In June 1748, the governor of Huguang, Sai Shu'e, was ordered by Qianlong to commit suicide because of his shaving of his hair.
It was not only The one who was punished for shaving his hair, but also Jin Wen'e, the governor of Jinzhou, Zhou Xuejian, the governor of Jiangnan Province, Yang Xifu, the governor of Hunan, and Peng Shukui, the governor of Hubei.
What was the reason why Qianlong was furious because of such a small matter as the minister's shaving of his hair?
1. The Death of the Empress
The reason for this is nothing more than that these officials violated an old Manchu custom: "In the funeral of the empress, officials are not allowed to shave their hair for a hundred days." ”
Three months before that, on March 11, 1748, Qianlong's empress Fuchashi died of illness, and June was less than a hundred days before the empress's death, according to Manchu customs, the emperor and empress died, and the minister of culture and military affairs was not allowed to shave his hair for a hundred days, to show that he was very sad, did not pay attention to appearance, and so on.
The queen's film and television image, network diagram
Although there is such a custom, there is no official written record in the "Huidian" that records the precedent of funeral rites in the Qing Dynasty, even when Yongzheng died, the officials did not strictly abide by the "no shaving within 100 days", many officials shaved their hair themselves, and the imperial court did not pursue and punish.
During the empress's mourning period this time, although the officials accompanied Qianlong to great sorrow, they shaved their hair normally when it was time to shave, who knew that this move annoyed Qianlong, who was in extreme grief, and he not only scolded these shaved officials for "losing their hearts and rebelling", but also gave them a very severe punishment:
The governor of Huguang, as a Manchu but did not know how to lead by example, ordered him to commit suicide;
Zhou Xuejian, the governor of Jiangnan Province, dismissed officials, raided his home, and sent him to the frontier to work as a coolie;
Inspector Yang Xifu of Hunan, Inspector Peng Shukui of Hubei, and Governor Jin Wenol of Jinzhou were dismissed from their posts because they were Han Chinese, and qianlong was not too seriously held accountable.
Although several Han courtiers were given lighter punishments, they lost their officials just because of shaving their hair, and Qianlong was really a bit of a fuss.
In the end, the root cause is because Qianlong deeply loved empress Fucha, and once Fucha died, Qianlong was in chaos.
What kind of woman is Fucha?
Second, Qianlong's beloved
Fu Cha was a concubine chosen by Yongzheng himself for Qianlong, and she came from a family of high-ranking officials for generations: her great-grandfather was the minister of the interior and the crown prince Taibao during the Shunzhi period; her grandfather was the minister of parliament and the Hubu Shangshu during the Kangxi period; her father Li Rongbao was the governor of Chahar; and her uncle Ma Qi served as the governor of Shanxi, the Shangshu of bingbu, the shangshu of Hubu, and the university scholar.
Born in such a family, Fu cha received a very good education from an early age, she was intelligent and studious, very perceptive, she could write well at the age of 9, she had a good understanding of Kangxi's poetry, Yongzheng accidentally saw it with his own eyes and left a deep impression on this little girl, and even used her as an example to inspire his sons.
Good cultural accomplishment, coupled with the natural dignified and quiet, Fu Cha clan can be called a standard famous lady, when she was 16 years old, she participated in the palace draft, was seen by Yongzheng, and designated her as the crown prince Hongli's concubine Fujin.
Inui Takashi Images
In July 1727, the 17-year-old Hirohito and the 16-year-old Fucha clan were married.
Although before this, Hongli already had more than ten Fu Jin, Side Fujin and Gege, but after getting married, he has always liked Fu ChaShi the most, not only admiring her beautiful appearance, liking her intelligence and thoughtfulness, but also regarding her as his confidant.
Hongli has always liked to dance and ink the most, and he has written poems many times to praise Fuchashi, praising her for her "posture and beauty", "exquisite and elegant"; his feelings for her are "a day is like March", "affectionately winning the dream of the soul". ”
In August 1735, Yongzheng collapsed, and Hongli ascended the throne, for Qianlong, and the Fucha clan was naturally crowned empress.
Third, the empress dowager is concentric
Qianlong once praised the Fucha clan: "After looking at the sages of the ancients, Gaishi has no way to gaz. "Think she's the best of the best of the ages."
In fact, Fucha did a good job, although she was born into a famous family, but she was frugal by nature, and usually did not have any luxury items in clothing, only decorated with simple grass velvet flowers on her clothes.
Fu Chashi himself was simple, but he was very attentive to Qianlong's preferences.
Qianlong once told the Fucha clan about the Customs of Guanwai that he had heard: at the beginning of the founding of the imperial industry, their ancestors were very simple in clothing, just using deer tail velvet to be sewn into threads and sewn on the cuffs for simple decoration.
Qianlong's film and television image, network diagram
Fu Chashi heard his thoughts from Qianlong's words, so he personally made a flint sac sewn with deer tail velvet thread for him.
After Qianlong received this small gift, he was very happy and always took it with him.
The harmony of husband and wife's feelings can be seen.
Fourth, fortunately, it is not fortunate
In 1728, the Fucha clan gave birth to an eldest daughter, but unfortunately there was no time to name and give the child a name and title, and the child died when he was just one year old;
In 1730, the Fucha clan gave birth to the eldest son, Yonglian.
At that time, Yongzheng was still on the throne, and he saw that his favorite successor, Hongli, had a concubine, and he liked it very much, and personally gave the child the name "Yonglian", implying the meaning of inheriting the ancestral instrument.
Qianlong also liked Yonglian very much, and in 1736 (the first year of Qianlong), when Yonglian was just 6 years old, Qianlong secretly designated him as the crown prince, praising him as "the concubine of Yuanzhi, intelligent and valuable, and extraordinary." ”
Unfortunately, this child only lived to the age of 9 and died because of occasional wind chills.
In 1731, the third child of the Qianlong and Fucha clans was born, which was the later Princess Gulun and Jing, which was the only child of the Qianlong and Fucha clans to grow up.
Statue of Princess Gu lun and Jing, network diagram
In 1746, the Fucha clan gave birth to a second son, Yong chun.
When Yong Chun was not yet born, Qianlong showed his preference and attention to him, and in order to avoid the suffering of Empress Fucha and her unborn children, during the Lantern Festival that year, Qianlong even canceled his plan to go to the Yuanmingyuan for the festival.
Yong Chun's date of birth was the eighth day of the first month of April, which happened to be the birthday of the Buddha, and that day coincided with the long drought in the capital after the fall of Ganlin, Qianlong, who had always believed in Buddhism, was very happy and wrote a poem to celebrate the birth of his beloved son.
At this time, Qianlong already had several sons, but his favorite was Still Yong Chun, thinking that he was the smartest and cutest, "from Zheng Yuan, intelligent and extraordinary", he originally wanted to make Yong Chun the crown prince, but he did not expect that not long after his first birthday, Yong Chun died of illness because of smallpox.
5. Death above the canal
The death of three children in succession made Empress Fucha very sad, and after Yong zhen's death, she became depressed. During her illness, Empress Fucha told Qianlong that she had dreamed that Bixia Yuanjun had summoned her, so she made a wish, and when she was cured, she would personally go to Taishan to make a wish.
Although Qianlong was a Manchu, he also knew how far the influence of this immortal was in the northern region, so he promised to accompany her to Taishan Bixia Palace after Fucha's illness was cured.
In the first month of 1748 (the thirteenth year of Qianlong), Qianlong accompanied the empress dowager on an eastern tour to Qufu and Taishan in Shandong, and Empress Fucha also went.
Tarzan
The eastern tour lasted for two months, and after arriving in Jinan, Empress Fucha fell ill, but she did not want to delay the emperor's trip because of herself, and on the eighth day of March, the party embarked on a journey back to Beijing.
On March 11, about three months after Yong's death, Empress Fucha died of illness on a boat on the canal, at the age of 37.
6. Damage to pond fish
The death of Empress Fucha was so grief-stricken that he even ignored the precedent of the funeral specifications of several empresses during the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties and demanded that the officials handle the funeral procedures of Empress Fucha be raised. He not only personally dai xiao for the empress, but also ordered provincial officials to "... No one is allowed to shave one's head for one hundred days, and for twenty-seven days of filial piety, music is stopped; ordinary soldiers and civilians are stripped of their crowns for seven days, during which time they do not marry or have fun. ”
This kind of funeral specification is unprecedented in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
While serving his own mourning and ordering officials to mourn, Qianlong's unusually sensitive gaze because of his grief fell on the relatives and officials of the imperial family from time to time, and many imperial relatives and officials were punished for this:
Qianlong's eldest son and the third son of the emperor were all shu out, and when Qianlong excitedly designated his concubine as the crown prince, these concubines were of course not among his considerations, so the eldest son and the third son of the emperor were very dissatisfied. After Empress Fucha's death, during the mourning period, the sad expressions of these two princes who were not related to the empress by blood and had no feelings showed any sincerity, which made Qianlong very angry, and after severely reprimanding them, he immediately announced that these two people had never been eligible for the position of crown prince.
imperial palace
Qianlong's younger brother Hongzhi, Wuyingdian University Scholar Laibao, Shandong Inspector Erong'an, and others were also fined for three years.
When the officials of the Hanlin Academy were making the Empress's Book, they mistranslated the Manchu translation of "Imperial Concubine" to "Empress Dowager Xian"; when Qianlong saw this, he was furious and dismissed all the officials of the Punishment Department.
Although Acton was later exempted, the decisions Qianlong made when he was furious were enough to frighten the ministers.
And a few officials who shaved their hair against custom within a hundred days let Qianlong find a vent for his anger that had nowhere to vent, so these officials killed, exiled, and dismissed officials, and the punishment was too harsh.
Empress Fucha's departure seemed to have taken away Qianlong's good temper, and it turned out that the polite monarch in the eyes of the ministers had become like a dangerous object that was about to burn, and people had to stay away.
People saw that Qianlong's violent jump was only temporary, and what they could not imagine was that the long nostalgia and sorrow in Qianlong's heart had only just begun.
In the endless years that followed, on the first Qingming Festival after Empress Fucha's death, in the Changchun Palace where she once lived, and in the summer resort where she once left footprints, Qianlong would deeply cherish her and write a poem of gratitude for her.