The Empress Dowager Cixi was not highly educated and wrote many edicts with typos.

?The Empress Dowager Cixi’s edicts were written with a lot of typos due to her low cultural attainment

Looking at recent people’s notes on unofficial history or contemporary writings, the Empress Dowager Cixi is mostly portrayed as knowledgeable and versatile. She is a talented woman, and even the media praised her for "stunning everyone with her beautiful paintings". However, a closer look at the secret edicts written by her and the Buddhist scriptures she copied will reveal that she not only has no calligraphy and painting skills, but also has a limited cultural level. The edicts she wrote are full of typos.

Historical records: Cixi was knowledgeable.

Educated. De Ling, who once served as Empress Dowager Cixi, said that Cixi did have some research on ancient Chinese history and the more famous barnyard history or legends, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people. Carl, an American female painter who once painted a portrait of the Empress Dowager Cixi, said that she was not only able to write poems, but also her writing was fresh, extraordinary, and quite "general style"; she could also write articles in classical Chinese, and she could write vigorously and write a thousand words. What a rare talent is this? He is able to recite poems and prose by famous ancient writers, as if they were treasures from his family. ?

Works in ancient poetry. Xu Ke clearly described Empress Dowager Cixi's "Gongzhi Tie Poems" in "Qing Bai Lei Chao". Judging from the two test post poems contained in it, not only the text contrast is neat, but also the artistic conception is very artistic.

Good at calligraphy and painting. It is also recorded in "Qing Bai Lei Chao" that she was good at calligraphy and painting. She liked to write big characters in a big frame, and she also copied Dharma calligraphy and wrote in small regular script. You like to paint ancient pine trees, and your pen is quite old. Fei Xingjian, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, also said that her calligraphy was "slender". The American painter Carl highly praised her for being able to write large Chinese calligraphy. Those who received the gift all cherished it and regarded it as a rare treasure in the world. The Queen Mother's calligraphy, even though she was a member of the Han Garden, was just that. What she painted Colored flowers and plants, lifelike, no less famous. Xin Xiuming, an eunuch in the late Qing Dynasty, recalled: The Queen Mother liked to write the characters "dragon", "tiger", "luck" and "longevity", which was very bold. ?

There is a great contrast between the original handwriting of Cixi and the above-mentioned calligraphy and paintings.

In the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), before the Xinyou coup was jointly launched by Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong Yi?, she personally drafted a secret edict to dismiss Sushun and others.

From this secret edict, it is not difficult to see that the cultural quality of Empress Dowager Cixi is actually not high. First, the handwriting is crooked and there is no sign of any calligraphy skills. Second, her literary and cultural foundation is not good. There are 237 words in the secret edict, including 12 typos, as many as 16 places, and many of the sentences are not fluent. For example, after entering Chengcheng, he sent an order to Prince Gong and Prime Minister Xiang to support his government affairs. Is it appropriate or not? Please discuss it with your brothers. There are 4 obvious typos in the 23 words. Third, she herself knew that her cultural level was limited, so she asked the seven brothers (referring to Yixuan) to rewrite the secret edict.

Comparing the above authentic works with the vertical scrolls with big characters such as "Fu", "Shou", "Dragon" and "Tiger" written by the Empress Dowager Cixi as reported in the world, anyone can tell at a glance that the two were definitely not written by the same person.

Most of the works circulated in the world are ghostwritten works

The author believes that the so-called authentic calligraphy and paintings of the Empress Dowager Cixi circulated in the world are at best "treasures of the Empress Dowager Cixi's royal brushwork", but were actually written by others. A ghost-written forgery.

First, analyze from the skills and techniques of calligraphy and painting. Both calligraphy and painting require basic skills and techniques, so there is a saying that "calligraphy and painting have the same origin". Since Empress Dowager Cixi's writing and calligraphy were not masterful, it is unlikely that her painting would be exquisite.

Second, analyze the quantity of Empress Dowager Cixi’s calligraphy and paintings. "Qing Bai Lei Chao" said that she liked to write big characters, using tens of feet of cursive paper, writing "dragon", "tiger", "song", "crane" and other characters, and she had hundreds of paintings when she was old. Such a large number of calligraphy works would be difficult for the elderly and weak Empress Dowager Cixi to complete alone.

Third, analyze the Empress Dowager Cixi’s height and shape as well as the physical strength required for writing and painting. Karl said that in 1903, she saw the Queen Mother holding a pen as big as a rafter and holding it in a large inkstone while holding it in a large inkstone. Seeing that the ink color had reached the right shade, he wrote quickly and finished it with one swipe. The whole character can be four feet long, and the words "Fu", "Shou", etc. are written with great force and without any hint of effeminacy.

But judging from the old photos preserved by the Qing Palace, Empress Dowager Cixi is not very tall, about 1.60 meters. How can the physical strength of a 68-year-old man of short stature support her in wielding a pen as big as a rafter and writing large characters four feet wide?

Fourth, analyze the form and style of Empress Dowager Cixi’s paintings. Xu Ke recorded that she was not good at meticulous painting with neat brushwork and striving for similar shapes, and her painting style was freehand brushwork. However, at present, we see various paintings that have the "Treasure of Empress Dowager Cixi's Royal Brushstrokes", but they are precisely meticulous, meticulous, lifelike, and smooth lines, rather than freehand brushwork with vertical strokes and flying ink colors. . There are obvious differences in painting style between the two.

Fifth, some people have long pointed out that Empress Dowager Cixi’s calligraphy and paintings had ghostwriters. Xu Ke pointed out that in her spare time, she painted fans and set up paintings to give to ministers. I couldn't help it, so I found two ghostwriters. One is the sister-in-law of Yao Yan's servant Fang Bo in Gui'an, and the other is the sister of Jiayu, Miao Zhongshu of Yunnan (namely Miao Jiahui). Miao Jiahui pointed out many times that the Empress Dowager Cixi personally selected 18 of the best painters, whose only duty was to paint for Cixi. The painters were divided into three groups, and each group painted for her ten days a month. The Queen Mother stamped her name on these paintings, and asked the Hanlin Academy to attach a few related poems. Whenever a banquet was held in the palace, she gave these paintings to people, as if these paintings were Did she draw it herself?

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The author here points out that Empress Dowager Cixi’s cultural attainment is not very high, mainly because she hopes to let everyone know the real her. Compared with other concubines of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi is still a leader with high cultural attainment and comprehensive quality.