[There are several versions of the historical accounts of the Tongzhi Emperor's cause of death. Based on the historical materials available to me, I lean toward the belief that he died of a sexually transmitted disease. This novel tells the story of Empress Alute, and aims to portray the cruel realities she endured without shying away from her suffering. If you can't accept this premise, don't open the book, and there's no need to leave a comment telling me how you feel about it.]
---Blurb updated 2023.12.19---
While writing the chapter "Phoenix Falls," I felt that Empress Alute had suffered far too much and was terribly pitiable. I decided on the spur of the moment to let her live again. What was originally a short story may end up a little longer.
---Original blurb---
The Tongzhi Emperor x Empress Alute
A short story. The sweetness is very sweet, and the angst is devastating.
The supreme favor of an emperor can weave a dream so beautiful it inspires envy. But this novel isn't meant to create a purely deceptive, happy fantasy. Instead, it tries to lift the gorgeous robe and reveal the true circumstances of women in the feudal palace.
As for the prose, I'm confident this will be a beautiful story.
A sorrowful, haunting elegy,
for a woman gifted in both beauty and talent,
sent into the palace by her family, her whole life sacrificed in the bloom of youth;
the story of a young man and woman who love but cannot stay together;
a tomb of the living dead at an empire's twilight.
A man loving a woman, a woman loving a man. An ordinary thing in this world, and yet here, it is forbidden.
Alute Yunshan loved living things: flowers, plants, birds, beasts, insects, and fish.
This palace... Yunshan often felt it was a mass grave. In the sinking sunlight, the dead seemed to wander everywhere. Some were the ghosts of those who had lived before. Others were young and looked alive, yet seemed like walking corpses.
Only Zai Chun had a heart. His heart beat, and hot blood flowed within him. He was the only living creature in the palace, like a little beast, so vividly alive. Love and hatred were both alive, both real.
But in this tomb of the living dead, with its yellow tiles and vermilion walls, even if a living creature happened to wander in, how long could it survive?
Theme: A tomb of the living dead at an empire's twilight.
Chang'an Fragrance Bureau
[Three Kingdoms] Lilac Knot (Part Two)
The Nine Linked Rings
The Legend of Huang Chu (Three Kingdoms)
The Fourth Prince's Lazy, Lucky Mother
4U University
Xu Di
Glass Bead
The Red Raincoat
[Three Kingdoms] The Everlasting Lantern
Ruo Lan, the Salt Merchant
The Bond Between Us
Hello, my Chinese name is Xiaoyun, but my real name is Kate, from Australia. I discovered your book while doing research because I am also writing a novel (in English) about Queen Arutshi. Please forgive me, I am self-taught in Chinese, so there may be errors. I was impressed by your understanding of human nature, and the protagonist of the story was very real, lovable, and sympathetic. Your book also helped me answer a question that I have been struggling to solve in my writing---Why did Empress Dowager Ci'an allow Arut to die due to Cixi's persecution? Now I understand. Most historians in the West describe Ci'an as a naive, kind-hearted person who was not interested in power, but that's not the case, is it? Of course Ci'an cares about power, otherwise how could she survive in the harem? There is one big difference in my book, though, and that is that Emperor Tongzhi died of smallpox. Two years ago, I read a doctoral thesis and conducted research on Emperor Tongzhi's disease. After reading this, I am convinced that he died of complications from smallpox. Late syphilis takes years to develop, and I don't think Emperor Tongzhi died of syphilis. He may have contracted syphilis but the disease was still in its early stages, unless he visited a brothel when he was thirteen or fourteen. On the other hand, smallpox alone really shouldn't have caused such severe ulcers and organ damage. Therefore, I believe that Emperor Tongzhi's immune system was already severely compromised before he contracted smallpox. He may suffer from depression, poor sleep, irregular eating, excessive drinking, colds and other illnesses caused by being out late at night, etc. So by the time he caught smallpox, he was already like a toy that was dying. Because he was so weak, the smallpox ulcers failed to heal properly and he eventually developed sepsis. At the end of the day, though, I'm not an MD and I may have drawn the wrong conclusions. Anyway, I just want to tell you that I really like your books, I have read several stories about Queen Arut, and yours is the best I have ever read. I hope you will continue writing, come on!
I stayed up all night today and read this work by the author. From eight o'clock after dinner to now, I finished it in one go. I have been reading the history of the Qing Dynasty in order recently. In the past few days, I have come to the section of Emperor Tongzhi. After learning about the few historical materials of Empress Xiaozheyi, I always have complicated thoughts about her only portrait in court dress. I can't calm down for a long time. Then I found this treasured article by the author on the Internet. The text also satisfied my fantasy about Empress Xiaozhe. She was born in Qing Dynasty. The Talented Lady of the Yuan Mansion is an attractive title in itself. The author's writing style is really great. Not only is the first half of the story about the emperor and empress very vivid, but the description of Empress Xiaozhe's mood is also very full and the logic is very strict. She even gave up her life because she was forced to die due to an illness. I originally had the idea of converting to Empress Xiaozheyi, but the author has already done it, and I am far from your level of writing. I am very happy that someone can pay attention to her. It can be seen that the author's historical knowledge is also very good, and the scenes about political struggles are also very exciting. However, there are a few parts that I want to share my feelings with the author after reading it. One is that the protagonist did not hesitate to go to the palace to announce her pregnancy to the ministers for the sake of her husband's continuation of the heir, but the real situation is very bad. After the death of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the throne had to be passed immediately, and the funeral could only be held after the successor was confirmed. Otherwise, even the news of the emperor's death could not be announced. A few hours after the death of Emperor Tongzhi, the candidate for the new emperor was finalized, so there was no way to let everyone wait and see like in the work, so if the protagonist was really pregnant at that time, it would only be more desperate. The second one is that Emperor Tongzhi died of syphilis. This is actually a very big rumor, mainly caused by the spread of film and television works. It is not easy to die from syphilis. Moreover, it takes at least several years from infection to disease in the late stage of syphilis. Emperor Tongzhi could only have smallpox, so the male protagonist in the article will become innocent and more miserable based on this fact. I originally planned to stop reading Rebirth after reading the main text, but the author's writing was great, and I was looking forward to the heroine's situation and choices after her rebirth, so I read it together because I couldn't read some chapters, and I didn't want to miss or miss the plot. Then I saw the reunion chapter, which really caught me off guard. I was still immersed in grief. When I read the first half of the text, all I could think of was the portrait in court dress. The second half was so exciting that I couldn't think of it. I just thought it was a dream the author had to make up for this tragic character. Let me experience it. The counter-attack in the second half was also very well written. After reading it, I felt much better, but back to the cold history books, Empress Xiaozhe was really miserable. It may not be true that the Western Empress Dowager beat her, but it was true that she made things difficult for her at every turn. The author even wrote about Duan Hua and really worked hard when he saw it. It may not be true that the Eastern Empress Dowager personally let her die, but it is true that she was left to be abandoned. Moreover, Empress Xiaozhe died on a hunger strike, and this is the only possibility. In short, I am very grateful to the author for writing a biography of this tragic young queen, and writing it with such care, which can temporarily relieve my sorrow. I hope the author will get better and better!
I really like this article. The face of Mr. Chen Daoming, who is the little emperor throughout the whole process, is really innocent and innocent. It's a pity that the success is not enough and the failure is more than failure. Fortunately, the heroine was reborn in the end. I like it so much. I love strong women [Compare my heart]
She yearns for freedom but has to be locked up in the palace. She is talented and beautiful but falls in love with a mediocre and incompetent emperor. As a queen, she is tortured, ignored, beaten and insulted as a daily routine. As a wife, only the male protagonist can escape from the current situation in the future. The female protagonist is really miserable. After falling in love with the male protagonist, her tragic and short life begins. It just so happened that NetEase Cloud was playing "Wai Shui San Qian", and this song and this book unexpectedly matched well. After reading it for two nights, I was still unsatisfied, so I went to Baidu to search for Arute. There are different opinions on the cause of her death in history, but no matter what it was, her life would have been difficult even after Tongzhi died. By the way, let me ask the author, why is the lilac knot locked?
I have a little personal opinion about the story, and I kindly ask my sister to correct me. My sister's final arrangement seems to be an emotional BE between the two of them, but in fact it is also a HE. If I read too many sweet stories with traditional ancient sayings, I will feel that the heroine has betrayed and failed the hero. But if you think about it carefully, what the female protagonist does to the male protagonist is no worse than what the male protagonist did to the female protagonist in the previous life. It can even protect the life of the male protagonist and prevent him from following the footsteps of the female protagonist in his previous life. Sometimes love cannot empathize, but empathy can. Therefore, I admire my sister's idea very much. This idea made me reflect on the status difference between men and women behind the sweet passages of traditional ancient sayings. I am also alert that I may have been deceived by the dream of love for too long. Let's talk about the male protagonist. The male protagonist is not a very good emperor, and maybe not a very good lover either. He is playful and evasive, and is indeed not as capable as the heroine. The heroine has the ability to revive the world. If she can save the Chinese nation from disaster, then no amount of glory will be too much. It's good that the story stops here and ends abruptly. As for whether the extra story should be written in modern times, it all depends on my sister's wishes. Having sugar, knives and thinking is the real life, and I can also be inspired and grow. I also had the idea for a moment that if a child who had no fate in the previous life could be born smoothly, regardless of male or female, he would inherit the position and power of the male and female protagonist and continue to benefit the people. Thinking about it now, rebirth would have caused too much ethics and thinking, so there is no need to think too much about the follow-up. Shanshan, before her rebirth, was a standard virtuous queen, but she still couldn't escape death. After rebirth, he is not considered a beloved person, at least not for the emperor who is not smart enough and is full of love, but so what? I can't force her to risk her own life just to be a good queen and a good person. What's more, in my eyes, she has never felt sorry for anyone.
The explosion is complete, and I feel disappointed. Fortunately, there are Yongle and Xu Di. I suddenly thought of one thing. The long one is sweet but the short one is cruel. Xu Di's compensation is hard to be sweet, so some people will watch it?
You can make more temporary decisions like this and support my sister. Also, should Yongle Changge be updated a little bit? It's not easy to wait for Xiao Xu!
The plot after rebirth is so exciting, especially the ending, I love it so much!
The emperor and the queen are not allowed to be together, this cannibalistic and unfree harem...
The next ones to be forced to death like this are Guangxu and Concubine Zhen.