Text/Mu Bingsen
Dynasties have regarded the issue of emperor fertility as a top priority. At the time of the big wedding, in addition to appointing an empress, the emperor also chose many concubines and palace women to make the harem as full as possible, with the purpose of hoping that the emperor could have a group of children and have a successor to the throne. The Qing Dynasty was no exception, and it was very effective to use this method, the Emperor Taiji had eleven princes; Kangxi had thirty-five; Yongzheng had ten; Daoguang had nine, but there was only one prince in Xianfeng.
At that time, the Xianfeng Emperor was rich and powerful, the harem concubines were numerous, and there were countless nobles and palace women, how could this happen? Could it be that he suffers from a hidden disease, or is there a harem inability to have children, or is there some other reason? This question has always been a mystery. Therefore, the author did some research and found that the culprit behind this is most likely Cixi.
Let's see what kind of means Cixi used to make the Xianfeng Emperor have only one son.
Xianfeng was four years old, and the twenty-three-year-old Xianfeng Emperor was the golden period of his youth, and his concubine was pregnant, but she was born as a gege, which made him sad and unhappy. But the concubines and palace ladies in the harem were secretly glad that they still had the opportunity to grow children for the emperor.
At this time, Cixi (which was her later nickname) had entered the palace, but she was only given the title of "noble person" (a concubine of relatively low status), because her breast name was Lan'er, so the palace called her "Lan Guiren". At that time, some of the concubines and palace ladies in the harem of the Xianfeng Emperor were, where could he notice an inconspicuous "nobleman", and Cixi did not meet with the emperor after entering the palace.
Cixi was no ordinary person, and she was not willing to stay in the harem in obscurity all her life, and she wanted to do everything in her power to create an opportunity to meet the emperor to attract her attention. How Cixi met the Xianfeng Emperor is not recorded in the historical data, and we know through the film and television drama: it was when the emperor was touring the back garden that Cixi used song to lead the Xianfeng Emperor to his side and was favored.
Historical records record that Cixi had "dysmenorrhea" from an early age, which is said to lead to the inability to have children. Suffering from this disease is a taboo in the palace, and once it is spread, there will never be a day of emergence. Because Cixi's status in the harem was too low, it was impossible to get the treatment of the Tai Doctor, so she could not be cured for a long time.
Cixi was very clever, and when the Xianfeng Emperor asked her to sleep, she said that she had a gastrointestinal problem and was very painful, and the emperor immediately asked the tai doctor to treat her. Some people have to ask, can the doctor of dysmenorrhea and gastrointestinal disease not distinguish between it? Don't we say that Cixi is smart, in order to cover up the truth, she let the Tai Doctor prescribe a prescription for qi and blood activation, because this medicine is effective for many diseases, so she hid it from the doctor. In this way, not only has his own illness been cured, but his true condition has not been exposed, and he has done it seamlessly.
A year later, Cixi became pregnant, and if she gave birth to a boy, she would be the eldest son of the emperor and could be made crown prince. Cixi City Mansion is very deep, although the heart is beautiful, but on the surface it is calm and self-assured, just like nothing.
Ten months later, Cixi did give birth to a boy, who was named Zai Xiang according to the royal family. This incident made the Xianfeng Emperor ecstatic, and he ignored the smoke of the war against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but ordered the lanterns to be displayed, feasted, sang for three days, and pardoned the world to show his congratulations, and at the same time promoted Cixi to three consecutive levels and promoted her to the title of "Concubine Yi".
Although Cixi gave birth to the emperor's eldest son and received the exclusive favor of the Xianfeng Emperor, this was far from enough for her. Because the principle of the Qing Palace is to "establish a concubine" first, and no concubine "establish a long". That is to say, if the empress gives birth to a son, according to the order of the concubines of the crown prince, it should be ranked before Zai Xiang. Cixi believed that although the empress did not have children now, once she had a prince in the future, Zai Xiang could not be made crown prince. This problem has always been a piece of her heart disease.
Cixi is truly worthy of being a female elf, in order to make her son smoothly become a prince, she racked her brains, used means to do things that are difficult for ordinary people to do, and also realized her lifelong pursuit.
First of all, Cixi was outwardly respectful and obedient to Empress Xiaozhenxian, but behind the scenes, she played right and wrong in front of the Xianfeng Emperor, saying bad things about the empress, allowing the emperor to gradually alienate her and reduce the chances of the empress becoming pregnant.
At the same time, Cixi was also secretly active, and put concubines who thought they were "threatening" to her into the cold palace for unnecessary "crimes". In turn, Yun Concubine, who forced her to "look unpleasant", committed suicide by hanging herself.
In addition, Cixi believed that although Princess Li had given birth to a gege, there was still a possibility of giving birth to a prince, which was undoubtedly a threat to her. Because Princess Li was deeply favored by the Xianfeng Emperor, Cixi did not dare to directly attack her. In order to "please" Li Fei, Cixi gave her "cosmetics". After using it, Li Fei was disfigured, fell out of favor in front of the emperor, and never became pregnant again.
After Cixi deliberately removed one "love enemy" after another, her status continued to rise. Under her strict guard, the concubines of the harem rarely slept with the Xianfeng Emperor, and even the "Four Springs" in the Yuanmingyuan fell out of favor. After that, the concubines did not give birth to a prince to the Xianfeng Emperor, and Cixi became the sole favorite of the "Heaven and Earth Family Spring".
Despite Cixi's strict precautions, there must have been a lack of a hundred secrets, and there was still a "fish that slipped through the net." No, in the eighth year of Xianfeng, Mei Guiren became pregnant and gave birth to a second prince, which made the Xianfeng Emperor "Long Yan Da Yue" and immediately promoted her to the title of Mei Concubine. It is said that Cixi's son is the eldest son, and Concubine Mei's child is the second son, which will not affect Zai Xiang's establishment as crown prince. It should be known that the Qing court did not build the reserve in full accordance with the principle of "establishing the chief first", but chose to have both ability and political integrity, especially the prince with outstanding "morality" as the crown prince. For example, the Shunzhi Emperor was the ninth son of Emperor Taiji; the Kangxi Emperor was the third son of the Emperor; both the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors were the fourth sons of the Emperor; the Jiajing Emperor was the fifteenth son of the Emperor, and only the Daoguang Emperor was the only one in the Qing Dynasty to ascend the throne as a concubine.
Although Princess Mei gave birth to the emperor's second son, Cixi believed that the emperor had one more son, one more contender for the throne. So she bribed the eunuchs and palace ladies around Princess Mei and poisoned and killed the second son of the emperor who was born soon after. Princess Mei was heartbroken by the loss of her son, and soon became insane, and was snubbed by the Xianfeng Emperor from then on.
Some people can't help but ask, didn't the Xianfeng Emperor know about these heinous things that Cixi did in the harem? The reasons are as follows: First, Cixi never left a trace of her work, and since she was exposed, because the harem personnel took her fornication, they did not dare to report to the emperor; second, Cixi was favored by the Xianfeng Emperor, and the emperor only listened to her one-sided words, although he was aware of the matter, the Xianfeng Emperor would not investigate deeply, and always failed. It can be seen from this that based on this reason, Cixi dared to do many things that hurt nature and reason, and was unscrupulous.
During the ten years of the Xianfeng Emperor's reign, due to the upsurge of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the British and French forces invaded Beijing and other internal and external troubles, which made him frightened and exhausted, and suddenly died. Before his death, he was the only one who was six years old, Zai Xiang, to succeed him, the later Tongzhi Emperor. It can be seen that the early death of the Xianfeng Emperor is also a reason why he did not regenerate the crown prince.
In the imperial palace, it has always been "mother is noble to son", and when the son becomes the emperor, Cixi's identity as "Concubine Yi" becomes the empress dowager, known as "Empress Dowager Cixi". Since then, her rights have been as good as the sun, and she has sat on an equal footing with Empress Dowager Ci'an, and has been called "Empress Dowager Lianggong".
Although Cixi achieved her first goal in life, she was not satisfied, and then launched a palace coup and began to "bow the curtain to the government". Later, she destroyed Empress Dowager Ci'an and monopolized power, so that she ruled China for forty-eight years.
Due to Cixi's selfishness and strong desire for power, she used various means to create the tragedy of "the cry of the Qing Palace for fifty years", so that there was no successor to the throne and rewrote the history of the late Qing Dynasty. precisely:
Strange things happened to the Qing court royal family, and Xianfeng's wife was a widow.
If you ask why? The culprit was originally Cixi.
Resources:
1 Records of Emperor Wenzong
2 "The Unsolved Mystery of the Qing Court"
3 "Speaking of the Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty"
4 "Burning the Old Summer Palace"