Cixi was the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty, ruling the Qing Dynasty for 48 years. She has pursued luxury all her life. Although the late Qing Dynasty was riddled with holes and the national treasury was empty, Cixi's New Year's Eve dinner was quite rich, a visual feast and a delicious feast. Let's take the Spring Festival in the 20th year of Guangxu (1894) as an example to see what Cixi ate on New Year's Eve.

According to Ms. De Ling, one of the eight female officials of Cixi, 1894 10/0 was the 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi, and Cixi instructed Yi Kuang, the minister of naval yamen, to embezzle 8 million taels of silver from the navy to hold a birthday banquet in the Summer Palace.

It was during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 that Cixi had to disregard national security and satisfy her own selfish desires. It is even more important to meet on New Year's Eve.

According to Ms. De Ling's memory, Cixi's New Year's Eve was held in Ningshou Palace. Cixi worships heaven and earth first, and the first meal is to worship the ancestors. The chef serves meat, incense and kowtows first. After that, Cixi sat in the middle seat.

There are three tables for New Year's Eve, namely, three tables for heaven, earth and people. The sky watch is located on the left of Cixi, that is, the east of Cixi's seat, and the east is above it. Cixi sits above the people's table, and the floor table is set on the right side of Cixi's seat, that is, in the west. Cixi sits facing south. The mystery is self-evident.

The chef was busy early in the morning, and 30 food handlers were temporarily sent on this day. The dishes on the table are mainly from the sky, that is, there are more poultry dishes, bird's nest, delicious shredded chicken, red dates, longan and black chicken soup?

Most of the floor and table are animals, such as braised pig's feet, bear's paw, lobster, shark's fin, deer breast and so on?

People's tables are full of dishes that Cixi likes to eat. Cixi likes donkey meat. There are many famous places here, such as Hejian donkey meat fire, Shanxi Pingyao sauce beef, Tianjin Goubuli steamed buns and so on.

Let's just say that some dishes can't even be named by a female official in Delingha, let alone you and me. All three tables are New Year's Eve dinners. Cixi can't finish everything and will feed her. She symbolically ate something, saying it was New Year's Eve. I guess it's ice cream for the palace maid's eyes

But don't be discouraged, Cixi can't eat so much, and she still needs to save her appetite for the last New Year's Eve dinner? Jiaozi. Eating jiaozi is a happy reunion and a beautiful moral. Cixi cannot help but understand this.

After two hours, most of the dishes were removed almost without chopsticks, and the delivery staff and guards were holding a sumptuous meal. At the end of the New Year's Eve, Cixi went to the theatre accompanied by others.