In some Qing Dynasty court dramas, it is often possible to see a palace girl and the emperor inadvertently meet and germinate a beautiful love story, is it possible that this situation will be staged in history? The answer is no.
First of all, let's understand the Qing Dynasty's system of electing women.
The Qing Dynasty began in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, the palace women are mainly from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the three flags of the coat, the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the three flags of the coat is divided into the collar and the collar of the coat, the collar is what we know as the Xinzhiku. However, not all of the Xinzhiku were naturalized for crimes, and most of them were only organized as a wrapped collar because of the small number of families, and one wrapped collar was equivalent to half a collar.
The Qing Dynasty had many concubines from the Wrapped Pipe Collar (Xin Zhiku), the most famous of which was the Jiaqing Emperor's birth mother, Empress Xiaoyi Chun, that is, the famous Ling Concubine, in addition to the Good Concubines and Ding Concubines of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Yu Concubines and Concubines of the Yongzheng Dynasty, and the Xiaoyi Chun Empress and Concubine Yi of the Qianlong Dynasty. Today, I want to talk about the first concubine of the Qing Dynasty who was born in Xinzhiku: Liangfei.
At the beginning of the fourteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of Internal Affairs held an annual palace women's draft, and among the newly selected palace women, three people were particularly conspicuous, one was the Daughter of the Mighty Wu Ya Clan (Empress Xiao Gongren), the daughter of the ZhengHuang Banner Wrapping Collar Zheng Wu Pin Lang Zhong, and the last was the Wei Clan of the Zheng Huang Banner Wrapped Cloth Zheng Wu Pin Guan Leader Abu Nai. The three women were all first-class beauties, and they were selected by Kangxi among the many palace maidens to start their harem careers.
Of course, today's article is mainly about the Liangfei Wei clan, as for the other two, presumably everyone also knows something, the Wuya clan was deeply loved by Kangxi and gave birth to six children, including the later Yongzheng Emperor. Wan Liuha gave birth to the twelfth son of the Emperor, Yin Qi, who was happily ended because his son Yin Qi did not participate in the conquest of the concubine, and lived until the age of 97, ranking the crown of the qing dynasty's concubines.
Liangfei Wei's great-grandfather was named Huzhu (瑚柱), who was submitted to the imperial court during the Tiancong years, and the family was incorporated into the Yellow Banner because of its small number, and Wei's grandfather Du Leng'e and father Abu Nai both held positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was not much different from the appointment of members of the Defei family.
It is said that after the Qing Dynasty palace women entered the palace, they would carry out certain training and study, in addition to reading and reading for an hour a day, they would also practice embroidery, cleaning and other projects, and some women with outstanding appearance and cleverness would be assigned to the palace masters to serve, and those with poor conditions would do some rough work.
Moreover, the palace ladies generally had to stay in the palace and were not allowed to go out privately, even if the concubines, only when the emperor summoned them, they would come to the emperor's palace. That is to say, the emperor only has eunuchs around him, and he will not personally visit the palace of a concubine, and the chance of the emperor and a palace maid meeting is almost zero.
In summary, Liangfei Wei must be an outstanding-looking woman, and has a certain cultural accomplishment, and will not meet Kangxi by chance, she may have been favored by Kangxi when she was first drafted by the palace women.
In the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Wei clan gave birth to a prince named Yin Yu (胤禩), the famous Eight Brothers. From a young age, the Eight Brothers Yin Yu were smart and clever, with a very outstanding personality charm, and there was always a group of small partners gathered around, such as the Nine Brothers Yin Yu, the Ten Brothers Yin Yu and the Fourteen Brothers Yin Yu, etc., these small partners regarded Yin Yu as the "big brother", thus forming a small group, that is, the Eight Masters Party.
It is said that in the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi, the Eight Brothers Yin Yu was twice selected to go out with his father Kangxi to fight in Gardan, and after the war, he was named Belle, becoming the youngest of the recipients, which shows that Yin Yu was deeply loved by Kangxi from an early age. In addition to Kangxi's love, his mother was noble, and Wei was crowned as a concubine in the 39th year of Kangxi, and soon after, Kangxi made Wei a separate concubine (Liangfei), thus becoming the last of the five concubines in the early Kangxi dynasty to be crowned a concubine.
However, all this changed in the late Kangxi Dynasty, and after the Kangxi 47-year-old deposing of the crown prince, Kangxi's attitude towards the Eight Brothers Yin Yu underwent a huge change, from fondness to contempt, and even a little disgust, because Yin Yu gathered his henchmen to compete for the throne and posed a great threat to the throne.
At this time, Wei Shi, who was not in good health, saw that his son Yin Yu had fallen out of favor, and his mood was naturally very low, and on November 20, 50 years ago, Wei Shi died of illness in the Qing Palace at the age of 50. At that time, Kangxi personally presided over the Wei family's first full moon ceremony, which shows that the Wei clan still has a certain status in Kangxi's heart, however, for some reason, in the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Wei clan had a new title, that is, Xinzhiku Untouchable Woman, and according to Yongzheng himself, this title was still given by Kangxi, as for whether it is true or false, we do not know.
In his later years, Kangxi's conquest of the concubine was the victory of the fourth son of the emperor, Yin Chan, becoming the Yongzheng Emperor, and the eighth son of the emperor, Yin Yu, failed, and was later imprisoned to death, and changed his name to Akina, stripped of his clan membership.
Finally, we can briefly summarize the story:
In the first month of the fourteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, three young women were elected as palace maidens, and they were like sisters. They were all favored by Kangxi, one of them was very favored, was named a concubine, and the fourth son of the emperor, Yin Chan, inherited the throne, that is, the Yongzheng Emperor, and the other of them was not favored but had a peaceful attitude, and gave birth to the crown prince Yin Qi, and finally the mother and son lived long, and the last one gave birth to the eighth son of the emperor, Yin Yu, who was of outstanding ability, but eventually became a loser in the political struggle.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, General Genealogy of the Eight Banners of Manchurian Clans