How did Empress Dowager Cixi handle dozens of people who accidentally saw her "carpentry face"?

According to historical records, Empress Dowager Cixi used to be a lovely beauty with extreme beauty. But few who witnessed her true beauty ended well.

Although more than a century has passed since her death, Empress Dowager Cixi still causes controversy in China because of her ruthlessness and autocracy. It is known that she ruled the Qing Dynasty for almost 5 decades.

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), was a prominent ruler of the late Qing Dynasty in Chinese history. She came from a concubine of Emperor Ham Feng, later became the biological mother of King Dong Tri and was also the uncle of King Quang Tu.

In the past year during the strict selection of the Qing Palace, Xu Xi with his outstanding beauty and beauty became one of the "winners" for the main road to enter the palace as the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng.

When he first entered the palace, Xu Xi possessed a well-proportioned physique, a lovely graceful appearance, and a soft face, white and smooth like chicken eggs. Judging by her own beauty, the Old Buddha was once very proud and said, "The palace master takes me as the standard of beauty", meaning that her appearance and temperament are so ecstatic that they make people admire.

However, through many pictures passed down to this day, most opinions say that Xu Xi's beauty can only be considered modest and completely inconsistent with modern aesthetic standards.

Notably, when she was over 40, Empress Dowager Cixi's face began to show many signs of aging such as: sagging, showing countless wrinkles; In addition, not getting enough sleep causes the skin to appear many age marks.

By the time she realized that she was getting older and decreasing, Empress Dowager Xu Xi gradually became extremely sensitive. Whenever a slave said intentionally or accidentally "hit" her face, she was mercilessly executed.

It is said that, in order for others not to see his ugly old form, Xu Xi wakes up every day at 3 a.m. so that he can have more time to apply makeup. But "the needle in the wrapper has been sticking out for a long time."

One day, Xu Xi, after waking up, while dreaming because he didn't get enough sleep, forgot to put on makeup, and called the eunuch and palace maidens to his servants to change their clothes, all over nearly 50 people.

A newly entered eunuch who did not understand the story accidentally saw Empress Dowager Cixi's "face". He was only used to seeing her usual appearance, so this time seeing her face, this person was immediately scared to the point of frightening, and with a cry of "Asia", some even fell to the ground.

At this time, Xu Xi came back to his senses and immediately ran to the mirror. Looking over her unadorned form, she indignantly called out to the guard: "You, take them all out and slash for me!"

It is worth mentioning that at that time, facing the cries of others for forgiveness, Xu Xi felt even more humiliated. Moreover, the empress dowager thought that it was better to kill by mistake than to miss it, and then everyone who saw her "face" was guillotined to avoid someone later talking back and forth about her beauty.

To this day, the anecdote of Xu Xi beheading a servant because he saw his face is still widely circulated by posterity. Although it is not known how true this story is, many people understand that everyone will grow old, whether they are ordinary people or princes of the kingdom, and Xu Xi is no exception.

In fact, the legend of the queen dowager's beauty was once celebrated by many people. Among them were the two women most associated with her in her old years, namely the female official Duc Linh and the foreign painter Cathleen Carl.

In the past, Duc Linh, thanks to her knowledge of foreign literature, became the first female official next to the Western Empress Dowager. In her memoirs about her days serving Cixi, this female official once shared:

"The Empress Dowager in her youth was indeed a bright, brilliant young lady who was frequently praised by the people of the palace. Later, despite her age, her old age still retains some of the beauty that touches people's hearts as in her youth..."

To these lines of the Spirit's memoirs, many people expressed doubts. Since she had been a courtier next to Xu Xi and received many benefits, it was not excluded that she would be flattered by subjective feelings to the female master she had served.

However, Xu Xi's face was also acknowledged and praised by a foreign painter. It was an American artist named Cathleen Carl – who had the opportunity to spend up to 9 months in the palace to paint portraits of her.

In Cathleen Carl's book "Xu Xi Description of the Projection", the artist once wrote: "The Empress Dowager before my eyes is a very beautiful, very gentle lady. When I guessed her age, I thought she was only in her 40s (in fact, Xu Xi was almost 70 at the time), moreover, her appearance and temperament were so outstanding that people just saw her and she was happy from the bottom of her heart."

Since she had been with Xu Xi for nearly 1 year to paint portraits, Cathleen Carl had many opportunities to closely observe every line of this Old Buddha. She further wrote:

"Empress Dowager Cixi's body parts are extremely symmetrical, her facial features are harmonious, her hands are soft, her body is slim, and her hair is black.

Indeed, the most harmonious things converged on her, making her even more outstanding. The Empress Dowager only needs to calmly laugh a little, the aura radiating will make people naturally feel joyful and ecstatic."

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