Rong Fei is not honored

There were endless debates in the court. After the new emperor ascended the throne, many regulations had to be redrafted. The court officials argued fiercely for their own or their faction's interests, and no one was willing to give in, so the matter was put on hold.

In the end, it was the Empress Dowager who made the final decision. It was almost a year since the death of the previous emperor. If it dragged on like this, it would be a mess. She asked the court officials to handle all matters related to the change of reign title next year and ordered the Ministry of Rites to select a few reign titles with good meanings for the emperor to choose. In the end, Xuanye chose the word Kangxi, and it was determined that next year would be the first year of Kangxi.

In the first year of Kangxi's reign, there were many things to be done. In March, the emperor reported to the temple to offer sacrifices to the mausoleum, issued a general amnesty, and honored the mausoleum of Emperor Taizu as Xiaoling. In April, he was given the posthumous titles of Taizu and Taizong. In August, the Ministry of Clan Affairs and the Ministry of Rites followed the instructions and proposed that if any prince, beile, or beizi wanted to raise a daughter, they could do so and the raising would be approved, and the promotion and demotion of the adoptive parents would be followed.

Everything went smoothly until October, when the issue of enthroning the Empress Dowager, which had been debated for a long time, finally came to a head. The reason for this result was that a second-rank official submitted a memorial to the emperor, requesting that the Empress Dowager be enthroned as the legitimate mother and the Holy Mother, in order to fulfill the filial piety. Everyone saw that the person who came forward was clearly a close confidant of the Empress Dowager's lineage. Since he took the initiative to propose it, it was naturally the Empress Dowager's intention. Seeing that the Empress Dowager had sent out a signal that she was willing to have two Empress Dowagers co-elected, the court officials realized that the Empress Dowager had given in, and they all agreed.

In October of the first year of the Kangxi reign, the emperor issued an edict to honor the Empress Dowager as the Grand Empress Dowager, the Empress as the Renxian Empress Dowager, and the Queen Mother as the Cihe Empress Dowager. From then on, the first confrontation between the new emperor's party and the Empress Dowager's party ended quietly with one side's concession.

Ji Nai watched the comings and goings in the court and realized that Kangxi and Xiaozhuang were not really close. The reason why they had such a deep affection as grandparent and granddaughter in the previous life and later life was probably because Xiaozhuang was willing to give up her involvement in court affairs and return to the harem. Even so, Xiaozhuang did not completely give up influencing Kangxi.

Thinking of all the difficulties that Xiaozhuang had made with him when he was in favor in his previous life, he not only expressed his displeasure about being favored only by one concubine in the harem many times, but was also always on guard. Whenever a concubine was overly favored for a period of time, Xiaozhuang would ask Kangxi to come over and advise him not to favor only one concubine like his father did, which caused dissatisfaction in the harem and eventually led to his early death, leaving the Qing Dynasty uncaring.

“Isn’t it?” Yuan Xu asked doubtfully, “Isn’t it said that Emperor Shunzhi loved beauties more than the throne? He favored Concubine Dong E and only cared about their son, thus ignoring the other princes. When Kangxi got smallpox, he was sent out of the palace to recuperate. If he hadn’t been lucky, he wouldn’t be here today. He didn’t even value his son’s life.” Yuan Xu hated such parents.

"What do you think exclusive favor means? Shunzhi's favor for Concubine Dong E was indeed noticed by the world, and it overshadowed his other concubines. But there is no mention that while Shunzhi showed the world his deep affection for Concubine Dong E, he also favored other concubines. Even after Concubine Dong E lost her son and became seriously ill, there was a constant flow of new babies born in the palace."

"You overestimate the love of an emperor. Shunzhi loved Concubine Dong E, but that did not stop him from favoring other concubines and having children. Shunzhi loved Concubine Dong E, but he also acquiesced to her going to Nanyuan to serve Empress Xiaozhuang despite her extreme weakness after giving birth. Men's love is very complicated, especially that of an emperor. So don't bring it into your era and look at the emperor's favor through the filter of pure love."

"Moreover, abandoning the country for a beauty is an insult to the Shunzhi Emperor. Consort Dong E passed away in August of the seventeenth year of Shunzhi's reign, which was half a year later. It is possible that he became depressed due to the death of his favorite concubine and son, but it is completely nonsense to say that he died of love. The Shunzhi Emperor did not die suddenly. Before his death, he left four regents for the new emperor. The Qing Dynasty today is indeed in a precarious situation with constant internal and external turmoil. But if you say that these are all caused by the Shunzhi Emperor abandoning the country and the young emperor ascending the throne, it is too unfair."

"It can only be said that Emperor Shunzhi's favor for Consort Dong E was quite infatuated among emperors," Ji Nai concluded.

"I feel like I don't even recognize the word 'infatuation' anymore." Yuan Xu said with disgust.

"So I say don't bring in the ideas of your time. This is a feudal imperial dynasty. When it comes to love between men and women, the marriage system is the biggest difference between the two worlds."

"That can only mean that Emperor Shunzhi favored Concubine Dong E. It's not like he only took a sip from the vast sea of ​​weak waters, and he didn't dismiss the harem. Why does Xiaozhuang mind so much?"

"Perhaps for him, the emperor's affection is a taboo."

"It is undeniable that Xiaozhuang's attitude did have a great impact on Kangxi. From what I know about Kangxi in history, he really never loved, or even doted on any one concubine too much. His attitude towards the harem was to dote on them but not love them. The emperor was a lonely man in a high position. Perhaps it was because no one had ever really walked into his heart that he felt so lonely. In his later years, he became so mean and ungrateful that he even used the crown prince, whom he had brought up and doted on, as a pawn without hesitation."

Yuan Xu added: "Lack of love in childhood can lead to character flaws, and Kangxi probably lacked love."

"According to the system of the Qing Palace, if the rank of a concubine is not high enough, she cannot raise her children in person. When the prince is 6 years old, he must be moved to the prince's house for unified upbringing, in order to prevent the biological mother from having too much influence on the prince and strengthening the power of the foreign relatives. Empress Xiaokangzhang was only a small wife in the harem of Emperor Shunzhi, and her status was not high, so she did not personally raise Kangxi. When he was a child, he was abandoned by his father because of smallpox and moved out of the palace, which left a great psychological shadow. A few years after he ascended the throne, his biological mother passed away. After that, he suffered the pain of losing his sons one after another. Among the children born thirteen years before Kangxi, only Yinzhi and Yinreng survived. He should also be eager to be loved, otherwise he would not have given the Tonggiya family the glory. Even in the harem, the two concubines were of superior status."

"My god, if an ordinary person had such an experience, he would have become a mentally abnormal. Kangxi just became a little more suspicious, a little more mean, and a little more heartless, which can be considered as a strong will."

"My childhood experiences and Xiaozhuang's attitude make me feel very insecure, so I have to weaken Xiaozhuang's influence on him."

"You want Kangxi's exclusive favor, so..."

"Of course not." Ji Nai rolled his eyes and said, "I gave birth to 6 children in my previous life, 5 of them were princes. If I give birth to them in this life and protect them to grow up healthy, then I will be a concubine with five princes. How can I not be feared? In order to balance the harem, I must be suppressed deliberately. Either I will be stuck in a low position and have no chance of promotion, or I will be deliberately treated coldly by my children, or my children will be taken away and raised by others. These are all things I don't want to see."

"Oh, so it's for the child. Hehe." It's no wonder Yuan Xu had the wrong idea. It's mainly because in her mind, Ji Nai's image as a love-brained man has been deeply rooted in people's minds.