The Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty favored concubine Zhenfei
Princess Keshun (1876-1900), also known as Zhenfei(zhenfei), of the Tatara clan, the daughter of Changshu, the left attendant of the Rebbe, the Manchurian Zhenghongqi, the concubine of the Guangxu Emperor, and the most favored concubine.
Emperor Keshun 's noble concubine (1876–1900) was a Manchurian Zhenghongqi (Manchurian Zhenghongqi), who was generally referred to as the Zhenfei she had been given, and was one of the only two concubines of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the most favored concubine.
Princess Zhen was born on the third day of the second month of February in the second year of Guangxu and was the daughter of The Rebbe Zuo Shilang Changshu. Changshu had three sons and five daughters. The eldest son, second son, eldest daughter, second daughter and third daughter were all born to the original wife; the third son, fourth daughter and fifth daughter were all born of concubines. The fourth daughter was the later Concubine Jin, and the fifth daughter was Concubine Zhen.
Princess Zhenfei has a cheerful personality, is lively and active, and has a strong sense of curiosity. She was very disgusted by the red tape and dull lifestyle in the palace, and especially disgusted with the deceit and intrigue in the palace. She loves new things and lives an uninhibited life. Zhenfei's personality, influenced by innate factors, is also related to her growing environment.
Princess Zhen and her sister Concubine Jin grew up in Guangzhou with their uncle Changshan. Although the Guangzhou general Changshan was a military general, he liked to attract literati and inkers, and he once hired Two nieces to study in the style of Wenting. Wen Tingshi was a generation of celebrities, and later even the high school was listed as the eye of the list. Guangzhou is the most important port city for trade between the five ports, the earliest to open up, the earliest contact with the Western capitalist world, the most affected, and the ideology is much more than that of the mainland. Coupled with Chang Shan himself's wide friendship with celebrities and scholars, many of whom were famous figures with advanced ideas, these had a great impact on the formation of Zhenfei's thoughts and personality. In addition, his two eldest brothers, Zhi Rui and Zhi Jun, are also relatively open-minded figures, and her mother is also very open, and the influence of the whole family on her is a factor that cannot be ignored.
When Princess Zhen was ten years old, Changshan stepped down as a general in Guangzhou, and she and her sister returned to Beijing with them.
Princess Zhen is white and flawless, her facial features are beautiful and handsome, and she is smart and clever, and her personality is cheerful. Princess Jin is slightly inferior to her sister, but she is also a beauty. On the fifth day of the first month of the fourteenth year of Guangxu (1889), the two sisters of Princess Zhen were elected to the palace, and Empress Dowager Cixi selected the daughter of her brother (vice-capital Guixiang) Yehenara (i.e., Empress Longyu) as the Guangxu Emperor, and at the same time made her 13-year-old zhen concubine, and her 15-year-old sister was named Jin concubine (concubine was the sixth rank in the ninth rank palace order).
Until the first day of the first lunar month in the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894), because Empress Dowager Cixi was promoted to concubine (there were three ranks of empress, imperial concubine, and noble concubine in front of her) because of the sixty-year-old wanshou of Empress Dowager Cixi. The Concubines of the Tun Yi Emperor were crowned as the Concubines of the Tun Yi Rongqing Emperor, the Concubines of the Emperor of The Jin Dynasty, the Concubines of the Emperor of The Jin Dynasty, the Concubines of the Jin Dynasty, the Concubines of the Jin Dynasty, the Concubines of the Jin Dynasty, and the Concubines of the Jin Dynasty.
On October 29, he was demoted to a nobleman together with Concubine Jin for selling the official.
It is said that the day before the surrender of Zhen and Concubine Jin as nobles, when the Guangxu Emperor asked Cixi for peace, Cixi Tieqing turned his face blue and ignored him, and the Guangxu Emperor actually knelt on the ground for more than two hours. Finally, Cixi said viciously, "You don't care about the affairs of Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen, I will take care of it." They must not be allowed to break the family law and interfere in the government affairs. Get down there! According to the records of the Qing Palace, it is confirmed that Zhenfei was "stripped of her clothes" on October 28, that is, she was beaten with her clothes. The imperial concubine was punished in this way, which was extremely rare in the Qing Dynasty. Weng Tonggong interceded for Zhen and Jin in front of Cixi and suggested that it be postponed, but was refused. As a result, not only Zhenfei was punished, but even Concubine Jin was implicated by her sister.
It was not only Concubine Jin who was implicated. On the second day of the first month of November, Cixi sent another edict and executed Gao Wanzhi, a eunuch under Concubine Zhen. In this incident, dozens of eunuchs who had been under The Command of Concubine Zhen of Zhulian, as well as Yonglu, Xuanwu, Wang Changtai, and Nie Deping, were sent to charge the army, some were secretly executed, and some were killed with a staff. Even the palace maids surnamed Bai, who served Concubine Zhen, were expelled from the palace.
Guangxu restored the concubine title in twenty-one years.
In early August of the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), the Eight-Nation Alliance gathered forces to attack Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi took the Guangxu Emperor hostage and fled in a hurry. Before leaving, the eunuch summoned Zhenfei, who was imprisoned in the Shou Pharmacy in the North Three Houses, and pushed her into the well located at the Zhenshun Gate behind the Cining Palace and drowned. At that time, Zhenfei was only 24 years old.
After Guangxu's marriage, Empress Longyu gradually fell out of favor, and Concubine Jin and Guangxu got along indifferently. However, Princess Zhen was well-behaved and pleasing, Gong Hanmo could play chess, and the emperor served the emperor around the day, eating and drinking with Guangxu and playing together, and did not care about the affairs of men and women, "Emperor Dezong was particularly fond of him, and he was not very close to the empress." )
Why Guangxu likes Zhenfei, on the one hand, is because Zhenfei is still young, lively and lovely, and has shallow experience, so she has no intentions, on the other hand, because Zhenfei advocates Western learning and has her own unique views on the affairs of the DPRK and China, which coincides with the Guangxu Emperor's idea of restoration. (National News, p. 11)
Tang Haiyi's "My Two Aunts—Zhenfei and Concubine Jin" records that "Sister Bai said that in order to get revenge, Longyu colluded with Li Lianying and the eunuchs in Zhenfei's palace to put a man's boots in Zhenfei's palace in a vain attempt to slander her for adultery." For this matter, Sister Bai was also tortured. Later, because Zhenfei had a dress of the same material as a play that often entered the palace (it is said that the clothing of the play was sent by Guangxu), Longyu grabbed the matter and made a big fuss, causing Zhenfei to suffer a court staff (ripping open the clothes and beating it with a bamboo pole painted with yellow paint). Among them, Sister Bai is a palace person around Concubine Zhen, and what she said deserves attention.
The empress's attack on Zhenfei was later supported by the empress, because some of Zhenfei's trendy ideas such as the camera incident also aroused Cixi's disgust, and finally triggered a beating incident, this time seen in Xiaode Zhang's step-grandson Zhang Zhongchen's compilation of "My Grandfather Xiao Dezhang" based on the oral accounts of his grandfather Guangxu When she became an adult, the old ancestor took charge and made her niece Long Yu the empress. This was the most dissatisfied event in Guangxu's heart, and after marriage, he was very cold to Empress Longyu and extremely fond of Princess Zhen. Princess Zhen was smart, clever, talented, and would also coax people to please Guangxu, and the old ancestor was particularly angry after seeing it. Guangxu often visited the Zhenfei Palace, and Empress Longyu was angry and complained to the old ancestor that Zhenfei was not good. "In addition to Empress Longyu and Concubine Zhen of the Main Palace, there are also Concubine Jin. Princess Zhen and Concubine Jin are sisters, with Princess Zhen being beautiful, learned, and most favored by Guangxu, inseparable every day. Guangxu once used pearls and jadeite from stock to string a pearl cheongsam for Zhenfei, which was dazzling in the sun. One day, the two were walking in the royal garden, and when they were having fun, they were bumped into by the old ancestor, and Zhenfei was too late to change her clothes, and the old ancestor said angrily: 'Wow! Even I didn't want to use so many pearl beaded robes, you a concubine dared to do this. What happened to want to be an empress, and who sealed it? The emperor is also too spoiled for you! Guangxu and Zhenfei immediately knelt on the ground and prostrated their heads, pleading guilty. The old ancestor immediately asked the second general manager cui Yugui who was with him to take it down. After returning to the palace, he also beat Zhenfei 30 bamboo poles. The details of the pearl beaded robe incident mentioned by Xiao Dezhang and other materials such as the pearl beaded robe incident in De Ling's "Yingtai Weeping Blood" can match, so this matter cannot be viewed as a legend, and it may be a historical record of Zhenfei being convicted of the second time.
Princess Zhen was also very generous, and there were rewards for the eunuchs in the palace, and the eunuchs received some small favors, and they also tried their best to flatter this "little master". Over time, this "little master" was also praised a little confused, and gradually lost self-control.
The Qing Palace had a system, and the empress did not have more than one thousand taels of silver per year, which was reduced to the level of concubines, only 300 taels per year, and 200 concubines. Zhenfei is not used enough, and will not save, and the deficit is getting worse and worse. Noshi rumors that he had a clumsy deed of selling officials and knights.
Hu Sijing's "National News and Preparation" also says: "Empress Dowager Chu tortured Concubine Zhen and found a book in the secret room, and the inner book was included in a certain month and day to the Inspector of Henan, Yu Chang, to give a number of gifts.
On October 29 of that year, Guangxu issued a decree: "Shu Qin worships Cixi... Empress Dowager Yi decreed that the family law of the dynasty was strict, and those who were in the palace never dared to interfere in the affairs of the dynasty. Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen undertook to serve the court, and called ShuShen ... Recently, Xi Shang was still flashy, and there were many begging things, and the emperor's deep concern was gradually not long. According to the truth, if you do not measure the precepts, you are afraid that the near attendants will use the rank of blindness to the edge of the circle, and suffer from invincible defenses. Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen were both demoted to nobles (seventh rank) to show leniency and to suppress internal affairs. "Although The second concubine of Jin Zhen was punished, the focus was on Zhen Concubine. As a result, Princess Zhen was tortured with the "Cane of the Concubine", which means to take off her clothes and directly torture the flesh), a punishment that was mainly directly against the ministers of the Court, and there was no precedent for the punishment of concubines before this. Empress Dowager Cixi's poisoning of Concubine Zhen was intended to warn the Guangxu Emperor, who was now leading the imperial ministers and the Hou Party to a great disagreement over the issue of war and peace in the Sino-Japanese War.
This incident also appears in Tang Haiyi's "My Two Aunts - Zhenfei and Concubine Jin" records that "the actions of Zhenfei, Wenting-style, and Zhirui caused the jealousy of the lord and the faction, and in addition, Wenting-style and Zhirui also played a copy of Li Hongzhang, so Li Hongzhang instructed his confidant, Yushi Yang Chongyi, to play back", "Wenting-style attempted to support Zhenfei to seize the concubine and replace Empress Longyu; opposed Cixi's obedience to the government and supported the Guangxu Emperor's independent imperial program." In this way, Cixi hated Wen Tingshi, Zhirui and Zhenfei thoroughly. She originally wanted to abolish Zhenfei, and there was no ballast to find, and she could take this opportunity to solve the hatred in her heart. On the charge of "communicating with the palace and disturbing the imperial program", He dismissed Wenting-style and expelled him from Yuqing Palace and never hired him; ZhiRui was demoted from the post of Rebbe Attendant and appointed as counsellor of Ulyasutai (in Mongolia, 1800 miles west of Ulaanbaatar). The matter of Concubine Zhen also implicated her sister Concubine Jin, and the sisters both received the court staff, and the second concubine was demoted from a noble concubine to a nobleman. ”
The beating of Zhenfei should have occurred on October 28, 2000, when scholars noticed a strange record of the Zhenfei pulse case, and the Taiyi Zhang Zhongyuan pulse case recorded: "Convulsive breath is closed, teeth are closed tightly", "Personnel do not wake up, the tendons and pulses around the body are trembling", "cold fever, pain in the tendons and veins around the body", these phenomena can only be explained by the court staff.
In addition, in 1894, the Guangxu Emperor had reprimanded Empress Dowager Cixi's favored overseer Li Lianying, and Empress Dowager Cixi's staff rebuked Zhenfei, which in some ways was also for personal anger.
In 1898, the Wushu Reform Law failed, the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned, and as a concubine who had developed many restoration talents (such as Wenting style and Zhirui) for the Guangxu Emperor, she was implicated, and was once again given a scepter and was claustrophobic in the Beisansho behind the Zhong Pu Palace.
The "Forbidden City Overview" said that the small courtyard where Zhenfei was imprisoned was originally the place where the Ming Dynasty nurses stayed for the elderly, after Zhenfei moved in, the main door was firmly closed and marked with the cross seal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhenfei lived in the westernmost of the three rooms in the north room, the door was locked upside down from the outside, and eating, washing, etc. were all brought in and out of a living window by the next person. Princess Zhenfei ate the meal of ordinary people, and was not allowed to talk to people normally. On the first and fifteenth day of the new year's festival or the first day of each month, these happy days, an old eunuch who guarded her reprimanded her on behalf of Cixi. The reprimand was carried out at lunchtime, and the old eunuch pointed to Zhenfei's nose to count the charges, and Zhenfei had to kneel to listen to the training. At the end of the reprimand, Princess Jane also had to kowtow to Shane, and she was only allowed to go to the toilet once a day.
On July 20, the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), the Eight-Nation Alliance army came to the city of Beijing. Cixi decided to take Guangxu and the rest of the party out of Xi'an. At this time, everyone changed their cloth and gathered in the Leshou Hall in the back hall of The Ningshou Palace, and Cixi suddenly felt the past and sent Zhen Concubine out of the prison. "Princess Zhen is young and beautiful, and will be insulted by foreigners, and ashamed of the patriarchs." "Waiting for excuses, the strong word to take away Zhenfei inconvenience, leaving behind and fearing that her youth will provoke right and wrong, because the eunuch was ordered to open the manhole cover in front of the Leshou Hall and ask Zhenfei to commit suicide, and Zhenfei refused to die." The eunuchs were ordered to push The Concubine into the well, who was only twenty-five years old. Performing this order were Cixi's foreman eunuch Cui Yugui and palace princess Dehuan.
Mainstream historians believe that the cause of Zhenfei's death was angered by supporting Guangxu in carrying out the Wushu Reform Law and competing with Cixi for supreme power, but some historians believe that Zhenfei was mainly killed because of repeated violations of palace taboos, bribery of officials, and Qing Dezong's affection for her, snubbed Cixi's niece Empress Longyu.
In the spring of 1901, the Qing court and the Eight-Nation Alliance made peace, and Cixi, Guangxu, and others prepared to return to the dynasty. When Cixi saw that the well that Concubine Zhen had thrown was still the same, she ordered the bones to be salvaged out, buried in a coffin, and buried in the palace maid cemetery south of the Enjizhuang Eunuch Cemetery outside Fucheng Gate. He also tried to cover the ears of the world in the name of "martyrdom", and for this reason, he posthumously awarded Zhenfei the title of Zhenfei. After the empress dowager's death, Zaifeng changed the cause of Zhenfei's death from "suicide by throwing herself into a well" to "drowning by Cui Yugui in a well". Guangxu and Cixi died successively, Xuantong (Puyi) succeeded to the throne, And Empress Dowager Longyu listened to the government, and then posthumously honored Concubine Zhen as a concubine of the Keshun Emperor. In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), his sister Concubine Jin (then Emperor Kao Jin Guifei) moved Zhenfei to be buried in the Garden of Guangxu Chongling Concubine, and arranged a small spiritual hall for her in the gatehouse on the north side of Zhenfei's well to enshrine Zhenfei's tablet, and hung a plaque on the spiritual hall with the inscription "Jingwei Tongcheng" to praise Zhenfei's true feelings for The Qing Dynasty.
Regarding the death of Zhenfei, the "Qing History Draft" adopts the zhenfei martyrdom and jumping into the well, saying that since it was revised under the auspices of the Qing Dynasty's widows at that time, it was naturally inclined to the view that the father of the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, Ai Xinjueluo Zaifeng, believed that Zhenfei was martyred and jumped into the well, rather than Cixi ordered the killing. Because of the quasi-orthodox status of the book, the self-recognition has caused widespread controversy.
In the book "Ai Xin Jue Luo Yu Huan", he talks about the father of Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xin Jue Luo Zaifeng,on the view of Zhen Fei when she died.
Zaifeng scoffed at the suggestion that Zhenfei had been on her knees for a long time to be spared, saying: "The proud Zhenfei is definitely not the kind of person who is meticulous and steals her life. At the same time, he also accused the eunuch Cui of wrapping Zhenfei in felt, because the eunuch wrapped the felt with his hands, and it was bound to contact the "jade body", which was incompatible with the 'etiquette'. Therefore, the arrogant Zhenfei could only be martyred and jumped into the well, and even Zaifeng refuted that some scholars of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly Sect of the Republic of China asked Zhenfei about the scepter, and also retorted that the eunuch could not touch the "jade body", so this statement once became a seemingly powerful rebuttal to Cixi's order to kill Zhenfei.
After the liberation of Zaifeng, he still insisted that eunuchs could not touch the "jade body", and also won the confidence of some historians after liberation, but with the emergence of a large number of historical materials, historians found that things were not simple, first of all, the emergence of the late Qing Dynasty palace girl He Rong'er's "Palace Girl Talks about the Past", breaking the eunuch's statement that the eunuch could not touch the "jade body", in fact, the "Palace Girl Talk Record" "No Face Punching" article clearly wrote that the palace maid was not allowed to beat the face at that time, "The old empress let the Longyu master beat the mouth of the zhen xiao lord, which was the biggest humiliation for the zhen xiao lord. Even inferior slaves are not as good as (the palace calls the queen the master, and the concubine is called the little lord)", which even implies that the palm of the mouth is the greatest humiliation, and the palace maid's usual punishment is reversed from the common sense outside the palace, and it is precisely the scepter that is a common thing, in the book "Shoes on the feet are four inches, and the lips are lightly tapped with a cherry blossom" The article clearly states that "the palace women of the Qing Palace are strictly required to be simple, except for the first month and the Halloween (October), it is usually forbidden to wear red and rouge. Whoever wants to dress up as a demon may have to be beaten by a bamboo board. Hit the bamboo board, the pain is a small matter, the humiliation is a big thing, let the law enforcement eunuch pull the clothes off, the pants are faded, there is no love left, the white ass is exposed (the rules of the inner court, being beaten, it is necessary to get the meat directly to the board, no cushion of clothes), lying under the dripping water of the corridor, being beaten one by one, beating to death is not allowed to make a sound (unlike the eunuch who is beaten, the eunuch is beaten and does not take off his middle clothes, he must ask for forgiveness loudly), the big girl, who is also ashamed to die. So we dress up with light makeup. ”
Thus historians suddenly realized that Cixi was to equate Zhenfei with the palace maid for the staff, the scepter is indeed a fact, which is also consistent with other historical sources, and Mr. Nagan Zheng's "The Last Empress Longyu I Know" is even more paraphrasing Longyu's statement, Zhenfei lost her child after being killed by the scepter and has been infertile for life, this is the Qing Palace archives can never appear plot, so Zaifeng should be for Cixi to protect, the so-called eunuch can not contact the "jade body" can not be established at all. As a result, most historians began to agree that Cixi instructed his close eunuch Cui Yugui to push him into the well, but the details were not very clear, and three books on this point were described in more detail.
"The escape was on the morning of the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the twenty-first day of July (August 15, 1900), the year of the Boxer Rebellion, as the saying goes." While recalling, the old lady of the palace said slowly, "Although this has been more than 40 years, I can still remember it."
"I remember, the first day, it was the afternoon of July 20, when I woke up to a nap. - I'm sure I remember it very well. The old lady took a nap in the house, and the palace was quiet, as usual, without any signs of escape. It happened to be me on an errand on this day.
"I'm going to say a few more words. This year was the second time I returned to the palace, and the empress dowager was particularly kind to me, so I was particularly careful not to compete for favors, not to top the top, and to serve the old empress with a dead heart. The palace has changed, Chun Lingzi and Xiao Cui have left the palace, and only Xiao Juanzi is left with the old partner. Xiao Juanzi didn't know how many good words she said for me, and the old lady nodded her head to let me go back to the palace, of course, it was not her strength alone, so I was also particularly grateful to Xiao Juanzi. To tell you the truth, I am willing to listen to Xiao Juanzi's dispatches, because she is smart, straightforward, and does not have crooked eyes. At that time, she was the head of the palace (in charge), and I was her deputy.
"In the palace we know only a little thing in front of the tiptoe, and we don't know anything about other big things. The old lady did not go to the garden for many days, not much like usual. Two or three days before the twentieth day, we heard the little eunuch tell us that the powerful eunuch was on guard at the Shunzhen Gate and on both sides of the royal garden. Ask why, say no. We also heard about ermaozi (catholics) outside, but no one knew what was going on. Xiao Juanzi secretly instructed me to pay extra attention in these days, to see the old lady's face all day, without a smile, and the corners of her mouth were crooked to the left even more, which was a symbol of holding her breath in her heart, and it was not certain when it would explode. When you are a maid, you are afraid to be careful with the waiter, so as not to find yourself unlucky on the point.
"That afternoon, as usual, I accompanied the attendants in the palace, sitting on the ground of gold bricks with my back to the western wall of the palace, facing the door. This is the rule of the waiter's bedchamber. The old lady slept with her head facing west, and I was only two feet away from the old lady's dragon. In the old empress's bedchamber, it is forbidden to be unattended, but to respectfully cross your legs, squint your eyes, stretch out your ears, and listen to the sounds in the tent with bated breath. ......
Suddenly, the old lady sat up and opened the tent. The usual thing about picking up the tent was done by the maid, but today it was very unexpected, which frightened me. I quickly clapped the code and greeted the others. The old empress dowager hurriedly washed her face, did not smoke the cigarette, did not eat a cup of water town pineapple offered, did not give a command, and walked out of the Leshou Hall (this is the Leshou Hall in the palace, on the Outer East Road, which is where the old empress lived at that time, not the Leshou Hall in the Summer Palace), and went north. I hurriedly followed. I felt a little hairy in my heart, and hurriedly and secretly went to inform Xiao Juanzi. Xiao Juanzi also came, and we followed the empress dowager to the middle of the west corridor, and the old lady said, "You don't have to wait." These were the first words of the old lady when she woke up from a nap. We watched the old lady walk north by herself, and when we were about to go down the steps, we saw a eunuch who asked her to kneel down and talk to the old lady. This eunuch did not accompany the old lady, he turned his back on us, and watched the old lady enter the Yihexuan alone.
"The weather in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the afternoon is hot and stuffy, about half an hour (more than 1 hour), the old empress dowager came out from Yihexuan, livid, and did not say a word. We came back from the porch to welcome the old lady back.
"In fact, on this day, at this time, at this place, the old empress dowager gave Zhenfei death, and she asked people to push Zhenfei into the well behind the Yihexuan. We didn't know it at the time, but someone secretly told the story at night. Later, although we knew it, we did not dare to say a word.
"That's all I know.
"Time passed quietly, the world continued to make noise, after changing dynasties, in the early years of the Republic of China, when we had no taboos in talking, one year in the first month, Cui Yugui came to my house to visit the door and talk about this matter, he was still a little indignant, saying that the old empress was indebted to him and played tricks. I roughly described the situation that Cui Yugui and I said at that time. It's not necessarily all the same thing, let me think slowly, say slowly.
"Cui Yugui, we call him Cui Shi, not Cui Guan, so as not to repeat the name of Li Lianying and Li Guan." After Xin Ugly returned to Luang, he was thrown out of the palace and has been living in a temple behind the Drum Tower. The temple was inhabited by many eunuchs who had left the palace. He found it convenient and unfettered to live here. This is also the clear evidence that Cui Yugui is still a good person - he was the second manager, if he had treated the eunuch badly, he would never have dared to live here, pressing people under his tongue, and the big guys scolded him and ran away, but he could live in the eunuch pile, which showed that his popularity was very good. He has never had a family and lives a single life, so he has no worries. Regular activities are to get up early and practice martial arts in the dark, and beat (exercise) their bodies.
"At that time, I lived in the Meng Gong Mansion of Beichizi, the descendants of Liu Who combed their hair lived in the middle of the Milk House, and Grandpa Gui (Gui Xiang, the brother of the old empress's mother's family) lived in the west entrance of dafangjia Hutong. Cui Yugui was the dry son of Duke Gui, that is, the brother of Empress Longyu, so he was very popular in the palace, because he had Grandpa Gui as a patron. According to the jargon of the eunuch, it is called drilling the crotch of Grandpa Gui's pants. He came and went to Grandpa Gui's house, passing by the two of us. Since the Republic of China, Cui Yugui is a nostalgic person, the New Year's Festival has come to Grandpa Gui's house to take a picture, although Grandpa Gui is no longer alive, but he is not willing to leave a 'people in human feelings, people die twice thrown away' the handle. In order to show that he did not forget the old, he often went directly to The Grandfather Gui's house first, and walked to da da when he came out of the Dafangjia Hutong. He is a martial arts practitioner and does not like to ride in a car. He stopped by the Liu family in the milk house, rested his legs, and came to my house, which was the way he had to go. He and Old Liu (Liu Eunuch, the 'husband' of the old palace girl) used to serve Guangxu Grandpa together (before Wu Shu, the old empress sent Cui to spy on Guangxu), and they were both small compatriots in Ji'nan (Cui was a Hejian person, Liu was a Ningjin person), people were not close to the local relatives, besides, they came out of the same cage, and sitting together also had something to say. He has a large amount of food, a hungry mouth, and is a northerner, who loves To eat Shandong cuisine, a man in his 40s, a large plate of braised sea cucumbers, a small hoof, eating a bowl of clean food, and then wiping his lips, laughing and saying, 'I can not eat for three days again.' Then he talked to Lao Liu and said, 'Don't we have a saying in Ji'nan, called eating a table, filling an episode, an episode is five days, I said three days and said less!' Lao Liu said, 'You have been the head of the shou dining room, and you have not eaten anything good.' He said, 'Then I was eating my heart, and I was eating comfortably.' ’
"He is a cheerful person, who pays attention to cleanliness and sharpness in his work, and also has some taste of grabbing the sun and winning, so that he can show his face." At that time, he was young in the palace, so the little eunuch in the palace called him Xiao Luocheng behind his back. But he is a man of the yang, and he will never damage the yin. Therefore, the eunuchs were afraid of him, but they were not wary of him. He is also more backbone. He and Li Lianying had a disagreement with each other, and since he was thrown out of the palace, he had never asked Li Lianying. It was his apprentice, the famous Xiao Dezhang, who could be said to have been plucked by his hand, and in the Longyu era, he was red and purple, and he never opened his mouth. In his own words, 'Bad luck, hold your arms and endure, no one asks', very stubborn of the People of Ji'nan. He often went to the back door bridge clothing store to drink tea. The clothing store was dedicated to buying things in the palace, and the treasurer regarded him as a saint, but he never spent their money. From the back door bridge to the southeast, not too far, is the Great Buddha Temple, where Princess Rongshou's house is located, and there are many acquaintances inside, but he never goes to her door.
"He dressed up like a martial arts teacher." The first month came to my house, wearing a soft tire hat with a sea dragon pulling out a needle, and the furry life resembled a Mongolian hunter. At a glance, you can tell that it is Ouchi's thing. The sea dragon is a sea beast larger than an otter, and its fur is many times more noble than that of an otter. This sea beast does not have silver needles on its fur until after heavy snowfall, and it must be until the solar terms to grow silver needles. Thick oily black shiny fluff, growing a layer of three inches to grow like snow silver needles, only Vladivostok tribute, nowhere else, the palace is called '(Wei) sub-goods'. He wears a black satin dragon dark flower coat, the front chest and back are a pair of dragons, not allowed to wear until the Republic of China, two inches high sable collar, as the saying goes, 'golden top towards the pearl hanging sable', in the past was not a person who had entered the Hanlin Courtyard, it was not allowed to wear sables. The collar is slightly turned outward, and a large piece of hair is exposed, which is called the collar of the front. Lined with a leather robe lined with dark lake-colored wooden spring silk, a silver fox tube that is in season, and the round fox is clearly exposed in the front and back. The silver fox is the hair under the neck of the silver fox, and the fur on the fox is the longest, but the lightest. The fox has two swirls under the axillary, which is also the thickest and most beautiful place for the hair, cut down to make a circle like money, which is called fox gizzard. Wearing foxes is not very noble, wearing foxes and wearing foxes, then wearing fox skin clothes is considered to be home. He was underneath in dark spring silk cotton pants, the hem of the pants was flicked back, tied with two blue streamers, and a pair of cloud-headed large satin cotton shoes with two beams under his feet. Looking up, it is very spirited, and looking down at it is very banditry, which is probably enough to represent Cui Yugui's personality. He often said self-deprecatingly: 'I am a monkey sitting in the Golden Ruan Hall, and I will not be a human being. Dressed as a prince, swaying and walking on the street, Cui Yugui may be the only one in Beijing.
"Cui Yugui is indeed a good looker: nearly 50 years old, his waist is not collapsed, his back is not hunched, his face is red and fluttering, and his two temples are bulging, which is different from other eunuchs. He often said on his lips: 'I will live a painful life!' Other eunuchs have become crooked prawns by the age of 40. He is very strict with himself, does not smoke or drink, often holds a light red onyx snuff bottle in his left hand, and a jade finger on the thumb of his right hand (also written as The Class Finger, the original Eight Flags Warrior deliberately used a leather holster to protect his thumb when pulling a hard bow, and later became a special decoration for samurai). He said, 'Use this finger to control me, lest I be nosy with my right hand.' It is not easy for a martial arts practitioner to control his own hands.
"I'll add a few more gossip here. It is not easy to be a eunuch's wife, because the eunuch has a poisonous heart, no measurement, the strongest jealousy, and many eyes, and crooked eyes. Lao Liu usually never let me talk to men, let alone allow me to go to the street, nor allow me to go to relatives to visit the neighborhood. I was like living in a box, only Cui Yugui came, and we could sit together and talk. First, he knows our bottom line, and second, Old Liu admires him. We both respectfully called him Uncle Cui, and he also called me my niece and daughter-in-law. In this way, we talked about the matter before and after the old lady left.
"He angrily slapped the snuff bottle on the table and said, 'The old lady is heartbroken.' I was so tired that my feet didn't touch the ground. The first thing I did was to entrust me with the matter of guarding the inner palace. I can't sleep at night and day, and if I am negligent, I am the sin of losing my head. The second thing, I was the head of the inner court, and the outside was a mess, and I didn't know how many times a day I called (summoned the minister). I want to play the things outside the military plane, I want to pass on the words inside, I am the ear of the old lady, and I am the mouth of the old lady, running inside and outside, one thing smashed the pot, the head had to move, the busier the more you have to calm down, how much spirit can a person have? At noon on july 20, I wanted to take the opportunity of the old empress dowager to pass on the meal, and after passing the meal, the old empress dowager had a moment to cough and smoke, and it was at this time that it was most appropriate to ask for the meal sign (the meal sign was written on the empress dowager or the emperor's meal, and the name of the person requesting to enter the military plane was written on the sign, and the head of the inner court was served on a plate, and the empress dowager and the emperor arranged to see who did not see whom). The sign was thin bamboo pieces, about five inches long, one-third painted with green paint, two-thirds whitened with powder, and written on the official position requesting admission. Also commonly known as the green head brand. This is my careful place, in front of the old lady to invite the meal card away, the heart is bright, so as not to have trouble. It's my job, and I'm especially careful. At this moment, the old lady instructed me to summon Concubine Zhen at an untimely moment, let her wait at Yihexuan, and send me to preach the message. Speaking of this, Cui Yugui became excited, shouting in a high-throated voice.
"'I just muttered, summoning a concubine is an errand for two people, and it is the rule of the court that a single person cannot take a concubine out of the palace.'" I think I should find someone to accompany me, so as not to make a mistake. In this place of Leshoutang, the matter of sending errands is under the management of Chen Quanfu, although I have obeyed Yi's will, but the water cannot go over the boat, I should consult with Chen Quanfu. After all, Chen Quanfu is an old errand boy with experience, and he said to me: Since this errand is ordered to be done alone, you should not beat the gong and drum, but you cannot be without rules, and now it is Wang Dehuan who is in charge of the YiheXuan, you can ask him to go together, the name is justified, because the old lady has ordered the name of the Yihexuan, and there will be something to say in the future. I think he's right.
"'There is a separate courtyard at the north end of Jingqi Pavilion, named the three in the northeast, and the main entrance has always been closed. There is a cross seal of the Ministry of the Interior on the top, and people go in and out of the waist door on the west side. When we went, the door was closed and everything was silent. We knocked on the door and told an old eunuch who was guarding the door to ask The Little Lord to take orders.
"'This is the so-called Cold Palace.' It was the first time I had been here, and the last time in my life. Later, I inquired with the old eunuch for many years, the three in the northeast and the three in the south, which were the places where the ming dynasty's grandmothers were old. The grandmother has worked, and when she is old, she can't bear to send it out, so she lives in these places, and it is not desolate. Princess Zhen lived in the westernmost of the three rooms in the north room, the door was locked upside down from the outside, one of the windows was alive, and eating and washing her face were handed in by the next person from the window, and the next person was not allowed to talk. No one talks, and that's the most frustrating thing. Eat the meal of ordinary people. The toilet is emptied twice a day. Monitored in turn by two old eunuchs, both of whom were undoubtedly the old empresses' men. The most bitter thing is that when encountering festivals, death days, the first and fifteenth day of the first year, the old eunuch also has to be reprimanded, which is represented by the old eunuch, counting the sins of The Precious Concubine, pointing at the nose and face to reprimand, letting the Zhen Concubine kneel on the ground to listen, and designating the reprimand to be held at lunchtime. After the reprimand, Zhenfei must bow her head upwards to thank grace. This is the most severe family law. Everyone else was having a happy holiday, and she was suffering. Imagine, before eating, kneeling down to listen to the reprimand, but also prostrating to thank you, can this be eaten? Before receiving the order, Zhenfei did not want to meet us with a dirty face, and she had to leave her with some grooming work. From the northeast three out, after a long way to get to Yihexuan. I led the way in front, and Wang Dehuan waited in the back. We waited for the master to not go to the middle of the Yonglu Road, and walked next to the Yonglu road one after the other. The little lord walked alone in the middle of the Yong road, a clear water face, two heads on his head with two heads removed from the two sides of the string, a light blue silk cheongsam, and under his feet were ordinary dark green satin shoes (no lotus bottoms were allowed), which was the attire of a concubine wearing sin. She never said a word, and presumably she knew very well that nothing lucky awaited her.
"When we arrived at Yihexuan, the old lady was already sitting there. Before I entered, I asked to kneel down and reply to the will, saying that the little lord had received the will. I glanced at it, there was not a single maid in Yihexuan, and only the old lady was sitting there alone, I was very strange.
Lord Zhen xiao prostrated his head before entering, said auspiciously, and when he was finished, he kept kneeling on the ground and bowed his head to listen to the training. At this time, the room was so quiet that a needle could be heard clearly.
The old lady said bluntly: 'The foreigners are coming into the city.' It's a mess outside, no one can be sure what to do, in case you are insulted, it will lose the face of the royal family, and I am sorry for the patriarchs, you should understand. He said it firmly. The old lady's chin was raised, and she didn't even look at Zhenfei with her eyes, waiting for a reply.
Princess Zhenfei was stunned for a moment and said, "I understand that I have never disgraced my ancestors." ’
The Empress said, 'You are young and easy to cause trouble!' We have to avoid it, it is inconvenient to take you away. Princess Zhen said, "You can avoid it, you can stay with the emperor to sit in the capital and maintain the overall situation." ’
These few words poked the old lady's heart socket, and the old lady immediately turned her face over and shouted loudly: 'You are dying on the verge of death, and you dare to talk nonsense.' ’
Princess Jane said, 'I have no sin to die!'
The old lady said, 'Whether you are guilty or not, you must die!'
Princess Jane said, 'I want to see the emperor.' The Emperor didn't let me die!'
The empress dowager said, 'The emperor cannot save you.' Throw her into the well. Come on people!'
In this way, Wang Dehuan and I pushed and pushed Zhenfei into the well inside the Zhenshun Gate. Princess Zhen was clamoring to see the Emperor from beginning to end! Finally, he shouted: 'Emperor, the afterlife will repay the favor again!'
"'I dare say that it was the old lady who had deliberately planned to get rid of Zhenfei, and not that she was flustered, hurried, angry, and ordered her to be pushed down the well before she fled.
"'I won't forget that, it was the worst part of my life.' Looking back, I admired the 25-year-old Zhenfei, who spoke sharper than a knife, and died on the verge of death, not trembling at all- "I don't deserve to die for my sins!" The Emperor didn't let me die!"" You love to run away and not run away, but the emperor shouldn't run!" ——These three sentences are said so much that the old lady cannot answer a word, and can only play barbaric. It is amazing that someone who has been in the cold palace for three years can say such a thing.
"'You know, I came back from Xi'an ahead of schedule.' The old lady was welcomed back to the palace, and within three days, the old lady threw me out of the palace. The old lady said that she did not have the heart to push Zhenfei into the well at that time, but only said in anger, and threw her into the well if she did not obey, it was Cui Yugui who could force Zhenfei down, so she was angry and sad when she saw Cui. So she threw me out of the palace. Later, Grandpa Gui said, which temple does not have a ghost of death! After hearing this, what else can I say? Since Xi'an returned, the old lady has changed her temper with the foreigners, not when she first met the foreigners and made the foreigners prostrate, but learned to see the foreigners' ministers and wives smiled and pulled hands. The foreigners knew about pushing Zhenfei into the well, and in order to turn the face, they put the sin on my head. This is where the old lady's heart falls. Saying that she was sorry did not mean that she was cruel to me, in the end she still left me a small life, if you want to make up for me, what can I do? When I think about it, I'm afraid. Since I left the palace, I no longer dared to touch the edge of the palace, and I was afraid of taking my life. Listening to Grandpa Gui, it was Princess Rongshou who gave me the idea to get out of the palace, and this lord was even more difficult to mess with. Cui Yugui's words came here.
Description of one of the eunuchs:
"I have heard that Many people have written about the murder of Princess Zhen. One of our former acquaintances, Wang Xiang, saw Concubine Zhen being thrown into a well. Here's what Wang Xiang said to me a few years ago:
Wang Xiang was only in his twenties at that time, and he clearly remembered that on July 20, the year of Gengzi, the palace was in chaos, and both Empress Xi and The Guangxu Emperor changed their costumes and were about to escape from the palace. At this moment, she personally led Concubine Jin and the eunuch Cui Yugui, the former head of the imperial court, to the Ningshou Palace, and brought Zhenfei out of the three houses (the residence where Zhenfei was imprisoned). Princess Jane didn't know how much she had suffered here. She was brought before the Empress Dowager, and we saw her through the crack in the door, trembling and gaunt.
What Empress Xi had said to her, Wang Xiang did not hear. Later, the eunuchs present said that Empress Xi told her that the empress dowager and the emperor were about to leave the capital, and originally wanted to take her away, but in the years of chaos and chaos, in case something happened and lost the dignity of the royal family, she could not stand the ancestors and let her commit suicide quickly. Also listening to the eunuchs' legends, Zhenfei said to Empress Dowager Xi that the emperor should stay in Beijing, but before Princess Zhenfei could explain the reasoning, Empress Dowager Xi sneered and said, "You died in front of your eyes, and you still advocate something." ”
Whether these legends are true or not, Wang Xiang said, cannot be judged. At that time, Wang Xiang only saw Zhenfei kneeling in front of Empress Xi from the crack in the door, begging to keep her alive, and constantly calling out in his mouth, "Imperial Father, Imperial Father, forgive the slaves!" Don't do anything wrong again! Empress Xi exhaled fiercely, "You die!" "
Some of the people present had tears in their eyes and stood like wooden chickens. Probably no one can bear to do it. Guangxu and Concubine Jin were also in tears.
Empress Xi was afraid that the time would be delayed for a long time, so she shouted one after another, and quickly moved. Cui Yugui stepped forward, pulled Zhenfei over, and threw her into the well with a belt.
Before Princess Zhen was in danger, Wang Xiang also heard her calling, "Li Anda, Li Anda!" Anda is an honorific title for eunuchs. This is Zhenfei calling out to Li Lianying and begging him to save her.
Empress Xi cruelly killed Concubine Zhen in this way. ”
And a former palace supervisor, Tang Guanqing, said in the "Zhenfei Special Number" of the Palace Museum Weekly: "Wen Zhenfei, please Be anbi, and wish the old ancestors good luck." Later: 'Is it still a word?' What should be done if the Righteous Fist stirs up trouble and foreigners enter Beijing? As his voice faded, he muttered indistinguishablely, and overheard a loud voice: 'Let's jump the well! The concubine cried out for grace, and Yun did not commit a grave crime. Later, he said: 'Whether we are guilty or not, will we be left to be poisoned by foreigners?' You go down first, and I go down! The concubine prostrated her head in mourning, and after hearing the whirlwind, she called out to Yugui (i.e., Cui Yugui), and Gui said to the concubine: "Please obey the lord's will!" The concubine said, "Why did you persecute me?" Gui Yue: "When the Lord goes down, I will go down!" The concubine said angrily: "Ru is not worthy!" After hearing this, he exclaimed, 'Throw her down!' Then there was a writhing sound, and then there was a loud bang, thinking that Zhenfei had fallen into a well! ”
Although these three pieces of information are very different in details, they are very consistent in the reasons for Cixi's execution of Zhenfei, that is, she was pushed into the well under the pretext of the chaos of the situation, which should be a truth about Zhenfei's death.
In the spring of 1901, the Qing court made peace with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and Cixi, Guangxu and others prepared to return to the dynasty. However, Cixi had the nightmare that the precious concubine wanted to take her life every day, and when she returned to the palace, she ordered someone to salvage the bones, put them into a coffin, and bury them in the palace cemetery of Enjizhuang outside Fucheng Gate, and tried to cover the ears of the world in the name of "martyrdom of zhen lie".
In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), his sister Concubine Jin (then Emperor Kao Jin Guifei) moved Zhenfei to be buried in The Garden of Guangxu Chongling Concubine, and built a small spiritual hall for her to enshrine Zhenfei's tablet, and a paper plaque was hung on the spiritual hall, which read "Jingwei Tongcheng" to praise Zhenfei's true feelings for Guangxu. Zhenfei's fearless spirit and noble character, through Zhenfei's very similar appearance like a female baby transformed into a jingwei, tells the story of the kind Zhenfei and the cowardly Guangxu lovers allude to the Chinese nation, tough and tenacious great character. Zhenfei's sister Jinfei's ending was much stronger than her sister's. In July of the 26th year of Guangxu, Concubine Jin fled the capital with Cixi and returned to the palace more than a year later. After the death of the Guangxu Emperor, the Xuantong Emperor Puyi honored her as Emperor Kaojin's noble concubine.
"My Grandfather Xiao Dezhang" also mentions the death of Zhenfei.
The text reads: When the palace learned that the Eight-Nation Alliance had attacked Langfang, there was chaos. General Manager Li ordered all the eunuchs to change into civilian clothes. The old ancestor (Empress Dowager Cixi) also came to the imperial garden. Before fasting, I changed into civilian clothes. The concubines of the palaces arrived one after another, and the Guangxu Emperor also came from Yingtai and changed into a green coat and hat.
At this time, the old ancestor asked zhenfei to come and let her change her clothes and leave together. After a while, Princess Zhenfei ran over with her hair loose and wearing a cheongsam. The old ancestor said angrily, "At this time, you are still pretending, foreigners come in, can you live?" Hurry up and change your clothes and go! Princess Zhen said, "Imperial Aunt, the slave is facing smallpox, he is seriously ill, his legs are sore, and he really can't go, so let me go out of the palace and take refuge in my mother's house!" The old ancestor still told her to go, and Princess Zhen knelt on the ground or did not go. The old ancestor turned around and shouted, telling Cui Yugui to throw her into the well, Cui Yugui immediately helped Zhenfei up, and within a few steps it was the well, and he threw it down with his head down, and then blocked the wellhead.
In 1924, Feng Yuxiang launched the "Beijing Coup" and expelled the last emperor Puyi from the Forbidden City. In the same year, the National Beiping Palace Museum was announced, and the secret hall treasure that was once for one person to enjoy was officially opened to the public. In order to inherit China's long history and culture and spread these rare treasures more widely, under the initiative of President Yi Peiji, the workers of the Forbidden City began to print ancient objects, photocopied calligraphy and paintings, and published a special issue of the Palace Museum Monthly. Due to the lack of funds for the museum, it is impossible to pay the expensive publication fee continuously. Therefore, on October 10, 1929, on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the establishment of the Palace Museum, the Palace Weekly came out.
The Palace Museum Weekly was edited and published by the Palace Museum, and the first editor-in-chief was Wu Jingzhou.
The 30th issue of the Palace Weekly published the "Zhenfei Special Number", which is a picture magazine
The only special issue. In order to seek truth and letter, the editor of the pictorial magazine visited the palace women and other eunuchs who were still alive at that time, and as a result, they visited two palace women surnamed Bai and Liu and the eunuch Tang Guanqing at that time. However, the palace maid surnamed Bai was the maid of Zhenfei in her early years, and was expelled from the palace after Zhenfei was punished and imprisoned by Cixi, so there is no knowledge of the deeds of Zhenfei after she was imprisoned, and the matter of throwing a well is only a rumor. The palace maid surnamed Liu was released from the palace in May of the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu (1899), when there was no Boxer Rebellion, and the incident of Concubine Zhen's throwing into the well was only rumored. But Tang Guanqing claimed to have not only witnessed Zhenfei's death, but also heard Cixi's conversation with Zhenfei. To this end, the pictorial magazine conducted an exclusive interview with him and made the transcript of the conversation public. Its contents are:
"On July 19, Gengzi's coalition army entered Beijing, and the palace was terrified. Cui Yugui, the general manager, led 60 members of the fast gun team to guard the gate, and Yu also led 40 people to guard the Leshou Hall. After noon, Yu rested at the back door, and after suddenly watching Cixi, he came out from within, and there was no one behind him, and he privately thought that he would go to Yihexuan and then move forward to support. Even the right side of the Leshou Hall, after that, followed the west corridor. Yu was quite stunned, and said: 'Where is Lafayette going?' "Don't ask, just go with the rest." And at the corner gate, he said: "Ru ke can wait on the Yihe Xuan Corridor, and if anyone peeks, the shooting will not be spared." Yu Fang was horrified, Cui Yugui came, and helped him out of the corner door to the west. The thief will be martyred, but he does not dare to ask. Young, smell Zhen Concubine, please Anbi, and wish the old ancestors good luck. Later: 'Is it still a word?' What should be done when the Boxers made trouble and foreigners entered Beijing? As the language faded, the muttering was indistinguishable. Suddenly, he heard a loud voice: 'Let us girls jump into the well!' The concubine cried out for grace, and Yun did not commit a grave crime. Later, he said: 'Whether we are guilty or not, will we be left to be poisoned by foreigners?' You go down first, and I go down. The concubine bowed her head in mourning, and after sniffing, she called out to Yugui. Princess Gui said, "Please obey the Lord's will!" The concubine said, "Why did you persecute me?" Gui Yue: "The Lord will go down, and I will go down." The concubine said angrily: "Ru is not worthy!" At this point, yu lied up and was overwhelmed. After hearing this, he exclaimed, 'Throw her down!' Then there was a writhing sound, and then there was a bang, thinking that Zhenfei had fallen into a well. At the time, the Guangxu Emperor lived in the Yangxin Hall, which was not yet known. Hou Yugui died of gangrene. ”
The "Zhenfei Special Number" also contains a "Road Map for Zhenfei's Final Confinement and The Passage through the Well" based on Tang Guanqing's testimony, which indicates the place where Cixi and Zhenfei talked and where Tang Guanqing was located. Therefore, someone found the flaw in Tang Guanqing's conversation in this picture: the place where Cixi and Zhenfei had a conversation was far from the corner of the gate where Tang Guanqing was ordered to turn the wind's Yihexuan outer corner gate, and at such a distance, how could he possibly hear the conversation between Cixi, Zhenfei, and Cui Yugui mentioned in his testimony?
As a result, the death of Zhenfei recorded in the "Zhenfei Special Number" has also become a family word because of doubts, and the death of Zhenfei is still an unsolved mystery.
Princess Zhenfei was ostensibly posthumously honored by Empress Dowager Cixi as the Imperial Concubine of Keshun, but let Princess Zhen's family salvage the body of Princess Zhenfei and bury her hastily elsewhere, and more than 10 years later, her sister Concubine Jin became a concubine and commanded the harem, and only then buried her back to the place where she should have been buried- The Chongling Concubine Garden.
According to Puyi's recollection, after the death of Empress Dowager Longyu, Princess Jin was promoted from a noble concubine to an imperial concubine, presiding over the harem, becoming the first of the four surviving noble concubines in the Forbidden City
(The other three concubines were Emperor Jingyi's concubines, Zhuang He's imperial concubines, and Ronghui Emperor's concubines, all three of whom were concubines of the Tongzhi Emperor.)
Princess Jin was very authoritarian, and she herself became the empress dowager, imitating Cixi, letting Puyi call her Imperial Concubine, and often disciplining Puyi and not taking the emperor in her eyes. To this end, Puyi, at the instigation of some people, openly quarreled with Concubine Jin, making Concubine Jin very unable to come to the stage, and Puyi also paid a heavy price for this. In order to take this breath, Princess Jin summoned Puyi's grandmother and mother into the palace and put pressure on the two of them. The two of them were frightened, and they both knelt down together and pleaded bitterly, promising to persuade Puyi to apologize to Concubine Jin. In the end, Puyi could not withstand the bitter persuasion of his grandmother and mother, and was forced to apologize to Concubine Jin. Puyi's mother has a strong personality and has never been reprimanded by others. This time, he had a stomach fire, returned home and swallowed opium smoke to commit suicide. After hearing this news, Princess Jin was surprised and deeply afraid that Puyi would pursue this matter, so she also changed her attitude toward Puyi, and the relationship between the two was significantly relaxed.
On October 20, 1924, Concubine Jin fell ill and died at the age of 51, Puyi Washime was a noble concubine of the Wenjing Emperor, and was buried in the Chongling Concubine Garden on October 29, 1925.
30 years after Zhenfei's death, in the Chongling Concubine Garden where she was buried, there was a tomb robbery case.
In early November 1938, near the Qingxi Mausoleum in Yi County, Hebei Province, there was a village named Huabei Village. There was a man named Eshichen in the village, and he had a conspiracy with a man named Guan Youren in the same village who wanted to do a big job of robbing tombs, and they found several veteran tomb robbers. Eight people were gathered, several guns were found, more than 20 rounds of ammunition were collected, and iron pickaxes, shovels, axes, hand saws, steel rods and other tools for digging up bricks were prepared to steal the tomb of the concubines of the Guangxu Emperor.
The Guangxu Emperor had a total of one concubine and two concubines. His concubine's tomb is called Chongling Concubine Garden. In the garden bed, there are two graves, buried separately jinfei and zhenfei. The bandits led the bandits into the cemetery, and the bandits used explosives, fired three cannons in a row, blew open the opening of the dungeon, and then the bandits cut a hole in the coffin with an axe. The body of Zhenfei in the coffin had not yet decayed into a pile of dry bones, only to see her wearing a crown on her head, wearing a court dress, holding jade in her hand, a bag hanging from her waist, and Ruyi beside her. The flesh and skin of the face are still there, and the facial features are still faintly recognizable, especially the half-closed and slightly open eyes, according to superstition, they are killed by all the grievances, and the death is not blind. ”
This passage is the scene when the tomb of Zhenfei was stolen in the article "Night Thief Zhenfei Tomb" in the collection of literature and history materials of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. There is also a passage in the article about the scene when Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an in 1901 and sent someone to salvage the body of Concubine Zhen:
In November 1901, Cixi and others returned to Beijing from Xi'an, and in order to hide their eyes and ears, they declared to the outside world that Zhenfei had committed suicide by throwing herself into a well in order to avoid being insulted by foreigners, and restored Zhenfei's reputation and crowned Zhenfei as a noble concubine. Cixi also ordered Zhenfei's family to salvage Zhenfei's body. Zhenfei's body had been soaked in the well for more than a year and a half, and the wellhead was so small that it could not be fished out. Cixi was furious and wanted to question the whole family, and Zhi Kun (ZhenFei's brother) was so frightened that he was not possessed, so he hurriedly put on the incense case, burned incense and prostrated his head, and begged his sister to show grace and save the life of the whole family. As a result, it took a lot of effort to get the body up, which was already unbearable. Zhi Kun tearfully straightened one of his sister's crooked legs and buried it hastily in Tiancun, outside Xizhimen, Beijing. ”
In the text of "Night Thief Zhenfei Tomb", there are many inconsistencies, a year and a half after Zhenfei's death, the body was salvaged from the well, which is unbearable to see, and when the tomb was robbed 37 years later, the skin and flesh on the face are still alive, and the facial features are still faintly recognizable. It's unbelievable, it's the same person. The author thinks that what the tomb robber saw should be the real scene, so it can be judged that what the tomb robber saw should be JinFei instead of Zhenfei.
Princess Jane loves to take pictures. Photography was introduced to China in the late Qing Dynasty, but it was regarded as a "Western obscene thing" by stubborn figures who conformed to the old ways, and some people even thought that photography could take away people's souls and hurt their lives. However, when she was only a teenager, Zhenfei was obsessed with photography, and she asked someone to buy a camera, not only for herself
Zhang Meng's version of the Jingren Palace, the palace of Zhenfei's stills, and in the Emperor's Yangxin Hall and other places she often visited, taking pictures "without posture and at will" can be described as a fancy renovation. She not only took pictures herself, but also took pictures of others, and at the same time she also taught the eunuchs to take pictures. She took photography as a great pleasure in her life, but unfortunately none of the photos taken by Zhenfei were passed down. It is said that Princess Zhen also secretly instructed a eunuch surnamed Dai to open a photo studio outside the Donghua Gate. The matter was discovered by the empress, reported to Cixi, the photo studio was sealed, and the eunuch surnamed Dai was killed.
Zhenfei loves beauty, dresses well, likes to chase new trends, and often makes all kinds of new clothes. She especially loved women dressed as men, wearing men's crowns, and sometimes wearing the dragon robes of the Guangxu Emperor.
According to the rules of the palace, concubines cannot take an eight-person sedan and can only sit in a four-person sedan car. According to the palace lady surnamed Liu of the Qing Palace, the Guangxu Emperor specially rewarded Concubine Zhen with an eight-person palanquin. Once, when Princess Zhenfei was riding, cixi knew about it, and she was furious and ordered someone to break the palanquin.
Once, Guangxu took a thousand pearls from the storeroom, and Zhenfei made them into a pearl shawl. The matter was learned by the empress and reported to Cixi, but Cixi did not seem to have much of a reaction, and the matter ended with Zhenfei removing the shawl and returning the original number of pearls.
In China's long history of 5,000 years, Zhenfei was the only concubine who accepted Western ideas, dared to compete with the feudal etiquette of the court, and possessed extraordinary courage and will. She was a man of straight nature, did not please the powerful, and did not like the rules of the court. Princess Zhen's fondness for Western photography had made Cixi dissatisfied, and she ignored the etiquette in the palace, and sometimes disagreed with Empress Dowager Cixi's opinions, daring to confront her face. Moreover, the favor of Concubine Zhen led to the fall of Empress Dowager Cixi's niece Empress Longyu, which made the gap between Cixi and Princess Zhen deeper and deeper. For her, she gradually became a thorn in Cixi's eye and a thorn in her flesh, so the scene of "Concubine gradually lost Cixi Huan, but there is no change yet" was staged. It also set the stage for her tragic future
Mr. Shang Yanying wrote "Zhenfei qiren" based on the article "The Death of Zhenfei" described by the eunuch Xin Xiuming. The article gives a detailed account of Zhenfei and her affairs, which is conclusive; and according to Guangxu Jinshi, the chief official, and Yushi Husijing's "National News Preparation" (1924), there are many details involving Zhenfei's case, which is contrasted with "The Death of Zhenfei", which is credible.
Deling recorded in the "Yingtai Weeping Blood Record" that the Guangxu Emperor summoned Zhen Concubine almost every day, and also went to Zhen Concubine's Jingren Palace once every three or four days. The clever Concubine Zhen understood the difficulties of the Guangxu Emperor's situation and the pain in his heart, and understood and sympathized with him very much. Concubine Zhen was an amorous and kind maiden, who did everything possible to be gentle and considerate and cared for the Guangxu Emperor, and did everything to make her husband feel warm and happy. Princess Zhen was "dignified in appearance and alert in nature", and because she was born into a family of cultural officials and eunuchs, she was influenced by her family, and she "knew a lot about literature and history" since she was a child, and she was omnipotent in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. What is even more valuable is that she "writes well, can write left and right at the same time, and can also paint."
According to the "Records of the Palace Women's Talks", there are old palace women who recall Zhenfei like this: When Zhenfei is mentioned, she is not a piece of beautiful jade, let alone a character who comes out of the mud and is not stained. She has also gained power and sold officials. In the history of the late Qing Dynasty, in addition to Cixi, Zhenfei was the most legendary and highly anticipated concubine. Although she only lived for a short period of 25 years, people still relish her story to this day. In the eyes of the world, Zhenfei has always been a victim who was hated by Cixi for helping Guangxu change the law and restore the new, and then was beaten into the cold palace and eventually died tragically
Positive image. Both the literati and the common people sympathized with the love between Zhenfei and Guangxu and lashed out at Cixi's domineering and cruel behavior. However, the historical truth is not so simple. In the 92nd series of the Selected Literary and Historical Materials of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the "Zhenfei Qiren" written by the celebrity merchant Yanying in the late Qing Dynasty gave us a different Zhenfei---- a Zhenfei who had a grudge with Cixi for selling officials and was imprisoned for it.
In the late Qing Dynasty, selling officials and knights was not only an open secret, but even legalized. At that time, the donation system was actually to sell officials to solve the financial tension of the imperial court. According to records, When Princess Zhen saw Cixi and Li Lianying, each set up a name for her own selfish interests, she wantonly betrayed officials and was unscrupulous. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of his tight hands, he also took advantage of being favored by the Guangxu Emperor to do the work of selling officials. For example, for a person named Geng Jiu, he sought the fat shortage of the Guangdong Customs Road, and for Lu Boyang, he sought the fat shortage of the Shanghai Road. In any case, Princess Zhen did have a handle on Cixi in this matter, so she was charged with "interfering in state affairs."