The Forbidden City tour guide is actually not good. Because when you introduce to tourists, "Hello everyone, this is the Empress Dowager's Cining Palace, where 'Zhen Huan' lives", someone next to you may ask:
"Where is that Broken Jade Xuan?"' In which direction does Sister Mei's Cunju Hall go? ”
So, you are speechless and have to take the time to explain the difference between TV drama and history to tourists.
Why? Because "Zhen Huan" is an artistic figure, the "Zhen Huan" in the novel did not live in the Qing Dynasty but in an alternate dynasty, and the emperor who fell in love with and killed her was not Yongzheng, but Xuanling; however, the audience friends are often more familiar with the "Zhen Huan" in the TV series, and her prototype is the Xiaoshengxian Empress Niu Hulu in the history of the Qing Dynasty, the concubine of the Yongzheng Emperor, and the mother of the Qianlong Emperor.
As for the extent to which "Zhen Huan" has been popular over the years, at least when brushing "Yanxi Raiders", seeing the empress dowager appear, the bullet screen must be a water "last palace fighting champion" or "Huan Huan"!
So, how different is the real "Zhen Huan" in history from the TV series? Unfortunately, the real Zhen Huan is not as calculating as in the TV series, but she lives quite a bit of a depressed life.
The origin of the Niu Hulu clan is not very noble, the daughter of the Four Pins Ceremony Ling Zhu, at the age of 11, was accused of being Yin Chan of Baylor, this age is still too young in modern times, but at that time, the father was an official, the best way out for the daughter was to marry a good family, the Niu Hulu clan did not have many choices, at least like modern women to work, to support themselves is not OK.
Therefore, her only hope was to pass on the lineage of Yin Chan, and the birth of Hongli in the fifty years of Kangxi (1711) made the life of the Niu Hulu clan, who had only had a Gege identity in the palace for a long time, change from then on.
Because the Kangxi Emperor liked this clever grandson very much and praised the blessings of the Niuhulu clan, Yin Chan naturally understood that Hongli, as the emperor's grandson, was a plus condition for him to ascend to the throne, so he loved the house and the Wu favored the Niuhulu clan, and the Niuhulu clan lived much better in the palace.
However, what makes people wonder is that although the NiuHulu clan was named Concubine Xi after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, there was a "miswritten concubine surname" Oolong, and Bei Ziyun's shorthand Yongzheng Emperor sealed the concubine's dictation, and actually wrote the name of Concubine Xi as "Qian".
In many TV dramas, there are doubts about Qianlong's identity, and it is said that Qianlong is the son of Chen Ge, the son of the Han daughter Qian, or the son of the Yuanmingyuan palace lady Li Shi, these rumors are unbelievable wild history, but the status of Concubine Xi in the Yongzheng harem is indeed very strange.
In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1730), the yongzheng emperor's adopted daughter got married, and the words Xi Guifei appeared in the materials of the Qing Palace Internal Affairs Office, but the Yongzheng Dynasty did not have any records of the promotion of Xi Concubine to Xi Guifei and the records of the canonical ceremony. That is to say, in the TV series, Concubine Xi "Zhen Huan" Chunfeng triumphantly jumped from the concubine to the noble concubine, and the plot of the empress's angry teeth did not appear, and she was likely to be just treated as a noble concubine.
When Qianlong ascended the throne, Concubine Xi was 42 years old, and at this age as the empress dowager, she was actually very young, and there was a very famous "Golden Hair Pagoda" in the Treasure Hall of the Forbidden City, which could prove that "Zhen Huan" had a good material life after the age of 42, because Qianlong's adoptive mother was still dedicated.
Not only were the food, clothing, shelter and transportation sent well, but also used gold and silver to create a golden pagoda weighing 3009 taels for the empress, and the specific use was to specially install the hair that fell off the empress dowager.' According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", the empress dowager's 80th birthday, the scene is very grand and luxurious:
"First of all, the poems, calligraphy and paintings are produced by the family, and then the ruyi, Buddha statues, crown clothes, ornaments, gold and jade, rhinoceros, agate, crystal, glass, enamel, Yi Ding, ware, calligraphy and painting, embroidery, coins, flowers and fruits, foreign treasures, are not available."
But even if Qianlong gave the empress dowager sufficiently superior material conditions, "Zhen Huan" was still excluded from the imperial power, because the Qianlong Emperor was a person who paid attention to authority, just like in the "Biography of Zhen Huan", he was afraid of harem interference in politics, and even more taboo for his mother to interfere in his decisions in her capacity, so on the 3rd day of succession, he issued such a will:
"Where the affairs of the state are of great importance, it is forbidden to hear the wind and do the legends, and the emperor and empress dowager are afraid of being upset." The empress dowager is merciful, caresses and loves, and the sacred heart is cut to the point, and everyone who knows, between mother and child, is there any reason not to tell? But how can outsiders know about the government affairs handled by the emperors and ministers? It should play the mother and the latter, and it has already been played. ”
Qianlong's will is not only to warn those who want to go through the way of the empress dowager, but also to directly tell "Zhen Huan" not to interfere in the government and politics by any means, almost to threaten, "it should play the mother of the mother, has already played the sound of the news", that is, you can know the things that let you know, do not let you know, I do not say, you do not come to ask.
The background of this will is likely to be that someone had already informed Zhen Huan of certain matters, so it was handled by Qianlong.
It can be seen that in ancient times, the status of women was really very low, even if you were the empress, it was only a caged bird, a canary, and everything could only rely on her husband and son but could not take the initiative to fight for something, which was really sad.
It is said that Zhen Huan is a "palace fighting champion", but is this something to be proud of? Zhen Huan is by no means the real heroine, she is like countless harem women in history, she is a silk luo attached to a big tree.