"How much sorrow can there be in the world? The choice of success or failure will come to an end." This is a poem written by Concubine Zhen to Guangxu in the cold palace. Every word in the poem is her longing for Guangxu. In fact, there were no emotional problems between Concubine Zhen and Guangxu, but the relationship between her and Cixi deteriorated. So recently it was Empress Dowager Cixi who asked Guangxu to banish her to the cold palace.
Not only that, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded the Forbidden City, Cixi did not forget Concubine Zhen when she fled. She ordered the eunuch to push her into the well. But here comes the problem. If we visit the Zhenfei Well in the Forbidden City today, it is not difficult to find that the wellhead is very small.
According to records, the mouth of the well is only 30 centimeters in size. From this point of view, it is impossible to put an adult in. So how did a living person as big as Concubine Zhen be stuffed into a well as big as the mouth of a bottle? Woolen cloth? It all starts with Concubine Zhen.
Concubine Zhen was born on February 27, 1876, and entered the palace in 1889. Concubine Zhen has a very different personality from other concubines. She did not deliberately please Guangxu
nor did she stay trapped in the palace all day. For Emperor Guangxu, such a person who yearned for freedom was undoubtedly very attractive.
In addition, Concubine Zhen had an extraordinary appearance, so she was particularly favored by Emperor Guangxu. In 1894, Concubine Zhen also got her wish and was promoted to the rank of concubine. In fact, the conflict between Concubine Zhen and Cixi intensified later, but the relationship between her and Cixi was very harmonious at the beginning. You must know that Empress Dowager Cixi once personally taught Concubine Zhen how to write.
There were not many people in the late Qing Dynasty who were treated like this. However, Concubine Zhen herself was domineering and later contradicted Cixi many times. What's even more surprising is that Concubine Zhen is also a woman who is good at playing with power. She relied on the emperor's favor to reach out to officialdom.
Not only that, she also did a lot of selling her official wealth. As a result, more and more people have opinions about Concubine Zhen. In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded. Cixi and Guangxu were both panicked. After discussion, they decided to leave here immediately. But they had no intention of taking Concubine Zhen away.
The Empress Dowager Cixi felt that Concubine Zhen was young and quite beautiful, so in order to prevent her from doing anything that would harm the dignity of the royal family, the Empress Dowager Cixi decided to kill Concubine Zhen. Concubine Zhen was very dissatisfied when she found out about this. Even after she entered the cold palace, she still dared to confront Cixi.
So she asked to confront Cixi in person, but unfortunately the eunuch who came to deliver the order did not take her seriously at all. So just like that, Concubine Zhen was stuffed into the well. Later, Puyi, the deposed emperor of the Qing Dynasty, explained it to others when he visited the Forbidden City.
In fact, the original wellhead was not that small. But later, part of the wellhead was blocked to prevent others from snooping inside. So the wellhead that people see now as big as a bottle mouth is not the wellhead at that time.