※——【 ◎ Preface ◎ 】——※
There is such a dynasty in China's feudal dynasty for more than 2,000 years, and its territory expanded in the early stage of its heyday, with a territory area of 13 million square kilometers; It promoted the unification of the many ethnic groups on the mainland and was the most harmonious dynasty among the ethnic groups in the feudal period of China. However, in the late stages of its decline, the loss of power and humiliation of the country abroad, the cession of land and reparations, and the harsh tyranny at home led to the people's livelihood. It is the closest Chinese feudal dynasty to our modern era, and the last feudal dynasty in China, the Qing Dynasty.
If other dynasties want to understand the decline and fall of a dynasty, we can only find the answer from history books, but in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, photography technology had been introduced to the mainland, and we can get a glimpse of it from the photos taken at that time. The following is an excerpt of the photo materials of different periods of the late Qing Dynasty, let us understand the life of the late Qing Dynasty from these old photos after late coloring.
Domestic violence man beats his wife and is beaten on a board
The man was unable to bear to sue the government because of long-term domestic violence against his wife. Because his wife was severely beaten, the government executed him with a cane according to the "Great Qing Statutes", which is commonly known as hitting the board.
The "Great Qing Laws, Criminal Laws, and Fights" stipulates: "If a husband beats his wife, he will not be injured; To the broken wound or above, minus the mortal second-class. The wife volunteered to sit. To the dead, hang. ”
In the vernacular, it translates as: the husband beats his wife, the wife is not injured, and the husband will not be punished. If the wife is injured, the crime shall be reduced by two degrees compared to the beating of ordinary people. The wife needs to go to the government office in person to file a complaint before it will be accepted. The wife was beaten to death and the husband was sentenced to hang.
A mother and daughter working in the fields on the outskirts of Guangzhou
The mother and daughter had just finished their farm work in the rice fields, and their hands and legs were covered in mud. It is worth noting that the mother and daughter did not bind their feet, they were both heavenly feet, and under the social atmosphere of small feet as the beauty at that time, there were too few women who did not bind their feet.
During the Qing Dynasty, foot binding was commonplace, and the Qing court had to promulgate relevant laws prohibiting foot binding, but with little success.
The eunuchs gathered for lunch
During her time in China, Susan Conger, the wife of the U.S. Minister to China, often visited the palace to meet Empress Dowager Cixi, where these eunuchs served Susan Conger and other foreigners.
The food on the table looked hearty, with dishes and soup and fruit. But the eunuchs were originally slaves in the palace, and it was impossible to eat such a sumptuous lunch on weekdays, and this table full of rich food was only because of the meritorious service of these eunuchs to foreigners.
Wedding photo at the end of the Qing Dynasty
The couple took photos in costumes on their wedding day. The bride wears a phoenix crown and a fancy dress, while the groom wears a nine-rank official uniform. In ancient China, men could wear the official uniform of a nine-rank official on the wedding day, which is the origin of the title "groom official".
Skinny man smokes opium
In front of the man, there were various tools for smoking opium, and he was lying drunk on the bed with a smoking gun in his hand.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, opium smoking was so common that it had even become a trend. Many people are immersed in it and cannot extricate themselves, and do not produce all day, which eventually leads to the destruction of families and the separation of wives and families.
Concubines and daughters of wealthy merchants
The three were the wives, concubines and daughters of a wealthy businessman in Xiamen. If you look closely at this photo, you will find a strange phenomenon, the eyes of the three characters in the photo are not looking at the lens, because people at that time thought that if they looked at the lens when taking pictures, the three souls and seven spirits would be sucked away by the camera.
Overseers and workers at the Haizhou quarry
The quarry was located in what is now Haizhou District, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. As we all know, quarrying is a very dangerous job, especially in the Qing Dynasty, when there were no machines purely by manpower, and people often died in accidents while quarrying. Although the work is dangerous, the wages are high, and even if people know the danger, they are still willing to work here.
Three young girls wearing wipes
The photograph was taken in 1906 and is a group photo of three women from ordinary families. The ornament they wore on their heads, called "Forehead", was an ancient Chinese first garment that originated in the Shang Zhou Dynasty and was popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, women did not distinguish between dignity and inferiority, and there was often a wipe between their foreheads.
Mrs. Guan standing on the stairs
In the middle, the official lady's clothes are embroidered with patches, which means that she is a commanded lady who has been canonized by the imperial court. Interestingly, this official wife wore a Han costume - a skirt, but wore Manchu horseshoe soles on her feet. I don't know if she is Han or Manchu.
Children have fun playing games
The childhood of the post-70s and 80s should have played this game, some places called this game "blind man touching the elephant", and some places called "blind man touching a donkey". The rules of the game are that everyone guesses the boxing, and the loser in the end covers his eyes with a cloth, and the blindfolded partner must catch people in a fixed area, as long as they can correctly call the name of the captured person to win.