Secrets of the Qing Palace: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Twelve Qing Dynasties

Three hundred years of Qing history are full of mysteries: clouds of suspicion within the palace and rumors from the court; secrets left unspoken and questions unresolved; historical verdicts and events with their own causes.

What did the feudal dynasty founded by the Manchus actually do over nearly three hundred years? The Qing dynasty may have fallen, but it left behind countless baffling mysteries and countless people and events that shook history. Even today, people still delight in discussing them. This book digs up and turns over the hidden history buried beneath three hundred years of Qing transformation. It explores these stories in detail, offers guidance through the mysteries, untangles puzzles, and draws on unofficial histories. In short, it reveals the secrets of the twelve Qing dynasties and recounts the three hundred years of Qing history filled with unanswered questions.

Why was the mighty emperor imprisoned on an island and reduced to a true solitary figure? Why did the empress of the realm give in to her passions and secretly meet a palace guard? Why did a princess of noble blood need a matron's permission even to share a bed with her husband? How did a lowly eunuch, punished by castration, dare to stand as an equal to court officials? Do you know how many Qing emperors gained the throne through conspiracy? Do you know which officials were allowed to sleep and rise alongside the emperor? Was the emperor's ordination as a monk historical fact or a later embellishment? Was the empress dowager's marriage to the emperor's father a political stratagem or a slanderous rumor? Was the story that Yongzheng was beheaded a baseless rumor or a miscarriage of justice? Did Qianlong's southern tours seek his roots or pleasure? The Qing dynasty has far too many unsolved mysteries, and its history is truly hard to make sense of. "Secrets of the Qing Palace" gives you a key to unlock these mysteries, inviting you to wander through the maze of Qing history and lose yourself in it...