The woman, who bathed only once a year and drank dirty water after washing, died at the age of 93. After four generations of emperors in the history of the Qing Dynasty, do you think her identity is very good? No! She is just a maid of herdsman origin, so what is so special about a maid? Can it go through four generations of emperors? Today we will talk about this topic.
It is said that the emperor does not have true feelings, but the emperor Taiji's preference for Hai lan zhu is indeed recognized by history. However, the woman we want to talk about today is not Hai Lan Zhu, but a maid next to Hai Lan Zhu's half-sister. This maid's name was Su Mo'er, and she was later known as Su Ma Lagu.
Born into a herdsman family in Mongolia, Su Mo'er translates to "Su Mo'er" in Mongolian, which means long pockets made of wool. While in Mongolia, Su Mo'er was favored by the Horqin Belle Mansion and bought her back to the mansion to be a personal maid of filial piety. At that time, after Xiaozhuang's aunt Zhezhe married Emperor Taiji, she was unable to give birth to a man and a half-woman, and Horqin had to marry Xiaozhuang to a stable position. Su Mo'er, as her personal maid, followed her dowry to Shengjing.
After entering the palace, it is different from ordinary maids. While serving Xiaozhuang's life, Su Mo'er also continued to learn Manchu and Chinese. Her intelligent wisdom and understanding were first manifested in the early days of the founding of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was necessary to make the founding costume, and Xiaozhuang recommended her to participate in the design and production, and the final result was very satisfactory to Huang Taiji. Later, Emperor Taiji died suddenly, and Fu Lin, the son of Xiaozhuang, was only six years old, and he was able to ascend to the throne under Dolgun and flip the position of Shunzhi Emperor to become independent and pro-government, and Su Mo'er was indispensable to teach him in the middle.
Under the suppression of Dorgon, Xiaozhuang could not spend a long time with the Shunzhi Emperor to teach, so the only one who could teach his son for Xiaozhuang was Su Mo'er, the middleman. It is necessary to not only feedback the situation of the Shunzhi Emperor to Xiaozhuang, but also to bring xiaozhuang's educational teachings to Shunzhi, and also to face dorgon's suspicions and vigilance
After Dorgon's death, the Shunzhi Emperor took over the throne. Two months after Dorgon's burial, the Shunzhi Emperor dug up the grave and whipped the corpse of the man who had controlled him, but did not reject Su Mo'er, who had taught him from it. Then, after a long period of specialized study, Su Mo'er's Manchu calligraphy was unmatched by the entire harem. After The Birth of Kangxi, Empress Xiaozhuang ordered Su Mo'er to be Kangxi's enlightenment teacher. When Kangxi was a child, he had smallpox once, during which Su Mo'er and her nursing mother were watching over. At that time, Su Mo'er was running between Empress Xiaozhuang and Kangxi. Until Kangxi recovered, he continued to teach the Enlightenment of the National Book by hand at Kangxi's side. Because of Su Mo'er's specialness, everyone in the palace honored her as Su Ma Lagu.
In the twenty-sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Xiaozhuang died of illness. Su Ma Lama and Empress Xiaozhuang had been with her for more than sixty years, and this bad news deeply shocked her, and at that time, Su Ma Lama was already more than seventy years old. The Kangxi Emperor feared that prolonged repression would crush her body, and in order to give Su Ma Lama the faith to support her to live, Kangxi made an unexpected but unexpected decision.
According to the custom in the Qing Dynasty palace, only the title of concubine or above was eligible, but Kangxi ordered that the twelfth prince, Yin, be raised by Su MaLagu. Faced with the trust and decision of the Kangxi Emperor, Su Ma Lama regained the courage and faith to continue living. Yin Qi was also very good under the education of Su Ma Lama, although he did not succeed to the throne, but he was not folded in the nine sons who followed. Influenced by Su Ma Lagu's wisdom and mastery, Yin Qi maintained his original intention and strengthened his position to remain neutral. After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he was still not suppressed, and even promoted to prince at the hands of his nephew Qianlong, this ability to be independent of himself was closely related to the teachings of Su Ma Lama.
Su Ma Lama followed Xiaozhuang for decades, from an ordinary Mongolian girl from a herdsman background, to a personal maid in the Belle Mansion, to an "aunt" who was respected by the palace and even the emperor. Su Ma Lagu has looked at history in this life, but few people can have such achievements. Just following these honors, there is one more thing that has aroused everyone's discussion.
It is said that in a year, Su Ma Lama only takes a bath once on the Chinese New Year's Eve night, and after bathing, she will drink dirty water. In fact, this habit can also be understood, Su Ma Lagu himself is a Mongolian herdsman, the Mongolian region has little rainfall, extremely short of water, for livestock herders are even more water-sparing. For them, water is holy and pure, while human bodies are dirty, and if water is wasted to bathe, it will be punished by heaven. They would only wash their bodies with a basin of water during the Chinese New Year's Eve night, and after washing, they would drink the bath water to express their repentance to the heavens.
Of course, the smell of not bathing for a long time also needs to be covered up. Some plant leaves have a natural fragrance, and wiping the body with this leaf can remove some odors. In addition, the treatment of clothes in the palace will also use incense, plus sachets hanging on the body, even if there is a little odor, it can be covered up. What's more, Su Ma Lagu's contribution in the palace in this life was respected by the Kangxi Emperor, and even more respected by the whole palace, so it was not an intolerable thing to tolerate her custom and belief. After the death of Su Ma Lagu, Kangxi held a funeral for her with the etiquette of a concubine. However, due to his identity, he could not be buried with Xiaozhuang in the Zhaoxi Mausoleum, and finally buried 1.5 kilometers southeast of the Zhaoxi Mausoleum, so as to continue to accompany Xiaozhuang.