Borjigit Mengguqing was the first empress of the Qing Dynasty. Today, the editor of History Encyclopedia has prepared an article for you. Interested friends, come and take a look!
Legend has it that there was a strange woman in the Qing Dynasty who was the empress of Shunzhi. After being deposed by her “biological husband” Shunzhi, she not only did not panic, but also calmly left the palace and returned to the Mongolian grasslands. In the end, her life was renovated – she met her lover, got married, and had children. But is it really the case?
Emperor Shunzhi ascended to the throne at the age of six, and thereafter his uncle Dorgon acted as regent until he was thirteen years old, which is the seventh year of Shunzhi. In August of the second year after taking office, at the age of fourteen, Emperor Shunzhi married Borjigit Mengguqing and conferred the title of Empress on the Borjigit clan.
In August of the tenth year of Shunzhi, to be precise, on the 26th, Emperor Shunzhi issued an edict to abolish the position of Empress Borjigit Mengguqing and downgrade her to Consort Jing. In just two short years, what happened between the two that made Shunzhi so annoyed that he was willing to abolish the empress. You should know that Meng Guqing is the niece of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang Wen, the mother of Shunzhi. And it was very rare for the empress to be deposed in the Qing Dynasty, unless she committed unforgivable crimes.
And this was the only time after the entire Qing Dynasty was abolished, so Borjigit Mengguqing can be considered quite unlucky. The official reason given by Emperor Shunzhi is as follows: The empress was designated by Dorgon for him, not my intention. At that time, I was still a little kid. Not long after marriage, they became estranged and separated for three years. The empress is not virtuous and cannot be a mother to the world.
Also, the queen is indeed beautiful, but she is very jealous and cannot tolerate anyone who looks more beautiful than her. She lives too extravagantly, while I advocate simplicity, which is simply inconsistent with her values. Upon analysis, some of the reasons may be true, but others are only reasons.
Combined with the measures taken by Emperor Shunzhi after taking power, one cannot help but think of Regent Dorgon. Emperor Shunzhi was too eager to completely shake off this historical burden, even after his death, Dorgon’s title was cruelly stripped away by his nephew. And the empress was chosen by Dorgon for himself, she must be ‘deposed’!
It is also said that because of Empress Dong E, Emperor Shunzhi wanted to make his beloved woman the empress, so he also wanted to depose her. But this statement is completely inaccurate. Empress Dong E entered the palace three years after Meng Guqing was deposed, which was in the thirteenth year of the Shunzhi reign. Moreover, there was another empress at that time, Empress Xiaohui Zhang, who coincidentally came from the Borjigit clan.
To further explain the reason, it may also be related to Emperor Shunzhi’s rebellious mentality. In the ninth year of the Shunzhi reign, just one year after his wedding, he had the intention of deposing the empress dowager. However, he did not explicitly state it, but only requested that the court ministers go and look through the historical books of the previous dynasty to see how the previous emperor deposed the empress dowager and how he publicly announced it. He wanted to know more about it himself.
The ministers saw that the emperor had only been married for a year and wanted to depose the empress, which was unacceptable. Therefore, they took turns making changes and hoped that Emperor Shunzhi would think twice and be cautious. In short, they could not do so. Having submitted this memorial too many times, it reminded Shunzhi of his days as a puppet under the regency before taking office, and he was extremely annoyed.
Why not just issue an order to abolish Meng Guqing’s position. And when the 14 members of the “Imperial Censorate Group” jointly petitioned the emperor to abandon this “absurd” practice, Shunzhi became angry and directly punished them, which was very resolute.
But of course, one should listen to one’s own mother’s opinion. There is no mention in historical books of how Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang Wen viewed her own niece being deposed, but there is a detail that may explain some of the problem. The next day after Shunzhi asked Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang for her opinion, he issued an order to depose the empress dowager, indicating that Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang did not intentionally obstruct her.
Conclusion: Unfortunately, this possibility is extremely low. Whether it’s the deposed empress dowager or the consort Jing, anything related to the emperor’s palace is taboo. How could a Korean minister possibly know the truth? It’s mostly a legend or a fabrication. Erdenibumuba, the consort of Emperor Shunzhi, is more likely to die alone in the palace. In fact, according to historians’ research, Concubine Jing was indeed buried in the Eastern Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty after her death. She was unable to return to the Khorchin grassland. We hope the legend is true!
