In ancient society, those brothers who were born rich and noble spent every day drinking wine, surrounded by groups of wives and concubines, and lived a happy and happy life. In fact, the princes of the ancient imperial palace were the same, they not only had Concubine Fujin, but also Side Fujin, and even a number of concubines with different numbers. However, some princes are unique and only love one person, and this is the case with the author today, who is Yongxuan, the eighth son of Qianlong.
July 15 of the eleventh year of Qianlong is the annual Zhongyuan Festival, which was originally a not very auspicious day, but on this day, the Qixiang Palace of the Forbidden City gave birth to a prince, who was the eighth son Yongxuan born to Concubine Jia.
Originally a concubine of Qianlong's subliminal residence, Qianlong jumped into the court after succeeding to the throne and was given the title of Jia Concubine, and Jia Fei also gave birth to the first prince since Qianlong succeeded to the throne, that is, the fourth son of the emperor, Yong Jue. That is to say, after Qianlong succeeded to the throne, Yongxuan's birth mother, Concubine Jia, was very favored. However, Princess Jia was not overly excited, because just before Yongxuan was born, Empress Xiaoxian of the Middle Palace gave birth to the seventh son of the concubine Emperor Yongxuan, and judging from Qianlong's reaction at that time, Yongxuan was undoubtedly the best candidate for the imperial succession.
Although she could not give birth to concubines for the emperor, JiaFei was still relatively favored, and soon after, she gave birth to the ninth son of the emperor, and her position was also promoted to Jia Guifei, becoming the senior leader of the Qianlong harem.
However, Princess Jia was a little disappointed in her eighth son, Yongxuan. This prince not only had a well-behaved temperament, but also fell ill with his feet from childhood, and it was not very convenient to walk, which also indicated that Yongxuan basically had no connection with the throne, which was definitely what Concubine Jia did not want to see.
After Yongxuan became an adult, Qianlong assigned a small number of concubines to this son, who was Zhang Jiashi, the daughter of the university scholar Yin Jishan. Speaking of this Yin Jishan, it can be said that he is a legendary figure in the history of the Qing Dynasty, he began to enter the army in the first year of Yongzheng, with extraordinary talents were valued by Yongzheng, six years later he sat on the position of inspector of Jiangsu, and a year later he became the governor of Hedao, even Qianlong praised him: "Eight years to viceroy, who can walk?" ”
However, Yongxuan did not seem to be interested in this prominent concubine Fujin, because he already had another woman in his heart, this woman was still an official woman, she was Yongxuan's side Fu Jin Wang clan.
There was a custom in the Qing Dynasty that before the crown prince got married, he would be given an unequal number of official women, most of whom would be accepted by the prince as concubines, and the Wang clan should be the first official women to serve Yongxuan's side. What people did not expect was that in a long period of contact, this heavenly nobleman actually developed a deep affection with a palace girl.
According to historical records, Yongxuan had only two sons, namely the eldest son Mianzhi and the second son Mianmao, both of whom were born to the Wang clan. That is to say, it is very likely that the Wang clan was given the title of Side Fu Jin for giving birth to a son to Yong Xuan.
However, from the mouth of the Korean emissary, Yongxuan does not seem to be like this, the Korean emissary once made a record of Yongxuan, saying that he was "indulging in wine, and has a foot disease, and no one hopes", if Yongxuan really "indulges in wine", he will only have one Concubine Fujin and one side Fujin? He would have had only two sons, so we can infer that the accounts from foreign countries do not seem very true.
Moreover, Yongxuan lived until the twelfth year of Daoguang, at the age of 87, the longest-lived prince in the history of the Qing Dynasty, I would like to ask, how could a prince who "indulged in wine" live to the age of 87? Of course, without ruling out another possibility, Yongxuan knew that his succession was hopeless, and deliberately showed a look of no ambition, if so, in exchange for wealth for life, why not enjoy it?
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Four Genealogies of the Qing Imperial Family