Chapter 70: The Sickly Tenth Prince's Lazy Caregiver...
Many things have happened in the palace in the past two years.
Meanwhile, after the death of the Sixth Prince, many newborns were born in the palace, adding several princes and princesses.
On the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month of the twenty-fourth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, amidst a smallpox outbreak, Consort Wanliuha gave birth to the twenty-first son of the Emperor, Yin Tao, in Zhongcui Palace.
On April 24th last year, Consort De gave birth to the Eleventh Princess①. This greatly disappointed Consort De, because she had not been able to give birth to a prince to consolidate her position. Among the four consorts, she was still the only one without a prince—if you don't count the Fourth Prince.
But Consort De's ambition to climb the social ladder and advance her career never faded. Unlike other high-ranking concubines, she, despite her humble origins, possessed a more tenacious and resilient will.
Undeterred, Consort De quickly regained her strength after giving birth to the Eleventh Princess and began vying for the Emperor's favor again. Now, she is nearly seven months pregnant and will likely give birth again by the end of the year.
On the first day of the tenth month last year, Consort Zhangjia gave birth to the twenty-second prince, Yinxiang, in Yonghe Palace. He later became the thirteenth prince after the others.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, according to the order of birth, Consort De is currently pregnant with the future Fourteenth Prince, Yinzhen. Consort De has indeed successfully given birth to a prince after the death of the Sixth Prince, and will give birth to the Twenty-Third Prince at the "advanced age" of thirty.
Two years later, several new princes and princesses were born to Emperor Kangxi, further increasing the number of his children. At the same time, the older princes under Kangxi's tutelage gradually grew up, reaching the age of marriage and establishing their own careers, and maturing in all aspects.
At the end of last year, the Crown Prince, who had been carefully tutored by Emperor Kangxi for many years, left the palace to begin his studies. This was the first time the Crown Prince had left the inner palace and stepped into the public eye, appearing before the princes and ministers of the court.
The so-called "Crown Prince leaving the palace" meant, according to the old Ming Dynasty custom, that the Crown Prince was sent away from the palace to receive education from Han Chinese Confucian scholars outside the palace.
Shortly after the crown prince was appointed, when Yinreng was only five years old, a Han official submitted a memorial to Emperor Kangxi requesting that the crown prince be sent out of the palace to study.
However, this request was rejected by Emperor Kangxi at the time. Yinreng was only five years old and still very young. Emperor Kangxi was reluctant to let his son leave the palace to study, so he decided to personally teach the crown prince and keep postponing the time for the crown prince to leave the palace to study.
It wasn't until last year, when the Crown Prince turned thirteen, that Emperor Kangxi felt at ease allowing him to leave the palace and begin his studies.
Under the careful but also very strict guidance of Emperor Kangxi, the Crown Prince began to study diligently from the age of five until he was thirteen. For eight years, he studied diligently every day without any slackening, and finally finished reading all the classics and became a master of learning within eight years.
This made Emperor Kangxi proud of his crown prince. After the crown prince had mastered his studies, he sent him to study at the Imperial Academy. His main purpose was not to have the crown prince study with Han Chinese Confucian scholars, but rather to show off his outstanding crown prince to the important officials and demonstrate to the world that the imperial family had a worthy successor.
Following the Crown Prince's departure from the palace to study last year and his first public appearance in the court, the eldest prince, who turned fifteen at the beginning of this year, held a grand wedding in the palace, marrying Lady Irgen Gioro, the daughter of Minister Khorkun, as his primary consort.
After the order of birth order was rearranged, the eldest prince became Kangxi's eldest son.
His first marriage signifies that Kangxi's son is gradually growing up, no longer a child who needs his father's care and protection, but a grown-up, heroic man who can shoulder responsibilities and, at the same time,... seize power.
The wolf king is not yet old, but the young wolves are gradually shedding their immaturity, growing bright teeth and sharp claws, growing up to the point where they can threaten the wolf king's position and make the wolf king feel threatened.
Two years later, the seventh and eighth princes, who had both turned six, entered the Imperial Study in turn. The seventh prince stayed in the fifth room of the East and did not move, while the eighth prince moved from Consort Hui's Yanxi Palace to the newly renovated third room of the West and took the first room.
The West Three Palaces are located on the outer west road, adjacent to the Cining Palace. Originally, there were only three independent courtyards, hence the name West Three Palaces.
However, as the number of princes under his care increased, Kangxi felt that the courtyards of the Western Three Palaces were no longer sufficient for the princes to live in, so he rebuilt the Northern Five Palaces, which were symmetrical to the Western Three Palaces, on the outer east road, adjacent to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity.
Because the North Five Palaces are located east of the Qianqing Palace, the palace also habitually refers to the North Five Palaces as the East Five Palaces.
The Five Princes' Residences of the East were built later and consisted of five independent courtyards. Although their location was symmetrical with the Qianqing Palace as the axis and the Three Western Princes' Residences as the center, the number of courtyards was asymmetrical. These two princes' residences, placed in the Forbidden City which strives for symmetry, felt quite awkward.
After the eldest, third, and fourth princes moved from the West Third Residence to the East Fifth Residence, Emperor Kangxi ordered the renovation of the West Third Residence and the addition of two more courtyards to make it a total of five residences, symmetrical to the East Fifth Residence.
Originally, the West Three Palaces consisted of only three courtyards, which were arranged in a row in front of the Great Buddha Hall outside the Cining Palace.
There wasn't enough space to build two more independent three-courtyard houses if they were arranged horizontally, so the two courtyards built behind the West Three Palaces were arranged vertically. With the original First Palace as the intersection point, the five courtyards of the newly built West Three Palaces are arranged at right angles, perfectly enclosing half of the Cining Palace.
The two courtyards built later were named the First Courtyard and the Second Courtyard by Emperor Kangxi, and the original First Courtyard became the Third Courtyard. The other two courtyards were also renamed the Fourth Courtyard and the Fifth Courtyard, respectively.
The biggest difference between the West Three Palaces and the East Five Palaces is that the most prestigious courtyard in the East Five Palaces was the First Palace, which was both the most prestigious and the closest to the Qianqing Palace. However, the West Three Palaces were different. In name, the First Palace was the most prestigious, but the courtyard closest to the Qianqing Palace was the Third Palace—which was also the First Palace before the renovation.
After the Eighth Prince moved into the West Third Palace, he lived in the First Palace and did not set foot in the Third Palace, which was the best location and closest to the Qianqing Palace. While there was certainly an element of following the order of residence involved, the deeper intention was to reserve the Third Palace for the Tenth Prince, Yin'e, born to the Consort.
In contrast to the first residence of the five eastern residences, the three western residences were actually the most prestigious, and only the sons of the Imperial Concubine could reside there. Even if it wasn't exactly the tenth prince who could live in the three western residences according to the order of seniority, no other prince dared to compete with him for this honor.
Since the smallpox outbreak two years ago was successfully resolved by the imperial physicians of the smallpox department, the Forbidden City has been peaceful and quiet, and everything in the palace is fine and going smoothly as usual.
However, starting in the second half of this year, the situation in the palace suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse—the Empress Dowager, who is 75 years old this year, fell seriously ill, and within a few months, she was bedridden and unable to take medicine.
The Empress Dowager had not been involved in affairs for many years, but over the years, she had acted like a stabilizing force, firmly suppressing the Qing Dynasty and preventing major conflicts and disturbances between the Qing imperial family and nobles, thus maintaining a generally peaceful and tranquil situation.
Now that the Empress Dowager is seriously ill, the benchmark that has supported the Qing Dynasty for decades has collapsed. Emperor Kangxi is very saddened, and his grief has cast a heavy shadow over the entire Forbidden City.
The concubines in the palace have been very obedient these past few months. The high-ranking concubines who are qualified to enter and leave Cining Palace are diligently going there to attend to the Empress Dowager. The lower-ranking concubines who are not qualified to approach Cining Palace are also discreetly keeping quiet. No one dares to cause trouble at this time, for fear of running into the line of fire of the displeased Emperor Kangxi.
Today is Yin'e's birthday. The Fifth Prince did not come to Yongshou Palace to celebrate Yin'e's birthday because the Empress Dowager is seriously ill. The Empress Dowager is saddened by her aunt's serious illness and has to take care of the Empress Dowager with great care. She is very tired from both sadness and physical exertion. The Fifth Prince will stay in Cining Palace to accompany the Empress Dowager.
The reason why the Fifth Prince was able to stay in Cining Palace to serve the Empress Dowager was not because he asked for leave from the Imperial Study to fulfill his filial duty, but because the Fifth Prince, who will turn eight years old this December, did not go to the Imperial Study to study at all.
For the past two years, four of the five palaces in Gan Dong have remained vacant. The Fifth Prince has not moved out of Cining Palace and has followed the Empress Dowager without moving to the Princes' Quarters to establish his own household. The Fifth Prince is now the only "older" out-of-school child in the palace.
The Empress Dowager was, after all, a Mongol. Although she took great care of the Fifth Prince's daily life, she did not value cultural education. In the beginning, under the Empress Dowager's tutelage, the Fifth Prince could only speak Mongolian and was completely ignorant of Manchu, let alone Chinese.
Later, the Empress Dowager arranged for the Fifth Prince to begin his education, having Sumalagu teach him Manchu. This was after the Fifth Prince met Yin'e and the Ninth Prince and began interacting with them. The Fifth Prince was also the last of the princes in the palace to begin his education; he only started learning Manchu, in addition to Mongolian, at the age of five.
However, the Empress Dowager didn't really value the Fifth Prince's cultural education. He did learn Manchu, which was good, but he still speaks it haltingly. And most importantly, the Fifth Prince's early education only involved speaking Manchu, not learning the Manchu script. He couldn't read or write.
To this day, the Fifth Prince is completely illiterate. He doesn't know any of the languages, whether Mongolian, Manchu, or Chinese, and he can't write a single character.
It's hard to say whether the Fifth Prince was lucky or remarkable, as he managed to survive under the strict father, Emperor Kangxi, who was known for his overprotective parenting style, and remains completely illiterate to this day, without being dragged to the Imperial Study for grueling, grueling lessons.
Although it is Yin'e's birthday today, the Imperial Concubine cannot accompany him for the whole day. The Imperial Concubine holds a high position and has always been favored by the Empress Dowager. She usually receives a lot of care from the Empress Dowager and has to go to Cining Palace to attend to him when he is ill.
Of course, the one who went to Cining Palace to care for the sick the most and was the most exhausted was Consort Tong.
Sometimes Yin'e felt that the reason why Kangxi lost three empresses in a row—although Consort Tong had not yet been made empress, she was no different from an empress in reality, being the head of the harem—was not because Kangxi was a jinx to his wives, but because Kangxi felt that the empress should be as energetic as him, which led to the empress taking on too many responsibilities.
In short, Yin'e strongly suspected that Kangxi's empresses all died from overwork. Being an empress sounds prestigious, but the empress was in charge of all the affairs of the palace, big and small. She was exhausted from working hard all day long. How could she not die young from exhaustion?
When the Imperial Concubine went to Cining Palace to attend to the sick, she did not often take Yin'e with her. She would only take Yin'e with her once every three or five times.
Firstly, Yin'e is still young and cannot be of much help in attending to the sick in Cining Palace; in fact, it would only distract the Consort.
Secondly, the Empress Dowager was seriously ill, and the room was filled with the smell of Chinese medicine. As the weather gradually turned cold, they dared not ventilate the room, and the smell was really unpleasant. Yin'e was young and weak, and the Consort was afraid that he would feel uncomfortable if he stayed in Cining Palace for too long.
Moreover, Yin'e was not a great-grandson whom the Empress Dowager particularly favored. Even though he was by her side, he could not provide her with much comfort.
The Empress Dowager valued her grandson, Emperor Kangxi, most, and only secondarily her eldest grandson, the Crown Prince.
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Author's Note: ①Note: The eleventh princess, born to the Imperial Concubine, was affected by the butterfly effect; therefore, the order of birth for subsequent princesses was adjusted accordingly. Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2023-03-17 18:09:14 and 2023-03-18 11:57:37!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Luo Yin, -Shallow Smile 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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