Eunuchs are a unique product of the feudal period and are called one of the "national essences" by Lu Xun. They are often seen as inferior beings, but they have had a profound influence in all dynasties and generations.
In the history of our country, there have been ten most famous eunuchs, namely Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty, Zhang Rang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gao Lishi of the Tang Dynasty, Li Fuguo, Tong Guan of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Zhen of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Jin, Wei Zhongxian, and An Dehai and Li Lianying of the Qing Dynasty.
The protagonist of our story today is Li Lianying.
Let's take a look at why this eunuch who once ruled the Qing Dynasty made archaeologists' scalps tingle after his death.
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In 1848, Li Lianying was born into a poor family in Dacheng County, Suncheon Province. His father made a living by helping people make shoes and mend shoes.
When he was 8 years old, the family was so poor that he could not even open the pot, and his father could only send him, the second oldest, to the Capital Hua Mansion of Prince Zheng to be a eunuch.
Li Lianying entered the palace when she was 9 years old and met a eunuch named Shen Lanyu. Shen Lanyu was Li Lianying's hometown, and seeing that he was young and skinny, he was very pitiful, so he thought of nodding at him.
He told Li Lianying that Empress Dowager Cixi attached great importance to combing her hair, and she also liked some fashionable buns, and if he could master this craft, he would not be afraid of not having a head in the future.
Li Lianying listened to Shen Lanyu's words, in addition to working on weekdays, she was thinking about what things to make her hair smoother, how to comb her hair so that the other party did not feel, and what beautiful hairstyles were popular now.
After Li Lianying's heart was stable, Shen Lanyu brought him to Empress Dowager Cixi and began his path to favor.
From the time he began to serve Cixi to comb her hair, whether it was a bun or a hairpin flower, Empress Dowager Cixi would hand-pick Li Lianying to help her.
Under Cixi's dependence, from the small eunuch to the chief eunuch, Li Lianying only took 10 years.
At the age of 26, he became the chief eunuch. Because he did not want to follow in the footsteps of Andrew, he has always been very humble and low-key, and he is also very generous and courteous to his subordinates.
In the book "The Tale of the Palace Women" dictated by the palace women, there is such an evaluation of Li Lianying -
"The place where Li Lianying is kind is that he never treats the people below, so few people below bite their teeth and hate Li Lianying."
This is exactly in line with Li Lianying's way of dealing with the world: leniency in matters.
After he gained power, he would never be as arrogant and domineering as Andehai.
He always lowered his posture very low, even if Cixi sent him and The Prince of Alcohol, Yi Shu, to inspect the Beiyang Water Division, he did not pose as any Chincha minister. On the contrary, like the servants of the Prince of Alcohol, he served with all his heart all the way, and even the foot wash water at night would help him to make a good job in advance.
It is not surprising that eunuchs traveled as imperial court servants to inspect other dynasties, but they were unique in the Qing Dynasty. Li Lianying's trip is the first case.
Such a great glory did not make him overwhelmed, but more cautious, and the officials who tried to befriend him along the way did not even meet him.
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From this incident, it is not difficult for us to see that Li Lianying's emotional intelligence is very high. His behavior during this trip not only enveloped Prince Alcohol, so that Prince Alcohol praised him in front of Cixi, but also established a low-key and incorruptible image, earning enough face for Cixi.
Cixi said proudly, "In the end, I didn't hurt him in vain." ”
It is precisely because of his high emotional intelligence that he can not only complete the things that Cixi explained to him very well, but he can also often make Cixi laugh, and even skillfully help her resolve the embarrassment.
Cixi likes to watch Peking Opera, and when she is happy to hear it, she will reward the artist with something. Once, after watching Yang Xiaolou's performance, Cixi planned to give him a "blessing" word.
After she wrote the word "Fu" with a big stroke of her pen, a little prince standing next to her actually said a sentence of "Fu zi has one more stroke." Originally, Cixi wrote the word "show" next to the word "show" in the word fu to the word "yi".
As soon as these words came out, everyone present felt extremely embarrassed. Yang Xiaolou was even more overwhelmed, not knowing whether to take the reward.
At this time, Li Lianying moved her mind and said loudly: "Lafayette Hong Fuqitian, her blessings are naturally a little more than anyone else in the world." ”
Such a sentence easily relieved everyone's embarrassment and gave Cixi a very good step.
This is just a small example of Li Lianying's many years as an errand boy around Cixi, and his thoughtfulness and agility have earned him the nickname "Buddha Sees Joy".
"Buddha-see-ki" is the name given to a kind of pear by the people in the palace. The skin of this pear is black, and the appearance is not pleasing to people, but it is tender and sweet to eat, so it is deeply loved by Cixi, hence the name.
Although Li Lianying was ugly in appearance, she was well-behaved and was deeply relied upon by the empress, so he was also a veritable "Buddha's joy".
Li Lianying is very good at reading people's minds. He had already touched Cixi's various preferences, and even her various thoughts he could always figure out.
In life, he always took good care of Cixi, preparing clothes for her every day according to the weather conditions the next day; he would always try his best to collect anything she liked.
Spiritually, he and Cixi had a great tacit understanding. Even with a look from Cixi, Li Lianying could understand the meaning.
Cixi was very dependent on Li Lianying from life to spirit, and a eunuch named Liu Xingqiao in the late Qing Dynasty once recalled that the feelings between Cixi and Li Lianying were very deep, and only Li Lianying could resolve Cixi's troubles and sorrows.
From the age of 16, Li Lianying accompanied Cixi for 43 years and became an indispensable "companion" in her later life.
There is such a record in the "Insights on Court Life in the Late Qing Dynasty" -
Three meals a day, morning and evening, they both sent eunuchs or greeted each other in person... When she lived in the Xiyuan and Summer Palaces, Empress Dowager Cixi often came to Li Lianying and invited him to walk with her. Empress Dowager Cixi sometimes summoned Li Lianying to her palace to talk about the art of huang lao's immortality, and the two often talked about late at night.
Of course, Li Lianying's efforts have also been rewarded.
At the age of 31, Cixi made him the Chief of the Four Pins of Flowers, the highest rank that a Qing eunuch could attain.
If this is the case, it does not quite mean cixi's favor for him. When Li Lianying was 46 years old, Cixi broke the rules for him, rewarded him with two pins and wore flower plumes, and gave him supreme dignity.
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In 1908, after Cixi's death, the elderly Li Lianying thought of retiring. He knew that once he was a heavenly son and a courtier, continuing to stay in the deep palace was no longer his best choice.
On February 2, 1909, Li Lianying left the palace after 100 days of guarding the spirit of Cixi.
In 1911, Li Lianying died in Beijing at the age of 63, when the Qing Dynasty was in danger. But even so, Li Lianying's family received a burial fee of one thousand taels of silver from the Qing court, and built a luxurious tomb for him at the eunuch cemetery in Enjizhuang.
In 1966, a villager stumbled upon Li Lianying's tomb. The tomb was so strong that archaeologists dug it up.
After excavation, archaeologists were amazed by the rare rare treasures in the burial chamber, such as smoke plates made of gold, jewels the size of pigeon eggs, and even a diamond larger than the one on the Queen's hat. Boxes of the finest pearls, jadeite and agate can be found everywhere.
These huge treasures are of great value and excite archaeologists.
When they opened Li Lianying's coffin with great anticipation, the situation in their eyes made their scalps tingle with fear.
There was no body in the coffin, only a skull with a three-foot-long braid dragged on it. The two holes in the skull are staring at the archaeologists, which is both frightening and shocking.
Where did Li Lianying's body go?
Archaeologists examined the coffin carefully and found that it had not been opened before. In other words, Li Lianying was buried with only one head left.
For this reason, Li Lianying's death has attracted everyone's attention.
But Li Lianying's life after leaving the palace was very low-key, and few people knew the trajectory of his life. Regarding his death, some people say that he was killed by the enemy family, others say that he met a mountain thief on the way, and his adopted daughter said with great certainty that he died of disease.
But these claims have not been conclusive, but li Lianying's death has become a mystery.