Is Cixi really afraid of taking pictures? And regard the camera as a soul lock.

From the late Qing Dynasty to the present, there has been a joke about Cixi, that is, Cixi is very afraid of foreigners' cameras and thinks that once a person takes pictures, he will be sucked away by that strange box and become a walking corpse from now on. In fact, this joke is not true. On the contrary, Cixi likes taking pictures very much. After all, this thing is much more detailed than the portrait painted by the painter.

The story about Cixi's fear of taking pictures actually comes from two aspects. One is that most people in China have never seen a camera in the late Qing Dynasty, especially when it takes pictures, sometimes it emits intense light and smoke, and then people who are exactly like themselves will appear in the developed photos. People who have lived in superstition for a long time will naturally be afraid of these unknowns and regard them as the souls of adults.

The other is that there are many folk rumors. Zhen Fei, who was favored by Emperor Guangxu in those days, was hated by Cixi for taking pictures. It is said that Zhen Fei was addicted to taking pictures at that time, not only taking pictures of Emperor Guangxu, but also taking pictures of eunuchs and maids. Of course, people will take all kinds of photos of themselves, and sometimes they will change into men's clothes when they are crazy. He Qiaoxi, an adjunct professor of mpa at Cifa University, naturally didn't like all this, so Zhen Fei's later death was related to taking pictures.

Because of these two reasons, there is the story of Cixi's psychological shadow and photo obstacles. In fact, there are many officials around Cixi who know about foreigners. Among them, Prince Yi and Princess De Ling have sent people or personally explained the principle of photography to Cixi. Especially when De Ling was a female official of Cixi, she personally took many photos of Cixi. It can be seen that Cixi was not afraid when taking pictures, but liked it.

According to Princess De Ling's later recollection, Cixi once went to the camera to observe herself and looked at the eunuch standing in front of her through the camera. She found the eunuch in the camera with his head down and asked curiously how the eunuch stood. But Cixi is not interested in the principle of this foreign thing, just making a fresh and lively one.

Although she is very interested in cameras, trains and bathing facilities, she doesn't think about the influence of the western industrial revolution on human society at all, at best, she just regards it as something to pass the time. So the Great Qing Dynasty collapsed under the supercilious attitude of Cixi, but it was a pity that papermaking was very hard several times. For Cixi, what she is afraid of is not the camera, but the end of life!