In addition to Empress Xiaozheyi, the Tongzhi Emperor also had four concubines, and among these four concubines, one of them was the best in terms of appearance and stature, or temperament and talent, and she was the Jingyi Emperor's concubine. However, the life of Emperor Jingyi's concubine was very lonely.
On the first day of June in the sixth year of Xianfeng, the noble concubine of the Jingyi Emperor Hesheli was born in Beijing's Andingmen Banchang Hutong, whose father was named Chongling and had served as the prefect of Leizhou in Guangdong.
In fact, the Jingyi Emperor Guifei this branch of the Hesheli clan is not a big family, her family belongs to the Manchurian Zhenglan Banner, the real magnate of the Hesheli clan is the Sony line of the Zhenghuang Banner, and the ancestors of the Jingyi Emperor Guifei were only sent to Xi'an in the early years of the Qing Dynasty to garrison the Eight Banners, but the grandfather of the Jingyi Emperor Guifei Shuxing Akao Zhongjinshi, successively served as the general of Ili, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and other important positions, which made this Hesher li clan join the family and began to marry with the clan. For example, Emperor Jingyi had a younger sister who was married to Prince Gong Yi. His second son, Zaiying, gave birth to Puwei the Prince of Gongxian.
In the eleventh year of tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the 16-year-old Jingyi Emperor Guifei participated in the Eight Flags Draft, and in this draft, a total of five showgirls stood out, and the Jingyi Emperor Guifei was one of them. However, at that time, the succession was mainly contested between Empress Xiaozheyi and Concubine Hui, and the three concubines of Emperor Jingyi and other three people were free from the main contradiction, and eventually, Emperor Jingyi entered the harem as a concubine and became a concubine of the Tongzhi Emperor.
It is said that among the four concubines of the Tongzhi Emperor, The Noble Concubine of The Jingyi Emperor was the best looking, and she was in good shape and had a certain cultural accomplishment, so such a woman would of course attract the attention of the Emperor. Therefore, in addition to summoning Empress Xing, the Tongzhi Emperor would also favor and honor Emperor Yi's noble concubines. However, the good deeds did not last long, and it was not long before Empress Dowager Cixi intervened in the conjugal life of her son Tongzhi, and together with The Tongzhi Emperor, he abandoned all the concubines in the harem and went out of the palace to seek pleasure.
Unexpectedly, the eroded life outside the palace caused the Tongzhi Emperor to suffer from a serious illness, and he died at the age of only 19, and since then, the jingyi emperor's noble concubine has become a festival woman. After Guangxu succeeded to the throne, although Emperor Jingyi was successively given the titles of Concubine Yu and Concubine Yu, her life in the harem was not satisfactory, and there is a Qing palace poem that describes her life in the harem:
"Lazy Dream Mountain Man (Yu Concubine's nickname) Ice and Snow Posture, Jie Yu Pet Lucky Crown at that time, burning incense Li Fo duo leisure, self-painting Lin Luan embellished small poems."
From this poem, it can be seen that the life of The Noble Concubine of The Jingyi Emperor in the harem was very lonely and lonely, perhaps because she was afraid of remembering her son who died prematurely, And Empress Dowager Cixi would rather be close to Concubine Jin of Guangxu than look at the three concubines left by the Tongzhi Emperor. Therefore, in addition to burning incense to worship the Buddha, the noble concubines of the Jingyi Emperor wrote and painted to pass the time.
However, The Jingyi Emperor's concubines still have certain abilities, which can be seen mainly through two things:
The first was that when the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, Cixi fled to Xi'an with the Guangxu Emperor and his concubines, but left several of The Tongzhi Emperor's concubines in the palace. At that time, there was a great chaos in the palace, as the head of the concubines, HuiFei had no idea, only crying non-stop, or Jingyi Emperor's concubines gathered ministers and closed the door to guard the inner court, fortunately, at that time, the coalition army did not invade the inner court, and these concubines survived.
The second thing was that after the death of Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Longyu actually asked the third concubine of the Tongzhi Emperor to call herself a slave, which made the Jingyi Emperor's concubine very unhappy, because at that time, the Jingyi Emperor's concubine was the highest-ranking concubine of the Tongzhi Emperor, and Longyu was only the empress of the Guangxu Emperor.
Therefore, Emperor Jingyi's concubines joined forces with two other Tongzhi Emperor concubines to refuse to return to the palace on the grounds that Empress Dowager Cixi was buried, and finally Empress Longyu compromised, retracted the order to make the three concubines of the Tongzhi Emperor call themselves slaves, and won the victory in the struggle against the empress dowager, except for The Jingyi Emperor's concubines.
In 1924, Imperial Concubine Jingyi and Princess Ronghui were forced to live in the palace, and died of illness in Chinese New Year's Eve in 1932 at the age of 77.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of the Qing Dynasty