Speaking of the longest reigning empress of the Qing Dynasty, some readers may be confused, mainly focusing on Empress Xiaoherui and Empress Xiaodingjing, who is the longest reigning empress? Empress Xiaoherui entered the Middle Palace from the first month of the sixth year of Jiaqing to the death of Jiaqing in July of the twenty-fifth year of Jiaqing, a total of 19 years and 7 months, Empress Xiaodingjing from the fifteenth year of Guangxu to the death of the Guangxu Emperor in October of the thirty-fourth year, a total of 19 years and 10 months, therefore, from the perspective of time, Empress Xiaodingjing had three months more than Empress Xiaoherui, and she was the longest-reigning empress of the Qing Dynasty.
Empress Xiaodingjing's surname was Yehenara, from Manchuria, and was the daughter of the vice-governor Guixiang, and her maternal aunt was the famous Empress Dowager Cixi, that is, she was a cousin of the Guangxu Emperor (Note: Empress Xiaodingjing was three years older than Guangxu).
Speaking of the life of this Empress Xiaodingjing, it was also rather tragic, a life that was completely manipulated, and all this began in the eleventh year of Guangxu.
From the eleventh year of Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi began to choose empresses for the gradually growing Guangxu Emperor, and there was no doubt that this empress had to come from her own family, but also obedient and easy to control, picking and choosing, Cixi finally chose the daughter of her brother Guixiang, Jingfen. However, in the process of this draft, there was also a little episode, and the show girl that Guangxu liked at the beginning was not her cousin Empress Xiaodingjing.
According to the data, there were eight showgirls in the final selection, namely: GuiXiang's daughter Yehenara (Empress Xiaodingjing), Changxu's daughter Tatara (Jinfei), Changxu's daughter Tatara (Zhenfei), Buddha's daughter Yehenara (Empress Xiaodingjing's cousin, who was accused of marrying Pulun as a concubine), Fengxiu's daughter Fucha (Shushen Emperor's noble concubine, that is, Muzong Hui's sister), Dexin's daughter Fuchashi, Dexin's daughter Fucha (sisters), and Zhiyan's daughter Fei Moshi.
Guangxu initially favored Fuchashi, the eldest daughter of Jiangxi Inspector Dexin, and wanted to hand Yu Ruyi to Fucha's hands, but unexpectedly was stopped by Empress Dowager Cixi, so that under Cixi's reminder, Guangxu was forced to hand over Yuruyi to his cousin Yehenara.
In addition to Empress Xiaodingjing, two other women were selected for this draft, namely Changxu's two daughters, Tatara, later Princess Jin and Concubine Zhen.
On the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the fifteenth year of Guangxu, the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Xiaodingjing held a big wedding, in fact, a month before their big wedding, there was a fire in the Forbidden City. The fire burned down the Taihe Gate in front of the Taihe Temple, which was a necessary passage for the Empress to enter the palace for the great wedding, which was very bad for Cixi, but the Emperor's great wedding could not be easily changed, so Cixi ordered the craftsmen to build a Taihe Gate with a colored shed that was enough to fake the real Taihe Gate.
In fact, the Guangxu Emperor also knew in his heart that the empress selected by the empress dowager for herself was just a pawn to monitor herself, and moreover, the appearance of Empress Xiaodingjing did not dare to be complimented, and her personality was a bit conservative and cowardly, and she lacked opinions. Therefore, from the moment Empress Xiaodingjing married the Guangxu Emperor, they were tacitly acquainted, and the Guangxu Emperor almost never summoned this cousin, and in the later period, the relationship between them even deteriorated for a while.
In October of the 34th year of Guangxu, Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi died one after another, and before empress dowager Cixi died, she designated Puyi, the son of Zaifeng, to inherit the throne as Emperor Xuantong. After Puyi succeeded to the throne, Empress Xiaodingjing was honored as empress dowager with the insignia Longyu. However, what people did not expect was that neither Empress Longyu nor the regent Zaifeng was able to preside over the Qing Dynasty, which was in turmoil, and in the end, only three years later, the Qing Dynasty came to an end.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, according to the preferential treatment regulations of the Republic of China government, the members of the Qing Dynasty royal family still lived in the inner court part of the Forbidden City, however, the act of "letting the sage of the country" made Empress Longyu carry too much psychological baggage, and only one year later, she died of illness in the Forbidden City, and then buried with Guangxuhe in the Chongling Underground Palace, with the title of Empress Xiaoding Longyu Kuanhui Shenzhe Xie Tianbao Shengjing.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Dezong