Puyi paid 5.5 million Liang for Mei Lanfang to play Farewell My Concubine.

Wanrong was the last empress in the history of China. She entered the palace from 1922 to 1924, and was expelled from the palace by Feng Yuxiang together with the last emperor Puyi. She lived in the Forbidden City for two years. How did Wanrong marry into the palace? What's her life like in the palace? We can have a general understanding through the original archives of the Qing Dynasty.

Graceful into the palace, not to clear the door.

Puyi got married on 1 92265438+February1,and he and Wanrong are both 17 years old this year. The marriage of the Qing emperor was called the grand wedding. At this time, although the Qing Dynasty was overthrown 1 1 year, Puyi still maintained the title of emperor and continued to live in the Forbidden City, so it was still called the wedding at home and abroad. This time, in addition to graceful, there are Shu Fei's wenxiu.

Wanrong was chosen as the queen, which really took a lot of trouble. At the beginning, after the news of choosing the queen for Puyi spread, people who proposed marriage followed. However, according to the custom of the Qing Dynasty, queens were all selected from the daughters of Manchu and Mongolian princes and ministers. Therefore, the people recommended by Xu Shichang and Zhang were politely declined. It is said that Uncle Zai Tao, who was in charge of summarizing the marriage proposal at that time, bound all the girls' photos into a book. In this dazzling group of women, after repeated screening, four people were shortlisted as candidates. After careful selection, the last one is elegant and beautifully embroidered.

There is only one queen, whether graceful or Wen Xiu. There is a conspiracy in the royal family, especially those toffees. They all want the little emperor to choose the girl he likes to consolidate his power in the palace. This will not give way to each other. In the end, Puyi will have to "imperial decree". After seeing the photos of Wanrong and Wenxiu, he finally chose Wanrong as the queen, and Wenxiu was named Shu Fei. According to folklore, Wanrong's father, Rong Yuan, spent 202,000 gold to buy the queen's rockhopper for his daughter. This is just a rumor, which is difficult to prove.

The ceremony of marrying Wanrong as the queen was done in accordance with the old practice of Qing Dynasty, which was divided into four steps: accepting bride price, receiving gift money, conferring ceremony and getting married. 1922, 10, 2 1 On this day, Puyi sent envoys and deputy envoys to the Graceful House of Maoer Hutong outside Di 'anmen, Beijing, with nearly 1,000 honor guards and sedan chairs 100 gifts. In the next two months, a grand ceremony was held, the bride's family was told the exact date of marriage, and the title ceremony was officially awarded to the queen. Speaking of it, Wanrong's wedding is still a little regrettable. According to the custom of the Qing Dynasty, no matter where the Queen's family lived in Beijing, the wedding procession had to pass through the Qing Gate, and then entered the Palace from the main entrance of the Forbidden City-the Wumen Gate. Except the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, no courtiers can walk around without authorization, and the Empress can only enjoy it once on the wedding day. However, Wanrong did not enjoy this honor. She entered the palace not only without the Qing gate, but also without the meridian gate. Wanrong takes Donghuamen Street and enters the palace from Donghuamen. From this point of view, she, the queen of a small court, is still different from the real queen of the Great Qing Dynasty. At this time, Puyi was the abdicated emperor. Although he is allowed to live in the harem, the area south of the Gan Qing Gate of the Forbidden City belongs to Beiyang, so he can no longer be so picky.

According to the index, the 10 emperors who entered the Qing Dynasty successively established 24 empresses. If Wanrong can still be called the queen, then she is the 25th out-of-print queen in ancient China.

Mei Lanfang performed Farewell My Concubine for Wanrong's wedding.

In the well-preserved Puyi archives, there are two wedding gift books, the cover of which reads "Wedding Gift Book", which lists the names of gifts, the types and quantities of items, etc. The list includes not only the old ministers of the Qing dynasty, but also the dignitaries, warlords and politicians of the Republic of China, and foreign envoys are also among them. At that time, President Lee sent a special envoy to congratulate him with 20,000 silver dollars. Cao Kun, Wu, Feng Yuxiang, Xu Shichang, Zhang and other dignitaries of the Republic of China, as well as celebrities such as Kang Youwei, also presented gifts such as Ruyi and furniture.

In order to prepare for the wedding, the small court at that time set up a "big wedding preparation office". They consulted the Qing code and the archives of the Qing emperor's wedding, and finally decided to do it according to the scale of the Tongzhi emperor's wedding, because the wedding cost is relatively low. Although the small court can no longer be extravagant, it finally spent more than 400 thousand silver dollars. At that time, two yuan could buy a bag of flour. Emperor Guangxu's wedding actually cost 5.5 million taels of silver!

During the wedding, the palace sang for three days in a row and spent more than thirty thousand silver dollars. It is worth mentioning that Mei Lanfang and Yang Xiaolou were specially invited to perform Farewell My Concubine. At that time, it was suggested that it was inappropriate to perform such a sad play on such a big day. However, Pu Yi decided to act because she felt that it didn't matter. When the play reached the emotional stage, toffee and the prince's wives shed tears. After the play was over, some princes and old ministers were preoccupied and thought it was an ominous sign. Two years later, Puyi and Wanrong were driven out of the palace. Some people said: It was all the fault of farewell my concubine at the wedding!

Wanrong's English name in the palace is Elizabeth.

In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's birthday was called Wanshou Festival, and the queen's birthday was called Qian Qiu Festival. Whenever such a festival happens, the palace will sing and play to celebrate for a few days. 1September, 923, is the first Millennium Festival after Wanrong entered the palace. Although she repeatedly said that she would be thrifty, she sang a play in Shu Fangzhai of the Forbidden City for a whole day, and gave silver dollars to eunuchs and maids around her, ranging from 5 yuan in 2 yuan to 10. Even in normal times, Wanrong's daily living expenses are one or two hundred yuan.

It is said that Wanrong, who grew up in the Republic of China, received a lot of westernization education under the influence of her business father. In the Forbidden City, Wanrong and Puyi often ride bikes to play ball together. Wanrong also taught Puyi to eat western food. The masters of these small imperial courts, Puyi, Wanrong and Wenxiu, also took many photos in the palace, leaving their graceful figures.

In Puyi's archives, there are many English short messages written to Puyi by Wanrong in the palace that year. The two met every day and wrote letters in English, which shows that they had a good relationship at that time. In order to learn English, Wanrong invited two American female teachers to teach her in the palace. Wen Xiu also studies English, but she is a female teacher from China. In Wanrong's letter to Wenxiu, some English words are also mixed from time to time. At that time, Wanrong also had an English name, Elizabeth. At that time, she wrote "Elizabeth" in transliteration, and Puyi's English name was Henry. Westernization has entered and influenced the life of the last court.

1924165438+1On October 5th, Feng Yuxiang's army entered the Forbidden City. At that time, Beijing garrison commander Lu came to the Forbidden City with more than 20 policemen, forcing Puyi's small court to accept the revised "preferential conditions" and leave the Forbidden City that day. Panic suddenly appeared in the palace. Puyi held her cheeks in her hands and said nothing. Wen Xiu said helplessly: "Let's move out, so as not to be scared here!" Only Wanrong was tough and shouted: "Anyway, I am determined not to move today, I can't move!" However, whether they want to move or not, the army entered the palace at nine o'clock in the morning, and at four o'clock in the afternoon, Puyi handed over the two seals of "Treasure of the Emperor" and "Treasure of Xuantong", and took a group of family members around him in five cars and temporarily moved to his father's alcoholic residence in Zai Feng. The last emperor Puyi and the last queen Wanrong left the Forbidden City forever.