Children who have watched "The Biography of Zhen Huan" know that the harem of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty is a battlefield without smoke of gunfire, which is full of deceit and intrigue, and if you are not careful, you may anger the dragon scales and fall into the abyss. Today, I want to talk about the most miserable concubine in the Yongzheng Harem, and the only concubine who has been demoted two levels in a row, she is An Guiren.
There is not much relevant information about An Guiren, it is said that she is the daughter of An Mou, the salt transport envoy is from the Sanpin official, although the official position is not high, but this is a fat difference, the ancient social government monopolized the salt industry, and the salt transport envoy will also procure valuables for the royal family, so not ordinary people can get this position.
Since An Guiren's father was able to hold this position, this proves that her family lineage is still quite good, and it is likely that she was born from the Han Jun banner, that is to say, An Guiren entered the palace through the Outer Eight Banners draft.
So, what year did An Guiren enter the palace? Judging from the court archives of the Yongzheng Dynasty, before the ninth year of Yongzheng, there was no figure of An Gui in the harem, so it was most likely that An Gui would enter the palace in the seventh or eighth year of Yongzheng.
In terms of the canonization of concubines, Yongzheng can be said to be a relatively "miserly" emperor, and almost all of those who can be crowned to concubines or above are old people in the submerged residence, with three exceptions, one is a humble concubine who gave birth to six brothers, one is a concubine with a strong family background, and the last is An Guiren.
An Guiren, either by virtue of her family lineage or by virtue of Yongzheng's favor, rose to the concubine position in just a few years, posing a great threat to Xi Guifei (Zhen Huan's prototype), and the relationship between the two people is not known for the time being, but from the tragic end of An Guiren, her relationship with Xi Guifei is not very friendly.
In August of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng, Yongzheng, who had only been in charge of state affairs for 13 years, died in the Yuanmingyuan, and Hongli, the son of Concubine Xi Guifei, succeeded to the throne as the Qianlong Emperor. Generally speaking, when the new emperor ascended the throne, he would promote the concubines of the previous dynasty, but an gui, who was favored by the former emperor, was excluded from the promotion list.
Not only that, only three months after Yongzheng's death, when the bones were not cold, Qianlong ordered that An Guiren be demoted from a concubine to a nobleman, and demoted two levels in a row, which was the only exception among Yongzheng's concubines. Of course, the emperor generally did not snub the concubines of the former emperor, and as for the real instigator of the ascension of the An Guiren, it should be the Concubine Xi who had already been crowned empress dowager.
After An Guiren was demoted, he was immediately beaten into the cold palace, and was ridiculed and snubbed by the palace people, and the former favored concubine suddenly became a miserable woman in the palace, and had to be lamented. What people did not expect was that An Guiren actually lived for more than ten years in this environment, and died around the fourteenth year of Qianlong to the fifteenth year of Qianlong, and was buried in the Taiyuan Concubine Garden after death.
My point of view: In the Yongzheng Harem, An Guiren can be said to be the most mysterious concubine, her information is very little, her tragic situation of being demoted to two levels in a row has put a mysterious veil on her experience, whether she was demoted because of a conflict with Concubine Xi Guifei, or for other reasons, we do not know, it is precisely because of this that we can expand our endless imagination, this is the wonderful part of history.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Records of emperors of the Qing Dynasty