In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, the 19-year-old Guangxu Emperor held a grand wedding ceremony. A woman was elected to the palace, and this woman was later promoted by Empress Dowager Cixi's sixty-year-old Wanshou Jia'en, and she was Zhenfei. As the Emperor of Sorrows, one of the Guangxu Emperor's empresses and two concubines were chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi, the empress was Yehenara Jingfen (Empress Longyu), the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi's younger brother, while the 13-year-old Zhenfei was given the title of Zhen Concubine and the 15-year-old sister was named Jin Concubine.
From the moment she entered the palace, the beautiful Concubine Zhen seemed to be doomed to her tragic end. From entering the palace at the age of 13 to being thrown into a well by Empress Dowager Cixi at the age of 25, it is difficult for us to understand what Zhenfei experienced. In official historical materials such as the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, we find that there are only a few words of zhenfei's life, "Zhenfei, red flag, Manchuria, Tatra clan." Born on the third day of the first month of February in the second year of Guangxu, she was the daughter of The Rebbe Zuo Shilang Changshu. ”
Love, politics, court evil, murder, etc. all have a certain embodiment in this woman, and in the history of the late Qing Dynasty, Zhenfei may be insignificant, but after her death, people's research on her has not diminished. In particular, why Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to kill Concubine Zhen is constantly controversial, and we can say that Princess Zhen's beauty and jealousy by Empress Dowager Cixi is by no means the most fundamental reason for her killing.
Regarding the cause of Zhenfei's death, it is recorded in the "Biography of concubines of the Qing Dynasty", "Concubines have favored the emperor, and in the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the various countries entered the Beijing Division, and the emperor hunted in the west, and the concubines could not be followed, and they were martyred in the palace." According to this statement, Zhenfei was "suicidal", which is obviously a fabrication. When Empress Dowager Cixi was alive, there was no accurate account in the court about the cause of Princess Zhen's death. When Empress Dowager Cixi returned to the palace from Xi'an, she also brazenly did one thing, "In the change of the capital in the previous year, Concubine Zhenqi never reached the time, that is, she was martyred in the palace, and she was honorable for her martyrdom, and she posthumously gave the title of noble concubine to show her compassion." ”
The most fundamental reason why Empress Dowager Cixi threw Zhenfei into the well was that she felt that Zhenfei was the biggest threat, and after Zhenfei entered the palace, Empress Longyu gradually fell out of favor, which Empress Dowager Cixi could not bear, "Emperor Dezong was particularly fond of her, and she was not very close to the empress." "The well-educated Concubine Zhen was sympathetic," said the Emperor of the Day, eating and drinking with Emperor Dezong and playing together, paying no attention to the affairs of men and women. In addition, Zhenfei often rewarded the eunuch palace ladies around her, which made Zhenfei very popular with everyone.
This was not the main thing, the complete annoyance of Empress Dowager Cixi was that Empress Dowager Zhen had betrayed her official position, and Empress Dowager Cixi had reprimanded Zhenfei in person, and as a result, Princess Zhenfei asked: "The ancestral family law also has its own bad ancestors, how dare a concubine dare to do so?" This Empress Dowager's teachings also. The most reluctant thing Empress Dowager Cixi heard was that she "hung the curtain and listened to the government", and Zhenfei's words were equivalent to directly sentencing herself to death.
References: "Biography of the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty", "National News"