As we all know, Empress Dowager Cixi was the last ruler of the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty in my country. During her reign, China was completely reduced to a semi-colonial semi-feudal society, so future generations have a very low opinion of her.
What is even more criticized is that she is still a person who does not care about the life and death of the people and only cares about her own enjoyment. Her daily life is extremely luxurious, and even the wallpaper in the sedan is worth more than 70 million taels.
Extravagant and extravagant
As the supreme ruler in the feudal era, although the Qing Dynasty was already declining, Cixi 's life was still extravagant.
The rare treasures she enjoys in her daily life are truly staggering, and ordinary people cannot even imagine them.
As a woman, the Empress Dowager Cixi usually loved all kinds of gold and silver jewelry. Every year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs made thousands of pieces of jewelry for her. Each piece was exquisitely crafted and inlaid with various precious pearls and gems. .
Even so, Cixi was not satisfied and often asked her officials to provide other jewelry for herself. Where did the officials get their money? Isn’t that just extorting people?
After several years of accumulation, the amount of Cixi's jewelry reached a terrifying level. According to the maids who served around her, the jewelry she usually used filled thousands of boxes in two halls.
Those that are not used or disliked are enough to fill several warehouses, which also consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. There are hundreds of palace ladies just to maintain these jewelry.
With a dazzling array of jewelry, women’s favorite makeup products are naturally indispensable.
In order to stay young forever, Empress Dowager Cixi specially had the most precious southern pearls ground into fine pearl powder , and then added a variety of precious materials to make powder .
A small box of powder like this costs thousands of taels, and Cixi used hundreds of boxes a year.
Cixi's extravagance is not only reflected in her pursuit of jewelry and makeup, but also in her daily diet. She pursues ostentation. The more the dynasty is in decline, the more she wants to live a splendid life.
There are a total of 108 dishes for each meal, and each dish is carefully crafted using the most precious ingredients.
Therefore, Cixi spent thousands of taels of silver for every meal, which was enough for ordinary people to live several lifetimes..
Cixi was not a big eater either. How could she eat so many dishes by herself?
So she only took a few bites of each meal, and did not reward the rest of the meal to others, because she believed that it was eaten by the most noble Queen Mother, and other people did not deserve to eat it, so these meals would eventually become Being thrown away, causing huge waste.
What's even more terrible is that Cixi not only ate extravagantly and wastefully , but also ate weirdly.
She didn’t know who she believed in, thinking that eating human milk would keep her young forever, so she drank several cups of human milk every day. For convenience, she also kept dozens of wet nurses in the palace for her use.
These wet nurses are all ordinary people, and they all have children at home who are waiting to be fed.
But for the selfishness of the Empress Dowager Cixi, they all had to abandon their husbands and children, came to the palace as deep as the sea, and ate some greasy food without salt every day to produce the best milk for Cixi, as if They are not human beings, they are just tools for producing milk.
Luxurious sedan
The lavishness of the Empress Dowager Cixi in food, clothing and food is enough to make people stagger, but the sedan she used when traveling is so extravagant that it can be called a tragic event .
Originally, the Qing Palace had clear regulations on the sedan used by the Queen Mother, but the Empress Dowager Cixi believed that ordinary sedans could not reflect her noble status, so she personally ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to make a Rolls-Royce sedan.
The luxurious sedan of Empress Dowager Cixi is more like a small living room than a sedan. There is a huge chair in the middle, and next to the chair is a rosewood table.
There are boxes of dried fruits and tea boxes on both sides, and a long gauze curtain hangs behind it to block the sun for people to take a nap. Therefore, it is very comfortable for Empress Dowager Cixi to sit on this sedan.
Of course, the main function of the sedan chair is not only comfort, but also confidentiality. After all, the Queen Mother’s beauty is not something that can be easily revealed to others.
So Cixi's luxurious sedan was covered with yellow brocade. This kind of brocade has always been said to be "an inch of brocade, an inch of gold". It is extremely expensive and rare.
Empress Dowager Cixi used it to pave her sedan chair without any distress, which shows the level of luxury.
However, in terms of rarity, these yellow brocades are not ranked highly. After all, although they are rare, there is still a certain amount of output every year.
What is truly precious and treasured is the priceless "wallpaper" in the sedan, which is the yellow curtain spread around the sedan in addition to the floor.
These yellow curtains are like small wallpapers, embroidered with continuous patterns called "eight treasures", each pattern is about two inches large.
A set of patterns consists of eight patterns. These patterns are interconnected and continuous, making them appear luxurious, complex and exquisite.
And these patterns are not embroidered casually. They are the eight treasure patterns that the Qing Dynasty clearly stipulated can only be used by the emperor and the queen mother. They are "he box, drum board , dragon gate, jade fish , crane, Ganoderma lucidum, Chime, pine branches."
These eight treasure patterns all represent longevity and nobility, and are extremely troublesome to embroider. Just one wallpaper requires dozens of the most skilled female workers to embroider it day and night for several months, consuming a lot of manpower and material resources. Sometimes their embroidery speed couldn't keep up with Cixi's change of wallpaper.
According to the memories of Princess Deling who served Cixi personally, the value of Cixi's luxurious sedan is almost inestimable. These precious wallpapers alone are worth more than 70 million taels , not to mention other things, God knows How precious.
In such a precious sedan, the Empress Dowager Cixi actually had two Rolls-Royce sedans, and she usually rode them interchangeably.
Every time she goes out, sixteen strong and skilled bearers must carry the sedan chair for her, so that she can enjoy a smooth and comfortable journey.
With such a small sedan, Empress Dowager Cixi can play so many tricks . It is easy to imagine how extravagant her daily life is. The Qing Dynasty had such an extravagant ruler, and its decline was It's a matter of course.
Tragic Grave Digging
Cixi was extravagant during her lifetime, she also wanted to enjoy her glory and wealth after death , so she prepared a large number of precious burial objects for herself before her death.
Such as pearls, jade jade cabbage , huge night pearl , etc. The value of the entire tomb is immeasurable. Which of these things was not obtained by her knocking the bones of the people and sucking the marrow? Which one is not stained with the blood and tears of the people?
Fortunately, Cixi did not get a good end in the end. The rare treasures she tried so hard to collect were all cheap in the end. The tomb-robber warlord Sun Dianying ended up with her corpse exposed in the wilderness. It can also be regarded as a cycle of cause and effect. , retribution is unhappy.
As the ruler of a dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi should love the people like a son and make decisions for the people.
But she was extravagant and extravagant for her own selfish desires. Even a mere sedan chair was worth 70 million taels. It is no wonder that she ended up being dug up.
