Empress Xiaoquan was the third empress of Emperor Daoguang, born in the twelfth year of Jiaqing (1807), twenty-five years younger than Emperor Daoguang. Her father was an official in Suzhou, and Empress Xiaoquan also lived in Suzhou. It is said that Empress Xiaoquan was both virtuous and intelligent when she was a child, and her hands-on ability was extremely strong, and she could skillfully put together "tangrams" and innovate. Therefore, later generations praised her as "Hui Zhi Lanxin and no one in the world".
Time flies, in the early years of Daoguang, this girl was elected to the palace. Her wisdom, gentleness, and intellect soon won the favor of the emperor. At the age of sixteen (the third year of Daoguang), she was made a concubine, and then a concubine. In the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831), she gave birth to the fourth son of the emperor, Yixi, who later became Emperor Xianfeng.
However, Empress Hyoquan's ascension was swift, and her death was just as sudden. She died suddenly in the first month of the twentieth year of Daoguang at the age of thirty-three. Although the cause of her death is not detailed in the official history, many other historical sources provide a different account.
According to Zhang Jigao et al., "A Collection of Strange Cases and Suspicious Cases in the Imperial Palace of China in Past Dynasties", Empress Xiaoquan was regarded as a threat by the Empress Dowager because of her "outstanding talent" and may have been killed by the Empress Dowager. Another book, The Qing Palace, describes Empress Xiaoquan's death shortly after being criticized by the Empress Dowager after the celebration of her sixtieth birthday, suggesting that she may have felt ashamed and frustrated by being criticized by the Empress Dowager, which in turn led to her death. However, these claims are all just speculation, and there is no conclusive evidence to prove the exact cause of Empress Xiaoquan's death. Whatever the exact cause of Empress Xiaoquan's death, her death was a big blow to Emperor Daoguang. He was very sad and made Empress Daxing the queen of "filial piety". Then, on the ninth day of the 11th month of the 20th year of Daoguang, Empress Xiaoquan was buried in the Muling Underground Palace, and the tired words were: Xiaoquan Ci Jing Kuanren Duan Wei An Hui Cheng Min Fu Tiandu Empress. Emperor Daoguang no longer canonized as an empress.
In 1851 (the first year of Xianfeng), Yi Su was the emperor, and he was the emperor of Xianfeng. Later generations deduced that his ascension to the throne was exchanged for the violent death of Empress Xiaoquan. Whether this theory is credible or not has not yet been corroborated by historical data, and we need to continue to explore. AI assistant creation season