Empress Dowager Cixi forced the palace lady to hold water in her mouth when she went to the toilet, a peculiar hobby or some other reason?

Going to the toilet was a relatively private thing in everyone's eyes, but Empress Dowager Xu Xi brought the palace lady with her. Not only that, this Empress Dowager also asked the palace lady to hold water in her mouth with the purpose of being extremely surprised.

Empress Dowager Xu Xi (1835–1908) was the concubine of Qingwen Tong Emperor Ham Feng and the mother of Emperor Tongji. After her husband's death, she seized power and had great influence over King Tongji and the next emperor, Guangzi.

Accordingly, Empress Dowager Xu "overthrew" the Qing dynasty for 47 years. Not only holding great power, this queen also has extremely luxurious and sophisticated daily living habits. However, her toilet habits, which are documented in many documents, make posterity shudder and anxious to read.

Empress Dowager Xu Xi's complicated toilet procedure

Empress Dowager Xu Xi was known for being picky and luxurious in the way she dressed, choosing food, housing, and transportation. But what scares palace ladies and eunuchs the most when serving her is her unusual habit of going to the toilet. Empress Dowager Xu Xi paid special attention to this, for example, the red sandalwood toilet bowl she used was precious and could be said to be priceless. This item is made from very rare and expensive materials, and can also diffuse fragrance, so Empress Dowager Xu Xi likes to use it. At the same time, the toilet bowl is carved with exquisite patterns, also inlaid with gold, silver and precious stones, showing the majesty and luxury of Empress Dowager Xu.

In addition, Xu Xi's "procedure" every time he went to the toilet was extremely complicated and complicated. She had her own outfit to wear only for each occasion. The palace maidens would help Xu Xi change into this outfit, and then the eunuch Lianying would help her sit down on the toilet. However, this is not something that makes posterity feel strange. The detail that surprised everyone was the fact that the palace ladies had to fill their mouths with water while waiting for the empress dowager.

As it turns out, the act of putting water in the mouths of palace girls is so that they will then use it to soak into toilet paper to make it softer and warmer.

The reason was that toilet paper at that time was very hard and rough, which made Xu Xi very uncomfortable, so she immediately thought of this odd way. Once absorbed, toilet paper would be delivered to the eunuch Lien Anh for use by the empress dowager.

However, in order to please Empress Dowager Cixi, many palace ladies had to endure a lot of suffering when standing by their servants without daring to complain about anything.

This partly shows that Empress Dowager Cixi's servants are not as happy and relaxed as many people think.

This way of going to the toilet of Empress Dowager Xu Xi made many people feel terrified. Because in the human oral cavity there are inherently countless different bacteria. Moreover, in feudal times, the use of toothpaste and brushes was also uncommon. The more improper the oral hygiene of people in that era will be, the more bacteria in the mouth will naturally be, it is easy to cause diseases of the rectum.

How to use toilet paper to be safe for health?

The introduction of toilet paper is considered a brilliant invention of mankind. Before that, the ancient Romans used a brush with a handle to do personal hygiene after defecation. This brush is then soaked in a jar of salt water for further use. Vikings wiped with towels, while Native Americans used leaves within reach, or cobs. The French kings used linen rags.

The Chinese pioneered the use of paper for personal hygiene. But only the emperor was allowed to use it. It was not until later, as printing technology developed, that paper was widely used for personal hygiene (old newspapers, old books, etc.). In 1857, an American devised a way to cut paper into square sheets and pack it and in 1890 a paper mill in the United States began mass-producing this toilet paper in rolls.

The use of toilet paper makes cleaning after defecation much easier and more "polite". Today, however, some health experts warn that many gastrointestinal diseases could threaten communities because of their habit of using toilet paper.

According to an article published in the scientific journal Scientific American, the structure with many folds does not allow a sheet of paper to clean it completely, not to mention a small amount of feces carrying many bacteria and viruses that cannot be seen also adheres to the hands, which washing hands then is unlikely to completely eliminate.

In addition, many cases of rectal damage have been recorded by some people who because they want to be clean have created excessive friction force on the delicate mucosal area in this area. In the long run, it can be the cause of cracks, hemorrhoids and many other troubles.

According to some doctors, toilet sprays are both safe for health and environmentally friendly. Medically, clean water is a safe and thorough cleaning method, suitable for the rather sensitive structure of this area, helping you to completely eliminate pathogenic factors.

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