In fact, in the long course of history, the deep affection between Princess Jianning and Wu Yingxiong is moving, however, their ending is extremely bleak.
In Jin Yong's "The Legend of Deer and Ding", in order to appease Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, Kangxi married Princess Jianning, his sister, to Wu Yingxiong, the son of Wu Sangui. But the plot in the book is not so simple, there is an unknown emotional entanglement between Princess Jianning and Wei Xiaobao. Wei Xiaobao not only managed to make Wu Yingxiong a eunuch, but also imprisoned him in the capital as a proton. When Wu Sangui rebelled, Wu Yingxiong tried to escape, but Wei Xiaobao secretly poisoned his horses, making it impossible for them to escape. However, Kangxi did not order his execution. And Princess Jianning chose to follow Wei Xiaobao, and the two even conceived a daughter together, named Wei Bench.
But when we look back at the real history, we will find that the description of Wu Yingxiong and Princess Jianning in "The Legend of Deer and Ding" is half-true and half-false. In fact, they did get married, but there was no intervention from Wei Xiaobao, and the two had a deep relationship. However, their end was so tragic.
Before the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Dolgon had promised to marry Huang Taiji's youngest daughter, Princess Shuo Jianning, to Wu Sangui's only son, Wu Yingxiong. Therefore, unlike the description in "The Legend of Deer and Ding", Princess Jianning is actually Kangxi's aunt. In 1853, after the death of Dolgon, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang personally presided over the wedding, and Wu Yingxiong married the princess of Jianning in the capital, and was canonized as a concubine, and also won the honor of the young protector and the crown prince. However, after the marriage, according to the previous agreement, Wu Yingxiong stayed in the capital as a proton, while Wu Sangui led his troops south to conquer Yungui.
In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi (1659), Wu Sangui successfully conquered Yunnan, and successively killed King Gui of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Emperor Yongli and others, and was awarded the title of first-class prince for his merits, and was allowed to Yongzhen Yunnan. Therefore, Wu Yingxiong stayed in the capital as a proton even more determined, and Princess Jianning gave birth to Wu Shifan, Wu Shilin and other children for him during this period.
Before Wu Sangui rebelled against the Qing Dynasty, he had sent people to the capital secretly to try to pick up Wu Yingxiong. However, in order to stabilize Kangxi, Wu Yingxiong decided to stay in the capital, only sent his eldest son Wu Shifan out, and informed the messenger of the news that Kangxi was about to cut the domain.
In the spring of 1673 (the twelfth year of Kangxi), Wu Sangui openly opposed the Qing Dynasty and proclaimed himself King of Zhou. As soon as the news reached the capital, Kangxi ordered the arrest of Wu Yingxiong, who was executed a year later along with his second son, Wu Shilin.
After Wu Yingxiong's death, Princess Jianning and her young son were exempted from death but confined because they were members of the clan. In December of 1681 (the twentieth year of Kangxi), the city of Kunming fell, and the Wu family was executed, and the rebellion of the three feudatories was finally pacified after eight years. Later, Kangxi also severely punished Wu Yingxiong's other children, Wu Sangui's two young grandsons were hanged, and the other grandsons were beheaded for public display.
Since then, Princess Jianning has lived alone in the world, and after twenty-three years of suffering, she finally died in December 1704 (the forty-third year of Kangxi) at the age of sixty-three. Her life was full of pain and loneliness, and it became a poignant landscape in history.