When it comes to Cixi, everyone may not have a good impression of her. For her own selfish gain, Cixi colluded with foreigners to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, undermine the Wushu Reform Law, execute the Six Gentlemen of Wushu, put the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest, and so on.
All kinds of treaties were signed with the Western powers to lose power and humiliate the country, just to preserve their position. Although Cixi did many indignant things politically, in her family affection, she was very filial to her mother.
The only poem I wrote in my life was dedicated to my mother. The poem was also included in primary school textbooks and became a household name.
What is the content of the poems written by Cixi? In what context was it written? Let's find out.
After entering the palace, Pingbu Qingyun was successfully crowned a concubine
Cixi's specific origins have been discussed by many scholars, some of whom believe that Cixi was born on November 29, 1835, to a poor Han peasant family in Xipo Village, Changzhi County, Shanxi Province.
Cixi experienced a lot of turmoil when she was a child, because her family was poor and could not afford to raise so many children, so she gave Cixi to a family in a neighboring village for adoption, and then was transferred to several families.
It was not until 1852, when the 17-year-old Cixi was elected to the palace and given the title of Lan Guiren, which ended her miserable life.
After entering the palace, Cixi, because of her good looks, coupled with the fact that she always lived a life of sending people under the fence and looking at people's faces, made Cixi very shrewd, especially pleasing the emperor. After entering the palace, he rose higher and higher.
In 1856, Cixi gave birth to the emperor's eldest son, Ai Xinjueluo Zaichun, who later became the Tongzhi Emperor.
Mother and son, Cixi was directly given the title of Concubine Yi by the Xianfeng Emperor. The following year, she was promoted to the title of Concubine Yi.
Cixi was deeply favored by the Xianfeng Emperor, and even the ministers gave the emperor a note, and the Xianfeng Emperor allowed Cixi to write and approve the recitals, and sometimes even let Cixi directly express his opinions, which caused the dissatisfaction of the ministers.
The harem is not allowed to interfere in politics, which is a rule that has been established in all dynasties and dynasties. Once, above the court, a minister was a pioneer and outspoken, reprimanding Cixi for not interfering in the government, which made the Xianfeng Emperor very angry, and ordered the minister to behead on the spot to set an example.
Finally, under the persuasion and request of other ministers, this was the only way to calm down, but to deduct Feng Lu as punishment. It can be seen that the Xianfeng Emperor trusted and loved Cixi very much.
After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, he launched a coup d'état to listen to the government
In 1860, the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, and Cixi fled with the Xianfeng Emperor to Rehe, where he died in August 1861. At this time, the Xianfeng Emperor had only one crown prince, that is, Cixi's son Ai Xinjue luo Zaichun.
Remembering that Zaichun was still too young to govern the entire dynasty, the Xianfeng Emperor found some assistants for his sons before his death, and appointed them as the "Eight Ministers of Gu Ming".
Gu Ordered the Eight Ministers to receive the Emperor's edict and at first diligently assisted the young Emperor. However, in the process of assisting, the eight ministers of Gu Ming increasingly wanted to monopolize the government and not pay attention to the crown prince and empress, which made Cixi very dissatisfied.
Cixi herself was a person who longed for power, and the Xianfeng Emperor was very yearning for the government during his reign, and at this time, he did not allow some ministers to seize the rights that should belong to him.
Therefore, Cixi joined forces with Emperor Xianfeng's younger brother Prince Gong (恭王奕訢) to launch a coup d'état against Xin You, arresting and killing the eight ministers for treason. He seized power and eventually formed a pattern of "the second palace hanging curtains, the prince deliberating on the government".
After Cixi swept away the forces that threatened her in the court, she began to liquidate the concubines who had fought against her everywhere, and the first of them was Concubine Li.
It is said that Li Fei was Cixi's greatest love rival. Princess Li was very good-looking and good at singing and dancing, and the Xianfeng Emperor was often very obsessed with her dancing style and singing voice. With the favor of the Xianfeng Emperor, Concubine Li did not pay any attention to Cixi, who gave birth to a prince.
This aroused great resentment from Cixi, but forced by the face of the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi could only endure and climb the throne of power step by step with her own means.
Now that the power was in her hands, Cixi followed the method of persecuting Lady Qi after the Han Dynasty, cutting off all of Princess Li's hands and feet and putting them in a jar, doing her utmost insult.
On December 2, 1861, the emperor changed his era name to "Tongzhi", and cixi at this time bowed to the government and left and right.
Under the support of his own power, Cixi reused Han Chen, quelled the civil unrest in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and to a certain extent alleviated the crisis of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty.
Later, in order to maintain the rule of the feudal dynasty, the Westerners reused the Westerners, developed military and civilian enterprises with the principle of "self-improvement" and "seeking prosperity", and learned advanced foreign technologies, which objectively played a positive role in China's modernization.
Her mother's birthday is a self-created poem, which is now included in elementary school textbooks
In January 1875, Emperor Tongzhi died of illness. Because the Tongzhi Emperor had no heirs, Cixi's nephew Ai Xinjueluo Zaixiang, who was only 4 years old, became emperor, changed his era name to "Guangxu", and once again bowed to the government.
At this time, Cixi was still the same as before, influencing the rise and fall of the entire dynasty. Everything big and small in the Qing Dynasty had to be approved by Cixi.
The wheels of the times were constantly rolling, and there were many progressives in the country who wanted to overthrow the feudal dynasty and establish a new system, and Cixi had to use the means of the Western powers to suppress the domestic mobilization forces.
One day in 1880 was the seventieth birthday of Cixi's mother. Don't look at Cixi's political toughness and fierceness, but she is very attentive to her mother. Every year on her birthday, I would take my mother to the palace and give her a grand feast.
Because it was the seventieth birthday, Cixi had planned to give her mother an unforgettable birthday feast. However, because she temporarily let foreign emissaries come to see her, Cixi had to shelve the birthday feast and could not personally attend to pay homage to her mother.
In order to show respect and apology, Cixi asked the attendants around her to send many rare treasures to her mother, and said Shoubi Nanshan to her mother on her behalf.
But Cixi felt that these cold possessions could not really convey her feelings for her mother, so she personally wrote a poem dedicated to her mother and the only poem she wrote in her life.
"The love of fathers and mothers in the world is the truest, and the blood of tears dissolves into the body of the children." Exhausting all his efforts will eventually be a son, and the heart of poor parents in the world. ”
This poem was later written into primary school textbooks, and now the phrase "poor parents in the world" is well known and widely circulated.
Later, the Sino-Japanese War and the Eight-Power Alliance Invaded China broke out one after another, and the Qing Dynasty paid reparations and cut off the land, suffering heavy losses.
Despite the sharp turn of the domestic situation and the faltering of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi spent her 60th birthday extravagantly at the Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City.
On November 15, 1908, under the influence of internal and external troubles, Cixi died in the Yiluan Hall, ending her turbulent and legendary life.