Preface
November 15, 1908, a day destined to go down in Chinese history, became the end of the Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu died one after another, and this day also announced the end of a once glorious feudal dynasty.
Empress Dowager Cixi, in this last day, experienced all kinds of complex emotions and twists and turns of fate. Empress Dowager Cixi has always been the de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty, holding power for decades, and her life is closely linked to the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty.
On this day, the Empress Dowager Cixi ushered in her last days in the Summer Palace. Although power struggles and palace politics have always been the main themes of her life, at this moment when the curtain is about to close, does she feel endless regrets about her former importance, glory and wealth?
Perhaps when night fell on this day, the Empress Dowager Cixi recalled her years in the Forbidden City, recalled that history full of power and intrigue, and her heart swelled with bitterness and emotion. Does the glory and power of the past seem insignificant at this moment?
1. The daily life of the Empress Dowager Cixi: the price of emptiness and loneliness in Vanity Fair
In the eyes of ordinary people, the life of the Empress Dowager Cixi was the ultimate luxury they could not imagine: living in the dormitory in the Forbidden City; sleeping on a carved and gold-painted dragon bed; There are dozens of palace maids waiting around him; After getting up, someone served to freshen up, and the maids served, but they didn't lift her in the palm of their hands.
She lives in the palace, she can eat and play whatever she wants. The three meals a day are exquisite, and the incense wafting in the air from time to time helps her feel comfortable. Isn't this the life that all women dream of?
However, behind this prosperity and magnificence is the emptiness and loneliness that ordinary people can hardly imagine. Cixi knows the emptiness of power, just like the former Minghui Niangniang, beauty and power can't really fill her heart. She longs for love and care, but is feared everywhere; She hoped to live longer, but in the end, she could not escape life, old age, sickness and death.
In this chaotic power field, Cixi learned to hide her true heart, and used an indifferent and ruthless exterior to face this world that was even crueler than she imagined. It is only in the dead of night that she reveals her most simple emotional needs as a woman. However, the path to her inner world was sealed as early as she embarked on this unrelenting power struggle.
2. The death of Emperor Guangxu: The sacrifice of youth is inevitable
For Emperor Guangxu, his relationship with the Empress Dowager Ci was complicated and cruel. This idealistic young emperor originally wanted to carry out the reform of the law during his reign and inject new vitality into this ancient country.
However, he underestimated the power and treachery of the Queen Mother. In the end, his first attempt at reform suffered the worst failure. How many loyal people have lost their lives as a result, and many more idealists have been disheartened ever since. In fact, this kind of tragedy is not uncommon in the cruel reality of politics.
As a victim of Cixi's decades of power, Emperor Guangxu paid the most painful price. He could have brought a new hope to the Qing Dynasty and used the blood of youth to wash away the accumulated evils, but in the end he fell prey to the Queen Mother. In a sense, this is also a footnote to the eventual hostility of this stormy feudal dynasty towards idealism.
Therefore, in evaluating Guangxu's reform and early death, we should not ignore the cruel reality of this history. The political arena has always been fratricidal, the ideals are very full, but the reality is very skinny. As future generations, we can only learn from the lessons of the past, and we cannot naively hope to survive in such an environment.
3. The aging Cixi faces death: no amount of power can withstand time
Cixi, who leaned towards the government and the opposition, had to face this cruel truth when her life was about to end at the age of 74: no one could escape from the face of death. Although she has the power to decide the life and death of countless people, she still cannot escape the fate of life, old age, sickness and death.
At this moment, she suddenly understood the meaning of the lives of those traitors who died fighting for power. Those political enemies who had been easily put to death by her were equal in the face of fate at this time, just like her. All the things I have done in this life seem so ridiculous and pathetic in the face of death.
Therefore, when Cixi swallowed the poisonous night pearl in her mouth and faced the dark gate of death, in addition to regret, she may also have some relief in her heart. She can finally get away from this noisy, tired, empty and wronged world, and no longer bother and work for power and profit. Only the souls who had been tortured to death by her were left behind, screaming and cursing on her way down to the Yellow Spring
4. Historical omissions in the fall of the Qing Empire
Some say that Cixi was the main culprit in the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and that her authoritarian corruption brought the country to a ruin. However, this kind of apparent judgment ignores the root cause of the fall of the feudal dynasty.
In fact, the social problems accumulated in the late Qing Dynasty were already faintly apparent before Cixi came to power. Surrounded by external enemies, internal affairs are corrupt; The bureaucracy is large and cumbersome, and it is difficult to implement change. Cixi's defeat and stupidity only pushed the contradiction to its climax.
In other words, the Qing Dynasty was like a hollow house, no matter how magnificently decorated it was, it could not hide the obsolescence and decay of its physique. The success of the Xinhai Revolution confirms one point: when a new historical trend hits, this gorgeous appearance that has been repaired will inevitably be destroyed after all.
Therefore, when we criticize Cixi and the fall of the late Qing Dynasty, we must jump out of the common subjective assumptions and understand it in the long stream of history. Because in the final analysis, the decline of each dynasty is not the sole responsibility of one or a few sinners. It involves the precipitation of thousands of years of accumulated Xi and the evolution of historical processes. This is a universal rule.
epilogue
On this last day, the Empress Dowager Cixi first faced a huge problem, that is, dealing with the aftermath of the late Guangxu Emperor. The death of Emperor Guangxu had a great impact on the power structure of the Qing Dynasty, and the Empress Dowager Cixi showed her political wisdom at this time. She skillfully handled the issue of succession and ensured that she still had decisive control over the government.
However, in this day's conspiracy drama, the Empress Dowager Cixi is also not lacking in contradictions and selfishness. She revised her edict, changed the rules that should have been succeeded by Emperor Jiaqing, and changed the candidate for the succession to Puyi, so that she could still influence the government behind the scenes. This kind of power game is not only a manifestation of her intelligence, but also a revelation of the ruler's selfishness.
In the end, the Empress Dowager Cixi ended her life in a dramatic way. With the pearl of the night in her mouth, she walked to the end of her life in a mysterious and intriguing way. The legends and mysteries she left behind have become the object of research and discussion for future generations.
The last day of the Empress Dowager Cixi was not only the end of the conspiracy, but also a moment full of contradictions and drama. On this day, she demonstrated the wisdom and cunning of a female ruler, and also drew a complex and profound end to the history of the Qing Dynasty.