The Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty each had an Empress Xiaohui, and today we will talk about the story of the two Empress Xiaohui.
Empress Xiaohui of the Ming Dynasty was a concubine of Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen, but she did not become an empress during her lifetime. She bore Zhu Mishen three sons, who did not inherit the throne. However, her ending was enviable, not only was she buried with Zhu Mishen, but she was also posthumously honored as an empress.
Empress Xiaohui of the Qing Dynasty was the second empress of the Shunzhi Emperor, and she had no sons, so naturally there were no sons to inherit the throne. But even so, she had an enviable old age, and finally lived a long life. The most important thing is that her mausoleum is also the first empress mausoleum built by the Qing Dynasty.
We all know that in ancient times, "mothers rely on their sons" was the best way for concubines to ascend to the throne, but the two filial empresses of the Ming and Qing dynasties did not have sons to eventually inherit the throne. If so, why do they have an enviable old age and an ending?
Empress Xiaohui Shao
Shaw's birth year is unknown, but her early fate was more tragic, and the family arranged for her to have relatives many times, and the result was that each time before becoming a relative, the bride-to-be died mysteriously. This kind of thing happened several times in a row, causing the locals to dare not come to the Shao family to propose to their relatives.
Not only that, Shao, who had never been able to marry, was regarded as a burden by her family and sold her to a eunuch. This eunuch saw that Shao Shi was still good-looking, so he decided to cultivate her and send her to the palace when the time came, maybe he could ask for a benefit.
Unexpectedly, Shao Shi was not only good-looking, but also very smart, and the eunuch did not adjust for a long time, and she became a talented woman. In the fourth year of Tianshun, Shao Shi was successfully elected to the palace, and according to the time, she should have entered the palace as a palace maid.
In the eighth year of Tianshun, Emperor Mingying's Zhu Qizhen died, and the crown prince Zhu Jianshen succeeded to the throne. The history books do not record when Zhu Jianshen fell in love with Shao, but it is said that he heard that Shao's poetry was attracted and he blessed her. Of course, shao shi must be beautiful to be favored at once.
In this way, Shao Shi became Zhu Jianshen's person, but he was not favored, after all, Zhu Jianshen favored Wan Guifei. However, Zhu Jianshen would not dislike others for having children for him, so in the twelfth year of Chenghua, Shao gave birth to a son Zhu Youbi for him. Zhu Youqiu was enfeoffed as the King of Xing, and In the seventh year of Hongzhi's reign, he went to Guang'an Luzhou in the fourth year of his reign, and Zhengde died in the fourteenth year. Because of his merits in giving birth to a prince, Shao shi was given the title of concubine.
In the fourteenth year of Chenghua, Shao gave birth to a second son, Zhu Youdi. The second son was later enfeoffed as the King of Qi, and in the eighth year of Hongzhi he was born in the eighth year of The reign of Emperor De'an, but died in the fourteenth year of koji, leaving him childless and having no country. In the seventeenth year of Chenghua, Shao gave birth to a third son, Zhu Youfeng. The second son was given the title of Prince of Yong, and in the twelfth year of Hongzhi he took the throne of Hengzhou, and Zhengde died in the second year, without children.
He gave birth to three sons for Zhu Jianshen, and Shao was also promoted to a noble concubine. However, it is only a superficial scenery, first, Shao Is still not favored, and second, she has spent a difficult time in the next.
After Zhu Mishen's death, the crown prince Zhu Youfan succeeded to the throne. From the seventh year of Hongzhi, The sons of the Shaw clan successively became vassals. According to the Ming Dynasty system, the king of the clan was in the domain, and the birth mother could not go with him, which meant that the Shao clan would face the pain of being separated from their sons one by one.
Even if they were separated, Shao shi could still write letters to his son to exchange thoughts, but what he never expected was that the three sons died before her. It was already very painful for the white-haired man to send the black-haired person, and Shao Shi had to endure it three times in a row, and she washed her face with tears all day long, and finally her eyes were crying blind.
Just when Shao Shi thought that his life was extremely miserable and he did not know when he would die like this, the reversal came again. In the sixteenth year of Zhengde, Emperor Mingwuzong Zhu Houzhao died, and Zhu Houzhao was childless, so eventually his cousin Zhu Houxi succeeded to the throne. And Zhu Houxi was the second son of Zhu Youxi and the grandson of Shao.
Shaw's sons died one after another, and it was very difficult for her to see her grandson, but she did not expect that now her grandson had inherited the throne. After Zhu Houxi took the throne, he immediately took his grandmother to his side. Shao Shi, who was blind in both eyes, cried with joy and touched the heel from the top of Zhu Houxi's head with his hand, which dared to believe the facts in front of him.
Subsequently, Zhu Houxi honored his grandmother as empress dowager of Shou'an and let her enjoy her old age in peace. The Shaw family, who had worked hard, enjoyed a year under the patronage of their grandson. In November of the first year of Jiajing, Shao Shi ended with a smile. Zhu Houxi proposed to bury his grandmother with Emperor Xianzong, which was opposed by the cabinet, but he did not compromise and still buried Shao in Zhu Jianshen's Mao Mausoleum.
At the beginning, Zhu Houxi was given the title of "Empress Dowager Xiaohui KangSu Wen Ren Yi Shun Shun Tianyou Sheng" for his grandmother, and Jiajing fifteen years later changed her name to Empress, and finally the title was "Xiao Hui Kang Su Wen Ren Yi Shun Shun Xie Tianyou Sheng Empress".
Empress Xiaohuizhang
In fact, Empress Xiaohuizhang of the Borjigit clan, everyone should be very familiar with her, she is the second empress of the Shunzhi Emperor, the niece of Empress Xiaozhuangwen. The Shunzhi Emperor's concubine was Empress Xiaozhuangwen's niece Borjigit, but was deposed for being jealous. At that time, the harem of the Qing Dynasty was basically the domain of Mongolian women, so the second Borjigit clan married again and became the second empress of Shunzhi.
Two years after Borjigit became empress, Dong Eshi, daughter of the Minister of the Interior, Entered the Palace. Dong Eshi soon gained shunzhi's favor and was given the title of concubine, and was not a concubine, but a wife. More importantly, in just over a month, Dong Eshi was promoted to imperial concubine.
Borzigit is not favored, but she will not fight, after all, it is useless to fight, and perhaps it will repeat the same mistakes. However, even if she kept to herself, Shunzhi still wanted to abolish her and establish Dong Eshi as the queen. On the grounds that the empress did not serve the empress dowager well and violated filial piety, he proposed to the courtiers to depose the empress.
But from the perspective of others, the queen was not at fault and should not be deposed. Moreover, after Shunzhi had already been abolished once, if it was abolished twice, his reputation would also be damaged. In addition, after Dong Eshi himself knelt down and begged Shunzhi not to abolish it, Shunzhi finally gave up this idea.
Within a few years, Dong Eshi and Shunzhi died one after another, and Xiao Kangxi succeeded to the throne. As a concubine, borjigit was revered as the empress dowager with the insignia "Renxian", and Kangxi's biological mother Tong Jia was the empress dowager, with the emblem "Cihe". However, in the second year of Kangxi, Empress Dowager Cihe died, and Kangxi, who had lost her birth mother, regarded Empress Renxian as her own mother, and the relationship between mother and son was very good.
Although Empress Renxian was not very old at this time, since Kangxi ascended the throne, it can be said that her good days have come. Of course, in the previous Shunzhi period, although Empress Renxian was not favored, there were empress dowagers and Horqin behind her, and her life could not be said to be bad.
Unconsciously, the time came to the nineteenth year of Kangxi. On the third day of October of this year, it was the 40th birthday of Empress Renxian, and Kangxi made an exception to ignore political affairs and concentrate on celebrating the birthday of his mother-in-law. In this congratulatory birthday, up to Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, Empress Renxian, then the Kangxi Emperor himself, down to the Crown Prince Yin, etc., there are four generations of the same church, what a happiness at this time.
In the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi, Empress Dowager Zhaosheng died, and both Empress Renxian and Kangxi were deeply saddened, and after this incident, the feelings between mother and son became deeper. Therefore, Kangxi specially ordered people to build the Ningshou Palace, and after it was completed, Kangxi led the princes and ministers to invite the empress dowager to stay together.
When Kangxi was out on patrol, the empress dowager would order someone to send him clothes, and Kangxi would also send someone to bring local specialties to the empress dowager, and bring words, saying that he would be happy to put on the clothes after the cold. In the thirty-seventh year of Kangxi, Kangxi was sent on a tour by the empress dowager, and this time Kangxi specially arranged a trip from Chengde to Horqin, so that the empress dowager could return to her hometown after many years of absence.
In the forty-ninth year of Kangxi, kangxi specially held a grand banquet to celebrate the seventieth birthday of his mother-in-law. The special feature of this banquet is that Kangxi, as the emperor, actually personally performed the Manchu python dance for the empress dowager, which shows that although the mother and son are not biological, they are better than their own children. Two years later, Kangxi once again deposed the crown prince Yinrong, in fact, before deposing the prince, Kangxi took the lead in telling the matter to his mother-in-law, which was enough to prove his respect and trust for his mother-in-law.
In fact, after the death of Empress Dowager Cihe and Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, Kangxi was left with the elder Empress Renxian, so he especially cherished it. In the fifty-sixth year of Kangxi, Empress Renxian was seriously ill, and Kangxi happened to encounter puffiness in her feet. But he still wrapped his feet in cloth and went to Ningshou Palace to serve his mother-in-law.
The empress dowager opened her eyes weakly, and the first thing she saw was always Kangxi, who held the hand of her mother-in-law and said, "Empress Dowager, the subject is here." On the sixth day of December of the same year, Empress Dowager Renxian died at the age of 77. Kangxi was grief-stricken and lamented, "At this time, there are only those who honor and honor the decay, and there are no people who love and sympathize with the decay." ”
At first, the ministers believed that the empress dowager was neither the original match of Shunzhi nor the biological mother of Kangxi, so when the title was proposed, there was no emperor of Shunzhi, and Kangxi knew that Houlongyan was furious. When the chancellor drew up his title for the second time, he forgot to bring the empress dowager's maiden emblem, and was once again reprimanded by Kangxi. In the end, adding everything up, Kangxi was satisfied. After being added by the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, his final title was "Empress Xiaohui Renxian Duan Yi Ci Shu Gong An Chun De Shun Tianyi Shengzhang".
These two empresses of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it is obvious that the Qing Dynasty is happier.
Empress Xiaohui Shao was not favored during her lifetime, and her son did not inherit the throne. More importantly, she sent away her son in succession, endured the pain of sending the black haired person three times, and cried blindly. Fortunately, later the grandson inherited the throne and took her into the palace to enjoy the blessings. But after only one year of enjoyment, she died, and it can only be said that the ending was good, and after her death, she was buried with Zhu Mishen, and she was also posthumously honored as a queen.
Although Empress Xiaohuizhang was also not favored, there was the concern of Empress Zhaosheng (Empress Xiaozhuangwen) above, and there was Kangxi, a concubine, who was filial to her, just like filial piety to her birth mother. Empress Xiaohuizhang had no sons, but Kangxi made up for this regret for her, almost like a son. She was widowed at a young age, but because of this early retirement life, people had to envy.
(References "History of Ming", "Draft History of Qing", "Notes on Kangxi Living")