"Old Beijing Trivia" is Xia Renhu's notes on customs and anecdotes. In this notebook, many things in the former Qing Dynasty are described. Because Xia lived in the old capital for dozens of years, and he personally experienced, heard and witnessed many events in the former Qing Dynasty, his account can be unheard of by others, can be described with evidence, and can be convincing.
Today, I will first talk about a short paragraph in "Time Changes" in Volume 7 of "Old Beijing Suo Ji" for the readers. In the follow-up, I will sort out the parts that I thought were interesting, interesting, readable, and impressive, so that readers can have a glimpse of the old Beijing situation that the former Qing capital official heard and saw.
The volume "Time Changes" is all about the major changes encountered by the Qing court. These changes are recorded in history books, so I won't repeat them here.
The passage I am talking about today is a passage of events in old Beijing after the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900 (Gengzi Year).
? According to Xia Renhu's resume, in the year of the Reform Movement of 1898 (1898), Xia Renhu went to Beijing to take part in the palace examination as a Bagong, and his grades were excellent, so he settled in Beijing.
Then, when the Gengzi Kingdom Change happened, Xia Renhu had just arrived in the old capital for two years, so his account should be based on evidence.
Let's get to the point.
After the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded the old capital, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled in a hurry due to the dire situation. Come to think of it, this kind of great change in heaven overnight and in the world overnight, the mighty power of a great army at one time, and the desolation of being chased and fled to the wilderness, can shock anyone's soul.
On the day of Empress Li, there were sad words:
"It is the most hasty resignation day from the temple. The Jiaofang still plays a farewell song and weeps at the maid."
It is sad to read. However, if you compare the chanting of Empress Li in the Xiaonan Tang with the embarrassment in the Western Hunting of the Qing Palaces in the former Qing Dynasty, the tears of Empress Li seem to be a little thinner.
After the real power faction Empress Dowager Cixi dragged Emperor Guangxu who was everywhere controlled by others to escape from the old capital, the huge capital city and the important place of a country suddenly became a chaotic place without an owner. In a chaotic environment, it is a good time to fish in troubled waters. Those gangsters who have suppressed the evil of human nature freely released the evil in their human nature without control, order, or restraint. As a result, blatant and swaggering robbery became common practice. For a time, the capital was no longer the gentle and refined city at the feet of the emperor, but turned into an arrogance and domineering place full of bandits.
After the robbery, those rascals and rascals, who were originally poor and white, suddenly became nouveau riche and money lords.
According to the regulations of the former Qing Dynasty, personal clothing must comply with the regulations of the state. What kind of clothes are worn by what kind of people, what kind of ornaments are worn by what kind of people, these are all according to the rules. If you don¡¯t dress according to the state¡¯s regulations, if you are smaller, you will be condemned by public opinion; if you are older, you will be punished by the state apparatus.
After those rascals and rascals robbed in the chaos, they thought that the world was in chaos and they could do whatever they wanted. They put on the clothes they robbed without any scruple, and proudly swaggered through the streets. The capital of the former Qing Dynasty, which could be identified from its clothes, suddenly changed. In the eyes of everyone who was familiar with the clothes of the old capital, it suddenly became confused. The people walking on the street were dressed in a random way, and they dressed in a random way. Guess, it was probably the weirdness of bare necks and ties, and crotch cotton trousers and suits. Those who saw it didn't know why they were dressed like this, and they didn't know what the identity of the person who was dressed like this was.
The things obtained from the robbery made these rascals very happy, and they always wanted to show off. Country people say that if you buy a urinal, you won't wait until dark. That's about it. In the later dynasties, it was heard that upstarts used coins to paste walls, probably the same.
Originally, fox fur was an accessory for wearing in the severe winter. However, these rogues who robbed Fox Fur couldn't wait to settle down, for fear that it would be too late, and they would take him first. When the autumn wind blows slightly and the weather still has the residual heat of summer, the rascals hurriedly put on the fox fur. At this time, walking on the street, it is really a great landscape in the old capital. The so-called "autumn wind just blows, and fox furs are all over the street."
When the winter solstice came, the cold wind was bitter, and the invading foreign troops garrisoned the old capital in sections in order to control the entire capital. Those looters had already squandered all the property they robbed before, and if they wanted to rob again, they were afraid of being shot by foreigners. Those hooligans who wore fox fur and walked all over the streets in early autumn, at this time, some have been reduced to the situation where they have to pick up torn newspapers to cover their bodies and block the wind and cold because of the cold clothes and the cold wind.
It is said that when the gangsters who took advantage of the disorder and robbed were happily robbing, they still said in their mouths:
"Today, there is no emperor in this capital, and we are the masters. Today, we also have to meddle."
The robbers were still thinking at that time, from now on, the rich and the poor will be equal in this world, there is no difference between people.
When the Qing government reached a peace agreement with the foreigners, the old capital returned to its former order. All the workers still follow their own enterprises, and the lowly laborers still have their own jobs.
At this time, those gangsters who took advantage of the chaos and robbed had to sigh:
"The world changes, no matter how it changes, the grandfather will always be the grandfather, and the grandson will still be the grandson"
Attachment: Introduction of Xia Renhu
Xia Renhu, the author of the notes of the Republic of China "Old Beijing Suo Ji", was born in 1874 and died in 1963. He is from Nanjing.
In the year of the Reform Movement of 1898 (1898), the 25-year-old Xia Renhu went to Beijing to take part in the palace examination as a Bagong. With excellent results, he settled in Beijing and began his 30-year official career. He was a scholar, Bagong, and Juren in the late Qing Dynasty, and a small Beijing official in the Ministry of Punishment, Ministry of Commerce, and Ministry of Postal Communications.
After the Revolution of 1911, Xia Renhu successively served as an official in the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Finance of the Beiyang Government of the Republic of China, and became a member of Congress.
After Zhang Zuolin entered the customs, Xia Renhu successively served as the political affairs director of the Communist Party of China, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance, the acting chief and the secretary general of the Communist Party of China.
In 1929, at the age of 55, Xia Renhu abandoned his official position and went back to seclusion. He devoted himself to writing books and lecturing, and served as a lecturer at Peking University and a professor at Beijing Normal University.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese invaders vainly tried to win him over, but he resolutely rejected the Japanese invaders' lure and maintained his national integrity! After the founding of New China, he became a librarian of the Central Museum of Culture and History.
Although Xia Renhu was blind in his later years, he continued to write until he died in Beijing in 1963 at the age of 90. (Remember the site URL: www.hlnovel.com