The story of the Qianlong Emperor going down to Jiangnan six times is still talked about by posterity, and in addition to the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan, enjoying the beautiful mountains and rivers of Jiangnan, the nominal main task is to inspect water conservancy, but so many trips to Jiangnan, Qianlong's main purpose is actually for beauty.
▲ Qianlong went down to Jiangnan six times. (Photo/Taken from the encyclopedia entry)
Although it is said that Qianlong's main task to control water in the south of the Jiangnan, but the boat and car are quite tired, Qianlong is willing to go down to the south of the Jiangnan six times, and because there are many women in Jiangnan, such as the fourth southern tour of Qianlong in thirty years, it is recorded that Qianlong went down to the south of the river for the fourth time, accompanied by the empress, but halfway to send the empress back to the palace, because the southern tour of Qianlong had to offer beauties locally, looking for joy all day long, which also made the empress very dissatisfied, and the two also had a dispute, so Qianlong was angry and asked the empress to return to the Forbidden City first.
Speaking of Qianlong going down to Jiangnan, I believe everyone will naturally think of that "Huan Zhu Gege". In this drama, Qianlong met Xia Yuhe and let him give birth to a daughter for himself, of course, "Huan Zhu Gege" is only a literary and artistic work, so, the historical Qianlong, did he really find a beautiful woman in Jiangnan?
Although there is no clear record in the history books, we can still find clues, such as the "Qing History Manuscript" records that Qianlong had two concubines, that is, Han beauties in the Jiangnan region, one was Concubine Fang and the other was a nobleman Lu.
According to historical records, Concubine Fang Chen was the daughter of Chen Yanlun, a native of Yangzhou, that is to say, the daughter of an ordinary person of the Chen family, she was named Ming Chang in the thirty-first year of Qianlong, so how did Concubine Fang enter the palace? In fact, it is very simple, in the thirty years of Qianlong, Qianlong went to Jiangnan, and Concubine Fang is likely to be the people's daughter that Qianlong brought back from Jiangnan when he went to Jiangnan this time.
Speaking of this, everyone seems to think of Xia Yingying played by Jiang Qinqin in "Huan Zhu Gege 3", it is worth mentioning that Qianlong followed the Nara clan, who fell out of favor during this southern tour, and the reason for the fall was probably because of jealousy that made Qianlong angry.
And another concubine Lu Guiren was born in Suzhou, she is a beautiful woman with the Han surname of the Lu clan, as we all know, Qianlong's Qingfei Lu (Jiaqing adoptive mother) is a beautiful woman with the Han surname in the Jiangnan region, and whether the Qingfei with the same surname Lu is related to the Lu noble, we do not know.
There are few records about Lady Lu in historical records, and it is unknown when she entered the palace, we only know that she was named Lu Chang in the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong, and it seems that Lady Lu entered the palace a few years earlier than Concubine Fang.
In addition to Concubine Fang and Lady Lu, there are many Han women in the Qianlong harem, such as the Yi Concubine Huang clan, the Yi Concubine Bai clan, and the Gong Concubine Lin clan, among which the Yi Concubine Bai clan is likely to be the beauty brought back by Qianlong when he went down to Jiangnan. It can be seen from this that Qianlong is worthy of being the emperor of the merry flow, he has gone to Jiangnan many times, presumably looking for a lot of beautiful women, after all, the history books of light are recorded, there are so many concubines, and there must be more anonymous beauties.
However, in addition to looking for beautiful women, Qianlong still has some practical actions in the south of the river, such as five of the six southern tours, five of which inspected the Yellow River water conservancy project, and the Yellow River was severely flooded, and the key places were Qingkou in Jiangsu and Gaojiayan in Hongze Lake, which Qianlong had to go to five times out of six times.
In addition, Kangxi is Qianlong's grandfather, and the Kangxi Emperor once toured Jiangnan six times, and Qianlong's personality of great joy will naturally want to compete with his grandfather, although he has not surpassed, but he has also achieved the same number of times as the Kangxi Emperor.
References: "Qing History Manuscript", "Qing Shilu Qianlong Dynasty Record, Volume 136"