In the Qing Palace drama, we can often see some concubines who angered the emperor and were beaten into the cold palace, although they were once favored by the emperor, but they ended up with a tragic ending, and some people even died without a place to die, such as the one I want to talk about in this article, she is the head of the concubines of the Kangxi harem: An Concubine.
Ling clan Zhong Xiang became a famous woman
An Concubine Li was a woman from the Zhenglan Banner of the Han Army, and in the Kangxi Canonization of the Li Clan, her family lineage was called "Ling Clan Zhongxiang", so what is the origin of the Li Clan?
It is said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a travelogue in Fushunbiandi, Liaodong Province, named Li Yongfang. At that time, Nurhaci was expanding to the border areas of the Ming Dynasty, and Fushun bore the brunt of it, but what was unexpected was that Li Yongfang became the first Ming general to surrender to Later Jin. In order to win over this Han general, Nurhaci deliberately married his granddaughter (the daughter of Bele Abatai) to Li Yongfang, and from this, Li Yongfang had a new title: Fuxi Erzhu.
This general named Li Yongfang was the grandfather of Li Yongfang (An Concubine), Li Yongfang had a total of nine sons, the third son Gang Atai was Li's father, Gang Atai guan to Xuanfu general soldier (正二品), who led the army to quell the rebellion of Jiang Ouyu's party, it can be seen that Li Shi was born in the family of generals, and the Li family to which she belonged belonged to one of the "Thirty-three Old Families of Han Junxun".
Eight Flags drafted into the Forbidden Purple
In the fourth year of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Li Shi participated in the Eight Flags Draft held by the imperial court, and the Noble and Outstanding Appearance Li Clan was favored by Kangxi, and since then, Li Clan has become a concubine in the Kangxi Harem. It is worth mentioning that in September of this year, Kangxi also held a big wedding in the Forbidden City with the grandson of the first assistant Sony, Hersheli, who was Kangxi's original empress, Empress Xiaochengren.
In the early kangxi period, in addition to the empress dowager and the concubines of the former emperors of the former dynasty, concubines were rarely canonized, and it was not until the sixteenth year of Kangxi that Kangxi was the first large-scale canonization of concubines, in this canonization, The Li clan was named An Concubine, ranking first among the seven concubines, second only to the Empress NiuHulu clan (Empress Xiaozhao) and the noble concubine Tong Shi (Empress XiaoYiren), who was the third concubine of the Qing Harem, ranking higher than the ranking of the four concubines of Hui YiDerong, which was extremely favored later, which showed that the Li clan was extremely favored at that time. It can be said that it is a banner of the Concubine of the Han Army in the harem of the Qing Dynasty.
The annunciation Li clan is as follows:
"Zhi'er Li Clan, Ling Clan Zhongxiang, Inner Court Bingxun, Rou Jia Fu Quality, Ke Xiu Four Virtues to Shu Yi; Respectfully Hold Bow, Yi Yi Six Palaces and George." Hereby hereby praises the Empress Dowager's kindness, and He is a concubine, and Erqi is a diligent teacher and frugal, and he is honored by the fan and benefits the sound; he obeys the courtesy and is humble, and the lotus is favored and the light is forever appeased. ”
However, compared with the Hui Concubine Na La clan and the Rong concubine Ma Jia clan, although the An Concubine Li clan ranked high, she has not been able to have children, that is to say, Li's favor may only be kangxi for those Han generals to see, whether she is really favored is still a mystery. And the end of history seems to confirm this.
Where does the mysterious disappearance go
It is said that since Li Shi was canonized as an concubine in the sixteenth year of Kangxi, it mysteriously disappeared in the historical materials, and since then, all the archives of the Kangxi harem have no relevant records of Li Shi, and even the time of Li's death and burial place are not recorded, and most of the Kangxi concubines have been buried in the Jingling Concubine Garden after death, but there is no record of Li Shi in the "Tomb Easy to Know" and "Changruishan Wannian Tongzhi", and she magically disappeared.
Some people say that The Concubine Li may have provoked Kangxi to be beaten into the Cold Palace, and was not buried in the imperial tomb after his death. However, according to the records of the Qing Palace, an concubine Li once had a bust portrait hidden in the East Cabinet, and there are also records of an concubine Li in the "List of Concubines Under the Holy Throne" of the Daoguang and Xuantong dynasties, which shows that Li shi was not demoted.
However, according to the Kangxi Dynasty Manchu records, during the Kangxi Dynasty, a certain palace in the Western Sixth Palace once lived an unsealed Zarut Borjigit Gege, this woman was later sent back to the Mongolian mother's family, perhaps the Concubine Li clan also had the same experience, but careful analysis, Li Shi was a concubine who was sealed by Kangxi, generally not easily sent back to the mother's home, and that Mongolian Gege was not sealed, as for the truth, can only hope that new historical materials will be discovered.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, Easy to Know in The Mausoleum, Chronicles of the Ten Thousand Years of Changrui Mountain