Many years ago, the "Secret History of Xiaozhuang" brought this so-called "the most powerful woman in the Qing Dynasty" into the audience's sight, and the love and hatred between the beautiful and generous Empress Xiaozhuang and the two brothers of Emperor Taiji and Dalton in the play tightly affected the audience's emotions, some people felt sorry for Huang Taiji's attitude towards her, and some people thought that Xiaozhuang could boldly pursue the love between her and Dolgun.
However, these are only interpretations of literary works, what is the real history? What kind of woman is Xiaozhuang? Today, let's explore together.
Little princess on the Horqin steppe
In 1613, a little girl was born in the Mongolian steppe of Horqin, because she was the youngest daughter, her father Zaisang was very happy, thinking that this was a treasure given to him by god, so he named the child Bumubutai, which means a noble person who fell from the sky. She was also the future Empress Xiaozhuang.
Although born in the nobility, but the nomadic and Han customs are different, they do not have too many etiquette constraints, girls can enjoy the grassland galloping, so, Empress Xiaozhuang's childhood is very free, she often looks at the blue sky and soaring eagles in a daze, and the grassland cattle and horses are good friends.
In addition to running on the steppe every day, Zaisang also intends to cultivate her communication skills, often taking her to meet with tribal officials, which makes her famous in various tribes, and everyone knows that there is a clever and exciting little princess in Korqin. Perhaps it was this environment of growth that created her confident and calm personality, laying the foundation for becoming a female politician in contact later.
At the age of 13, she married her uncle Tai Chi
At the age of 13, in order to strengthen the relationship between Horqin and Houjin, Zaisang asked Empress Xiaozhuang's brother Wu Keshan to send her to Huang Taiji, so that there was one more Borjigit girl in the Imperial Taiji harem who had already married her aunt Zhezhe, and from another point of view, the arrival of Empress Xiaozhuang also consolidated the status of her aunt's Great Fu Jin.
In the political marriage, feelings are originally dispensable things, moreover, at that time, Empress Xiaozhuang was still an ignorant little girl, and Huang Taiji naturally did not have interest in her lovers, so in the first few years of entering the Imperial Taiji harem, she only relied on her aunt to protect her, and most of Huang Taiji's favor also came from the closeness to a child.
The rational Empress Xiaozhuang had already understood this very early, so she did not have this marriage
What expectations, this is also the reason why she can become an outstanding female politician in the later stage, she understands the purpose of her entry into the palace, and will plan in a targeted manner, unlike other harem women who generally only live to earn the feelings of the emperor.
In stark contrast, her sister Hai Lanzhu, a few years after Empress Xiaozhuang entered the palace, Horqin sent a beauty to The Emperor Taiji, at that time Hai Lanzhu was 26 years old, her face was good, gentle and virtuous, full of style and understanding, as soon as she entered the palace, she hooked the heart of the Emperor Taiji, and she could really use the six palaces to describe it.
Because of Hai Lan Zhu, Huang Taiji's preferential treatment of Empress Xiaozhuang was even less, although later she also gave birth to a son to Huang Taiji, but when she was really canonized, her position was also under Hai Lan Zhu, which was also the pain point of Empress Xiaozhuang's life, her husband's love was all snatched away by her sister, and she herself was just an unnoticed Fujin. Later, this situation did not change with the death of Hai Lan Zhu, because a few months after Hai Lan Zhu ascended to heaven, Huang Taiji also disappeared.
A love-hate affair with Dorgon
There are rumors that after the death of Emperor Taiji, in order to help her son Shunzhi ascend to the throne, Concubine Zhuang did not hesitate to commit herself to marry Dorgon, who had long been secretly in love with her, and used Dolgun's influence in the dynasty to support her son.
Many scholars believe that Dorgon's approach at that time was really strange, because at that time, the most likely to become the new emperor of the dynasty were Dorgon and Hauge, and Dorgon had more prestige in the army, so he was the most likely, but why in the end he opened the way for The mother and son of Concubine Zhuang and only became the regent himself, which inevitably made people wonder if there was any unspeakable secret between the two of them.
At that time, Princess Zhuang had become a calm and mature young woman, and it was not impossible for Dorgon to be fascinated by her temperament, coupled with the fact that ethnic minorities had always had the custom of marrying their sisters after the death of their brothers, and it was understandable that Dorgon's behavior attracted speculation from outsiders.
However, throughout history, we can see that it is not so much about what power transactions there are between the two people, but rather that they have always been in a fighting relationship. Strictly speaking, the Shunzhi Emperor was the first emperor after the Great Qing Dynasty, and when Empress Xiaozhuang ascended the throne with the six-year-old Shunzhi in her arms, she was indeed supported by Dorgon.
But for many years afterwards, Dorgon had a repressive attitude toward the Shunzhi Emperor, and in the middle of this, it was Empress Xiaozhuang who competed with Dorgon, who used her strong momentum and political talents to compete with Dorgon for a long time.
Even if a woman loves another man, when a man and a son make a choice, it is estimated that all women will choose their son. So it is not so much that the two of them are matched love, but rather a struggle of political interests that are equal in strength. Dorgon is not the legendary choice of beauty rather than the country, but in a political battle with predictable outcomes.
Moreover, the descendants restored the appearance of Empress Xiaozhuang according to historical records and portraits, and found that she was not only as beautiful as a flower as rumored, but even could only be described as "ordinary looking", plus she was a girl who grew up on the grassland in the local way, with Mongolian blood on her body, so she was a standard Mongolian race look, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has nothing to do with the Zhuang concubine presented in the play. Moreover, her cheeks are slightly bulging, which also adds a bit of heroism to her appearance.
It was such a woman who may not be her husband's favorite type, but was respected by her "rival" Dolgun. And she is a person who knows how to judge the hour and size up the situation, when the son's foundation is unstable, she uses a strong maternal aura to hold up a piece of heaven for him, and when the situation is stable, she becomes back to the gentle and stable empress dowager before, and she can always make the right choice at the right time.
epilogue
Whether it is folklore or historical records, those simple emotional past events have become the past and will eventually dissipate with the wind, and what Empress Xiaozhuang really leaves behind to posterity is her outstanding contributions in the political field and the kind of atmospheric demeanor that is calm and calm in the face of events.
In any case, she has left a strong mark in China's history, and what makes her shine is not from the help of objective conditions, nor from her husband or family, but from herself. We firmly believe that Empress Xiaozhuang was a person who knew how to realize the value of her own life in that era, and this will always be worthy of the respect and learning of contemporary women.
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