Since the Qing Palace costume drama "The Biography of Zhen Huan" landed on the screen, it has been talked about by the audience, and indeed, this TV series based on the real historical skeleton of the Yongzheng Dynasty is indeed a classic masterpiece of mainland palace fighting dramas.
In the "Biography of Zhen Huan", Zhen Huan, the concubine of the Yongzheng Emperor's favorite, had a far-sighted plan, and after the Yongzheng Emperor's funeral, he passed on the edict to his adopted son, the crown prince Hongli, who saw that his adoptive mother Zhen Huan also kept the throne to himself while she had a son under her knees, so she felt that this mother-son relationship was really deeply affectionate, so after she took the throne, she was very filial to Zhen Huan, and often made filial piety touching and well-known to the world.
In fact, Zhen Huan's prototype is the Empress Xiaoshengxian of the NiuHulu clan recorded in the zhengshi, and the official history records that she gave birth to the crown prince Hongli in the fiftieth year of Kangxi, and the Kangxi Emperor passed on the throne to Hongli on his deathbed, thus the Hongli became the Qianlong Emperor, and Hongli's mother concubine NiuHulu became the empress dowager.
Qianlong's good and great achievements are famous in Qingshi, and he seems to be happy to let everyone in the world know his extremely filial piety to his mother, but if you think about it, qianlong's filial piety is such a show, does it really come from the bottom of his heart?
For hundreds of years, there have been many versions of the rumors about the birth mother of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty: some versions believe that Qianlong was originally the son of Chen Shiyi, a salt merchant in Haining County, Zhejiang, and that Yongzheng was raised by the Chen family, and that Qianlong was of Han chinese descent;
Some versions believe that Qianlong was the result of the Yongzheng Emperor's inadvertent visit to a Palace Lady of the Yuanmingyuan; moreover, as recorded in the Qing Palace Canonical History Texts, Qianlong was born to Empress Xiaoshengxian of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qianlong Emperor is the emperor who has been most inked in modern drama scripts and ancient novels, and the reason for this is because whether in the Qing Palace archives, the Manchu Qing Zheng history, or in folklore and wild history biographies, the life of the Qianlong Emperor is recorded differently and there are many opinions.
Moreover, for decades, many scholars who have studied the history of the Qing Dynasty have always raised questions: The history of the Great Qing Dynasty is strange in the written records of the life of the Qianlong Emperor, one said that Qianlong's birth mother was the concubine Ge Ge Qianshi in the Qiandi Palace, and the other said that Qianlong's birth mother was the Qing Palace Concubine Niu Hulu Clan, which is the true historical fact?
In fact, the Imperial Family of the Great Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the nobility and purity of blood, how could the Yongzheng Emperor agree to exchange his royal blood with the sons of the Han People?!
How can the next emperor who inherits the Qing Dynasty be of Han chinese blood? Moreover, the Yongzheng Emperor was a man who was cautious to the bone, he was only a prince who accompanied Kangxi out hunting, and how could he ignore the comments of others and casually visit the palace women, was it not as good as the wind evaluation and the imperial throne?!
And the strangest thing is the two written records about Qianlong's birth mother in the main history: "Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty", it is recorded that the birth mother of the Qianlong Emperor was the concubine Ge Ge Niu Hulu clan in the former Yongzheng Qiandi, and her birth was not noble and prominent, so after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, she also always acted introvertedly and low-key as a concubine (Xi Concubine), until her fourth brother Hongli became the Qianlong Emperor, which made her mother the empress dowager of a dynasty by virtue of her son.
According to the original archives of the Qing Palace published in the First Historical Archive of China, when the Yongzheng Emperor ascended the throne as empress, the original edict that crowned the concubines of the harem was - on February 14 of the first year of yongzheng, the edict of the Empress Dowager was: The Empress Dowager was crowned as a noble concubine, the side Fujin Li clan was crowned as a concubine, the Gege Qian clan was crowned as a Concubine Xi, the Gege Song clan was crowned as a Yu Concubine, and the Gege Geng clan was crowned as a concubine.
Here, "Fu Jin" is what we call "Fu Jin", which shows that all the concubines in the former Qiandi Palace were given titles after the emperor succeeded to the throne, and among them, the "Xi Concubine" was named "Qian Shi" from the Han Military Banner.
From beginning to end, the title of each generation of concubines in the Qing Palace was only personal, and even if a concubine died in the unfortunate prime of life, she would never use her title before her death to crown other concubines and concubines.
Then the question arises - there was only one "Concubine Xi" in the Qing Dynasty, but whether her surname was "Niu Hulu" or "Qian", and was she really the birth mother of the Qianlong Emperor when she finally became empress?
Qianlong loves face very much, and has always been "not bad for money" in things that can show his filial piety to his mother.
The mystery that exists in Qianlong's birth mother is naturally incomprehensible to us modern people. Regardless of the others, we can be sure that Concubine Xi's life after entering the palace was relatively smooth, and when Hongli inherited the throne, Concubine Xi became the empress dowager Niu Hulu, according to the Qing Palace archives, the Qianlong Emperor was extremely filial to the empress, and the Qianlong Emperor himself often ordered "filial piety to rule the world".
In order to serve the empress dowager in the purest and filial way, the Qianlong Emperor celebrated the birthday of his mother, took his mother on a 4-degree south tour, renovated and expanded the palace for the mother, and even learned from the ancient filial piety to "play colorful entertainment" to show his filial piety and subtlety.
Empress Dowager Niu Hulu is a rare longevity palace concubine in history, her life is low and high, safely enjoyed 86 years of wealth and glory, in her 80-year-old birthday, the Qianlong Emperor is already 60 years old, in order to celebrate the empress dowager's "ten years of a big birthday", Qianlong ordered people to decorate Mount Taishan in advance, and then take the empress dowager who likes to travel to play, before and after spending silver two countless amounts, can be called attentive, filial piety.
"Another View" of Empress Xiaoshengxian's Later Life
For the Qianlong Emperor's series of earth-moving filial piety feats, his mother Xiao Shengxian Empress Niu Hulu also left a last word before her death: The emperor is benevolent and filial, inherits joy and nurtures ambition, Ke Jing Kecheng, depends on the food and greets the peace, morning and evening.
According to historical records, on the 3rd day of his ascension to the throne, the "Great Filial Piety" Qianlong promulgated a holy will, which was not a new emperor's reward to everyone, nor was it related to amnesty to the world, let alone state affairs, but a secret poke and prodding xiao Xiao who heard about the palace people" "Don't talk too much around the empress dowager." The original text of the Emperor's decree reads:
Where the major affairs of the country are of great importance, it is forbidden to hear the wind and spread the news, and the fear that the emperor and the empress dowager will be upset... Whoever knows, there is no reason between mother and child not to tell... After that, any gossip in the outside world, or if it is found out, the Fa-rectification is prescribed.
That is to say, Qianlong had just thought of issuing a decree to warn everyone, especially the palace maids in the empress dowager's palace, not to mention the affairs of the government and state affairs with the empress dowager.
It seems that the Qianlong Emperor knew very well that the empress dowager had been in the deep palace for many years, and it must have gone through a lot of wind and frost swords all the way to sit on the position of empress dowager, and naturally she was a person with deep calculations and a sophisticated belly. As an emperor, regardless of whether Qianlong was the son of Empress Dowager Niuhulu or not, he naturally did not want the harem to collude with the former dynasty and interfere in politics.
One day, Qianlong went to the Ningshou Palace where the empress dowager lived, and the empress dowager said in the process of chatting that there was a temple in the east of the city that was very spiritual, but the temple was in disrepair and should be renovated. Although the Qianlong Emperor promised to do so at that time, he then ordered his men to summon Zhang Bao and Chen Fu, who were close attendants to the empress dowager, to the imperial court, denouncing them for not knowing their proper manners and gossiping, and finally warning them that if they had more troubles, the emperor would certainly not forgive them.
Qianlong's heart was very clear, someone mentioned the matter of repairing the temple in front of the empress, that is, it involved the use of the treasury silver in the palace, who will benefit from such things in the end, Qianlong was disdainful to pursue such trivial matters in his heart, but this kind of thing that disturbed the empress dowager to ask for silver money could not be tolerated, otherwise, there was a first time and a next time, if it was allowed to develop and flood in the future, wouldn't it be possible to become a harem to interfere in politics?!
After the eunuchs Zhang Bao and Chen Fu returned to the palace, they naturally gave the empress dowager the emperor's reprimand and warning, and how could the wise empress dowager not understand the emperor's "voice outside the words". Since then, the empress dowager has not mentioned anything related to appropriations and government affairs, and has lived in her old age according to the emperor's wishes, enjoying herself happily. The Qianlong Emperor only needed the empress dowager to cooperate with him to continuously perform the drama of "filial piety to the purest of the mother" for the people of the world to see, which was equivalent to gently "playing with the empress dowager" in the palm of her hand.
As a generation of emperors, everyone and everything around him cannot be pure and simple, and as long as the emperor is not powerless and incompetent, he will never let others get involved in imperial power and interfere in politics.
The Qianlong Emperor was so clever and wise, he would naturally be wary of the empress dowager who had been "old and calculating", and would also be wary of all those who might interfere with the imperial program and shake the imperial power, but the empress dowager Niu Hulu also knew how to correct her position, and spent her old age happily with the emperor's son, and only died at the age of 86, becoming a rare high-life empress in history.