In the late Qing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a special phenomenon of two empress dowagers jointly holding power. Many people only remember the decisive methods of the Empress Dowager Cixi when she came to power in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, but ignore the Empress Dowager Ci'an, who also had real power.
Talking about statecraft,"The Empress Dowager of the East"Ci'an also showed decisiveness, and even balanced Cixi's ** to some extent. However, the Empress Dowager, who was both strong and wise, had an extremely high standard of her mausoleum, almost comparable to Cixi's mausoleum, which to a certain extent became a "stain" on the Empress Dowager Ci'an.
Could it be that the Empress Dowager Ci'an also liked luxury like Cixi during her lifetime? Was such a lavish mausoleum built to show off its status or for other reasons?
Empress Dowager Ci'an, Niu Hulu, was canonized as the queen by Xianfeng at the age of sixteen, and her beauty was deeply favored by Xianfeng and became the most noble woman in the world. Xianfeng loved to hold banquets and love entertainment, and despite the constant exhortations of his ministers, he would only listen to Ci'an's words.
And Cixi was only a concubine at that time, although she gave birth to Emperor Tongzhi, she did not dare to surpass Ci'an. Until Xianfeng's death, Ci'an was honored as the queen mother, and Cixi was named the empress dowager because she gave birth to the Tongzhi Emperor.
However, Ci'an's virtuous virtue and her status in Xianfeng's heart made her always surpass Cixi and become an irreplaceable figure in the court.
The young Tongzhi Emperor was only five years old and could not control the imperial court, and the question of who should assist the emperor sparked a heated debate in the court. In the end, the sisters Ci'an and Cixi stood out and created the "two palaces hanging curtains" situation in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
Ci'an was known as the "Empress Dowager of the East", and Cixi was known as the "Empress Dowager of the West". The people's impression of Ci'an is mostly weak, probably because of the comparison with the strong Cixi.
But how could this queen, who ascended to the throne at the age of sixteen and has always been respected by Emperor Xianfeng, be a soft persimmon? There are many women in the harem, but Ci'an can always maintain his honor and favor in such an environment, in addition to the favor and protection of Emperor Xianfeng, Ci'an must have his own philosophy and wisdom.
Although Ci'an is a little cowardly in character, this is more of her gentleness and virtuousness as a woman in the deep palace. However, Tzu An is by no means someone who can be easily pinched. When the empress dowager of the two palaces began to listen to the government, Ci'an invited Cixi to live in the Yangxin Hall together to assist the young emperor.
Although according to the ancestral system in the palace, Ci'an, as the mother-in-law of Emperor Tongzhi, should personally raise him, she took the initiative to let Cixi live there, although the outside world was confused about this, but Ci'an had her own reasons.
She explained that if you are raised separately, you are vulnerable to being provoked by villains. This incident shows that Tzu An is politically minded. According to the regulations, Ci'an should raise Emperor Tongzhi, but if the biological mother can't see her son, and someone sows discord, it may cause trouble.
Therefore, she decided to raise them together to avoid potential problems. This is further proof of Ci'an's deep sense of righteousness. The contemporaries once commented: "The virtues of the East Palace are superior, and the talents of the West Palace are even better." ”
Empress Dowager Cixi was not the sole decision-maker in all matters, and although she often dominated the decisions of the imperial court, she also relied on Empress Dowager Ci'an's advice and decisions. For example, the rewards of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and others, as well as the execution of He Guiqing and others, these decisions were all made at the suggestion of Ci'an.
In addition, Ci'an also showed a firm decisiveness, and she decisively put the eunuch An Dehai to death, even though Cixi might have favored it. The relationship between the two queen mothers may be both mutual support and mutual constraints.
But in any case, the existence of Ci'an made Cixi somewhat restrained in the court. This can be seen in Cixi's rebuilding of the mausoleum after Ci'an's death.
Although Ci'an's talent in governing the country may not be as good as Cixi's, in the deep palace, she is good at scheming and calculating, but she is not inferior to Cixi. This made it necessary for Cixi to honor Ci'an in many things, especially in the construction of the mausoleum, and Cixi had to take into account Ci'an's feelings, even if she had her own ideas and schemes.
In ancient times, the construction of mausoleums was a very important thing, and emperors often began to build them after ascending the throne. Because human life is limited and thousands of years need to be spent in the mausoleum after death, most emperors attached great importance to the construction of the mausoleum.
The construction of the mausoleum required a high degree of luxury to highlight the noble status of the royal family, and even the location of the mausoleum also required consideration of feng shui.
The tombs of the emperors and concubines of the Qing Dynasty were all selected in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty, and the burial goods were also a way for the emperors of the past dynasties to show the prosperity of their dynasties. In the last dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi's mausoleum was so extravagant that it even exceeded the regulations.
The Empress Dowager Cixi was very extravagant during her lifetime, and she also hoped to have the best mausoleum after her death, so she collected a large number of rare treasures underground. Although it is generally believed that Cixi spent a lot of money to build the mausoleum, in fact, the original structure of the mausoleum of Ci'an and Cixi was the same.
Because the construction of the mausoleum must conform to the rules set by the ancestors, and cannot be completely based on personal preferences, the construction of the mausoleum in each dynasty and generation will be discussed by ministers and emperors for a long time.
The construction of the Ci'an Mausoleum and the Cixi Mausoleum was no exception, and when discussing how to build it, there was a wave of discussion in the court.
The ministers had made suggestions to the two empress dowagers about the mausoleum, but neither of them was very satisfied. In the end, the two empress dowagers decided to build two mausoleums respectively, with the Ci'an Mausoleum on the west side and the Cixi Mausoleum on the east side.
The reason why the Empress Dowager East is in the west and the Empress Dowager West is in the east is because Ci'an lives in the Zhongcui Palace in the East Sixth Palace, while Cixi lives in the Changchun Palace in the West Sixth Palace. However, this theory cannot be used to explain the location of the mausoleum.
The construction of ancient mausoleums was strictly regulated, and although the mausoleums of the two empress dowagers were of high standard, they still had to follow the ancestral system. The Qing Dynasty Imperial Mausoleum and the Mausoleum of the Empress Concubine must be built together, with the emperor as the center, expanding outward, the emperor as the main position, and the closer the position, the more noble the identity.
The trillion burial system stipulates that the Houling is attached to the imperial tomb and must be built on both sides of the imperial tomb. Therefore, the mausoleums of Ci'an and Cixi are called Dingdong Mausoleum, and Ci'an is closer to Ci'an because of its noble status as the queen first, which is also a symbol of status.
Therefore, the Empress Dowager in the west is completely in accordance with the rules of dignity, not personal preference.
During her lifetime, the Empress Dowager Ci'an stipulated that her mausoleum should be more honorable than Cixi's. Therefore, the location of Puxiang Yuding Dongling and Putuo Yuding Dongling was selected in August of the twelfth year of Tongzhi, which cost 2.66 million taels ** for the former and 2.27 million taels for the latter.
This amount of money is extremely luxurious, reflecting the strength of the empress dowager of the two palaces to control most of the Qing Dynasty during her lifetime and the treatment she enjoyed after her death. Even though the ministers were surprised by this lavish establishment, they could not change the decision of the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces.
Therefore, if Ci'an was really as cowardly and incompetent as the folk legend said, how could she dare to propose such a luxurious mausoleum? This shows that Ci'an fully approved of Cixi's idea of building a high-standard mausoleum.
As the emperor's concubine and the empress dowager, Ci'an herself may have wanted her mausoleum to be more magnificent. Therefore, if Ci'an did not agree, this mausoleum could not have been built.
Although it is generally believed that the Empress Dowager Ci'an has a cowardly personality and ignorance of the world, in that deep palace, she must have her own strategy. If he didn't have some of his own skills, he might not be able to gain a foothold in the imperial court just by relying on Cixi's great ambition.
The evaluation of Donggong superior to virtue does not mean that Ci'an has no talent, but a manifestation of her wisdom in the deep palace.
In the lavish Dingdong Mausoleum, the Empress Dowager Ci'an died in the seventh year of Guangxu at the age of forty-five, but she had been sitting on the throne of the Empress Dowager for 20 years. During her lifetime, she enjoyed the most luxurious and supreme power in the world, and after her death, she also lived in a very high-level mausoleum.
The construction of the Ci'an Mausoleum and the Cixi Mausoleum took a total of six years, and it is the highest-grade empress mausoleum that combines the construction methods of the queen's mausoleum in the past. The empress dowager of the two palaces stood side by side during her lifetime, and the mausoleums after her death were also built side by side.
Among all the queen's tombs in the Qing Dynasty, the Dingdong Tomb is undoubtedly the most luxurious. There are countless treasures in the mausoleum, many of them are gold and silver utensils, and the whole mausoleum is magnificent, and one of them cost more than 2 million taels.
According to the ancestral system, the Ci'an Mausoleum is of higher specification than the Cixi Mausoleum, and its natural status is also more noble. However, people often only know about the luxury of Cixi's mausoleum and ignore Ci'an's.
In fact, at first, Cixi's system was the same as Ci'an's, but after Ci'an's death, Cixi began to become arbitrary, and even decided to rebuild her own mausoleum.
Perhaps because of Ci'an's suppression during his lifetime, or for other reasons, Cixi became more and more dissatisfied with the same system as Ci'an, and wanted to be more luxurious, so she began to look for opportunities to rebuild.
Until the twenty-first year of Guangxu, the minister in charge of guarding the Dingdong Mausoleum reported to the imperial court that there was some rain leakage in the mausoleum and should be repaired urgently.
The Empress Dowager Cixi took full advantage of the opportunity to get her ministers to initiate a complete renovation of the mausoleum. The water leakage problem, which could have been solved by only removing the tiles, has taken a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to be demolished and rebuilt.
In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu, the state allocated 1.5 million taels, which is enough to build a new mausoleum. After re-overhauling, Dingdongling appears to be resplendent and full of rare treasures.
However, the people outside were starving, while the Empress Dowager Cixi was busy making her mausoleum more comfortable after her death. This luxury and ruthlessness is outrageous. However, it was this extravagant mausoleum that attracted the attention of tomb robbers.
After the theft of the Dingdong Tomb twice, most of the once-proud mausoleum treasures and various facilities were looted. The once luxurious and majestic nature is gone, and only the mausoleum, trampled by tomb robbers, remains.
The life of the Empress Dowager Ci'an is like a magnificent rainbow, no matter the wind, rain, thunder and lightning, it can bloom with brilliant brilliance. She is the most noble woman in the world, with a distinguished background, but also a huge responsibility.
With her own wisdom, she holds that irretrievable era in her hands. She may be to show her identity, or to highlight her political achievements, but she has been pursuing her ideals all her life.
She enjoyed endless glory and wealth during her lifetime, and after her death, she also lay in a magnificent and luxurious mausoleum. However, life is like a dream, and you have to wake up eventually. It doesn't matter what happens after death, the important thing is that when you are alive, you will do your best and leave no regrets.
Because life is like a drop in the ocean, short and precious, we should cherish every moment and make our lives full of meaning.