Regarding the deeds of Zhenfei, readers are familiar with the "Records of the Palace Women's Talks" and the "Records of Yingtai Weeping Blood", and as for the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" compiled by the widows and widows, it is not true, and we can see from the records of Zhenfei's death that they deliberately avoided some things: "Empress Dowager Yi reprimanded her for her habits of luxury, repeatedly begging, and lowering nobles." After more than a year, she was still crowned a precious concubine. Twenty-six years later, the empress dowager went out on patrol and sank into the well. ”
The editors of the Qing History Manuscript deliberately did not know anything about Zhenfei's sinking of the well, and they did not know who they were covering for. Our topic today is through the perspective of a Hanlin Academy editor and a small eunuch to see why the concubine who likes to wear men's clothes, why she was wearing a cane, why she was pushed into the well, and whether all this was related to the disappointed sigh of the empress on the wedding night of Guangxu.
The editor of the Hanlin Academy we are talking about today is the first person Puyi visited after he was pardoned--Shang Yanying, the editor of the Hanlin Academy in the late Qing Dynasty, the attendant and the supervisor of the preparatory department of the Beijing Normal University.
In the 92nd volume of the "Selected Literary and Historical Materials" published in October 1983, Shang Yanying's reminiscence article "Zhenfei Qiren" was published: "The case of Zhenfei is a rumor. I will choose to participate in the collection on the basis of facts, and I will refer to the historical facts of the time and what I have learned before... It is very different from the common rumors of Zhenfei's deeds. (The following bold characters are all Shang Yanying recalls the original text)"
Shang Yanying learned from the old eunuch Xin Xiuming (very cultured, and had studied hard for ten years, but unfortunately did not take the meritorious name, so he impersonated Zhang Xianlu and entered the palace) that the Guangxu Emperor had some unspeakable diseases.
On the wedding night of the Guangxu Emperor Zai Xiang and Empress Yehenara Jingfen (later Empress Longyu), Empress Dowager Cixi sent four elderly and respected princesses and concubines (i.e., official wives with edict titles) to "listen to the room" behind the happy tent of Kunning Palace.
The four princesses and concubines listened to it for most of the night, but they didn't hear anything, and it was almost dawn before they heard Empress Jingfen sigh quietly: "This is also the virtue of your family!" ”
In fact, Empress Jingfen, who was twenty-one years old (born in 1868 and married in 1888), and the Guangxu Emperor Zai Xiang were also counted as a family: "Emperor Dezong (Zai Xiangmiao Dezong, Emperor Jing) Empress Xiaodingjing, Yehenara clan, Du Tong GuiXiang daughter, Empress Xiao Qinxian (Cixi) niece also." ”
Jingfen was not only Cixi's niece, but also Zai Xiang's maternal cousin: Zai Xiang's biological mother was Yi Zhen,the concubine of Prince Yizhen of Heshuo, who was Cixi's sister, so Cixi was both Guangxu's "mother queen" and "father" and Guangxu's maternal aunt.
To put it simply, Empress Jingfen's grandfather and Emperor Zaixiang's grandfather were both Yehenara Huizheng. With that said, the couple's relationship is clear at a glance.
The Qing Dynasty's "kissing and kissing" did not start from Cixi Liu An's Mandarin Duck Spectrum, the Guangxu Emperor could not give birth to children, there may be more than one reason, but on the big wedding night Empress Jingfen was very disappointed, which can only mean that it is unspeakable.
It was precisely because she could only understand the ineffable reason that Princess Zhen had the opportunity to monopolize the harem: "From then on, the Empress and Guangxu fell out of love, and Concubine Jin (he was of the Tala clan, Princess Zhen's sister, who was fifteen years old when she entered the palace, and understood things) was loyal in temperament, would not be obedient, had the same illness with the empress, and was indifferent to Guangxu, nor was she very opportunistic." Princess Wei Zhen was the youngest, only thirteen years old when she entered the palace, innocent and lively, clever and clever, and had no regard for men and women, and was the exclusive favor of the Guangxu Emperor. ”
Although he had no real power, Guangxu still had to go to the court every day according to the rules, retreat from the dynasty at noon, and have nothing to do in the afternoon (approve the recital, that is not his job), or hang out with Zhenfei.
At that time, in addition to wearing a cheongsam and a flower pot bottom when she went to the empress dowager and the empress to invite an empress, she was dressed in men's clothes, combing big black braids, wearing a patchwork footpeg boots, wearing a poinsettia top and three-eyed flower.
The Guangxu Emperor only had no psychological burden when he was with Concubine Zhen (the readers all know it, needless to say), but the pair had a big problem, that is, there was no money - zai xiang, although named emperor, ate and wore far less than the grand eunuch Li Lianying, and the monthly salaries of the empress and concubines were issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs: during the Guangxu period, except for Cixi, who spent unlimited money, the rest of the people were dead wages, the empress was one thousand and two per year, the concubine was three hundred and two per year, and the concubine was two hundred and two per year.
The maximum salary of Princess Zhen when she was alive was three hundred and two per year, less than one or two pieces of silver a day, and this silver or two could not even be bought in the palace, let alone a reward to eunuchs and palace women.
When Princess Zhen entered the palace, she was thirteen years old, and the Guangxu Emperor Zai Xiang was not very old, she was seventeen years old, and these two and a half children had no money to spend, so naturally they had to think of other ways: "Princess Zhenfei was not used enough, and she could not save, and there were many deficits, so she could not think of the way to make money to cope with the perennial shortage, so there were joint eunuchs, and the move of the takeaway officer was proved by the facts." ”
According to Shang Yanying's recollection, Zhenfei sold officials, her brother Zhi Zheng was the mastermind, the eunuchs of the traditional music office were cooperatively operated, and the eunuchs who "set up stalls" in the music office in yuehuamen south were also involved in eunuchs nicknamed Guo Xiaoche (this person often said that "the car does not fall down and just push", and the eunuchs Wen Lanting and The eunuch Wang Junru of Cixi (it is strange that the eunuchs in the late Qing Dynasty have literary and artistic styles), and the largest official hat they sold was Lu Boyang of Shanghai Daotai and Yuming of Sichuan Yanfa Dao.
The incident at the east window of the betraying of the official Yu Jue was also bad on Yu Ming: "When Yu summoned to play the right thing, Guangxu asked yi to work as an errand boy in the wood factory; Guangxu was shocked, and ordered to write out his resume, and he could not write for a long time." ”
At this time, even Guangxu could not protect Zhenfei, so the next thing that happened to everyone knew, that is, Both Concubine Zhenfei and Zhenfei were demoted to nobles, and Zhenfei was strictly disciplined by the empress, and was imprisoned in the Inner Prison of the Hundred Zimen gate on the West Second Long Street of the palace - named Yu Forbidden, the Guangxu Emperor still did not see the empress and only saw Zhenfei, which laid the groundwork for Zhenfei to be pushed into the well later.
The eunuch Wang Xiang also clearly remembered the scene that happened on July 20, 2007 of the year of Gengzi: "From the crack in the door, I only saw Princess Zhen kneeling in front of Empress Xi, and constantly calling in her mouth, 'Emperor Father, Emperor Father, forgive the slaves, and never do anything wrong again...' Empress Xi cried out fiercely, 'You die!'" ’”
Guangxu and Concubine Jin did not dare to speak out with tears in their eyes, and Empress Jingfen looked at her coldly, and undoubtedly supported her aunt's actions, so Cui Yugui stepped forward and threw her into the well with a pull: "Before Princess Zhenfei was in danger, Wang Xiang also heard her calling for 'Li Anda' - Anda is an honorific title for eunuchs, which is Zhenfei calling Li Lianying and begging him to save her." ”
According to Shang Yanying's recollection, according to other eunuchs, when Cixi fled west, taking a young Concubine Zhenfei was not a burden, and the reason why she wanted to throw Zhenfei into the well was for the sake of her niece Empress Jingfen: The Guangxu Emperor was originally powerless in some aspects, if Zhenfei had been around, Jingfen would not have said that the rain and dew were all wet, even if there was no drizzle, so Cixi killed her and removed the serious problem for her niece.
The cause of this tragedy, the four princesses and the lady of the house are well aware: selling officials and knights is the norm in the Qing court, Cixi does not care about taking one more person when she flees to the west, in the final analysis, it is the sentence that Empress Jingfen said in disappointment, and the meaning of that sentence seems to be understood like this: These two or three generations of your family are all this useless virtue...