Yehe—the Birthplace of Empress Cixi
“Yehe”in Manchurian means“the sun on the riverside”and also“Lianma’’meaning the place with shallow river for retting hemp. The old city Yehe is located inYehe is located in Yehe now，a Manchurian town in the south of Lishu country，32km away from the city of Spring.About 600 years ago，the ascendants of Yehe tribe frequented the vast areas of mid-northeast，from the Yinma River，Jiudai，a country-level city in the east，to the northeast of Kaiyuan，a county-levelcity in the west，from Harda Radge of Jilin City to the north slope of the Dahei Hill. The site of the old city Yehe was the capital of Nezhen.In1619（the47th year of Wanli Reign，the Ming Dynasty）Nurhachi，Emperor Taizu of the Qing Dynasty wiped out the Yehe Kingdom and created“Ruins of Yehe”which influenced greatly the history of the northeast. Then he turned it into part of Shengjing Imperial Hunting Parking. In 1669（the 8th year of Kang xi Reign the Qing Dynasty an inn was set up in Yehe Town now，symbolizing the restoration of Yehe. Half a century ago，there was no trace of of human. In 1682（the 21th year of Kangxi Reign，the Qing Dynasty）Emperor Kangxi passed by the old town when he returned to Beijing in his eastern tour and inscribed a poem entitled Passing by Yehe Ruins:
The grass grows fresh from the dilapidated walls，
The wild flowers are honored there nobody lives，
Green plants are lucky enough to welcome me，
I hear the flute playing at the gate of walls.
The old city Eye was built on the hills consisting of eastern part and western part. The east part and western part. The eastern part was defended by Jin Shirttail，Belie（hereditary title of nobility or that of prince in the QingDynasty）and the western part was defended by Belie Bu Yanggu.The two towns were 2.5km away from each other. The eastert town was in form of a square with two wall gates: the eastern gate and the western gate .The western town was in the form of an octagon with two gates: the northern gate and the southern gate.
Inside the eastern town，there was a barbican entrance. Its wall was 10 meters high. In the center we can find the site of an octagon building. When Qing soldiers attacked the town，Beile Jin Taishi found them nearby occupied the town，so he led his soldiers to climb the inner city，the octagon building，but failed to burn himself and was captured and crossed. Now，we can find the site of the old Yehe. Surrounded by the mountain and river，we can recognize the site of the octagon building.
In the Ming Dynasty（the previous one of the Qing Dynasty），Yehe was rich in resources and convenience in transport by which Yehe became richer and stronger. In order to doing that，Nurhachi led his army to attack Yehe for times.
On the rainy night of August21st，1619，Nurhachi led his army to attack the eastern city gate. Through a hard resistance，howere，the city fell. Knowing that it was hard to resist Nurhachi’s army，Beile Bu Yanggu claimed that he could surrender with such conditions:“Spare him when surrendering”.Nurhachi agreed. He was led to him.Yanggu didn’t bow but just lowered his body a bit. When Nurhachi handed him a gold cup of liquor he proudly rejected，instead he lowered his head to sip it. Nurhachi crossed him with the excuse that he didn’t respect him and didn’t hand over the city，either. For this Bu Yanggu was exasperated and pledged that“If and only if a girl of my decendants could remain to live，she would overthrow the Manchus finally.”Knowing that cruelty and brutality would leave a legacy of trouble for descendants，he pledged that“Let there be no Yehes’in the court.”From this we can find that Nurhachi instructed his descendants to be alert of revenge of Yehe’s family，especially being alert that their women become concubines and win favor of emperors.
Later，something really happened of which Nurhachi was afraid. During the reign of Emperor Xian Feng of the late Qing Dynasty，Worthy Lady Luan of the Nala family of the Yehe tribe became the empress when her son became emperor. In history，she was called Empress Cixi and also named Empress of Western Palace.
Nuzhens stressed on pledge. The decendants of Nala of Yehe hated greatly the Yehe Ruins. A Manchurian story-teller Fu Yingren told story. His great grand uncle Mei Chongah was asked to go to the palace as a story-teller when he was 15. According to Fu’s collections，when he made a comment on folk tales for her，especially the tragical ones she couldn’t help sighing again and again with fears in her eyes.
When she governed the state，she often read The Records of the Qing Dynasty；she had a lot of knowledge of her tribe and the conflict between the two tribes. Since Cixi Empress governed the state behind the curtain，she did whatever she liked and at the same time she felt she won the honor for her ascendants，which was ironic to the Yehe Ruins created by Nurhachi. According to Empress Cixi at Home，when Empress Cixi was at the court of Shengjing（Shen yang）Imperial Palace，she examined the court. She examined everything far and wide and thought to herself，“Now I am standing on the land belonging to me. I’m back home.”
Empress Cixi’s administration was the consequence of social development at that time.
From the beginning of my briefing，you know that Yehe didn’t begin to restore her glory until 1699. During 50 years from 1619 to 1619，we cannot find any trance of human civilization in the tribe of Yehe. Similarly the same with Nurhachi who created the Ruins Yehe. She suppressed the movement of Yihetuan（Peasant Uprin），spent naval expenses building palaces and gardens for herself. Her rule led to the doom of the Qing Dynasty. When Revolution of 1911 broke out，Empress Long Yu（Cixi’s niece）declared that Emperor Puyi give up his throne，which is an irony that the declaration was made by one of Yehe tribe.