Why did Cixi not be buried with her husband Emperor Xianfeng, but built the mausoleum alone?
You may think that Cixi didn't like him and wanted to be buried alone. However, this is not the case, on the contrary, Cixi is not worthy. She didn't dare to bury herself with her husband, Emperor Xianfeng, because Emperor Xianfeng died too early.
Cixi died 47 years after Emperor Xianfeng's death. The Qing Dynasty had such a rule that if the empress died first, she could be buried in the emperor's mausoleum in advance, and wait until the emperor died before opening the mausoleum and burying the emperor. But if the emperor dies first, there will be a problem, and if the queen who dies later wants to be buried with the emperor, the imperial tomb must be reopened.
However, the rules of the Qing Dynasty are like this, those with low status cannot open the mausoleum of high status, which is called humility and respect. Because the emperor is dead, buried in it. If you open his mausoleum, you will disturb him, unless you have a higher status than the emperor, and only then will you be qualified to open the emperor's imperial mausoleum. But who is more qualified than the emperor?So the emperor can open the empress's mausoleum at will, because the emperor's status is the highest, but not the other way around.
Therefore, after Kangxi's grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, died, Kangxi was very upset at the time because he didn't know how to bury his grandmother. Kangxi's father and grandfather died very early, and Kangxi was raised by his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang. Grandma has a very high status in his heart, but she can't be buried in the imperial mausoleum. So what to do?
Because of the so-called rules, Kangxi did not know how to bury his grandmother all his life. His grandmother's coffin had not been officially buried for decades, and Kangxi did not know how to arrange it until his death.
After Kangxi's son Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, things were much easier. Because he had no feelings for the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, he directly built a mausoleum for Xiaozhuang, and he set the first precedent of the Qing Dynasty. If the emperor dies first, the empress will raise the mausoleum alone. It was precisely because of the precedent that Cixi did not have to be entangled, so she was buried alone.