Speaking of the history of this Qianlong harem, the most important event is that the subsequent haircut fell out of favor, at that time, why did the high-ranking successor Nala clan make irrational moves that violated the national taboo, who caused the subsequent almost to be deposed, in the eyes of ordinary people, Ling Concubine is the most suspicious, but from the author's point of view, another person may be more likely, she is Fangfei.
Regarding the origin of Fangfei, there is no record in the official historical materials, and even the birth year of Fangfei is unknown. However, an incident that happened in Qianlong forty-three years opened up the mystery for us to understand the origin of Concubine Fang.
It was the summer of the forty-third year of Qianlong, and a Yangzhou man named Chen Ji came to the capital, claiming to be the brother of Ming Guiren (Note: Concubine Fang was Ming Gui at that time), and because of the difficulties in life, he begged the Ministry of Internal Affairs to reward him with an errand. At that time, Fu Long'an, the minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, did not dare to be careless at all after receiving this news, and immediately reported it to Qianlong.
Qianlong then ordered the Yangzhou Lianghuai Salt Administration Yi Ling'a and Yang Guan to supervise Yin Zhu to handle the matter.
Through this incident, we can clearly know that Fangfei is a Chinese woman from Yangzhou, that is to say, Fangfei did not enter the harem of the Qing Dynasty through the draft, because she was not eligible to participate in the draft at all. So, how did Concubine Fang enter the palace?
There are two possibilities: First, Fangfei is a beautiful woman who is offered to the imperial court by officials in the Jiangnan region. Second, Concubine Fang was a beautiful woman brought back to the palace by Qianlong when he went down to Jiangnan. Judging from The Initial Seal of Concubine Fang, it is obvious that the second possibility is relatively large.
In November of the 31st year of Qianlong, Chen Shi (FangFei) was given the title of Ming Changzai.
The year of the thirty-first year of Qianlong is very special, it was in this year that the out-of-favor successor Nala clan died tragically in the Cold Palace, and the year before, the Nala clan was beaten into the Cold Palace for cutting his hair. However, it is said that Concubine Fang's entry into the palace coincided very well with the time when Qianlong went down to Jiangnan for the fourth time, and she was most likely brought back to the palace by Qianlong during this southern tour.
As we all know, one of the circulating versions of nala's haircut is that Qianlong wanted to bring a certain woman back to the palace and be crowned as a concubine, perhaps this person was FangFei.
Although the wildflowers were fragrant enough, it turned out that this concubine was indeed not a peaceful woman. She was only given the title of Ming Nobleman in the tenth year of her entry into the palace, and since then she has been demoted twice (twice to Ming Changzai), which shows that Princess Fang must have angered Tianzi in some ways. Moreover, after Qianlong was reinstated as a Ming nobleman in the forty-fifth year, Concubine Fang rarely received Qianlong's attention.
However, all this changed in the last moments of Qianlong's life.
In the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong, when Qianlong was about to cede the throne to his son Jiaqing, he ordered that the Ming nobles be promoted to concubines. Four years later, Emperor Taishang again decreed that Yingfei and Fangfei should be promoted to Yingguifei and Fangfei respectively.
However, the sudden operation did not give Fangfei much comfort, she died in the sixth year of Jiaqing, because her birth year has not been recorded, we do not know what the life expectancy of Fangfei is, perhaps Fangfei and Concubine Rong and Concubine Yu, also entered the palace as an elderly woman.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty