Although it was the world of men in ancient times, there were many women who held power, such as Empress Wu Zetian and the vicious and insidious Empress Lu.
But today we are going to talk about the actual ruler of the late Qing Dynasty, Cixi Lao Foye, who has been in power for more than 40 years, and on the morning of her death, she was still dealing with the aftermath of Guangxu, but she also put on her birthday clothes in the afternoon, so how did she spend this last day of Cixi's life?
A day in the life of Cixi
At three o'clock in the morning, Cixi got up as usual, and after waking up, the palace maid brought a silver basin with hot water, and then wet a towel with gold thread and wrapped it in Cixi's hand.
After that, Cixi placed her hand in the basin, usually repeating this step three times, throwing a towel one at a time.
After washing her hands, Cixi began her own skincare routine, usually starting with a warm compress to open her pores, and there is also a saying that the heat compress can inhibit the growth of wrinkles.
After washing, Cixi usually starts wearing makeup. As the Empress Dowager, Cixi's cosmetics are very particular, even the flowers that make rouge need to be selected petal by petal, as long as the purest color part.
After that, there would be palace eunuchs to serve Cixi to comb her hair, usually with them combs, hairpins and grates for the Empress Dowager. Cixi is also a "bald girl", but she has a good Tony who can help her cover her bald part.
After freshening up, Cixi would take the eunuchs and palace maids for a walk. Don't look at it is just a small walk, Cixi's battle is not small, not only needs Li Lianying's support, but also needs to be followed by eunuchs and palace maids behind inseparable.
After returning from the walk, Cixi began her morning tea party, but instead of drinking the tea water that we commonly use now, she would add many condiments to make milk tea, almond tea and so on.
At that time, Cixi was still an old smoker, and every day after drinking tea, he would smoke hookah from the south to pay tribute.
After smoking a cigarette, the eunuchs and palace maids would deliver Cixi's breakfast, usually with more than twenty dim sum and countless porridges, which Cixi alone could not eat, and most of the time would be thrown out.
At about eight o'clock after breakfast, Cixi went to the morning dynasty. After the morning dynasty, she did not go to play, but began to review the folds and meet with the minister.
Usually, when she finished her political affairs, it was time for lunch, and Cixi's lunch was even more extravagant, with a full 108 dishes, which can be said to be full of Han and Han seats.
But the rulers of the Qing Dynasty had the rule of "eating three times", so most of these dishes only moved a chopstick, and some eunuchs and palace maids would sell the leftovers to the people.
After lunch, the maids would bring Cixi a fruit plate of snacks, Cixi was a heavy fruit lover at that time, and some data said that Cixi would consume about 2236 stone of dates, pears, etc. a year, in addition, she would consume tens of thousands of catties of other fruits every year.
After eating, Cixi would take a walk to consume food, and then return to the palace for a nap. After waking up, Cixi began her daily entertainment time, she would watch plays or listen to music, and when she was really bored, she would invite her girlfriends into the palace to play with her.
Around five or six o'clock in the afternoon, Cixi began dinner, and after dinner, she would talk to the princess again until about eight o'clock she would wash and fall asleep.
At this point, Cixi's day is over.
The last day of Cixi
Compared with a normal day, the last day of Cixi's life was naturally a little different.
The day before Cixi's death, the Guangxu Emperor died, so the next morning, Cixi was busy dealing with the aftermath of Guangxu, while supporting Puyi to the throne, and Puyi's father was the regent of the kingdom.
It was not until around noon that Cixi arranged everything, and everyone else could already see that Cixi's fate was imminent, and the ministers could only wait outside the palace.
Suddenly, Empress Dowager Cixi had abdominal pain and began to have diarrhea, often draining pus and blood.
This was busy with the imperial doctors, who were afraid that they would fall to the ground if they were not careful, so they forced their scalp to prescribe medicine to Cixi, but unfortunately Cixi was already terminally ill, and there was no cure for the medicine stone. At this time, she was like a gossamer, as if she was going to die in the next second.
The other ministers who heard the wind immediately rushed back to the palace to kneel outside the palace, and when Cixi woke up, he summoned the ministers to read the divine decree, making Puyi the next emperor.
Later, Cixi's situation was even more unoptimistic, and just as she was dying, she told the ministers: from her, women were not allowed to interfere in politics, and eunuchs could not have too much power.
Perhaps she realized that her rule put the Qing dynasty in danger, so she said so.
The time of death of Guangxu and Cixi was less than a day apart, and it stands to reason that Guangxu, who was in the prime of life, should not die on the same day as the old Cixi, which was full of the smell of conspiracy.
Therefore, later generations began to study the remains of the Guangxu Emperor, and sure enough, a large amount of arsenic was found in it, so many people pointed the murderous finger at Cixi.
Perhaps Cixi felt that his life was not long in coming, and he was afraid that the Guangxu Emperor would take revenge on him after his death, after all, the two had already broken off. In order to make Emperor Guangxu have no chance to attack herself, she started to end Emperor Guangxu in advance, and then supported Puyi to take the throne.
Although Puyi is young, he will not treat himself harshly, and will definitely do his best to arrange his future.