Reflections | How one concubine rose to become a Chinese empress – by using the power of kindness against her adversaries
Betrayal and bickering between an emperor’s harem was commonplace, as seen in the wildly popular Story of Yanxi Palace. However, history shows that it sometimes paid to be good
What is it about period television soaps that enthrals and fascinates viewers? The latest hit series, Story of Yanxi Palace , has become the most watched Chinese-language drama of the year, clocking a whopping 530 million views in China on a single day. A fictionalised account of the lives of palace women during the reign of the Qing dynasty’s Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796), the show scores with its superior production values, in particular its painstakingly detailed sets and wardrobe, which have been meticulously researched for historical veracity.
The story follows the familiar palace-intrigue trope, presenting a bevy of jealous women with too much time on their hands, although Story of Yanxi Palace comes with an additional murder mystery plot twist.
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One of the most popular characters is Empress Fucha (1712-48), Emperor Qianlong’s wife for the first 13 years of his reign until her death. In both historical records and the series, she is depicted as a gentle soul who preferred a life of simplicity despite her exalted status. As a denizen of an emperor’s inner palace – where back-stabbing schemes were dime a dozen – this made her a rare breed.
Empress Qincheng (1052-1102), the birth mother of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song dynasty, was another kindly soul. Despite being born a commoner and having had three fathers (her biological father, stepfather and foster father), she was chosen as a consort of Emperor Shenzong in 1068, and gave him two sons and a daughter.
Even though she was the birth mother of Zhezong (who, upon his father’s death in 1068, ascended the throne at the age of eight), she was not made empress dowager because she had been a concubine of the late emperor – that title went to the recently widowed empress. Instead, she was given the lower rank of imperial mother. Even more senior in rank than the empress dowager and imperial mother was the formidable Grand Empress Dowager Gao, the regent who ruled on behalf of her grandson, Zhezong.
Perhaps it was due to the imperial mother’s lowly birth that the high-born grand empress dowager never liked her, often reprimanding her for minor infractions. Despite being subjected to harsh words and treatment by Gao, Qincheng dutifully attended to her mother-in-law.
