The Secret to Cixi’s Longevity: A Royal Beverage

23 September, 2024

Cixi, the Empress Dowager (1835 – 1908), was one of the most powerful women in the late Qing Dynasty. Despite her important role in history, she faced much criticism from professionals and scholars alike.

She was often criticized for her authoritarianism and extravagant lifestyle, while many people lived in poverty. Even as the Qing Dynasty fell into hardship, she maintained her extravagant lifestyle.

Empress Cixi not only possessed lavish clothing and jewelry, but her eating and moving around were also extremely luxurious. To cater to her culinary demands, she built a private kitchen in the Forbidden City, called the Western Kitchen. Only the best and most famous chefs in Beijing were selected to serve her, with the ability to prepare over 400 types of pastries and 4,000 different dishes.

Empress Cixi (1835 – 1908): One of the Most Powerful Women in the Late Qing Dynasty

According to records from the book “Empress Cixi” by Xu Jie, a Qing Dynasty researcher, Cixi was served 120 different dishes at each meal. However, she only ate a few bites of each dish due to her fear of poisoning. The remaining food was given to concubines, officials, and eunuchs as a honor.

In addition, Cixi’s drinking water was not something that the rich people of that time could easily enjoy. Unlike the common practice of drinking tap water, she only drank pure spring water, as natural water sources often contain more minerals.

Moreover, the water she drank was not just spring water but was also boiled with rose-scented tea. When drinking tea, she asked her servants to place fruits in front of her and only drank the tea after smelling the fragrance of the fruits.

Her water was boiled with rose-scented tea

As we know, modern women often prefer flower-scented teas, not just for their fragrance but also for their various benefits. Among them, rose tea stands out for its beauty benefits, indicating that Empress Cixi, from an early age, attached great importance to maintaining her appearance.

In addition to enjoying flower-scented tea, Cixi also had the habit of using dew to rinse her mouth every morning, which caused no small amount of trouble for the eunuchs and palace maids. They often had to get up in the middle of the night to collect the night dew in exquisite porcelain bottles, ensuring that it remained as pure as possible. If the bottles were not full or did not meet her standards, the empress would be very displeased, and they would face severe punishment.

The extravagant habits invented by Empress Cixi did not stop at drinking flower tea; she also favored milk tea and human milk. While milk tea could be easily prepared, human milk was a rather difficult request. Cixi would select girls with beautiful appearances and fair skin to enter the palace to provide breast milk for the newborn princes. These girls not only nourished the princes but also had to provide milk for the nobles in the palace. Some were even specifically chosen to supply fresh milk for the empress herself.