The last emperor, Puyi, sat on the throne of Tianzi at the age of 3, but only met his mother and grandmother at the age of 11. Even more tragically, a conflict between him and Princess Duankang indirectly killed his biological mother.
Puyi (first from right) with his father
In many literary works, Puyi's birth mother is portrayed as a virtuous and stoic female character, in fact, she is the lord of the wind and rain in the Prince of Alcohol Palace, and does not pay any attention to her husband and mother-in-law.
Puyi's father, Zaifeng, was born in the noble prince's mansion and was a brother to the Guangxu Emperor (Guangxu's mother was Concubine Fujin, and Zaifeng's mother was a side Fujin). Although he was a relative of the emperor and the state, Cixi had a strong wariness against prince's palace, and after the death of Zaifeng's father, a tall ginkgo tree grew in the cemetery, which caused Cixi to be strongly dissatisfied.
It turned out that the ginkgo tree was also called the white fruit tree, and people with good deeds chewed the root of their tongues in front of Cixi, saying that "white" and "king" were connected to a "emperor" word. Cixi listened and immediately asked someone to go to Miaofeng Peak and cut down the white fruit tree.
In order to subdue Zaifeng, Cixi specially proposed marriage for him, marrying the daughter of his favorite ronglu to him.
Ronglu
Rong Lu was Cixi's confidant, and all his actions were shifted by the will of "Lafayette", so the speed of promotion was comparable to that of a rocket. This person was an expert in psychology, able to accurately guess Cixi's every move, and often sent his wife to curry favor with the old empress in order to get first-hand information in time.
In this case, Cixi married Ronglu's daughter to Zaifeng, with obvious political overtones. Ronglu was a thorn in the side of the Guangxu Emperor, and his daughter became Guangxu's younger daughter-in-law, which could effectively prevent his brother from having a heart with his brother.
Although Zaifeng was not married at the age of 20, he had already been engaged to a noble lady. There was no way, so I had to resign from the family and marry this Qianjin.
Although Rong Lu was powerful, he had no sons, and he raised this only daughter as a son, and did not dare to give the moon to the stars. Even Cixi said, "This girl is not even afraid of me." ”
Zaifeng and his mother were probably not satisfied with this family affair, but it was the empress dowager's marriage, and they could only bury the bitterness in their hearts. As soon as Puyi's mother married into the palace, she announced that she would set up a separate kitchen and would not eat with everyone. She also imitated the spirit of Empress Dowager Cixi and ordered all the subordinates in the palace to call her "Old Master" in the future, and she must be absolutely obedient.
Despite his arrogance, people were angry and gave birth to Puyi on the fourteenth day of the first month of 1906. Because Guangxu had no heirs, according to the Qing Dynasty's succession principle, the son of a brother who was close to him was preferred, and Puyi was pushed to the emperor's throne in a vague way at an age when he was not yet sensible.
After entering the palace, it was difficult for Puyi to see his father and mother, who were an empress dowager and four concubines. Empress Longyu and Concubine Jin were the concubines of the Guangxu Emperor, and Yu, Xun, and Xun were the concubines of the Tongzhi Emperor.
Empress Longyu was Cixi's niece, and at the age of 21 she was arranged by Cixi to marry her cousin Guangxu, who was three years younger than him. Cixi deliberately matched her with Guangxu when Longyu was very young, and often called her to the palace to play, but Guangxu was completely unimpressed with her. Seeing that the two little tricks could not be performed, Cixi could only force Guangxu to obey this family affair.
Longyu
The Guangxu Emperor did not like this empress, never got close to her, and at first he would play some pranks to tease her, and then he simply ignored her. As long as the emperor and the empress dowager had a conflict, Longyu became the punching bag for both sides.
She was not beautiful in the first place, her body was slender, and her long-term repressed life made her look old, looking emaciated and dark.
But Longyu is not a wristless figure, and the reason why Cixi chose her as empress is because Longyu in her teenage years showed extraordinary vision and family management. It's just that she has been sandwiched between a strong mother-in-law and a husband who hates herself for a long time, and her advantages have not been played out at all.
After the deaths of Guangxu and Cixi, the harem also launched a competition for empresses. As empress of the Guangxu Emperor, Longyu considered herself to be a well-deserved empress, but the three concubines of the Tongzhi Emperor also insisted that they were qualified to be empresses. After Cixi was buried, they insisted on staying in Tanglin to guard Cixi's spirit, so that Longyu could not come to the stage.
Long Yu immediately made a decision, asking the chief eunuch Xiao Dezhang to stand up and announce that since this was the case, he would immediately build a house for them to live in Tanglin and fulfill their filial piety in guarding the tomb. As a result, the 3 of them did not say a word, and no one wanted to die in the wilderness, so they had to return home.
Right three years old Longyu
Empress Longyu did not have children, and she did not know how to discipline her children, and her education of Puyi was completely out of point. The management of academics is laissez-faire, and some of the details of life are managed too much.
As an emperor, Puyi lacked the internal motivation to study, and the master had to kneel when he saw him, and did not dare to hit the emperor's palm at all. When the Guangxu Emperor was studying, he also brought the master to tears, but there were two empresses above him, Cixi's eyes narrowed, and the little emperor suddenly looked like a mouse seeing a cat.
When puyi arrived, Empress Longyu adopted a stocking attitude in learning, so Puyi often skipped class to go out to watch ants move, and wasted a lot of good time in vain.
Longyu also has maternal love, which is manifested in what Puyi loves to eat, so he desperately wants him to eat more. As a result, Puyi ate too much chestnut at the age of 6, and Long Yu was anxious, so he drank rice porridge for a full month, and he was not allowed to eat more in the future.
Children are active and love to be hungry, and Puyi gui is the emperor, but he is often in a state of hunger. Often, when no one is ready, he grabs a large handful of vegetables and stuffs them into his mouth. Once Longyu gave him a piece of dried steamed bun to feed him fish, and Puyi directly put the steamed bun pestle into his mouth.
Later, the eunuchs had a whimsical idea, and after Puyi had eaten, they found two people to lift his arms and smashed them on the brick floor like rammed. This method caused serious physical and mental damage to Puyi, and the accompanying lifelong stomach disease was also formed during this period. Empress Dowager Ke longyu did not care about Puyi's psychology at all, and was very supportive of the eunuch's approach.
Empress Longyu died when Puyi was 7 years old, and before her death, she was cold and cold around her, with only a few palace girls and Xiao Puyi by her side. It is said that she told Puyi with tears in her eyes: "Your future road is still long, ditches and bumps, you go by yourself, it is good that your mother can't manage it." ”
After LongYu's death, Concubine Jin, who had always been cautious and cautious, suddenly exerted her strength and joined forces with the three concubines of Tongzhi to reason with the princes, clarifying the identity of the concubine, and the 4 concubines all became Puyi's nominal mothers.
Princess Jin is nicknamed "Fat Niangniang", the level of education is not low, but the appearance is very poor, and there is no comparison with her sister Zhenfei. She gave the impression of being generous and gentle, and who knew that when she became a princess of Duankang, she immediately trembled with majesty.
Duan Kang Princess
It is reasonable to say that after the death of Empress Longyu, it was not the turn of Princess Duankang to preside over the harem. However, Yuan Shikai, who ousted the Qing royal family, suddenly intervened, saying that Princess Duankang should be ranked first among the four concubines. This is actually a trivial matter, and the reason why Yuan Shikai, as the president, intervened is said to be the result of the multi-faceted activities of Duan Kang's maternal brother Zhiqi.
When Princess Duankang was under cixi's high-pressure rule, and witnessed the tragic experiences of her sister Zhenfei, she should have dealt with Cixi's deep hatred. As a result, she did not learn the essence of Cixi, and those furs were like copying and pasting.
She learned to beat eunuchs and sent people to monitor Puyi's every move, just as Cixi did with Guangxu. Several powerful eunuchs around Puyi were all transferred by her, which greatly hurt the emperor's self-esteem.
Puyi grew up to thirteen or fourteen years old, which is the age when he is curious about new things in the outside world. In order to please him, the eunuchs made him a dress for the generals of the Republic of China, with a white feather duster-like plume on his hat, and a saber and belt. Puyi put it on and felt that he was majestic.
Young Puyi
This was told to Duan Kang by the eunuch who was monitoring him, and the old lady was angry: As an emperor, do you have to wear such unruly clothes? When I went to Puyi's place for an inspection, I found that he was still wearing foreign socks bought outside.
Princess Duankang originally wanted to be arrogant in front of Puyi, so she finally grabbed his small braids, immediately beat several eunuchs around Puyi with 200 large plates each, and also reprimanded Puyi: "The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty wears the clothes of the Republic of China and also wears foreign socks. ”
Although Puyi was forced to take off his clothes and socks, resentment was already breeding in his heart.
Later, Puyi's foreign teacher Johnston found that Puyi's eyes were seriously short-sighted, and proposed to Puyi's father Zaifeng and the minister of internal affairs that they should find a famous ophthalmologist from outside to help Puyi check it. Originally, everyone had no objection, and Duan Kang jumped out to strongly oppose it, believing that the dragon body was noble and could not be touched by foreigners, and her actions harmed Puyi and almost became blind.
Puyi's teachers Chen Baochen and Johnston both looked at Duan Kang's concubine unfavorably, and often chanted words like "MuJi Si Chen" in Puyi's ear. At the instigation of this group of people, the fire of anger in Puyi's heart became more and more vigorous, and finally broke out after an imperial doctor named Fan Yimei was dismissed by Princess Duankang.
Fan Yimei originally treated Princess Duankang and had nothing to do with Puyi. As a result, Puyi's eunuch chief Zhang Qianhe cried in front of him: "Long live Grandpa, hasn't this become Guangxu again?" Even if you talk about the hospital, you have to say it all! Even the slaves couldn't look past it. ”
Uncle Guangxu's encounter with Puyi was clear, and he impulsively ran to the Yonghe Palace and shouted at the old concubine, saying that she was "just a concubine" and "specialized in the extreme".
Duan Kang was angry, she did not dare to take Puyi, the child did not obey can call the parents ah. She first called Zaifeng over and cried for a while, and then called Puyi's mother and grandmother into the palace for a while, until they all knelt down together and begged her to stop her anger, and with tears in their eyes, they urged Puyi to apologize.
Puyi blocked the heart to lose no, Duan Kang Was satisfied, who knew that after two days, but the news of Puyi's own mother's suicide came.
This Fu Jin has a very strong personality, and has not been criticized by others since she was a child, and even Cixi is not afraid. After being reprimanded by Princess Duankang, she could not stand this stimulation and committed suicide.
After Duan Kang heard this news, he was worried that Puyi would pursue her, changed his tough attitude in the past, and became very easy-going, a scene of motherly kindness and filial piety in the Forbidden City, however, Puyi's biological mother became a victim of the struggle between the two.
The care of the princesses for Puyi was very formalistic. In order to show their love and concern for him, they delivered dishes and meals at each meal, and also stipulated that after Puyi finished eating, the foreman eunuch would report Puyi's meal situation one by one. In fact, no matter what Puyi ate, the foreman eunuch said the same thing: "Viva Grandpa entered a bowl of old rice (or white rice), a steamed bun (or a burnt cake) and a bowl of porridge." Fragrant! ”
Every morning, puyi, according to the rules, had to go to each concubine to ask for peace, and everywhere he went, it was those few routine words. "Is the emperor resting well?" "It's cold, so get dressed." "Where's the book?" One day of meetings ended, and that day we never saw each other again.
When Puyi had a cold and flu, the princesses would appear in batches. Each one only stayed for two or three minutes and left, followed by a group of eunuchs to bring cold air in, which was even worse for Puyi's illness.
In his later years, Puyi recalled his titular mothers, in addition to delivering food and listening to eunuchs report on things like "entering the incense", he did not feel a little maternal love, which can be called plastic mother-child love.
In the cold palace, the only thing that could bring warmth to Puyi was his wet nurse Wang Jiaoshi.
Nanny Wang Ying
Puyi was carried into the palace at the age of three, and immediately cried after seeing the strange environment and a large group of eunuchs. It was his nursing mother who took him and held him in her arms and gently soothed him, and Puyi was quiet.
Due to people's multi-faceted greetings and obedience, Puyi developed the vice of tricking others into taking pleasure. Every time he came close to losing control, it was the wet nurse who dragged him back.
Puyi's pranks are not like ordinary children, and if they are not done well, they will cause people to die. Once, on a whim, he picked out a eunuch and pointed to a dirty thing on the ground and said, "You give me something to eat!" "He really lay on the ground and ate it.
Another time, he played with the fire-fighting cylinder spraying water for fun, saw an elderly eunuch, he sprayed the dragon head at him, the old eunuch squatted on the ground in pain and did not dare to run away, but was provoked to death by cold water, and it took a while of rescue to come back to life.
Once, he wanted to reward the eunuch with a chicken cake to eat, and he hid the iron sand in it with a bad heart. It was discouraged by the nursing mother to change to mung beans.
There are many things to list, and Puyi has a little understanding of human nature from a nursing mother who can't read a word. Unfortunately, when he was 9 years old, the four concubines carried Puyi on their backs and drove her out of the palace without any fault from the nursing mother, perhaps jealous of Puyi's cordial relationship with the nursing mother.
Since then, without the gentle and patient nursing mother's teaching, Puyi has developed a ruthless and domineering personality around the age of 11. The maternal love that he lacked in his childhood was never found back in his lifetime.