Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, once told the media that he now needs to buy tickets when he wants to go home.
The sadness revealed by this sentence made many people very sympathetic.
However, after the fall of the Qing government, Puyi was not the only one who was "homeless", because thousands of palace nobles were driven out of the Forbidden City, including several Qing dynasty gege.
Wrapped in the torrent of the times, these grids drift in the world like duckweed, and tenaciously survive in the chaotic world with a weak female figure, composing a piece of music that is sad or joyful.
So how did these girls live after losing the protection of imperial power?
The most beautiful person is to open a virgin certificate for marrying a brother-in-law
During the Republican period, Wang Mintong wore a silk suit embroidered with gold silk and a peony flag head, and sat quietly on the bench until the photographer waved his hand and told her: "You can make some expressions." ”
At this time, the young Wang Mintong smiled a little shyly, and as the photographer pressed the shutter, the picture was forever frozen at that moment.
Until now, this photo has been praised by everyone for Wang Mintong's prosperous beauty.
Photo of Wang Mintong
But at that time, Wang Mintong actually had a deep inferiority complex in her bones, because even if she was beautiful, her sweetheart Puyi still couldn't look at her.
When Wang Mintong was still a milk doll, she followed her sister into the Forbidden City, and her sister Wanrong married Puyi at the age of only 16, winning a great glory for the family.
But Wang Mintong liked Puyi not because he was the emperor, but because she was simply attracted to Puyi. Puyi, as the last emperor, not only has the stability of those in power, but also because he has accepted a lot of Western cultural influences, and the whole person has the elegant temperament of a scholar, while Wang Mintong, because he was born into the royal family, is a woman, and he receives the most conservative education.
So when Wang Mintong saw Puyi at the wedding, she was deeply fascinated by him, and secretly vowed in her heart that she would marry him.
It's a pity that the flowers are intentional, and the flowing water is ruthless.
For the last emperor Puyi, the crumbling Qing dynasty was no longer a symbol of honor in his heart, and what he really liked was the women of the new era.
So from the moment Wang Mintong was moved, it was doomed to the tragedy that she would be single for decades.
Wang Mintong
After Wang Mintong came out of the Forbidden City, he and his mother have been living in Beijing's Baqi aristocratic gathering area, during which Wang Mintong's mother also planned to find a few good sons-in-law for her daughter, but Wang Mintong always felt that he still had a chance to marry Puyi, so he refused to go on a blind date.
Wang Mintong survived until 1937, when Wang Mintong's mother received news that Puyi's younger brother Pujie divorced because his wife cheated on him.
Pu Jie is also the emperor's own brother no matter what, seeing that his daughter is getting older, it is false to say that he is not in a hurry, so the queen mother forced Wang Mintong to ask Pu Jie for a kiss.
But heaven is so teasing people, that is, on the day Wang Mintong went to ask for a kiss, Puyi was also looking for a new wife for himself. So Wang Mintong perfectly missed the draft of his beloved.
What's more unfortunate is that Pu Jie is a person with a high heart, and Wang Mintong is now a broken royal daughter, who accepted the Japanese royal family's offer and married a Japanese woman.
After returning home, Wang Mintong threw herself on the bed and cried, and she complained to her mother: "You let me go to raise my relatives, so that I missed Puyi, this is God is punishing me, in the future, I Mintong will not marry Puyi." ”
Wang Mintong
Originally, Wang Mintong's mother thought that this was her daughter's angry words, but she didn't expect that Wang Mintong would wait for another 22 years.
Puyi's wife has changed several times, but Wang Mintong has still not been in love.
When Wang Mintong was 47 years old and Puyi was 50 years old, they finally met again.
At the party, Puyi knew that Wang Mintong was not married until now, so she ridiculed: "Mintong is not married now, I think she must be a very virtuous woman." ”
In fact, this sentence was just said casually by the amorous Puyi on the scene, but it was mistaken by Wang Mintong as a hint to himself.
Years of bitter love, prodding at this moment, the ups and downs of life finally broke out at this moment.
After that day, Wang Mintong broke free from the shackles of feudal women and began to passionately and boldly pursue Puyi.
Wang Mintong
Faced with Wang Mintong's sudden change, Puyi refused without thinking.
But Wang Mintong thought that Puyi did not believe in his purity, so he went to the hospital for examination and asked them to open a virgin certificate for themselves.
She was a former royal personality, regardless of face, holding a strange certificate, running to Puyi and confessing again religiously.
But this time, Puyi did not give her face again, but mercilessly pointed to her nose and asked her to roll.
Wang Mintong
Since then, Wang Mintong has been waiting for Puyi, and she did not remarry until Puyi's death.
Wang Mintong has been suffering by himself, watching all his relatives and friends pass away one by one, and finally in 2003, with his peerless infatuation, he swallowed and learned about the tragedy of this life.
If the tragedy of Wang Mintong's life is caused by love, then Sange Yunying is because of the pain of moving from luxury to simplicity.
Three grids fall into the dust
As the third daughter of the regent, although the Qing Dynasty had collapsed when she was born, her family was still very rich.
Because after Puyi abdicated, he was still confined to the Forbidden City for a period of time and enjoyed royal treatment, and the young Yunying was locked up together.
So from the time she was born, the servants around her still called her Gege, she ate the food made in the imperial dining room, wore the best silk products, and because she was loved by Puyi, Puyi would satisfy her unconditionally whatever she wanted, so she always felt that her status was more noble than other Gege.
Yun Ying never left the Forbidden City in her early years, and received the conservative education of women from the imperial family, so she had a high level from the imperial family.
The young Yun Ying did not know the sufferings of the world, and once the maid under her accidentally broke one of her favorite jade, Yun Ying beat and scolded her in anger, and then threw her out of the palace.
For her, how is the livelihood of a subordinate as one of her stones?
But this pampered life soon came to an end.
In 1924, after China lit the smoke of war and Feng Yuxiang entered Beijing, he asked Puyi and others to hurry up.
Pu Yi could only simply pack up her luggage and leave the Forbidden City with Xiao Yunying.
At this time, because Yun Ying was still young, she always thought that she was going out of the city to play, so she was in a very comfortable mood.
But what she didn't know was that at this moment, she had to face the cruelty and beatings of life like the maid who was expelled from the city by her.
When she first went out of the city, Yun Ying just no longer had an honorable status, and the coils she carried could support her for a while, so she didn't think so.
And not long after she went out of the city, Wanrong's younger brother Runqi came to propose a kiss to her, it turned out that as early as the Forbidden City, Runqi liked this girl very much.
The Republic of China period was also a troubled time, especially for girls like Yunying who had just come out of the greenhouse, if they didn't find a man as a backer, life was still very difficult.
So Yun Ying agreed.
Yun Ying
But later, Yunying's family was coerced by the Japanese to go to the northeast to become a puppet Manchukuo, and to put it bluntly, these former imperial families have become pawns in Japan's rule of China.
The attitude of the Japanese towards the Aisin Ghora family is superficial respect, but in fact, they are still full of contempt for them in their bones.
Later, Japan gave Yun Ying the title of president of the Japanese Women's Association, and asked Yun Ying to follow the Japanese officers around to the drinking party.
In fact, the reason why the Japanese gave Yunying this position was to threaten Puyi, because they knew that Yunying was the favorite sister of the last emperor.
The second is to show off to the public, after all, there is nothing better to show your strength than carrying a defeated royal character.
After that, Yun Ying was even sent to the Japanese emperor to become the Chinese teacher of the emperor's sister-in-law.
Yunying had been growing up under the protection of her brother and husband before this, and when she went to Japan, she really felt the feeling of being trampled under her feet and isolated.
During her stay in Japan, Yun Ying was very depressed, washing her face with tears every day, and during the two years, she wrote hundreds of letters to her family, but these letters were seized by the Japanese government.
Yun Ying
By the time Japan was willing to let Yunying return, it was already 1945, when Japan became a defeated country and was waiting to be liquidated.
And Yun Ying, who returned to China, also knew that she was almost finished.
Because Puyi and her husband were dependent on Japan, after Japan's defeat, the two of them were taken to the Soviet Union.
In this way, the weight of the entire family is on Yun Ying alone.
At this time, Yun Ying still has to bring three children, and the servants and housekeepers have also been dismissed, and it didn't take long for Yun Ying to be so poor that she couldn't even afford to eat, it didn't matter if she starved, the key is that the children can't starve.
There is no way, Yun Ying can only put down her body and go to the stall.
She bought antiques, which she had scavenged from her home, and these things were just rags that she couldn't look at at at the beginning.
Yun Ying in her later years
Whenever Yun Ying is setting up a stall, it is inevitable to meet acquaintances, and these acquaintances with good hearts will come to buy something and patronize her business, and those with bad character will deliberately ridicule and ridicule her, and the hardships of life make Yun Ying fall into depression again, but this time she chose to smoke cigarettes to relieve her mood.
Before dawn in the morning, I saw a woman who had come out with a bag and set up a stall, sitting on the stall swallowing clouds and mist, blending in with the dim morning light.
Yun Ying waited for ten years.
Ten years later, Yun Ying was able to return to Peiping and meet her long-separated family.
Later, the director of the Central Research Center of Culture and History saw the letter Yunying wrote to Puyi, and after understanding Yunying's current situation, he told the chairman about it, and later, under the arrangement of the party, Yunying entered the Dongcheng District of Beijing and became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and her bumpy life was over.
If Wang Mintong and Yunying both lived a hard life because of the collapse of the Qing government, then the next Sige is one of the women who were mutilated by feudal society.
The four grids that were delayed by Cixi's life
In 1879, when Cixi began to obey the government and grasp power, Sigege was sent to Cixi by his father as a promotion weapon.
Cixi has lived in calculation and suspicion all his life, even with his son Guangxu.
Empress
So when the well-behaved and cute Sige was sent in, Cixi began to cultivate her as her own daughter.
As Cixi's goddaughter, naturally Qinqi calligraphy and painting cannot be left behind.
Therefore, since she was a child, the four grids received the most rigorous feudal education, in addition to eating, wearing, living and traveling according to etiquette norms, she also had an extremely important task, that is, to please Cixi.
After all, this was her father's only purpose in sending her here.
After Sigege grew up, she became more and more beautiful, and she was sharp-toothed and well-behaved and caring, which soothed the emotional vacancy in Cixi's heart, so Sigege soon became the most favored palace maid around Cixi.
Four grids
Although this love is unattainable for others, it is simply a lifelong spell for Sigege.
Because Cixi loved Sigege very much, she was not allowed to leave the palace until she was 25 years old to get married, and seeing that her daughter was getting bigger and bigger, Sigege's father felt that he could not hang on to face, so he recalled his daughter and promised it to the governor's son Xijun.
Originally, Sige thought that she would no longer have to live a life of fear, but she did not expect that it would not be long before Cixi returned her to the palace to let her continue to serve herself.
Because at this time, Cixi had entered his old age, and because he had fought for power all his life, he had no real friends and was very lonely.
Except for the four grids, she couldn't find a second trustworthy person.
After being recalled to the palace, Sige was particularly sad, so she was only newly married now, and she missed her husband very much.
But Cixi not only refused to let her go back, but even went even further, and after Junxi's unexpected death, the grief-stricken Sige was called back before he could go home for a day of mourning.
At this time, the four grids' awe for Cixi had completely turned into resentment.
But based on the power of the other party, she dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, until Cixi died and the palace maid was dismissed, Sige packed her bags and returned to her home without hesitation, but everything was long gone.
Four grids
Strictly speaking, they are all victims of the times, because of etiquette, social evaluation, current situation, etc., life has suffered all the twists and turns, but fortunately they have survived.
Many of their descendants have also become well-known movie stars, such as Wu Jing's ancestors are the Ulanara clan, as well as Na Ying, and the Beijing circle Gege Guan Xiaotong.
It has been a hundred years since the fall of the Qing Dynasty since the adulthood of these people, and they no longer need to live in a chaotic world like their ancestors.
It's about being able to do what you really want to do and make your life shine.