During the Qing Dynasty, one of the most famous women in the imperial palace was Empress Xiaozhuang, Empress Dowager Dayu'er, who was not only beautiful when she was young, but also a natural politician. According to historical records, in the early years, Empress Xiaozhuang assisted her husband Emperor Taiji in consolidating power, and after her husband's death, in the complicated situation of court struggle, she relied on her own ability to send her young son Fu Lin to the throne of God, and in her old age, she assisted her grandson Young Kangxi to eradicate adultery and take power.

This empress dowager, who combined beauty and wisdom, almost lost her later scenery, and may not have the name of Xiaozhuang. Because in the early years in the Qing Palace, there was a woman known as the "First Beauty of the Qing Palace", her weight and status were heavier than the Empress Xiaozhuang at that time, if it were not for accidents, Xiaozhuang would not have such a great reputation. And this "first beauty of the Qing Palace" is a woman who has experienced quite mysterious, about this person, we have to start from a special wedding.
On October 19, 1634, Shengjing, which is today's Shenyang, was crowded and bustling, and the concubines and ministers of the Later Jin Kingdom lined up early, under the leadership of the Emperor Taiji of the Later Jin Kingdom, they were waiting for the arrival of a person, to be precise, the arrival of a special bride.

And this bride is special in two points, first, in 1634, the year, the Emperor Taiji was already 43 years old, and in one year, he married three concubines in succession, and this bride was the third; Second, the first two times to greet relatives, Huang Taiji stayed in the palace, waiting for the concubines to enter the palace, but this time, Huang Taiji personally went out of the city to greet. Because the bride is this worldly beauty who has been haunted since he first met him--Hai Lan Zhu.
Hai Lanzhu, surname Borjigit, is the daughter of the Mongolian Horqin tribe Zhai Sambel. In Mongolia Korqin there are two things very famous, one is the status of the tribe is very noble, known as the "Golden Family", the other is rich in beautiful women, this "first beauty of the Qing Palace" Hai Lanzhu is the representative.

Huang Taiji's marriage to Hai lan zhu was not the first Horqin beauty he married, before marrying Hai Lan Zhu, he had already married two Horqin women, and these two had a very close relationship with Hai Lan Zhu. The first Horqin woman that Emperor Taiji married was Daifuku Jinzhe, who was Hai lanzhu's aunt, and the other was Hai Lanzhu's sister Bumubutai, who later became empress dowager Xiaozhuang. At that time, it was very common for aunts and nephews to serve a husband, so why did such a chaotic and complicated relationship appear in the Houjin Palace at that time, which had to say the background at that time.
As mentioned earlier, among the Mongol tribes, the Horqin tribe is called the "Golden Family", because after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian tribes gradually declined, but they always wanted to create glory again, and then they encountered an opportunity. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, when Nurhaci led the Jurchens, that is, the Manchus, to begin their rise in changbai mountains, the Horqin tribe saw hope, so they thought of an ancient means - marriage. The Korqin tribe hoped to tie their fate to the Jurchens through marriage.

Nurhaci was also very happy about the olive branch handed over by Horqin. Because the Jurchens had just risen at that time, they also needed the support of other tribes, so the two sides hit the marriage at once, and since then, the two sides have begun frequent marriages. Since Emperor Taiji had already married Daifuku Jin Zhezhe, why did he marry Zhe Zhe's two nieces after that? And for this, Huang Taiji himself did not think of it.
Initially, Emperor Taiji married Daifuku Jin Zhezhe only out of the need for marriage and out of a political consideration. Starting with Nurhaci, when he wanted to seize the world and fight against the Ming Dynasty, Nurhaci needed another political force that he could rely on. And Zhe Zhe was born in a very noble Mongolian family and was a member of the so-called "Golden Family", so marrying Zhe Zhe was equivalent to getting the support of Mongolia and getting a very important auxiliary force.

But after the two got married, things changed. Huang Taiji found that Zhe Zhe was not only beautiful, but also soft and gentle, virtuous and generous, and especially good at running the family, not only Huang Taiji himself liked her very much, but even Nurhaci thought that Zhe Zhe was the most outstanding of his many daughters-in-law. Later, as Hou Jin paid more and more attention to the marriage relationship with Horqin, Zhezhe's status also rose with it.
In the first year of Tiancong, that is, in 1627, after Emperor Taiji succeeded to the Khan's throne, he officially titled Zhezhe as "Great Fu Jin". Since then, Zhezhe has been in charge of all the affairs of the harem. It is said that at that time, Emperor Taiji was very fond of Zhezhe. Both respected and loved, and everything took Zhe Zhe with him, even when he went out hunting.

From this point of view, at that time, Huang Taiji really did not think of marrying Bumubutai, and later Huang Taiji married Bumubutai, which can be said to be a trend. Because Huang Taiji and Zhe Zhe have been married for eleven years, the two have always been affectionate and respectful, but as time went on, a problem between them began to slowly become prominent. The problem is that after Zhe Zhe married Emperor Taiji, he only had three daughters and did not have a son, which was a big deal at that time.
After the succession, Zhezhe's position is likely to eventually be replaced by others. Although the reason for this situation is mainly men, zhezhe's position may not be guaranteed, and once zhezhe's position is replaced, the alliance between Horqin and Jurchen will be in crisis, and the possibility of the re-emergence of the Horqin tribe will disappear.

For this situation, Zhe Zhe was a little anxious, and even more anxious than Zhe Zhe was zhai sang belle of Horqin, that is, at this time, in order to consolidate the alliance, Zhai Sang belle pushed his granddaughter Bumubutai into the arms of the emperor Taiji. At that time, Bumubutai was only fifteen years old, very young, and Huang Taiji was already very old, and he still had a kind of love for young girls in his heart. Huang Taiji did not have much of an opinion on the old father-in-law's arrangement, and he felt that as long as the other party was beautiful, he could have more children for him.
Later, Huang Taiji also really liked Bumubutai, first, because Bumubutai was young, and her naïve personality made Huang Taiji find the feeling of the second spring; Another reason is that Huang Taiji slowly discovered that Bumubutai's style of handling things was very similar to that of her aunt Zhezhe, who killed decisively and did not get alarmed, which was exactly what he liked. At this point, the Borzigit family has married the two Gege to Huang Taiji, and Hai Lanzhu's marriage to Huang Taiji is an accident.

In that year, as the two geges of both sizes married into the Houjin Palace, the relationship between the Horqin tribe and the Houjin became closer. In order to further consolidate this relationship, the Korqin tribe decided to marry more Gege into Houjin. In the eighth year of Tiancong, a special team entered Shengjing City.
The team was led by Zhai Sangbele's wife, Zhezhe's mother, with female relatives accounting for the majority, which was similar to today's blind date group. At this "blind date", as soon as a person appeared, she immediately attracted the attention of Emperor Taiji, and she was Bumubutai's sister, Hai Lanzhu.

It is said that this Hai Lan Zhu at that time let all the people on the scene can not help but sigh, amazing, exquisite features, slim figure, temperament is also very unique, qingxiu is feminine, feminine without losing dignity, not only has the charm of a mature woman, but also shows the noble and elegant state of the nobility between the hands and feet. The Emperor Taiji, who had read countless women and was not confused, was completely conquered by this beauty at this time, and he could not wait to tell Princess Horqin that he was going to marry Hai Lanzhu.
For this kind of request of the Emperor Taiji, the Horqin tribe could not ask for it. Because until then, the two wives of Emperor Taiji, Zhezhe and Bumubutai, still had not given birth to sons, which made the Horqin people very anxious, and their idea at that time was that they must marry a woman who could give birth to a son to Emperor Taiji, so as to be able to stabilize their position in jurchens.

There is no clear historical record of Hai Lanzhu's age when she married Emperor Taiji, but some people infer from the official records of the Qing Dynasty that Hai Lan Zhu should have been twenty-six years old at that time. At that time, there were very few women who were not married at the age of twenty-six, and the average girl had to marry before she reached the age of fifteen or fifteen, and if the fifteen-year-old girl was not yet married, either the family was poor and low-status, and she could not afford to buy a dowry for the girl, or because the girl herself had physical problems. And this is obviously not the reason why Hai Lanzhu was twenty-six years old and not yet married.
Hai Lanzhu was born in the "golden family" of Mongolia, and the dowry is definitely not a reason to prevent her from getting married; And the appearance of Hailan Zhu is also one of the best in the Horqin tribe. Hai Lanzhu's marriage at the age of twenty-six has always been a big mystery for her, and what is even more strange is that all the written records of the Qing Dynasty about Some of the circumstances in Hai Lanzhu's early years are all unknown.

According to some people, Hai Lanzhu was already married before she was twenty-six years old, and her husband at that time was Lin Dan Khan, the last Great Khan of Mongolia. Lin Dan Khan was the leader of the northern Mongol regime at the end of the Ming Dynasty, known in history as the northern Yuan regime, and this person's lifelong dream was to restore Mongolian unity and rebuild the hegemony of Ghis Khan. At that time, in the Mongolian steppe, Lin Dan Khan was indeed a well-known man. According to this statement, how did Hai lanzhu marry Lin Dan Khan?
At that time, Lin Dan Khan was eager to rebuild the hegemony, but he believed that the greatest threat to him was not the Ming Dynasty, but the emerging Jurchen people, that is, the Later Jin regime, and his development strategy was to control the Mongols internally and to fight against the Jin Dynasty externally. Therefore, at that time in the northern grasslands, lin dan khan and emperor taiji had always been in a fierce fight, and the strength of the two sides was not much different at that time, which made the Horqin tribe fall into a dilemma.

In order to survive in the cracks, the Horqin people have only one way, that is, to marry and show goodwill to both sides. It was in this case that the Horqin people at that time probably had already dedicated their sister Hailan Zhu to Lin Dan Khan before they sacrificed their sister Bumubutai to the Emperor Taiji. In 1630, in the battle between Lin Dan Khan and Emperor Taiji, Lin Dan Khan was defeated and died of illness in the Qinghai steppe, and it is said that Lin Dan Khan's uncle sent Hai lan zhu back to Horqin. After that, Hai Lanzhu followed the "blind date group" to Shengjing.
According to this statement, it is in line with the historical environment in terms of time and reason, but all this is not proved by historical data. Therefore, some people have raised objections to this, according to historical records, in the Mongolian family, the woman who remarried to the twenties or even the age of thirty is not only Hai Lanzhu, so although this situation is rare, it is not unique.

After Hai LanZhu married into the palace, Huang Taiji quickly clarified her identity, and among all the concubines, Hai Lan Zhu ranked second, and her status was second only to that of Daifuku Jin Zhezhe. Not only that, after Emperor Taiji ascended the throne, there were five harem palaces built in the harem, one after the four concubines, in order of the Middle Palace, the East Palace, the Second East Palace, the West Palace, and the Second West Palace, and Hai Lanzhu also ranked in the East Palace according to her identity. And such an arrangement is only a superficial identity ranking, not the ranking of Hai Lan Zhu in the mind of Huang Taiji, and Hai Lan Zhu is the absolute first in Huang Taiji's mind.
According to historical records, when Huang Taiji was crowned empress, Huang Taiji originally considered Hai Lan Zhu, but because Dafu Jin Zhezhe was Hai Lan Zhu's aunt and had a higher generation in the Horqin tribe, Huang Taiji was worried that if He Hai Lan Zhu was crowned empress, it was likely to cause dissatisfaction from the Horqin family, which would lead to an incident. After much deliberation, Emperor Taiji still made Zhezhe empress, but Emperor Taiji then did another thing to raise the status of the Eastern Palace to show his heart for Hai Lanzhu.

At the canonization ceremony of the five concubines, the Emperor Taiji crowned Hai Lanzhu as a concubine. The title of "Chenfei" carries a very heavy weight, and the meaning of the word "宸" is the location of the North Star, and in ancient times, this word was often used as a synonym for the emperor. During the Tang Dynasty, when Wu Zetian was still Wu Zhaoyi, her husband Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong once wanted to give her the title of "Concubine Chen", but the word "Chen" was too heavy, and the ministers vigorously opposed it, and finally, Li Zhi gave up this idea.
It can be seen that the weight of Hai lan zhu in huang taiji's heart is not ordinary weight. Not only that, on the fifth day of Hai Lanzhu's entry into the palace, The Emperor Taiji rewarded her mother and brother; On the tenth day, a feast was held in the palace to celebrate the new marriage, and then the Emperor Taiji also instructed his younger brother Duo Duo to invite king Khan and Fujin into the palace, slaughter cattle and sheep, sing and dance, and hold the celebration very solemnly, which was something that had never happened before when marrying a concubine.

Then one day, Huang Taiji came to the East Palace, and as soon as he arrived at the door, he heard Hai Lanzhu reading a poem inside, "Guan Guan Ju Dove, in the River Continent, Lady Miao, Gentleman is good", at this time Huang Taiji thought, "Poetry Classic, Guan Ju" The beauty is not his beloved Hai Lan Zhu? Therefore, Emperor Taiji ordered that the Eastern Palace be renamed Guan ju Palace.

In July 1937, Hai Lanzhu gave birth to a son for Huang Taiji, and when the son was born, Huang Taiji, who was waiting restlessly in the outer hall, immediately entered the room, took Hai Lanzhu's hand, and tears fell from excitement. At the time of his son's full moon, Emperor Taiji made an exception, not only holding a large-scale celebration for the child in the Chongzheng Hall, the most solemn hall in the Qing Dynasty, but also issuing the first amnesty decree of the Qing Dynasty, which the whole country celebrated.
The son born to Hai Lanzhu was actually the eighth son of Emperor Taiji, but all this treatment had never been enjoyed by other concubines, and even Emperor Taiji had planned to make this son crown prince in the future. And the reason for all this is because of Huang Taiji's heartfelt love for Hai Lan Zhu. But why is Emperor Taiji so special to Hai Lan Zhu and treats him differently?

Historians believe that although Hai Lanzhu represented the interests of the Horqin family after her death, she never relied on favor to ask the Emperor Taiji for anything, and she did not pursue material interests; Another reason is that Hai Lanzhu knows dali, and the historical records record that although Hai Lan Zhu was favored, she was never pampered and proud, and she was even more respectful and very humble to Empress Zhezhe.

However, this stable life did not last long, in 1639, Huang Taiji led his large army to launch a new offensive against the Ningjin line of the Ming Dynasty, and in history, the subsequent Battle of Songjin was a very important battle between the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, at that time, the Emperor Taiji was on the front line, but he was concerned about the harem of Shengjing.
It turned out that after giving birth to her son, Hai Lanzhu was happy and sweet, but she never expected that after only a few months, misfortune would come. Hai Lanzhu's son died of smallpox before he reached the age of one year, which can be said to be a fatal blow to Hai Lanzhu. Since then, Hai lan zhu tea and rice do not think, sleep all night, wash his face with tears all day, and the result is depression. It is said that at that time, emperor Taiji even wanted his eldest son Fu Lin, the later Shunzhi Emperor, to accompany this son to the funeral, but under the persuasion of Zhe Zhe, he dispelled this idea.

Therefore, Huang Taiji has been worried about her. Two years later, the 130,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty were finally dragged down by the Qing army, and the final battle was about to begin. But at this time, an urgent report came from Shengjing, and Concubine Chen of Guan Ju Palace had relapsed from her old illness. It is said that at that time, the moment of the final decisive battle had reached, the situation was very serious, no matter what, the commander should sit on the front line, but unexpectedly, the emperor Taiji immediately held an emergency meeting, hurriedly explained the deployment to his subordinates, and then took his retinue and went straight to Shengjing.
At that time, Huang Taiji rushed to the road overnight, running to death five horses in a row, and Huang Taiji himself was coughing up blood all the way back. But unfortunately, Huang Taiji still could not see the last side of Hai Lan Zhu. On September 17, 1641, Concubine Hai Lanzhu died at the Guanju Palace in Shengjing. According to historical records, when Emperor Taiji arrived, he completely disregarded his identity as Emperor Jin, held Hai Lanzhu's body and cried loudly, and for several days, he did not sleep, and even passed out several times.

When Hai Lan Zhu was about to be buried, Huang Taiji personally wrote a tribute for her with tears in his eyes, and subsequently, Huang Tai Chi posthumously named Hai Lan Zhu as "Min Hui Gong and Yuan Concubine". The nickname of Hai lan zhu is not only the largest number of words among the concubines of the Qing Dynasty, but also the word "yuan" is particularly special. In the early Qing Dynasty, the "Yuan Concubine" represented the original concubine Fujin of the Great Khan, but the Emperor Taiji actually gave this word to Hai Lanzhu.
On the first day of the first lunar month in 1642, the Qing Dynasty was supposed to hold a New Year's Day ceremony, but this time the ceremony was canceled. Because Hai Lanzhu's funeral was designated as a national funeral, and since Hai Lanzhu's death, Huang Taiji was depressed, mentally weak, and often in a trance state. Finally, after barely holding on for more than a year, in September 1943, Huang Taiji also died of illness.

As for the mystery of Hai Lan Zhu's experience before marrying into the palace, many people speculate that it may be precisely because Huang Taiji loves him too deeply, and Huang Tai Chi does not want anyone to mention Hai Lan Zhu's past, so he let people erase Hai Lan Zhu's past from the record. Perhaps he thinks that in this way, he has a pure love, whether this is the truth or not, Huang Taiji's love for Hai Lanzhu is enough to make posterity sigh for it.