Speaking of the favorite concubines of the Qing Dynasty, in the early Qing Dynasty, it may think of the Emperor Taiji's concubine Hai Lanzhu, or Shunzhi's favorite Concubine Dong E. But if you talk about the late Qing Dynasty, then there is no doubt that the famous Zhenfei will be thought of. Princess Zhen was the most favored person of the Guangxu Emperor, and she knew that she was not welcomed by Empress Dowager Cixi, and was eventually pushed into a well and drowned.
But what you may not know is that in fact, in the beginning, Cixi also loved Zhenfei, but for various reasons, she became more and more disgusted with Zhenfei, until finally she really did not like her and killed the killer. So what did Zhenfei do to make a concubine who was loved by Cixi and finally be pushed into the well?
Princess Zhen was the daughter of the Right Attendant of the Household Department, born in the second year of Guangxu, and officially entered the palace in the fifteenth year of Guangxu. It is known that Guangxu only had one queen and two concubines, and the empress was Cixi's niece Yehenara, which was later Empress Longyu. The second concubine is Zhenfei and Jinfei, of which Jinfei is Zhenfei's sister, one is the fourth daughter of Changxu, and the other is the fifth daughter, both of whom are Shu out.
On February 18, the fifteenth year of Guangxu, he was officially crowned as a concubine of the Tala clan, and her sister was a concubine of Jin. Prior to this, Cixi's niece Yehenara clan was made empress, and Guangxu's harem was simply formed by these three people. Among the three, the empress was Cixi's person, so Guangxu hated her. And Concubine Jin is more dull and not loved by Guangxu. Only The clever and cheerful Concubine Zhen received Guangxu's attention.
It is recorded in the "National News and Preparation": "After Guangxu's great marriage, he was not very close to the empress, but he was indifferent to Concubine Jin. However, Princess Zhen was well-behaved and pleasing to others, gongHanmo, good at chess, and served the emperor around the day, eating and drinking with the emperor, and Emperor Dezong was particularly fond of her. ”
In the twentieth year of Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi ushered in her sixtieth birthday, so she made a promotion to the Guangxu harem. In fact, just because of the two sisters of Jin Concubine and Zhen Concubine, the empress has no room for promotion. Therefore, Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen were both promoted to concubines at the same time.
In fact, it can also be seen from here that Cixi did not hate Zhenfei at the beginning, otherwise she would not have been promoted to her position on her birthday. So what attracted the attention of Guangxu and Cixi at the same time?
In fact, this is related to her childhood experience, because she and her sister Princess Jin have lived in Guangzhou with her uncle since childhood, and her uncle Changshan is a person who likes to make friends, and the friends are all literati and inkers. It is precisely because of this childhood life background that the two sisters of Zhenfei can receive cultural education from an early age, and Guangzhou is an important treaty port city, which makes the sisters have a wide range of knowledge from an early age, especially Zhenfei, which has caused an important change in her thinking.
Simply put, living in that environment makes Zhenfei open-minded, especially willing and receptive to new things. She doesn't like rules and regulations, and she pursues her own way in thought and behavior. Such a woman was different at that time, especially in the emperor's harem, so whether it was Guangxu or Cixi, they all liked this "different woman".
So in the beginning, Cixi loved Zhenfei, where did it manifest itself? First of all, as mentioned earlier, Cixi is willing to promote the position of Zhenfei on her birthday, if she hates her, why should she be promoted to the rank of concubine?
The second is that Zhenfei likes to take pictures, originally Cixi was very disgusted with these Western strange tricks, but she was also gradually influenced by Zhenfei, began to accept photography, and finally became a "photo maniac" and had a royal photographer.
Finally, Zhenfei is a very clever person, and cixi can understand everything she says, and she learns it quickly. Therefore, Cixi also specially asked her Qing guest Miao Sujun to teach Zhenfei calligraphy and painting, and even personally taught her the skill of writing plum blossom seal characters with her hands. Cixi originally wanted her niece Empress to help her monitor Guangxu, but the Empress was not favored and could not complete the task, in contrast, Cixi felt that Zhenfei was more intelligent and likable.
In short, Princess Zhen used her unique personal charm to capture the joy of Guangxu and Cixi at the beginning, giving this originally simple and deserted harem a lot more life. So when, because of what, Did Princess Zhen begin to lose Her Love for Cixi until she was finally pushed into the well?
In the same year that the Zhenfei sisters were promoted to concubines, the two were demoted to nobles by Cixi, note that instead of being demoted to the concubine position, they were nobles who were one level lower than the concubines, which showed that Cixi was very angry this time. So what happened then?
According to many documents, it is said that Guangxu made a pearl robe for Zhenfei and put it on very dazzlingly. One day, wearing a pearl robe, Princess Zhen bumped into Empress Dowager Cixi in the garden, and Cixi was furious, believing that Princess Zhen was extravagant and had the heart to replace the empress, so she ordered the eunuch to perform a "robe and court staff" on Princess Zhen.
This incident caused Cixi to be very angry, and not only punished Zhenfei, but even Concubine Jin was implicated and demoted to nobleman with her sister. There were also eunuchs under Concubine Zhen, who were either assigned troops or directly executed. It is said that Weng Tonggong interceded for Concubine Zhen, but was ignored by Cixi.
In fact, would everyone think it was very strange that Cixi obviously liked Zhenfei, why would she suddenly be angry at her because of a pearl robe, and even ask her to be insulted by the "scepter"? This shows that Cixi's anger this time is not as simple as a pearl robe on the surface.
Cixi punished Zhenfei this time, and her explanation for Guangxu was that she "violated the family law and interfered in the government", and wearing a pearl robe interfered in the government? Of course not, Cixi said this, implying that Zhenfei had indeed intervened in some matters.
In fact, at the time of this incident, the people in the court were divided over political affairs. Because the Sino-Japanese War was a dispute between the two sides, Wen Tingshi, Zhirui and others fought the main battle, and participated in the main peace of Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang then had people spread rumors that Wen Tingshi intended to support Concubine Zhen in replacing the empress and opposed Empress Dowager Cixi's obedience to the government.
What is the origin of this wenting style with Zhenfei? When Princess Zhen was a child, she lived in Guangzhou with her uncle Changshan, and Changshan once hired Wenting to teach the sisters of Zhenfei to study. Therefore, when Cixi heard this rumor, she was disgusted with Wen Tingshi and Zhenfei, and naturally had to punish Zhenfei heavily. Wen Tingshi was also deposed in this incident and never hired.
And Cixi hated Zhenfei, not just because of this rumor. The reason why she believed in rumors was that she knew the origin of The Wenting style and Zhenfei, and second, zhenfei's private deeds were exposed, which were all against Cixi, which can also be called "death".
Princess Zhenfei was originally a freewheeling personality, saying whatever she saw, and when she saw the eunuch in the empress dowager's palace asking for a red envelope, she ignored the disclosure. Since the eunuchs in the empress dowager's palace dared to ask for red envelopes, they must have been acquiesced by Cixi, and by doing so, Zhenfei was undoubtedly punching Cixi in the face.
There is also Zhenfei who likes to take pictures, so she opened a photo studio outside the Donghua Gate. She herself loves beauty, always dressed up very fashionably, wearing a variety of costumes to take pictures, and even women dressed as men, wearing Guangxu's dragon robes to play. As a concubine, Princess Zhen could not take the eight-person sedan originally, but Guangxu saw that she wanted to sit, so he allowed her to take the eight-person sedan car.
Guangxu loved Zhenfei and naturally favored her, but Zhenfei was not an empress after all, and this series of behaviors seriously threatened the empress. So the empress went to Cixi to complain, no matter what, the empress was Cixi's niece, and she was naturally partial. Therefore, Cixi ordered the photo studio to be sealed, and smashed the eight-person palanquin that Guangxu had given to Zhenfei.
These are not the most important, the most crucial thing is that The matter of Zhenfei selling the official Andejue was exposed, and she tried to sell the official to a person who could not read a big character, which was what Cixi called "interference in the government of the dynasty." According to the "National News Preparation", "Empress Chu tortured Concubine Zhen and found a book in the secret room, which was included in a certain month and day to be given by the Inspector of Henan. ”
In addition, Guangxu once reprimanded Li Lianying, cixi's most favored eunuch, who was beaten and did not dare to remember the Guangxu Emperor, so he had to transfer his anger to Zhenfei. In this way, both the empress and Li Lianying often said bad things about Concubine Zhen in front of Cixi, and over time, Cixi hated this woman to the bone. And Cixi's punishment of Zhenfei was also deliberately done for the Guangxu Emperor to see, wanting him to be obedient.
In the second year after Zhenfei was demoted to a nobleman, thanks to the efforts of the Guangxu Emperor, she was able to be promoted to concubine again. However, in the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu, after the failure of the Wushu Reform Law, Cixi imprisoned the Guangxu Emperor, and Zhenfei was implicated and imprisoned in the Northern Sanshou.
In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, and Cixi decided to flee Xi'an with Guangxu and others. Before leaving, she ordered The Princess to be pushed into the well, and the latter drowned at the age of 25. After Cixi and the others returned to the palace, they ordered their bones to be fished out and buried in the cemetery of the palace women outside the Fucheng Gate. In order to conceal the fact that she was pushed into the well and drowned, Cixi declared that Zhenfei had committed suicide, and in order to praise her spirit of "martyrdom", she was posthumously awarded the title of Zhenfei.
After the deaths of Guangxu and Cixi, the Xuantong Emperor Puyi took the throne, and Guangxu was honored as empress dowager Longyu and bowed to the government. Empress Longyu, in the name of Emperor Xuantong, posthumously honored Concubine Zhengui as The Noble Concubine of Emperor Keshun. In the fourth year of the Republic of China, Zhenfei's sister Concubine Jin (then Emperor Kaojin Guifei) relocated her to the Guangxu Chongling Concubine Garden, and specially arranged a small spiritual hall for her to be enshrined.
All along, in the hearts of everyone, Zhenfei was a poor party, because she died so tragically. Moreover, they all believe that she was killed by Cixi because she was deeply favored by Guangxu, which made Guangxu very cold to the empress.
But after understanding the true life of Zhenfei, we can find that poor people must have something to hate. If Zhenfei hadn't been too freewheeling and working against Cixi everywhere, she wouldn't have ended up with such a tragic ending. Looking at her sister Concubine Jin, she successfully lived to the thirteenth year of the Republic of China.
However, the author believes that Zhenfei ended up like this, although she did do wrong in many ways, she cannot be completely blamed. She grew up in Guangzhou, exposed to many new things, so that she has a different understanding of the world, so her thinking is not feudal, closer to the new era of women's thoughts.
Yearning for freedom, she entered the cage of the palace, and unlike her, she attracted the Guangxu Emperor, who was also willing to accept new things. The Guangxu Emperor's exclusive favor for her and the flattery of the subordinates made this originally confident woman even more unscrupulous.
In front of Cixi and Guangxu, Zhenfei did as she pleased, because she did not regard each other as high, but regarded them as family members, thinking that in front of the family they were to be casual. But she ignored that she was still in the feudal era, facing a mother-in-law Cixi who only wanted to monopolize power and did not allow others to be the masters.
That is to say, she has been free and accustomed since she was a child, and after entering the palace, no one taught her how to behave, but instead held her, and even Cixi liked her "different" at the beginning. This made Zhenfei think that she was right in this way, not only did she not know how to restrain herself, but she intensified, and finally angered Cixi and ended up in a tragic end.
(References such as "National Literature Preparation", "Qing History Draft", "My Grandfather Xiao Dezhang", etc.)