Cixi's palace maid secretly hid a pillowyears, dismantled are all national treasures
The humiliating history of modern China is a wake-up call for us that "if we are backward, we will be beaten." The Qing ** grovelled in front of the great powers, and treated the poor people with teeth and claws, this huge contrast made people hateful.
Even when the country was in a critical situation, the Manchu aristocracy was still planning for their own selfish interests. For example, the Empress Dowager Cixi chose to flee when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, and at the same time took many national treasures of the Forbidden City with her.
She couldn't finish it herself, so she asked the palace maids to help her get it, and one of them hid a pillow in the chaos. Decades later, when this pillow was opened, people were surprised to find that it was full of national treasures.
We have long known about the corrupt rule of the Qing court. Although the Opium War of 1840 made the Qing realize their weakness and incompetence, the decline of their rule had already begun.
Closing the country is undoubtedly the primary reason. As early as the Kangxi Emperor's time, he came into contact with the advanced culture of the West, and even invited foreign teachers for tutoring. It is said that the Kangxi Emperor was able to use some advanced instruments, but he only regarded them as a personal hobby and did not promote them throughout China.
While Westerners were developing science and technology, Qing students were still writing Bagu Wen.
During the Qianlong period, Western envoys came to worship, bringing Western news and advanced technology. However, the Qianlong Emperor was not pleased with this, and there was a subtle psychology in it.
Although he does not reject the ** of the West, what really makes him jealous is the democratic ideas of the West. He feared that if the country was opened up and his subjects were exposed to open minds, the rule of the Qing Dynasty would be unsustainable.
Therefore, this is the reason why Qianlong is really reluctant to open the country. And this also laid the foundation for the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty's policy of closing the country and closing the country to the outside world became increasingly serious. Among them, the phenomenon of "donating officials" is particularly prominent, that is, you can become an official by spending money, but in fact, you are selling officials.
For the sake of the best cost, those who buy officials will inevitably squeeze the people and loot the people's fat and ointment. This corruption plunged the imperial court into a deep crisis, and in 1840 the Opium War broke out when foreigners opened its doors with artillery and spears.
At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi was in power alone and faced severe challenges.
Lin Zexu's heroic struggle triggered the Opium War, and the defeat of the Qing Dynasty led to China's degeneration into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Empress Dowager Cixi still lived a life of luxury, but her rule had lost its prestige in the hearts of the people.
Decades later, the Second Opium War broke out, and after the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, a number of unequal treaties were signed, and they continued to lose their sovereignty and were used by foreigners as a tool to exploit our people.
However, the Empress Dowager Cixi continued to live a life of luxury until 1900. In this year, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing, and the Empress Dowager Cixi realized the seriousness of the situation and decided to flee Beijing with the Guangxu Emperor.
But thinking that she might not be able to return, she went to great lengths to take away many of the precious artifacts from the palace.
The Empress Dowager Cixi was also uncompromising in her escape, bringing with her a gorgeous guard of honor, including Ouchi guards, palace maids and eunuchs, palanquin bearers, and retinues carrying national treasure chests.
However, there were so many treasures in the Forbidden City that it was difficult to take them all away for a while, so the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the palace maids around her to choose their own treasures. As a result, many of the ladies were loaded with valuables, and one of them was separated from the group, and she panicked because she was carrying a lot of treasures.
Although she tries to catch up with the group, she finds it increasingly unlikely, so she decides to flee. However, she feared for the safety of the treasure and ended up hiding it in the pillow she carried with her.
In this way, the palace maid mixed with the refugees and walked towards her hometown while fleeing.
After many twists and turns, she finally returned to her hometown, but her parents are no longer alive. Luckily, the neighbors were kind to her and adopted the unfortunate girl. Although her life gradually stabilized, she still feared that her hidden treasures would be discovered.
Therefore, every night she would pillow this shabby pillow for peace. Later, she heard that the Empress Dowager Cixi had returned to the Forbidden City, which made her even more worried that she would be approached by the Yamen, but this never happened.
In the end, the palace maid died peacefully under the care of the neighbor's husband and wife.
It turned out that she left a mysterious pillow for her neighbors before she died, and what was hidden in it, but she did not tell it. It was not until 1964, 64 years later, when the People's Republic of China was founded, that the couple remembered this pillow, opened it and found four priceless night pearls, which were national treasures both then and now.
After finally understanding the intentions of this palace maid, they did not covet the treasure, but handed over the four national treasures to the state. Finally, these four night pearls were collected and exhibited by the museum.
And the moment they discovered the secret of the pillow was a full sixty-four years after the Empress Dowager Cixi fled.
At the end of the reign of the Qing Dynasty, both the Empress Dowager Cixi and Pu Yi carried a large number of treasures when they fled, which also reflected the weakness of the Qing Dynasty under the internal and external difficulties, repeatedly ceding territories, seeking glory, and finally being overthrown by the people, and a large number of national treasures were lost overseas.