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Documentary, China's Forbidden City: The Reign of the Concubine -Part 2
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00:00The following program contains images of violence that some viewers may find distressing.
00:06For more than half a millennium, China's Forbidden City was a place of mystery,
00:12the site of a dramatic display of power.
00:14Then it became the focus of a turning point in world history.
00:19This woman's destiny is inseparable from that of the city of palaces.
00:24With charm, calculation and an iron will, Sushi, the concubine, seized and held power in the Forbidden City.
00:33Her break with tradition may have heralded the end of an empire.
01:16Sushi's story begins auspiciously.
01:27With a 15-year-old from a poor Beijing family.
01:34And a young prince who comes to rule the great empire when his father dies.
01:50This is the Forbidden City in 1850.
01:55The court still mourns.
01:58But soon the palace will have a single topic of interest.
02:05Who will wed Shen Feng, the new emperor of the Qing dynasty?
02:11The clan that has ruled the Middle Kingdom for more than 200 years.
02:23Officials are gathering 60 girls from the ruling clans, ordering them to the Forbidden City.
02:28Shen Feng's mother will choose one as the 20-year-old emperor's bride.
02:33The rest will be his concubines.
02:39The chief eunuch receives the candidates.
02:54Among them is 15-year-old Yehanara.
03:01She must bid farewell to her family at the mighty Meridian Gate.
03:05No ordinary subject may enter the Forbidden City.
03:17Yehanara crosses the threshold for the first time.
03:21Entering a strange, magical world.
03:35Her route takes her across one of five bridges spanning the Gold Water River.
03:44Past the splendid imperial palaces.
03:50And through a gate that opens into the Forbidden City's heart.
03:59Here, the Hall of Supreme Harmony rises majestically.
04:04The centre of the world.
04:08It's a breathtaking sight.
04:15And that was exactly what its builders intended.
04:19The size of the squares.
04:21The symmetry of the palaces.
04:22The interplay of colours.
04:24Every detail of the Forbidden City serves a higher purpose.
04:34Its architecture speaks in a spiritual code, understood only on a second look.
04:46The entire layout of the Forbidden City obeys the rules of Feng Shui, and the teachings of yin and yang.
04:54For example, yang stands for the bright, warm south, yin for the cold, dark north.
04:59So the main axis of the complex runs from due south to due north.
05:03In the Forbidden City, these two forces should be in perfect harmony.
05:11But the teachings of Feng Shui also require that there be water to the south and a mountain to the
05:16north of a building.
05:23Here there was neither one nor the other, so the master builders constructed them.
05:31In the south, they created the Golden River, and in the north, they built the so-called Coal Hill.
05:38The hill was designed to protect the Forbidden City from evil spirits, but also to keep away the cold winds
05:44in winter.
05:44The river was the counterbalance to the hill, but it kept the complex cool in summer.
05:51So the striving for spiritual harmony also had very practical advantages.
05:59Spiritual architecture arises from strict ritual.
06:03The ceremonies extend to choosing an emperor's bride.
06:09The choice itself is the privilege of the emperor's mother, the most senior woman in the court.
06:21A candidate undergoes intimate scrutiny.
06:25She may not have blemishes, foul breath, or any trace of body odor.
06:34Nor is her virginity assumed.
06:40She may not have blemishes.
06:43She may not have blemishes.
06:44She may not have blemishes.
06:45Summoned forward, Yehenara receives an engagement present.
06:49Many others were jealous of me, as I was then considered a beautiful woman, she is said to have declared.
06:56The dowager seems not to agree.
06:59She appoints Yehenara a concubine of the fifth or lowest grade.
07:08First rank goes to another girl.
07:13As the emperor's bride, she will give the dynasty its heir.
07:18And be Yehenara's greatest rival for the emperor's favor.
07:35At the wedding, Yehenara sees Emperor Shen Feng for the first time.
07:43The son of heaven is the single, fertile male in the Forbidden City, a world of more than 3,000
07:50eunuchs and almost as many women.
07:56The Chinese believe a marriage unites the twin forces of yin and yang.
08:03Yin represents the nourishing, preserving female force.
08:07and yang the creative male force.
08:12The ruling principle is to keep perfect harmony between the two forces in order to maintain order in the universe.
08:20A concept reflected everywhere in the Forbidden City.
08:27The harmony of yin and yang is an essential organizing principle of the Forbidden City.
08:36Yin represents the female principle, and yang the male principle.
08:41That's why the emperor's private palace is located at the very south of the inner court.
08:48For the south stands for the masculine yang.
08:53This building was called the palace of heavenly purity.
08:57Because heaven belongs under the male yang principle too.
09:02The empress's private palace lies to the north.
09:05It's called the palace of earthly tranquility.
09:07Because north and earth come under the female yin principle.
09:14Exactly halfway between these two buildings is the hall of unity,
09:17in which the emperor and the empress meet on their wedding night.
09:22Here, heaven and earth come together, and yin and yang are in perfect harmony.
09:32But for the Forbidden City's concubines, life is often tragic.
09:41The dead emperor's concubines inhabit the six eastern palaces.
09:49Yehanara looks into eyes grown old while waiting.
09:56Many have spent their lives hoping in vain for a call to the emperor's bed.
10:00Some have never even seen him.
10:15Yehanara's life could fade away too.
10:20She has no other choice,
10:22for an imperial concubine may never leave the Forbidden City.
10:26In the monotony of a minutely regulated day,
10:30seconds turn to hours.
10:32Hours become weeks.
10:35Two years pass,
10:37and the emperor never summons Yehanara.
10:51Her dream life has descended into nightmare.
10:56She lives locked in a cage with purple walls and golden roofs.
11:13When she was a child, they called Yehanara Little Orchid.
11:18She and her siblings grew up alongside southern China's Yongze River.
11:23Her father was a minor official,
11:25but the family was of the ruling Manchu minority.
11:33As a Manchu,
11:35Yehanara escaped the ritual foot binding that crippled Chinese girls,
11:40their feet tortured into the shape of a lotus.
11:51Yehanara's father educated his children in Manchu traditions.
11:57He revelled in their heritage.
12:02And he wanted his children to know of their ancestors' glorious deeds.
12:18In the year 1644, beneath the eight banners,
12:22the Manchu conquered China.
12:28They drove out Chinese rebels who had toppled the Ming Dynasty,
12:32plundering the Forbidden City.
12:42Now the Manchu ruled the Forbidden City.
12:45They called themselves the Qin, the Pure Ones.
12:54Over time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty took China to a period of new glory.
13:00That's clear from the simple fact that in the 18th century,
13:03the Qing Empire was the biggest empire in the world.
13:08Another important reason is that the Qing rulers turned out to be a force
13:12for the promotion of classical Chinese culture.
13:16In fact, they were sometimes more Chinese than the Chinese.
13:27But embracing Chinese traditions of government made political and social reforms difficult.
13:33By the mid-19th century, despite major attempts at reform,
13:38China was still ruled by ancient codes,
13:41while the rest of the world was changing dramatically.
13:46A concubine had one chance to rise in the palace hierarchy,
13:51by bearing the heir to the throne.
13:55In two years, the Emperor had not summoned Yehenera even once.
14:06Then, legend has it, Anderhai, an ambitious young eunuch,
14:10assigned as Yehenera's servant, offers to help his mistress.
14:22He might have ways to make the Emperor more aware of her.
14:34Yehenera can't move without being noticed.
14:39But the eunuch can be her eyes and ears at court.
14:44He knows the guards at the gates.
14:47He can slip anywhere, silently as a cat.
14:53He will find ways for Yehenera to get noticed,
14:56and so she will find favour at court.
15:10Only eunuchs like Anderhai have access to the palace's inner sanctums.
15:19Besides guarding the women's quarters,
15:21eunuchs handled the palace's day-to-day tasks,
15:24from garbage removal to running the imperial household.
15:33No-one else is nearer the Emperor.
15:36Ranking eunuchs are among the most influential courtiers.
15:44The Brotherhood's most powerful member is the chief eunuch.
15:48Each day, he presents the Emperor with jade tablets listing his concubines.
15:56The son of heaven chooses the woman he'll bed that night.
16:05Aided by her enterprising servant,
16:08Yehenera gets an audience with the chief eunuch.
16:17As the story is told,
16:19she gives him the engagement gift she received from the Emperor.
16:33The gesture shocks and pleases the chief eunuch,
16:36but he refuses to accept a token of the Emperor's love.
16:43The gesture shocks and pleases the chief eunuch,
16:48This relationship will be much more valuable when Yehenera has born the Emperor's son.
17:01Yehenera has gained an important ally at court.
17:05She can rely on him.
17:17But how can he assure her the Emperor won't choose another concubine?
17:28The chief eunuch can make things happen in the Forbidden City.
17:33He will start by telling the Emperor of Yehenera's beauty.
17:41Yehenera's plan succeeds.
17:49Yehenera's plan succeeds.
17:49The Emperor chooses her.
17:52As night falls,
17:54Yehenera, bathed and perfumed,
17:56draped only in a silken sheet,
17:58is carried to the Emperor's chamber.
18:18No-one knows what happened that night.
18:24Yehenera could have had special training for this moment.
18:27The chief eunuch certainly would know the Emperor's preferences.
18:34According to the ritual,
18:36the love act with a concubine is intended to serve the teachings of yin and yang,
18:41not the creation of an imperial heir.
18:46The Emperor is expected to hold back
18:49in order to increase his strength through the unification of feminine yin and masculine yang.
18:55Pregnancy is reserved for the Empress.
18:58At least, that is the theory.
19:06By tradition, during the act,
19:09the eunuchs are at hand to document the proceedings.
19:18After the love act,
19:20Yehenera sleeps alone on her side,
19:22as the ritual requires.
19:26Only the Emperor is allowed to face Heaven.
19:31Following the night's events,
19:33Yehenera gets her wish.
19:36For three months more,
19:38she remains the Emperor's only nighttime companion.
19:52At last,
19:53Yehenera's deepest desires come true.
19:56A doctor checks her pulse using a silk ribbon.
19:59He may not touch her.
20:02In spite of this inexact method,
20:04he is in no doubt.
20:07Her Majesty the Empress must be the first to know.
20:14The doctor informs the Empress that Yehenera has shimai,
20:19the happy pulse rate.
20:28Andehai tells Yehenera.
20:36The dragon seed has germinated.
20:38She is pregnant.
20:43What fate has denied the Empress,
20:45it grants to Yehenera.
20:54From now on,
20:56Yehenera will live amidst her rival's hatred.
21:07Andehai!
21:08What are you doing there?
21:10I'll find you for a long time!
21:11Her faithful servant, Andehai,
21:13tries to protect her as much as he can.
21:23Behind its façade of harmony,
21:25the Forbidden City is riddled with envy,
21:28factions and politics.
21:31Yehenera learns her lesson well,
21:34quickly mastering the art of palace intrigue.
21:44On the 27th of April, 1856,
21:48Yehenera bears a son.
21:50As mother of the heir to the throne,
21:52she is, after the Empress,
21:55the Empire's highest-ranking woman.
22:04But Yehenera's meteoric rise carries a price.
22:08Her son, Shaiswe,
22:10will all but be a stranger to her.
22:16Tradition assigns his upbringing
22:18to the Empress and the eunuchs.
22:34The Empress and the heir receive their due.
22:40Even an infant crown prince has god-like status,
22:44because he ensures the dynasty's continuity.
22:50The Empress and the heir receive their due.
22:54The Empress and the Queen,
22:55Now, Yehenera must come to terms with her own role.
23:05Just when the court inside the Forbidden City believes Heaven has smiled on it,
23:10the world outside threatens to dissolve into chaos.
23:18China has always cut itself off from the influence of the foreign barbarians.
23:24But in 1840, after the First Opium War,
23:28Britain forced Chinese ports to open.
23:31Now other European powers are demanding their share,
23:35insisting on trading with the Chinese as equals.
23:43The Emperor, now sick and weary of his ritual existence,
23:48is incapable of dealing with the situation.
23:54Legend maintains that he begins to rely more and more on Yehenera,
23:58even consulting her on government matters.
24:04It is Yehenera who studies the official proposals
24:08and guides the Emperor's decisions.
24:13This is sacrilege,
24:15an unthinkable break with traditional roles.
24:30When the Emperor receives visitors,
24:33even the most important figures,
24:35it is rumoured that Yehenera stays at his side.
24:45The Emperor's brother, Prince Gong, arrives with bad news.
24:52The British and French again insist on building embassies in China.
24:57The Emperor sees this as barbarian insolence.
25:02He will never allow the barbarians to reach Beijing.
25:09But Prince Gong worries.
25:12The foreigners have troops.
25:13Some at court want the barbarians slain.
25:17Or better, their ambassadors held hostage until the foreign soldiers leave.
25:25According to legend, it is Yehenera who breaks the deadlock.
25:32She sides with conservatives, who say barbarians have humiliated China long enough.
25:37No more appeasement.
25:39They want to use force to maintain the Empire's freedom and honour.
25:50The Emperor agrees.
25:56And his subjects obey.
26:11Officials arrest the Anglo-French delegation's 20 members,
26:16parading them through Beijing, past angry crowds.
26:21The white devils only narrowly escape lynching.
26:48The humiliation China suffered at the hands of the Western imperial powers.
26:52The relegation of the Middle Kingdom to the status of a colony
26:57was a traumatic experience that has influenced Chinese politics,
27:02especially foreign policy, to the present day.
27:11After the Second Opium War, there was a brief period of peace.
27:17But then the fighting flared up again.
27:20In 1860, an expeditionary force was dispatched to Beijing.
27:30Armed with modern weapons, the Europeans shoot their way into the capital.
27:36For the first time ever, the court flees the forbidden city.
27:40The official explanation is that the Emperor has departed
27:44to join the traditional hunt at his summer residence.
27:50Yehanara opposes the decision to flee,
27:52and later writes that it was the most humiliating moment of my life.
28:00But she does flee.
28:03She does flee.
28:04Though not without her son.
28:11This is more than a mother's love.
28:13If Yehanara stays in Beijing,
28:15she loses the only card that guarantees her position in court.
28:25She needs to get out quickly.
28:31The Europeans savage the summer palace,
28:35where their diplomats are being held.
28:39They destroy irreplaceable artwork.
28:42Centuries-old gardens reserved for the select few
28:45become rubble and ashes.
28:49On hearing the news, the Emperor loses his will to live.
28:55Now the Son of Heaven lies on his deathbed, far from Beijing.
29:04He has not decided on his successor.
29:07Tradition holds that he must choose and then name his son as his heir,
29:12expressing his divine will in his own words.
29:16Yehanara's enemies at court want to prevent that.
29:28Yehanara's attempts to reach the Emperor are denied, as she is barred at the door.
29:34Tradition dictates, as a mere concubine, she has no rights.
29:40She's even prevented from taking her son to his dying father.
29:47The chief eunuch threatens to arrest her.
29:53Finally, the Emperor himself calls for his child.
29:59The President begins to arrest her.
30:01told him that he is in the world.
30:02The President will not respect the world.
30:02Shen Feng, he will, aftercomer and with his son.
30:04Shen Feng, he will name his successor.
30:07Urging him to lead China to new greatness.
30:15But the Emperor must still choose a name for his son's reign.
30:27with his last breath the emperor fulfills his ritual duty the model for the new emperor
30:33will be tongs are ruling together
30:51in 1861 tongs are ascends the dragon throne a six-year-old commanding an empire
31:05his mother holds all the power at her son's ascendancy yeah henara becomes the region
31:16she will go down in history as so she the emperor's dowager her determination has saved the dynasty
31:28otherwise doomed to power struggles without a legitimate successor yeah henara joins Prince
31:36gong the late emperor's brother in opposing the court officials for them the presence of a woman
31:44the head of the empire disturbs the harmony of the traditional order Prince go is among the few who
31:53realize that the old order is lost forever after the summer palace is destroyed he agrees to European
32:00demands for embassies in Beijing it's a revolutionary step historically the Chinese regard ambassadors
32:13from other lands as mere messengers bringing tributes the one thing the two cultures share is a conviction
32:23that the other is barbaric on one side the Europeans rapidly developing on the other the Chinese
32:30convinced of their cultural superiority while the Chinese have little use for Western style
32:40diplomacy their traditional ways prove useless in the changing world outside the palace walls
32:59when tongs are reaches adulthood and formally takes over power his mother sushi is the guarantee that the
33:07traditional political system will be maintained the emperor issues proclamations but the actual decisions fall to the
33:16the all-powerful empress dowager who listens to the audiences from behind the screen
33:24contemporaries actually call her the ruler behind the curtain sushi refuses to give up her power and privileges
33:33unprecedented for a woman in Chinese history by doing so she will be overstepping the boundaries of imperial tradition
33:43the very tradition that she is striving to maintain
33:48on the imperial stage the son of heaven is only a minor player
34:04having spent his entire life within the walls of the forbidden city surrounded by eunuchs tongs are seeks refuge in
34:12worldly pleasures
34:28at night he slips out incognito to explore Beijing
34:37faced with a pointless existence he takes refuge in a world of appearances
34:42he smokes opium introduced by the British even though he himself had made opium smoking punishable by death
34:55his health cannot withstand this lifestyle
34:58his health cannot withstand this lifestyle
35:05in 1874 tongs are the boy emperor not yet 20 years old dies
35:14court records describe so she as inconsolable
35:18grief-stricken she cries out
35:20I thought I could be happy with my son as emperor
35:23when he died I became a different woman
35:26all my happiness is gone
35:35and yet there's no time to mourn
35:42her son's widow the empress Aluta is pregnant
35:53the unborn child threatens Sushi's role in the Forbidden City
36:01if Aluta bears a son he will be crown prince
36:05and Aluta will replace Sushi at court
36:15but Sushi never relents
36:19the night her son dies she summons the highest council of state
36:31Sushi stages a coup d'etat
36:40she has convened the council of state to choose a successor to the emperor
36:46at first they advise waiting for the empress to give birth
36:50if Aluta's child is a boy he will be the emperor
37:00but Sushi insists that in this crisis the throne should not stand vacant a single day
37:14she proposes that her sister's son inherit the throne
37:29before opposition can build Sushi acts
37:37deep in the night she has her three year old nephew brought from his Beijing home to the Forbidden City
37:43the new infant emperor will share his predecessor's fate
38:06Sushi again becomes co-regent indirectly in control of the empire
38:15time stands still in the middle kingdom
38:19Sushi dominates the Forbidden City's court
38:23she believes herself chosen to protect the traditions of imperial China
38:29trapped in a world she invented
38:31she's oblivious to the signs of disaster
38:34one that won't stop at the Forbidden City's walls
38:40as the 20th century looms
38:43Chinese society is still locked in the past
38:49living and working conditions are appalling
38:52the legal system is barbaric
38:57foreigners have brought railways
38:59but this steel dragon is seen as devilish
39:02its efficiency threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people carriers and coolies
39:11despite Sushi's political savvy
39:14she may not be able to save the Qing dynasty
39:23in the year 1900
39:25the people's pent-up fury explodes
39:28not against Sushi and the ruling Qing
39:31but against Western devils
39:33the foreigners
39:36a sect calling itself
39:38the Fists of Heaven
39:39blames foreigners for China's decline
39:49officials of the Forbidden City
39:50have no idea how to react to this popular movement
39:53if they let the so-called boxes run wild
39:56the bureaucrats may not be able to control them
40:01the usual practice is to crush such a rebellion
40:07Guan Shu, Sushi's puppet emperor
40:09fears the foreign response to an attack
40:12if we are to fight the Yian-Ren
40:20we don't want to go in
40:23so that the Yian-Ren
40:27is a very powerful force
40:27but some factions of the court disagree
40:29but some factions of the court disagree
40:31they believe that China is weak
40:34without supernatural help
40:36the only force they can rely on
40:38is the heart and soul of the Chinese people
40:40the heart and soul of the Chinese people
40:43the heart of the Chinese people
40:58and the Chinese people
40:59the imperial edict drafts the desirable elements
41:01of the rebellious boxers into China's army
41:04the undesirable elements are to be pacified
41:07whatever that means
41:10the boxers read this as carte blanche
41:13to start a full-scale rebellion
41:23the legation quarter is near the forbidden city
41:263,000 diplomats and their families live here
41:29with a garrison of a few dozen soldiers
41:40for 60 days the boxers besiege the legation quarter
41:49a well-armed international force comes to the rescue
42:10the peasant mob is no match for the foreign forces
42:13and their modern weapons
42:20isolated in the palace
42:21the Chinese leadership gave the impression of a court
42:32of conservative Manchus
42:34who lacked all political insight
42:36and were incapable of political action
42:39and this was a catastrophe for China
42:46in the short term
42:48the boxer uprising provoked the western powers
42:50to send another expeditionary force to China
42:53it marched to Beijing with the intention of occupying the capital
43:04and the empress was forced to flee the forbidden city
43:07for the second time
43:17so it has come to this
43:19Su Xi is believed to have said
43:21as western troops camped at Beijing's gates
43:26after wielding power for half a century
43:28she couldn't save the Qing dynasty
43:31in humiliation she is forced to flee dressed as a peasant
43:36in the autumn of 1900
43:38Su Xi and Emperor Guangxu flee the forbidden city
43:45it is almost 50 years since Su Xi first entered this sacred place
43:49where every action was intended to preserve the harmony of the cosmos
43:54her rule delayed
43:56but could not prevent the old order's downfall
44:20after she fled the forbidden city's aura was destroyed forever
44:32when the Europeans took Beijing
44:34when the Europeans took Beijing
44:35they behaved like the barbarians the Chinese imagined them to be
44:38plundering whole sections of the forbidden city
44:44for 500 years the Chinese regarded this as the centre of the universe
44:49the conquerors made it a common barracks for their soldiers
44:57yet a French diplomat could write respectfully of the throne room
45:02these things have an indescribable air of age and mystery
45:07this is a single grandiose gloomy hall all covered in faded gold
45:37the
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