The throne is the dream of successive princes, if one of the princes ascends the throne, then the people around him will also ascend to heaven, and his mother will certainly be able to become the empress dowager by virtue of her son.
This chain reaction determined that the prince would have a large number of supporters around him, and his mother would become a solid backing for him in the struggle.
Yongzheng's birth mother, Wu Yashi, was a different kind of empress dowager, and when her son became emperor, she was not at all happy, resisted everywhere, and even forced her to die. What is the reason behind Uya's various abnormal behaviors?
The resentful Empress Dowager
In the sixty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1722), the Kangxi Emperor, who had reigned for sixty-one years, died, and the struggle of the nine sons to seize the concubine finally came to an end, and the fourth son of the emperor, Yin Chan, succeeded to the throne as a victor, that is, the later Yongzheng Emperor.
When Yongzheng first ascended the throne, the new dynasty and the new world were naturally jubilant, and only the Wuya clan was full of sorrow and mist. When Yongzheng ascended the throne, officials and some concubines Qianlong congratulated the Wuya clan and conveyed this good news to her, but judging from the performance of the Wu ya clan, she did not think that this was good news, and she said very coldly: "Not only do I dare not hope to make my son emperor, but I also do not think about it in my dreams." "Poured cold water on the multitude whose joy was overflowing with joy.
Stubborn enough to take her own life against Yongzheng, Wu Yashi claimed that she intended to be martyred for the Kangxi Emperor and decided not to drink or eat. The system of martyrdom had been abolished as early as the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, and Wu Yashi's move was only to embarrass the Yongzheng Emperor.
In the end, Yongzheng and a group of princes and ministers took turns to fight, and finally said that they had moved the Wuya clan under good words and persuasion. But the martyrdom could not be done, but her heart to find trouble for the Yongzheng Emperor was not extinguished.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, in order to be more suitable for the Han people and promote the rule of the world with benevolence and filial piety, therefore, according to the custom in the palace, Yongzheng went to the palace of the Empress Dowager Uya after he took the throne, and on such a big occasion, the Uya clan did not save face for Yongzheng at all, and directly rejected the pilgrimage. In order to ensure that the enthronement ceremony could be held smoothly, Yongzheng and the courtiers persuaded him a lot, and finally Wu Yashi reluctantly agreed to accept the new monarch's congratulations.
In terms of titles, the Uya clan is also very stubborn, after the Yongzheng Emperor ascended the throne, he originally formulated the honorific title of "Empress Renshou" for her, just a title, but the Uya clan will not compromise, she insisted that she only accept the title of empress dowager, and the honorific title was ignored.
In her resistance, the canonization ceremony could not be held until the death of Uyashi, and she was eventually posthumously honored as Empress Xiaogongren.
Why
Wu Yashi's disgust for his own son stemmed from the unkind mother-son relationship between the two.
Although Wu Ya was one of the four concubines during the Kangxi Dynasty, ranking third among the four concubines in the order of "Hui Yi DeRong", this was all later, in the beginning, The status of the Wu Ya clan was low, all because of her origin.
The maternal power of the Wuya clan was not prominent, and his father only served as the leader of the Shrouded Guard Army of Zheng Wupin. In the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Wu Yashi entered the palace through the draft, but after she entered the palace, she was only a palace girl, which was better than the Xinzhiku of the eight brothers' birth mother, Liang Concubine.
Wu Yashi gave birth to Yongzheng in her early years, when she was of low status, no name and no share, not even a decent title, so according to the custom of the Qing Dynasty harem, Wu Yashi could not raise her son who was conceived in October, but had to forcibly give him up and give him to a higher-status concubine to raise.
The adoptive mother assigned to Yongzheng was Tong Jiashi, who was extremely favored at that time, with a very high status, and was an imperial concubine. Tong Jia's family is prominent, her father is Kangxi's second uncle, she herself is the niece of Kangxi's biological mother Empress Xiaokangzhang, and she and Kangxi are actually cousins. Tong Jiashi is suspected of having no fertility and has been childless for many years under her knees, so she raised Yongzheng and his name is justified.
Tong Jia did not treat Yongzheng coldly because she was not her own biological child, on the contrary, she did her best to take care of Yongzheng, and if Tong Jiashi had her own biological child, the care would probably be like this. Yongzheng and Tong Jiashi lived together for eleven years, and in the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi, Tong Jiashi died, and Yongzheng returned to his birth mother Wu Yashi.
However, he and his birth mother did not get along for long, two years later, Yongzheng and the Uranara clan married and moved to their own mansion outside the palace, so Yongzheng and his adoptive mother Tong Jiashi cultivated a deep affection, and the relationship between yongzheng and his birth mother Wu Yashi was relatively weak, so that he later said: "It is not as good as raising grace." ”
Wu Yashi is not optimistic about Yongzheng, but he is very caring and full of expectations for his youngest son, The Fourteenth Brother Yinyu. The Fourteenth Brother Yinyu was born in the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the Wuya clan was already a concubine at this time, and the status was up to the condition that the child could be left by his side, so the fourteenth brother was able to grow up under the knee of the Wuya clan.
Kangxi also had a fondness for the Fourteenth Brother, and after the Fourteenth Brother's marriage, he originally moved out of the palace like other princes and opened another mansion, and Kangxi specially decreed that he be allowed to stay in the palace, and this honor was exclusive to him and the Eldest Brother. It is also for this reason that the Fourteen Brothers can be with the Uya Clan for a long time.
Because they were raised by different concubines, although the fourth brother and the fourteenth brother were brothers of the same mother, their relationship was not harmonious, and they gradually drifted apart in order to compete for the throne.
At that time, the fourteenth brother was considered to be the most likely prince to inherit the throne, even the Uya clan thought so, and as a result, after the death of Kangxi, the fourth brother ascended the throne, and the Uya clan felt in his heart that Yongzheng had robbed his younger son of the throne, so he was full of resentment.
Mother-killer doubts
On May 23 of the first year of Yongzheng, Wu Yashi died of a serious illness in Yonghe Palace at the age of sixty-four. It is said that some time before the death of the Uya clan, Yongzheng persuaded the Uya clan to agree to accept the title of honorific, but the day before the ceremony was decided, and the time for the ceremony was set, but just the day before the ceremony, the Uya clan died.
Therefore, Wu Yashi did not really become the "Empress Renshou", and she is often referred to as "Empress Xiaogongren" in historical records. The love between Wu Ya and Yongzheng mother and son was very weak, and coupled with her resistance to the Yongzheng Emperor after Yongzheng ascended the throne, her sudden death made the people suspect Yongzheng's mother.
But this idea is pure nonsense, the Qing Dynasty advocates the rule of benevolence and filial piety, if Yongzheng does something to kill his mother, it will undoubtedly be a stain on himself. Moreover, although the Wuya clan had many grievances against Yongzheng, the emperor was always Yongzheng, and she had no other way but to complain, and she could not pose a threat to Yongzheng at all, and there was no need for Yongzheng to get rid of her.
brief summary:
Obviously, they are biological mother and son, but there are many contradictions between Wu Ya and Yongzheng, and it is very painful to see people. If they could, they should also want to be an ordinary mother and son, but the ruthless feudal system separated them from mother and son, which eventually caused a tragedy.