As the saying goes? No rules, Fiona Fang? This sentence applies equally to emperors and civilians. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is believed that as long as you become an emperor or leap to the peak of power like Cixi, you have reached the point where heaven and earth are the only ones. Of course, you can do whatever you want.
But the opposite is true. In ancient history, it was a hierarchical imperial power system for a long time, and emperors of all dynasties advocated governing the country with courtesy. To shape and defend yourself? Tall? Image, but also to abide by those a dime a dozen of red tape, and countless etiquette system, what is this called? Rules? . Every move, word and deed must conform to the rules.
Emperors in the Qing dynasty all started from frontier tribes outside the customs. According to the eyes of scholars in the Central Plains, they are standard? King of the righteous emperor? This made Qing Di very angry. In order to establish their own image, the Qing emperor's pursuit, establishment and implementation of the imperial court system and the daily rules of royal family members almost intensified, which was much stricter than that of the Ming emperor. As the Qing people lamented:?
The strictness of family law in this dynasty is unprecedented.
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Among many rules, there is a rule that everyone in the Forbidden City, from the queen mother of the emperor to the maid of the eunuch, must abide by. In order to prevent future generations from becoming faint kings who love ease and ignore state affairs, and to make them all wise kings who are diligent and worry about their work, the Qing emperor set up this unique rule: wake up? .
So-called? Wake up? It means that the emperor and queen must get up at about five o'clock every morning to start a new day. At the same time, thousands of eunuchs, handmaids and attendants in the palace must abide by this rule, and no exceptions are allowed. The huge machine in the Forbidden City starts running at this time every day.
Even if you are as noble as Cixi. He, the handmaid who served her for many years, and Xin, the eunuch, all mentioned this in their memoirs. They have followed Cixi for more than ten years and have never seen Cixi get up after 5 o'clock in the morning, no matter how cold and hot the weather is.
It can be said that from the day Cixi entered the palace, she survived in this way, and all the concubines in the palace must do so. Any empresses dare to be coquettish and arrogant, sleep late in the morning and don't get up. The big eunuchs and female officials in her palace will be dragged out to beat the board in public, leaving no face for the master, and the status of the palace will plummet.
Even if Cixi is ill, she can't stay in bed at five in the morning. She must get up on time to wash and eat. After receiving greetings from the emperor, empresses and eunuchs, she can lie down again for illness or be sent to hospital for treatment. It seems that Cixi's first birthday is like this. Even though she couldn't get up more than ten days before her death, she still woke up at five o'clock in the morning and couldn't rest again until she accepted the greetings from the concubines. It can be said that she has been tortured by this strict rule for more than 50 years since she entered the palace, and dare not violate it slightly.
Even for an ordinary person, getting up at 5 o'clock every morning, every day, decades, and every year in the hot winter and summer will feel miserable. Therefore, eunuchs all sigh. The queen mother's daily life is not as casual as that of a high-ranking official's concubine, because she is bound by ancestral etiquette and is not free? ,? The suffering of the harem, the previous generation did not? .
Although Cixi has done more than good things in her life, as the head of the Qing Dynasty, it is really commendable that she can abide by the rules of her ancestors and set an example.