As for the cause of the death of Empress Dowager Xiaoxian, Emperor Qianlong explained, "The Empress Dowager and I traveled east after the imperial concubine. After the ceremony, she suddenly felt that Jinan was a little hot, and it would be bad to rest for a few days. " Now she is in Shuicheng, Texas, because she has been ordered to drive back to Beijing. It is also recorded in the official archives of the Qing Dynasty, "When I sailed on a boat over Texas, the queen occasionally felt hot for a few days and died in the middle of the night."
In other words, the filial piety queen died of a "cold", but the fact is not so intuitive. Emperor Qianlong may be lying, because there are at least two doubts about the death of Empress Dowager Xiaoxian! First, Empress Xiaoxian fell ill on March 4th and died on March 1 1. It only took a few days. Cold is not an incurable disease. She can't die in such a long time.
Second, the official pulse case is missing. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, all the emperors, empresses and concubines were treated with relevant pulse cases, but Empress Xiaoxian did not leave relevant pulse cases and lacked the most indirect evidence. Therefore, we can generally judge that the so-called "cold disease" is not the root cause of Xiaoxian's death, but only the superficial cause. Then how did she die?
Folk unofficial historical data say that she fell into the water and died, which is too reliable. If you want to know the cause of death of Xiaoxian, you must start with her physical condition. Empress Yongzheng married Emperor Qianlong in five years. She 16 years old. From the age of 17, in two years and seven months, Emperor Xiaoxian later gave birth to three children for Emperor Qianlong.
According to modern medical theory, early childbearing and violent childbearing make filial piety in poor physical condition. But then, the blow followed, and her youngest daughter and second son died one after another. Especially Yong Lian, the second son of Emperor Qianlong, was deeply loved by Emperor Qianlong and was secretly appointed as the Prince. Because Emperor Qianlong always had a knot in his heart, he wanted his son to be a prince.
Finally, in the 11th year of Qianlong, Emperor Xiaoxian, 35, gave birth to Yong Cong, the son of the seventh emperor, but died a year later. Her children died one after another, which made Empress Hyo-hyun feel very sad. She suffered a heavy mental shock. Besides, she has been in good health, so she is disappointed. In order to alleviate the sadness of the death of the queen's son, Emperor Qianlong took her to visit Mount Tai, hoping to make the queen feel a little worse.
But I didn't expect it to backfire. This expedition to the East gave the filial piety queen a life! Journey to the East is at its peak. We first went to the Confucius Temple, then climbed Mount Tai, then happened to see Baotu Spring, then accompanied my wife to the military parade, saluted in Shun Temple, burned incense in Qianfo Mountain, rowed with the Queen Mother by Daming Lake, and finally burned incense in the Arctic Ocean Temple. In the end, strenuous activities completely crushed Xiaoxian's weak body.
So it is not difficult to see that Xiaoxian died of long-term physical and mental injury, weak body, tired journey, and finally got a mild cold.