Tan Yuling (1920-1942), born in a Manchu aristocratic family, was originally known as Tatara, after the Xinhai Revolution, in accordance with the rule of "transliteration", the surname was changed to Tan. At the beginning of 1937, when she was only 17 years old, she was studying in a middle school in Beijing, and she became attached to Pu Yi. According to the "ancestral system" of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's wives and concubines were carefully divided into eight ranks: empress, imperial concubine, concubine, concubine, concubine, nobleman, Chang Zai, and promise. Tan Yuling was "canonized" as an "auspicious nobleman" and became Pu Yi's sixth-class wife. According to recollections, Tan Yuling has a gentle personality, a kind heart, is humble and courteous to others, and is also kind and pleasant to her subordinates. Since she entered the palace, she has a deep relationship with Pu Yi, is virtuous and virtuous, and treats people and things decently, and is deeply favored by Pu Yi. From entering the palace in 1937 to Tan Yuling's death in 1942, the two have always been deeply in love.
However, Lucy Tam died suddenly in 1942 at the age of 22. There are different theories about the cause of her death. The old man Yu Liang once gave a detailed account of this. First of all, there is an opinion that it was murder. When Pu Yi himself testified before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946, he mentioned that "the Japanese killed Tan Yuling". Those who hold this view are mainly based on two pieces of evidence: first, Tan Yuling died after being treated by a Japanese doctor; second, after Tan Yuling's death, Yoshioka Yasunao, a staff officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army Lieutenant General who manipulated Pu Yi, quickly "introduced" a Japanese woman to Pu Yi as a continuation. While these reasonings may seem plausible, hard evidence is hard to find.
Another theory is that Pu Yi's attendant doctor "misdiagnosed". In a study in Japan, Lucy Tan's condition was described as tuberculosis and meningitis rather than "typhoid fever". There is also an opinion that it was uremia, and the Japanese doctor had planned to catheter Tan Yuling, but Pu Yi refused, which eventually led to her death.
The name "typhoid fever" was diagnosed by the court physicians at the time, all of whom were Chinese medicine and none of them were Western medicine. According to the memories of the old man Yu Liang and others, Pu Yi became extremely cautious because he was worried that the Japanese would harm him, so he was reluctant to ask a Western doctor from outside to treat Tan Yuling. In addition, Pu Yi boasted that he had read some medical books and was quite confident in his level of traditional Chinese medicine. After Tan Yuling fell ill, although she was diagnosed and treated by Tong Chenghai and other attendants, her condition recurred, and she finally passed away under the diagnosis and treatment of Japanese doctors. After Tan Yuling died, Pu Yi held a grand funeral for her, buried her in the Hanruo Temple in Changchun City, and posthumously named her "Mingxian Guifei", and personally wrote the edict of "Feng Tan Yuling as Mingxian Guifei". Zaitao came from Beijing to preside over the funeral, and Pu Yi ordered his family and relatives to guard filial piety in front of the spirit.