Like fog, the life experience of Empress Dowager Cixi has always been a mystery.
The research results of Liu Qi, the former deputy director of the Changzhi City Local Chronicle Office, show that Yehenala is a Han Chinese, born in Changzhi County, Shanxi Province (today's Changzhi City), and spent his childhood here.
Experts in the field of history said that this achievement has filled a "hundred-year gap" in the study of Chinese history.
Empress Dowager Cixi was an important figure on the political stage in the late Qing Dynasty, and actually ruled the government for 48 years. Over the past hundred years, there have been no less than a hundred writings and film and television works about Cixi at home and abroad, but those that talk about her birthplace and childhood experiences are extremely rare, and there are even fewer that systematically introduce her experience from birth to entering the palace. Therefore, Mr. Yu Bingkun, a well-known Qing history expert, said in "Cixi's Family History Examination": The study of Cixi's family history has always been a relatively weak link. This is not only reflected in the fact that the recorded historical facts are too brief, leaving many blanks, but also in that there are different opinions. "Where exactly is Cixi's birthplace...it seems that there is still no clear answer." ”
In June 1989, Zhao Fawang, a 77-year-old villager from Xiaqin Village in the suburbs of Changzhi City (formerly part of Changzhi County), brought his joint signature with Song Shuanghua, Song Liuze, Song Dewen, Song Dewu and others from Shangqin Village. The letter was sent to the local chronicle office of Changzhi City. Zhao Fawang said that Cixi was the fifth-generation nephew of the Empress Dowager Cici, and Song Shuanghua, Song Liuze and others were the fifth-generation nephews of Cixi. From then on, they asked the government to help. Liu Qi embarked on the road of research on Cixi's childhood. The continuous enrichment of supporting materials has further strengthened Liu Qi's confidence, and his relevant writings have also been widely published in the "**" hosted by the Chinese Art Research Institute of the Ministry of Culture. "Uncovering the Mystery of Cixi's Childhood" written by Liu Qi won the first prize at the "Seminar on the Fifty Years of Socialist Literature and Art of the Republic of China". This paper of more than 7,000 words focused on the life experience of Cixi.
According to Liu Qi's research, Cixi was born into a poor Han peasant family in Xipo Village, Changzhi County, Shanxi Province in 1835. She was named "Wang Xiaoqian" and was sold to Song Siyuan in Shangqin Village in this county when she was 4 years old. As a daughter, she was renamed "Song Ling'e". When she was 12 years old, she was sold to Hui Zheng, the prefect of Lu'an Prefecture, as a maid, and she was renamed "Yulan" (Lan'er). She was carefully trained in the special study room of Yaxi Garden by Xianfeng Er. In 1852, as the daughter of Yehenala Huizheng, she was selected to enter the palace and rose through the ranks until she became the empress dowager.
Liu Qi's main basis is 38 items, which are roughly divided into folk oral historical materials. , historical objects and classic documents.
For more than a hundred years, villagers in Xipo and Shangqin villages in Changzhi County and elders in nearby villages have expressed this in written materials. There are more than 150 people in Changzhi County. The ruins of Cixi's birthplace and the grave of Cixi's biological mother are located to the west of the old residence of Kakuda Hanari in the Xingbu Village of Xipo Village and on the bank of the barren beach at the western foot of Yangtou Mountain outside Xipo Village. Behind the Guandi Temple in the village, there is the well-preserved "Empress's Courtyard". After Cixi entered the palace and became the "Empress of the Imperial Court", the folks in the village called the house where Cixi lived in her childhood "Empress's Courtyard", and it has been passed down to this day. The "Cixi Dowager's Study Courtyard" is preserved in the backyard of Lu'an Mansion.
Cixi's descendants preserve 5 related cultural relics: the genealogy of Wang Peiying's family in Xipo Village, which contains Cixi's nickname and "Wang Xiaoqian later became Cixi." "Empress Dowager" and other written records. Shang Qin Cai Song Liuze and Song Dewen family's ancestral wallet-type Qing Dynasty emperors' ancestral genealogy produced by the Qing court during the Guangxu and Xuantong years. Also, Song Liuze's Cixi sent it to his cousin Fragments of Song Xiyu's letters and Cixi's single photos. In addition to on-the-spot investigation, Liu Qi also consulted a large number of historical documents about Yehenala's living habits and words and deeds. , indicating that Cixi is inextricably linked to Changzhi, Shanxi.
Cixi used the second grandmother of Han Yinze in Qilipo Village of Changzhi as a wet nurse, and Chen Sihai of Xiaochang Village in Changzhi as the royal cook, and arranged for the original Shijiazhuang Village of Changzhi. Dian Ao served as the imperial guard and protected him. When Dian Ao was serving as the imperial guard, he should have been executed for violating criminal laws. Cixi spared him the death penalty because he was from the same country and allowed him to serve as an official in Jiangxi. Cixi paid special attention to Changzhi officials, Changzhi local officials and Shanxi businessmen. In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. "On August 29, Cixi and Guangxu fled to Datong and stayed here for three days." In the midst of the war and chaos, they still "summoned Xu Handu, the prefect of Lu'an" and "promoted Jining Road."
Cixi liked to eat radish, dumplings, Huguan vinegar, Xiangyuan black sauce, corn mixed with porridge, Qinzhou yellow millet, etc. that Changzhi people often liked; she liked to smoke hookah that Changzhi people liked to smoke, but she did not smoke Guandong cigarette (dry cigarette); I like Dang Bangzi. "Huguan Literary and Historical Materials" records that in the 21st year of Guangxu (1895), the Huguan Party Bangzi Opera "One Hundred Thousand Troupe" came to Beijing to perform for the birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi, which caused a sensation. After seeing it, Cixi personally wrote the inscription "Happy Class" and ordered not to support officials or pay taxes.
Cixi was good at singing ditties, mostly Shanxi folk songs. Once, Emperor Xianfeng asked Cixi: "Why can folk songs in Shanxi and other places sing well but not Mange songs?" She said: "I grew up with my father in Lu'an Prefecture when I was young, and I am familiar with the folk songs there."
Taiwanese historian Gao Yang said in "The Preface of Cixi" that Cixi "only knew Chinese characters, not Manchu". Yu Deling, a former female official of Cixi, wrote in "The Second Year of the Qing Palace": The Queen Mother said, "I like country life. I think it is much more natural than life in the palace." The Queen Mother of the West also has her own farm. Every four or five days, we have to go to the fields to see it.
The view that "the Empress Dowager Cixi was originally a Han from Shanxi" has been supported and recognized by relevant experts and scholars, and was included in the "Four Eunuchs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" series. ·The caring person around the imperial concubine - An Dehai" (Northern Literature and Art Publishing House, 1997 edition) and "The Thin Horse in the West Wind - The Biography of Prince Gong Yixin" (Writer Publishing House, 1998 edition) and other works.