Golden Flower, Evil Sea Flower and Cixi in the * * * game of officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty

Open a period of history, behind the magnificent plot, there are some hidden paths. If you explore carefully, the ultimate goal of each path is to point to officialdom. Officialdom symbolizes power, which is like a huge magnetic field, attracting countless fresh lives to fight and compete in it. In this power field, in addition to men, there are women who are attached to men in various forms. Some of them were forced to fall off their horses, and some took the initiative to take refuge. Like trees and vines in the forest, they were involved in disputes and formed various complicated relationships with officials, which was a spectacle. ?

The official life in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, whether it is an official and a prostitute, an official and a concubine, or a political marriage reached by officials using women, behind the solemn officialdom, the hidden figures of those women are often an important motive for writing history. Historical research often only pays attention to major social changes and events, and rarely brings private life into the historical field of vision. How to combine the grand narrative of history with the details of personal memory perfectly is a subject before us. ?

Sai Jinhua, the wife of a foreign ambassador?

The most suitable place for politics is officialdom; The best place to fuck women is a brothel. Official prostitutes, one is the upper class and the other is the lower class. On the surface, they are separated from Wan Li, but in fact, like trees and vines in the forest, they are closely intertwined and inseparable. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was an official prostitute who specially waited on officials. Their specialty is entertainment in officialdom, and they are familiar with all kinds of complicated communication scenes in officialdom. In officialdom, the relationship between people is sinister, and the existence of official prostitutes has become the best lubricant to enhance friendship, reconcile right and wrong and ease contradictions. To make a huge bureaucratic machine work normally, to some extent, it is difficult to resort to elegant official prostitutes; Those beautiful women with all kinds of amorous feelings have become the adhesive, which firmly binds officials and prostitutes together. ?

At the age of 50, Hong Jun married Zhao, a prostitute aged 15 (editor's note: Sai Jinhua's real name), which became a beautiful talk among Jiangnan literati. Despite the twists and turns, the family didn't want their daughter to be young, so they made some conditions, and the Hong family met them one by one. The wedding was solemn and grand, with a big green sedan chair, a red champion gauze lamp in front, a horn blowing and firecrackers setting off. The wing where Mingmei was married was also a beautiful scenery. In the 13th year of Guangxu (1887), Hong served for another three years and returned to Beijing officialdom. This year is the year when the little emperor Zai Tian came to power. With the help of Weng Tonghe and others, he began to show his heroism, carry out the New Deal, reuse the Westernization School, and have more and more opportunities to deal with foreigners. Qing * * * will send a foreign minister to Russia, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Hong Jun is famous for his study of historical geography, and he is a suitable candidate for the imperial court. After an imperial edict came down, Hong Jun was appointed as the only diplomat among the top scholars in ancient China. ?

I must take my wife with me when I go abroad. Mrs. Hong's wife, Wang, is weak and ill, so I'm afraid she can't stand the turbulence at sea. Besides, she is an old-fashioned woman who has never seen much of the world, let alone adapt to the foreign handshake and kissing etiquette. So she voluntarily gave up her power and gave the heroic life of the imperial court to her new wife, Zhao-at this time, she was renamed Meng Luan by Hong Jun and asked her to go abroad with Hong Jun as the wife of Hong Jun. ?

Many years later, Sai Jinhua recalled: "The long ship from Beijing to Tianjin was built by Zeng Guofan. Its hull is very long, there are many boatmen, and it can row quickly. There were many people picking up the imperial envoys along the way, and I was really busy. From Tianjin to Shanghai, change to a ship. I also made jokes in Shanghai. When I got off the boat, I saw Mr. Hong get into the sedan chair, and I followed. At this moment, three cannons suddenly rang. I don't know what it is. I turned pale and trembled with fear. The maids quickly helped me into the sedan chair. So this is a salute. Where have I experienced it? 」?

There is a detail in "Evil Sea Flower" that is worth pondering: they went abroad on a ship of a German company. Coach class is quite good, and the price is half cheaper. Shanghai Daotai specially came to say hello and asked Mr. Hong's minions to buy first class, so as not to make foreigners laugh. The footman has been fooling around for many years, and he has become an official activist. He bought a first-class ticket, but declared the third-class cabin of a suite as second-class. The extra money makes up for the vacancy, and people are comfortable. There is no extra money. Jun Hong even praised the footman for his ability to handle affairs. In the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty, such examples of luxury ostentation and extravagance by clever means abound. ?

Hong Jun is an old-school literati and bureaucrat in his bones. He often says that "foreign etiquette is barbaric and cannot be imitated." This is not surprising. The officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty adopted an exclusive attitude towards the vast majority of foreigners, and officials like Zhang and Xu Jingcheng who really understood westernization were rare. During his visit to England, Li Hongzhang was invited to watch a football match. He sat in the stands in royal costume, twisting the beads on his chest and admiring. However, this seems meaningless. He asked the British nobles and viscount who accompanied him to watch the game, "What do those people mean by kicking the ball around?" The Englishman told him, "They are competing. Those people are not men, but gentlemen. " Li Hongzhang is still puzzled: "Since you are a gentleman, why don't you hire someone to fight?" The host looked at each other and was speechless. This is the case with a minister like Li Hongzhang who is regarded as a Westernization School, and other officials can imagine it. ?

Conformity is an important feature of officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of railway construction, China officials were superstitious about Feng Shui, and it was considered unlucky to build a railway through the graves of ancestors. Later, I finally built a railway for one or two kilometers, purely for viewing. Even such a short railway, when the train whistled, Empress Dowager Cixi was startled and immediately ordered the demolition. The same was true when we first tried to introduce telegraph and telephone. The commander of a provincial navy attacked Ming Sheng, and the local people were so hostile to this new thing that even the telephone poles could not be erected. /kloc-The second half of the 0/9th century is a crucial period for the historical development of China. A lot of new wine has been prepared for the people of China, but they are used to filling them with old flagons. China's outdated concept of human nature has restricted the development of a nation and lost a chance to take off. ?

As a member of the bureaucracy in the late Qing Dynasty, Hong Jun was as stubborn as his colleagues and never forgot to stick to the bottom line with China characteristics. Although he went whoring and married prostitutes as concubines, it was completely a legacy of learning from the literati in Wei, Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties and cultivating his temperament with beautiful women and poems, which was different from new ideas and new concepts. Hong Jun was obsessed with yuan dynasty history, studied the history and geography of Northwest China and Mongolia, and worked as an ambassador abroad, but refused to learn a foreign language anyway. He can't even speak a foreign language, so he relies on a Belgian Mr. Jin as an interpreter to consult foreign language books. In the details of life, Jun Hong is also old-fashioned, totally refusing to use foreign things. Every day, he wears a Chinese-style blue gown, Chinese shoes and cloth socks. Once, I walked too much and my feet were worn out. Sai Jinhua advised him to put on foreign socks. After a long period of hard persuasion, Jun Hong said, I just wore your socks. Sai Jinhua couldn't sew, so she asked the maid to make some socks. Presumably, she made it and Jun Hong wore it. ?

You can imagine the result of diplomacy with such a stupid person. Throughout the officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty, elm heads like Hong Jun abound. Compared with other officials, Mr. Hong, who is keen on prostitutes, is still a figure in the cave, which is a sorrow of the officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty. Relatively speaking, some small countries in East Asia adjacent to China are much more flexible. Japan also has diplomats in Europe. Their diplomatic envoys do as the Romans do. No matter walking on the street or on diplomatic occasions, they are well dressed, dressed in suits and ties, full of national symbolic charm. They only take them out occasionally when they are in their back garden. ?

The cowardice and incompetence of the Qing dynasty and the stupidity of diplomatic officials also made neighboring countries look down upon them. One year, South Korea sent a diplomatic representative to Russia, and Hong Jun didn't know it beforehand. Historically, North Korea was once a vassal state of China, but now it has crossed over, and Hong Jun can't help being angry. Many telegrams were sent to China, asking the court to intervene. Qing * * *' s reply is just angry words, with a few words of comfort at the end, and there is no concrete and feasible way. To put it bluntly, it is also helpless. Hong Jun was a stubborn bureaucrat who vowed to win back his reputation for the Qing Dynasty. Too much resentment can easily damage his health. Soon after, Jun Hong was seriously ill, and things remained unresolved. ?

Compared with conservative husbands, such as Mrs. Sai Jinhua, she is much more flexible. An excellent brothel woman must have two indispensable capitals: beauty and intelligence. Some women are born prostitutes. In other words, most prostitutes are born, even if they imitate, they can't learn. Their personalities are somewhat similar to those of ancient ladies-in-waiting, with a modest and enterprising side and a refined side of have it both ways. The latter makes them popular. In the eyes of ordinary people, this kind of "HuiLaiShi" woman is often a natural stunner. ?

Just two weeks after arriving in Germany, Sai Jinhua held a private banquet in her villa to help Jun Hong open the social circle of German upper class. Invited guests include Bismarck and his wife, generals and a large number of political and military dignitaries. During the dinner, Sai Jinhua wore a royal costume, combed the hair style of a lady in the Qing court, put on a phoenix-tailed hairpin, and let four foreign maids in fine clothes carry palace lanterns to lead the way. While marveling, the German guests deeply appreciated the originality of the Minister's wife, calling her "Oriental Maria". This banquet, which combines Chinese and Western culture, was a great success, and won the reputation of Sai Jinhua and Hong Jun in the upper German circles. ?

The flexibility of Sai Jinhua often appears in the details of daily life. When I went to Europe, I only brought two maids. When I arrived in Germany, I felt that there were not enough maids. Sai Jinhua offered to hire foreign women as a maid, and Jun Hong waved again and again. Sai Jinhua hired four foreign maids behind her husband's back. The salary is less than that in China. She is considerate, obedient and loyal. After a period of trial, Mr. Hong was satisfied, and then these four foreign maids settled down. Usually socialize in social occasions.

Language barrier is a big obstacle. After all, it is through translation. Sai Jinhua has a gift for languages. She pronounces in German. Later, she simply paid a female companion, equivalent to the old lady's personal maid, to help her comb her hair and accompany her shopping. The more important task is to teach her German. ?

When Sai Jinhua was young, she experienced various means in a prostitute's house, which helped Jun Hong, the housekeeper, invisibly, which Jun Hong never thought about. Hong Jun, a tactless bureaucrat, can gain a good reputation in four European countries, and Sai Jinhua accounts for half of the credit behind the scenes. Brothel woman is the best lubricant of officialdom, which is well reflected in Hongjun.