Know all about the secrets of the harem

Chapter 26
No matter what physical problems Puyi has, her husband is better off alone.When the loneliness in the palace slowly devoured Wanrong's youth, the existence of Wenxiu became more and more an obstacle in her heart.Her vanity does not allow another woman to equal her.Although Wenxiu, who is only 14 years old, is not as beautiful as Wanrong, the education of three obediences and four virtues made her appear more docile and kind than Wanrong.And Puyi was fine with Wenxiu at first.For example, when going out to play in the palace, Pu Yi would often call Shang Wenxiu; when hiring an English teacher for Wanrong, he would not forget to ask Wenxiu to help him; Wenxiu can also appear on the scene suitable for empress and concubine activities.However, Wanrong was very dissatisfied with this.

In 1924, Feng Yuxiang launched the "Beijing Coup", and Puyi and others were expelled from office, and moved to Zhangyuan, Tianjin in February of the following year.After leaving office, Wanrong seemed to be refreshed for a while. She changed her attire in the palace and put on a fashionable cheongsam and high-heeled leather shoes. Modern Woman".What makes her even more excited is that Tianjin, a bustling commercial city, provides her with fashionable and romantic ways of pastime: watching theater, dancing, skating, playing ball... The most attractive thing for her is going to major department stores For company shopping, since Puyi paid for it anyway, she could spend freely without any scruples, so that this kind of material stimulation later developed into a means of competing for favor between Wanrong and Wenxiu.Puyi later called it "competition-like purchase" in "My First Half of Life".He recalled: "Wanrong was originally a young lady in Tianjin, and she has more ways to spend money to buy trash than I do. Whatever she buys, Wenxiu must also want it. I bought it for Wenxiu, and Wanrong must buy it again, and the flowers It seems that it is not enough to show the identity of the queen.” At that time, the royal family living in Tianjin maintained a superficially luxurious life by pawning cultural relics stolen from the Forbidden City before, so such days did not last long. The economy is gradually exhausted, and of course it is difficult to continue to satisfy Wanrong's material vanity.

The new environment did not improve the relationship between Wanrong and Puyi, and they have never been able to establish the loving and sincere relationship between ordinary couples.One reason was that Puyi was thinking about restoration under the instigation of the elders at that time, and the more important reason was that he himself realized later: "I don't know what love is. Others are equal couples. To me, the relationship between husband and wife It’s the master-slave relationship, and wives and concubines are the king’s slaves and tools.” Although he also asked Wanrong to show up when there were entertainments, in Puyi’s eyes, Wanrong was just a decoration for the occasion.Boredom and loneliness made Wanrong's spirit more and more depressed, and she often couldn't sleep at night, and finally got neurasthenia, and her opium addiction was getting bigger and bigger.

In the autumn of 1931, the "imperial concubine revolution", which had caused a sensation in the society, caused Puyi's family life to be turbulent. Because Shufei Wenxiu couldn't bear Wanrong's tit-for-tat confrontation with her and Puyi's unequal treatment to her, she resorted to tricks He ran away from home and eventually divorced Puyi by agreement.Since it was Wanrong who squeezed out Wenxiu and caused Puyi to lose face in front of the public, naturally, Wanrong must also bear this crime.From then on, Puyi seldom talked to Wanrong, and rarely went to Wanrong's bedroom.Even after Puyi fled to Manchuria and became emperor of his "Manchukuo", Wanrong was rarely allowed to show her face.Unlimited emptiness, indifference and loneliness formed in Wanrong's heart, and as Wanrong smoked more and more fiercely, she began to lose her mind and often cursed Puyi with nonsense, which undoubtedly only increased Puyi's disgust towards her .

The complete breakdown of the relationship between Puyi and Wanrong was due to the ambiguous relationship between Wanrong and Puyi's entourage in 1935, which resulted in pregnancy.At that time, Wanrong was in her youthful age, and she was born like a flower like a jade. The Huaichun woman did not get the favor she deserved from Puyi, and it was inevitable that she would not have problems after a long time.She had an affair with someone else.At first, Wanrong had a relationship with Qi Jizhong, Puyi's attendant, under the help of her brother and servant who had ulterior motives.Later, Qi Jizhong, as a candidate for the puppet Manchukuo general school, was sent by Puyi to the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy to study, and Wanrong had a relationship with another attendant of Puyi.Puyi had been kept in the dark about Wanrong's affair with others for a long time. It was not until 1935, when Wanrong was pregnant and about to give birth, that Puyi found out the truth.

Puyi hated this very much. In order to vent his anger, he first fired Qi Jizhong, who was studying in Japan, and the attendant who was still in the palace, and then proposed to divorce Wanrong and abolish the queen.After careful consideration, the Japanese Kwantung Army, as the "Supreme Emperor", did not approve Puyi's request.When giving birth, Wan Rong knelt down on her knees and begged Pu Yi with tears streaming down her face, hoping that he would recognize the innocent baby who was about to be born.Pu Yi firmly refused, and finally allowed the child to be sent outside the government after the birth to be raised by a nanny hired by Wanrong's brother.But she never expected that "Little Wanrong" ended her young life half an hour after she was born, and was thrown into the boiler by Puyi to be burned.This matter has been kept a secret from Wanrong.

After giving birth, Wanrong was beaten into a cold official by Puyi, and her every move was strictly monitored, and even her relatives were not allowed to meet.The poor Wanrong in the cold palace had no choice but to take cigarettes as her companion, her addiction to cigarettes became heavier and worse, and she was actually in a state of chronic suicide.A nephew of Puyi said in an interview with a European reporter in the 20s that on the east side of the second floor of Jixi Building where Wanrong lived, the strong and sweet smell of opium made people breathless. A knife can cut open."

Wang Qingyuan, who served as a guard in the inner court from 1935 to 1936, clearly saw the scene of Wanrong being poisoned by opium from the outside. Watching around the building at night, I saw that Wanrong's "inner palace" was always smoky and lingering for a long time. Sometimes, it was like this upstairs, and it was also like this downstairs, which was caused by her smoking upstairs and then downstairs. Accompanied by Wanrong For many years, Eunuch Liu has almost become a servant who specializes in serving smokers. He boils, burns and smokes cigarettes endlessly all day long, so that he himself has become a big smoker. Eunuch Liu's face was pale and haggard, and he staggered when he walked, so that Puyi often looked at him contemptuously." In fact, Puyi also understood that Eunuch Liu's body was ruined like this, and it was not his fault.Seeing this eunuch, it is not difficult to imagine Wanrong's health.Every morning after getting up, the eunuch Wang who served Wanrong reported to Puyi as usual: "Master slept for an hour last night, drank half a bowl of porridge, ate half an orange, and a small piece of apple..."

Opium is not readily available, and hibiscus requires a lot of money to maintain.There was a servant named Xie Fuyuan in the official's office, who lived in Dajing Road, Changchun City, and was well connected in the local area. Most of the opium Wanrong smoked was bought through him.On the surface, it seems that Wanrong's funds are not small, but most of them are consumed on opium, coupled with the endless waste, the part that can actually be used for Wanrong's life is very small.

Suffering from the ruthless ravages of drugs and long-term malnutrition, Wanrong not only suffered a mental breakdown, but her body was also destroyed.By the end of Manchukuo, she couldn't walk on her two legs, and she couldn't even move.Due to being confined in the house all year round, her eyes are almost blind, and she cannot see light in both eyes. When looking at people, she uses a folding fan to cover her face and looks through the cracks in the fan.The beautiful Wanrong in the past has become a lunatic who can't control herself at all. She no longer knows how to wash and dress, and is moody all day long. Only one habit still remains, that is, to smoke opium every day. The queen was transformed into a frighteningly unkempt, scrawny living ghost.

In August 1945, with the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan, the outcome of World War II was beginning to emerge.The Japanese invaders began to prepare to retreat.Puyi and his family fled from Changchun to Dalizigou in Tonghua because there was an iron ore company run by the Japanese with underground facilities for air defense.At this time, the "Queen" no longer knew how to be afraid, and relied on opium to sustain her life, while the rest was at the mercy of others.The opium brought by the puppet officials in Changchun was not enough for her to smoke, and Yan Tongjiang, Puyi's attendant, had to buy it locally at a high price.Yan Tongjiang wrote in a testimonial that he was introduced by Bi Dejin in Dalizigou from September to October 8, and bought 1945 taels of opium for Wanrong at Fan Xingwen’s house in Tunzhong, a village by the Yalu River, and spent 9 yuan. I also bought Dayan Twelve from a local policeman surnamed Huang (nicknamed "Huang Pizi").Relying on this, Wanrong lives in the clouds.

Wanrong failed to escape with Puyi. She stayed in Dalizigou, and was later arrested by the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, taken to Jilin City, and put her in a detention center.The conditions in the detention center were harsh, and Wanrong could no longer get opium supplies.Sometimes she frantically called for help, sometimes moaned in pain, sometimes her eyes widened as if she couldn't breathe, and sometimes she lay on the floor and rolled over.She was tortured to death by her addiction to cigarettes, and it was so horrible that other criminals in the same cell kept pleading with the relevant parties to "kill this endless witch"!Afterwards, Wanrong became unconscious and lay straight on the floor, feces, urine and vomit were all around her, and no one arranged for her to take a bath.The guard shrugged and said, "This man won't live long."

The last empress of China, Wanrong, died on June 1946, 6, from malnutrition and adverse reactions caused by the withdrawal of opium.She was only 20 years old that year.

Wanrong died quietly.With her hunger and thirst, her loneliness, her once flowery beauty, and her once dreamlike fantasy, she died tragically.

Wanrong is a woman at the end of an era, and her tragedy began since she was elected queen.Wanrong lived in the period when the imperial power was lost, facing countless rules and regulations in the court, she distorted her soul to cater to these rules.She doesn't have the prestige of a queen, and jealousy is the whole harem.She doesn't even have the freedom and normal family life rights that an ordinary woman should enjoy.The queen's sword bestowed on her by God hurt herself more, which made her a tragic woman.When she found that everything was nothing but bubbles, and she couldn't even get a little warmth from reality, she quickly fell to the mortal world.But the queen is another heavy shackle, and she cannot break free.She can't decide her own actions, let alone her own destiny.In that particular era and harsh environment, the spirit was extremely depressed, so he abandoned himself, self-destructed, and fell into greater despair, which eventually led to schizophrenia.Wanrong is the most unfortunate queen in history. Her life is an inevitable tragedy. It is the weakness of human nature and the vanity of women that push her into the abyss of history. She is the sacrifice of the imperial power in the last era of Chinese society. But that era couldn't resist her fate. If fate destined her to be sad, the only resistance she could do was to destroy herself.

(End of this chapter)