During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, great importance was attached to a person's family background. Whether it is a man entering the court as an official, or a woman entering the palace as a concubine, if there is no prominent family lineage, it is difficult to have a day to emerge. However, many times there are exceptions, during the Qing Dynasty, there was a woman who was originally just a princess's companion, but she was taken in by Qianlong, and later became the empress dowager of the harem for 54 years. She was Empress Xiaoherui, and this matter had to start from the 40th year of Qianlong, in January of that year, the tenth princess in the palace was born, and Qianlong was very happy, not only pampering the princess, but also promoting the princess's birth mother to the imperial concubine.
The following year, a baby girl was also born outside the palace, she was a woman of the Niuhulu clan, and no one thought that this baby girl would become the future empress of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the NiuHulu clan was one of the largest clans, with many empresses and concubines in the clan, but by the time this woman was born, her family had already declined. Although she still had the name of an aristocrat, her life was extremely poor, and even the woman's father had to survive by selling something on the street in his early years, and later he mixed up the position of a petty official by relying on a little glory left by his ancestors. Gradually, the ten princesses in the palace grew up, and when they were less than 10 years old, Qianlong ordered that a woman of the same age as the princess should be selected to be the princess's companion, and finally Niu Hulu was selected.
Fast forward to the 55th year of Qianlong, the emperor wanted to choose a wife for his son Yongyan, and she was favored by Qianlong because of her prominent family, outstanding appearance and talent, and the experience of reading as a companion for the princess, and finally successfully became a side Fujin. A few years later, Yongyan inherited the throne and was known as the Jiaqing Emperor. Her identity also underwent a major change, from a side Fujin to a noble concubine in the palace, second only to the empress. But unexpectedly, after only a year, the queen died of illness. At this time, under Qianlong's arrangement, the 21-year-old became the second empress and had the power to control the six palaces.
After she became empress, her family was once again valued by the imperial court because of her, and her father became a high-ranking official. In the 25th year of Jiaqing, the Jiaqing Emperor died without warning, and even the last will was not left. At this time, as an empress, she had to make a choice, so she took the initiative to recommend the emperor's second son to ascend the throne and become the Daoguang Emperor. After that, she was revered as the empress dowager, and the harem was completely under her control. After the new emperor ascended the throne, she was very filial to her, and she lived the rest of her life very peacefully, controlling the harem for a total of 54 years. In the 29th year of Daoguang, she finally ushered in the end of her life, and died of illness in her own bedchamber at the age of 74, which is a rare longevity empress dowager in the Qing Dynasty.
China's last feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty. The empresses of this dynasty rarely lived long and their physical qualities were very weak, but in the Qing Dynasty, there was an empress with a long lifespan, and her physique was relatively not so weak. Of course, people not only pay attention to her longevity, but also relate to her origin and the encounters in her life. This empress was born in the Manchu Qing nobility, once served as a princess companion, can be described as a noble status, and at the age of 21 became the empress of the Great Qing Dynasty, later known as Empress Xiaoherui.
The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in our country, and it is not very far from the era we live in today, so many people are familiar with the things of that era. Speaking of the most powerful women in the Qing Dynasty, in fact, when it comes to the ancient Chinese feudal society, it is the most destructive for women, especially women generally have no status in society at all, and can only be used as appendages of men, so they often have a very miserable fate, but they are not recorded in the history, and can only leave regrets, but in such an extremely oppressive situation, there are still many excellent women who have emerged. For example, Wu Zetian, who we are familiar with, was the first female emperor in ancient Chinese history, and of course, there were many excellent women, although they did not become emperors, but they also dominated the fate of the country to a certain extent.
And we are going to talk about one of them today, although she does not behave like the above-mentioned eye-catching, but in history, she is also a relatively lucky woman. She was the second empress of the Jiaqing Emperor, Empress Xiaoherui, in fact, the Jiaqing Emperor was not a special favor for him, and it is said that the Jiaqing Emperor had an empress, Empress Xiaoshurui, and also gave birth to a son to the Jiaqing Emperor, that is, the later Daoguang Emperor. At that time, in terms of family situation, the two empresses may not be different, as they belong to the Manchu Noble Family, their fathers are in power in the imperial court, but because the Jiaqing Emperor already had an empress before, so empress Xiaoherui can only submit to the position of side Fujin, and after Jiaqing succeeds to the throne, he will be crowned as a noble concubine.
It was only in the second year of Jiaqing that Empress Xiaoshurui died of illness, and the Jiaqing Emperor at that time was very sad, so he was reluctant to make an empress, but at that time, after all, Jiaqing still did not count, at this time, the Taishang Emperor Qianlong spoke, he let the original noble concubine directly promote to empress, which seems to us to be a little incredible, after all, we have also seen a lot of harem battles. Empress Xiaoherui's smooth promotion made many people feel incredible, but after it had become an established fact, Jiaqing was not good to oppose, not to mention that for this noble concubine, Jiaqing was also very pampered, the empress was only 22 years old at the time, there was no empress in the palace at that time, because the emperor's birth mother was dead for many years, and there was no empress in Qianlong, which was her dominant.
And later there were still four sons of the emperor left, it should be said that he also had a lot of say in the harem. The Jiaqing Emperor reigned for 25 years, and finally died of illness, due to the sudden death of the emperor, there was no edict left, that is, at this critical time of tension, Empress Jiaqing stood up and declared the Daoguang Emperor as the legitimate heir, and paved the way to help the Daoguang Emperor succeed to the throne, to know that she actually had a prince, but she advocated Daoguang to ascend the throne. Therefore, just after the Daoguang Emperor ascended the throne, the empress was also very preferential, in addition to posthumously honoring her as the empress dowager, and even on some national events, it was necessary to ask her opinion, saying that although the two people were mother-son relations, the Daoguang Emperor was only 7 years younger than the empress, until the twenty-ninth year of Daoguang, the empress dowager died at the age of 74, since she became empress at the age of 22, the fate of the harem for 52 years was not unlucky.