The Cixi Mausoleum main hall.	Empress Dowager Cixi.	Empress Dowager Cixi moved about the imperial palace by sedan chair. Head eunuch Li Lianying stands first right.

Emperor Guangxu, nominal ruler of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), died on November 14, 1908, while under house arrest. On that day his aunt, Empress Dowager Cixi, actual ruler of China who had placed him there, decreed that three-year-old Aisin-Gioro Puyi, son of Prince Regent Zaifeng, be Guangxu’s successor. Cixi herself died the next day, on November 15. Puyi was the last emperor of feudal China. His reign marked the end of the imperial system of rule instituted by Emperor Qinshihuang in 221 BC.

End of the Imperial Era

The new emperor’s enthronement took place 20 days later on December 2. Puyi had never before left his home. Terrified by the alien environment of the Forbidden City, he clung tearfully to his wet nurse. As she was of too lowly a class to attend the ceremony, Prince Regent Zaifeng himself took the infant emperor designate to the vast, gloomy hall where he was to be crowned. Puyi, his diminutive age emphasized by the huge throne on which he was forced to sit, trembled with cold and terror as the long, elaborate ceremony proceeded. He soon began wailing pitifully, “I won’t stay here. I want to go home.” His father, cringing with embarrassment, knelt beside his son and, keeping him firmly in his place, said soothingly, “Don’t cry. It’ll soon be over.”

The words “It’ll soon be over” rang ominously in the ears of the attendant officials, as this was a time when the Qing Dynasty was beset with domestic and diplomatic crises. It was barely three years later, in 1911, that San Yat-sen’s Republican revolutionaries staged a series of uprisings in various parts of the country, and that Puyi was forced to abdicate. The Republican Government, however, was lenient. Puyi was allowed to retain his imperial title and continue living in the Forbidden City. He was also allocated a generous annual living allowance of 4 million taels of silver. Puyi lived a peaceful and comfortable life until 1917, when Zhang Xun, a former Qing official, staged a coup that reinstated him as emperor -- for two weeks. This short-lived coup marked the end of the imperial family's peaceful estrangement from the rest of the populace.

Imperial Palace Booty

The Republican Government failed to exercise comprehensive control, and the country soon lapsed into warlordism. Feng Yuxiang led his Northwest Army into Beijing in 1924. Intent upon driving Puyi out of the Forbidden City, he threatened to bombard the imperial household with his cannon on Jingshan Hill, behind the imperial palace. Puyi and his retinue fled in a five-car cavalcade to his parents’ home near Shichahai (later the residence of the late Soong Ching Ling).

Thereafter, chaos reigned over the Forbidden City. Despite the commission that had been put in place to tie up its remaining affairs, there was rampant looting of the palace’s priceless treasures. This pillaging soon extended to the royal tombs.

Tomb robbing was by no means a new phenomenon, but until 1911 had been prepetrated by small gangs working on a relatively small scale. They would generally steal sacrificial objects or decorative components at ground level, or at most, dig up low-ranking attendants' tombs. Encouraged by the unconstrained looting of the imperial palace, however, tomb robbers became bolder at the prospect of the unimaginable booty interred with the Qing Dynasty’s later rulers.

The entire nation was shocked to the core when, in 1928, news filtered through that the underground palace tombs of Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Qianlong had been desecrated and robbed, leaving nothing but splintered coffins and scattered skeletal bones.

Funereal Opulence

These grisly felons knew well that the best pickings lay in the tombs of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), who had ruled the Qing Dynasty at the height of its power. As Emperor Qianlong had been a known connoisseur and collector of antiques and works of art, his corpse was undoubtedly cocooned in priceless burial objects. Empress Dowager Cixi had witnessed the decline of the Qing Dynasty during the 47 years she had been in power. This was time enough to amass a horde of wealth and fabulous treasure.

Cixi’s daily expenditure amounted to 40,000 taels of silver. Just half a month of expenditure on this scale could have purchased a state-of-art ocean cruiser, while a year’s worth was enough to equip an advanced navy fleet. In her autobiography, Rongling, daughter of the Chinese Minister to France Yu De and lady in waiting and translator to Cixi, spoke of the empress dowager's huge wardrobe. An entire train carriage on a journey to Fengtian (present-day Shenyang) was needed to transport the 2,000 items of clothing she had selected to bring for this short stay. Qing court records state that the Empress was pernickety about her food. Her midday meal, which she ate alone, comprised 100 dishes and 100 desserts and fruits. Leftovers were either thrown out or given to her attendants. As sixty was the age traditionally considered as the threshold of longevity, preparations for the empress’s sixtieth birthday on November 7, 1894, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, began months earlier. Vast amounts of silver were spent on new clothes and jewelry, on decorating the celebration venue and on renovating the road to it. The whole affair is said to have cost 10 million taels of silver -- one-seventh of the imperial revenue. On the actual day of the Empress Dowager’s birthday party, the Japanese captured the imperial navy base of Dalian.

Most Sumptuous of Tombs

Cixi selected the site of her tomb while in her prime of life. Its construction began when she was 38, the same time as Empress Dowager Ci'an’s tomb. Ci'an was older than Cixi and resided in the Eastern Palace, while Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the Western Palace. This, according to Chinese convention “East is superior, and west inferior,” placed Empress Dowager Ci'an at a higher status than Empress Dowager Cixi. Their tombs were finished in 1879, Ci'an’s at a cost of 2.6 million taels of silver, and Cixi’s at a mere 2.27 million. The ambitious Cixi bitterly resented this disparity. Throughout the first six years of Emperor Guangxu’s reign it was these two empress dowagers that actually ruled from “behind the curtain.” Upon Ci'an’s death in 1881, Cixi became supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty. At the age of 62 she ordered refurbishment of her tomb, saying it had fallen into disrepair through the years. She dared not breach imperial etiquette by increasing its scale, but felt no compunction about using the richest of materials and finest workmanship available. The extravagance of her underground palace exceeded that of any palace in the Forbidden City. Renovations continued for 13 years and finally wound up “ahead of schedule” --- four days before her death.

The main hall of Cixi’s mausoleum was built in scented rose wood, a precious timber of fine and solid texture, beautiful color and high durability whose value, unit by unit, was comparable to gold. It was generally used to make furniture and handicrafts. No other member of the imperial family or Qing Dynasty aristocrat had ever used wood of this caliber as a construction material. Cixi was the first and only person in Chinese history in this regard.

The three halls of Cixi’s mausoleum above ground were painted and gilded inside and out. They featured 2,400 dragons painted in gold leaf, and gilded coiled copper dragons in relief on each of the three halls' 64 pillars. These refurbishments took 143 kilograms of gold.

All stone carvings in the mausoleum are on high-quality white marble, and in unique designs to express the supremacy of Cixi. The dragon and phoenix theme dominate, but in all cases with the dragon flying either behind or beneath the phoenix. The relief design of a dragon chasing a phoenix appears on all panels of the marble balustrade around the mausoleum’s main hall. On top of each of its 76 balusters is a phoenix carving, on either side of which are carved two dragons. “The phoenix leads the dragon” and “One phoenix overrides two dragons” are the predominant themes of Cixi’s mausoleum. They actually express the extent of the Empress Dowager’s political power during her lifetime. She had ruled from “behind the curtain” twice; over her son, Emperor Tongzhi, and over her nephew Emperor Guangxu. The extravagance of her tomb is unmatched among imperial tombs extant.

Extravagance Lures Robbers

Cixi’s burial objects were, if it can be believed, evem more sumptuous than her tomb architecture. Her coffin was filled with jewelry and precious gems of a value no less than 50 million taels of silver, possibly double that amount. In any event, these coffined riches exceeded the annual national revenue. Wealth of this extent was an inevitable lure to the imperial tomb robbing fraternity.

Talk of Cixi’s nether world extravagance was initially no more than conjecture, until publication of a book that acted as a tomb robbers’ guide. Entitled Notes from the Aiyuexuan Study, it had been dictated by Li Lianying, Cixi’s most confidential eunuch, to his nephew. Li had been closely involved in administrating the entire course of the Empress Dowager’s funeral and burial. This book, which had recorded the Empress Dowager’s culinary extravagances, also gave a detailed account of her burial arrangements.

There were two categories of burial object, according to Li Lianying; those placed in the tomb before Cixi’s death, and those buried with her. This, naturally, was strictly confidential information, but secrets about the dynasty seemed irrelevant after its fall. His days of power at the Qing court ended, Li Lianying had nothing to do but sit at home and reminisce about his glorious days as Cixi’s most trusted aide.

Cixi’s mausoleum is in the Eastern Qing Tombs in the hilly area of Hebei’s Zunhua County. During the lawless years of warlordism that followed the fall of the Qing Dynasty, gangs of thieves were active in the area. Sight of a group of bandits was reported in the tomb area in June 1928, and the 12th Army of the National Revolutionary Army dispatched thousands of troops. After driving the bandits away, the troops were stationed in the tomb area to block access to it. Explosions were heard from the tomb area on July 4. Local inhabitants, assuming that either a military drill or a battle between troops and bandits had occurred, barricaded themselves inside their homes for several days. It was not until a few of the bolder villagers emerged from their homes and went to see what had happened that the tombs of Qianlong and Cixi were found to have been robbed clean. Cixi’s decomposed corpse, stripped of its robe and crown, lay on its broken coffin lid. Qianlong’s tomb was in an even more dire condition. In addition to his own remains it had also contained those of his two empresses and three most favored concubines. Since being robbed, the tomb had been inundated. All six skeletons having disintegrated,bones floated higgledy piggledy on the muddy water surface. It was impossible to distinguish which belonged to whom. When news of this desecration spread, it was generally agreed among the public that the culprits deserved the severest of punishments.

Chaos Befriends Robbers

The 12th Army stationed to block access to the tomb area naturally fell under suspicion. The tombs had been bombed, and looting had gone on for seven days. In August 1928, two shady clients visited an antique shop on Beijing’s Liulichang Street, enquiring about a prompt purchase of a cache of antiques. A price of 100,000 silver dollars was agreed upon, but the two sellers were arrested before the transaction was completed. One of them turned out to be a 12th Army division commander named Tan Wenjiang. He insisted that the antiques had originally been in the possession of a group of bandits active around the tomb area, as verified by Army Commander Sun Dianying. Meanwhile, two 12th Army deserters on a passenger ship to Qingdao, found to be carrying 36 high-quality pearls and brooches on their persons, were arrested. One, Zhang Qihou, admitted that he had participated in the tomb robberies. Local newspapers published his confession: “The army commander (Sun Dianying) ordered the engineering battalion to use land mines to blow open the tombs of Western Empress Dowager (Cixi) and Emperor Qianlong …… I took 36 pearls from the tomb of the Western Empress Dowager and absconded from Yanggezhuang Town to Tianjin, where I sold 10 pearls for 1,200 Chinese dollars.” It became clear to all that Sun Dianying was the brains behind the robbery. Sun was from a poor family and had been a ruffian since childhood. He had been a gambler, drug dealer and bandit before joining the army. Yet the court did not accept the evidence against Sun Dianying, and he and the division commander were released. The case was shelved, and the stolen burial objects have never been recovered.

Stories about the robbery emerged now and then over the next few years. Sun Dianying was rumored to have spent a large proportion of his loot on bribing influential officials. One of Sun Dianying’s former cohorts recorded in his memoirs what Sun saw in Cixi’s tomb: When Cixi’s coffin lid was opened, a dazzling brilliance outshone that of the powerful electric torches held by the surrounding stupefied soldiers. The coffin was chock full of jewelry. Officers took the larger pieces, while smaller ones found their way into the pockets of the lower ranks.

No one knows exactly how much jewelry was taken. Li Lianying’s Notes from the Aiyuexuan Study records that there was a luminous pearl in Cixi’s mouth and that she wore a pearl-studded crown, the largest pearl in it the size of an egg and worth 10 million taels of silver. Besides her body were placed 27 Buddhist statues made of gold, precious stones and jade. Beneath her feet were jadeite-fashioned melons and Chinese cabbages and more than 200 precious stones carved into peaches, plums, apricots and dates. To the left of her body was a jade lotus flower, and to the right a tree of carved jade and coral. The coffin also contained eight jade horses and 18 jade arhats. When all 700 such precious objects had been placed in the coffin, it was further filled with four large bowls of pearls and 2,200 gems. The only precious object said to remain in the ravaged tomb was a quilt sewn with over 6,000 pearls.