As long as eunuchs are mentioned, it is inevitable to think of palace maids, a special group of these two feudal dynasties, who are an indispensable part of the Forbidden City.
As people who served the royal nobility, they could not control their own destiny, and in the course of history, there have been many "famous" eunuchs, who have won the trust of those in power, and even have the power to influence the court.
But it seems that few have heard of famous palace maids, in fact, in the Qing Dynasty, there was such a woman, she was not from a prominent royal family, she was a lowly maid, but she could enjoy a concubine in the court of the Qing Dynasty.
She is the legendary palace maid Su Malagu who has gone through four dynasties, so why does Kangxi attach so much importance to her, and what role is Su Malagu in the Qing Dynasty?
When Su Malagu was born, the Qing Dynasty had not yet entered the Central Plains, and the tribes were still living in the prairie, and Su Malagu was no exception, she was born in a herdsman's family in Horqin, and her family was very poor.
At that time, Su Malagu was also called Su Mo'er, which is a transliteration of Mongolian, which means "pocket made of wool on the grassland" in Chinese.
Later, Su Mo'er changed her name to Su Mala, and later became more senior among the court maids in the Qing Dynasty, so everyone called her Aunt Su Mala.
Born in a poor family, she can only rely on herself, so Su Malagu has been taking care of housework since she was a child, which has made her develop a good physique, and she is very clever in doing things, and knows how to be flexible.
After that, Su Malagu met the woman who changed her life, Bumu Butai, who later became Empress Xiaozhuang Wen.
Bumu Butai is the second daughter of Korqin Belle Zhaisang, and when she was about five or six years old, the family was ready to choose a maid for her, and Aunt Su Mala was lucky to be chosen.
The reason why Su Malagu is lucky is because Bumu Butai is a very good host, she is about the same age as Su Malagu, so she does not regard Su Malagu as a subordinate, but treats Su Malagu as a best friend, and the two also learn Manchu together.
The master and servant grew up slowly in a harmonious atmosphere, and in the post-Jin period, in order to win over the Mongols, Nurhachi let many descendants of the family marry the Mongols.
The Borzigit clan, where Bumu Butai is located, has a pivotal position in the Mongolian ethnic group, and has naturally become a key marriage object.
Ten years after the Jin Heavenly Mandate, Bumu Butai, accompanied by his brother, came to Shengjing and married the eighth prince of Nurhachi, Emperor Taiji.
As Bumu Butai's personal maid, Su Malagu naturally married to Shengjing, where Su Malagu studied Xi Manchu more carefully and actively integrated into the life of the Manchu people.
It is worth mentioning that although God did not give Su Mala a good background, it gave her a smart mind, not only steady, but also very talented in learning Xi.
Although she is a maid, Su Malagu writes Manchu very beautifully, and she is also a good maid, such a maid is very rare in any era.
And Bumu Butai saw that Su Malagu was so powerful, so he naturally entrusted her with important tasks, and she would hand over many important tasks to Su Malagu to do, which made Su Malagu grow rapidly.
It didn't take long for Su Malagu to master the Manchu, Chinese, and Mongolian scripts and languages, laying a solid foundation for teaching Kangxi in the future.
After Huang Taiji called the emperor, changed the name of the country to "Daqing", Bumu Butai was named Concubine Zhuang, and also gave birth to the prince Fulin, after which Huang Taiji went east and west, vowed to enter the Guannei, and took charge of the Central Plains.
During this period, the Qing Dynasty had just been established, and Huang Taiji asked people to design the founding costumes, and Concubine Zhuang recommended Su Malagu to try it.
The founding costume she designed integrated the elements of Manchu, Mongolian and Han costumes, and was exquisite without losing its connotation, so it was adopted and used until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
In the eighth year of Chongde, the young and powerful Huang Taiji died suddenly, and the Qing Dynasty fell into a power struggle, and the eldest son Haoge and Prince Rui Dolgon began to seize the throne.
Under the planning of Concubine Zhuang, Su Malagu found Dolgon and asked him to assist the ninth son of the emperor "Fulin" to ascend the throne, which was for Emperor Shunzhi, seeing that Fulin was still young, Dolgon agreed under the temptation of the regent.
In 1644, the Qing army entered the customs, and Fulin also became the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty after the capital of Beijing, and Concubine Zhuang also became the empress dowager of Xiaozhuang, but due to the young age of Shunzhi, the power was almost in the hands of Dolgon.
In order to let Fulin take power, Xiaozhuang taught him, but Dolgon could not interfere in politics in the harem, restricting the meeting between Xiaozhuang and Fulin, there was no way, Xiaozhuang could only let Su Malagu be the messenger, which shows how much trust he has.
In the seventh year of Shunzhi, Dolgon died unexpectedly, and Fulin finally became the upright Emperor of Shunzhi, and he began to carry out drastic reforms, and the politics of the Qing Dynasty tended to be stable.
In 1654, Emperor Shunzhi's third son Xuan Ye was born, which was later Emperor Kangxi, because his biological mother was not loved, so Emperor Shunzhi did not attach importance to Kangxi, but Xiaozhuang thought that Kangxi was a great talent, and asked Su Malagu to teach Kangxi.
In this way, Su Malagu became Kangxi's teacher, she taught Kangxi to read and write, it can be said that Kangxi's enlightenment was completed by Su Malagu, and this teacher-student relationship made Kangxi attach great importance to it.
However, what makes Kangxi the most unforgettable is that when he was a child, Aunt Su Mala never gave up taking care of him.
In the twelfth year of Shunzhi, when many people in the Qing Dynasty were infected with smallpox, in order to curb the spread of the virus, the Qing Dynasty stipulated that the prince must take refuge outside the palace.
And Kangxi is young, there must be someone to take care of him, Su Malagu took everyone, although he went out of the city, but unfortunately, Kangxi still suffered from smallpox, many people stayed away from Kangxi, and even thought that Kangxi was going to die for it.
Only Aunt Su Mala never gave up, not only was she not afraid of Kangxi, who suffered from smallpox, but took care of him more intimately, and with Aunt Su Mala's dedication, Kangxi miraculously got better.
Because of this incident, Su Malagu's status in Kangxi's heart has skyrocketed, and he once said:
"Emperor Shizuzhang was ...... when I was a child Let the nanny watch outside the Forbidden City. Parents are on their knees, and they don't have a day of joy. ”
It can be seen that without Su Malagu, Kangxi at that time may not be able to survive this hurdle, and naturally there is no way to become a treasure, which shows what kind of existence Su Malagu is for Kangxi.
After becoming the emperor, Kangxi still respected Su Malagu very much, in the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi, Xiaozhuang died, and Su Malagu was already over seventy years old at that time.
In order not to make Su Malagu sad, Kangxi handed over his twelfth son to Su Malagu to raise, which is already exceptional, in the Qing Dynasty system, only the status of concubines and above can raise the prince, which shows the respect of Su Malagu's identity.
On the seventh day of September in the 44th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the 93-year-old Su Malagu died of illness.
Then Emperor Kangxi was still not at ease, and personally inquired about Su Malagu's funeral, and asked the emperor's twelfth son Yinqi to keep a vigil for him for seven days, and finally put Su Malagu's coffin and Empress Xiaozhuang Wen together.
It is said that the emperor has been the most ruthless since ancient times, but in the face of Su Malagu, who is also a teacher and mother, Kangxi still can't let go, in order to take a look at Su Malagu's body, he ordered to leave Su Malagu's body twice in a row.
It can be seen that although Su Malagu is a palace maid, her status is not inferior to that of ordinary concubines, and she is worthy of being a legendary palace maid in the Qing Dynasty.