China´s Forbidden City The Reign of the Concubine | Full Documentary

[Music] for more than half a millennium china's forbidden city was a place of mystery the site of a dramatic display of power then it became the focus of a turning point in world history the destiny of this woman is inseparable from that of the city of palaces sishi the concubine used her charm calculation and iron will to take power in the forbidden city does her break with ancient traditions mean the end of an [Music] empire [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it all began like a fairy tale [Music] a fairy tale about a 15 year old girl from a poor family in beijing and a young prince who becomes the ruler of a great empire when his father dies [Music] this is the forbidden city in the year 1850 the court is still in mourning but soon there will be just one topic of interest in the palace who will be the bride of 20 year old sham feng the new emperor of the jing dynasty the dynasty which has ruled the middle kingdom for more than 200 years [Music] 60 young girls from the ruling clans are ordered to report to the forbidden city chanfeng's mother will choose one as the emperor's bride the others will become his concubines the chief eunuch receives the candidates [Music] among them is fifteen-year-old yehinara [Music] she must bid farewell to her family before the mighty meridian gate for the emperor's subjects may not enter the forbidden city yehenara crosses the threshold of the empire's holy of holies for the first time she's entering a strange magical world [Music] her route takes her across one of the five bridges over the goldwater river [Music] past the splendid imperial palaces and through a gate into the center of the forbidden city here the hall of supreme harmony rises majestically this is the center of the world it's a sight that takes the breath away no doubt that was exactly what its builders intended yet the sizes of the squares the symmetry of the palaces the interplay of colours every detail of the forbidden city serves a higher purpose its architecture conceals a spiritual code that can only be understood on a second look the entire layout of the forbidden city follows the rules of feng shui and the teachings of yin and yang for example yang stands for the bright warm south yin for the cold dark north so the main axis of the complex runs from due south to due north in the forbidden city these two forces should be in perfect harmony but the teachings of feng shui always require that there be so the master builders constructed them this hill was meant to protect the forbidden city from evil spirits and to keep away the cold winds in winter the river was the counterbalance to the hill but it also kept the complex cool in summer so the striving for spiritual harmony also had very practical advantages spiritual architecture is accompanied by strict ritual even the criteria for choosing an imperial bride are clearly set down [Music] the choice itself is the privilege of the emperor's mother the most senior woman at court [Music] the most unpleasant part of the procedure is the physical examination are there any blemishes does she have bad breath or even body odor is she still a virgin [Music] to step forward and receive her engagement present many others were jealous of me as i was then considered a beautiful woman yehanara is supposed to have said it seems the emperor's mother doesn't agree she appoints yehanara a concubine of the fifth and lowest grade the main prize goes to another girl she is to be the emperor's bride and she will give the dynasty its heir and so she becomes yahenara's greatest rival for the emperor's favor at the wedding ceremony yahanara sees emperor feng for the first time the son of heaven is the single fertile male in the forbidden city a universe of more than 3 000 eunuchs and almost as many women [Music] according to chinese beliefs the marriage ritual unites the twin forces of yin and yang yin represents the nourishing preserving female force and yang the creative male force the ruling principle is to keep perfect harmony between the two forces in order to maintain order in the universe a concept reflected everywhere in the forbidden city the harmony of yin and yang is an essential organizing principle of the forbidden city represents the female principle and yang the male principle that's why the emperor's private palace is located at the very south of the inner court stands for the masculine this building was called the palace of heavenly purity because heaven comes under the male yang principle too the empress's private palace lies to the north it was called the palace of earthly tranquility because north and earth come under the feminine yin principle exactly between these two buildings is the hall of union in which the emperor and the empress meet on their wedding night here heaven and earth come together and yin and yang are in perfect harmony the teachings of yin and yang are anchored deep in the chinese psyche and in chinese culture everything around us can be allocated to yin or yang for example inside and outside masculine and feminine heaven and earth fire and water and so on [Music] the passive feminine principle of yin has a tragic effect on the life of women in the forbidden city [Music] the late emperor's concubines live in the six eastern palaces nothing but an empty pointless existence waiting many have spent their whole lives hoping in vain for a call to the emperor's bed chamber some have never even seen him this could easily be yehanara's fate too but she has no other choice for an imperial concubine may never leave the forbidden city in the monotony of a minutely regulated day seconds turn into hours hours become weeks two years pass and yehanara has never been called to emperor shan thing the fairy tale has turned into a nightmare a life locked in a cage with purple walls and gilded roofs as a child they called yahanara little orchid she grew up with her brothers and sisters beside the yangtze river in southern china her father was just a minor official but the family belonged to the ruling manchu minority as a manchu she was spared the torture of foot binding that condemned chinese girls to immobility in the name of the ideal of small feet father educated his children in the traditions of their people he was very proud of his manchu heritage and he was especially keen that his children know of their forefathers many glorious deeds [Music] in the year 1644 the eight banners of the manchu a mongolian people had conquered china they drove out the chinese rebels who had toppled the ming dynasty and had plundered the forbidden city on the cole hill to the north of the forbidden city a victorious manchu general witnessed the final testimony to the downfall of the ming the last ming emperor had hung himself with his own silken sash now the manchu were rulers of the forbidden city they call themselves the ching the pure ones the manchurian qing dynasty certainly took china to a period of new glory that's clear from the simple fact that in the 18th century the qing empire was the biggest empire in the world and one reason for that is that the qing learned from the mistakes of earlier foreign rulers in china and tried to avoid the same mistakes another important reason is that the qing rulers turned out to be a force for the promotion of classical chinese culture in fact they were often more chinese than the chinese but adopting chinese traditions of government made political and social reforms impossible by the mid century while the rest of the world was changing at breathtaking speed china was still ruled by a code of rituals unchanged for centuries a concubine had only one chance to rise in the palace hierarchy by giving birth to the heir to the throne but in two years the emperor had not summoned yehanara even once then andei hai the young eunuch allocated to her as her servant breaks all the rules of etiquette he knows that if his words displease her she can order his death but perhaps he has ways of making the emperor more aware of here at first she's furious at his insolence [Music] but then she reconsiders perhaps he can help her after all but what can he do for her [Music] yehanara can go nowhere at court without being noticed but he can be her eyes and ears at court he knows the guards at the gate he can slip anywhere unseen like a cat she will find ways for his mistress to get herself noticed so that she will find favor at court [Music] only eunuchs like andei hai have access to the inner sanctums of the palace about 3000 of them live in the forbidden city apart from guarding the haram they're responsible for all the day-to-day tasks in the palace from garbage removal to the administration of the imperial household no one else is so close to the emperor so eunuchs are among the most influential members of the palace hierarchy of all the eunuchs the most powerful is the chief eunuch he has the privilege of presenting the emperor every day with jade tablets engraved with the names of his concubines the son of heaven chooses the woman with whom he wishes to share his bed that night [Music] aided by her enterprising servant yehanara is granted an audience with the chief eunuch she presents him with the engagement gift she received from the emperor [Music] the chief eunuch is shocked he refuses to accept this token of the emperor's love but this gift will be much more valuable when yehanara has borne the emperor's son [Music] yehanara has gained an important ally at court [Music] [Music] but what if the emperor chooses another of his concubines the chief eunuch has ways of making things happen in the forbidden city he will start by telling the emperor how beautiful she is [Music] yahenara's plan succeeds the emperor chooses to spend the night with her the preparations take the whole day [Music] bathed perfumed and draped only in a silken sheet yehanara is led to the emperor's chamber as night falls no one knows what happened at the first meeting between the emperor and yahinara she may have been specially instructed for this moment the chief eunuch would certainly know the emperor's preferences according to ritual the love act with a concubine was intended to serve the teachings of yin and yang not the creation of an imperial heir the emperor was expected to hold back in order to increase his strength by the unification of feminine and masculine yang pregnancy was reserved for the empress [Music] at least that was the theory [Music] in any case the eunuchs stayed in the room in order to take a detailed record of the proceedings after the love act yahenara slept alone on her side as the ritual required only the emperor was allowed to face heaven whatever did happen that night yahenara had achieved her goal for three months more she remained the emperor's only nighttime companion and finally yehenara's deepest wishes are fulfilled a doctor checks her pulse at the end of a silk ribbon but he's not allowed to touch her in spite of this inexact method he is in no doubt and her majesty the empress must be the first to know [Music] the doctor informs the empress that yehanara has shimai the happy pulse rate [Music] the dragon seed has germinated she is pregnant what fate denied the empress is granted to yehanara from now on yahanara will live with the mordant hatred of her rivals they will stop at nothing to hurt her [Music] her faithful servant and tries to protect her as far as he can behind its facade of harmony the forbidden city is riven by envy and hate yehanara learns her lesson well she will soon use them as weapons herself [Music] on the 27th of april 1856 yahanara brings a son into the world as the mother of the heir to the throne she is now the highest ranking woman in the empire after the empress but her meteoric rise has come at a price she will hardly ever see her son tyjoon for his upbringing is in the hands of the empress and the eunuchs [Music] all bow before the empress and the heir to the throne even as an infant the crown prince has godlike status the continuity of the dynasty but kanye hinara come to terms with her own role [Music] just when the court inside the forbidden city believes it has won the approval of heaven the world outside the walls threatens to dissolve into chaos floods destroy the harvest there's famine throughout china despair leads to uprisings bloodily suppressed [Music] and now foreigners especially the british are gathering on the frontiers of the empire china had always cut itself off from the influence of the foreign barbarians but after the first opium war in 1840 britain enforced the opening of chinese ports now other european powers are demanding their own share and insisting on trading with china as equals [Music] the emperor now sick and weary of his ritualized daily routine is incapable of dealing with the situation [Music] he relies more and more on his favorite concubine yehenera to help him carry out the tasks of government who studies the official proposals and guides the emperor's decisions [Music] this is sacrilege an unthinkable break with traditional roles yehanara is getting her first taste of imperial power and she's enjoying it when the emperor gives an audience even to the most important visitors stays at his side the emperor's brother prince kong arrives with bad news [Music] the british and french are again demanding embassies in china to the chinese this is pure insolence the emperor will never allow the barbarians to reach beijing but prince kung is worried the foreigners have soldiers some at court want the barbarians killed or better their ambassadors taken hostage until the foreign soldiers leave the barbarians have humiliated china enough the time for concessions is passed china must use force to maintain its freedom and its honor the chinese must rediscover their warrior qualities and repel the white devils [Music] the emperor agrees and his subjects obey the 20-strong anglo-french delegation are arrested and paraded through the streets of beijing past the incensed crowds the white devils only narrowly escape the lynching [Music] the humiliation china suffered at the hands of the western imperial powers the relegation of the middle kingdom to the status of a colony was a traumatic experience which has influenced chinese politics especially chinese foreign policy to the present day after the second opium war there was a brief period of peace but then the fighting flared up again in 1860 an expeditionary force was dispatched to beijing expeditions [Music] with their modern weapons the europeans shoot their way into the capital the court flees the forbidden city for the first time in chinese history the official explanation is that the emperor has departed to join the traditional hunt at his summer residence [Music] vehemently opposed the decision to flee it was the most humiliating moment of my life she later wrote but fleeing she did but she won't leave without her son [Music] this is not only a mother's love if she stays in beijing she will lose the only card that guarantees her position at court the decision to leave soon turns out to have been the right one [Music] the europeans take out their fury on the treasures of beijing's summer palace where their diplomats had been held they destroy irreplaceable works of art splendid gardens reserved for centuries to a select few are turned into rubble and ashes on hearing the news emperor's jan feng loses his will to live the son of heaven lies on his deathbed far away from beijing but he has not yet decided the succession according to tradition he must name his son as his heir making known his divine will in his own words something yahenara's enemies at court want to prevent [Music] her attempts to reach the emperor are in vain as a mere concubine she has no rights she's not even allowed to take her son to his dying father instead the chief eunuch threatens to arrest her [Music] finally the emperor himself calls for his child [Music] whatever has to know who will be the next emperor of china he will lead china to new greatness [Music] with his last breath the emperor fulfills his ritual duty the motto for the new emperor will be ruling together [Music] in the year 1861 tongzhu ascends the dragon throne a six-year-old in command of an empire in fact it's his mother who holds all the power yehenara the concubine will go down in history under the name of sishi cody [Music] her decisiveness has saved the dynasty which would have broken up in power struggles without a legitimate successor allies herself with prince kong the late emperor's brother against the court officials for them the presence of a woman at the head of the empire disturbs the harmony of the traditional order prince kung is among the few to realize that the old order is gone forever following the destruction of the summer palace he had agreed to the european demands for embassies in beijing [Music] it's a revolutionary step to the chinese ambassadors from other lands had always been nothing more than messengers bringing tributes the one thing the two cultures have in common is despising each other as barbarians on the one side the europeans rapidly developing on the other the chinese officials absolutely convinced of their cultural superiority after thousands of years of civilization their training consists in learning confucian texts by heart diplomacy is not on the curriculum the elite officials of the empire were trained at the hanlin academy their studies were based on the teachings of confucius from the 5th century bc these teachings were supposed to lead to a state of perfect harmony between the rulers and the ruled if you pass the exam you were guaranteed a career in the forbidden city but this training was useless in the changing world outside the palace walls how can you reform a political system based solely on ancient rituals on the infinite repetition of identical gestures when tongzhou reaches majority and formally takes over power his mother she is the guarantee that the status quo will be maintained the emperor issues his proclamations but the decisions are taken by his all-powerful her own contemporaries actually refer to her as the ruler behind the curtain she is not prepared to give up her power and privileges this is unprecedented in chinese history she has overstepped the boundaries of imperial tradition the very tradition that she is striving to maintain the son of heaven is just an extra on the imperial stage [Music] having spent his entire life within the walls of the forbidden city surrounded by eunuchs tongzhou seeks refuge and worldly pleasures [Music] he slips out at night in cognito to see what beijing has to offer the madame invites him to select his company for the night the emperor commands a harem of concubines and he frequents common prostitutes faced with a pointless existence he takes refuge in a world of appearances he smokes opium introduced by the british even though he himself has made opium smoking punishable by death [Music] his health cannot long withstand this [Music] lifestyle he dies in the year 1874 not yet 20 years old according to court records see she was inconsolable in her grief she cried out i thought i could be happy with my son as emperor when he died i became a different woman all my happiness was gone and yet she has no time for grief if grief was what she felt for her dead son's widow the emperor's alute is pregnant [Music] the unborn child threatens position in the forbidden city if the young widow alute gives birth to a son he will be crowned prince and ulute will take sishi's place at [Music] court but see she is always ready to meet a crisis head-on the very night her son dies she summons the highest council of state in the icy north wind the highest dignitaries of the empire gather without knowing the reason for their sudden meeting plan amounts to a coup d'etat [Music] she has convened the council of state so that they can choose the successor to the emperor the councillors see no need for haste they will wait for the empress to give birth if the child is a boy he will be emperor insists that in a crisis situation like this one the throne should not be vacant for a single day and so she proposes her own sister's son as the new heir to the throne [Music] in the middle of the night she has her three-year-old nephew brought from his home in beijing to the forbidden city guanxi the new infant emperor will know the same fate as his predecessor time stands still in the middle kingdom see she has an iron grip on the forbidden city she believes she's been chosen to protect the great traditions of imperial china trapped in her own world she's oblivious to the signs of the oncoming disaster a disaster that won't stop at the walls of the forbidden city the chinese empire is a leaky old frigate a british diplomat had written to king george as long ago as 1795 a hundred years later nothing has changed on the threshold of the 20th century chinese society is still stuck in the middle ages living and working conditions for the people are appalling the legal system is barbaric foreigners have brought railways to the empire but this prone dragon is seen as the work of the devil it threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people carriers and coolies in the empire she herself has no time for the western devil's technology yet she swears by a hair dye from paris that colors the hair but not the scalp as she ages the vanity of the old buddha as she enjoys being called by her intimates knows no bounds according to one story when her hair fell out she insisted that it be stuck back onto her head and she wasn't only vain about her own appearance [Music] she had a new summer palace built with funds intended for the urgent modernization of the chinese fleet [Music] this marble ship created for her amusement was the only vessel ever built from the naval budget in the year 1900 the pent-up fury of the people exploded not against the ruling qing but against the western devils the foreigners the boxer sec believed that the foreigners are to blame for china's [Music] decline in the forbidden city they have no idea how to react to this popular movement if they let them out of the box will they ever get them back in again [Music] should they crush this rebellion like every previous one guanxi sishi's puppet emperor is afraid of the foreigners reaction if the boxers attacked them [Music] the young emperor advises against supporting the boxers in their struggle with the foreigners but she disagrees without supernatural help the only force they can rely on is the heart and soul of the chinese people as ever in times of trouble [Music] following sishi's advice an imperial edict is issued formally drafting the good elements of the rebellious boxers into the chinese army the bad elements are to be pacified whatever that means this is interpreted as giving the boxers card blanche to start full-scale rebellion [Music] the legation quarter is close to the forbidden city thousand diplomats and their families live here together with a garrison of a few dozen soldiers for 60 days the legation quarter is besieged [Music] though hopelessly outnumbered the europeans hold off the boxer hordes the burning hatred of the peasant army can't compensate for their lack of military training [Music] within a few days sishi has changed her mind [Music] she now regards the boxers as vagabonds who set fire to houses and kill people and so create an atmosphere of chaos [Music] she has her servants order the boxes to stop fighting because the noise is keeping her awake isolated inside the palace she has lost touch with reality chinese leadership gave the impression of a court of conservative manchus who lacked all political insight and were incapable of political action and this was a catastrophe for china in the short term the boxer uprising provoked the western powers to send another expeditionary force to china it marched to beijing with the intention of conquering the capital and the empress was forced to flee the forbidden city for the second time so it has come to this she is believed to have said as the troops of the western powers camped before the gates of beijing but she wasn't sorry that her policies had failed only that she was forced to flee dressed as a simple chinese woman [Music] according to the annals of the court a stray bullet found its way into her palace [Music] it is an omen of the imminent collapse [Music] in the fall of the year 1900 sishi and emperor guanxi flee the forbidden city it's almost 50 years since sishi first entered this sacred place where every action was intended to preserve the harmony of the cosmos her rule had only delayed the downfall of the old order it could not prevent it after she fled the aura of the forbidden city was destroyed forever when the europeans took beijing they amply lived up to their reputation as barbarians plundering whole sections of the forbidden city [Music] to the chinese this had been the center of the universe for nearly 500 years the conquerors made it a common barracks for their soldiers yet a french diplomat could still write respectfully of the throne room these things have an indescribable air of age and mystery this is a single grandiose gloomy hall all covered in faded gold in the years since then the forbidden city has lost nothing of its fascination it is and will remain an eloquent testimony to a distant and vanished world so [Music] you

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

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Id: lrFQ4U7ie6Y

Length: 52min 50sec (3170 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 07 2020