In the autumn of 1953, in a poorly furnished house outside the Di'an Gate in Beijing's Xicheng District, a cleaner heard a surprising secret from his wife: her wife turned out to be a qing imperial concubine.
The cleaner's name is Liu Zhendong, and Liu Zhendong has been married to his current wife for 6 years. He was originally a major officer of the Kuomintang, and he was over 40 years old and still did not marry until he was introduced to his current wife. The two of them lived sweetly and happily after marriage.
In 1948, Liu Zhendong's unit was disbanded, and he was forced to retire from the army and drive a car shop to make a living. After liberation, Liu Zhendong was censored by the state for having served as a major in the Kuomintang army. After the review, Liu Zhendong was assigned to work in the cleaning team in the Xicheng area. He and his wife also rented three rooms in an alley in the West Side. Although the two lived a poor life, they also had the happiness of each other.
After Liu Zhendong heard that his wife was once the imperial concubine of the Qing Dynasty, he first had some disbelief, but remembering that his wife had a good temperament between her hands and feet over the years, and also took care of the internal affairs of the family in an orderly manner, he felt that this matter was somewhat credible, so he listened to his wife talk about her past...
Liu Zhendong's wife also experienced a marriage before marrying him, and after the divorce she assumed the pseudonym Fu Yufang, but her real name was Erdet Wenxiu.
Wen Xiu was born in 1909, and her father was an envoy to the Qing Dynasty's Ministry of Internal Affairs. After the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Wenxiu family lived the life of a commoner. Later, Wen Xiu's mother lent most of the family's property to her uncle Jiang Er. Jiang Er took this money to open a grain store, but he was still lazy after opening the store, and finally the grain store could not be opened and declared bankrupt. Wenxiu's family fell into poverty.
Wen Xiu was bright and studious from an early age, and after the family cut off the source of tuition fees, Wen Xiu had to do some work after class to earn tuition, and she lived a very difficult life at a young age.
In 1922, the late Qing Emperor Puyi began to choose a wife. The 13-year-old Wen Xiu took a picture with the daughters of a group of ministers, and their photos were sent to Puyi, who selected the empress.
But this photo is too unclear, Wen Xiu and other people's faces are not clear, Emperor Puyi had no choice but to draw a circle in the photo, this circle just circled on Wen Xiu's face. According to the rules, Wen Xiu will enter the palace to become an empress. However, after Princess Duankang wanted to make her cronies Wan Rongwei, Puyi had to agree, and Wenxiu was demoted to a concubine. After entering the palace, she was awarded the title of "Lady Concubine".
Wen Xiu has a quiet personality, and she likes to read since she was a child, so she has some knowledge, which deeply attracts Puyi. After marriage, Puyi could not live a normal married life with Wenxiu because of his poor health, but he was still very good to Wenxiu, and the relationship between the two was also very harmonious.
But the women in the harem, in addition to Wenxiu, also had Empress Wanrong, who was born into an aristocracy and was loved by her family since childhood, so how could she tolerate other women sharing her husband's favor with her? Thus, the struggle between the harem women began. In this battle, Wen Xiu was at a disadvantage because his appearance was not as good as his appearance.
Beginning in 1924, Wen Xiu, who had just entered the palace as a concubine for two years, was alienated by Puyi, and she added a lot of time to stay alone in the palace. Wen Xiu used reading to kill time.
After Puyi and other members of the imperial family were expelled from the palace, Puyi wanted to defect to the Japanese for his own interests. The patriotic Wenxiu did not agree with Puyi's approach, and she and Puyi had a direct conflict. Puyi actually scolded Wenxiu for this matter, and he also took up the whip and beat her. After being scolded by Puyi in front of everyone, Wen Xiu's heart was extremely painful, and it was at this time that she had the idea of leaving Puyi.
Puyi later went to the pseudo-"Manchukuo" to continue to be emperor, and the imperial family still lived a luxurious life. But external substances cannot comfort WenXiu, who has been snubbed by her husband.
Puyi later lived with Wanrong on the second floor, but left Wen Xiu alone on the first floor. They rarely interacted with each other, like strangers. Coupled with the fact that Wanrong always relied on the identity of the empress to oppress Wenxiu, this made Wenxiu feel very depressed.
When Puyi was happy, he would always give Wanrong a lot of silver money, but rarely rewarded Wen embroidery. However, whenever Wanrong celebrates important festivals such as birthdays, wen embroidery is indispensable to pay tribute, which makes wen embroidery, which does not have much living expenses, more embarrassing. The palace people saw that Puyi was not attentive to Wen Xiu, and also began to run wild, and did not serve her wholeheartedly. Wen Xiu lives in loneliness and pain every day.
In 1929, Puyi moved to Jingyuan with everyone in the palace, and Wenxiu still lived alone on the west side of Jingyuan. On August 20, 1931, it was the Qixi Festival in the chinese lunar calendar, Puyi had been accompanying Wanrong and ignoring the embroidery. Wen Xiu, who had been enduring Puyi's cold violence, was disheartened, and she thought of death.
Wen Xiu picked up a pair of scissors and prepared to commit suicide, but was taken down by the eunuch. Two days later, Wen Xiu prepared to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the throat with scissors, but was taken away by the eunuch.
On August 25, Wen Xiu's sister Wen Shan visited her in the palace, and Wen Xiu and her sister planned to escape. They successfully escaped on the same day on the pretext of going out to relax, and Wen Xiu then hid in the home of Wen Shan's friend Zhang Shi.
After the founding of the country, the state allowed people to divorce voluntarily. Under the persuasion of relatives and friends, Wen Xiu decided to divorce Puyi. Wen Xiu hired three lawyers, and these three lawyers drafted the divorce agreement. After the agreement was sent to Puyi, Puyi was furious after reading it, and he did not expect that an unfavored concubine would dare to "hugh" himself! Puyi immediately sent someone to look for Wenxiu and wanted to quietly solve the matter, but Wenxiu hid in his friend's home and evaded Puyi's search.
The divorce between Wen Xiu and Puyi soon spread throughout Beiping and Tianjin. Major newspapers have reported on this matter, and Puyi suddenly has no face. In order to put this matter to rest, Puyi had to divorce Wen Xiu. Wen embroidery is finally "free".
Wen Xiu returned to Beiping after her divorce, and in order to avoid the attention of the media, Wen Xiu declared herself "Fu Yufang", which was her name before entering the palace.
Wen Xiu first took the alimony given by Puyi as a teacher for more than a year, and she was mainly responsible for the Chinese and drawing classes in primary school. However, during her tenure, there were still good people who came to see the former "Imperial Princess", and Wen xiu finally left the school. She later bought a yard with nine huts in Bangs Alley and did not work again. At the same time, most of Wenxiu's relatives were poor, and they did not repay it after borrowing money from Wenxiu. Coupled with the fact that the Japanese also came to blackmail her after occupying Peiping, Wen Xiu, who was not good at running the family, soon ran out of maintenance expenses.
Wen Xiu, who lived in poverty, had to sell his house and live in his cousin's house. To make a living, she did many chores: pasting cartons, carrying bricks, and so on.
In 1947, Wen Xiu was introduced to Liu Zhendong, and they soon fell in love and got married. When Liu Zhendong was a major quartermaster, the two lived a good life, but since Liu Zhendong was censored, the two had cut off their financial resources and lived in poverty. In 1951, Liu Zhendong was assigned to work in the cleaning team, and Wen Xiu also died suddenly in the center of the home in the third year after Liu Zhendong became a cleaner. This year, Wen Xiu was only 44 years old.
After Wen Xiu's death, due to the poverty of the family, Liu Zhendong had no money to buy her a coffin, and finally the cleaning team paid for her to make a thin-skinned coffin. The embroidery that was once the imperial concubine of the Qing Dynasty passed away in a simple coffin.
The feudal dynasty's concubine selection system allowed the young Wenxiu to enter the deep palace and began her much-snubbed harem life; after the founding of the country, the law of "allowing voluntary divorce" allowed Wenxiu to get rid of the shackles of the feudal dynasty and enjoy the freedom of marriage and love. Embroidery is unfortunate and lucky. Although she lived in poverty when she died, she also enjoyed the short-term happiness that was difficult to obtain in the feudal palace.