In the early 1950s, a small 10-square-meter house in the west entrance of Peicai Hutong in Beijing's Xicheng District was inhabited by a couple in their forties.
The neighbors knew more about the couple's situation, and knew that the husband of the two was named Liu Zhendong, who was once a Kuomintang officer, and after liberation, he took the initiative to confess his past history to the government, and was assigned to the Xicheng District cleaning team as a cleaner.
Liu Zhendong's wife is called Fu Yufang, who used to be a teacher before liberation, and later became a school member in the North China Daily newspaper.
In fact, Liu Zhendong was also very satisfied with his wife Fu Yufang, and felt that she was very virtuous and knowledgeable.
What Liu Zhendong did not expect, however, was that his wife, who was just 44 years old, died of a heart attack in September 1953. What he did not expect was what his wife said before she died: "In fact, I was once the imperial concubine of the Qing Dynasty." ”
In fact, Liu Zhendong's wife did not deceive him, she was really an imperial concubine in the late Qing Dynasty.
So why would a former imperial concubine be reduced to marrying a cleaner? What kind of story does she have? Everything has to start with the spring of 1921.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Erdet Wen embroidery</h1>
In the spring of 1921, Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who lived in the Forbidden City in Beijing, was 15 years old. According to tradition, he became an adult the next year and was ready for the "big wedding".
Although Puyi had abdicated at this time, the small imperial court still maintained the tradition of the former Qing Dynasty, regarding him as the "True Dragon Heavenly Son".
Of course, the marriage of the "Son of Heaven" could not be sloppy, and the three concubines in the palace, Jingyi, Ronghui, and Duankang, as well as Puyi's biological father Zaifeng, as well as the widows and widows of the Manchu Qing, began to discuss the matter of electing the emperor.
After deliberating for several months, the small imperial court finally elected four empresses, namely the daughter of Gongsan Norbu, the daughter of Liangshu, the daughter of Duan Gong, and the daughter of WenXuan, the daughter of Wen Xuan.
Duan Gong here refers to Erdet Duan Gong, who was born from the yellow flag of the Upper Three Banners. However, Duan Gong's branch had already declined, and he only mixed with the errands of a minor official in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the 6 brothers lived together in the ancestral house of Dafangjia Hutong.
Duan Gong later married the Han daughter Jiang Shi, who gave birth to two daughters in a row, and Duan Gong was depressed and eventually fell ill and died.
Jiang had to take his two daughters Wen Xiu, Wen Shan, and the "Big Black Sister" born to her husband's ex-wife to survive. After the death of the Manchu Qing, the family of four moved out of Dafangjia Hutong and rented a house in beijing's flower market.
Wen Xiu's fifth uncle was called Hua Kan, who once served as a Manchu Qing official Shangshu, and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he naturally lost his flower plume, eating and praying buddha at home every day, sitting on the mountain and eating the sky, and living a difficult life by selling his ancestral property.
When Hua Kan learned that the palace was going to choose an empress for the emperor, he was very happy, thinking that this was the hope of revitalizing the Erdete family, and reported his niece who had changed her han name to Fu Yufang, of course, it was a full quota of Erdette Wen embroidery.
Embroidery
Although Wen Xiu cannot be called handsome, he is tall, has large eyes, a white complexion, is fat and thin, and looks very rich, so he became one of the 4 candidates.
The concubines all wanted to elect the person they liked as the empress, and after a long time of struggle, they did not choose the empress from these 4 people, and finally decided to let Puyi decide who would be the empress.
When Puyi saw the photo submitted, he found that the photo was very blurry, and it was completely unclear what the woman looked like. So he casually picked a photo that looked quite pleasing to the eye and drew a circle, and Wen Xiu became Puyi's favorite empress candidate.
However, Puyi's choice made Duan Kang very dissatisfied, and she made a lot of trouble for a long time. It was not until March 10, 1922, that Puyi finally made a decision: "Guo Jiashi (郭布羅婉容), daughter of Rongyuan, the candidate of the Dao Light Vehicle Commandery, was made empress, and Erdete (Erdet Wenxiu), the daughter of Tongzhi Duangong, was crowned as a lady concubine." "The dispute over the selection of concubines after the establishment has come to an end.
Puyi
Wen Xiu, who became a "Lady Concubine", officially entered the palace on November 30, 1922, when she was under the age of 14.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > sad palace life</h1>
Before officially entering the palace, Wen Xiu had never seen her future husband.
When she met Puyi for the first time in the Palace Yangxin Hall on November 30, after performing the three kneeling and nine prostrations ceremony, she found that her husband was very cold, and only said: "Go down and rest." On the wedding night of the day, Puyi did not share a room with Wen Xiu, which could not help but make her feel devastated, wondering if she had done something wrong.
Day 2 was the day of puyi and empress wanrong's big wedding, but Puyi did not sleep with the empress, and after the ceremony, Puyi returned to the Yangxin Hall alone to sleep.
Embroidery and grace
The reason why Puyi is not close to his two wives is mainly because he cannot do personnel affairs.
Perhaps feeling guilty about them, Puyi likes to sit in Wenxiu or Wanrong's room when she is fine. The embroidery is dignified and quiet, widely read, and knowledgeable, which is still very attractive to the young Puyi.
In the first year, the two of them often talked on their knees or strolled hand in hand, rewarding Wanrong with something, puyi also wanted to reward wen embroidery, and even asked an English teacher to have one person.
Puyi's behavior naturally caused the dissatisfaction of Empress Wanrong, who believed that her appearance, lineage, status, and literary embroidery were inferior to herself, so how could she share the emperor with herself.
Grace and embroidery
On appearance, Wenxiu is indeed not as good as Wanrong, so in the queen concubine competition, Wenxiu is gradually in the ascendant, Puyi is more and more distant and cold to her, more and more close to Wanrong, after entering 1924, Puyi rarely goes to find Wenxiu again.
After entering the palace, Wen Xiu lived in the Changchun Palace on Tingnei West Road in the Forbidden City, which belonged to the West Sixth Palace. It once housed the Qianlong Emperor's wife Empress Xiaoxian and Cixi of the Tongguang Period, and was built in a very magnificent manner.
In the West Hall of Changchun Palace, there are also many books, which have also become an important place for passing the boring time by the embroidery of the "Cold Palace".
What Wen Xiu did not expect was that under the arrangement of fate, it was difficult for her to maintain even the days of reading and improving.
On November 5, 1924, Feng Yuxiang, who heard that the small imperial court planned to contact various forces to carry out "restoration", launched the famous "Forced Palace Incident".
Under the "protection" of Lu Zhonglin, commander-in-chief of the Beijing Garrison, Zhang Bi, the police chief, and others, the small imperial court of the Sunqing Dynasty was relocated from the imperial palace and lived in the palace of Puyi's biological father.
Feng Yuxiang
Although at the repeated request of Puyi and others, they agreed to take 6333 kilograms of hidden silver from Ouchi as a living expense for their large family. However, the Puyi family left the palace, which marked the natural and complete abolition of the titles of emperor, empress, and imperial concubine, and they were not much different from ordinary people.
The transformation from emperor to commoner is undoubtedly very difficult for Puyi to accept, and he tries every means to seek "restoration", at least to get rid of this status quo under the fence.
This made Wen Xiu see the opportunity, she wanted to be an "equal", with her own erudition, to help her husband to give advice and change the current embarrassing situation.
After more than 20 days passed, Puyi had not yet thought of how to improve the situation, he was no longer a "prisoner", the Warlord Zhang Zuolin led troops into Beijing to drive Feng Yuxiang away, Puyi finally relieved the humiliation brought to him by the Feng clan, and could move freely after that, but still could not return to the Forbidden City.
Zhang Zuolin
It was also at this time that Zheng Xiaoxu, who had served as a political envoy in Hunan, quietly found Puyi and told him: "If you want to restore the qing emperor's business, you must rely on Japan as foreign aid." ”
At the same time, Zheng Xiaoxu also told Puyi that the Japanese were "happy" to help him "restore." Puyi listened intently and said, "It seems that Japan is not bad for us." ”
When Wen Xiu learned of this, he immediately advised Puyi: "The Japanese are extremely brutal, and countless Chinese slaughtered during the Russo-Japanese War, and we absolutely cannot listen to Zheng's lies and lure wolves into the house, otherwise the consequences will be extremely tragic." ”
Puyi did not listen to Wen Xiu's advice at all, but continued to collude with Zheng Xiaoxu, and secretly ran to the Japanese legation in Beijing on November 29, 1924.
Puyi's sneaking away did not even tell his own family, so Wen Xiu and others were very panicked, and even thought that Puyi was kidnapped by bad people. Just when Puyi's family began to look for people like crazy, Puyi suddenly sent someone to the Alcohol King's Mansion and asked Wen Xiu, WanRong and others to go to the Japanese legation to live together.
Puyi, Wanrong, Wen embroidery
It turned out that during this period of time, Puyi and the Japanese formally reached an agreement to protect the safety of him and his family, and Puyi hooked up with Zheng Xiaoxu and other pro-Japanese elements to plan to use the strength of the Japanese to achieve "restoration" and re-ascend to the throne.
On February 24, 1925, the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, "the dragon looked up", Puyi and his party quietly left Beijing and moved to the Tianjin Japanese Concession.
During these days, Puyi kept in contact with the Japanese consul in Tianjin or the commander of the Japanese army in China, which made Wen Xiu feel bitter and repeatedly advised him: Japan must not be gullible, and the lies of Zheng Xiaoxu and the like cannot be listened to, and should be restrained from the precipice in time, otherwise there will be endless troubles in the future.
With the continuous persuasion of Wen Xiu, PuYi gradually developed a dislike for Wen Xiu, and since then, he has mixed with Wan Rong every day, whether it is going to the street, eating, receiving guests or other activities, only with Wan Rong, and the reward given during the New Year's Festival is only given to Wan Rong alone, and there is no longer a share of Wen Xiu. When Puyi accidentally saw Wen Xiu, he would also treat her coldly, as if he was looking at a stranger.
What is good in the upper will be followed by the lower, and evil from the upper will be followed by the lower. Seeing that Puyi's attitude towards "Lady Concubine Niangniang" is getting worse and worse, the palace eunuchs have also begun to discriminate and abuse Wenxiu in a similar way, wanrong is more like a proud fox, picking quarrels and provoking trouble from time to time, and insulting or humiliating Wenxiu, it can be said that at this time, Wenxiu is living a dark life, and the so-called royal family can no longer tolerate her.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > knife-and-concubine revolution</h1>
Wen Xiu grew up with a traditional education, but her nature is not a person who is rebellious and obedient, and it can be said that she is full of the spirit of resistance. Since Puyi could not tolerate himself, Wen Xiu had the idea of leaving Puyi.
The problem is that no matter what, Puyi is Wenxiu's husband and "emperor", and it is really difficult for Wenxiu to leave Puyi. It was also at this time that a man named Yu Fen came to Wen Xiu's side.
Yu Fen is a relative of Wen Xiu, that is, a little far away, her father is called Yu Zhang, is Wen Xiu's distant cousin-in-law, according to the generation is the younger generation of Wen Xiu, but the age is a few years older than Wen Xiu.
Yu Fen is a well-known beauty billet, but her marriage is very unhappy. Yu Fen married a person called Feng Shushan, grandfather is the former president of the Republic of China Feng Guozhang, is a typical clumsy disciple, all day is not eating, drinking and having fun or looking for flowers and willows, the relationship between the husband and wife can be said to be extremely poor.
It is precisely because of this unfortunate marriage that Yufen gradually awakened her feminist consciousness and believed that women who are unhappy in marriage should have the right to divorce. Therefore, when she learned that Wen Xiu was entangled in whether to separate from Puyi, she immediately said:
"It's the republic of China era, and the law says equality between men and women. Puyi has long been thrown out of the palace, is a commoner, not a small emperor, he also has to abide by the law, wait for people equally, you should hire a lawyer, write a complaint accusing him of abusing his wife, divorce him, and ask for maintenance. ”
After that, Yufen began to explain the Civil Law of the People's Republic of China to Wen Xiu, telling her that there was a clear provision for "voluntary divorce" in the 4th part of "Relatives". It was Yu Fen's words that made Wen Xiu see the dawn of relief and began to regularly discuss with Yu Fen and her sister Wen Shan the plan to escape the cage.
At noon on August 25, 1931, Wen Xiu was snubbed by the eunuch during a meal in the middle hall, and took this opportunity to lose his temper, scolding the eunuch in the open and Puyi in secret. Puyi understood Wen Xiu's voice, and he was so angry that he immediately ordered: "The sin of deceiving the king should be damned, and the emperor will give you the death penalty!" ”
When Wen Xiu learned of Puyi's order, without saying a word, he picked up a pair of scissors and stabbed himself in the throat, how could the eunuch next to him really watch this "Lady Concubine" commit suicide, snatched the scissors away, and advised her to "want to open a point", and as a result, Wen Xiu took this opportunity to start "spilling" and made a lot of noise.
When Puyi learned of this, he felt that it was detrimental to "royal decency", and he was unwilling to personally persuade Wen Xiu, so he asked a eunuch to go to the Qingwang Mansion to find Wen Shan and ask her to persuade her sister.
After Wen Shan "persuaded" her sister in the room for a long time, she came out and said to Puyi: "My sister is still in tears and is in a very depressed mood, and I hope that Your Majesty will allow me to accompany my sister to go out for a walk and watch the play." ”
For Puyi, who was thinking about restoration, this was not a big deal, and he waved his hand and asked a eunuch named Zhao Changqing to accompany their sisters out to relax.
After Wen Shan helped her "weeping and weeping" sister out of the gate, she immediately instructed the driver to drive to the Tianjin National Hotel (now the intersection of Tianjin Chifeng Road and Heping Road), and Wen Xiu, who had stopped crying, got out of the car and went straight to room 37 under the company of his sister.
After the two sat down, Wen Xiu said to Zhao Changqing, who came with him, "You go back, we will not leave here." Tell the emperor that I will go to court to sue him and decide to divorce him. ”
Wen Xiu's decision can be said to have greatly surprised Zhao Changqing's expectations, no matter how Wen Xiu was the "master", he was not good at using force, so he knelt down and kept kowtowing to Wen Xiu, asking her to show great compassion and "get up and drive back to the palace."
However, how could Wen Xiu, who was already determined to escape from the Tiger's Den Dragon Pond, have a soft heart at this time, and took out three letters and said to him: "These things have nothing to do with you, you take these letters to the emperor to see, he will believe that you are innocent." ”
After Zhao Changqing prostrated his head several times, he saw that the "Lady Lady" had indeed made up his mind, and in desperation, he had to go back to Puyi in a gray and slippery way to report the news.
After Zhao Changqing returned, he quickly ran to report to Puyi, saying: "Lady Lady is not willing to come back." Puyi's face darkened after listening, and he tore open the letter handed by Zhao Changqing and found that the letter was written by a lawyer, who said: "This divorce case has been formally accepted." ”
Regarding the reason why Wen Xiu wanted to divorce, it read: "Emperor Shi has been nine years old, he has not been blessed, he is alone, he is sad and tearful, he has been abused, he can't stand it, and now hereby asks to live elsewhere." Pu should go once a month to practice cohabitation, otherwise they will only meet in court. ”
Looking at this article of "words of condemnation", Puyi felt that he was a little breathless, and if this matter was circulated, then his "emperor" would become a laughing stock. Therefore, a large number of eunuchs and retinues were quickly sent to the Kuomintang Hotel, asking them to dig three feet into the ground and find out the embroidery.
How could Wen Xiu really obediently stay where she was and wait for Puyi to catch her, she had already made a way out, and as soon as Zhao Changqing left their sisters, she left the hotel and moved to the home of a widow surnamed Zhang who was very sympathetic to Wen Xiu's suffering.
When the eunuchs and retinue arrived at Room 37 of the National Hotel, they saw only three lawyers left behind. They solemnly said, "Madam Wenxiu asked us to tell you that after you go back, you will tell Mr. Puyi that you will handle it in accordance with the conditions mentioned in the letter, otherwise you will see you in court." ”
When Puyi got this news, he felt a lot of headaches, he did not want to be the first emperor to be "suspended" by the concubines, and quickly summoned the old and young widows of the Manchu Qing to a meeting to discuss the matter.
When these people learned that Wen Xiu wanted Emperor Hugh, they were all "indignant" and vigorously condemned Wen Xiu's behavior, Puyi asked them if there was any way to solve this matter, they all retracted one by one, after all, the Qing Dynasty was dead, and they could only verbally condemn a few words, which did not require money.
In desperation, Puyi had to send someone to the National Hotel again to "negotiate" with the lawyers and ask Wenxiu to "return to the palace", but the three lawyers insisted on the bottom line, saying that Ms. Wenxiu refused to see anyone.
Puyi and Wanrong
Puyi, who was extremely anxious, quickly brought Zheng Xiaoxu, Hu Siyi and others to him, and after deliberating for half a day, finally decided to send two lawyers to negotiate with WenXiu's lawyers and strive for reconciliation. Puyi's request is very "simple", no divorce, no prosecution, no declaration in the newspaper.
This was obviously unacceptable to Wen Xiu, so the negotiations eventually reached an impasse.
What Puyi did not expect was that the second astronomical embroidery ran away from home on the newspaper, when the front page of the major newspapers in the Beijing-Tianjin area was "The Change of the Former Qing Dynasty Emperor's Family", which soon caused a huge sensation, and almost everyone was discussing the ancient anecdote of "Concubine Hugh Emperor". And the reason for Wen Xiu and Puyi's divorce, "The emperor has been nine years old, not blessed" also made everyone marvel, and the emperor was not so.
Reports on the divorce of Puyi and his wife
At that time, the word "revolution" was popular in China, and the matter of literary embroidery was also crowned with the title of "revolution", some people called it "Knife Concubine Revolution", some people called it "Shufei Revolution", and some people called it "Concubine Revolution".
Soon, domestic public opinion was divided into two distinct factions, with progressives supporting Wenxiu as a human rights issue, while conservatives, composed of feudal apologists who held on to their inadequacies, criticized Wenxiu as if she had done something heinous.
As one of the parties, Puyi, it can be said that this situation is very headache, after sending people and Wenxiu to negotiate several times, Wenxiu still insists on divorce, and makes a posture of suing the court, Puyi immediately panicked after knowing it, and sent someone to tell Wenxiu that he is willing to reconcile and is willing to pay money, but does not agree to divorce.
As a result, while the settlement negotiations were proceeding smoothly, Puyi received a summons from the Tianjin District Court on August 29, asking him to go to the court's civil mediation office for mediation at 2 p.m. on September 2, 1931. It turned out that this was a ploy by the Wenxiu side, relying on the court to force Puyi to allow the divorce.
Summons to Puyi
Puyi was busy mixing with the Japanese at that time, there was no time to be distracted, plus he also thought that he was the "Ninth Five-Year Dignity", felt that as an emperor, should not go to the court and a woman to argue, had to choose to give in, the two sides after 4 times of discussion, finally decided that Puyi paid Wenxiu 55,000 yuan in support, the two officially divorced on October 22, 1931, so that Wenxiu was finally truly free.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="72" > from "royal princess" to ordinary person</h1>
After Puyi got the divorce agreement, his heart was still indignant, and in order to regain face, he asked the eunuch to make a plan:
"Lady Shu left the garden without permission, manifestly violating the ancestral precepts, and was released to her mother's house to live in the province. The original title was removed and abolished as a shuren. Thanks. 13 September 23, 2003. ”
Puyi embroidered the divorce agreement
After reading this "will" many times, Puyi finally checked out the "release to his mother's family to live in the province", and spent a lot of money to let the eunuch find a newspaper to publish it on the front page headlines of major newspapers.
As for wenxiu, who was "abolished as a shuren", he returned directly to Beiping after the divorce, changed his name back to the Chinese name Fu Yufang, and found a job as a Chinese teacher in the private Sicun Primary and Secondary School in Beiping City.
Wen Xiu's work as a teacher in Beijing soon became known to the good people and spread the word everywhere, a large number of reporters came to the school to interview her, and Wen Xiu, who was overwhelmed, had to resign and bought a small house to live in seclusion.
After the July 7 Incident, Wen Xiu, who had no source of livelihood, pasted cartons, sold cigarettes, and went to the construction site as a small worker transporting mud tiles in order to survive.
Later, Wen Xiu found a job as a proofreader at the North China Daily Newspaper, and the president Zhang Mingwei admired wen xiu for his self-reliance and introduced her to his cousin Liu Zhendong.
Liu Zhendong was over forty years old at the time, never married a daughter-in-law, and served as a major quartermaster under Li Zongren. After meeting each other, the two felt that each other was quite suitable, and after more than 5 months of mutual understanding, the wedding was finally held in the summer of 1947.
In the second year after marriage, Liu Zhendong took the initiative to choose to retire from the army to do business, bought 8 flatbed trucks, and opened a freight car dealership. After the peaceful liberation of Peiping, Liu Zhendong was controlled by the government because he had been a Kuomintang officer, and under the persuasion of Wen Xiu, Liu Zhendong took the initiative to confess his past history, and was soon released from control and assigned to the Xicheng District cleaning team as a worker.
Although the husband and wife live a very poor life, they still enjoy it. Unfortunately, in September 1953, Wen Xiu suddenly fell seriously ill, and before dying, he called her husband to his side and said, "In fact, I was once the Imperial Princess of the Qing Dynasty." After that, Wen Xiu told her experience intermittently, and when she finished, she died, at this time she was only 44 years old, leaving no man and half woman.
Liu Zhendong's family was poor and could not even afford to buy a coffin, or the comrades of the Xicheng District cleaning team helped him order a thin coffin made of 4 wooden planks, and buried Wen Xiu outside the Anding Gate.
Wen Xiu, the story of this twisty fate of the "last imperial princess", ends here.