In the long course of history, some people's living habits have amazed future generations. Cixi was the last female emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and her reign led to a corrupt style that led to the weakening of the country. But what is surprising is that as a woman at the peak of power, she actually started a series of complicated and cumbersome daily routines from 3 o'clock in the morning every day, and did not go to the court until 8 o'clock to govern. What was Cixi doing in the intervening five hours? Is it just about getting dressed up? Or does she have other hidden hobbies? It's a mystery worth looking into.
Cixi is the lord of one party, and her life is different from ordinary people
When the Manchu Dynasty entered the late stage, the national fortunes fell into a trough several times, but the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Forbidden City lived a free life with no quarrel with the world. As the supreme power holder of the dynasty, Cixi's daily life had her own set of rules, which was really different from ordinary people's homes.
When night fell, the eunuchs and concubines in the palace began to carefully arrange the living arrangements for the next day. They would pluck the young leaves of Cixi's favorite flowers and plants and carefully boil them into a fragrant bath fragrance; and select the best breast milk, mix it with hot water and wait for it to be warmed; The dragon robe and brocade robe of Cixi that day should also be smoothed and ironed in case she changed her clothes and wore them.
This series of preparations often took several hours in a row, until the first rays of dawn in the east came through the window, and the palace people dared to cautiously come to Cixi's top palace----Cining Palace, and lightly open the door for the Empress Dowager to start her new day.
At this time, the palace maid will wake up the sleeping Cixi in a low and pleasant voice. But even if they were extremely careful, they were often reprimanded by the angry Cixi. Because Cixi cherished her long black and beautiful hair, as long as she was not careful, she would be regarded as a great sin.
When Cixi is fully awake, some of her most favored grandmothers will come forward, wipe her face with a warm towel, and dust off the fluff in her hair with a soft and boneless broom, and then start a series of procedures for grooming and dressing.
Meticulously take care of your face, and the luxury is more than constant
Once Cixi came to her senses, the imperial physician would prepare a bucket of warm bath water for her, as she was customary. But the bath water is not the water that ordinary people use, but is mixed with a lot of precious medicines and breast milk.
The old ladies in the palace will carefully grind the fragrant flowers and plants picked in advance with a special jade stone mortar, and mix them with breast milk and hot water, so that the bath water is not only warm and comfortable, but also rich in sultry fragrance. This is undoubtedly the best moisturizer for Cixi's aging skin.
Surrounded by several eunuchs and court maids, Cixi would slowly walk into her exclusive bath and immerse herself in this luxury. Her wrinkled hands would churn in the water, watching as the milky water grew cloudy.
While Cixi was bathing, the imperial dining room was also in full swing preparing her pink rouge. In addition to ordinary rouge and pearl powder, the men in the imperial dining room would also grind precious minerals such as realgar and cinnabar into powder, mix them with egg whites and milk, and apply them to Cixi's face, giving her a charming ruddy luster.
What is even more rare is that the imperial dining room also prepares a jar of special lip gloss for Cixi every day. They would blend the finest honey with expensive osmanthus flowers to create a sweet, rich lip gloss to moisten the Empress's lips. If there was an occasional negligence on that day, the honey would be rebuked by the Empress.
It is worth mentioning that in the whole process of dressing up, what Cixi values most is her green silk that has been full of ups and downs but is still shiny. In order to make the hair smoother and straighter, the palace people took great pains, even to find the distant snake musk. They would whip musk into tung oil and carefully apply it to Cixi's sideburns over and over again to ensure that the hair was soft and shiny.
This was not enough, and it was later reported that they had purchased precious fur seal oil for Cixi to clean up Cixi's thinning hair. Whenever it was needed, Cixi's sideburns were carefully smeared with a thin layer of fur seal oil, barely maintaining her reputation for her shiny and flowing green silk.
Opium smoking is a pastime, and the absurd habit is difficult to change
When Cixi finished dressing, the attendants would respectfully hold her favorite large cigarette pouch. Carved from expensive sandalwood, this large tobacco pouch has an intricate design with a crystal clear jade inlaid in the center.
The maid would carefully whisk the pipe in the bag and slowly insert the refined opium dregs into it. When everything was ready, they respectfully offered the big cigarette pouch in both hands, and watched Cixi take a puff impatiently.
Soon, an intoxicating puff of smoke filled the air. Cixi closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled the white mist with satisfaction, and her face was full of enjoyment. It's her unique, little pleasure that no one knows about.
The opium affair began with an opportunity when Cixi was young. On one occasion, when the physician visited her, he prescribed a medicine containing a small amount of opium to relieve some of her pain. Who would have thought that opium would make Cixi addicted to it, and it would be difficult to extricate herself.
Since then, she has been in love with this "trance fairyland", and often sucks in the deep palace. Even a few near-poisoning attempts didn't make her quit this ridiculous hobby. The imperial doctor's advice was fruitless, and the palace people were also amazed in private.
What is even more criticized is that Cixi's demand for opium is simply excessive, and it is often hundreds of ingots. In order to satisfy her terrible addiction, the harem had to secretly buy a large amount of opium from all over the world, costing countless gold and silver.
For a time, the infiltration of opium even affected the operation of the entire court. Some of the magnates, in order to appease the grace of Cixi, have slowly become infected with such vices, and the palace is full of opium smoke, which makes serious affairs delayed again and again.
In addition to opium, Cixi also indulged in other erosive entertainments. Later generations found that she was very happy with those frivolous and bewitching dancers, and even spared no expense in money and material resources to transfer teachers, leaving some particularly outstanding dancers to wait by her side.
Gobbling up all kinds of flavors, gluttony
After Cixi ignited the opium, she would feel a little hungry, so it was the beginning of the busy work of the imperial dining room. At this time, dozens of palace maids poured in from all directions like a spring, each holding a hot delicacy in their hands.
First of all, there are some appetizers, such as snow red, anchovy shrimp, white stove hairy tripe, etc., all of which are extremely exquisite dishes. The palace ladies would arrange these delicate side dishes neatly and present them in front of Cixi.
Soon, staple foods were also being served. A large plate of chicken with a full portion, grilled to a golden brown and crispy; Tender hairy crabs with salt and pepper in a large pot of casserole; There are also high-quality buckle meat, boiled meat, and braised meat, all of which are Cixi's favorites.
At this moment, the continuous stream of dishes was enough to fill the entire large table. But that's not enough, the work of the Imperial Dining Room continues. Freshly simmered soups, stir-fried dishes, and countless exquisite dim sum are all being served.
Faced with such a sumptuous delicacies, Cixi couldn't help but salivate. Although she is old, her appetite has not diminished at all, and she still devours it. She takes small sips of each dish and tastes each bite very carefully.
But Cixi was notoriously gluttonous. After a few bites, she often finds the dish too bland, so she pushes it aside and eats it with a new one. In this way, she tasted this dish for a while, and she tasted that dish for a while, and you went back and forth, until finally the table was almost all tasted.
But she still doesn't find it enjoyable, and she needs to order something new. So the men in the imperial dining room were as tired as dogs, and as soon as they had served a dish on their front feet, they began to prepare a new one on their hind feet. Even the palace maids felt that their physical strength was a little unbearable, and they couldn't help but pant for breath when they changed the plates for Cixi.
Arrogance and lasciviousness eventually caused disaster, and the Qing Dynasty went from prosperity to decline
In this way, thousands of people up and down the entire court were busy running around every day to satisfy Cixi's selfish desires. The imperial dining room was sleepless in cooking delicacies, the palace maids and eunuchs were endlessly serving her to get up and freshen up, and the imperial doctors and doctors were even more tireless in taking care of her opium addiction.
At the same time, however, the authority of the state and the people's livelihood are declining day by day. Cixi spends extravagantly in the deep palace every day, extravagance and prostitution, not only a large loss of gold and silver, but even some of the opinions of the government and the opposition are difficult to reach her ears.
According to investigations, the expenditure on opium alone costs tens of thousands of taels of silver every year. Not to mention the extravagant tiaras and royal treasures encrusted with emerald diamonds, as well as the dancing girls and musicians she had been allocating for a long time, all of which added up to the amount of silver needed each year to govern a territory.
During the same period, the Qing court emptied its treasury, was reckless in military force, was repeatedly humiliated by foreign powers, and successively broke out wars with Britain and France. Hundreds of millions of Lebanese people have been tormented by foreign wars and natural disasters, and their lives have fallen into dire straits. But all this seems to have nothing to do with Cixi in the deep palace.
In the end, in the midst of many opposition, Cixi was forced to relinquish power to the Guangxu Emperor. But she still has old habits that are hard to break, and her coveting power has never stopped. She repeatedly intervened in political affairs, dismissed important ministers without authorization, and used force to suppress dissent, and finally staged a coup d'état in 1898, which plunged China into unprecedented turmoil.
In that year, the foundation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was completely shaken, and the imperial magnates fled the vast territory under the hatred of the people, and finally could only survive in Xi'an for a few years. When Cixi was dying, she realized what kind of disaster the long-term arrogance and indulgence had brought to the country. But by then, it was already too late.