The eight-nation alliance slept on Cixi's phoenix bed, and engraved a line of foreign language, but no one dared to translate it into Chinese. It's a history that's breathtaking. The Empress Dowager Cixi was supposed to be a generation of empresses, but she made a big mistake because of her greed for power. When the Eight-Nation Alliance wreaked havoc on the Forbidden City, she fled alone, leaving her royal dignity behind. What's even more despicable is that the coalition soldiers not only occupied her dormitory, but even carved an insulting foreign language on her phoenix bed. Although there were only a few words in this line, it was like a heavy blow, which severely shattered Cixi's pride. But even if she was furious, she had no power to return to heaven, so she could only suppress her anger and suffer the humiliation silently. What exactly is written in this foreign language? Why does no one dare to translate it literally? How did Cixi fall from arrogance to the abyss? Let's find out.
Empress Dowager Cixi's path to power
Empress Dowager Cixi was born into the Qing Dynasty aristocratic Yehenara clan, even though she had a noble bloodline from the beginning. She received a good upbringing from an early age, cultivating a haughty personality and a thirst for power. In 1844, at the age of seventeen, Cixi was elected to the palace and became the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng. Life in the palace is not unfamiliar to her, who was born in a powerful family, but is like a fish in water.
Cixi was not loved by Emperor Xianfeng at first, but was just a small concubine in the harem. But she is ambitious and hungry for power. In order to win the favor of the emperor, she repeatedly used various means to slap Emperor Xianfeng. Finally, after many efforts, Cixi finally became the favored concubine of Emperor Xianfeng.
Soon after, Cixi gave birth to Emperor Xianfeng's only son. According to the rules of the time, giving birth to a prince meant that the mother was more expensive than the son, and Cixi became the second highest status after the empress and the imperial concubine. Since then, her reputation in the harem has doubled and her position is stable.
However, Cixi was not satisfied with this, and she greedily craved greater power and status. For this reason, she kept flattering Emperor Xianfeng and began to interfere in court affairs. Emperor Xianfeng was obedient to Cixi, and even allowed her to participate in the decision-making of national affairs. Gradually, Cixi gained a pivotal position and influence in both the harem and the court.
The taste of power became addicted to Cixi, and she indulged in it with fascination and began to lay out for her future. When Emperor Xianfeng's health deteriorated, she did not feel the slightest regret, but saw an opportunity to take advantage of it. Once Emperor Xianfeng died, she could use the name of her own prince to realize her ambition of controlling the government. All this was slowly realized after the death of Emperor Xianfeng.
Nothing to do about the government
After the Empress Dowager Cixi took power, she did not use her wisdom to rule well, but indulged in sensuality, indulgence, and ignorance of state affairs. She emptied the real power of Emperor Tongzhi, regarded this young emperor as a puppet, and covered the sky with her own hands.
Emperor Tongzhi was obstructed and troubled by Cixi since he was a child, and he was unable to exert his ruling ability at all. After three years in charge, Cixi finally died due to exhaustion, and Cixi once again supported a new puppet emperor, Guangxu, who was only four years old.
From then on, Cixi monopolized power, autocracy and corruption, and the national power of the Qing Dynasty gradually declined. She is keen to spend extravagantly in the palace, rebuild the palace garden, and be extravagant and wasteful; She also did everything she could to suppress and obstruct the Westernization movement, block news, and restrict the introduction of Western studies. At that time, civil riots broke out one after another, and the confrontation between the government and the opposition intensified, but she turned a deaf ear and focused on her own lascivious and indulgent life.
Emperor Guangxu was under the control of Cixi and soon became an emperor who hung his son. He tried to implement a new policy, but was secretly obstructed and sabotaged by Cixi. For example, the 100-day Restoration he implemented was forcibly halted by Cixi on the grounds of "brewing a conspiracy". This incident cast a huge shadow on the reform movement at that time and intensified public resentment.
As time passed, Cixi's greed for power intensified. Not only did she continue to manipulate Emperor Guangxu, but she also disregarded public opinion and acted recklessly. For example, she ordered people to rebuild a luxurious imitation Mulan Palace in the Forbidden City, which cost a huge amount of money and caused an uproar. What's more, she repeatedly refused to sue for peace with the Western powers, which eventually led to the tragedy of the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance.
In the face of all this, Emperor Guangxu was almost helpless. Cixi has long since taken him seriously, and his power is nothing more than an empty name. Under these circumstances, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government could not withstand the double blow of external and internal strife, which eventually led to the accelerated decline of the Qing Dynasty.
I can't open my eyes to see the general trend
The Empress Dowager Cixi was self-contained, mediocre and decadent, and finally caused a catastrophe. In the later years of her reign, the internal and external troubles of the invasion of the Chinese powers and the popular uprisings intensified, but she turned a blind eye, stubbornly refused to face the reality.
The first was the 1898 Reform Movement. Due to Cixi's years of decay and excessive military spending, the treasury was empty. In order to reform and open up sources and reduce expenditure, Emperor Guangxu once advocated the reform of the law and the implementation of new policies, but they were all secretly obstructed and destroyed by Cixi, and finally dismissed many reformist ministers on the charge of "Xiao Gui Cao Sui". This has undoubtedly exacerbated the contradictions within the country.
Shortly after the failure of the Wuxu Rebellion, the Boxer Rebellion broke out. At first, the Boxers were just a group of good men and women, with the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty and destroying the foreigners", but it soon evolved into a fanatical xenophobic and violent movement. They killed clergy, vandalized churches, and directed their anger at foreigners in China.
In the face of growing public outrage and attacks on foreign embassies, the great powers sent troops into Beijing. Empress Dowager Cixi could have decisively stopped the Boxer Rebellion and reconciled with the great powers to avoid the outbreak of war. However, she went her own way and refused to give in. Finally, in 1900, the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, and Cixi fled to Xi'an in panic with Emperor Guangxu and others.
At this time, Cixi had completely lost the wisdom and courage to rule. In order to save her life, she had to accept all kinds of harsh conditions of the foreign powers, such as the indemnity payment was much higher than the Qing government's financial resources, and the demolition of the city wall. To add insult to injury, she witnessed coalition soldiers running rampant through the Forbidden City and even desecrated her dormitory.
From then on, Cixi's prestige was completely destroyed, and she had to be subservient to others and held back by foreign powers. Every year thereafter, she was humiliated by "kneeling" on her birthday as a sign of submission to the West. This is undoubtedly the retribution of her former arrogance, and it also marks the once glorious Qing Dynasty completely bowing to the Western powers.
Retribution for suffering humiliation
Because of her self-containedness and incompetence, the Empress Dowager Cixi eventually led to the collapse of the country. In 1900, after the Eight-Nation Coalition captured the city of Beijing, the Forbidden City was destroyed and desecrated like never before. As the cause of all these misfortunes, Cixi was not only forced to flee to Xi'an with the royal family members in panic, but also witnessed the ravages of her precious private palace.
After the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing, they immediately launched a frenzied ransack of the Forbidden City. Soldiers broke down the door and looted the buildings and treasures inside. Countless porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, and antiques were looted, and even the books in the imperial study were not spared. What's more, the coalition soldiers launched a premeditated desecration of the Empress Dowager Cixi's dormitory.
At that time, Cixi lived in Kunning Palace, a palace that she ordered to be rebuilt in 1888. Kunning Palace has a cave, there are hundreds of rooms in it, and the decoration is extremely luxurious. One of the most famous is Cixi's dormitory - the bank of the phoenix. On the bank of the phoenix are the most beloved treasures of Cixi's life, including precious furniture, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings. And her most precious item is naturally the phoenix bed inlaid with pearls and jadeite.
However, this priceless phoenix bed became the object of desecration after the Eight-Nation Alliance captured the Forbidden City. According to records at the time, after the coalition soldiers captured the Kunning Palace, they immediately rushed into the bank of the phoenix, and indulged in a carnival on Cixi's royal bed, and some people even carved a line of foreign language on the bed, every word was an insult to Cixi.
What exactly this line of foreign language is has always been a mystery. Because it was so embarrassing, no one dared to translate it into Chinese. However, it can be seen from other records that these words are extremely obscene and immoral, and they are completely a great shame for a generation of empresses.
In the face of such insults, although Cixi was furious, she could not do anything. She had to suppress the anger in her heart, and dismantled the phoenix bed overnight and burned it. Ironically, it was not long before she ordered the craftsmen to rebuild the bed, and even the inscription of the handwriting in the foreign language was visible. Obviously, Cixi had lost all her majesty and dignity at all, and could only endure this humiliation in silence.
Cixi fell from the pinnacle of power
After the Eight-Nation Coalition captured the city of Beijing, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was once in power, began to move from the peak of power all the way to the abyss of isolation. She had to grovel to the humiliation of the great powers and watch the glorious dynasty she had single-handedly built come to an end.
First of all, Cixi's prestige was discredited. As the culprit that triggered the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi appeared very weak and incompetent in this war. Not only did she fail to prevent the Boxer Rebellion from spreading, but she also refused to reconcile with the great powers, which eventually led to the scourge of war. On the way to Xi'an, she even took Emperor Guangxu and others to endure all the hardships, and was worried all day long, for fear of being attacked by the remnants of the army.
Once back in Beijing, Cixi's nightmare really began. During the occupation of the Eight-Nation Alliance, she had to grovel to the extreme and accept all kinds of humiliation from the great powers. One of the most ironic is that she has to "kneel" three times and bow nine times at the door of the embassy every year on her birthday to show her submission to the great powers.
What is even more tragic is that the Qing government paid a large amount of reparations in this war, far more than its financial capacity can afford. In order to raise compensation, Cixi could only auction off treasures and antiquities, and sell them for charcoal. But even so, this astronomical debt still could not be paid off, and could only continue to borrow from the great powers. This meant that the Qing Dynasty became a semi-colony and was controlled by the Western powers.
The external troubles are not over, and the internal worries are even more prevalent. Cixi frantically suppressed a large number of royalists after the war, blaming them for all resentment, even her former favorite minister. This shows her timidity and paranoia. And it is self-evident how far the people's anger at her incompetence in power has reached.
What is even more serious is that Cixi's dictatorial and arbitrary ruling style completely swept away the centripetal force of the government and the opposition, and contradictions arose within the Qing government. She had to compete with Emperor Guangxu for power, and the relationship between the two cracked several times. Under these circumstances, it was naturally impossible for the Manchu dynasty to regain its strength, and it soon fell into extinction under the double blow of foreign invasion and popular uprising.
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In this way, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was once in power, gradually fell into the abyss of power and became a generational mistake. She was finally confined to the palace and was no longer powerless to change the fate of the Qing Dynasty.