Generally speaking, the death of the empress is a national funeral, and the emperor should not choose a concubine, however, after the original wife just died, Qianlong strangely included a palace maid in the harem. What was even more strange was that Qianlong soon lost interest in this woman, so that this woman had been a nobleman for 43 years, and she was a concubine.
Regarding the specific family lineage of Concubine Lin, the historical records do not record, only that her father's name was Buddha Yin, and he was a baitang' ah. From this, it can be inferred that Lin Shi should be a clothed woman from the Three Banners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and her origin is relatively low. The historical records also do not record the birth year of the Lin clan, but when the Lin clan was crowned as a concubine in the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong, it was mentioned that she was "more than 60 years old" (Note: over 60 years old), so it is inferred that the Lin clan should have been born before the thirteenth year of Yongzheng.
Lin's first appearance in the Qing Palace was in the thirteenth year of Qianlong, and in the first month of this year, she was given the title of Changzai, called Lin Changzai. Two months later, Qianlong's original wife, Empress Xiaoxian, died of illness on the way to the east, and was newly mourned, and it is reasonable to say that she should not be crowned a concubine, who knows that Qianlong then made a series of personnel adjustments to the harem.
Concubine Xian was made an imperial concubine and began to stand in the harem of the Qing Dynasty as a quasi-empress, and Concubine Jia was also promoted to Jia Guifei and Ling Concubine was promoted to Ling Concubine. At the same time, the promotion was also achieved by the Lin clan, who was promoted to the title of nobleman, called Lin Guiren.
It can be seen that the Lin clan was very favored during this period, and at this time, the Lin clan was a little complacent, and it was not long before Qianlong demoted it to Changzai. This demotion did not hit the Lin clan very hard, after all, Qianlong still maintained a certain interest in her, and sure enough, in the sixteenth year of Qianlong, the Lin clan was re-promoted to a nobleman.
However, for some reason, after that, Qianlong suddenly lost interest in the Lin clan, and the Lin clan remained in the noble position, and what the Lin clan did not expect was that this state lasted for forty-three years. During this period, the Lin clan sent away a batch of old people, and ushered in a batch of new people, but the emperor only saw the new people laughing, not the old people crying. No way, this is Lin's fate.
In November of the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong, when Qianlong was about to pass the throne to Jiaqing, Lin finally ushered in the last chance for promotion, and she was promoted to concubine, but at this time, Lin was already an old woman over sixty years old. These empty names don't mean much to her anymore.
After lin was named a concubine, she moved to chengqian palace to live, and her living conditions improved to a certain extent, and after Jiaqing succeeded to the throne, lin moved to Shoukang Palace to live, although she was a concubine, but the official women around her were configured according to the standards of concubines. Because among the surviving Qianlong concubines at that time, only the ranks of Concubine Wan gui and concubine were higher than those of the Lin clan, which showed that the Lin clan completely relied on seniority to win everything they enjoyed.
On November 27, 1000, Lin died of illness in the Forbidden City, and two years later, Lin was buried in the Yuling Concubine Garden with Princess Wangui and Concubine Huan, and the story of this woman who had been a nobleman for 43 years ended.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Four Genealogies of the Qing Imperial Family