Empress Dowager Cixi, what do you most curious about her?
Of course it's her private life!
Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most famous women in modern history, she is a female politician who ruled the empire for nearly a while. People are also curious about his private life. Let's take a look at how Cixi bathes.
Cixi believed that the upper part of the human body was heaven and the lower half was earth, and the earth could never cover the heavens. Therefore, when bathing, the upper and lower bodies should be washed separately, and a new set of utensils should be changed when washing the lower body. Empress Dowager Cixi has always been a woman who loves to dress up, especially when it comes to bathing. It is washed once a day in summer and once every 2 to 3 days in winter. The time of each bath of Cixi is not fixed, but most of them choose about an hour after dinner.
Whenever Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to take a bath, the eunuchs first prepared the bath, water, towels, soap, perfume and other items and delivered them to the door of the Empress Dowager's palace, and then the palace maids sent these things to the palace. After pouring water, ask the Queen Mother to take a bath. Waiting for the Empress Dowager to take a bath were four palace maids who had been carefully selected and specially trained.
When bathing, the four palace maids stood around the Empress Dowager, and then one of the leading palace maids picked up a wad of towels, a total of 25 of which were put into the water. After all the towels are soaked, first fish out 4 strips, wring them out with both hands and distributing them to the other three. Immediately open it, spread it flat on the palm of your hand, and then gently wipe the back of her chest, armpits and arms for the Queen Mother.
After doing this six or seven times, it is coated with soap, which is the palace's homemade rose soap. The four palace maids had to move together, apply soap on the towel, help the Empress Dowager wipe her body, and immediately throw away the towel after wiping herself. Then, soak a new wad of towels in the water.
The towel is not very dry after being soaked and fished out, and with this wet and soft towel, gently wipe off the soap on the Empress Dowager's body, and must be wiped over and over again until it is wiped clean and there is no soap foam on the body. Finally, the Queen Mother is perfumed, use more winter-resistant flower dew in summer, and use rose flower dew in autumn and winter, the amount is very large, the usage is also special, when using is to tear the white pure silk cotton into pieces about the size of a palm, sprinkle perfume, gently pat the body with a cotton sheet, and pat the perfume evenly. After applying the perfume, the four palace maids flicked all parts of the Empress Dowager's upper body with dry towels, and then put on partial shirts and pajamas for the Empress Dowager.
Empress Dowager Cixi used 100 towels for each bath, because after the towels were fished out of the water, she was not allowed to put them back in the water, and she had to throw them away after using them once. So that after every bath, the water in the bathtub was clean, and she couldn't see the slightest bit of dirt.
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