Of course, this being the Chinese imperial court.
当然,这是中国的朝廷。
Things weren't quite as simple as little Zaichun putting on a crown and Cixi suddenly becoming boss of the palace.
事情并不是像小载淳戴上王冠,慈禧突然成为皇宫的主人那么简单。
On his deathbed, Xianfeng signed a proclamation placing power in the hands of eight men under his advisor Sushun.
咸丰临终时,签署了一份公告,将权力交给他的谋士肃顺手下的八个人。
The idea was that these men would act as Regents until the boy came of age,
咸丰皇帝的想法是,这些人将作为摄政王,直到男孩成年,
but since Sushun was clearly plotting to take control for himself.
但由于肃顺显然是在策划控制皇权。
Cixi asked the emperor directly who would succeed him.
慈禧直接问皇帝谁会继承他的皇位。
When Xianfeng replied with my son, obviously, well, the stage was set for an epic power struggle.
当咸丰回答我儿子时,显然,这是一场史诗般的权力斗争的舞台。
So here's the situation as we go into battle.
当我们进入斗争时,情况是这样的。
On one side, we have the powerful advisor Sushun and his cabal of prominent men all favored both politically and by their gender.
一方面,有强大的顾问大臣肃顺以及他所在的阴谋集团的杰出人物,他们在政治上和性别上都受到青睐。
On the other hand, we have the recently elevated dowager empress Cixi and Ci'an with a bit of secret help from xianfeng's brother Prince Gong.
另一方面,有最近晋升的慈禧太后和慈安,她们获得咸丰弟弟恭亲王的秘密帮助。
The Gong becomed official decision maker for the Zaichun, the new Tongzhi Emperor.
恭亲王成为了新同治皇帝载淳的官方决策者。
The prize, well, make yourself the most powerful person in all of China and in a real-life squad game like this, there could only be one winner.
奖品是,让你成为全中国最有权势的人,在现实生活中,像这样的团队游戏中, 只能有一个赢家。
At the moment, the starting gun was fired on this epic show done.
此时此刻,发令枪响了史诗般的表演结束了。
Smart money was on a Sushun victory.
精明的投资者认为肃顺会获胜。
After all, he was important, connected, respected, powerful male , going up against a former concubine.
毕竟,他是个重要的,有人脉的,受人尊敬的,有权势的男人,来对抗妃嫔。
You can almost imagine him cackling like dick dastardly as he declares don't worry, little lady, this will hurt you more than it hurts me.
你几乎可以想象他像个混蛋一样咯咯笑着说别担心,小姐,这对你的伤害比对我的要大。
But in this, our villain would be proven spectacularly wrong.
但在这一点上,我们的反派人物将被证明是大错特错的。
For all society, it may have regarded her as a mere concubine.
在全社会看来,她可能只是一个妃嫔。
There was nothing mere about Cixi. She was shrewd, intelligent.
慈禧不是一个单纯的人。 她精明,聪明。
And don't forget, versed in chess from a young age, and in the giant three-dimensional chess game that Sushun didn't even know he was playing, she could see a bazillion moves ahead.
别忘了,她从小就精通围棋,在这个连肃顺都不知道他在玩的巨大的围棋游戏中,她能看到前方的无数步棋。
The first smart thing Cixi and Ci'an did was getting everyone to agree to let them write the royal seal.
慈禧和慈安做的第一件聪明的事是让大家同意让他们盖皇家印章。
In this era, all Chinese laws had to be literally signed off by the emperor.
在那个时代,中国所有的法律都必须由皇帝签署。
But since Zaichun was so young, having the whole nation weight on a five-year-old's handwriting skills was a clear route to disaster.
但由于载淳还这么小,让全国的人都把注意力放在一个五岁孩子的写字技巧上,显然是一场灾难。
So Cixi was all like, yeah, you know what? How about me and Ci'an do it? And just save everybody the trouble? Yeah.
慈禧表示,是的,你知道吗? 不如让我和慈安签署吧? 这样大家就不用麻烦了? 是的。
To which, Sushun ascended probably while smirking about how it fobbed her off with trinkets.
肃顺可能是在得意地嘲笑它用小饰品搪塞她的时候升上去的。
But the power to make laws actually legal obviously wasn't a trinket at all.
但使法律合法的权力显然根本不是一件小事。
Still, Cixi couldn't just write a letter saying feeds are shown to the lions and sign it into law.
尽管如此,慈禧还是不能写一封信,说要给狮子看饲料,并签署成法律。
No, no, no. She needed a reason to take down her nemesis, which leads us up to her second smart move: making a child cry.
不,不,不。 她需要一个扳倒她敌人的理由,这就引出了她的第二个聪明举动:让孩子哭。
One day, when Sushun and the Regents were doing their thing.
有一天,当肃顺和摄政王在做他们的事。
Cixi came up to them with Zaichun in tow.
慈禧带着载淳走了过来。
She was then just so objectionable the Regents lost their tempers and started shouting at her which caused Zaichun to burst into tears.
她太讨厌了,摄政王大发脾气,对她大吼大叫,这导致载淳哭了起来。
Rather than oh, sorry, my bad, Cixi instead declared that the Regents had disrespected the young emperor and act tantamount to treason.
慈禧没有说,对不起,我的错,反而宣称摄政王不尊重年轻的皇帝,行为等同于叛国。
It was around this time that Sushun began plotting to kill her, but his plans were too little too late.
就在这个时候,肃顺开始密谋杀害她,但他的计划太少,也太迟了。
In november, 1861, a 10-day funeral procession was held for the dead Xianfeng.
1861年11月,为已故咸丰举行了为期10天的葬礼。
Cixi informed Sushun that she'd only be available for part of the ceremony, but that he should attend the whole thing since it'd be a show of great respect.
慈禧告诉肃顺,她只会出席一部分仪式,但他应该参加整个仪式,因为这是一种尊重。
Perhaps spooked by the whole bowling emperor episode, Sushun agreed then.
也许是被整个皇帝事件吓到了,肃顺当时同意了。
While he was out at the funeral, Cixi set up the perfect checkmate.
慈禧在出殡的时候安排了一次完美的战局。
During the ten days, Cixi and Ci'an and Prince Gong worked feverishly to whip up palace sentiment against the Regions.
在这十天的时间里,慈禧、慈安和恭亲王都在积极地煽动宫廷反对摄政王的情绪。
Finally, at the end of the procession, they unveiled a proclamation in Zaichun's name signed by Cixi seal and it charged them all with treason.
最后,在游行的最后,他们揭开了以慈禧的名义签署的公告,公告上指控他们都犯有叛国罪。
Sushun was arrested and sentenced to death by a thousand cuts, a sentence Cixi commuted to death by decapitation.
肃顺逮捕,被判千刀万剐。慈禧将其罪行减缓为斩首。
Two other Regions were ordered to commit suicide and the rest were stripped of their wealth and sent into exile.
另外两个摄政王被命令自杀,其余摄政王的财富被剥夺并被流放。
In the wake of the near bloodless coup, a second proclamation went out.
在这场几乎不流血的政变之后,第二份公告发布了。
This one declaring that Ci'an and Cixi with advice from prince Gong would now decide on all matters of state.
这个宣言宣布,慈安和慈禧现在将决定国家的一切事务。
And with that, it was game set a match.
就这样,比赛开始了。
Aged just 26, Cixi had done it.
慈禧年仅26岁,就成功了。
Along with Ci'an, she had outmaneuvered everyone to become the most important person in China.
她和慈安一起,智取天下,成为中国最重要的人物。
And what's a sharp ambitious girl to do with near unlimited power.
一个有野心的女孩能用近乎无限的权力做什么。
Why transform her country, of course?
为什么要改变她的国家呢?