We are familiar with the outstanding female politicians in ancient China, including Wu Zetian, Lv Hou, who was in power for sixteen years, and Liu E, the Empress Dowager of the Song Dynasty, who is only one step away from the Empress.
There is no doubt that these women are not the leaders of a country in the patriarchal era, they control the world.
Moreover, they have achieved a lot.
However, there was a woman who ruled and ruled China for 48 years, but what she got was a bad name and a long history.
This man is the actual ruler of yat sen villa, Empress Dowager Cixi.
Let's look at Sun Yat-sen's empire, the last ruler, despite its inherent prejudice.
The Growth History of Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi, that is, the Empress of Filial Piety, Ye He Na La, the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng, and the biological mother of Emperor Tongzhi.
It's a mystery about her life.
We only know that Empress Dowager Cixi is Ye Henala, and the specific name is rarely recorded. Historians generally believe that Empress Dowager Cixi was a Manchu with a blue flag. What is clearly recorded in the jade book? Zheng Hui's daughter in Yenara? .
But there are many legends that unofficial history said that Empress Dowager Cixi was actually a Han Chinese.
1June, 989, Zhao, a 77-year-old villager from suburban village of Changzhi City, found the Changzhi Local Records Office with a joint letter with Song, Song, Song and Song of Shangqin Village. Zhao said that Cixi was from Shangqin Village. He is the fifth generation nephew of Empress Dowager Cixi, and Song, Song and others are the fifth generation nephews of Empress Dowager Cixi. They asked the government to help clarify. Later, an article "Uncovering the Mystery of Cixi's Childhood" caused an uproar in the history circle.
According to research, 1835, Cixi was born in a poor Han peasant family in Xipo Village, Changzhi County, Shanxi Province. Wang Xiaoyu? . At the age of 4, she was sold to Song Siyuan, Shangqin Village, this county, and changed her name. Song Gelin? /kloc-When he was 0/2 years old, he was sold as a magistrate of Lu 'an and renamed as a servant girl. Magnolia? (Laner), and it was carefully cultivated in the special study room of Yaxiyuan. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), as the daughter of Yehnara Zheng Hui, she was supposed to be elected to the palace and rose to the highest position until the Empress Dowager.
Whether Manchu or Han, Empress Dowager Cixi rose to the highest position after she entered the palace.
The restoration map imagined by Cixi when she was young.
At the age of seventeen, he entered the palace and was made a noble. At the age of 19, he was made a imperial concubine and gave birth to Zai Chun, the only prince of Xianfeng Emperor. At the age of twenty-two, he was made an imperial concubine.
1860 Before the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Jehol with Emperor Xianfeng.
The following year, Emperor Xianfeng died in Jehol. Before his death, he appointed Prince Yi, Zheng Qinwang Duanhua, Jing Shou, Co-organizer, Kuangyuan, Du Han and Jiao Youying as the King of Zanxiang to assist the Tongzhi Emperor in handling state affairs. He also gave the queen and the crown prince (presided over by the emperor's biological mother Yi Guifei) two seals representing imperial power, hoping that they would contain each other.
After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Prince Zai Chun acceded to the throne.
Tongzhi emperor
Ye Henala and Niu Zhilu (then Empress Cian of Nakamiya) were honored as Empresses. This is the famous empress dowager of the two palaces in history. After that, the Empress Dowager staged a coup, designed and arrested eight ministers, made him king of the proceedings, and changed his title. Tongzhi? , the queen mother of the two palaces, the imperial court, raises the heart and listens to politics.
two dowagers
188 1 On April 8th, the Empress Dowager Ci 'an suddenly collapsed and died at the age of 45. Officially, it was a cerebral hemorrhage, which was attributed to Cixi in unofficial history. Since then, Empress Dowager Cixi has monopolized all power. At this time, Emperor Guangxu had inherited the throne. Emperor Guangxu lived in the shadow of Empress Dowager Cixi all his life. Do you respect Empress Dowager Cixi? Dear dad? We can see the respect and awe for Cixi.
Emperor Guangxu
1908 1 14 10 Emperor Guangxu died (textual research shows that Emperor Guangxu was poisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi). Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Zai Feng, an alcoholic prince, as Regent, and her son Puyi as Emperor, with the year number of Xuan Tong. Empress Dowager Cixi was honored as Empress Dowager Tai.
At about 2 pm the next day, Empress Dowager Cixi died at the Yiluan Hall in Zhongnanhai at the age of 74. From her listening to politics to her death, she held the actual ruling power of the Qing Dynasty for 48 years.
In charge of a country, why does she bear the eternal stigma?
Is Empress Dowager Cixi a politician? In fact, in the final analysis, she is. After all, in the patriarchal society of China, as a woman, it is impossible for her to run the imperial court for decades without political planning and ability.
And with yat sen villa's situation, can she still keep her position and? The so-called Jiangshan? I have to say that she still has some skills.
Then why does she have to bear the blame? Because these decades are the most painful period for China, a great civilized country.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China society had been terminally ill for a long time. The decadent dynasty looked glamorous, but in fact it was crumbling.
1860, British and French troops invaded Beijing and burned Yuanmingyuan. Since then, this ancient dynasty has suffered irreparable damage again and again.
Empress Dowager Cixi was the witness and decision maker of these wars.
1883? 1885, the Sino-French war broke out, and the two sides won or lost militarily, but the Qing government headed by Cixi advocated it? Take advantage of the victory? China signed the Sino-French New Testament with France, which greatly harmed its own interests.
1894, Japan launched the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Guangxu battle, Cixi battle,? No weaknesses, okay? . However, when someone proposed to stop the Summer Palace project, stop the construction of scenic spots and move them to military expenditure, Cixi was furious and said:
Who makes me unhappy today, and I will make him unhappy all his life?
Later, the Qing army suffered repeated defeats in the Korean battlefield, and the Beiyang Navy suffered serious setbacks in the battle of the Yellow Sea. In order not to affect her 60th anniversary celebration, Cixi hoped that foreign countries would intervene and end the war as soon as possible. She supported Li Hongzhang's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace, and attacked the hawks headed by Guangxu with various excuses. Cixi spent her 60th birthday in Ningshou Palace, the Forbidden City, when Jinzhou and Dalian fell one after another and Lushun was in danger.
In the end, the Beiyang Navy was completely annihilated. 1On April 7th, 895, 17 signed the treaty of shimonoseki, which was an unprecedented humiliating treaty in the history of China. China gave up its suzerain status to North Korea, paid 200 million taels of silver, ceded Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Province Province and Penghu Islands, opened four trading ports, and allowed Japan to open mines and set up factories at trading ports.
Beiyang navy battleship
After the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the bourgeois reformists initiated the reform and reform. In order to reform, Cixi and others staged a 1898 coup, detained Emperor Guangxu and killed six people, including Tan Sitong.
1900 On August 4th, Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing, and Cixi fled to xi 'an with Emperor Guangxu and Empress, allowing Yi Kuang and Li Hongzhang to negotiate with the powers. 190 1 On September 7th, 2000, it signed the Treaty of Sorrow and Ugliness with 1 1 imperialist countries, paying compensation of 450 million taels and 980 million taels in 39 years, punishing the main battle officials and dismantling all the forts along Dagu-Beijing.
Boxer Protocol
On June 6th of the same year 10, Cixi sent tens of thousands of people and 3,000 luggage carts, leaving Tongguan via South Henan and Zhili, and returning to Beijing on March 8th 1902.
In Zhongshan Hall, where the oil and lights are exhausted, Empress Dowager Cixi has to eat more than 100 dishes at a meal. Even after fleeing to xi 'an, Empress Dowager Cixi asked Xi 'an's mansion to set up a royal restaurant with the same specifications as the Forbidden City, and set up 10 bureaus, which attracted more than 100 chefs, with an average of 65,000 people in one bureau.
According to statistics, Cixi spent 302,000 taels of silver after living in An for less than a month. It costs more than 200 taels to eat every day, which is enough for a family to eat for 8 years.
According to historical records, in 1897, Empress Dowager Cixi ate 50,000 apples, 0,000 autumn pears, 2,000 persimmons, 4,000 baskets of peaches and 6,000 Jin of grapes a year.
1.5 million apples are definitely inedible, just because Cixi likes the aroma of apples, so she bought such a huge number of apples, all of which were used for decoration! Put it in her daily life to smell the fragrance and change new apples every day.
Beiyang navy can't afford guns, and Empress Dowager Cixi lives in luxury, which is one of the reasons why she was scolded by everyone.
Did Empress Dowager Cixi do anything good?
Right and wrong in history, where is it so easy to evaluate?
In fact, Empress Dowager Cixi was not without merit in history, but she did some good deeds.
Since the Opium War, the challenges from the European and American powers and the suppression of civil resistance forces such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. What is particularly important is that Cixi reused Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other important Han officials and started the Westernization Movement at the local level, which was the beginning of China's development of modern industry.
Li Hongzhang
With the support of the achievements of Westernization Movement, the Qing court made unremitting efforts to pacify the internal rebel forces, maintain a relatively stable situation in China under the imperial system, build modern Lu Haijun armaments and create? Tongzhi zhongxing? weather
Empress Dowager Cixi abolished the imperial examination to promote learning, sent people abroad to study and set up westernization, which created a new situation of reform and opening up and laid the foundation for China's modernization. The new atmosphere after the Revolution of 1911 is just a continuation of Empress Dowager Cixi's New Deal.
1906, empress dowager cixi banned foot binding, which was the first time that China liberated women. She personally questioned the case of Yang Naiwu cabbage, made it clear, pardoned the death of cabbage that could not stand torture and perjury, and severely punished more than 300 corrupt officials involved in the case under the Governor of Zhejiang.
Tie a woman's feet
You may not believe it, but Empress Dowager Cixi also banned opium. Empress Dowager Cixi issued imperial edicts banning opium and wrote:
Since the ban on smoking, opium has been poisoned several times in China, and opium addicts have been abolished, unemployed, sick and defeated. For decades, Japan has accumulated weakness, and because of this, it can be said that it is hateful. Today, the imperial court is determined to apply to the Chinese people urgently to know how to pull out the salt, so as to get rid of the sink and live a harmonious life, and set a ten-year period to cut off the harm of all exotic herbs. How to ban smoking and poppy cultivation respectively is discussed by the regional office.
1908, due to the photo diplomacy of Cixi, US President Theodore? Roosevelt signed a bill to refund boxer indemnity 1000 million dollars, which was mainly used to fund China students to study in the United States; After that, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries successively; Seven countries returned China Geng money? Overpayment? The total amount is about 320 million yuan, which is quite effective in setting up education and has trained the first batch of talents in China's modernization drive.
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The final demise of the decadent Qing Dynasty is an inevitable process. Empress Dowager Cixi is the actual ruler of the dynasty, and she has an unshirkable responsibility. But it would be unfair if all the mistakes were borne by her alone.
Compared with Wu Zetian, Lv Hou, Liu E and Cixi, she can only be regarded as a wily politician, but not an excellent ruler, because under her rule, the last dynasty in China came to an end.