Tongzhi Three years old, An 116-year-old eunuch was transferred to the front of Empress Dowager Cixi of Changchun Palace. This little eunuch is the famous Li Lianying .
At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi always had An Dehai by her side. Although Li Lianying was given the name of Empress Dowager Cixi two years ago, under the "light cover" of Andhai, Li Lianying could not even be ranked in Empress Dowager Cixi's place.
However, After An Dehai's death, Li Lianying became an important person who could not leave in her life. Why is this? Li Lianying's favor is closely related to his sleek and worldly in Cixi.
Li Lianying's old photo
became that irreplaceable person
How Li Lianying became the "heartfelt person" around Cixi, there is almost no historical record. In folk legend, Li Lianying quickly became a celebrity around Empress Dowager Cixi with her outstanding hair combing skills.
In addition, When the ministers in the court impeached Li Lianying, also called Li Lianying "Little Pink Li". This led to people becoming more and more convinced that Li Lianying made a fortune by combing her hair for Cixi.
However, since the life of Li Lianying in folk legends is far from his epitaph and the archives of the Qing Palace, we can only say that Li Lianying may have overcommitted Cixi's hair, and Cixi has a certain impression of Li Lianying.
Li Lianying made her fortune in folk legend
This impression made need to choose a palace maid to enrich the Empress Dowager Cixi of Changchun Palace , selected Li Lianying from a list of palace maids presented by the people below. When Li Lianying first arrived at Changchun Palace, like other eunuchs, did almost the same job.
After all, Cixi was serving An Dehai near, so she didn't need them at all. In the eighth year of Tongzhi, Andehai was overly arrogant, and was killed by Shandong Governor Ding Baozhen on the charge of "not being controlled by the ancestors and leaving the capital without being controlled by the ancestors."
An Dehai's death made Li Lianying, who is good at thinking, understand a truth: in the palace No matter where he is, he is a slave. must not forget what he is because of his master's favor. At the same time, Andehai's death also made Empress Dowager Cixi very uncomfortable.
The former celebrity in front of Cixi Ande Hai was asked to kill
An Dehai The reason why he can become a celebrity around Cixi is because he is very good at guessing Cixi's thoughts and is familiar with Cixi's various preferences. As a woman without a husband, the rare "satisfactor" around is dead. Cixi's life will inevitably be filled with unhappiness and irritability.
Li Lianying noticed this. He started to to spend a lot of effort to understand Cixi's preferences and to understand Cixi's temper. is determined to become an irreplaceable person around Cixi, , but at the same time, he is also constantly reminding himself: must remember An Dehai's lessons firmly.
Li Lianying accompanied Cixi to "role play"
, and only by being able to speak can one be invincible.
Li Lianying In the process of serving Cixi, was not only very cautious, but also was very good at speaking. This is undoubtedly an important reason why Cixi gradually liked and could not live without Li Lianying. Once Empress Dowager Cixi watched Peking Opera in the theater, and the one who sang for her was Yang Xiaolou .
Yang Xiaolou's singing skills are very good, and Cixi listened to them very happily. So after the opera, Cixi summoned Yang Xiaolou to her side and wanted to give Yang Xiaolou the pastry on the table.
Yang Xiaolou's old stage photo
Maybe it's because I want something that can be hung out to serve as a sign for myself, maybe it's because I really think that pastries are too expensive. In short, Yang Xiaolou hopes that Cixi will give me something else on the grounds that "pastry is too expensive".
Cixi was in a good mood at the time and was willing to satisfy Yang Xiaolou's request, so she asked Yang Xiaolou what she wanted.Yang Xiaolou kowtowed to Empress Dowager Cixi, and then said:
"The Old Buddha is so blessed. I wonder if he can give ink treasures to his servants."
Cixi himself is a person who loves to express himself. She immediately took someone to bring a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote the word "Fu".
Empress Dowager Cixi likes to express herself very much
But The word "Fu" is a typo, because Empress Dowager Cixi wrote the radical of this character as "Leaf". When the word "Fu" such as was handed over to Yang Xiaolou, the little prince who accompanied Empress Dowager Cixi to listen to the opera suddenly spoke and said that the radical of "Fu" was "小".
This caused the atmosphere on the scene to stagnate instantly, and Yang Xiaolou held the words and didn't know what to do. After Empress Dowager Cixi's face gradually became gloomy. But at this moment, Li Lianying suddenly smiled and said:
"Oh! The blessing of Lord Lady is a little more than anyone in this world!"
Li Lianying can speak eloquently
Yang Xiaolou knew that Li Lianying was helping him, so he hurriedly continued:
"Good blessings from Lord Lady Buddha, all the servants' ancestral graves will have blue smoke. There are more blessings above these ten thousand people, How can I bear it if I call a slave? "
Empress Dowager Cixi was amused when she heard this, and asked someone to take back the words that had been delivered to Yang Xiaolou, with a look of regret:
"Oh, I'll give you the next day."
eloquent Li Lianying has rescued Empress Dowager Cixi countless times, This made Empress Dowager Cixi feel that Li Lianying is the person who understands her best.
Li Lianying's portrait
After that, Cixi relied more and more on Li Lianying, and Li Lianying did become the "companion" in Empress Dowager Cixi's life that she could not leave for a moment. "Late Qing Palace Life Experience" records:
"Three meals a day, morning and evening, they both sent eunuchs or greeted each other in person... When they lived in Xiyuan and Summer Palace , Empress Dowager Cixi often came to Li Lianying: 'Lian Ying! Let's take a walk!' Empress Dowager Cixi sometimes summoned Li Lianying to her bedroom to talk about Huang's skills of immortality. The two often talked about late at night."
Li Lianying is "role playing"
Here, Li Lianying can actually walk sideways in the palace, but Li Lianying keeps in mind An Dehai's fate, He never shows any signs of "being arrogant by favor" to the outside world, For other masters in , Li Lianying is trying to please with all his might, in order to live safer in the palace.
The promoter of modern pinyin Wang Zhao As a participant in the Hundred Days Reform, he once told a story about Li Lianying. That was what happened on the way back to Beijing after Cixi led Guangxu and civil and military officials fled.
Photos of Cixi on the way to escape
and their group walked to Baoding and found a place to rest. The place where Empress Dowager Cixi was sleeping was decorated with "bedding is beautiful", Li Lianying As a celebrity around Empress Dowager Cixi, he lived in a complete place, , but wanted to "reform" Guangxu, but could only sleep in a broken house without a bedding.
At that time, the conflict between Cixi and Guangxu had been severely intensified, and and Empress Dowager Cixi was undoubtedly the most powerful. In the palace, eunuchs were mostly people who were attracted by the storm, and they were inevitably involved in the attack on Guangxu.
Although Empress Dowager Cixi did not instruct "abuse the emperor", in order to express her position, the eunuchs still stumped Emperor Guangxu. Li Lianying is indeed a celebrity around Cixi, However, the palace has changed a lot, who can guarantee that Cixi can continue to be glorious?
Pictures of Cixi's escape from the west
So In Li LianyingHearing that Guangxu's residence was extremely dilapidated and there was a short cover, immediately Hearing his bedding for Guangxu to use, Holding Guangxu's leg and crying:
"Slave the slaves deserve to die!"
This makes Li Lianying in Guang Xu also has a good reputation. When recalling the experience of running away from the west, Emperor Guangxu even said: "If it weren't for Li Anda (referring to Li Lianying, who called Anda to eunuchs, it was a kind of respect or flattery), I would not have lived today."
Emperor Guangxu's evaluation of Li Lianying was also very good
Sleek and sophisticated can save lives
A eunuch can get praise from the "leaders" of the two opposing camps. It can be imagined that Li Lianying has how smooth and sophisticated is in the palace.
However, Li Lianying's sleekness and sophistication certainly made herself safer, but also made Cixi emotionally alienate Li Lianying (after , Li Lianying stood on Cixi's side without a clear attitude, which made Cixi a little unhappy).
and so on fled west and returned to Beijing, Li Lianying also knew that Cixi had some complaints about him, so started to prepare for the "retirement". , but before he could mention anything, Empress Dowager Cixi died.
After Li Lianying took charge of the funeral of Empress Dowager Cixi, she left the palace on the second day of the first year of Xuantong in .
Light after Empress Dowager Cixi passed away Li Lianying also left the palace
Looking at Li Lianying's life, she spent almost all of her life with Empress Dowager Cixi. As an eunuch whom Cixi could not leave in her life, Li Lianying's life can also be called a legend.
