Cixi comes from the Yehenala clan, one of the oldest clan tribes of the Jurchen tribe. Cixi is the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, the biological mother of Emperor Tongzhi, the aunt of Emperor Guangxu, and the adoptive grandmother of Emperor Xuantong. The most powerful woman in the late Qing Dynasty. Cixi died of illness at 17:00 on November 15, 1908, the day after the death of Emperor Guangxu. She died of illness in Yiluan Hall, Zhongnanhai, at the age of seventy-four. It is said that the cause of Cixi's death was that she had a bad meal on her 73rd birthday. After that, she had diarrhea and suffered from dysentery. She died less than half a month after her birthday.
After Cixi passed away, in accordance with her last wish, she was buried in the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. The Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty are located in Zunhua City, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. It is a group of imperial mausoleums where five emperors, 15 queens, 136 concubines, 3 elder brothers, 2 princesses and 161 members of the Qing royal family, including of course the most powerful Empress Dowager Cixi. During Cixi's lifetime, as early as 1873, the then Emperor Tongzhi surveyed the Feng Shui in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty and began construction. It took 7 years and more than 5 million taels of silver to build it successfully. Then it was rebuilt in 1895. It was built once, and this time it took another 13 years. It was not officially completed until 1908. It took a total of 20 years and more than 10 million taels of silver to be repaired. It took Tongzhi, Guangxu and Xuantong three dynasties to repair it, which shows how luxurious the mausoleum is.
After Cixi died, she was not buried immediately, but waited for a year. Cixi died on November 15, 1908, and was not buried until November 15, 1909. There was a year in between. For a long time, Cixi's body stayed in the Qing Palace. If you want to preserve the body for one year, it must undergo special embalming treatment, which will consume a lot of time and energy. The reason why she waited for a year before being buried was firstly because Cixi chose an auspicious day to be buried a year later; secondly, it also took time to prepare various preparations for the burial, such as burial objects, body embalming, etc. During this period, Cixi His body stayed somewhere in the Qing palace.
It is said that there are many treasures in the coffin of Cixi's tomb: the bottom of the coffin is covered with three layers of gold beaded brocade mattress and one foot thick pearls. She wears a pearl phoenix crown on her head. The largest pearl on the crown is worth one thousand. Wanliang, beside him are twenty-seven statues of gold, precious stones, jade, and green Buddha statues. On both sides of his feet are jade watermelons, melons, cabbages, and more than two hundred peaches, plums, apricots, dates, etc. made of precious stones. There is a jade lotus on the left, a jade coral tree on the right, eight jade horses and eighteen jade arhats, totaling more than 700 pieces, with a total value of more than 50 million taels of silver. It is precisely because there are so many treasures in Cixi's tomb that it naturally attracted the attention of tomb robbers. Twenty years after Cixi's tomb was buried in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty, tomb robbers ushered in the tomb robber. This tomb robber was the former warlord Sun Yat-sen under Feng Yuxiang. Dian Ying.
After Cixi’s death, the Qing Tombs were originally guarded by dedicated Qing soldiers and specialized agencies were responsible for daily affairs. However, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, these soldiers and agencies gradually ceased to exist in name only, which caused some problems. People with ulterior motives coveted it, and Sun Dianying was one of them. Sun Dianying belonged to Chiang Kai-shek and was stationed at Mashen Bridge in Jixian County, which is separated by a mountain from the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty, and thus began the tomb robbing plan. Sun Dianying successfully stole the Yuling Mausoleum of Emperor Qianlong and the Dingdong Tomb of Cixi, and loaded more than 30 carts with the treasures obtained from the tomb robbery. According to Sun Dianying afterwards, Emperor Qianlong's body had already decomposed, but Cixi's body had not. Corrupted, there is still a physical body with skin attached to the bones. Cixi's body is in the coffin of Ding Dong Tomb.
Sun Dianying only stole the treasures and had no interest in Cixi's body. After looting all the treasures in Cixi's coffin, Sun Dianying did not touch Cixi's body, which remained in the coffin. leave. When Sun Dianying's tomb robbing incident occurred, it shocked the Manchus and descendants of the Qing Dynasty royal family. They appealed to Chiang Kai-shek, demanding severe punishment for the tomb robbers and strengthening the protection of the Qing Dong Tomb. Chiang Kai-shek issued an order for a strict investigation, and finally Sun Dianying took out the proceeds from the tomb robbery. He bribed high-level officials of the Kuomintang government with his jewelry to keep this matter a secret.
Shortly after Cixi’s tomb was stolen, Puyi, the abdicated Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, sent people to bury Cixi’s body again. However, because they heard that Cixi’s tomb contained a large amount of treasures, tomb robbers of all sizes continued to visit Cixi’s tomb. In 1945, a large number of Japanese and puppet troops from the Jidong Military Region brazenly stole the Qing Dong Tomb.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty became a document preservation center and was managed. In 1979, Cixi's tomb was opened again. Cultural relics protection workers entered the tomb to repair Cixi and found that Cixi's inner coffin was intact but the outer coffin was damaged. In 1984, Cixi's inner coffin was opened again, and it was confirmed that the complete skeleton in the coffin, with her upper body wrapped in yellow silk, lower body trousers embroidered with longevity characters, her right foot wearing white caltrop stockings, and her left foot naked, was that of Cixi. Cixi's body is still in the inner coffin, and it remains so to this day.
Back to the topic, where did Cixi’s body end up in history? The answer is: Cixi's body is in a coffin in the Dingdong Tomb of the Qing Dynasty in Zunhua City, Tangshan City, Hebei Province.