Speaking of qianlong's favored concubines in his later years, the first thing that everyone thinks of is definitely Concubine Huan, who gave birth to the younger daughters Gu Lun and Princess Xiao for the 65-year-old Qianlong, and the mother was a noble woman, who suffered all the glory and wealth. In fact, there was also a favorite concubine of the same era as Concubine Huan, who was Shungui.
Speaking of this Shungui's family lineage, it is also comparable to Empress Xiaoxian and Concubine Shu, Shungui is from the most prominent descendant of the Qing Dynasty, Niu Hulu, great-grandfather is the Kangxi Dynasty's auxiliary minister Shu Bilong, aunt is Kangxi's successor Empress Xiaozhao, grandfather is the Yongzheng Dynasty's leading minister of internal guards Yin De, father Ai Bida has served as governor of many provinces, uncle Celen, Ne qin and uncle AliGun are also famous ministers of the Qianlong Dynasty, this origin is enough to make everyone envious and hateful.
Moreover, the Shungui people also had a little relationship with Qianlong's biological mother, Empress Xiaoshengxian, who originally did not belong to the Hongyi Gong niu Hulu clan, but in order to improve the status of the mother's family, Qianlong ordered the two clans to merge into one, so that, according to the generational division, the Shungui people became the nieces of Empress Xiaoshengxian.
In the thirty-first year of Qianlong, the 18-year-old Shungui was elected to the harem and was initially named Changguiren.
You can find that the time when Shungui entered the palace was somewhat special, and this year, Qianlong, who fell out of favor due to hair cutting, died miserably in the Cold Palace after the Nala clan. That is to say, Shungui may have another mission when he enters the palace, that is, to become an empress.
Some sources show that at that time, Qianlong advocated choosing a concubine in the harem to succeed him, and this person was obviously the Ling Emperor's concubine. However, Empress Xiaoshengxian insisted on choosing another noble woman from the Eight Banners to enter the Middle Palace, and the stalemate could not be reached, and the matter was finally resolved.
Although Shungui was not able to sit on the throne, after entering the palace, she still gained the favor of Qianlong, and only two years later she was promoted to shun concubine.
One thing can reflect the favor of the Shungui people, once Qianlong went out hunting, Du Tong Debao gave Qianlong two pheasants, Qianlong immediately ordered someone to send them to the Shungui who was sick, although he was outside the capital, he was still worried about the Shungui, so it can be seen that Qianlong still favored the Shungui.
In June of the forty-first year of Qianlong, the year after Princess Xiao gave birth to Princess Gulun and Princess Xiao, Shungui was also pregnant with a dragon fetus, and Qianlong Longyan was very happy, and immediately ordered Shungui to be promoted to Shunfei. However, shungui's preparation for childbirth is very strange, at five months, Shungui showed signs of miscarriage, after conditioning, at nine months, the shape was as usual, but in the end, the birth of the dragon's daughter was not seen, so it was possible that Shungui was miscarried or stillborn this time.
In any case, this fall of the fetus was a big blow to Shungui, however, what he did not expect was that the storm was still behind.
In the first month of the fifty-third year of Qianlong, Qianlong issued two holy decrees in succession, demoting the Shungui from a concubine to a nobleman, and suddenly demoting him by two levels, which shows that the crime of the Shungui is not light. However, as for the specific reasons, there is no record in the historical records, so this demotion of the Shungui people has become an unsolvable mystery.
The sudden demotion hit Shungui very hard, it was she who humiliated the family, Shungui had no place for herself, she was depressed, and she died not long after, only 41 years old.
For the death of Shungui, Qianlong obviously did not have a shameful attitude or expression, but ordered people to bury Shungui into the Yuling Concubine Garden, and now we can find that there is a low-standard treasure roof in the last row of the Yuling Concubine Garden, and as everyone knows, what is buried here is the Shungui who was once beautiful in Qianlong's later years.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Study of Medical Cases in the Qing Palace, Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty