During the Qing Dynasty, the imperial palace was definitely a dangerous place, not only the officials of the former dynasty were fighting, the women of the harem were not idle, in order to compete for favors they often did whatever it took, some people fell victim to the palace fight, or were demoted, or beaten into the cold palace, and even lost their lives for this. The one I want to talk about today is the most miserable concubine of the Qing Dynasty, who was not only demoted to the fourth level in a row, but also fell into the water and died, she was the good promise of the Daoguang Harem.
First, let's look at the origin of this promised person.
Mu Promis was a woman from Manchuria with the surname of Hersheli and her father being the viscount Kuishan of the third rank. In fact, this family lineage of musing is not simple, her seventh ancestral name is Xifu, and after the Qing Taizu Nurhaci annexed the Hada Department, Xifu and his brother Shuo se submitted to Houjin together. Because Hefu was fluent in the three languages of Manchu and Mongolian and Han, he was summoned to the Bunkan and sent many missions to the Mongol tribes. After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, Xifu was even more highly valued, and he became a scholar of the Inner Hongwen Academy.
It is said that this Xifu had a nephew who was more famous, and he was the first assistant of Kangxi in the early years of Sonny, that is to say, this Mu promised to be a family with Empress Xiaochengren of Kangxi's original mate. Judging from the origin, this promise can be said to come from the old clan of Xun Gui and the famous family.
At the beginning of the second year of Daoguang, Mu promised to participate in the Outer Eight Flags Draft as a yellow flag girl, becoming one of the four selected show girls. Historical records record: "The daughter of the former Baron Yiling was written as a full concubine, the daughter of the viscount Kuishan was written as a noble person, the daughter of the former Lang Zhongjiufu was written as a noble person, and the daughter of the former Dao Ronghai was a precious person." ”
In November of that year, Mu Promised, who was ennobled as a nobleman, officially entered the palace and lived in the Yanxi Palace. From this, we can see two pieces of information: First, at that time, the lord of the Yanxi Palace was not a noble person, but a concubine of the Fucha clan (Note: The concubine was a side Fujin of the Daoguang Qiandi). Second, Daoguang's first impression of Mu's promise seems to be not very good, because Yanxi Palace has always been the residence of unpopular concubines, such as Tian Concubine, and Daoguang arranged for Mu to live in Yanxi Palace, which obviously did not pay much attention to her.
This was later proved.
The four concubines who were elected to the palace in the second year of Daoguang, in addition to Muying, the other three quickly gained the favor of the Son of Heaven, especially Quan Concubine, who was promoted to noble concubine (Quan Guifei) in just a few years, and Xiang Gui and precious people were also promoted to concubines (Xiang Concubine, Zhen Concubine), but Mu Promised was still only a nobleman.
However, the first loser of these four concubines was not a good promise, but a precious person. Although the precious person was once promoted to a precious concubine, he somehow angered the Heavenly Son, and after Daoguang was demoted to a regular nobleman for nine years, he withdrew from the stage of competition for favors. After the precious man fell out of favor, Mu Promis began to enter the vision of the Daoguang Emperor, and was enthroned as a concubine in the tenth year of Daoguang.
Judging from the situation at that time, the promise seemed to be running from time to time, but in fact it hid a huge crisis. Sure enough, in the second year after Mu Promised to be enthroned as a concubine, the Daoguang Emperor suddenly ordered that he be demoted to a nobleman, and at that time, Mu Promised that the golden book of the concubine's throne had been prepared, but he did not have time to accept it. What was even more unexpected was that this demotion of Mu Promised was only the beginning, and in the following year, Mu Promised was demoted three times, and by April of the twelfth year of Daoguang, she had been demoted to Muguan Woman (also known as Muguan Woman).
From concubine (mu concubine) to official woman, Mu Promis was demoted to four levels, which is the only record in the history of the Qing Dynasty to be demoted to four consecutive levels. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a noble concubine, who had been demoted from a nobleman to an official woman, but she was only demoted to three levels, and Mu Promis was directly demoted to four levels, which shows that the crime of this Mu Promised is not light.
On the third day that Mu agreed to be demoted to an official woman, the news came from the palace that she had fallen into the water and died. It is speculated that the death of Mu Ying should belong to the active falling into the water, that is, suicide, because such a situation as Mu Promised will undoubtedly cause shame to the family, how can she live with peace of mind?
After Mu agreed to die, Daoguang immediately ordered her to be buried in Liudaokou for burial, however, three years later (Daoguang fifteen years), for some reason, Daoguang suddenly posthumously posthumously honored the muguan woman as Mu Andrei, and reburied her from Liudaokou to Muling Concubine Garden, which was later Mu Dongling, and Mu Promised to become the only one to be buried in Mu Dongling.
Postscript: Daoguang entered the harem of the Qing Dynasty in the second year, the third loser of the palace fight was Xiangfei, although Xiangfei had given birth to three children for Daoguang, but in the end she was still inferior to Empress Xiaoquan, and was demoted to a nobleman in the seventeenth year of Daoguang, and finally Daoguang was never promoted again.
Therefore, of the four concubines who entered the palace in the second year of Daoguang, only the concubines became the victors, and they eventually sat on the throne of the empress, which was for Empress Xiaoquan. Moreover, Empress Xiaoquan's son Yixuan also inherited the throne of the Qing Dynasty as the Xianfeng Emperor.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty, Communications from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Miscellaneous Items in the Palace