"Who are you?"
"I am the last emperor of China."
"With what proof?"
Puyi walked to the dragon chair, took out the grasshopper cage from below, and smiled like a child.
This is a bridge section in the movie "The Last Emperor", but it makes people laugh dumbly.
A towering Nine-Five Dragon Emperor was forced to abdicate, reduced to a puppet of the Japanese, dreaming of restoration in the Spring and Autumn Period, and living a life of upheaval.
Puyi is unfortunate, his life is floating and raining, catching up with the building will fall, and the beautiful and flashy appearance of the royal family as far as the eye can see is exhausted.
The death of history is his life, but it is also the robbery of the harem women.
Watching the prosperity of the world disappear, do you continue to cling to the false name and be a prisoner for a lifetime, or do you dare to do nothing and kill a free blood road?
There is never the best answer in this world.
WanRong and Wen Xiu, the two women with the peak of power behind the last emperor Puyi, their sinking and struggling in the chaotic world, their sighs and freedom, their hardships and tragedies.
Two choices, two ways to return.
Once elected to the king's side, he was favored and lost favor
WanRong and Wen Xiu, the last empress and imperial concubine of the Qing Dynasty.
As the name suggests, one is a splendid peach blossom and the other is a quiet autumn water.
Grace
On December 1, 1922, the Forbidden City was full of lights and excitement.
On this day, the 17-year-old Wanrong put on the phoenix crown and married into the deep palace, becoming the empress of the world's mother.
The day before this, the 14-year-old Wen Xiu was welcomed into the palace and named a lady concubine.
The two young girls, who were still ignorant of the age, became the objects of worship of hundreds of officials, and they were in the limelight for a while.
But in the bones, wanrong and literary embroidery are completely different.
Embroidery
One is a red rose, the other is a white rose, and Puyi's love is also wavering.
However, compared with the conservative of Wen embroidery and the graceful appearance of Western education, it is more in line with Puyi in ideology.
They talked and talked in the great and depressing deep palace to comfort them;
They went to important occasions together, played ball and rode together, learned Western dining etiquette together...
Puyi and Wanrong in the movie "The Last Emperor"
Compared with the much-loved Empress Wanrong, the embroidery that entered the palace together is much lonely.
At first, Puyi also liked the talented literary embroidery, often exchanged poetry with her, and invited full-time Chinese and English teachers to teach her.
In his autobiography "The First Half of My Life", he mentioned an article by Wen Xiu, "The Deer of the Laiyuan Garden", praising his elegant writing and extraordinary intentions:
Spring is bright and full of red and green. Yu even walked in it, wandering eyes, shin cola also...
However, wild animals do not live in the house, so the deer are confined to their own, and the prisoners in the prison cannot be forgiven.
Zhuang Ziyun: I would rather be born and drag my tail in Tuzhong than die as a bone for Guiye.
However, the three from four virtues in the bones of Wen Embroidery are very different from the Western culture that Puyi yearns for, and slowly without speculation, the favors assigned are even thinner.
Once, Puyi gave Wen Xiu a white jade Maitreya Buddha, and the shape was very strange.
For a long time, Wen Xiu was very confused and did not understand the deep meaning.
Suddenly, one day, Wen Xiu finally realized the meaning of this Maitreya Buddha, holding his feet and smelling the smell, smelling the smell is not - Wen Xiu!
After such a light and dark ridicule, Wen Xiu's heart also had mustard, and the girl's initial love for her husband also faded away little by little, along with the twinkle in her eyes when she first entered the palace.
In the existing photographs, it is rare to see the figure of Wen Embroidery.
The only few pieces, the embroidery is also in the corner, depressed look.
She once lamented in the poem: "Embracing the difficult dreams, Xiao Xiao has a night wind." Muddy mash chats about drinking, and the window is red as the sun. ”
For every extra point of grace and favor that Wan Rong received, the unwillingness in Wen Xiu's heart increased by one point in vain, and he fell into a desolate and cold situation, which was glimpsed.
Sanmao once said: If what you give me is the same as what you give to others, then I don't want it.
At this time, Wen Xiu could not do such a clear awakening, even if she fell into the quagmire, she was more of a pain and helplessness not to be pitied.
She also longed for love, longed to be loved, and she still had a warm thought about this cold emperor and the world.
This situation should be a long-term keep, if you have no heart, I will rest
Writer Zhang Xiaoxian wrote in "The Single Bed in the Purse": Jealousy can exist independently, but love must coexist with jealousy.
What woman in the world can watch her loved ones and other women love and rejoice?
Human nature is all desire, wildness, and blood, which dooms three people to be devoured fiercely in love.
Puyi later admitted in his memoirs that he was indebted to Wen Xiu.
As Puyi himself said, "Almost always with Wanrong, and often I don't go to the place where Wen xiu lives." ”
On the twelfth floor, there is a lot of makeup, and the king looks upstairs.
Wen Xiu's eyes wanted to wear it, in exchange for a cold and disappointed heart again and again.
After Puyi was forced to leave the palace, he moved to Tianjin, where he lived on the second floor with Wanrong, leaving Wenxiu to live on the first floor by himself.
Whether it is playing to take photos, or meeting guests for dinner, Puyi will only be paired with Wan Rong.
In the most romantic one, Puyi gave Wanrong a diamond watch and engraved "I LOVE YOU" on the back of the watch.
Puyi's deep affection and honey for Wanrong, every minute, Wen Xiu looked at the heart.
However, every drop of sweetness was like a sharp needle tip running over wen xiu's heart, and every stitch at the foot of the needle was already full of holes and oozing yin yin blood.
Wanrong grew up in Tianjin, is familiar with the environment, and lives like a fish.
She changed her palace attire, permed her curly hair, wore a cheongsam, and purchased all kinds of high-end jewelry, becoming a "modern woman" in the concession.
After Wen Xiu read it, he was also very stimulated, just like gambling and wanting to buy.
After a concubine, the noise did not stop, Puyi was sandwiched in the middle, and he was annoyed.
Later, he ordered that WenXiu should not be allowed to appear in public, but he took Wanrong to all the department stores.
How indulgent they are, how painful the embroidery is.
In Puyi's view, Ke Wenxiu's pain is pretentiousness, it is artificial, it is not willing to be a concubine, and it is deliberately embarrassing with him.
Chinese New Year's Eve night, wenxiu, who was suffering a lot, finally picked up the scissors and stabbed herself in the stomach fiercely, but fortunately was stopped by the eunuch.
After Puyi listened, he only scribbled a sentence, "Don't pay attention to her, she used to use this trick to scare people, and no one should pay attention to her." ”
The cooler Puyi became, the more WanRong practiced.
Wan Rong made Puyi swear not to love Wen embroidery every day, and even set up an altar to help chaos, and even asked to write "Long live (Puyi) and Duanshi (Wen embroidery) are not sincere" "auspicious language".
Once, Wanrong went to Puyi again to complain, saying that Wen Xiu looked down on himself and spat at himself.
Puyi did not listen to Wen Xiu's defense at all, and directly asked the eunuch to pass on the message: "Concubine Shu has no dignity and humility, insults the empress, there is no person like you in ancient times, and there is no person like you who does not know the number of etiquette in the more than two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty." ”
Looking at her career, she vigorously advised Puyi to give up the "restoration of the imperial cause", but in exchange for a loud rebuke; in love, she endured humiliation and burden for half her life, but found that she was not a good person in the end, and tasted the bitter taste of love.
She dried her last tears and left.
Only one letter remained:
In the ninth year of the emperor, he was not fortunate, lonely and alone, with tears of sorrow and tears, and was abused and unbearable. Izumi asked for separation. Pu should go twice a month to practice cohabitation... Otherwise, divorce...
For this shocking escape, Wen Xiu was fully prepared.
She hired a lawyer outside, she took away the fine soft jewelry, and she personally ended the first half of her life, in exchange for the second half of her life.
YiShu once said: To live, what matters is posture.
Wen embroidery did it.
The red face was not broken before the old grace was broken, and there were no tear marks in several springs
Zhang Ailing wrote in "Red Roses and White Roses",
Maybe every man has had two women like that, at least two.
Married to a red rose, over time, the red turned into a touch of mosquito blood on the wall, and the white was still the bright moonlight in front of the bed;
Married to a white rose, the white is a grain of rice sticky on the clothes, and the red is a cinnabar mole on the heart.
After Wen Xiu left, Pu Yi pointed the spearhead of his great humiliation at WanRong, believing that her jealousy drove Wen Xiu away.
Overnight, Wanrong became an abandoned woman and fell out of favor completely.
Luxurious high-walled deep courtyard, the former warmth has long been wasted, only the endless ice and cold.
In the crowded love entanglement, wanrong was finally the only one left, she looked at her own shadow, her own face, and her own hands every day.
She found that the wisps of curly smoke were the best comfort in the world.
There is another world, where there is singing and dancing, where prosperity flourishes.
There she was still the most honorable woman under the heavens, and the love she had once had.
She began to live off opium.
In the late Manchurian period, Wanrong had to smoke two or two cigarettes plus 80 cigarettes every day.
Under the catalysis of opium, her original suppressed desire was also completely released.
She abandoned the glory of the queen, had an affair with the guards, and "rebelled" and conceived the children of the guards.
Puyi was furious when he found out, and there was no tenderness in his eyes.
He looked at the baby girl, who had just been born for half an hour, and said contemptuously, "Throw it away!" ”
At the sound of an order, a poor little man who was still swaddled was thrown into the hot stove.
After only a few moments, the child's crying disappeared, leaving only the burning sound echoing in the air.
Poor Wanrong has been in the dark, and she has been paying her brother with her heart, praying that she can raise her child, but the news that the child is long gone still reaches her ears.
Her last glimmer of hope burned out, and she had a nervous breakdown and went completely insane.
When Puyi's "Fuguiren" Li Yuqin later saw Wanrong, she was horrified, and she described:
She was as thin as wood, not human, not ghostly, sluggish-eyed, pale-faced, addicted to opium smoking, and when she was most ill, she could not get out of bed on both legs.
She is sick, she can't handle her own menstruation, she makes the bedding and clothes very dirty, the and urine, the menstruation, all have a smell...
A noblewoman with a good face and a magnificent face, in this way, collapsed into a madman in the shape of a withered mallet.
In 1946, WanRong died in a prison in Yanji.
The prison guards only used a roll of broken grass mats to roll her up and throw her into the hill, and the bones are still gone.
Compared with the miserable ending, the fleeing Wenxiu can also be regarded as a "good death".
Leaving Puyi's literary embroidery, in order to make a living, he worked as a Chinese language teacher, sold cigarettes on the street, worked as a proofreader in a newspaper...
In 1947, the 38-year-old Wen Xiu married Liu Zhendong, a 40-year-old veteran, under the introduction of the newspaper director.
Although the days were poor, the two of them were in love with each other, and in the remaining short time, there was finally the love and joy of mortals.
At the very least, it is still many times better than Wanrong.
At least, at the end of her life, she was still taken care of by Heaven once.
In the songs, they all sing about the red face and thin life, think about where the red face is harmed, in the end, it is only once chosen on the side of the king, that the fate cannot help itself.
As the last empress, Wanrong was absolutely beautiful, and her life was high and low, just like the song in "Peach Blossom Fan": "Watch him rise up the Zhu Lou, watch him feast on guests, and watch him collapse the building." ”
She was a womanizer and a mother; she talked and laughed, and envied others; she willingly fell and died tragically in prison.
As the last imperial concubine, Wen Xiu was humble, she was a small prostrate, destined to look up to people's sniffles, and could only pray for a share of the queen's thousands of favors, protecting herself and full of good fortune.
She is inferior to others and is ridiculed; she is discouraged and disoriented; she ignores the world and lives out her true self.
There is a saying in the Four Precepts of the Mortals, "Fate is made by me, and blessings are sought by oneself."
Compared with the life of the last empress dowager, this line of destiny is also faintly clarified.
A timely stop loss is a kind of self-help, a moment of pain, a lifetime.
A timely decision is a counterattack, a step back, another life.
Author | Yu Zimo, Anglo-American double master, code word worker.
Image | Stills and networks of "The Last Emperor" (if there is infringement, please contact to delete)