Qianlong was the longest-lived emperor of the feudal Qing Dynasty and one of the founders of the "Prosperous Era of Kangqian". He made countless achievements in his life, but at the same time he also created many affairs that led to the speculation of future generations. His life is full of legends, especially the mystery of his life, which has made countless historians addicted to the vortex of searching for the truth.
Recently, however, experts in the Forbidden City discovered a Yongzheng edict, the details of which may point to the mystery of Qianlong's life, and experts are expected to solve this century-old mystery.
The suspicious road of the Niu Cobalt Lu clan concubine
In the main history, everything about Qianlong's biological mother Niu Cobalt Lu clan is recorded: Empress Xiaoshengxian, Niu Cobalt Lu Clan, and Ling Zhu Nu of the Sipin Ceremony. In the thirteenth year of the following year, Shi Shizong submerged in the residence, and the number was gege. In the 50th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong was born. Yongzheng Zhong, Feng Xi Concubine, Jin Xi Guifei. Emperor Gaozong ascended the throne, and with Sejong's will, he was honored as the empress dowager and lived in Cining Palace.
Translated into the vernacular, it is: Niu Cobalt Lu was the daughter of Ling Zhu, the Kangxi Dynasty Sipinian official, who married to the Prince of Yong's palace at the age of 13, and was given the title of Gege, Kangxi gave birth to Hongli in 50 years, Yongzheng was named Concubine Xi in the first year, and Qianlong succeeded to the throne as empress dowager.
But other corroborating evidence of this canonical history is full of doubts and contradictions. First of all, it can be seen from this passage that the Niu Cobalt Lu clan was from a humble origin, and had always served Yongzheng as a gege, and even if he gave birth to a prince, he could not be promoted, but only after Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he was named a concubine, and then promoted to a noble concubine. It was not until Qianlong ascended the throne that she was honored as empress dowager.
That is to say, in the Yongzheng period, the Niu Cobalt Lu clan never ascended to the throne, but looking at the Yongzheng concubine book, it was found that the Niu Cobalt Lu clan was an empress, and it is said that the empress's seat was forcibly crowned by Qianlong after Yongzheng's death, but it can barely be explained, but the historical materials found next are not so confusing.
Historians found a Yongzheng edict in the Forbidden City, which was the holy will of the Yongzheng Yuannian to seal concubines, which read: Yongzheng Yuan's first year of February 14, the Empress Dowager's edict said: Lateral Fu Jinnian clan was crowned as a noble concubine, side Fu Jin Li clan was crowned as Qi concubine, Ge Ge Qian clan was crowned Xi concubine, Ge Ge Song clan was crowned Yu Concubine,,,
In this edict, there are two places that contradict the record of the Niu Cobalt Lu clan, first, the Niu Cobalt Lu clan does not appear in the edict, and second, it is the Ge Ge Qian clan who is crowned as a concubine. At the same time, in this edict we see that the highest concubine at that time was the noble concubine Nianshi, second only to the empress.
This makes one have to think about the question: Was the Niu Cobalt Lu clan ever sealed? When was it sealed?
There may be two reasons why the Niu Cobalt Clan did not appear in the edict: First, this person did not exist at all, and it was compiled into the annals of history later. Second, the Niu Cobalt Lu clan may have been sealed at that time, and the empress's canonization was not together with the concubines, and there was a separate edict, so the name of the Niu Cobalt Lu clan was not in this edict.
But who is this Qian Shigege who was crowned concubine in the edict? Why is it recorded in the canonical history that the Niu Cobalt Lu clan was crowned as a concubine, but in this edict it was changed to the Qian clan?
Some people say that in fact, because Qianlong's birth mother was from a humble origin, not a Manchu, Qianlong succeeded to the throne in order to improve his bloodline, he changed his mother's name to Niu Cobalt Lu clan and joined the Manchus.
However, looking at Yongzheng's concubine book, it is found that there is no Concubine Qian, the Qian clan that appears in the edict replaces the Niu Cobalt Lu clan, and the Qian clan never appears in Yongzheng's concubine book, so the contradictory situation is difficult to understand, which of the identities of these two people is true and which one is false?
One emperor serves two mothers, the eccentric tradition of the Qing Dynasty
In fact, everyone ignores that the Qing Dynasty has a strange but has been continuing to rule - in order to prevent the dictatorship of foreign relatives, after the birth of the prince for a full month, the Qing Dynasty royal family must leave the birth mother, raised by the grandmother (grandmother), and must be named to the name of a concubine of a relatively high rank, and the name is called a concubine under the name of the empress, and when it is recorded in the name of other concubines, it is called a concubine.
If the crown prince inherits the unification, the original empress of the middle palace is the largest, and the adoptive mother concubine is promoted to the second empress, and the birth mother concubine is promoted to the third empress. Most of the time, the empress dowager of the middle palace will be one of the birth mothers or adoptive mothers, so the Qing royal family has the saying that there are two palace empresses.
Before the Kangxi Emperor, the system of registering concubines was not perfect, so before Kangxi, there was no double empress dowager, and the Yongzheng period officially canonized two empresses, one was an adoptive mother and the other was a birth mother, and these two concubines were successively appointed as empresses. After Yongzheng, the canonization of the double empress dowager was the Xianfeng period, that is to say, the three emperors of Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang all had only one empress.
So why didn't Qianlong appoint two empresses? According to the canonical history, Niu Cobalt Lu was his birth mother, so who was his adoptive mother?
In this system, the adoptive mother's concubine position is generally higher than that of the birth mother, and there is no case of demotion and adoption. However, history also says that Qianlong's birth mother was born from a humble origin, has always been of the rank of Gege, and did not sit in the seat of Concubine Xi Guifei until Yongzheng ascended the throne.
This contradicts the statement that Niu Cobalt Lu was sealed, so here Niu Cobalt Lu is the key to unveiling the mystery after the sealing of Niu Cobalt Lu, but the history does not record about the events after Niu Cobalt Lu was sealed, only that she was directly promoted from concubine to empress.
We assume that Niu Cobalt Lu is Qianlong's birth mother, she is from a high birth, low status, there is no chance to raise Qianlong, but Qianlong succeeded to the throne is extremely filial piety, and she has a deep affection, which does not look like a birth mother who has not raised a day. Yongzheng and his birth mother have weak feelings because of neglect to meet.
If Niu Cobalt Lu is the adoptive mother, then everything makes sense, that low-status Gege is Qian, who was born qianlong and was raised under the name of Niu Cobalt Lu, and later Yongzheng ascended the throne, and after Niu Cobalt Lu was sealed, Qian Only sealed a Concubine Xi.
Birthday celebrations that do not match the age, the truth buried by history
But why did the historically recorded Concubine Xi eventually become the Niu Cobalt Lu clan? How did the Qian clan that was established by Yongzheng disappear? Is it possible that Qian's is Niu Cobalt Lu's, and Niu's Cobalt Lu's is Qian's?
Of course. Let's rearrange these historical sources:
Niu Cobalt Lu was born in 1693, married into the YongWang Mansion at the age of thirteen, Kangxi was born in the fifty years of Hongli, Qianlong sixteen years, sixty years old. When she was 13 years old, it was 1706, which happened to be the 45th year of Kangxi, so kangxi 50 years was born in Qianlong in 1711, but when Qianlong was 16 years old, it was 1751, and this year, Niu Cobalt Lu was 58 years old. 58 years old with your 60th birthday? If you have a big birthday 2 years in advance, you can't tell whether you want to live a long life or why.
Therefore, there is only one truth: that is, the Niu Cobalt Lu clan is not Qianlong's birth mother! It was only that Qianlong deliberately tampered with the historical materials in order to honor her as his birth mother, but in order to ensure that the emperor's birthday was correct, he completely grafted the identity of Niu Cobalt Lu on the identity of Qianlong's birth mother.
Such a mutilated history can be matched: Qianlong's birth mother had a low status and was crowned a concubine, and this real birth mother was Qian, who was 2 years old, but the concubine was lower than Niu Cobalt Lu, and had no emotional basis with Qianlong.
And Qianlong did not know what the purpose was (to please Niu Cobalt Lu?). Promote your Manchu lineage? Cover up the truth? He erased all traces of Qian's existence and made the Cobalt Lu clan his birth mother. Only the edicts that Papa had issued had not been tampered with.