How good is the life of Empress Dowager Cixi?

Although China was in decline in the late Qing Dynasty and was always threatened by foreign powers, as the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi was very particular about her personal life. It can be seen from four aspects: food, clothing, housing and transportation.

First, clothes. Cixi has many clothes. In De Ling's "Cloud of the Royal Family", it was recorded that when Cixi went to Fengtian by train, there was a special carriage to hold her clothes, and this was because she only brought some clothes for a short time.

There is no way to verify the authenticity of this record, but Cixi usually pays great attention to dressing up. It is said that Li is favored because he can comb his hair, not only because his bun looks good, but also because he hides the hair that falls off when combing his hair from Cixi. There are also some decorations that Cixi has used now, such as gold-carved ancient money-patterned fingernails and gold-inlaid East Pearl earrings. , is also exquisite.

Second, food. According to folklore, Cixi served 100 dishes for every meal. Another story is that Li and Xiao Dezhang carefully made some imitations of dishes that Cixi didn't like at ordinary times with wax in order to enrich themselves, and put the money they saved into their own pockets. These legends are actually exaggerated. We can look at the menu of Cixi's birthday: two hot pots: shredded spinach and game sauerkraut;

Four kinds of big bowl dishes: red and white shredded pork duck with the word "Wan" in bird's nest, three fresh fat chickens with the word "Nian" in bird's nest, duck with the word "Ru" in bird's nest, and shredded pork chicken with the word "One" in bird's nest; Four dishes in the middle bowl: bird's nest duck strips, fresh shrimp balls, stewed duck fillet and sea cucumber; Six dishes: fried duck shreds with bird's nest, fried chicken and radish sauce, fried wings with shredded pork, duck with sauce, fried water bamboo with pickles and scrambled eggs with shredded pork.

As can be seen from the menu, Cixi's diet is indeed rich, beautifully made and varied, but it is far from being so exaggerated as the legend. But because eunuchs will benefit from the royal diet, it is said that every egg eaten in the palace will be reimbursed 1 silver, so this expense is also very huge.

Third, live. On June 2 1885, Cixi ordered the reconstruction of the Three Seas. The Three Seas Project includes all temples, houses, roads, Hechi, rockeries, dikes, electric lights and railways in Beihai and Zhongnanhai, and costs 6 million taels of silver. Shortly after the start of the Three Seas Project, the restoration of Qingyi Garden was also put on the agenda.

On March 1888 and 13, Emperor Guangxu issued an imperial edict to rename Qingyi Garden the Summer Palace as the place where Cixi lived after returning to politics. It is estimated that the Summer Palace project will also cost100,000 taels of silver. Of course, the Three Seas and the Summer Palace were not lived by Cixi alone, which also reflected the luxury of the Qing royal family at that time.

Fourth, ok. According to the royal etiquette, Cixi travels with traditional imperial palaces, phoenix rafts and royal boats, and is also very ostentatious. Just taking a walk after dinner, there are 10 eunuchs and maids, not counting the accompanying queen, concubine, Mrs. Gege and personal maids.

In addition, with the progress of the times, Cixi also has some new gadgets, including oriental cars, trains and cars. Cixi's oriental car is exquisitely made. Its handle is inlaid with golden dragon 2 as a head-up view. The second wheel is rubber, light and smooth. A palace supervisor dragged in front, and another palace supervisor pushed forward behind. Empress Dowager Cixi sat among them very quickly. "But Empress Dowager Cixi still prefers to sit on the bridge.

Trains and buses are not used much at ordinary times, mainly because Cixi doesn't like their noise, so she prefers the traditional way of travel. According to the novel of Li's successor, the last supervisor of the Qing Dynasty, Cixi's living expenses in that year were roughly 42,000 sycees. This figure can no longer be verified, but from some information above, we can see that Cixi's daily life is still very luxurious.