How cruel is Qianlong?
As a concubine who was once favored by Qianlong, The mausoleum of Concubine Chun was very luxurious, so she was frequently invaded by tomb robbers, and also attracted archaeologists.
When the expert opened her mausoleum, she was stunned, and she did not expect that there was a scandal in the Qing Palace hidden in the tomb of The Pure Concubine, thus revealing the desperate side that Qianlong wanted to hide.
So, what exactly do experts see in the tomb of the pure concubine?
Why did Qianlong want to hide it?
The fateful Qing Tombs
Among the royal tombs of the past, the Qing Tombs can be described as one of the most fateful.
It was built in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, that is, in 1661, and buried five emperors successively.
Among them, the most luxurious and unique mausoleum is the Yuling Tomb of Qianlong, and even his father and grandfather are not as good as him, which can be called the head of the Qing Emperor's mausoleum, and it took 9 years to build it alone.
The entire mausoleum building is exquisite and beautiful, the momentum is extraordinary, and every brick and tile has been carefully designed, which fully reflects the characteristics of Qianlong's good and great achievements.
After Qianlong's death, he also carried a large number of rare treasures as a funeral, so the extravagant mausoleum naturally attracted many people to rob the tomb.
Among these tomb robbers, the warlord Sun Dianying was probably the most famous and the most ruthless.
In order to steal the Qing Dongling Tomb, he first lied that he wanted to suppress the bandits, and then said that he would carry out military exercises, directly using explosives to blow up the Qing Dongling Tombs, and leading the troops to start the excavations.
Sun Dianying's main target was the tombs of Qianlong and Cixi, and it is said that he requisitioned 30 large carts at that time, each of which was packed and driven away, including Qianlong's Nine Dragon Sword and Cixi's Mouth Night Pearl.
As long as they had valuable treasures, they had no idea how precious the calligraphy and paintings that Qianlong buried with him were, and in order to make room for gold and silver jewelry, the calligraphy and paintings were discarded at will.
There are even many precious cultural relics scattered on the ground, no one pays attention, but a few low-level soldiers involved in the excavations can take the opportunity to pick up 46 valuable Dongzhu.
This incident caused an uproar across the country, Puyi took the lead in denouncing, archaeologists sighed, and Sun Dianying escaped by bribing with cultural relics.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until the 1970s that experts had the opportunity to enter it for conservation excavations.
Qianlong's Yuling tomb is the most luxurious, and his concubine garden mausoleum is also one of the higher regulations in the Qing Dynasty, but like Yuling, the tombs of these concubines have not been spared, and they have been stolen and excavated in a mess.
The experts were so sorry for this that they did not expect that they witnessed a strange scene in it, thus revealing a secret that Qianlong tried to hide.
What exactly did they see?
A strange scene in the tomb of the pure concubine
Chunfei refers to the Pure Hui Emperor's noble concubine Su Jiashi, who is an old person of Qianlong's hidden residence (dǐ), who accompanied Qianlong for a long time, although she was born in Han ethnicity and did not have a strong family background, she was still deeply favored by Qianlong.
After Qianlong ascended the throne, he promoted the women around him one by one, and Su Jia, who was born in the Han Dynasty, was first named a pure concubine, and a year later gave birth to an heir for Qianlong, and then rose to a pure concubine, and finally by virtue of her beauty and means, she became the fastest promoted and most favored imperial concubine around Qianlong.
Princess Chun was favored all her life, and after her death, Qianlong even did not hesitate to violate the rules left by her ancestors, nor did heed the opposition of the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu, insisting on building a minglou monument for her, and burying her with a funeral ceremony that exceeded the specifications of the imperial concubine.
Unexpectedly, this caused disaster after her death, and tomb robbers entered her mausoleum many times, wantonly destroyed, and stole valuable treasures.
And when the experts entered her mausoleum, they were surprised by the scene in front of them - in the tomb of the pure concubine, there were two coffins, one large and one small!
As the owner of the mausoleum, the coffin, which looked larger and of higher specifications, obviously belonged to the pure concubine, but the other slightly smaller coffin confused the experts.
Since the coffin was slightly smaller and looked like a subordinate of a pure concubine, experts first suspected that the owner of the coffin was the maid of the pure concubine.
However, in the funeral of the Qing imperial family, I never heard of any imperial concubine who could be buried with a beard. Even empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's side, Su Ma Lagu, a personal maid respected by the Kangxi Emperor, was not buried with Xiaozhuang after her death.
Therefore, the second conjecture made by the experts is that this slightly smaller coffin may belong to a concubine who was good friends with a pure concubine before his death, and Qianlong made this arrangement because he wanted the two of them to be companions.
However, after investigation, the experts did not find the corresponding sacred tablet for the concubine to be sacrificed. She seemed to be a transparent person, and suddenly appeared as a subordinate in the tomb of the pure concubine.
In order to find her identity, experts went through the relevant history books of the Qing court and finally found her identity from the detailed records.
It turned out that she was the second empress of the Qianlong Emperor, the Uranara clan. Speaking of this empress, the first thing that everyone thinks of is probably the empress dowager in "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", who is fierce and fierce, but always has the support of the empress.
Although there are traces of fabrication in the TV series, the Uranara clan in the real world does have a good relationship with the empress.
She was a nobleman from the Eight Banners of Manchuria, who was married by Yongzheng to Qianlong, who was still a prince, and was later made a noble concubine at the same time as Su Jia.
After the death of the first empress of Qianlong, under the auspices of the empress, the Uranara clan, as a concubine of good birth and high rank, was promoted to empress, which is commonly known in history as Qianlong's successor.
The Uranara clan held the position of empress, gave birth to 3 children to Qianlong, and accompanied Qianlong on a southern tour, she may not be Qianlong's favorite woman, but she did gain Qianlong's respect and recognition.
Then, why would such an empress, who was born well, of high status, and had the support of a concubine under her knees, be buried like a subordinate next to a concubine like a concubine, and did not have a sacred card for sacrifice?
This has to mention a secret Qing palace scandal.
The imperial heart is unpredictable
Qianlong once respected this successor very much, gave her supreme glory, and took her to the south of the Jiangnan tour together. And it was during this southern tour that the Uranara clan did something that Qianlong could not tolerate.
Photo: Qianlong lower Jiangnan
According to historical records, in the thirtieth year of Qianlong, Qianlong's fourth southern tour to Hangzhou suddenly ordered Fu Kang'an to quietly escort the empress back to Beijing in advance, claiming that the empress was suddenly mad, but as soon as she returned to the palace, she was claustrophobic.
The palace ladies and eunuchs in the Queen's Palace were also dismissed, and only two palace ladies were left at the mercy of the Uranara clan.
This seems very strange, if the queen is really sick, why not send more people to take care of her, but instead drive away all the people around her?
Because the empress was "abolished without abolishing" and did not issue a notice to explain, at that time, the Manchu Dynasty was full of discussions, and some courtiers continued to speak for the empress, and Qianlong had no choice but to issue an edict explaining that the empress cut her own hair in front of the emperor on the way to the south, saying that she was going to become a monk.
In Manchurian custom, women cut their hair only when there is a great funeral at home. This move of the Uranara clan was undoubtedly cursing the emperor and the empress dowager, and was a rebellious act that violated the national taboo, so Qianlong would send her back to Beijing in anger and take away her as an empress.
However, Qianlong's previously secretive attitude made this explanation full of doubts. There is also a shadowy speculation in the anecdotes and wild history, saying that Qianlong met many folk women on his southern tour, some of whom were not innocent, but Qianlong insisted on bringing his concubines back to the capital.
Empress Nala strongly advised qianlong, and had a dispute with Qianlong, cutting her hair in one breath.
In order to punish her, Qianlong not only "abolished her without abolishing", but also sent her family back to the original banner, descended hereditary lineage, and her eldest son, the twelve brothers, were also angered, and did not receive any titles until their deaths, living in fear all day long.
And that wasn't all, a year after the haircut, Queen Nala died bleakly. After her death, it is said that she was buried as an imperial concubine, and the silver used before and after the funeral was not as much as the paper money burned for the previous empress, and there was no title, no sacred plaque, and no sacrifice.
Qianlong was still participating in the hunt at that time, and when he heard of her death, he was very cold, and even did not attend her funeral, leaving all the funeral rites to the officials.
After this, many experts and scholars wanted to know where Empress Nala was buried, but they had no clue, until the tomb of Concubine Chun was opened, and the experts knew that Qianlong did not even prepare for her in the underground palace.
Empress Nala, an empress of the Great Qing Dynasty, was finally buried in the underground palace of the pure Hui Emperor's concubines, and even ordinary concubines were not as good. Throughout feudal society, such things are rare.
Empress Uranara's life is actually more like a tool for the empress dowager, married at the age of 14 to the age of 49, accompanied by Qianlong for more than 30 years, and gave him children, but still could not win the last decent.
Qianlong's desperation did not stop there, he had ordered someone to paint a portrait of himself and his concubine, and there was a portrait of her in the tomb of The Pure Concubine.
But experts searched the entire Qing Tombs and never found a positive portrait of Empress Nala, and even the portrait of the concubines was erased.
Just as the so-called companion is like accompanying the tiger, The life of Empress Nala is extremely miserable, which shows how cruel Qianlong is.