Walking into this elegant and quiet palace, under the eaves of the main hall are a pair of mighty bronze dragons and a pair of lively bronze deer.
The Qing dynasty made great changes to this palace: the Changchun Gate in the west was demolished, and a five-room-wide hall was built, with three small stages with unique shapes in the north; Chu Xiumen was demolished and a five-room-wide hall with corridors was built. These two halls are inverted palaces with deep and gorgeous corridors leading to the main hall.
Palace of Gathered Elegance Palace, where Cixi once lived, consists of two parts: Palace of Gathered Elegance, the main hall where Cixi lived in the north, and the topic and hall where Cixi ate in the south.
Palace of Gathered Elegance is one of the most magnificent palaces in the harem. As the birthplace of Cixi, her hobbies, appreciation and personal interests are everywhere.
The eaves of the palace are her favorite bright and beautiful Soviet-style colored paintings. The content of color painting is pleasing fairy tales, flowers, birds, insects and fish, and pavilions. The lines are vivid, the colors are elegant, and the quietness beyond the world of mortals is revealed in the beauty.
The nanmu pane, which exudes a faint fragrance, is carved with vivid patterns of longevity, flying deer and spring.
Entering the palace gate, there is a screen carved with red sandalwood and a long-lived backrest carved with southern woodcarving. In front of the screen is a throne carved with Yunlong patterns, exquisite incense sticks and Palace Hill. Looking around, the dark and steady blue gauze cabinets on the east and west sides are full of calligraphy and painting painted by ministers, almost all of which are Cixi's favorite orchids, vanilla, magnolia and bamboo.
The east and west rooms are separated by carved rosewood doors, and the interior is luxurious rosewood furniture and exotic plays: ivory pagodas, bamboo yellow treasures, jade-inlaid cabinets, ivory treasure ships of dragons and phoenixes, flower hanging screens of Diancui Phoenix birds, three-star pictures of Fu Lushou and so on.
Palace of Gathered Elegance, the main hall is five rooms wide with three light and shade.
Three bright rooms are where she lives:
In the middle of the room, there is a throne to be worshipped. Just sit a little during the holidays, not here at ordinary times;
The one in the west, connected to the bedroom, is equivalent to the outer room of the bedroom, and is used to put some things in the bedroom. After calling back, she changed clothes here, folded the maid-in-waiting, and sent it to the West Temple for temporary storage.
There is a long kang in front of the south window of Dongfangfang, which is clear and bright, and the scene in the yard is clear at a glance. She often sits here on the east side of the kang, looking out of the window, drinking tea and smoking.
Two darkrooms are the places where she practices body and mind, and the westernmost one is her bedroom and dressing room:
On the west side of the north wall is a long kang, which is bigger than a double bed. The hardwood carved bedspread in the dormitory is engraved with gourd patterns representing the prosperity of future generations. On the bedspread, there are colorful embroidered bedspreads, which exude charming luster. There are precious and rare silks embroidered with dragons and phoenixes, auspicious flowers and birds and three weaves in the south of the Yangtze River as tributes.
Bedding on kang beds changes according to different seasons, such as hanging gauze curtains to lay a quilt cover in summer and hanging squirrel curtains to lay a three-layer mattress in winter;
In the southeast corner of the south window, there is a dresser that Cixi has been obsessed with all her life. On the stage, what she loves most is the thing she loves most in her life, that is, all kinds of beauty products refined by the inner government and developed by herself are dazzling. The box in the west shelf is her favorite jewelry, which she often takes out to enjoy.
She stays here for a long time every day. For beauty, it's almost morning, noon and evening, about three hours.
Cixi is a woman who loves beauty. She always lives leisurely and pays great attention to her image and appearance. She loves beauty not only herself, but also the female officials and maids around her, asking them to strictly abide by the rules of the palace, behave like a lady, sit, sleep and sleep, walk with wind and willow, and have a beautiful posture.
The women living beside Cixi are afraid of making mistakes every day. They have many unwritten rules: you are allowed to hit, but you are not allowed to hit your face; Xu punishment, no swearing; Don't talk loudly, don't sleep on your back, don't eat spicy food, don't eat too much, don't burp, and show humility!
Cixi often said: a woman who has no intention of dressing herself up can't live!
The most special place here is the bedside where she sleeps, next to the partition in the north of the dressing room, which is clear and transparent glass. This is unique to the palace, specially set for her: on the one hand, it is for beauty and decoration, on the other hand, the clever Cixi wants to keep an eye on everything. She sleeps with her head facing west, leans on this kang, gently lifts the curtain, and has a panoramic view of everything outside the window.
The hardest and most tiring job in Palace of Gathered Elegance is scrubbing, that is, wiping the floor and furniture spotless and shining.
The female official who was favored by Cixi recalled:
The floor of the palace is paved with bricks. As the saying goes, it is called the golden brick, but it is actually a mud brick. The texture is very fine and hard. The floor is so tight that you can hardly see the cracks in the bricks. It is said that after the brick is paved, it should be burned with wax several times, so that the joints of the brick can be connected as a whole.
In summer, the ground won't crack. In winter, when there is a fire under the brick, the brick will dry and the floating soil will rise, which is absolutely forbidden in the palace, especially in Palace of Gathered Elegance. In Palace of Gathered Elegance, when you wake up after the old lady, you must water the ground to avoid dust.
There are eight maids who do rough work, staring at them from the porch of the west wing hall. They are going to wipe the floor with a wet tarpaulin. They can't work in the temple until all the decorations are packed in the palace, so they are the last batch.
First, the little eunuch carried two buckets of water to prepare. Then, eight people were divided into two groups, cleaning two single rooms first, and then cleaning the three rooms in the middle. They are responsible for everything below the legs of the table.
After cleaning two single rooms, one from east to west and the other from west to east. Eight people take turns cleaning three rooms.
After cleaning, step back and come out, don't even leave footprints.
They work on the ground, drilling under several shelves and long tables, using knees as feet and elbows on the ground. Although their knees were covered with blankets, they were all stained with purple-black blood.
When the old lady wakes up, the whole bedroom can be used as a mirror like a basin of water. This is the real Palace of Gathered Elegance.
The sleeping room should not only be spotless, but also keep a fresh breath. Cixi likes to smell the fragrance of fruit.
There are several empty cylinders under the table, long table, coffee table and yard in the palace, which are used by Cixi's smoking hall.
Cixi didn't like the smell of incense, so people in the palace used Nanguo Fumigation Hall instead. Usually, in the gap between the Queen Mother's dinner, the court attendance and the departure, the ladies-in-waiting immediately dumped the old fruit and replaced it with fresh fruit. Therefore, in Palace of Gathered Elegance, there is always a fresh and refreshing taste.
Female officer He said: If in summer, the smell permeates the bamboo curtain and smells full of fragrance. Take a deep breath. I feel very comfortable in My Sweetie. If it's winter, when the curtains in the hall are lifted, the heating will smell and feel soft and crisp all over. This is the smell of Palace of Gathered Elegance!
Laner spent the best time in Palace of Gathered Elegance for nearly ten years, namely, Lan Guiren, Yi Kun, Yi Fei and Yi Guifei, until the tenth year of Xianfeng, and went to Jehol with the emperor. In July the following year, Xianfeng died. In September, when Yi Guifei and members of the Qing court returned to Beijing from Jehol, she was already the empress dowager.
Cixi remembered this Palace of Gathered Elegance all her life. This is where she made her fortune, and it is also a blessing for her health.