Cixi’s body waited for a year before being buried, and the smell was so bad on the day of the funeral. Is this true?
Cixi's body was indeed stored for a year, but her coffin was made of golden nanmu, and the reason why it smelled so bad was because some of the food in her funerary objects was improperly preserved. , plus the feces produced by the accompanying horses.
Although Cixi was the Empress Dowager, she was actually the actual person in power in the late Qing Dynasty. She had been in charge of politics behind the curtain for many years, and the emperor was just her "chess piece". However, she did nothing politically and only focused on Enjoy life, so her life can be said to be very luxurious.
At that time, the Qing government was already short of treasury and its national power was weak, but it still built the Old Summer Palace despite the opposition of all ministers. On his birthday, he even spent more than 200,000 taels of gold to buy clothes for himself. This is also It's just the tip of the iceberg, not counting the cost of jewelry. One meal requires a hundred dishes, and the bricks of his own mausoleum are even covered with gold.
Why did she have to wait a year before being buried after her death? This is not the so-called revenge on her, but because the items Cixi will be buried with are too large and numerous, some of which are still under construction, and her own mausoleum has not yet been completed, and she has to choose a zodiac after her death. He was buried on an auspicious day, so he waited for a year.
Why does the road stink? It's not because the body rotted and smelled, because her coffin was made of golden nanmu and the body was specially treated, so there was no smell. In fact, it was because Cixi had too many burial objects and required a lot of transportation. Horses are used for transportation, and the more horses produce more excrement, the excrement of these animals along the way makes the road smelly.
Note that the time of Cixi’s death was November 15th. At this time, it was already cold in Beijing, so the body was well preserved. After Cixi’s death, according to historical records, the person in charge of the ceremony was The eunuch in charge of the ceremony carried her body out from the Yiluan Hall on a special sedan chair and placed it in the Huangji Hall.
On the morning of the next day, under the auspices of Empress Longyu, the head of the harem at the time, Emperor Guangxu, the neatly dressed body of Empress Dowager Cixi was placed into the inner coffin with 49 layers of paint and then sealed ( This sealing condition is very good, almost tight, and can isolate the air), and was finally put into an outer coffin. According to common sense, Cixi's coffin was finally placed in an underground temporary resting place because Cixi lived in the Qingdong Tomb Underground Palace in Hebei It was already a year later.
Cixi’s coffin was placed underground and stored in a cold room. It can be said that Cixi’s body was not corrupt at all. It was still as good as when she died until Sun Dianying robbed the tomb. Also lifelike.