The first two emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Taiji and Shunzhi, were both amorous seeds, emperor Taiji loved Hailanzhu, and Shunzhi indulged in Dong Efei, leaving behind a good story for thousands of years. However, starting with the Kangxi Emperor, the Qing emperors who were indoctrinated by Confucianism seemed to hide their feelings, and although there were also favored women, they were relatively much more low-key. Until the Daoguang Emperor, the situation changed again.
Daoguang favored Empress Xiaoquan of the Niuhulu clan, and after entering the palace, he received extraordinary treatment. Before she was promoted to the rank of full concubine, she was one of the fastest concubines in the entire Qing Dynasty, and after she naturally became an empress, she was the most favored empress in the entire Qing Dynasty, and there was no one. Although Daoguang was miserly, he gave unreserved love to Empress Xiaoquan.
However, a few joys and a few sorrows, for the empress of filial piety, also means ruthlessness for other women. Coupled with the selfishness and pettiness of the Daoguang Emperor himself, this ruthlessness has become desperate. We can see this from his concubine, the Concubine Niu Hulu.
Xiangfei was also of the Niuhulu clan, and was still a famous Manchu magnate Hongyi public family. This family flourished and flourished in Daoguang, and was a top aristocrat. Moreover, Princess Xiang was drafted into the palace in the first year of Daoguang. This is the first time that Daoguang has personally selected harem women for himself after succeeding to the throne, and it is reasonable to say that these show girls are all pleasing to the eye of Daoguang himself.
Therefore, after entering the palace, Niu Hulu was immediately crowned as a Xiang nobleman, and successfully became a Xiang concubine two years later. Subsequently, Concubine Xiang gave birth to a princess in the fifth year of Daoguang. Although the little princess died at only half a year old, her significance was extraordinary.
Because before that, although The Taoist Temple also had two children, it had been twelve years since the last child. The birth of a daughter by a concubine fully demonstrates that the 43-year-old emperor still has fertility and can also let the imperial family branch out, which is of course exciting. Therefore, Xiang Concubine was also named Xiang Concubine, and her status was further improved. Moreover, since then, there have been successive births in the palace, and many people believe that Princess Xiang brought good luck.
What is more powerful is that Princess Xiang gave birth to Princess Shouzang and Shuo in the ninth year of Daoguang, and gave birth to the fifth son of the Emperor Yixuan in the eleventh year of Daoguang, and these two children grew up smoothly. That is to say, Concubine Xiang was one of the few concubines in the Daoguang Harem who had both children and daughters. This is her luck, but this luck has made her life not continue to be brilliant, but suddenly went downhill.
In the seventeenth year of Daoguang, a ruthless edict reduced Xiangfei to a nobleman. Moreover, the edict does not state any substantive reasons other than clichés. Such a concubine, who had been favored and made great contributions to the royal family, actually returned to the starting point sixteen years after entering the palace. However, the xianggui people sixteen years ago were young and beautiful and full of hope, and the xianggui people sixteen years later were only women over forty years old.
In fact, in the Daoguang Dynasty, there were not many concubines who were demoted for no reason, and most of them were only demoted by one level. The reason for this is that the Daoguang, who is considered to be frugal, reduces the expenses in the palace in this way. However, the demotion of Concubine Xiang was widely regarded by scholars as the ghost of Empress Xiaoquan.
Empress Xiaoquan and Concubine Xiang entered the palace in the same year, and there was a competitive relationship in itself. Of course, although Princess Xiang was favored, she was not the same as Empress Xiaoquan. But at that time, who among the concubines could guarantee that the emperor would love him so much for the rest of his life? Crowding out competitors so that they can't turn over is the best means.
Moreover, although Princess Xiang was not as favored as Empress Xiaoquan, she had an advantage that the empress could not match. They were all of the Niuhulu clan, but Princess Xiang was from the tenth room of the Hongyi family, although it could not be compared with the sixteenth room internally, but it was also knighted, which was comparable to that of the general nobility. Empress Xiaoquan's origin was much more shabby, she belonged to the distant branch of the Niuhulu clan, and rending was not prosperous.
More importantly, Princess Xiang and Daoguang's adoptive mother, Empress Xiao and Empress Rui at the time, were of the same clan and had a closer relationship. The old empress's two sons and a daughter both died at this time, and there were no descendants. Daoguang then passed on the fifth son of the Emperor, YiYi, who was born to Concubine Xiang, to the empress dowager's son Miankai as his son, so that his incense would continue to burn, in order to comfort the empress's heart.
In this way, Concubine Xiang and the Empress Dowager were even more people on the same boat. The empress dowager originally liked to point fingers at the affairs of the Six Palaces, and Daoguang was filial and obedient, which also made Empress Xiaoquan the least powerful empress in the history of the Qing Dynasty. In order to consolidate her own position, and in order to prevent Xiangfei and others from having different intentions, Empress Xiaoquan constantly blew pillow wind to Daoguang, so that Xiangfei could be demoted and could not compete with herself.
Until the empress's death in the twentieth year of Daoguang, the Xianggui niuhulu clan was not able to regain favor. It was only in the later Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods, after two honorific titles, that she became the Imperial Ancestor Xiang Concubine again.