Due to the broadcast of TV series such as "The Last Emperor", although Puyi was the last emperor and the king of the country's subjugation, everyone paid more attention to him than to some of the founding emperors. Being an emperor is a profession that is envied by everyone in the world. He has the highest power in a country and the highest treatment in a country. The Japanese have a saying: "Awakening to hold the power of the world, drunk in the lap of a beautiful woman". This is probably the best description of the emperor in our imagination.
However, the Japanese who wrote "Wake up the power of the world, lie drunk on the knees of a beautiful woman" is not an emperor, nor is he the Emperor of Japan. Of course, he has never truly experienced the feeling of being an emperor. He is just a powerful minister. That’s all. The real emperor is not so comfortable and unrestrained. Like the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he was scolded by the civil servants every two days. The civil servants even insisted on which wife he liked. It can be said that he almost lost his freedom in life!
The emperor of the Qing Dynasty could be dictatorial in terms of power. Ji Xiaolan wanted to show off his knowledge and comment on political affairs, but he was scolded by Qianlong on the spot. From then on, he never dared to comment on political affairs indiscriminately again. But the Qing emperors also had their own troubles, such as eating. The position of emperor requires not only guarding against enemies and enemy countries, but also guarding against one's own wife and children. For example, if the prince puts some poison in the emperor's food, wouldn't he be able to successfully usurp the throne and become emperor as soon as possible?
For the queen, it is also what they want for the old emperor to die early. Because as soon as the old emperor died, she was the nominal owner of the highest power in the empire. She could even secretly find other men without having to ask for the favor of the old emperor, such as Cixi. From this, it seems that the queen also wanted to poison the old emperor. So why didn't the ancient princes poison the royal meals when they usurped the throne?
Due to the passage of history, it is difficult for us to obtain the experiences of other people in detail. It is said in the TV series that the emperor of the Qing Dynasty could only eat twice of each dish to prevent his servants and courtiers from knowing the emperor's preferences and poisoning the food. At the same time, he ate very little of each dish. Even if he was unfortunately poisoned, the poison would The dose will be relatively small, and the patient can be rescued by resuscitation. This should be regarded as an important measure for the emperor to prevent the prince, queen, eunuchs, maids, etc. from poisoning himself.
However, the authenticity of this measure is questionable. Historically, Guangxu liked to eat seafood, while Cixi liked to eat duck meat (although she was not an emperor, but she was more emperor than an emperor), and Qianlong often personally When ordering food, you have to ask for vegetables, so? You can’t put three dishes in it? This statement should be questionable. If the emperor wants to eat more, the eunuchs and maids dare not let him eat? It seems impossible even when I think about it.
However, in order to prevent the emperor from being assassinated and retaliated by some forces, such as the famous Tiandihui, the Qing Dynasty formulated a complete set of security measures to ensure that the emperor would never be poisoned for eating, so it was almost There are few examples of princes drugging the emperor's kitchen? This will only bring humiliation to oneself.
Pu Yi, as the last emperor, was very clear about this method of food safety. He said that before he ate, he would first use silverware to test the poison on each dish, and then test the poison on the silverware. If there is no reaction, then ask a special eunuch or palace maid to test the poison? Hu Shangyi in "The Ming Dynasty" is such a female official. After trying the poison, Puyi still couldn't eat it. He had to see if the poison was a chronic poison. Then he would reward his concubines with some and let them eat it. If it was poisonous, they would have blocked Puyi's arrow. .
And when the chef in the imperial kitchen is cooking, there is one person cooking, another person lighting the fire, and another person responsible for recording what ingredients the chef used during the period, how to operate it, and who he met during the period. Everything will be recorded clearly, and no one dares to go to the imperial dining room without incident and cause unnecessary trouble to themselves.
After such a careful poison test, it was too difficult to poison the emperor, so there was no prince who could not think of poisoning the imperial meal, because once the poison was tested, it would be easy to find out who it was. The emperor was poisoned, but the emperor was not poisoned to death. The prince was only afraid that he would take the first step.