120 dishes per meal, 400 apples a day just for smelling.

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) entered the palace as a concubine to Emperor Xianfeng from a young age. In 1856, she gave birth to a son, Tongzhi, who later ascended to the throne as Emperor of China. Even 109 years after the death of Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China for nearly five decades during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), scholars still hold differing opinions regarding her role.

Empress Dowager Cixi in a photograph taken in 1903. She sports a hairstyle popular during the Qing dynasty, called the "Two-Bow Head," where the hair is evenly parted and styled into two buns on either side. (Photo: SCMP)

Empress Dowager Cixi was criticized for her extravagant lifestyle and enjoyment of royal privileges while the people suffered. However, after assuming power, she actively supported the Self-Strengthening Movement – ​​a period of economic and military reforms that helped China transform from a backward feudal society into a more modern nation on the world stage.

Historians inside and outside China are still debating her merits and demerits. Some portray her as ruthless and autocratic, blaming her for the end of the Qing dynasty, while others praise the changes and reforms she implemented.

Likes to dress up.

Empress Dowager Cixi was famous for her love of dressing up and taking pictures. The Palace Museum in Beijing still holds more than 100 photographs of her wearing over 30 magnificent silk dresses adorned with high-quality pearls. She wore jewelry and jade ornaments. Her hair styling tools numbered 25, used for curling and styling in various ways. Her hair was often adorned with flowers and gold hairpins.

Empress Dowager Cixi's 25-piece hair styling kit. (Photo: Palace Museum)

Travel by private rail

To win her support in developing the country's railway network, Minister Li Hongzhang proposed building a railway line exclusively for the royal family in the West Garden west of the Forbidden City.

The Western Garden, encompassing both Beihai and Zhongnanhai, was the main residence of Empress Dowager Cixi after 1888.

The first imperial railway in China began construction in 1886 and was completed in 1888. The 1,510-meter-long line started near the Yiluan Palace, Empress Dowager Cixi's residence in Zhongnanhai, and ran straight to the Jingxinzhai banquet hall in Beihai.

The route had a stop in the middle, at Ziguang Pavilion. Later, the route was named the Ziguang Pavilion Railway.

To emphasize her authority, Empress Dowager Cixi had the curtains of her carriage and that of Emperor Guangxu (son of Empress Dowager Cixi's sister) decorated in gold, while red and blue were reserved for the imperial family and officials.

Unfortunately, this railway line was destroyed by Western armies during the war of 1900.

The railway runs past Ziguang Pavilion. (Photo: Palace Museum)

Each meal consists of 120 dishes.

Besides the Imperial Kitchen, which served the emperor's concubines, Empress Dowager Cixi had a separate kitchen built within the Forbidden City, called the Western Kitchen. The Western Kitchen was divided into five rooms, specializing in savory dishes, vegetarian dishes, rice, dumplings, noodles, dim sum, and pastries.

The chefs at the Western Kitchen know how to make over 400 types of cakes and 4,000 different dishes, including rare delicacies such as bird's nest, shark fin, and bear paw.

According to the book "Empress Dowager Cixi" by Xu Zhe, a scholar and expert on the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi was served 120 different dishes at each meal. However, she only ate a few dishes, one or two bites of each, for fear of being poisoned.

Empress Dowager Cixi also bestowed leftover food upon concubines, officials, and eunuchs, who considered it an honor.

Tu Triet stated that the story about her eating 150,000 apples a year, or more than 400 a day, is inaccurate. In reality, she doesn't eat apples, but simply enjoys smelling them. She also enjoys the scent of many other fruits like pears and peaches. When the fruit loses its scent, new fruit is offered to her.

Recreating a meal of Empress Dowager Cixi. (Photo: Palace Museum)

Pet dogs have servants to wait on them.

Keeping pet dogs was a popular pastime in the Qing Dynasty's imperial palace. In the book "Qing Palace Two Years' Chronicle," Princess Der Ling, daughter of a Manchu nobleman and one of Empress Dowager Cixi's eight female attendants, stated that Cixi kept more than 20 dogs and particularly liked a Pekingese.

Instead of keeping them in cages, Empress Dowager Cixi housed the dogs in a large bamboo house, attended by four eunuchs. Each year they were provided with clothes made of silk embroidered with chrysanthemums and begonias in gold thread.

Clothing for Empress Dowager Cixi's pet dog. (Photo: Palace Museum)

Burial with jewelry and luxury items.

Empress Dowager Cixi passed away in the Yiluan Palace on November 15, 1908, one day after Emperor Guangxu's death. Her funeral was a grand affair with numerous activities lasting for 12 months.

According to an article published in 2002, she was buried with jewelry and luxury goods worth 1.2 million taels of silver. A typical activity during the funeral was the burning of a giant paper boat on August 30, 1909.

The boat, 72 meters long and 7 meters wide, was made of precious wood and covered with expensive silk fabric. It was filled with paper offerings resembling towers, palaces, and temples, with servants dressed in real clothes.

A boat carrying Empress Dowager Cixi to the afterlife . (Photo: Palace Museum)

The boat was burned near the West Gate of the Forbidden City during a prayer ceremony for Empress Dowager Cixi to have a happy afterlife.

She was buried in the Qing Eastern Mausoleum, a complex of tombs for emperors, empresses, and concubines of the Qing Dynasty in Hebei Province, near Beijing. In 1928, her tomb was looted by the warlord Sun Dianying and his army.

HONG PHUC (Source: SCMP)

Beneficial
Emotion
Creative
Unique
Wrath

Source: https://vtc.vn/cuoc-song-xa-hoa-cua-tu-hi-thai-hau-moi-bua-120-mon-400-qua-tao-ngay-de-ngui-ar762226.html