How luxurious was Empress Dowager Cixi's life in her later years?
She can write and draw, but she is also a wizard who brings disaster to the country and people. Food and clothing are extremely extravagant, and he has been looking for the best in the world all his life. He is called "the royal jewel fanatic". After his death, he hopes that all the treasures in the world can enter her grave! Some people say that her luxury is not the luxury of one person, but at the expense of the demise of the whole Qing Dynasty, which is her funerary object!
Do you think these "luxury" martyrdom are countless? Of course not. Empress Dowager Cixi's most trusted eunuch Li also participated in the burial of the treasure. Ai Xuanyue's notes, written by him and his nephew, recorded the types, quantities and position values of funerary objects in detail. You see, you have to pull a group of "martyrs" when you die, and you know it!
Now let's take a look at the luxurious harem life of the Empress Dowager Qing!
Sky-high martyrdom list
The bottom of Cixi's coffin was covered with a gold-woven mattress, which was 7 inches thick. There are 12604 pearls, 85 rubies and 203 white jade below. The brocade mattress is covered with a silk mattress embroidered with lotus flowers, which is covered with 2400 5-cent pearls.
Cixi was covered with a Toni quilt made of gold. It is made of bright yellow satin with a length of 280 cm and a width of 274 cm and twisted with gold. The quilt is decorated with 820 pearls. The warp is covered with a tennis quilt decorated with 6000 pearls.
The picture shows Dalagni quilt made of twisted gold thread. The quilt is about three meters square and has a bright yellow satin bottom. There are many Buddhist scriptures, Buddha statues, stupas, patterns and other decorations woven on the quilt cover, which are both sacred of Buddhism and dignified of the royal family.
Wearing a rockhopper, the crown is inlaid with pearls and precious stones, and there is a pearl four times as heavy as an egg on the crown. At that time, it was worth about 1, 000-2000,000 taels of silver. There is a pearl in the mouth.
There are three beads hanging around the neck, two are pearls and one is ruby.
Wearing a gold dress and an embroidered beaded jacket. Pedal boots. Holding a Yu Lian, there is a 18 mussel Buddha in front of his head and a Yu Lian leaf on his head.
There are 10 golden Buddha and 8 jade carved horses on both sides of the head, and there are 18 jade arhats on hand. There are 108 statues of golden Buddha, jade Buddha, ruby Buddha and jade Buddha beside him or at his feet, and every respect is 6 Liang; Four emerald watermelons, two white yellow seed powders, two green yellow seed powders, two emerald peaches 10, two emerald cabbages, and two wasps with classic colors beside the green leaves.
The most precious thing in the coffin is a nine-exquisite pagoda carved from white jade with flowers and clouds on it. More than 700 pieces of precious stones, jade, red coral trees and jet mustard were placed next to the body. When the treasure was buried, it was found that there was a hole in the coffin, and four liters of pearls were poured in (500 8-point pearls, 2,200 3-point pearls, 1000 2-point pearls). 2200 sapphires and emeralds.
per diem expenses
Birthday celebrations in the Summer Palace
Jewelry prepared by the old lady for her 60th birthday, gold 12000, silver 382000. Buying clothes costs 232 thousand gold; On the way from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City, the setting and decoration of scenic spots cost 2.4 million taels of silver ... The Queen Mother spent about100000 taels of silver on this birthday, which is equivalent to the funds of beiyang fleet.
Jiyang mahjong
Medical books of Empress Dowager Cixi
Enamel painted flower-and-bird hand stove.
massager
Rosewood baby embedded Fu Lushou stationery box
According to the novel of the last eunuch in the Qing Dynasty, Cixi spent about 42,000 yuan in the palace that year. This means that the cost of the Qing Palace for half a month can buy a Japanese Yoshino class cruiser during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895; Can buy a super capital ship for two months; One year's cost can equip a naval fleet ranked 67 th in the world at that time.
Clothing, food, shelter and mode of travel
Clothing is far more than a carriage!
Cixi has many costumes. When she went to Fengtian by train, there was a special carriage for her clothes. She doesn't intend to stay there for long, so the clothes she brought are only a part suitable for late spring. But this is enough to make her imperial female official Yu Deling marvel: "It is big and rich, dazzling, and God takes it. You don't have to consider identifying them carefully except for a colorful cloud you can see. Because they are too many, so beautiful! " Clothes are about 2000 yuan, shoes are not too many, thirty or forty pairs.
The Queen Mother is of medium height and likes to wear high heels, some of which are as high as 6 inches. She has an embroidered shoe that she only wears at the ceremony. The sole is very high, and there are small pearl strings around it, just like ears.
Cixi, like most women, likes to examine and appreciate her clothes. Although some clothes are no longer worn, they are memorable, such as the clothes she wore when she was a imperial concubine ten years ago. She often lets eunuchs play with them, recalling the beautiful faces and beautiful scenery of the past.
Even on the trip, "every four or five days" and "always check all the clothes, etc." It was carried to Cixi by two eunuchs, all of whom were studying, just like a team of one thousand people.
Women please themselves,
The time Cixi spent on the dresser,
It is also amazing!
Brocade multi-grid cosmetic box
Ivory carved mirror
Hairstyle-"big wings"
It is said that she created it herself. Later, bureaucrats, prostitutes and folk women followed suit and spread to today's drama stage. Cixi's "big wing" bun is actually two crowns with iron wire as the skeleton and green satin and flannel as the outer layer. You can wear it freely to beautify your hair. The headdresses of the two heads are square, hairpin, headdress and tassel.
Jasper Zhu Chao
Xunzi, a skinny man from Zhehua
Silver-plated and gold-plated beaded Shuanglong Diancui hair clip
Cixi's favorite square towel in summer is a tribute from Zhang Zhidong on his 60th birthday, made of sandalwood, gold thread and beads. Touhua is the main jewelry of "big wings" bun, and it is inlaid with jewelry. In many portraits and photos of Cixi, you can see the big jewelry headdress in the middle of her "big wings" bun.
Royal "jewelry craze"
Silver powder box
Enamel powder box
Enamel melon-shaped rouge box
Emerald "enthusiast"
"Blessed land for human settlement" is full of green jade. Height 10 cm.
"Against the wind" glass jadeite
"Blessing from the sky" tricolor jade
Emerald is "thriving"
"Surprise Years" Tricolor Emerald
"Butterfly" glass jade
In the oil painting for Cixi by American female painter Carl, there is a "big wing" embroidered with a yellow wisteria ball, and there are a lot of pearl jewelry: green hairpin, phoenix hairpin, gold square, jewel headdress, pearl hair band and drooping tassel, which looks elegant. However, Karl said, "Cixi wears many kinds of jewelry, but in the end, it is just pearls and delicious food."
Oriental pearl earrings inlaid with gold
Gu Jinchi Qian Wen's fingernails
Silver plated Dongsheng hairpin
"It is said that there are all kinds of jewels in the palace, but I have only seen several that Cixi often wears. Her favorite is an emerald ring, a green ring, a few pearls on her head, and a shawl made of pearls. Cixi also wears a pair of beaded earrings and never takes them off. " According to the old eunuch, this pair of earrings was given to Cixi by Emperor Xianfeng when he entered the palace. Cixi wears two pairs of earrings at a time because she has four ear holes. "
Imperial porcelain-Daya Zhai
"What's wrong with eating 100 food?
What's wrong with a car full of clothes?
What's wrong with spending 12 thousand gold on a birthday?
It's awesome to give the imperial porcelain a name.
Burn it if you want,
Money is willful! "
"Daya Zhai" is the hall number, Cixi's self-styled Zhai Hao, where she writes and paints. At the same time, it is also a symbol of Cixi's personal aesthetic taste. Besides dealing with court affairs, she can dance, write poems and paint. "Daya Zhai" just fits her pursuit of "art", which can be seen from the poems and notes of the Qing Dynasty.
Porcelain Collection in the Forbidden City (Daya Zhai)
"Daya Zhai" porcelain, named after the word "Daya Zhai" written on the mouth, belongs to the famous porcelain of Tang Dynasty and is the royal porcelain specially designed and fired by Empress Dowager Cixi. For a long time, "Daya Zhai" porcelain has been treasured in the deep palace, and it is difficult for the world to get a glimpse of its true content.
Dayazhai porcelain memorial hall
Daya Zhai porcelain
These gorgeous porcelains represent the court fashion in the late Qing Dynasty, and also show Cixi's personal aesthetic pursuit and orientation. Extraordinary luxury has added a unique landscape to the declining porcelain industry in the late Qing Dynasty, and it is called the most famous imperial kiln porcelain in the late Qing Dynasty.
Daiyazhai green land pastel flower-and-bird slag bucket
But some people say that Daya Zhai porcelain embodies the vulgarity and low quality of Cixi! Although the color is gorgeous, you can see that the glaze is rough, just like an old woman's face, uneven.
Think about the porcelain in Yong Zhengdi. "The knives are all egg-colored, round and bright as silver, all blue, or painted with dark flowers, exquisite and ingenious, antique and innovative. No one can compare the painstaking ingredients in the work! The vulgar Cixi, colorful, rough and unrestrained Daya Zhai, what is elegance?