Cixi was a powerful woman in the late Qing Dynasty and one of the most controversial figures in Chinese history. Her reign was praised as the "prosperous era of Cixi" and criticized as "the last tyrant of the Qing Dynasty". She has left a deep mark on politics, culture, art and other fields, and has become one of the hot topics in history and cultural studies. Just such a woman who was not buried in the torrent of history, but she was saddled with everyone's name, and even once her body was destroyed, there are still many people clapping, what did she do, so that she could not live peacefully after death?
Bright and studious since childhood, Cixi was fluent in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan, as well as calligraphy and painting. In 1851, Cixi was elected to the palace and became the side Fujin of the Xianfeng Emperor, with three thousand beautiful harems, but Cixi rose all the way to important positions such as concubine, noble concubine, and empress. At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi often accompanied the Guangxu Emperor to review the folds, so this also laid the groundwork for Cixi's later participation in politics. After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, she finally took actual political power and became the mother and regent of the eight-year-old Guangxu Emperor
After the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, the eight-year-old Guangxu Emperor ascended the throne, and Cixi was appointed regent to manage the imperial government. However, as her influence in the fields of politics and culture expanded, she soon became the de facto ruler. In 1861, together with the eunuch and powerful minister Yan Fu and others, she launched the "Xin You coup" of the Guangxu Emperor's abdication, and she became a real ruler herself, beginning a decades-long regency and de facto power.
During her reign, Cixi undertook a series of major reforms and policy adjustments, including the implementation of the Westernization Campaign, the construction of railroads, and the development of military power, in an effort to modernize China. At the same time, she pursued a series of hard-line policies to suppress the opposition, weakening the power of officials, and leading to social unrest and discontent.
Cixi's later life, like her first half of life, was full of controversy and legends. In addition to requiring her to be careful about the quality of life when she was alive, she also attached great importance to her mausoleum, and she visited the cemetery in Xishan, Beijing many times. Eventually, at the southern foot of Badaling, Changping District, Beijing, she decided to build her own mausoleum, known as the Cixi Mausoleum.
The construction of the Cixi Mausoleum took 15 years, beginning in 1888 and completed in 1903. Throughout the construction process, Cixi paid great attention to detail and quality, and the cost was very large. It is estimated that the construction of the Cixi Mausoleum cost a third of the fiscal revenue at the time.
The Cixi Mausoleum covers an area of nearly 200,000 square meters and is divided into two parts. The lower part is a platform with buildings such as the "main hall", "stele pavilion" and "stele forest", which Cixi set up to symbolize his rights and status. The upper part is Cixi's mausoleum, with mausoleum buildings such as "Palace Gate", "Stone Road", and "Shinto". The architectural style and structure of the entire mausoleum is very exquisite, and it is the largest, most exquisite and best-preserved mausoleum among the Qing Dynasty mausoleums.
Such a beautiful mausoleum is the last gift that Cixi left to herself, and at the same time, Cixi Mausoleum is also a strange flower in ancient Chinese mausoleum architecture, known as the "peak of oriental art". It is said that in order to prevent her mausoleum from being stolen, she repeatedly entered the underground of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum to build her own mausoleum, and carried out large-scale civil engineering, which consumed a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. For safety, Cixi ordered the construction of many protective measures, such as laying a large number of traps and laying organs.
But even so, Cixi's mausoleum could not escape the plundering of tomb thieves. Cixi's mausoleum has been stolen several times, the most serious of which was between 1928 and 1931, and the plotter was a tomb robber named Wang Zhixiao. He led a group of his subordinates through the heavy protection and smoothly entered the interior of the Cixi Mausoleum. They dug a hole at the entrance, passed through numerous guards, opened Cixi's tomb, and stole Cixi's gold and silver jewelry, precious cultural relics, sacrifices, and funerary goods. However, in this theft, Cixi's body was also subjected to extremely incredible humiliation.
According to historical records at that time, after opening the Cixi mausoleum, the tomb robbers found that Cixi's body was not buried on the throne as imagined, but placed on a wooden bed, and the whole body had decomposed very badly. In search of possible treasures, tomb robbers began looting and humiliating Cixi's body, some cutting with knives, others with clubs, and some even pulling out Cixi's teeth and nails.
After several days of such abuse, the robbers left Cixi's mausoleum, but before leaving, they left Cixi's body at the scene, and Cixi, known as the "Virgin of the Great Qing Dynasty," had the words "shameless adulteress" written on the body, and the body was covered in clothes. Such cruel humiliation not only defiled Cixi's body, but also completely destroyed Cixi's image in people's minds.
Although official reports at the time described the incident relatively conservatively, many people still got the truth of the incident and spread the word. Some rumors even claim that when the tomb robbers abused Cixi's body, they discovered that Cixi was not actually a woman, but a man, which further damaged Cixi's image in people's minds and made her image controversial in history.
However, whether these rumors are true has not been confirmed, and in fact, no details of the theft of the Cixi Mausoleum have been made public, nor have the body been humiliated. Such an incident was considered a very sensitive and taboo topic at the time, so the truth of the matter is unknown. But why did Cixi attach so much importance to his mausoleum, but was still targeted by tomb thieves, and even had destructive acts?
As a woman with a strong desire for power, Cixi naturally attached great importance to her mausoleum. During her reign, significant investment was also made in the construction and management of the mausoleum, seeking to make it a magnificent mausoleum to demonstrate its glory and status. However, despite this, Cixi's mausoleum was not spared and was attacked and destroyed by tomb thieves.
First of all, the reason why the Cixi Mausoleum became a target for tomb robbers is related to its own architecture and geographical location. Cixi's mausoleum is located in Shijingshan District, northwest of Beijing, in a relatively remote location. Due to its remote location and the relatively short duration of Cixi's reign, it was already limited and compressed during the construction process. Therefore, the design and scale of the mausoleum is not as grand as other imperial tombs, and for tomb robbers, the treasures and treasures in the mausoleum are not as rich as other imperial tombs.
However, the Cixi Mausoleum remained a target for tomb thieves, mainly due to the political environment and economic background of the society at the time. Cixi's reign was the last years of the Qing Dynasty, and society was already full of turmoil and unrest. Coupled with the multiple blows that China has suffered from external aggression, internal worries, and financial difficulties in modern times, the country is in a relatively weak state. Therefore, the tomb robbers saw an opportunity to obtain wealth and treasures from the Cixi Mausoleum, so they actively planned and carried out the tomb robbery operation.
In addition, the theft and destruction of the Cixi Mausoleum is also related to poor government management and protection. Although Cixi herself attached great importance to the mausoleum, during her reign, China's bureaucracy and administration were already very corrupt and unbearable, and local officials only wanted to make money for themselves, and had no time to take care of these matters in the imperial court, so the protection and management of the imperial tomb was also very loose and lacked effective measures. What's more, this is Cixi's posthumous affair, and local officials have no time to take care of it, so the management and effectiveness in protecting the mausoleum are very limited, which also allows tomb thieves to take advantage of the void to destroy and plunder the mausoleum.
However, when the Cixi Mausoleum was stolen, the people did not show any grief, but stood on the sidelines and watched the excitement. As for why the people are like this, it is necessary to talk about what Cixi did before.
After Cixi entered the government, because of his extremely authoritarian character and strong thirst for power, he did many things that harmed nature and reason, which greatly damaged China's national interests and national dignity. The following will expound on the things that Cixi did after joining the government from political, military, economic, cultural and other aspects.
On the political front, Cixi aggressively suppressed the reformists and took brutal measures against anyone who tried to reform the status quo. From the time of the failure of the Pengzi Reform Act until the Gengzi Incident, Cixi worked to disintegrate and destroy the reformists' efforts. She not only expelled Gu Jiegang from Japan, but also executed a number of key figures, including Yuan Shikai and Tan Si. These actions led to further chaos in the political situation of the Qing Dynasty and undermined the country's hopes for political development and reform.
In the military aspect, Cixi also did a lot of things that hurt nature. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and foreign powers launched an eight-nation invasion of China. At this time, Cixi not only did not take decisive measures, but placed high hopes on the Boxers and encouraged them to resist. As a result, such decisions resulted in huge war losses and an extreme deterioration of the country's image. In addition, under Cixi's leadership, the Qing Dynasty's armies failed several times, such as the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle and the Sino-Japanese War, which made China militarily a prisoner of the great powers.
On the economic front, Cixi's reign also brought great damage. Due to her unfirm attitude towards foreign trade, her policies were changeable, which led to a sharp contraction of the country's foreign trade market. In addition, she has also vigorously obstructed the development of domestic companies and adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards foreign companies. This kind of policy that is not conducive to the country's economic development has gradually made China lag behind the rest of the world and lost more development opportunities.
The cultural field during Cixi's reign was also deeply influenced by her. As a person with little cultural literacy, Cixi loves gambling, opium smoking, and a hobby of pomp, so naturally she cannot have cultural and artistic cultivation. She only learned some court arts during the Qianlong period, such as embroidery, jade craftsmanship, etc., but it was not really cultural art.
Under Cixi's rule, court culture became more and more flashy and hollow, and some orthodox culture was destroyed as a result. For example, the Great Qing Laws enacted during the Kangxi Dynasty stipulated that anyone who committed crimes such as vicious rumors and adultery would be beheaded. However, under Cixi's rule, this provision was abolished, causing gossip and rumors to fly in the court, disrupting the governance of the country. Similarly, the annotations to ancient texts such as the Spring and Autumn Zuo Chuan Annotations, formulated during the Kangxi Dynasty, were stopped compiling under Cixi's rule, resulting in delays in the study of traditional Chinese culture.
In addition, Cixi was also keen to buy rare treasures, such as a batch of jadeite from Myanmar, which were not used to make crafts, but were stored directly in the warehouse. This is not only a great waste, but also a disrespect and waste of traditional cultural property.
In his later years, Cixi also ordered the auction of a large number of cultural relics in the Forbidden City in exchange for funds. These cultural relics include porcelain, calligraphy and painting, jade, etc. from various periods of the past, and many cultural relics were stolen from the palace. Such an act is not only a kind of destruction of China's traditional culture, but also a serious damage to the country's cultural heritage.
In short, during Cixi's reign, the cultural field was severely damaged and eroded by her. Her ignorance and glitz have led to serious suppression and distortion of traditional Chinese culture. Although she has made some contributions to China, her tyranny and conservative ideas have made her a historical sinner. What happened to Cixi after her death, whether true or not, not only reflected people's dissatisfaction and anger against her, but also reflected the changes in the political and social environment at that time. This also requires us to learn lessons from history, cherish the present peace and stability, and promote social progress and development.