Kangxi was the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history, and he ascended the throne at the age of eight and was a pro-government emperor at the age of fourteen. He pushed the rule of China's feudal dynasty to a new peak, and under his rule, China actually controlled the territory of the Yuan Dynasty. The Kangxi Emperor also personally led a large army to defeat the invasion of Tsarist Russia, so that the Russians did not dare to harass China's borders for a hundred years.
As the saying goes, behind a successful man, there is always a woman who pays silently, and the Kangxi Emperor is the same, and his success is inseparable from the support of the women behind him.
According to historical records, the Kangxi Emperor had a total of four empresses, but it is not known whether there was a conjugal relationship between Kangxi and the empress, or whether the medical conditions at that time were too backward, and the four empresses of Kangxi had their own misfortunes. Some died at a young age, some died within a few days of becoming empresses, and some were killed by the struggle between their sons, and in the end, they were exhausted and died.
So, who are these fateful queens?
The first empress of the Kangxi Emperor was the Hersheli clan, and she was the first empress of the Kangxi Emperor to marry, Empress Xiaochengren. The Herschel clan is the oldest Manchu surname and one of the most important and powerful Manchurian families in China during the Qing Dynasty. She has a more complex background and is one of the four auxiliary ministers of the Kangxi dynasty, the granddaughter of Soni.
It is not difficult to see that the Kangxi Emperor's marriage to the Herschel clan was actually a political marriage. At that time, the power of the Kangxi Emperor was not so great, and all the power was in the hands of the four auxiliary ministers, of which Aobai was the strongest of the four auxiliary ministers. Kangxi was very jealous of Aobai, so he chose to enter into this political marriage with Sonny, one of the four auxiliary ministers.
Kangxi's approach was very clever. First of all, Sony's family strength is not small, and secondly, Aobai's attention will also shift to Sony's side. From then on, Kangxi was no longer a lonely man, after all, with the support of the forces of the old man's family, the Kangxi Emperor could slowly calculate behind the scenes how to weaken Aobai's strength.
It didn't take long for the young and wise Kangxi to display his superb art of domination and completely eliminate the Aobai clique.
Of course, the political marriage between Kangxi and Thechel clan did not hinder the true feelings between the two. On the contrary, the two are a young couple of green plum bamboo horses, which can be said to be in love. At kangxi's most powerless and difficult time, it was the silent support of the Herschel clan and the orderly maintenance of the harem that saved Kangxi a lot of things.
However, regrettably, Herschel died at a young age due to illness, which brought a great blow to Kangxi. However, fortunately, there is another child between the two, that is: Yin Rong. The status of the eldest son, coupled with Kangxi's love for his mother, Yin Rong was deeply favored by Kangxi and was established as the crown prince when he first turned one year old.
Everyone has a sense of compensation, and Kangxi felt that Herschel had died too early to share the prosperity with himself, so Kangxi gave her love for Herschel to her son Yin. In Kangxi's heart, Yin Rong was the future emperor, and Kangxi invited the best teachers in the whole world to cultivate Yin Rong according to the emperor's standards. He became a descendant of the emperor and sacrificed, and supervised the country several times.
Three years after Herschel's death, the Kangxi Emperor gradually came out of his grief. As the son of heaven of a dynasty, the harem could not be left without a master for a day, and among the many concubines, Kangxi chose the daughter of the auxiliary chancellor Shu Bilong, Empress Xiaozhaoren.
The Niuhulu clan was a large surname in the Qing Dynasty, which is found in the Imperial Tongzhi Clan Luo Manchuria Eight Banners Surname. It is the oldest surname of the Manchu people and one of the eight major surnames of the Manchu people. It is mainly distributed in the Songhua River Basin, Mudanjiang River Basin and Changbai MountainOus Area. In fact, this is also a political marriage. When niuhulu first entered the palace, he was an ordinary concubine.
However, her identity is not simple, the daughter of the auxiliary minister Shu Bilong, the righteous daughter of Ao Bai. Finally, after staying up for so many years, he seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and became the master of the harem. However, it seems that the Niuhulu clan did not have the blessing of being an empress, and after only half a year of being an empress, she died.
It can be said that Kangxi was not very sad about the death of the second empress, Niu Hulu:
First, because at that time, it was the time of the crusade against San Francisco and the war was tight, as the emperor of a dynasty, Kangxi had no time to grieve;
Second, because there was not much deep affection between Kangxi and the Niuhulu clan, no matter who died first, the other party would not have that feeling of pain, which was also the most important reason.
This is the sadness of the feudal monarchy, and the distortion of human nature is vividly expressed in the deep palace. After the death of two consecutive empresses of the Kangxi Dynasty, he welcomed his third empress, Empress Xiaoyiren.
This empress was also related to the Kangxi Emperor by blood, and was considered a close relative. Tong Jia was the niece of Kangxi's biological mother, and the relationship between them was that of a cousin. In terms of blood, they are relatively close people, but their feelings are not so deep, and they cannot be compared with Herschel. It can be said that the life of this queen is more bitter than the life of the previous two queens.
Empress Xiaozhaoren died early, and at that time, the harem was ownerless, and Tong Jia had already been given the power to manage the harem early. She served Kangxi for a long time and did not receive the title of empress, but when she was terminally ill, the Kangxi Emperor remembered the relationship between relatives and respected her mother's family, and only when she was dying did she crown her as empress.
This bitter queen, in fact, only one day as a queen, died.
In fact, from the seventeenth year of Kangxi to the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi, there were ministers in the dprk who asked Tong Jiashi to be crowned empress, but the Kangxi Emperor's answer was "think about it a little bit", which meant "let me think again". Kangxi's hesitation against the empress was not because of his dissatisfaction with Tong Jiashi, but because the previous two empresses could not die well, and Kangxi was afraid that the tragedy would repeat itself.
After the death of Kangxi's third empress, Tong Jiashi, Kangxi never again appointed empress.
So, what happened to the fourth empress of Kangxi?
Kangxi's fourth empress, Empress Xiaogongren, was not actually an empress made by Kangxi herself, but the son of the Uya clan was the Yongzheng Emperor, and after Kangxi's death, the Yongzheng Emperor made Wuyashi empress, of course, this could not be agreed by Kangxi. In fact, the Wuya clan is also very powerful, and the sons she gave birth to, one is the Yongzheng Emperor Yin Chan, and the other is the great general Yin Zhen.
However, the Uya clan was overwhelmed by his two sons, and in the end, he could not reconcile the contradictions between the two brothers, and the Uya clan also died in discouragement.
As the empress of Kangxi, Herschel was the happiest one, although she died very early, but she took away the heart of the Kangxi Emperor. As a woman in ancient society, especially a woman in the royal family, all kinds of involuntarily competing for power and profit have made many women waste their good youth in vain, which is really an invisible harm to women.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Volume 6, Honji 6, Shengzu I, Qing History Manuscript, Empress Xiaochengren's Biography, Qing History Manuscript, Liechuan I, Concubine]