In the feudal period, the most honorable woman in a country was the emperor's legitimate wife, the empress.
If you want to become an empress, you need to go through a lot of screening, such as appearance and good character, and the most important point among the many requirements is that the empress's family lineage must be prominent, so as to provide assistance to the emperor when he needs it.
Women who can meet the above requirements are often difficult to become the person who the emperor truly loves and loves in history, and what we want to talk about today is such an empress who did not get the emperor's favor, but finally achieved the consummation of life.
When mentioning the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, everyone will always think of his favorite concubine Dong Eshi, but few people know that when Dong Eshi was favored, the Shunzhi Emperor actually had an empress, known in history as Empress Xiaohuizhang.
Empress Xiaohuizhang was the second empress of the Shunzhi Emperor, who reigned for fifty-seven years until the age of seventy-seven, and her life was not dazzling, but it was also a legend.
Before Empress Xiaohuizhang entered the palace, the Shunzhi Emperor also had an empress of the Borjigit clan. At that time, Borjigit was an extremely powerful branch of the Mongol tribes, and this family had many empresses, including Empress Xiaozhuangwen, the mother of the Shunzhi Emperor. As her own mother, Empress Xiaozhuangwen naturally took care of the Borzigit clan, and when choosing an empress for her son, she also chose a girl of the Borjigit clan and was married by the regent Dolgun.
However, the Shunzhi Emperor was not at peace with Dolgun, and he was also very displeased with the empress sent by Dorgon, coupled with the fact that the Borjigit clan was pampered and willful in his own identity, often did not give the Shunzhi Emperor a face, and over time, the Shunzhi Emperor moved his mind after the endless quarrel, and then directly demoted the empress to a concubine.
The empress's throne was vacant, and Empress Xiaozhuangwen had to choose a 14-year-old girl in the Borjigit clan, and this new queen was the later Empress Xiaohuizhang. Although Empress Xiaohuizhang was also from the Borjigit clan, her temperament was very different from that of the deposed queen, she was calm and gentle, never clashed head-on with Shunzhi, and when she first entered the palace, she also received Shunzhi's favor for a while with her well-behaved temperament. But the good times did not last long, and the sudden appearance of Dong E's clan broke the peaceful harem life of Empress Xiaohuizhang.
The Shunzhi Emperor's favor for Dong E's clan has been fully reflected in the history books, and if the historical records are still so, Empress Xiaohuizhang is in it, only to be afraid of being more affected. Faced with her husband's almost frantic love for another woman, Empress Xiaohuizhang had no time to be jealous, and she had to face another, more serious problem, that is, the Shunzhi Emperor once again moved his mind to set up Dong Eshi, who was already an imperial concubine at that time.
As soon as this matter came out, Empress Xiaohuizhang could not avoid being frightened, fortunately, she had never had any unusual behavior in her usual, the Shunzhi Emperor had no reason to depose the queen, and the ministers repeatedly dissuaded the queen not to be easily deposed, and over time, Empress Xiaohuizhang retained this posthumous position.
Later, Dong Eshi became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and unfortunately suffered the pain of losing his son and died of illness. The Shunzhi Emperor was so mournful that he died the year after Dong E's death. Although Empress Xiaohuizhang lost her husband at this time, she was only 21 years old, but Xuan Ye, who had been raised by her, ascended the throne as emperor, and Empress Xiaohuizhang also jumped up and became the empress dowager who no longer had to worry about fear.
Although she did not have children herself, Empress Xiaohuizhang never treated the children of other concubines harshly. Not only that, during the period when she raised Xuan Ye, she also did her best to make Xuan Ye feel the warmth and sincere concern of her mother. After ascending the throne, Xuan Ye was very filial to Empress Xiaohuizhang's mother, and even "ignored the government" on her fortieth birthday, specifically accompanying her mother, and the two had deep feelings, like their own children.
After becoming empress dowager, Empress Xiaohuizhang was as quiet and calm as ever, did not become extravagant because of the change of status, and never asked for anything because of the Kangxi Emperor's filial piety to herself, so she lived quietly in the harem for fifty-seven years, and after her death, she also received great remembrance and mourning from the Kangxi Emperor.
Looking back on the life of Empress Xiaohuizhang, she entered the palace when she was young, and although she failed to get the favor of her husband, she finally waited for the moment when the willow was dark and the flowers were bright. In her body, we can see many good qualities of women at that time, such as calmness, tolerance and fraternity. She warmed the Kangxi Emperor with her tolerant heart, gave him maternal love that did not ask for returns, and also won the tranquility of the second half of her life with her persistence, becoming an indispensable model in the harem of the Qing Dynasty, and bringing the record of fifty-seven years to the Qing Dynasty.