How powerful is Li Lianying? Why can’t Empress Dowager Cixi live without Li Lianying?
One of the ugliest freaks in China’s feudal society was the eunuch. Speaking of eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty, Li Lianying is the most famous one. Because he was favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi, he gained an honor and status that other eunuchs could not imagine, and he also became one of the most notorious eunuchs in folklore. So what was the reason that made this Qing palace eunuch become the most famous eunuch in future generations? What about the well-known characters? Let's take a look at Li Lianying's life and events. Come to Xiatu, Tai Li Lianying's original name is Li Yingtai, and her ancestral home is Qihe County, Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. In the third year of Yongle, there was a severe drought in Qingzhou, and the Li family fled to Dacheng County, Hebei. Li Lianying's father, named Li Yu, came to Beijing to make a living alone. He is a cobbler who repairs shoes and nails for others, so he is known as Cobbler Li. Li Yuyi has five sons. Li Lianying ranks second and is the most sensible and smartest one in the family. Because his family was poor and life was difficult, he had no choice but to purify the second child, Li Lianying, and send him to the palace as a eunuch. Li Lianying was only 9 years old when he entered the palace and changed his name to Li Jinxi.
About ten years after Tongzhi, that is, 14 years after he entered the palace, the Empress Dowager Cixi named Lianying. He worked successively as an errand in the Memorial Office and Jingren Palace on the East Road. It was not until he was 16 years old in the third year of Tongzhi that he was transferred to the Empress Dowager Cixi in Changchun Palace.
At this time, the eunuch An Dehai was favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi and became extremely red. Although the two of them entered the palace at the same time, their status and influence were very different. Later, Andehai was beheaded by Ding Baozhen, the governor of Shandong in the eighth year of Tongzhi, for violating the ancestral system and leaving the capital without permission due to his youthful success and excessive arrogance.
This incident taught Li Lianying a profound lesson. Li Lianying is a very smart and well-behaved person. He understood how to straighten the relationship between master and slave. Li Lianying not only learned to figure out her master's temperament and hobbies, and tried every means to please her master, but she also learned to be cautious at all times. This can be regarded as the secret of Li Lianying's success. In the 13th year of Tongzhi (1874 AD), Li Lianying, who was only 26 years old, began to serve as the chief eunuch of Chu Xiu. This position generally requires 30 years of service in the palace to be qualified, and Li Lianying has just served in the palace for 17 years at this time.
In the fifth year of Guangxu (1879 AD), Li Lianying served as the fourth-rank Hualing manager of Chuxiu Palace. As Cixi became more and more powerful, Li Lianying's reputation and status also became prominent. When Li Lianying was 31 years old, she was already on an equal footing with Li Shuangxi, the chief manager of the Jingshifang.
In the 20th year of Guangxu's reign, 46-year-old Li Lianying was awarded the second-grade crown with a flower feather. Although this was just a symbol of honor, it set an unprecedented precedent among eunuchs. Because as early as the Yongzheng period, Emperor Yongzheng stipulated that the grade of eunuchs was limited to the fourth grade and could not be higher than this grade. When the Empress Dowager Cixi arrived, she broke the rules handed down from her ancestors for Li Lianying.
The master-servant relationship and affection formed over decades between Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Lianying is extraordinary. In "Information on Life in the Court of the Late Qing Dynasty", Liu Xingqiao, the eunuch of the late Qing Dynasty palace, described the relationship between Li Lianying and the Empress Dowager Cixi like this: As far as we know, they had three meals a day, morning and evening, and they would send eunuchs to each other or face each other in person. Greetings: ?Well done? ?Eat deliciously? When she lived in Xiyuan and the Summer Palace, Empress Dowager Cixi often came to see Li Lianying: "Lianying!" Let's go for a walk! Li Lianying came out to play with her. They walked in front, and the others followed at a distance. Empress Dowager Cixi sometimes summoned Li Lianying to her palace to talk about Huang Lao's immortality skills. The two often talked late into the night. From this account, we can see that Li Lianying has actually become a companion that Cixi could not leave for a moment in her later years.
The Empress Dowager Cixi's growing favor for Li Lianying aroused discussion and uneasiness in both the government and the public. Cixi's favor towards Li Lianying did cause discussion and uneasiness among the government and the public. Some people say that Li Lianying wields power in both the government and the public, accepting bribes, and becoming a high-ranking official by joining his sect; some say that he interferes in government affairs and cultivates private parties; some even say that he framed ministers who supported the restoration and sided with Guangxu.
After getting the bag, Cixi asked about the situation and ordered Zhu Yixin to be demoted from censor to chief.
In the 20th year of Emperor Guangxu's reign (AD 1894), the Beiyang Navy of the Qing Dynasty suffered a major defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, and public opinion across the country was in an uproar. However, people did not dare to criticize Empress Dowager Cixi directly, so they pointed the finger at Li Hongzhang, Minister of Beiyang and Governor of Zhili, and also criticized Li Lianying. Enpu, the censor of the Shaanxi Province, An Weijun, the censor of the Fujian Province, Chu Chengbo, who was responsible for the official affairs, and others all made excuses, accusing the Beiyang naval general of delaying the military flight, and secretly communicated with the chief eunuch Li Lianying to cover up each other.
Although there is insufficient evidence that Li Lianying interfered in political affairs, it is absolutely true that he was greedy for money. There may be no upright officials and eunuchs who do not love money. Li Lianying and others tried every means to blackmail the officials in the court. On the third day of August in the twelfth year of Guangxu (AD 1886), Lai Yu, a staff member of Jiangning Weaving Co., Ltd. in Beijing wrote a letter to Jiangning Weaving Co., Ltd. Guanghou. The letter said: Yesterday, General Manager Li Lianying called me into the office again. The person in the hall said to me: You always have to sort out the drawings when you come to get them. How are you going to do it this time? I immediately replied that I would write a letter back and have someone deliver it. He said, if this is the case, then send 120 taels of silver! After saying that, he turned around and went in. If it were elsewhere, this matter could be discussed slowly and smoothed over with good words, but this General Manager Li was difficult to deal with. ?
With Cixi’s shrewdness and sophistication, it is impossible for her not to know that some of the eunuchs around her were doing something crazy, but as long as they did not interfere in political affairs and served her comfortably, she would not regard the eunuchs as greedy for money at all. Nothing.
We know that Empress Dowager Cixi was already in her old age at that time. Although Emperor Guangxu was ill, he was still in the prime of his youth. If no unexpected circumstances occurred, it was inevitable that Empress Dowager Cixi would die before Emperor Guangxu. For the shrewd and cunning Li Lianying, of course he would not be so confused that he could not see clearly such a situation. For Li Lianying, who has always been prudent and tactful in life, the approach of trying to please both sides and being smart on all sides is his strategy to remain invincible and to preserve himself.
It is said that after the Reform Movement of 1898, Li Lianying was cautious in his words and did not clearly express his support for Cixi. Although Cixi did not doubt his loyalty, he became emotionally distant from then on. Therefore, the tombstone of Li Lianying reads: After returning to Beijing after escaping to the west, Li Lianying thought that he could be acquitted and retired after seeing his appearance.
On October 22, the 34th year of Guangxu's reign (AD 1908), Cixi died in Yiluan Hall in Xiyuan, Beijing. After Li Lianying took care of the funeral of the Queen Mother, she left the palace where she had lived for 51 years on the second day of February in the first year of Xuantong. He died in the third year of Xuantong (1911 AD) at the age of 64.