When it comes to Qianlong's favorite concubines, everyone will invariably think of Lingfei, in terms of favoration, Lingfei is indeed one of the top concubines in the Qianlong harem, but when it comes to origin, Lingfei is too much different. In terms of origin, the best thing in the Qianlong harem is Empress Xiaoxian, and secondly, there is another woman who can compete with Empress Xiaoxian, she is Concubine Shu.
Princess Shu was a flag girl from the Manchurian Zhenghuang Banner, surnamed Yehenara, a family that was inextricably linked to the Manchu Qing royal family.
As early as the post-Jin Dynasty, Nurhaci married a woman of the Yehenara clan, who was favored by Nurhaci and gave birth to a young prince, the eighth son, Emperor Taiji. The woman who gave birth to Emperor Taiji was Empress Xiaocigao.
It is said that Empress Xiaocigao had a brother named Jintaishi, and Jintaishi's grandson was the Kangxi Dynasty's minister of power, Nalan Mingzhu, who was Shufei's great-grandfather, so from the perspective of birth, this Shufei was also considered to be a relative of the emperor.
In fact, Princess Shu was also related to Empress Xiaoxian's family. The wife of Empress Xiaoxian's younger brother Fu Heng was also the sister of Concubine Shu, that is to say, Princess Shu was Fu Heng's sister-in-law, so from this point of view, the origin of this Concubine Shu was really not ordinary.
On the seventh day of February in the sixth year of Qianlong, Shufei, who was only 13 years old, participated in the Eight Flags Draft, she was the only show girl selected in this draft, Shufei was favored by Qianlong, although it was related to her own excellent personal qualities, but the family lineage was the key to Shufei's entry into the palace.
Sure enough, as soon as Concubine Shu entered the palace, she was given the concubine position and was named Shu Concubine, and Qianlong seemed to be very interested in this little girl with a prominent family, and was very fond of her, and within a few years, Qianlong promoted her to Shu Concubine. However, at the same time that Concubine Shu first entered the court, there was a woman in the Qianlong harem who rose rapidly, and she was the Ling Concubine Wei of the Palace Daughter.
At first, Shu Fei was able to occupy the front position with a superior family background, however, it was unexpected that Qianlong was more fond of Wei, which made Wei jump over Shu Fei in the ranking and rank first among concubines. What made Princess Shu even more sad was that in the sixteenth year of Qianlong, the tenth son of the emperor, who was only three years old, had also died prematurely.
In order to comfort Concubine Shu, Qianlong successively entrusted the children born to two other concubines to Shu Concubine to raise, the first was the eleventh son of the Emperor Yongxuan born to Concubine Jia, and the second was the ninth daughter of the Emperor born to Concubine Ling. Princess Shu regarded the two adopted sons and daughters as if they were biological, and took good care of them, and her mood became much smoother.
After that, although Princess Shu did not continue to be promoted to a higher rank, she was always an important member of the high-level of the Qianlong harem, and often accompanied Qianlong on tour, for example, in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong, Princess Shu came to the beautiful Jiangnan with Qianlong and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan.
In the first month of the fortieth year of Qianlong, the lord of the harem ordered the imperial concubine to die of illness in the palace, and in the previous six months, Qing guifei also passed away, so that the Qianlong harem did not have an imperial concubine and a concubine of the level of a noble concubine, and the highest level was the concubine, and the highest ranking was Shu Concubine.
However, at this time, Princess Shu was already plagued by illness, and it was already worse than a day, especially as Yong Yao grew up and married the Ninth Princess, she was more lonely in the palace alone. On May 30, 42, Qianlong, Princess Shu died of illness in the Forbidden City at the age of 50, and was subsequently buried in the Qianlong YuLing Concubine Garden.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Four Genealogies of the Qing Imperial Family