Before the Yongzheng Dynasty, the qing emperors and concubines all valued their origins, and if they did not have a strong family background, it was difficult to jump to a high position. After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he gradually broke the stereotype of the origin of the concubines, some favored but low-born concubines had a chance, and some even climbed to the position of imperial concubines, such as Empress Xiaoyichun, that is, the famous Concubine Ling, she was born in Xinzhiku, once a palace maid, but fortunately got the favor of the Great Qing Tianzi, and her son Jiaqing also inherited the throne.
The person I want to talk about today, who was born even lower than Empress Xiaoyi, also climbed to the position of imperial concubine, and she is the only veritable imperial concubine of the Qing Dynasty: Pure Hui Imperial Concubine.
On July 18 of the fifth year of Yongzheng, the fourth son of the Emperor, Hongli (Qianlong), and Fucha (Empress Xiaoxian) were married in Xi'er, and it is said that before Hongli was married, he already had eight or nine servants around him, called Gege. Among these eight or nine women, there is a Su woman, Su Shi is a Han woman from the folk, her father's name is Su Zhaonan, Su Zhaonan does not have any titles and official positions, just an ordinary Han Chinese, Su Clan is from a low origin, which can be seen.
Logically, a woman like Su Shi had no chance to serve the crown prince at all. So, why was Su Shi able to come to Hongli's side?
Originally, during the Kangqian period of the Qing Dynasty, officials in the Jiangnan region had the custom of offering beautiful women to the imperial court, and compared with the Manchu and Mongolian women, the Han women were more beautiful and talented, so they were especially popular with the children of the royal family, and the Su clan may have come to Hongli through this way.
At that time, the Su clan was only a servant by Hongli's side, but Hongli seemed to be very fond of Su, so much so that before he succeeded to the throne, Su gave birth to a son, yongzhang, the third son of Hongli. After Hongli succeeded to the throne, the Su clan was able to leap into the Forbidden Inner Court and was given the title of pure concubine. He ranked fourth among the Qianlong empresses, after Empress Fucha, Noble Concubine Gao and Concubine Nala.
Although the noble concubines Gao and Concubine Nala were ranked higher, they had never been able to give birth to an imperial heir, but the Su clan continued to give birth, that is, after the emperor's third son Yongzhang, she gave birth to the sixth son of the emperor, Yongyao, and the fourth daughter of the emperor, Princess Heshuo and Jia. After giving birth to three children in a row, Su Shi can be said to have made great contributions, and her position in the harem was also constantly improved, and by the tenth year of Qianlong, she had been crowned as a pure noble concubine.
At this time, the Su clan can be said to be proud of the spring wind, however, after only three years, the Su clan encountered two major blows. The first was that the third son of the emperor, Yongzhang, whom she had given birth to, was reprimanded by Qianlong for not being sad enough at the funeral of Empress Xiaoxian and lost his right to succeed to the throne. Secondly, in the battle for the throne, the Su clan was defeated by the noble concubine Nala clan, which made the Su clan depressed and affected her physical health to a certain extent.
According to the "Qing Palace Medical Case Study", Su Shi has a cough and vomiting blood disease, it can be known that she is depressed and blood-depleting, spleen and lung deficiency so that coughing and vomiting blood, shortness of breath, speculating that Su May suffer from tuberculosis disease.
In the twenty-fourth year of Qianlong, Su and Qianlong came out of the mountain resort together, who knew that Su's condition suddenly worsened, Qianlong immediately ordered the three brothers Yongzhang to send Su back to The Beijing Division for recuperation, who knows, Su's condition has not improved, and by the turn of the year, it has been terminally ill. At this time, Qianlong took various measures to save the life of Concubine Ai, including holding a wedding ceremony in advance for the sixth son of the Emperor, Yong Yao, and the fourth daughter of the Emperor, Princess Heshuo and Jia.
However, this also did not help, the Su clan was already accumulating heavy burdens and could not return, so Qianlong ordered him to be promoted to imperial concubine. On April 19, the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong, on the eighth day of Su's being made an imperial concubine, she passed away at the age of 48, with the courtesy name of Pure Hui Emperor Guifei.
After Su's death, Qianlong ordered a deliberate expansion of the Yuling Concubine Bed, which improved the regulation of the Concubine Garden Bed, making the Yuling Concubine Bed a garden bed comparable to the Jingling Emperor's Concubine Garden Bed, adding fangcheng, Ming Lou and other buildings, and two years later, Su was buried in the Concubine Garden Bed.
However, what people did not expect was that just four years after Su Shi was buried in the Yuling Concubine Garden, her already closed underground palace was reopened, and Qianlong buried empress Nalashi, who had fallen out of favor due to hair cutting during the southern tour, into Su's underground palace. Moreover, from the perspective of the placement of the coffin, the Empress Nala clan is in the lateral position, that is to say, the Empress of the Tangtang Great Qing Dynasty actually gave a concubine a burial, there is a Qing generation, only this one case.