The great eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty Li Lianying , formerly known as Li Jinxi (also known as Li Yingtai), was named Lianying by Empress Dowager Cixi . He was born in Dacheng County, Shuntian Prefecture in 1848. He was born in Lijia Village, Zangtun Township, Dacheng County, Hebei Province. He entered the palace at the age of 8. She is 13 years old.) Empress Dowager Cixi respects Li Lianying very much. In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), the Empress Dowager rewarded the 46-year-old Li Lianying as the second-tier eunuch, and commanded all eunuchs in the palace, wearing Erpin and wearing Hualing, which has never been seen in eunuchs. Emperor Yongzheng set the upper limit of eunuch grades to four ranks, but Cixi broke the ancestral rules for Li Lianying. It can be seen that the Empress Dowager Cixi treats him extremely favorably.
(Li Lianying)
Some people say that Li Lianying is "the eunuch with the highest official rank, the most authority, the most wealth, and the longest serving time among eunuchs since the Qing Dynasty." Such a famous eunuch, but Why is the cause of death a mystery? Why is there only one head in the tomb?
There are many folk legends about Li Lianying's counterattack. There is a saying that Li Lianying's father was engaged in a small business in the capital to make cooked skins, and he was called "piyouli". Li Lianying was not an eunuch when she was young, but the life of the Li family was very embarrassing, and it was very difficult for a small business to make ends meet. By chance, Li Lian heard that the eunuch was recruiting to comb his hair in the palace. Li Lianying feels that there will never be a day in the life of the family, and there may be a chance to go to the palace by herself. Besides, I deal with fur all day, so the work of combing the fur shouldn't be a problem. So he went to the Nanzhu Hutong cleansing place and cleansed himself cruelly. Then, he asked his fellow eunuch Shen Lanyu to introduce him to the palace and became a eunuch. Because of his first-class hair combing skills, he was quickly appreciated by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and he was promoted to chief eunuch at a young age. Someone gave him the nickname "Little Grate Li". Of course, this statement is just a kind of folklore, and it is not true.
1. The life of Li Lianying's counter-attack
Actually, Li Lianying was a servant of Prince Zheng's Duanhua Mansion from the beginning.When he first entered the palace, he, like the other eunuchs, was arranged to serve as an errand at the memorial office. It was not until the third year of Tongzhi (1864) that he was transferred to the Changchun Palace where Cixi lived when he was 16 years old. After 14 years in the palace, he was named Lianying by Cixi. It took him several decades from entering the palace to taking up the position of chief eunuch.
When Li Lianying entered the palace, he was just a little eunuch who didn't even have a grade, and he didn't work directly with Empress Dowager Cixi, let alone comb her hair for Empress Dowager Cixi. At this time, the one who favored Cixi was An Dehai, but An Dehai acted with a high profile. When he went to Jiangnan to purchase clothes, he was arrested by Shandong governor Ding Baozhen for "violating the ancestral system and leaving the capital without permission". Beheaded. In the years after Andehai's death, Li Lianying was not favored by Cixi either.
Li Lianying has a very high emotional intelligence, is cautious and low-key, is well-behaved and sleek. Tongzhi In the eleventh year (1872), Li Lianying was awarded the top six products. In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, the 26-year-old Li Lianying was appointed by the Empress Dowager Cixi as the chief eunuch in charge of the case of Chuxiu Palace. In the 5th year of Guangxu, Li Lianying was rewarded by Empress Cixi as the four-tiered flower Ling, which has reached the highest reward for eunuchs stipulated by the Qing Dynasty's ancestral system. However, the Empress Dowager Cixi liked and trusted Li Lianying too much. In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), she also rewarded him for wearing the second-grade flower Ling. Li Lianying became a high-powered and powerful person in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi. "Information about Palace Life in the Late Qing Dynasty" records that the Empress Dowager Cixi had to personally serve her three meals a day, morning and evening in her daily life. Li Lianying had to taste every dish of Cixi beforehand, and only let Cixi make it if he found it delicious. Sometimes Cixi gets bored, so she asks Li Lianying to take a walk outside, and even chat with Li Lianying until late at night.
(The Empress Dowager Cixi)
After Li Lianying successfully counterattacked, she was rampant without gaining power. He is still the same as before, low-key and honest, not only low-key, but also very careful and meticulous. Treating the princes and eunuchs outside the palace,Li Lianying is always lenient. As his epitaph said: "Respect in everything, and lenient in everything. If there are years, it will not be a little slack."
Li Lianying's handling of people has won him a good deal in and outside the palace. Word of mouth. Once Cixi sent him to review the , the prince of alcohol, and Li Hongzhang's Beiyang navy . Li Lianying avoided vacillation and took off his second-grade top wear before leaving the palace and put on a civilian attire. . He stayed honestly in Prince Jin’s car along the way, avoided the reception of foreign officials, was extremely respectful to Prince Jin, and even personally washed the feet of Prince Jin. After returning to Beijing, Prince Jin kept complimenting Li Lianying in front of Empress Dowager Cixi. Even the Reformer Wang Zhao, who has historically not been able to look at eunuchs, said that Li Lianying dressed plainly and did not look like a favored eunuch. Moreover, Emperor Guangxu was very grateful to Li Lianying. After the failure of the Reform Movement , Guangxu was imprisoned in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai. The food delivered every day was not bad, or leftovers from the old rice, and he couldn't even eat a delicious meal. Li Lianying often took advantage of the opportunity to greet Emperor Guangxu and secretly brought him some delicious snacks, which was greatly moved by Emperor Guangxu. Later, he once said to others: "Without Li Jingda, I would not live today."
In October of the 34th year of Guangxu, Cixi passed away. After her funeral, Li Lianying asked , the Queen Mother of Longyu to retire, and returned to the South Garden that Cixi gave him before his death to live a low-key life. Until three years later, he got dysentery and died.
"Qing Barnyard Notes · Eunuchs" records that Li Lianying in "After the death of Empress Xiaoqin (ie Empress Dowager Cixi), she unexpectedly was sheltered by Longyu... He died of illness, Longyu Hou Te 2000 taels of silver." In other words, after the death of Empress Dowager Cixi, Li Lianying was favored by Empress Longyu again. After Li Lianying died of illness, Empress Dowager Longyu also specially rewarded 2000 taels of silver.In "Li Lianying's Tomb Stele", it is also stated that Li Lianying "when he retired, he was old and died on February 4th of the third year of Xuantong" . According to these records, Li Lianying died of illness in the third year of Xuantong (1911).
(Photo of Li Lianying)
After Li Lianying died, the Queen Mother Longyu granted the Li family’s request for a generous burial of Li Lianying. It took more than a year to repair Li Lianying’s tomb and cost 20,000 taels of silver. The Li family built a white marble stone stele with a height of 3.5 meters and a width of more than 1 meter for Li Lianying, and hired a poor farmer surnamed Sun to guard Li Lianying's tomb.
In 1966, "the four olds were broken", Li Lianying's tomb was listed as the target of the broken four olds. The director of the Cultural Revolution of Enjizhuang Liuyi School in Haidian District, Beijing, with several red guards, smashed Li Lianying's tomb. People did find a lot of treasures in his tomb, but what is very strange is that in his coffin, there is only a rotten and clean head and a long braid. There is no body, it is empty, and the rest has no bones. turn up.
If this is Li Lianying's tomb, then from the situation in the tomb, Li Lianying did not die of illness. It seems that she was killed by someone. The bones are hard to find, so her head was in a different place after her death. Since there are no traces of stolen treasures in Li Lianying's tomb, how could the bones decay to the point that there is only one head in only 55 years from 1911 to 1966?
So, the cause of Li Lianying's death suddenly became a mystery.
2. The cause of Li Lianying's death is a mystery
There are divergent opinions and endless debates about the truth about Li Lianying's death. The folks have the following speculations and theories about Li Lianying's death:
(1), was assassinated by Xiaode Zhang and Jiang Chaozong
Xiao De Zhang was a cronie of the Empress Dowager Longyu , Because I hate Li Lianying,Therefore, Longyu was often encouraged to investigate Li Lianying. For this reason, Li Lianying asked Yuan Shikai 's confidant Jiang Chaozong for help. Under Jiang Chaozong's dealings, he finally avoided being ransacked. Xiaode Zhang was not reconciled, so he also went to make friends with Jiang Chaozong. Jiang Chaozong knew that Xiao De Zhang was the celebrity next to the Queen Mother, so naturally he did not dare to offend him. One day, Jiang Chaozong sent a post to invite Li Lianying to the Huixian Hall in Shichahai. Li Lianying usually does not go out easily, but because Jiang Chaozong once interceded for him, he has always been grateful to Jiang Chaozong, so Li Lianying made an exception and came here on time. 会贤堂.
Just after leaving the meeting, Li Lianying passed through Houhai when she encountered bandits and was killed. Seeing that Li Lianying hadn't returned late at night, the Li family hurriedly sent people to look for it. They kept finding dawn. They only found Li Lianying's head, but her body was missing. The Li family members returned home to discuss, not to leak the news, but to quietly collect the death and lie to the court, saying that Li Lianying died of illness, making the world think that the corpse was buried, and Jiang Chaozong did not order the murderer. Therefore, there is only one head in Li Lianying's tomb.
(2) Go to Shandong to visit niece who was killed
It is said that Li Lianying has a niece who married to Wudi County, Shandong. After leaving the Forbidden City, Li Lianying went to Shandong to visit her niece, and walked to the junction of Shandong and Hebei to be killed. The two entourages were frightened, only picked up a bloody head, wrapped it in a bag, and fled back to Beijing. There was no time to transport his corpse away. When they were sent to the scene of the accident to search for the corpse, it was gone. Therefore, the Li family can only bury his head. As for why Li Lianying killed him and what hatred he had, it is impossible to know.
(3), to Qingdong Tombs was killed on the way to pay homage to Cixi
After Li Lianying left the Forbidden City, he retreated to the South Garden, and has been living in the South Garden for retirement, losing his power and prestige. Cixi has mixed feelings for her grace, and she feels unstoppable to miss her mother. So he sneaked out of Beijing and went to the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty to pay respects to Empress Dowager Cixi.On the way back, he was killed.
(4). Killed by thieves at the junction of Hebei and Shandong
Li Lianying has a lot of property in his hands, and he borrowed a lot of debts from foreigners. When he retires in old age, he wants to get the debt back. On the way to ask for debt, at the junction of Shandong and Hebei, he was robbed and killed by thieves. This argument is unconvincing. Li Lianying is old and old. Even if he has foreign debts, he can live a comfortable life with his property, and there is no need to travel far and wide to ask for the account.
(5). Killed by the anti-Qing revolutionary army
After the National Revolutionary Army overthrew the rule of the Qing empire, Li Lianying was regarded as a feudal cancer. She once assisted Cixi in suppressing the revolutionary party and did a lot of bad things. He wanted to get rid of him, to show his determination to eradicate feudal rule, so after killing Li Lianying, he abandoned his body. This kind of statement is even less reliable and is purely nonsense. How could the revolutionary army kill an old eunuch who has no power and is already aging? It makes no sense to do so.
(6). Execution by the Queen Mother Longyu
Some people say that Li Lianying was executed by the Queen Mother Longyu. After his death, the Queen Mother Longyu also confiscated his huge wealth. However, Li Lianying became famous for a while, and if the court wanted to kill Li Lianying, it should be a sensational event, and it would definitely be recorded in the annals of history, not without written records. So this statement is not reliable.
(7), was killed by Zaifeng
Some people say that Li Lianying was killed by Guangxu’s younger brother Zaifeng. At that time, Zaifeng was taking power, and he not only ousted Yuan Shikai, but also killed Li Lianying. Because Zaifeng suspected that Guangxu was poisoned by Li Lianying under the order of Cixi, he held a grudge, so he sent someone to kill him. The body was dragged to a chaotic grave, leaving only his head. The head was left to give Long Yu a son. Although Li Lianying was no longer in the center, Long Yu kept thinking about his favors.
is a false statement.Pure nonsense. Li Lianying was a nostalgic person. When Empress Cixi suppressed Guangxu, Li Lianying secretly helped Guangxu and he did everything for him to do. When Guangxu was at Yingtai , he said a lot of gratitude to Li Lianying. After Guangxu died at Yingtai, Longyu waited halfway, and when he heard that Cixi was about to collapse, he ran away with the little eunuch. Only Li Lianying took pity on Guangxu and changed his body. Therefore, it is impossible for Li Lianying to do anything to poison her master. So Zaifeng didn't have to kill him.
(8). Killed by money greedy
Some people say that Li Lianying was favored in front of Empress Cixi. He called the wind and the rain, power was in the hands of the court, and he took a lot of bribes from officials inside and outside the court. He had huge treasures in his hands, so he was greedy for money. The apprentice has been coveted for a long time. Therefore, soon after Li Lianying left the palace, someone conspired to kill him for his property.
(9), was seriously ill and died
There is another saying that Li Lianying was seriously ill and his body shrank and rotted. Before he died, he told Li’s family that he was not a complete person himself, so he brought this body to Going into the coffin, it was insulting to the Li family's ancestors, so he chopped off his head and buried it in.
There is a certain possibility for this statement, but there is no record, and the authenticity is doubtful.
3. The tomb of Li Lianying is a mystery
Was Li Lianying died of illness or was killed? To clarify the mystery of the cause of his death, he must first determine his tomb and find Li Linying’s tomb before he can make a conclusion on whether Li Lianying died. So, where is Li Lianying buried?
It is believed that Li Lianying's tomb is at Enjizhuang , Haidian District, Beijing. This was originally the tomb of the eunuch in the Qing Dynasty. The Empress Dowager Cixi gave Li Lianying a lofty place before her death. Therefore, Li Lianying should be buried here. Back then, Enjizhuang dug up the tomb of Li Lianying, and that head was Li Lianying’s.
(It is said that the jade finger that was dug up in Li Linying’s tomb)
Another legend believes that,Li Lianying’s tomb is at next to the tomb of Cixi in the Eastern Tomb of Qing Dynasty . However, some people questioned that the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty was the place where the emperors and concubines of the Qing Dynasty were buried. No matter how popular Li Lianying was, she was only a slave after all, and could not be qualified to be buried here.
There is another saying that Li Lianying’s nephew and daughter-in-law insisted that the one in Enjizhuang was not the old uncle Li Lianying, and Li Lianying’s body was buried near the village . As for the specific location, Li Lianying’s descendants kept it secret, afraid Outsiders disturb Li Lianying's heroic spirit. However, because Li Lianying is an eunuch and not a "whole person", she did not enter the ancestral grave. She specially invited someone to bury in another tomb. Few people knew about the burial.
There is another saying that Li Lianying's tomb is at the Lijia Cemetery, Dahongmen, outside Yongdingmen.
Therefore, Li Lianying's real tomb has become a mystery. Where is he buried? Is it Li Lianying's tomb after Enjizhuang excavated? He did live in Enjizhuang in his later years, and that tomb was also bought by him during his lifetime. However, whether he was buried or to conceal the public has not been verified yet. Is the head in the tomb Li Lianying's? There are different opinions, and there is no definite answer.
4. Possible speculations
Li Lianying died of illness and was killed. These two diametrically opposed views have no conclusive evidence and no convincing explanation.
Some people think that there is only one head in Li Lianying’s tomb, because Li Lianying is an eunuch and a person with incomplete body. People in that era were very superstitious, and the incomplete body was a matter of insult to the ancestors. The ancestors only buried their heads and abandoned their bodies after death. Whether Li Lianying was buried like this after his death, there is a certain possibility.
Some people think that although Li Lianying had a cemetery in Enjizhuang during his lifetime, he felt that his life was a big wind. If buried here, everyone knows that it may lead to the robbery of the tomb. Find a stand-in and bury someone else's head. After he died, he would secretly return to his place of origin and find a quiet place to bury him quietly, so his true tomb and body should be in the place of origin.
As for the truth about the cause of Li Lianying's death and the truth about the tomb, maybe one day in the future, people will solve this puzzle, maybe they will never find the answer, then it will continue to be a topic of discussion. You say what you say, arguing endlessly, who is true and who is false, and who cares, what people want to hear is a story.
.
