Why did Emperor Tongzhi contract the disease?

It is now generally believed that Emperor Tongzhi died of smallpox, at least according to official records.

But some people believe that Emperor Tongzhi may have died of Hualiu disease, which is a sexually transmitted disease, probably syphilis.

According to internal reports from foreign medical groups, Emperor Tongzhi contracted syphilis at least a few years ago, and the progression of the disease led to his death.

Emperor Tongzhi is a puppet with a terrifying biological mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi.

In order to fully grasp the power, the Empress Dowager Cixi suppressed and strictly controlled her son from an early age, scolding him if he was good and beating him if he was not good.

Since childhood, when Emperor Tongzhi saw the Empress Dowager Cixi, he was like a mouse seeing a cat. He often trembled with fear and even wet his pants.

Emperor Tongzhi came into power at the age of 17 and had no rights before.

Until his death at the age of 19, Emperor Tongzhi had no real power, and all decisions had to be approved by Cixi.

The emperor was too depressed and was often scolded so much that he had no choice but to go to the harem to have fun.

However, the harem cannot stay still.

At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an were no longer on the right track.

The selection of the queen by Emperor Tongzhi was a very important matter, and even determined who would control the overall situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future.

The Empress Dowager Cixi chose the Fucha family out of selfish motives; while the Empress Dowager Ci'an chose the Arut family.

After the two entered the palace, Emperor Tongzhi got along very well with Honest Wenwen and Arut, and they often hung out together.

On the contrary, Emperor Tongzhi disliked the Fucha family chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi and never slept with him.

This was originally the self-interest of Emperor Tongzhi, but unfortunately the Empress Dowager Cixi even interfered with her son's sexual life.

Cixi was furious when she discovered that her son favored the Arut family chosen by Empress Dowager Ci'an, believing that Emperor Tongzhi had affected his political layout.

So, as long as Tongzhiyi was intimate with Arut, the Empress Dowager Cixi would find ways to scold her son.

After doing this several times, Emperor Tongzhi no longer dared to touch Arut, not even other women in the palace.

So Emperor Tongzhi found an opportunity to sneak out of the palace to visit prostitutes.

Naturally, this was not easy under Cixi’s strict supervision. However, Emperor Tongzhi is the emperor after all. He has his own group of confidants, so he can still sneak out, as long as he comes back in a few hours.

However, there were many Manchu and upper-class men hanging out in Bada Hutong at that time, and Emperor Tongzhi did not dare to go there for fear of being recognized.

So, he could only go to a relatively lower-grade brothel.

Prostitutes in these brothels are often not clean, receive many customers a day, and some of them suffer from sexually transmitted diseases.

As a result, even though he only visited prostitutes a few times, Emperor Tongzhi was infected and contracted syphilis.

In those days, syphilis, especially in its late stages, was a terminal disease that could not be cured. Emperor Tongzhi died at the age of 19.

Interestingly, after the death of Emperor Tongzhi, Cixi determined that the death was caused by smallpox for the sake of royal dignity. Back then, smallpox killed many people every year, and Emperor Shunzhi also died in the same way. This was nothing special.

However, Li Deli, the imperial doctor of Shitai Hospital (guess who his descendants are), told his descendants: Emperor Tongzhi was suffering from syphilis, but Empress Dowager Cixi was only allowed to treat it as smallpox. Li Deli took the risk and told Cixi that it could not be treated in this way and that the emperor's disease was not smallpox. After hearing this, Cixi was furious and threw the diamond on his head to hit him. Li Deli was so frightened that he took off his hat and kowtowed to the ground.

Later Cixi announced the abolition of Li Deli's official title, but still maintained his salary and continued to serve as an imperial physician.

Li Deli was scared to death from then on, and warned future generations not to be an imperial physician under any circumstances, otherwise they might not end well.