How to evaluate Cixi's life? Simply using the four words of "bringing calamity to the country and interfering in government affairs" to evaluate Cixi is obviously incomplete. This is an extremely complex political figure who can do all kinds of evil deeds for the sake of power.
Such a person cannot give us any good impression of modern people. She was a politician of the old era and the last representative of the imperial power. Therefore, in many film and television dramas, the portrayal of Cixi's image is portrayed in the ugly aspect.
However, it is always necessary to talk about history realistically. For Cixi's appearance, we naturally cannot decide stereotypes through artistic depiction. You know, the reason why Cixi started is because of her extraordinary beauty.
If, as depicted in later film and television dramas, Cixi was only an ugly woman from beginning to end, then how could she stand out in the harem? So, is there any way to see Cixi's true appearance?
The opportunity to realize this idea is not on portraits in domestic collections, but in the United States. A photograph of Cixi in a museum in the United States can restore the true appearance of this person.
The first half of Cixi's life
Cixi was born into a typical Qing Dynasty family of foreign relatives. In her ancestors, some were concubines of Nurhaci and some were concubines of Emperor Taiji. Simply put, it is a family that is tightly tied to the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty.
At the age of seventeen, Cixi also entered the Forbidden City. As the saying goes, once you enter the giants, you are as deep as the sea. The giants are still full of intrigues and fights, not to mention the Manchu Qing royal family.
After entering the palace, what Cixi experienced was not to respect the emperor as a guest, but to use all her thoughts to compete for the emperor's favor and suppress the emperor's favorite concubines. In this process, Cixi's power skills were undoubtedly getting higher and higher, and her heart was becoming more and more fierce.
During Xianfeng's reign, cixi only did things in the harem. However, thanks to her education as a child, Cixi was able to write well. Therefore, when Xianfeng handled government affairs, he would often let Cixi accompany him and help handle the song.
Such treatment was already a special honor at that time. For Cixi, this can be understood as a manifestation of the emperor's favor.
However, Xianfeng was an individually weak and sickly emperor. I don't know when I'm going to die. Helping XianFeng deal with the folds, to us modern people, this seems to be no problem. However, in the eyes of the ministers, Cixi looked like a very person. This person is Wu Zetian.
He is also pampered by his beauty, equally intelligent, and equally familiar with government affairs. In the eyes of many people, Cixi's shadow gradually overlapped with Wu Zetian.
Xian Feng also knew what the ministers were thinking. As an emperor who wanted to make a difference, Xianfeng naturally would not let the harem interfere with power. For the sake of his own reputation, he also wanted to cut off this possibility.
Therefore, before his death, Xianfeng specially ordered that eight members of the imperial court be summoned as auxiliary ministers to concentrate on assisting the emperor. On the issue of the distribution of power, Xianfeng can be said to have never considered Cixi. But Xian Feng did not expect that his "Eight Ministers" looked perfect, but he missed one thing: Cixi's ambitions.
Overnight ups and downs
Cixi had received a traditional education and naturally knew the story of Lü Hou and Wu Zetian. For Cixi, after Xianfeng's death, he could dominate the imperial government as empress dowager. This is tacitly permitted by Confucian etiquette and cannot be stopped by others.
However, the Eighth Minister of The Auxiliary Government did not have such an idea. What they wanted was to firmly grasp the power in their hands before the emperor took power personally. Whether it is for their own interests or for the country, there can be no Cixi in these political frameworks.
Cixi also understood the idea of the Eight Ministers. In the days of the harem, Cixi understood a truth: In the struggle, either you die or I die, and there is no other way out.
In 1861, Cixi, who united with the Manchu Qing clan forces, took advantage of the emperor's coffin to return to Beijing and arrested all the eight ministers of the auxiliary government in one fell swoop. This coup d'état completely changed the political landscape of the Qing Dynasty in its later years. Thus belonged to the era of Cixi, and here came.
After gaining power, Cixi soon began to expand her power. For example, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and others all defected to Cixi and became her cadres. At the same time, the rise of the foreign affairs movement has allowed the perennial loss-making treasury to have some income.
In the early years of Cixi's reign, the comprehensive strength of the Qing Dynasty was somewhat improved. Coupled with the fact that the great powers got what they wanted and did not continue to wage war, for a while, the feudal masters actually felt that the country was about to rise. This is the so-called "Tongzhi ZTE".
If Cixi died at this time, then the evaluation of her people in history, not to say that it reached the height of Wu Zetian, but it can be put together with Empress Xu, Empress Liu and others. It can be said that Cixi's greatest misfortune is that she has lived too long, and she is a thief who is old and does not die.
The second half of Cixi's life
After Tongzhi's early death, power was regained in the hands of Cixi. It was from this time that Cixi's shortcomings were constantly exposed. Although she was a sophisticated politician, she could not see farther away.
The outbreak of the Sino-French War made the Qing Dynasty weak in the eyes of the great powers. The occurrence of Jiashen Yishu brought Cixi's power to the peak. Cixi, who had come forward to stop the construction of the Tongzhi Dynasty, began to embezzle naval military funds for her own birthday, just to celebrate her own birthday.
From this time on, Cixi was only a mediocre representative of imperial power. After the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, Cixi also celebrated her birthday in the capital. When the ground troops were gradually defeated on the battlefield, Cixi only hoped that foreigners would intervene and stabilize the situation.
It was also because of these events, coupled with the fall of the Guangxu Emperor, that Cixi's prestige and evaluation plummeted. She killed the Guangxu Emperor, which further impacted the concept of folk tradition. The Qing Dynasty's "rule by filial piety" used to brainwash the people has become a joke.
After committing these sins, Cixi gradually became an ugly old demon in the eyes of everyone. The true appearance of Cixi can only be seen in some old photos of foreign countries.
Cixi in the photo
In this photo, Cixi and the people around her look very different. Although it is not a young look, its skin condition can be said to be good. In terms of temperament alone, she is much higher than the people around her.
But in terms of facial features, Cixi can also be regarded as Zhou Zheng's. In fact, in many old photos, the appearance of Qing Dynasty women is a bit strange. From the perspective of modern people, the appearance of the palace women of the Qing Dynasty is even more deformed.
It can be said that in the matter of appearance and appearance, Cixi invested no less energy than she did in handling state affairs. Even after death, Cixi had to take a bead in her mouth. It can be said that Cixi absolutely pays attention to appearance.
However, no matter how beautiful her countenance, no matter how talented and capable she was in the art of power, Cixi's life did not really change the times.
After Cixi's death, the Qing Dynasty collapsed. Chinese people struggled for decades to make those unequal treaties disappear. For Cixi's subjects, no matter how attractive she was, it was just a cloud of smoke in the past.