Why was it not until a year after her death that the body of Empress Dowager Cixi was buried?

Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most famous historical figures in China. She was the most powerful person in the Qing Dynasty and had a lavish and elaborate lifestyle.

According to historical records, the largest expense of Empress Dowager Cixi was food. Every day, the Imperial Kitchen (where food was prepared for the emperors in ancient times) had to cook more than 100 dishes, but she only ate a small amount, and she ordered the remaining food to be thrown away.

Empress Dowager Cixi is one of China's famous historical figures (Source: Sohu)

Empress Dowager Cixi loved the smell of fruit, so every day she had to put dozens of kilograms of fresh fruit in her room to spread the scent throughout the room. Or the socks that Empress Dowager Cixi used would be made of special silk, hand-sewn and had no elasticity. She never wore the same pair of socks twice, so more than 3,000 people were responsible for making socks for her.

Cixi's lavish lifestyle cost the Qing Dynasty a lot of money. She died in 1908, but was not officially buried until 1909. There are two reasons given for this.

First, the day before she died, Emperor Guangxu passed away. Although he had no power, he was still the emperor, so according to Qing Dynasty regulations, her funeral had to be held later. Because Empress Dowager Cixi's funeral was postponed, it was not until September 1909 that the appropriate time was found to complete her burial.

Second, after her death, the preparations for her funeral were very elaborate and sophisticated. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty had to spend a lot of time and money to prepare the coffin and burial objects for Empress Dowager Cixi's funeral. This was also one of the reasons why her body was not officially buried until a year after her death.

During her burial, the sky was clear and blue when suddenly there was a storm and it rained heavily. After the rain stopped, a lot of blood suddenly flowed out of the coffin. She had died a year ago, why was there blood flowing out? This phenomenon puzzled the people carrying the coffin. However, experts said that it could be liquid leaking from the coffin, causing people to mistake it for blood.

Thu Hien (Source Sohu)

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