Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City in Beijing has been an imperial palace. In 1924, the year after the last emperor Pu Yi was expelled from the Forbidden City, the world's most ornate and well-guarded imperial palace was finally unveiled. Nearly 500 years of wind and dust, how many historical stories have happened in this secluded palace
Mr. Yi Zhongtian once said in the Three Kingdoms that history is sometimes far away from us. What is the truth of history? No one can say for sure. We can only speculate based on the only historical data available. For example, it is difficult to say that this was the true face of the ancient emperors. There is only one emperor in Chinese history who has left his true portrait material, and that is the last emperor, Pu Yi, because in his time, the camera had already been invented.
The last emperor, Pu Yi, not only left a large number of photographs and images, including his own oral accounts, writings and other historical materials. Relatively speaking, these materials are closer to the real history on the premise of pictures and truth. In these historical materials, Pu Yi revealed many secrets about the Forbidden City that he knew and experienced.
Pu Yi entered the palace and was named emperor before he was three years old. In the imagination of each of us, the ancient emperors were extremely luxurious, extravagant, and supreme. Although we watched a lot of court dramas, we probably know about the daily life scenes of the emperor. But we saw scenes from the life of the emperor in the TV series, which was not the case.
Pu Yi became emperor, mainly because Emperor Guangxu had no descendants. Guangxu is Pu Yi's eldest brother. After the death of Emperor Guangxu, Pu Yi was adopted to Guangxu in order to sit in the position of emperor, and he was also the widow of the Taoist ruler and the Guangxu Emperor. Of course, Pu Yi's mother's identity cannot be determined.
After entering the palace, Pu Yi had four "mothers", but he was lonely. The only thing that could make him feel the warmth of his mother's love was the nurse Wang Jiao who entered the palace with him. Pu Yi was weaned at the age of nine, and even after being expelled from the Forbidden City, he received his mother.
The four old concubines in the palace were very indifferent to Pu Yi. They all "take care" of Pu Yi according to daily etiquette. Pu Yi went to the concubine's womb every day to say hello. The concubines were sitting in front of the dressing mirror, kneeling on the ground with their backs to Pu Yi, and said the same thing: How does the emperor sleep? How does the emperor read this book? How does the emperor eat? The last sentence is that the emperor is stepping down.
It was the eunuchs of the Ministry of the Interior who took care of Pu Yi's daily life. Pu Yi grew up in the company of eunuchs. In addition to taking care of Pu Yi's eating, drinking and sleeping, the eunuch gradually grew into Pu Yi's playmate.
Pu Yi was very naughty when he was a child and ran around. The eunuch made up ghost stories to scare the little emperor, so that Pu Yi did not hide in bed until dark and did not dare to go out, which led to Pu Yi's timid and eccentric character, and he was very superstitious.
The eunuch had other ways to deal with the young and mischievous Pu Yi. Whenever Pu Yi ran energetically and jolted, they locked him in a small black room and made him cry for a while. When he comes out, his anger will be extinguished. Pu Yi had more than 20 dishes per meal, but Pu Yi was often hungry.
The dishes were largely lined up so that the emperor would not eat too much. If he eats a little more, he will be stopped. There are more kinds of porridge and steamed buns every day. So, once Pu Yi met a group of eunuchs, and they brought food to the princess. Pu Yi grabbed it, took a bite of the pork knuckle in the sauce, and was taken away by the eunuch without a few bites.
In Pu Yi's view, many of the emperor's daily activities were on display. Eat a lot without eating, and eat a lot without clothes. According to Pu Yi's list of internal government expenditures, Pu Yi had 22 catties of meat and vegetables per day, 660 catties per month, and 3,960 catties of meat and vegetables per month, including 388 chickens and ducks, plus the six concubines and the empress dowager.
At that time, Pu Yi was only 5 years old. He eats 240 chickens and ducks a month. In addition, the Minister of Military Aircraft, former royal bodyguards, young masters, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs consume 14,642 pounds of meat and vegetables every month. In Pu Yi's view, most of these expenses were misappropriated by the Ministry of the Interior, and corruption was widespread among the people at all levels in the Forbidden City.
In addition, Pu Yi also unveiled another dark curtain on the Forbidden City. There is a Ruyi Hall in the Forbidden City, which was built during the Kangxi period to study the art of court painting. Although the name and location have changed several times, the organization is consistent. If the concubine or queen wants to draw and write, first ask the painter of Ruyitang to draw a line. The concubine or the emperor added a few strokes, and it became the treasure of the imperial pen.