In October of the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1662), two young women were honored as empresses by the Qing dynasty royal family, one was the 21-year-old Borjigit clan, who was the empress of the Former Zhonggong palace of Shunzhi, who was honored as the empress dowager of Renxian, and the other was the 22-year-old Tong shi, who was originally a concubine of the Shunzhi harem, and was honored as the empress dowager of Cihe because of the birth of her son Xuan Ye who inherited the throne of the Qing Dynasty. For the first time in the history of the Qing Dynasty, there was a scene of two palaces being honored together, however, what people did not expect was that four months later, Empress Dowager Cihe died in the palace...
1. Ling Chi's grandfather who was executed
Regarding the ethnic composition of the Tong family, it has always been a difficult problem in the field of historiography, some people say that Tong is Han, some people say that Tong is Manchu, and some people think that Tong is a Sinicized Jurchen, this problem is still somewhat difficult to solve, it is not the category we are discussing.
The Tong family is a famous and prestigious family in the Liaodong region in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the ancestors of the business is a strong point, doing business is generally rich, the liquidity is relatively large, this kind of person, do intelligence work is more appropriate, it just so happens that Manchuria rose in Liaodong at that time, so the two Tong brothers submitted to HouJin, the brother is called Tong Yangzhen (Tong Yangzheng), the cousin is called Tong Yangsheng, this Tong Yangzhen is the grandfather of Empress Dowager Cihe (Empress Xiaokangzhang).
In the sixth year of the Mandate of Heaven, Tong Yangzhen followed the Eight Banners to attack Liaoyang, obtained the post of third-class light vehicle lieutenant, and then garrisoned Zhenjiang as a guerrilla. At that time, there was also a Ming Dynasty guerrilla general adjacent to Zhenjiang, his name was Mao Wenlong, and once Mao Wenlong took advantage of Tong Yangzhen's opportunity to send troops to suppress the uprising of the people of Shuangshan, sent troops to occupy Zhenjiang, and by the way, Tong Yangzhen's father and son were captured.
After Mao Wenlong captured Tong Yangzhen's father and son, he escorted him to Beijing, and Tong Yangzhen was convicted by the imperial court of the crime of great rebellion, and was immediately executed by Ling Chi, along with Tong Yangzhen's eldest son Tong Fengnian.
Of course, Tong Yangzhen is not only Tong Fengnian's son, in addition to the eldest son Tong Fengnian, there are also the second son Tong Shengnian and the third son Tong Jingnian, so that his name is finally biao Bing's history is the second son Tong Shengnian, Tong Shengnian also has a name, Tong Tulai, he is the father of Empress Xiaokangzhang.
Tong Yangzhen's son Tong Tulai fought with the Eight Banners from the fifth year of Tiancong (1631) and made many military achievements, and after the creation of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Tong clan was incorporated into the Zhenglan Banner of the Han Army. In the eighth year of Shunzhi, Tong Tulai was awarded the title of Rebbe Attendant, transferred to the capital of zhenglan banner, and also enjoyed the title of third-class son.
2. The Banner Girl of the Han Army who was elected to the palace
In August of the tenth year of Shunzhi, a major event occurred in the Forbidden City, when the young Tianzi Shunzhi Emperor deposed empress Borjigit and demoted her to Concubine Jing and took up a side room.
Among the reasons for Shunzhi's deposing of the empress, one is to say that the Empress Borjigit clan was a relative of Dorgon in his early years, not his own choice, according to this statement, from the tenth year of Shunzhi, the Qing court began the Eight Flags Draft, and the daughter of Tong Tulai, the rebbe attendant, entered the palace in this year, so Tong was the first showgirl in the Qing Dynasty to be elected to the palace, and the possibility is relatively large.
At that time, the qing dynasty concubine system was not perfect, and the rank of concubines was roughly as follows: empress, imperial concubine, concubine, Fujin, Xiaofujin, and Gege.
So, what level does the Tong clan from the Han Army Banner belong to? You must not think that it is lower than the level of Xiao Fujin, from the perspective of this rank ranking, Xiao Fujin is equivalent to the later nobleman, and the grid is roughly equivalent to the later promise, then the level to which Tong belongs should be similar to the later Chang Zai.
However, Tong Shi was after all the first batch of show girls selected to enter the palace, but the Shunzhi Emperor personally selected to enter the palace, at least the appearance is online, therefore, Tong Shi entered the palace not long after being summoned by Shunzhi, unexpectedly, after several summonses, she was pregnant with a dragon fetus. Since then, Tong has begun to look forward to a better future, in case he gives birth to a son, his name will definitely be promoted.
It is said that in the spring of the eleventh year of Shunzhi, once Tong Shi went to Cining Palace to ask Xiao Zhuang for peace, and when Tong Shi was about to leave, Xiao Zhuang found that there were dragons around him, and when he inquired about tong shi, he knew that Tong Shi was pregnant, so he praised Tong Shi must be a blessed person, and when he was pregnant with emperor (Shunzhi), there was also such a situation.
Of course, the authenticity of this record is questionable, and it is obvious that it was made up after Kangxi succeeded to the throne in order to set off his identity as the true son of heaven.
On March 18 of the eleventh year of Shunzhi, Tong gave birth to a young prince at Gyeongin Palace, named Xuan Ye, who was later the famous Kangxi Emperor of the Ages.
However, the Shunzhi harem is the domain of Mongolian women, even if Shunzhi has just deposed the empress, not to mention the Tong clan from the Han Army Banner, even those noble Manchurian Eight Banner Women are difficult to enter the Middle Palace. In fact, from the moment Shunzhi deposed the empress, his next empress dowager had already been decided, and it must be a woman from the Mongolian Horqin department.
Sure enough, in the second year of Tong's entry into the palace, the Mongolian Horqin Ministry sent two princesses, or a pair of sisters, the daughter of Xiaozhuang's maternal nephew Zhenguo Gong'erji, that is, the cousin of the Shunzhi Emperor. The eldest of the sisters was made Empress Zhonggong within a few days, and she was the second empress of Shunzhi, Empress Xiaohuizhang, who was later honored with the Tong clan.
3, fly up the branches to become a phoenix
It has to be said that Shunzhi was a very personal emperor, no matter how many Mongolian women his mother stuffed him, all of them did not get cold. Thirteen years after Shunzhi, Shunzhi finally ushered in the woman in his life, she was dong eshi of the zhengbai banner, Dong Eshi entered the palace for a month, and was promoted to imperial concubine, only forcing her to take the throne.
Moreover, Shunzhi did have the idea of establishing Dong Eshi as the queen, and for this reason he even risked the world's great disobedience after the second abolition, but because Xiaozhuang and Dong Efei herself were strongly opposed, they did not succeed.
Dong E's entry into the palace made other women in the Shunzhi harem, including the Tong clan who gave birth to Xuan Ye, all reduced to decorations, because the Qing palace stipulated that concubines could not raise their own princes, so it was difficult for Tong to see his son Xuan Ye. Coupled with Xuan Ye's contraction with smallpox, Tong Shi was even more worried about his son, and if he lost this son, he really had nothing.
Fortunately, the third son of the Emperor, Xuan Ye, successfully defeated the smallpox disease, while the fourth son of the Emperor (born to Concubine Dong E), who was loved by Shunzhi, unfortunately died prematurely, so it seems that this is fate.
In August of the seventeenth year of Shunzhi, Princess Dong E, who was loved by thousands of people, died of illness in the palace, and four months later, the Shunzhi Emperor, who was also infected with smallpox, died of illness in the Yangxin Hall, and before his death, Shunzhi designated xuan ye, the third son of the emperor, as the heir.
In fact, in terms of origin, Xuan Ye's brother Fu Quan was more qualified to inherit the throne, and Fu Quan's birth mother Ning Yufei (Dong E's) was the great-granddaughter of the founding father He Heli, but in the end, the throne fell on Xuan Ye, why? Some people think that Xuan Ye once had smallpox and strong vitality, in fact, this is not the root cause, perhaps there is a saying that can be explained, it is said that Fu Quansheng has an eye disease, how can a disabled prince inherit the throne?
In the second year of Xuan Ye's succession, her birth mother Tong Shi was honored as the Empress Dowager of the Virgin Mary, with the insignia cihe, and her treatment was raised to the rank of Fujin. See no, all become the emperor's birth mother, only to enjoy the treatment of Fujin, hey, this is the gap in the background of origin.
Moreover, what is even more unexpected is that only four months after Tong Shi was honored as empress dowager, she suddenly collapsed in the palace at the age of 23. As for the cause of death, the historical record does not record.
After Tong's death, Kangxi was given the titles of Empress Xiao Kangci and Empress Zhuang Yi Gonghui Chongtian Yusheng, and later after the addition of Yongzheng and the Qianlong Emperor, Tong's final titles were Xiao Kangci and Zhuang Yi Gonghui Wen Mu Duanjing Chongtianyu Shengzhang Empress.
In the eighth year of Kangxi, Kangxi ordered his birth mother Tong clan to be carried from the Han army's zhenglan banner into the Han army with a yellow flag, and in the twenty-seventh year of Kangxi, Kangxi once again issued a decree to carry the Tong clan into Manchuria with a yellow flag, thus becoming the first descendant of the Qing Dynasty to be raised.
Zichen said:
Empress Xiaokangzhang's life was very short, only 23 years, she once won the favor of the Shunzhi Emperor and gave birth to the Prince of the Qing Dynasty, but she was not Shunzhi's true love.
The Tong clan, who was snubbed in the later period of Shunzhi, was greatly damaged, both physically and psychologically, even if his son Xuan Ye inherited the throne of the Qing Dynasty, he himself had run out of oil, so that Xiang Yuyu died in the Qing Palace, but the status of Empress Xiaokangzhang was worth affirming, after all, she gave birth to an emperor for thousands of years, Izumita has knowledge, and believes that she can get comfort.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, General Genealogy of the Eight Banners of Manchurian Clans