Speaking of the most favored empress of the Qing Dynasty, everyone may think of Empress Xiaoxian Duanjing, that is, the famous Dong Efei, but the empress name of this Dong Efei was posthumously given by Shunzhi, and she did not become an empress before her death, and the Manchu Qing royal family did not recognize this empress very much, did not give her imperial title, did not put her tablet into the Taimiao Temple and the Fengxian Hall. Today, I want to talk about a legitimate empress, who is also the most favored empress of the Qing Dynasty, and she is Empress Xiao Quancheng.
Empress Xiao Quancheng's surname is Niu Hulu, is a woman from the Manchurian Zhenghong Banner, the Qing Dynasty had a total of six Niu Hulu empresses, only Empress Xiao Quancheng is one of the special cases, why?
Empress Xiaozhao, Empress Xiaohe, Empress Xiaomu and Empress Xiaozhen were from the Hongyi Gongfu, and after Qianlong combined her mother Empress Xiaosheng with the Hongyi Gongfu Niuhulu clan, Empress Xiaosheng was barely considered to be the Empress of the Hongyi Gongfu Niuhulu clan. Only Empress Xiaoquancheng was not from the Niuhulu clan of the Hongyi Principality, that is to say, Empress Xiaoquan's family lineage was not as prominent as people thought, even if she was from an ordinary bureaucratic family.
Empress Xiao Quancheng's great-grandfather was named ChengDe, who was born as a soldier, and later relied on military merit to obtain the glory of the graphic Purple Light Pavilion, which instantly promoted the family rank. Empress Xiao Quancheng's grandfather Mukdenbu was killed on the battlefield and won the title of second-class baron, and Empress Xiao Quancheng's father Yiling had always held a military position, and it was difficult to imagine that such a general could cultivate such a talented woman as Empress Xiao Quancheng.
It is said that Empress Xiao Quancheng lived in the Jiangnan region with her father when she was a child, and whether in terms of appearance and stature, or talent, she had the characteristics of a Han family woman, which was in line with the taste of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
In the second year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, Empress Xiao Quancheng participated in the Eight Flags Draft as the manchurian Zhenghong Banner Woman, in this draft, Xiao Quan was favored by the Daoguang Emperor at a glance, becoming the leader of the current show girls, and was crowned as a full concubine, and the other show girls who entered the palace together were only named nobles. Moreover, after Xiao Quan entered the palace, he quickly gained the favor of the emperor, and soon became pregnant with a dragon fetus, although the first child was small, the child could not be saved, but Daoguang's favor for her remained undiminished.
Kung Fu did not pay off, under the favor of the emperor, Xiao Quan's stomach was very contentious, and he gave birth to three children successively, especially Daoguang gave birth to the fourth son of the emperor in the eleventh year, Yi Xuan, because the first three sons of Daoguang died early, so Yi Xuan was actually the eldest son of Daoguang, and the probability of inheriting the throne was relatively greater.
Empress Xiaoshen died of illness in the thirteenth year of Daoguang, and xiaoquan, who was the second in command of the harem at that time, was unsurprisingly promoted to imperial concubine and commanded the affairs of the six palaces, and a year later, Xiaoquan officially succeeded to the throne of the Middle Palace and became the lord of the six palaces of the East and West.
However, there was also a big figure in the harem of the Qing Dynasty at that time, and she was the stepmother of the Daoguang Emperor, Empress Gongci, that is, Empress Xiaoherui. Empress Xiaoherui was the second empress of Jiaqing, and after Jiaqing's death, she supported Daoguang's succession, so she was revered by Daoguang and regarded as a birth mother. Empress Gongci was a more scheming woman, but also a very powerful woman, but Empress Xiaoquan was also such a woman, and if the two of them had friction in the harem.
There is no relevant description of the relationship between Empress Gongci and Empress Xiaoquan in the official historical records, but some wild histories have made a big deal of it, claiming that Xiaoquan had poisoned other princes in order to seize the throne for his son Yixuan, and this matter was known to Empress Gongci, and the empress dowager immediately sent someone to give the empress to death.
Careful analysis of historical data shows that the fabrication of this matter is relatively large, but it can reflect the discord between Empress Gongci and Xiaoquan to a certain extent. In the first month of the twentieth year of Daoguang, Empress Xiaoquan collapsed in the Yuanmingyuan at the age of 33, although she died at a young age, xiaoquan was after all loved by the emperor incomparable, and her son Yixuan finally inherited the throne of the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor in Chinese history with real power: the Xianfeng Emperor.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of Emperor Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty, Grand View of the History of the Qing Dynasty