Speaking of the Qing Dynasty, everyone should know the Kangxi Emperor.
The Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne at the age of 8 and pro-government at the age of 14, reigning for 61 years, making him the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history and a defender of a unified multi-ethnic state. It was he who laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty and created the great situation of "Kangqian's prosperous era", and some scholars even respected him as "an emperor throughout the ages". In the sixty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1722), on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, he died in Changchun Garden at the age of 68.
However, it was this Ming Jun, who was enshrined by later generations as Emperor Shengzuren, but had an unknown private life.
In particular, in the "Records of the Lee Dynasty of Joseon" compiled by the Koreans, we will see another different Kangxi Emperor: he was lustful and greedy for money, and he was simply a dimwitted king. Why is that? Because, so far, no historian can say exactly how many people are in his harem, how these people are favored, and where they are in the harem, and these are also a mystery.
According to the contents of the official history, the Kangxi Emperor had more than forty-nine noble concubines, while there were sixty-seven registered concubines, and as many as two hundred people with low status were always present and promised. Of course, nothing can be seen in this biography alone, and let's look at his mausoleum again. According to records, the place buried the Kangxi Emperor and his four empresses, an imperial concubine, and forty-eight concubines.
From this number alone, we can see that even if the Kangxi Emperor was not the emperor with the most concubines in history, he was in the forefront. The number of concubines in the Kangxi Emperor's harem was incredible, after all, few emperors in history could have made such a great political contribution while having such a large harem.
The Kangxi Emperor's lust was not only manifested in the large number of people in his harem, but also in his covetousness for the minister's wife.
The "Records of the Lee Dynasty of Joseon" contains: At that time, there was a minister of the Han nationality named Zhang Tingyu, and his brother Zhang Tinglu married a very beautiful wife, which was recognized as the "first beauty" in the capital. Zhang Tinglu, Zhang Ying's third son. Kangxi forty-one years at the township examination to be ranked as a deputy tribute; fifty-two years to apply for the township examination in the middle of the examination; fifty-seven years to go to the meeting to take the second place in the first class, to teach the Hanlin Academy to edit, into the south study, moved to the bachelor's degree.
In this year, the empress dowager's birthday, feasted on the ministers, and allowed the Han ministers to bring their families into the palace, because at that time, only the Manchu ministers had the qualifications to bring their families into the palace, so this time, the families of the Han ministers who were fortunate enough to enter the palace all made the most exquisite dresses. However, at the time of the feast, the beauty had a problem.
All the women except her returned to their homes intact, except for her, who had not returned home for a long time after the feast. The next day, when she arrived home, the Zhang family found that she was not dressed neatly and was in tears. Everyone knew very well what had happened to her in the palace, but they did not dare to speak up, and could only silently reassure her that nothing had happened.
Since then, there has been no order for the Han ministers to bring their families with them during the imperial banquets in the palace.
It is said that after twenty-three years of Kangxi's succession, he felt that the harem was still too small to satisfy his private life, but, in fact, at that time, the size of his harem was already relatively large among many emperors. Soon, the Kangxi Emperor built a garden on the site of tsinghua garden, using its remnants of landscape and stone veins to imitate the scenery of Jiangnan, and personally named it "Changchun Garden".
In this palace, Kangxi often mixed with many palace eunuchs and did absurd things. The so-called "Nine Concubines Lianzhu" and "Eight Concubines Linyu" happened here, as did the reason we mentioned earlier that "historians cannot liquidate how many women Kangxi had." After all, every time he cruised, he always brought back some different beauties.
Even in his old age, Kangxi still liked to search for beautiful women, and during this time, he ordered the Jiangnan officials to select many folk beauties for him. And it is really humiliating that he still behaves so absurdly and indiscriminately. At that time, a European missionary came to visit Qing, because this missionary's painting level was relatively high, so Kangxi deliberately left him in the palace to paint for himself.
After the missionary returned to China, in his memoirs, he wrote about what he had seen and heard when he was serving at Kangxi's side. He wrote: "The Kangxi Emperor lived in a house with a small garden and near the lake in the summer resort. On the other side of the lake, there was a villa where Kangxi often frolicked with his women. ”
From the secular point of view of the time, this life was undoubtedly a desirable life, but, from the missionary point of view, it was undoubtedly a lewd life.
Of course, we all know that excessive indulgence can have a very big impact on the body, and Kangxi is no exception. Although he was an emperor on high, he was also an ordinary person in essence. Excessive indulgence naturally hurts his essence, and in the later stages, his body deteriorates. However, even so, he still did not give up his private life, and the fun was as good as ever.
In order to ensure his private life, Kangxi also delved into the three ways of traditional Chinese and Western medicine and Confucianism. But theoretical sufficiency did not improve his debauchery in life. For him, it's probably: "I know it's not right to do this, but I can't do it, so I'm willing to live my life the way I like." Thus, the number of his harem numbered at its peak at three thousand, of which the youngest was only twelve years old.
As a result, after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to properly deal with those concubines and palace people who had no children.
Because the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty were primitive nomadic peoples, many of their backward customs were not improved. Throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty, we can find many cases of brothers marrying sisters-in-law, forcibly occupying sisters-in-law, and marrying sisters and nephews. In addition, among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, some of them died a lot related to indulgence, and even more so because they died because of taking medicine.
Therefore, the indulgent life of the Kangxi Emperor was not only a choice for himself, but also a primitive custom that the Manchus had not improved since they entered the customs. Therefore, when looking for the cause of the kangxi emperor's death, someone said: "When Kangxi was terminally ill, he still visited the concubine many times, and finally, he died of excessive indulgence and died in the Changchun Garden." ”
How likely do you think it is to say this?
Resources:
[Records of the Qing Dynasty Saint Ancestors", "Qing History Manuscripts, Volume 6, Benji 6, Saint Ancestors", "Qing History Manuscripts, Liechuan I. Concubines". Chinese Historical Materials in the Records of the Lee Dynasty of Joseon