Everyone has their own little hobby, or is obsessed with something. In modern terms, it is a hobby, such as animation, food, games, etc.

But this is not only the "play" of modern people. Everyone knows that ancient people also had many little hobbies, even emperors and queen mothers were no exception.

Cixi is a novel lover, and the novels that fascinate her are "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". From this, we can see that she likes mysterious and strange stories.

When she was still alive, she had collected a set of "ghost paintings" that she liked very much. However, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, Cixi failed to take them away while fleeing in panic. As a result, the ghost paintings were snatched away by the Eight-Power Allied Forces.

Unlike modern people, ancient people had access to the Internet and mobile phones, so in their spare time, they usually chose some more literary and artistic pastimes to enrich their free time.

Cixi was no exception. As the true ruler of the Qing Dynasty, she not only did not have to worry about material things, she also lived a quite luxurious life.

And she personally likes extravagance and waste, and she received countless rare treasures on her 60th birthday.

In her later years, Cixi also liked to accept bribes in disguised form, and in order to please her, those officials plundered people's wealth and gave her gifts to please her.

However, it is not an easy task to please a powerful queen mother, because each official's salary is relatively high, and some are relatively small, which also determines their ability to give gifts.

In addition, every official hopes that the gift he chooses will be unique, and it is best to stand out and win Cixi's favor.

Among the treasures Cixi received, there was one thing that she liked very much and couldn't put it down, namely a set of "ghost paintings".

Maybe many people can't figure it out. How can ghost paintings be as valuable as rare treasures? Moreover, the ancients were a bit superstitious. Shouldn't she stay away from those things?

In fact, the set of ghost paintings that Cixi liked were not as scary as everyone thought. On the contrary, they were more interesting. They were unique treasures in that era.

Why do you say that?

At that time, some officials who wanted to please Cixi had very little salary, and at the same time they did not want to plunder the people's wealth, so they came up with a clever plan. After finding out that Cixi especially liked reading "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", they decided to imitate the four famous works and make an illustration.

version of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

Books with illustrations are not unusual in modern times, but ancient books are mostly densely packed with text, which makes them boring to read.

To this end, several officials hired painting experts to draw 745 pictures based on the content of Liaozhai. At the same time, they used a small wiper to excerpt the corresponding story content next to each picture, so that they would not be confused when reading.

It's boring, but full of pictures and texts.

After production, there were 48 volumes of this illustrated version of Liaozhai, which was equivalent to a comic book or a TV series at that time.

As expected, this book was loved by Cixi. Most of the contents were stories about ghosts and spirits, so it was called ghost painting and was also known as the "Queen's Book" of the imperial palace.

After receiving it, Cixi would look through it when she had free time and became quite fascinated by it. Unfortunately, it was later snatched away by the coalition forces.

As the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing in 1900, Cixi could only put aside her distinguished status and escape in a hurry.

In this case, there was very little she could take away, and naturally there was no time to take away the set of ghost paintings.

After the coalition forces invaded the palace, they began to loot and loot the gold, silver, jewelry, and rare treasures.

After they saw this set of ghost paintings and read through them freshly, they found them uninteresting and did not pay attention to them.

After the set of ghost paintings was snatched away by the Allied Forces, 57 years passed unknowingly, and the ghost paintings were in the hands of Soviet Russia.

A lot of things have happened in the past few decades, and the situation in our country has also changed a lot. The other party felt that this set of ghost paintings was of great value to China, and finally returned 46 of them free of charge.

Where did the other two volumes go?

When the Eight-Power Allied Forces snatched it away, there were only 46 volumes, and two volumes were missing.

However, through everyone's efforts, two other volumes were finally found, making this set of ghost paintings complete again after decades.

This set of ghost paintings has been estimated by experts to be worth 65 million.

Conclusion In any case, this set of ghost paintings originally belonged to us, and it is reasonable for them to be returned free of charge.

However, if the things were taken away, if the other party insists on not returning them, we will still need to put in more effort.

Presumably the reason for the other party's return is more complicated, and it is also a sign of respect for our country. It also reflects the changes in our strength.

All in all, it's a relief to have this set of ghost paintings back in its entirety.