The history of China is unfair to women. I don't know how many outstanding women have grown up in this land. They are as smart as crystals and as beautiful as flowers. Unfortunately, they can only disappear quietly outside the words. God gave them talent, but there was no place for them to display. However, when China was in an unprecedented predicament for the first time in thousands of years because of cultural collision, a woman, with her superhuman courage and wisdom, bypassed many obstacles and appeared in the spotlight of history. Perhaps disaster was the inevitable fate of China at that time. This woman who could have balanced historical injustice seems so out of place at this time. She also tried to improve her acting skills on the political stage, but the result was that her performance was a complete failure.
In all fairness, under the strong concept and system, Yenara Laner, who was deprived of the right to early education, showed unexpected outstanding talent and ability in political performances. She is stronger and more decisive than most men. She is brave, knowledgeable, witty and sensitive. In her 48-year ruling career, she has been firmly in control of the whole situation, manipulating the elite of those men in her palm. She has a lot of courage. When the allied forces of Britain and France approached Beijing and Emperor Xianfeng was about to flee hastily, she stood out from behind the curtain of Palace of Gathered Elegance for the first time, risking a big violation of the patriarchal clan system and strongly opposing this cowardly decision. "When the emperor will, the imperial concubine will resist. Saying that the emperor is in Beijing can intimidate everything. If the sacred driving is carried out, the ancestral temple will have no owner, fearing that it will be destroyed by foreigners. Yesterday, Zhou Shi moved eastward, and the son of heaven was covered with dust, which will always be a shame for future generations. It would be a great shame to abandon the capital today. " In the panic of Manchu princes, Yi Guifei's remarks about falling from the building were enough to make Manchu soldiers feel ashamed. She is very measured. After her husband's death, she launched a palace coup like lightning, subverting the power center composed of eight ministers. However, she only killed three ministers in charge, spared others gently, and burned the political letters found in the homes of the three ministers in public, which made a large number of officials involved in political enemy groups breathe a sigh of relief, stabilized the situation and settled people's hearts. This was her first beautiful appearance on the political stage and won applause at that time. She also has a good eye. Under the impact of western culture, China's first wise response, the Westernization Movement, started with her support. She supports sending overseas students, building factories and building a new army. In the last ten years of her rule, she made great efforts to carry out political reforms and prepared to adopt the western constitutional monarchy. The scope of her reform is even wider than Kang Youwei's original idea, and the reform means are obviously more practical and effective than the measures taken during the Reform Movement of 1898. If she encounters a relatively stable political situation, we have reason to believe that she will successfully complete her political career, surpassing not only most female rulers in history, but also most emperors with mediocre political achievements. In that case, she will never leave a stigma in history.
It's a pity that she happened to meet the most embarrassing and difficult time in China.
Unfortunately, in her dual role, she is essentially a woman rather than a politician, although she is strong and capable.
It is said that women in flag-bearer families are often more capable than their husbands. Many children of the Eight Banners have played enough music outside, but when they get home, they have to be managed by women. Such a woman is called "uncle" by her nephew and "father" by her son, not "mother". Yenara is undoubtedly such a woman. Emperor Guangxu called her "Emperor Dad" from an early age. As it happens, Emperor Xianfeng is a soft egg. In the midst of internal troubles and foreign invasion, he couldn't help it. All day long, except going to the opera, he was as drunk as a fiddler. Such men often need and appreciate women with strong personalities in their lives, and even have an unconscious dependence. When Laner first tried to give him advice, he didn't object. As a result, the young and clever daughter-in-law in this special family took this opportunity to approach and finally enter the power center.
However, she doesn't want to be a politician. At first, she wanted to be the master for her weak husband, but later, she wanted to keep the property of the family of Aisinggioro, so as not to bully orphans and widows. In essence, she is just a shrewd aristocratic woman who loves pleasure and manages the country in the way she is familiar with managing the family. From the existing literature, we can see a large number of conversation record, who are called powerful ministers. In many cases, these conversations are more like chatting with relatives than conversations between politicians. Zeng Guofan, the most famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, visited the Queen Mother in Beijing for the first time. I didn't expect Cixi to chat with him. How many brothers do you have? How many years have you been out of Beijing? Is Ceng Guoquan your brother? Zeng Guofan wrote disappointedly in the diary of that day: "The two palaces are general, and there is nothing to say when we meet." There is no doubt that she loves power, but she is only content to control others and use power to maintain her position and life. She doesn't want to make achievements in the political field, and she doesn't want to make a name in history. She didn't sacrifice herself for her career, country and nation like a man, nor did she sacrifice her private life for politics. On the contrary, she devoted a lot of enthusiasm to her private life. She is more concerned about building a garden for herself. What makes her happy is to talk about women's topics with those clever palace relatives, keep pets and develop cosmetics. With her position and conditions, if she is more sensitive and enterprising, it is entirely possible for her to get in touch with brand-new western civilization more deeply, observe the world more rationally, and understand the situation and needs of China, so as to guide the country to a safer track with her own intelligence. It's a pity that she is only interested in Paris fashion and waltz. After dealing with government affairs every day, she spends a lot of time on makeup, sightseeing, feasting and watching movies. She completely put herself in the life interest of a traditional female aristocrat and didn't see the possibility of developing her talents in another way. She is decisive and cold in the power struggle, but she is slow to respond to the world trend; She has enough wisdom and means to control the situation, but not enough enthusiasm and responsibility to change China. In many cases, she can wisely adapt to the current situation and take correct opinions, such as trusting the Han people and supporting the Westernization Movement. On many occasions, she did many wrong things to defend her position, which affected the future of the whole country. For example, she attacked the lawsuit twice, just because the power of the lawsuit was too great, which made her uneasy. The two blows disheartened the backbone of the Qing Dynasty. "There is nothing to rely on." It had a great influence on the political situation in the late Qing Dynasty. All her political struggles are purely power struggles, not political struggles.
She is an incomplete feminist, and her feminist awakening is incomplete. Due to the limitation of cultural tradition, she didn't expect to fully develop herself in the male field. In the depths of her consciousness, she can't get rid of the identity of "taking care of her husband, educating her children, and guarding the family." Some people compare her to Russian Queen Catherine II. In fact, this comparison is not accurate. She has Catherine's shrewdness and courage, but not Catherine's scientific mind and political vision. Under the enlightened dictatorship of the latter, Russia has improved its administrative efficiency, attracted a large number of foreign scientists, made great progress in science and technology, and greatly enhanced its comprehensive national strength. Ye Henara brought China a dull and conservative thing.
Her quality can make her rank among the first-class politicians, but the cultural atmosphere in which she grew up limited her vision and made her waste this precious opportunity. At this time, China needs a giant with extraordinary verve and superhuman insight to guide him, so that he can get rid of heavy inertia and survive many disasters. Unfortunately, history did not produce such a giant, but left this position to her, a woman who was too focused on herself. This is her tragedy.
However, if we exclude other factors and look at Yehnara from the perspective of women, we find that she is quite beautiful. Both the appearance and the internal quality are quite radiant. Unlike most women in that era, she attached herself to men in a self-indulgent way, suppressed herself with strong habits, and strangled her life with unfairness in unfair self-sacrifice. She fearlessly challenged the tradition that men are superior to women, risked her life, broke through many obstacles and publicized her enthusiasm for life. She has many qualities of modern women. She is extremely confident, dares to do it, never suppresses herself, nor does she wronged herself. Facing the political world composed of a group of men, she is not timid. Through her cleverness and cunning, she succeeded in turning the world into a tool to safeguard her desires. She is full of energy and loves life. Unlike other women, she lacks the heat of life, and she is willing to burn the flame of life silently and feebly. The old maid-in-waiting in Talk to Maids recalled: "Empress Dowager Cixi was full of energy. The queen mother has to take care of so many big things all day long. Every day, she is still so carefree, making free time, paying attention to eating, dressing and having fun. She is always energetic and not tired. " She loves beauty. At the age of twenty-five, she became a widow, but in the lonely palace, she still dressed herself enthusiastically. She is extremely persistent about beauty. For more than forty years, she spent hours in front of the makeup mirror every day, and she had to dress herself meticulously and radiant. She often said, "What's the point of living if a woman has no intention of dressing herself up?" She is naturally fond of big red and purple, and she likes bright and colorful things. She is as clever as ice and snow. She couldn't read when she first entered the palace, but through self-study, she developed a good hand and wrote a good poem. She likes Tang poetry and Song poetry and a dream of red mansions, and is her lonely companion in the palace. She also likes painting, leaving a batch of passable works. She has a high appreciation of art and is quite accomplished in garden architecture. She leads an interesting life, and every detail in her life is arranged with relish.
She has ruthless moments, but she is also full of human feelings. Especially for the ladies around her, she is extremely amiable and rarely shows ill. The ladies-in-waiting in the palace recalled her, and her words were not without warmth: "The old lady is the most intelligent person, and she treats her closest personal girl differently. No matter how unpleasant things outside are, they are always pleasant to us. For example, she said to me, Rong Er, come here, how stupid your braid is. If you keep your braids longer, you will look good when you walk! " In De Ling's memoirs, what you see is not the cold iron lady, but a dignified and kind old lady.
Perhaps, as a woman, what Yehenara is most sorry for the Aisinggioro family is her mistakes in children's education. For the only son, she dotes on maternal love and coddles him too much, making this child the most worthless of the twelve emperors in the Qing Dynasty, with poor self-control. She is keen on traveling incognito and spends all day in teahouses and brothels. How can she let such a son take over all power? As for her stepson Guangxu, he overcorrected and disciplined too strictly, and educated a weak child. Such a successor can't bear the heavy responsibility of saving and destroying the empire. The mistake of family education is undoubtedly one of the biggest failures of Yenara, a clever woman. And this is part of the reason why she has been in politics for so long.
There is no denying that Yehnara has a deep fascination with power, which is her weakness. The word power is too attractive, and the desire for power is rooted in the depths of human nature, which makes the deep-rooted transcendence consciousness in human nature fully realized, which is an irresistible temptation for any strong person. From this perspective, Yenara's failure is due to the universal weakness of human nature rather than his own gender factors.
Cixi is such a woman. She has a rebellious character that ordinary women in that era did not have, but she can't jump out of the limitations of people in that era. She is charming and provocative, she is smart and ignorant, she is bold and conservative, and she is diligent and eager for pleasure. She misunderstood politics, and politics also gave her a thousand years of blame.
Cixi, a woman, finished her life with her own temperament. She worked hard and had twists and turns. At the end of her life, she seemed to have a little regret. Her last words were: "Don't let women go into politics in the future. This violates North Korea's family law and must be strictly restricted. "
She admitted that she had dabbled in politics, but failed. She wants others not to imitate her, but to be a simple woman. But how can she make a woman so beautiful if she doesn't get involved in politics?
She can't give the answer to this question. ...