In the main mausoleum of Qingxi Mausoleum in Yi County, Hebei Province, yongzheng's tailing concubine garden, under the first place on the left side of the second row of treasure roofs, there is a rather mysterious concubine of Yongzheng, who was once favored by Yongzheng as an official woman, and was later sealed to Changzai. Yongzheng's death made her a widow early, so that she kept an empty house for more than thirty years, but what was unexpected was that the inaction of the Qing officials was discovered seven years after her death, allowing us to enter the world of Ma Changzai's life together.
1. An official woman who is elected to the deep palace
Regarding Ma Changzai's origin, the historical data do not clearly record, but like Ma Chang's low-level concubines, they are generally from the palace, that is to say, Ma Changzai should be from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, these wrapped women as long as they reach the age of 13, they will participate in the annual palace women's draft, those with better conditions will be selected into the palace, generally as palace women, good-looking, sensible and well-behaved will serve those high-ranking concubines, and the rest can only do some rough work such as pouring tea and pouring water, cleaning the palace, washing and cooking.
Of course, there are also some lucky palace girls who will be introduced to the emperor, and after the emperor is lucky, their identity has changed, from slaves to masters, becoming the emperor's concubines, even if she is a promise, she is also a master.
We can look at the harem concubines in the early years of Yongzheng (Yongzheng 3rd year), and the concubines above the concubines are empresses, concubines, concubines, concubines, concubines, concubines, and concubines, and those below the concubines are old nobles, Hai Changzai, Guo Changzai, Yun hui, Lan Ying, and Ji Guan.
At this time, the harem did not see the figure of Ma Changzai, which showed that Ma Changzai had not yet entered the palace.
In the first month of the seventh year of Yongzheng, the concubines below the concubines were as follows: five old noble women, four guo guiren women, four women who often served as officials, four women who were often in the officials, four women from Haichang in the officials, three women who promised to be officials, two women from the Qixiang Palace, one woman from Yunhui, one woman from Lan Ying, and one woman from the jiguan.
In this court file, the identities of the other concubines were determined, only the two officials and women of the Qixiang Palace were not clear, and in July of this year, Ma Chang was named a promise, called Ma Promised, so it is speculated that Ma Changzai may be one of the two officials and women of the Qixiang Palace, that is, she is from the official woman.
Some people may not be familiar with the identity of official women, in fact, the so-called official women are palace women, and they will serve a certain concubine. However, if the name of a certain palace is added in front of the official women, such as the official women of the Qixiang Palace, this is different, which means that these official women are no longer palace women serving concubines, but the emperor's women, but the emperor has not yet canonized them.
2. Rongfeng Ma is always there
Between the seventh year of Yongzheng and the eighth year of Yongzheng, it should be that Ma Chang was in the stage of being more favored, at that time Ma Chang was just a girl of about thirteen years old, looking like a flower like jade, with buds to be released, the emperor naturally had a full sense of freshness for these young girls who had just entered the court, and the favor was naturally more, spoiled more, and the emperor was happy, and he would promote their names.
For example, Ma Chang was only an official woman at the beginning of the seventh year of Yongzheng, but in July, he was named a promise, and at the beginning of the next year, that is, in the first month of the eighth year of Yongzheng, Ma Chang was promoted again and was named Changzai.
However, what is unexpected is that while Ma Chang was triumphant in the spring breeze, there were some major changes in the former dynasty, first the death of Yin Xiang, the Prince of Heshuoyi, and then the Yongzheng Emperor fell seriously ill. Moreover, Yongzheng's illness lasted so long and was so serious that he made arrangements for the aftermath.
However, the favor of heaven still allowed Yongzheng to escape a disaster, and in the late autumn of Yongzheng's ninth year, his condition gradually improved and slowly recovered.
However, Ma Chang had already lost the perfect opportunity to compete for favors, and Yongzheng, who had just recovered from a serious illness, had long forgotten the humble Chang Zai around him, but had other favored women, she was the later Concubine Liu, that is, the birth mother of the Yuanmingyuan Brother Hongyao.
3. It is not discovered until seven years after death
Within a few years, the Yongzheng Emperor passed away, and in this way, Ma Changzai, who was only about twenty years old, became a widow, and she was arranged to live in Shoukang Palace, where she could get fifty taels of silver every year, and there were three official women around her.
However, after that, the young Ma Chang was about to grow old with these concubines, and thinking of this, Ma Chang could be said to be full of helplessness and confusion in his heart, but this was her fate, from the moment she was favored by the emperor.
In this way, Ma Chang spent thirty-three spring and autumn in the harem, and died on April 11, 33, Qianlong, and was estimated to be about 53 years old.
Generally speaking, a concubine like Ma Chang, after the funeral, her coffin will be temporarily placed in the funeral palace (Tamura Funeral Palace) after death, wait for a year or two, and then be buried in the concubine garden. But for some reason, perhaps due to the negligence of officials, until the forty years of Qianlong, Ma Changzai's coffin was still shelved in the Tamura Funeral Palace, which obviously did not conform to the palace rules.
This matter was then discovered by Qianlong, who was very angry about this, thunder and anger, and dissatisfied with the inaction of these officials, so he severely punished the relevant people, etc., and then immediately ordered Ma Changzai's coffin to be buried in Yongzheng's Tailing Concubine Garden, and Ma Changzai was also able to be buried in peace.
Zichen said:
In the harem of the Qing Dynasty, there were a very large number of low-level concubines like Ma Chang, most of whom were clothed women of humble origin, who became small lords because they were favored by the emperor. But because they did not have a maternal background, or lacked the means to compete for favors, or failed to go further and become high-ranking concubines, of course, if they could give birth to a man and a half woman for the emperor, the ending might be different.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Court Archives