On November 14, 1908, several rickety figures walked into the heavily guarded Yingtai. The man in the room looked at the wine glass handed over, and there were not too many ups and downs in his heart, after all, this scene had been rehearsed a thousand times in his dreams. He lifted his glass and drank all the weakness and unwillingness. Alas, this side of the cold world, he was already tired. The wine glass fell to the ground, and he fell on the bed and never woke up again.
On November 14, 1908, the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty died. The next day, November 15, 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty died.
Snow view of the Forbidden City. Every year the snow falls as usual, but every year the people are different.
The time of Guangxu and Cixi's death was only one day apart, so that future generations had to suspect Guangxu's death on Cixi.
For the next 100 years, there was much controversy about the cause of the Guangxu Emperor's death.
The dispute was resolved in 2008, when forensic doctors at the Beijing Public Security Bureau used modern medical techniques to test Guangxu's skull and determined that it contained a high concentration of arsenic, determining that Guangxu had died of poisoning.
Guangxu
So, who killed Guangxu? There is more than one suspect, but Cixi is the most suspicious.
Cixi's motive for killing Guangxu was that she was afraid.
If Guangxu were alive after Cixi's death, he would be the most suitable person in power. It was also their grudge that Guangxu denigrated revenge on Cixi, and Cixi feared that Guangxu would damage his reputation—of course, history proved that even without Guangxu, Cixi's reputation was not very good.
Cixi was the one who had the most reason and the most ability to order Guangxu's death.
Empress
Grievances start from the beginning.
You may not imagine that such two people with the same water and fire, at the beginning, actually had a warm time. Cixi would be related to the young Guangxu's porridge and rice, and Guangxu had also been spoiled in Cixi's arms.
Although Guangxu becoming emperor was only Cixi's political choice, and she needed a controllable Yellow Emperor, Guangxu's identity was both a nephew on her husband's side and a nephew on her mother's side— the son of her own sister, and she was still very affectionate.
Cixi's feelings for Guangxu were not necessarily deep, but they must have been liked at first
It was only as Guangxu grew older and had his own ideas and opinions that he began to have differences with Cixi.
At first, there were only some small contradictions, such as the farce of chasing sheep and dogs, but such farces appeared frequently, making the gap between the two wider and wider, and Cixi felt that the puppets she had cultivated were out of control.
Cixi bowed to the government
The real tearing of the skin to the opposite position was in the late stage of the Penghu Transformation Law. Because in the early stage of the change, Cixi agreed to the change. Of course, this consent came with additional conditions and many restrictions to ensure that Cixi held the power tightly in her hands.
The direction of the change of law was correct, but the participants were all young, full of enthusiasm, and had little experience. Coupled with the fact that the content of the change is too radical, it will strongly collide with vested interests in the short term.
These people ran to Cixi one after another, bursting into tears and complaining about Guangxu.com.
Decadent Eight Flags bureaucracy
By this time, Cixi was stable, standing on the side with Guangxu until Yuan Shikai's rebellion, or rather, taking sides—standing in line with Cixi.
The Wushu faction wanted to co-opt Yuan Shikai, who was training troops at Xiaozhan and was also an active member of the Qiang Society of the Law Change Society, to supplement the military strength of the Wushu faction in order to launch a coup against Cixi.
Yuan Shikai agreed with his mouth, but in his heart he weighed the pros and cons. After some calculation, Yuan Shikai believed that standing in the same boat with Guangxu was too risky and the odds of victory were too small, so he resolutely abandoned the Wushu faction and reported to Cixi.
Small station training, later many Beiyang warlords came from here
Guangxu violated Cixi's taboo.
As a politician who has struggled politically for years and is invincible, Cixi knows what the military means to those in power.
Therefore, on September 21, 1898, Cixi suddenly returned to the Forbidden City from the Summer Palace, where she had taken refuge in the summer, summoned the elders of the royal family, invited the ancestral family law, and reprimanded Guangxu for deviating from the ancestral family law and forgetting the ancestors.
The cowardly Guangxu Emperor could not withstand the pressure, so he had to order the arrest of Kang Youwei and others, and the change of law failed with bloody sacrifice.
The Six Gentlemen of WuShu
Guangxu was imprisoned in the Yingtai Hanyuan Temple, where he began his 10-year captivity until he was poisoned.
In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Guangxu was taken to Xi'an by Cixi.
Objectively speaking, Empress Dowager Cixi had quite good political skills, and she was very good at using the art of checks and balances between the various factions in the court to make the whole situation balanced and stable.
However, the world situation at that time could not allow China to live alone in the Far East.
Stills from the movie "The Last Emperor" Guangxu and Cixi
At the same time, Cixi's vision is very limited.
Probably staying in the harem for too long, doing only to preserve the vested interests in front of him, and did not look at the longer term.
For example, the Qing-French War after the Great Victory of Zhennanguan could defeat France, which was already in a mess at that time.
If the Sino-Japanese War continues for a week, it will be able to drag Down Japan's national strength across the board.
However, because Cixi did not want to prolong war and feared that the Qing government's rule would lose its authority, she surrendered, bringing heavy consequences and causing serious disasters to modern China.
Photo of Cixi
Cixi's vision was short-sighted, just like before her death, she included the Pearl of the Night, thinking that her flesh would not be corrupted thousands of years later, but she did not expect that only 20 years later, the Dingdongling Tomb where she was born was brutally exploded by gunpowder and stolen.
In order to take away the Night Pearl, the tomb robbers also cruelly broke her jaw.
The pearl of the night in Cixi's mouth was stolen by the tomb thief "filial piety" to Song Meiling, the first lady of the Kuomintang at that time. Most of the treasures sun dianying received were used for bribes
Of course, not everyone has a long-term and accurate vision, most of us are "invisible people", just thinking that the rulers of Cixi's position, if short-sighted, will bring endless suffering to those behind them.