very easy to investigate, on the other hand, she is personally relatively high-profile, life is more relatively transparent, so most of the research on her private life is still relatively real, she was elected to the palace in 1852, she was named Lan Guiren, when she was only 17 years old, at the age of 20 gave birth to the Tongzhi Emperor, is also the only child of the Xianfeng Emperor, but the Xianfeng Emperor's health is not good, Therefore, Cixi was widowed at the age of 26.
26 years old to the current people said that it is only just graduated from college, life has just begun, it is the age of marriage and love full of expectations, and Cixi has begun to live a widowed life at this time, and then because of the mother's strong son, Cixi also began her own era of power, the marriage lost in the career to find back, but she is still still only a very young woman, or a woman with power, she has the opportunity to have the ability to keep male pets, but she still chose to live alone, There are also very important reasons for this. That is, when the dynasty came to the Qing Dynasty, in fact, the feudal empire had a more perfect system for the rule and system of the harem, and in order to prevent the possibility of appearing in the harem in the past, it was very strict in all aspects, first of all, the eunuch who served the first eunuch around the harem concubine was very strict, and there would be no "false eunuch" situation that could appear in the wild history or film and television drama, and every eunuch who experienced palace punishment had to undergo strict inspection when entering and leaving the palace. Therefore, on the basis of this, the emergence of men is eliminated.
Secondly, the management of palace concubines at that time was to require them to have a bunch of palace eunuchs in and out, recording their words and deeds at any time, in such a situation, it was also completely eliminated that the palace concubines had the possibility of private conversations than people, not to mention the opportunity to have private male pets, and in the layout of the Forbidden City, the Qing Dynasty had a very clear boundary between the former dynasty and the harem, even if Cixi was the actual ruler at that time, it was not possible to break through this boundary, so Cixi did not have this reason for male pets. Subjectively, we can't explore what she thinks, but objectively, the regulations of the Qing Dynasty have eliminated the possibility of her captive male pet.
It is even more unlikely that the situation of them after Wu Zetian Lü, the appearance of one two or three, according to Rong Er, who was once a palace maid, said in the "Palace Women's Past Talk", she entered the palace for seven or eight years, according to the rules and regulations of the palace, this situation is completely impossible, and the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty has a very strong binding force on Cixi, which is also Cixi's 47 years in power, and she cannot go to the front of the stage, all thanks to the Absolute Constraint of the Qing Dynasty on the harem.
And even if Cixi has the heart, she is actually powerless, although she experienced the four dynasties of Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu in her lifetime, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, each dynasty can be said to be weaker than a generation, Xianfeng is her own body weak, and later as Cixi's control over power is getting stronger, her desire for power is also getting bigger and bigger, but the era she is in does not allow her to do whatever she wants, and the muzzle of the guns of various countries is slowly aimed at China, and at that time, both inside and outside the government and the opposition were very turbulent.
On the one hand, there are external powers around, and the Qing Dynasty's closed country has led to its own national strength being very weak, and Cixi is constantly responding to the various demands and hegemony of various countries, from the signing of unequal treaties in the history books, a large amount of gold and silver has been sent overseas, a large piece of land has slowly become a colony of the great powers, that period of history is humiliating, but it is also impossible to change, and such a result has caused the need for self-reform within the dynasty.
At that time, Cixi, as the main leader of the conservative faction, also constantly collided with the new ideological reform at that time, although Cixi's team at that time was far stronger than the new ideological and new forces, and Cixi was constantly seeking her own ruling point under the internal and external attacks, and she needed to stabilize the power in her hands and consolidate her control over the Qing Dynasty, so she had no time or energy to think about things other than rights.
Seeing here, there may also be doubts, she is facing internal and external attacks is not false, but when she is newly widowed, when she is not very full of power, she may still have the opportunity to think of others, but in fact, after the death of the Xianfeng Emperor at that time, Cixi was not the only empress, but the same empress dowager as the 25-year-old Empress Dowager Ci'an at the time, but one was the Empress Dowager, the other was the empress dowager, it is said that Ci'an was very prestigious as the wife of the Xianfeng Emperor, although Cixi gave birth to the only emperor, but according to the rules of the Qing Dynasty Ci'an was the First Empress Dowager.
Ci'an as a proper wife, but her personality is very low-key, has been strictly abiding by the rules and regulations of the Qing Dynasty, so she personally did not interfere in the government, but when it came to the need, she was also very decisive in killing, it is said that at that time Cixi also had a great mother relying on the identity of the emperor's mother, she connived at her own grand eunuch An Dehai to do wrong, and also interfered in the political affairs of the previous dynasty, Ci'an after that, directly let the Shandong inspector put An Dehai on the spot to correct the law, and Cixi at that time was not rich, and could only watch his own grand eunuch die. It can also be done, which shows that Empress Dowager Ci'an herself is a person who is very obedient to the rules, and does not dare to thunder the pool at all, and raising male pets is absolutely not allowed by the ancestral training of the Qing Dynasty, so Cixi is even more afraid to go her own way.
According to Emperor Shu Xianfeng, he also left a secret edict that if Cixi came chaotically with the identity of the emperor's mother, then Ci'an could have the power of life and death over her, although the authenticity of this secret edict could not be verified, but it could be explained from the side that Ci'an's status, and in the follow-up period, Empress Dowager Cixi would report to Ci'an in advance for instructions in many decisions, so during this period she also did not have the energy and courage to cross the thunder pool, after all, Ci'an's influence and decision-making power were far better than Cixi's at that time.
Conclusion The rise and fall of the generation depends on the palace
Cixi's life is very controversial, and a generation of dynasties can be said to have completely perished at her hands, no matter what her life is like, but in history, she has used one unequal treaty after another to make this land devastated and cannot be changed.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
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