When it comes to the Qianlong Emperor's favorite concubine, the first thing that everyone thinks of is definitely Concubine Ling. However, what is unexpected is that before Concubine Ling, Qianlong also had a concubine who was more favored than Concubine Ling, and she was a concubine.
Before the Qing dynasty princes got married, they were generally given an unequal number of handmaidens, most of whom were clothed women from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, that is, palace women (official women). Moreover, most of these handmaidens would also be accepted as concubines by the crown prince, and if they were lucky, if the prince inherited the throne, they would become the imperial concubines of the Qing Dynasty.
In the early years of the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the fourth son of the Emperor, Hongli, was given seven or so handmaidens by his father Yongzheng, and among these handmaidens, one of whom was huang, was the daughter of Dai Min, a man under the collar of the bag pipe.
The information here reveals the origin of the Huang family.
The first is the person under the collar of the coat, what does it mean? It is what we often call the Xinzhiku people, who belong to the lowest level of slaves. Secondly, Huang's father, Dai Min, did not have any official position, and huang's low origins can be imagined. However, the Huang clan was still fortunate to be given to the fourth son of the emperor, Hongli, because of her beautiful appearance or her superb female red, which we do not know.
Regarding the situation of the Huang clan living around Hongli, there is no record in the historical records, but judging from the canonization of the Huang clan after hongli succeeded to the throne, Hongli was very fond of the Huang clan.
In September of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, Prince Hongli of Bao succeeded to the throne of the Qing Dynasty as the Qianlong Emperor.
After Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he issued several edicts on the canonization of concubines, one of which was related to the Huang clan.
"Gege Huang clan is crowned as a concubine, and according to the mother of the Huang clan, the family is wrapped and managed to lead the people, and the people are assigned to the banner to be wrapped and collared."
This edict actually arranged two things, first, the Huang family was crowned as a concubine, and second, the Huang family was led by the wrapping pipe into the banner of the wrapping collar (Note: this is a measure to improve the status of the concubine's mother's family, somewhat similar to raising the flag).
That is to say, the canonization of the Huang clan as a concubine and the transfer of his mother's family into the coat and collar were carried out at the same time, which is rare in the history of the Qing Dynasty. We can compare the later Ling Concubine, Ling Concubine was crowned as a concubine in the tenth year of Qianlong, but her mother's family was not led into the bao yi collar until the sixteenth year of Qianlong, which took six years. Therefore, from this point of view, Huang Can be said to be very favored.
However, what is unexpected is that in the first year of Qianlong, the list of concubines of the Qing Dynasty did not see the trace of Huang, that is to say, the Huang clan died in the period from September to December of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, Qianlong just succeeded to the throne, and the pet concubine died, which is indeed a bit bizarre, and has to be associated with the death of huang, whether it is due to illness or the result of palace fighting.
Although the Huang clan has left, Qianlong has not forgotten to give this woman he liked at the beginning, and Qianlong ordered that the Huang clan be posthumously honored as a concubine. However, because the Qianlong Mausoleum had not yet been built, the Huang's golden coffin had to be temporarily placed in the funeral palace.
In the seventeenth year of Qianlong, Qianlong's Yuling was completed, and the concubine Huang was finally buried in the concubine garden, and she became the first woman to be buried in the Yuling Concubine's garden.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty