Speaking of the empress dowagers of the Qing Dynasty, everyone is more impressed by Xiaozhuang, Xiaosheng, and Cixi, but these are not the longest reigning empresses of the Qing Dynasty, and the longest reigning of the Qing Dynasty is Empress Xiaohuizhang, whose emblem is Empress Renxian.
Speaking of this Empress Xiaohuizhang, in fact, everyone has seen her image in film and television dramas, such as the empress dowager hidden in the deep palace by the Dragon Sect Mao Dongzhu in "Deer Ding", and its prototype is Empress Xiaohuizhang. In fact, this empress was a Mongolian woman from the Mongolian Horqin Department, how did she enter the palace?
In August of the tenth year of Shunzhi, the Shunzhi Emperor had just deposed the empress, and then the officials suggested that the emperor elect an empress again, because the Shunzhi Emperor said that the empress was originally hired by Dolgun and was not chosen by himself, so the minister learned a lesson, saying that this time he must choose a woman who satisfies the emperor, so he expanded the scope of choice.
In the end, after some screening, the Borjigit clan (Empress Xiaohuizhang) of the Mongolian Korqin Tribe became the successor candidate, so what is the origin of this Borjigit clan?
It turned out that this Borjigit clan was the daughter of the Duke of Horqin province, Nao Erji, and her grandfather was Chahan, who was the brother of Empress Xiaozhuang, that is to say, Borjigit was the niece of Empress Xiaozhuang, that is, the cousin of the Shunzhi Emperor. As we all know, the Shunzhi Emperor has always been uninterested in Mongolian women, and even somewhat disgusted, and the empress he deposed is from Mongolia and is also the aunt of the Borjigit clan, so the election of the Borjigit clan this time is obviously not the original intention of the Shunzhi Emperor, but the meaning of the Qing Dynasty royal family.
In June of the eleventh year of Shunzhi, the Borjigit clan was made empress, but to her surprise, except for a grand empress ceremony, the Shunzhi Emperor did not look at her at all, but focused on the Chengqian Palace, because the Chengqian Palace was inhabited by Concubine Dong.
At the end of the fourteenth year of Shunzhi, Empress Xiaozhuang fell ill, and it was reasonable to say that the Borjigit clan, as a niece and daughter-in-law, should go to Nanyuan to take care of herself, but the Borjigit clan disappeared, and Concubine Dong E'e served in front of the bed day and night. In the next year, Empress Xiaozhuang's illness was cured, and the Shunzhi Emperor began to attack, he ordered the suspension of the Borjigit clan's Zhonggong notes, and asked the ministers to discuss the abolition of the matter again, which surprised the Borzigit clan, for which she fell seriously ill.
During the illness of the Borzigit clan, it was Dong Efei who served in front of the bed, and did not close her eyes for five days and five nights, and in the end, after Dong Efei strongly opposed the Shunzhi Emperor's re-abolition, the Borjigit clan was able to retain the position of the middle palace. But it also survived in name only, because at that time, the assistant of the sixth palace was the imperial concubine Dong Eshi (東鄂妃).
In the first month of the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, the Borjigit clan, who had been alone in the palace for eight years, heard a news that shocked her very much, the Shunzhi Emperor died of illness in the Yangxin Temple at the age of 24, you know, at that time, the Borjigit clan was only 20 years old, that is, she became a widow from then on.
After the death of the Shunzhi Emperor, Kangxi succeeded to the throne, and the Borjigit clan was honored as the empress dowager with the insignia of Renxian. Originally, it was thought that from then on, the Borjigit clan would live a comfortable life in the harem, however, after only two years, Kangxi's birth mother, Empress Xiaokang, died of illness, so the responsibility of taking care of Kangxi fell on the Borzigit clan.
With the growth of Kangxi and the stability of the Qing Dynasty, the Borjigit clan began to live a comfortable life in the harem, especially after the death of Empress Xiaozhuang in the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi, she became the most respected elder of Kangxi, Kangxi treated him with great respect and respect, and in the end, borjigit had been the empress dowager for nearly 57 years, and died of illness at the age of 77 in Kangxi fifty-six years.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Kangxi Dynasty