Aisin-Gioro Yulu Dai was the daughter of Emperor Kangxi and Empress Xiaoshuren, née Xu Muer. She was the twentieth princess of the Kangxi era and was granted the title of Princess Gulun Shengshu. She and the later Emperor Yonghe, Yinchu, were twins.
In November of the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, Yu Ludai was born in Yikun Palace, one of the Six Western Palaces.
Yikun means to assist. Yuludai's mother was already Consort Yu at the time. Because she gave birth to Yuludai and the fourth prince Yinchu, she was quickly promoted to Imperial Noble Consort, making her the first among the concubines in the harem at that time.
From a palace maid serving Empress Xiaocheng, she climbed step by step to the rank of Imperial Concubine. Besides her successful pregnancies and successive births, she also received divine blessings and a series of fortunate coincidences.
As a child, Yu Ludai lived in a side room of Yikun Palace. She would often see all sorts of women coming to pay their respects. At first, Yu Ludai was still an ignorant child and did not know why these women came to pay their respects to her mother.
As Yu Ludai grew older, she understood that it was because her mother was the most powerful concubine in the imperial harem at the time.
Although Yu Ludai's mother was not an Imperial Noble Consort or Empress, she held the highest rank among the concubines. The palace was a place where hierarchy was observed, and lower-ranking concubines naturally had to pay their respects to higher-ranking concubines.
Around the time Yu Ludai was six years old, his mother became pregnant again. This time, she was pregnant for more than seven months, almost eight months, when she safely gave birth to twins, the tenth and eleventh brothers.
Because Yu Lu Dai's mother had already given birth to the fourth brother, it was not a problem that the tenth and eleventh brothers were twins.
Moreover, the tenth and eleventh brothers do not resemble each other. An uninformed person, based solely on their physical characteristics, would never guess they are twins.
The tenth and eleventh brothers, being boys, were different from the girls like Yu Ludai from a young age.
Yu Lu Dai and the other girls liked flowers and plants, and enjoyed playing musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, and painting, while their tenth and eleventh brothers preferred reading, riding, archery, and martial arts. The girls were quiet and well-behaved when they were young, while the boys were mischievous and playful.
When his tenth and eleventh brothers were able to run and jump, they were the most annoying in Yu Ludai's mind.
At this time, the tenth and eleventh brothers would always mischievously soil Yu Ludai's clothes, ruin her paintings, make faces to scare her, and play pranks on her.
Yu Ludai had thought more than once about when she could move to her sisters' courtyard and live with them.
later
Yu Ludai's mother became pregnant again and gave birth to twin sisters.
The tenth and eleventh brothers immediately transformed into sensible older brothers, showering their newborn sister with affection. At that moment, Yu Ludai suddenly realized that the tenth and eleventh brothers were just acting like children!
Sure enough, as soon as the tenth and eleventh brothers became older brothers, they immediately stopped being naughty and became much more sensible.
It was around this time that Yu Ludai moved to the courtyard where her older sisters lived, and lived with her seventh, twelfth, and fourteenth sisters. Yu Ludai's mother would summon them to Yikun Palace and also send them things.
Seventh Sister, Twelfth Sister, and Fourteenth Sister all got married one after another. In the small courtyard where they lived, two younger sisters, Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight, ten years younger than Yu Lu Dai, arrived.
Later, Yu Ludai was betrothed to the Xilin Gioro family and was granted the title of Princess Gulun Shengshu. She married on the sixth day of the sixth month of the thirty-eighth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign.
Because Yu Ludai's mother was over forty years old and pregnant with twins, Yu Ludai wondered if his wedding would be postponed.
After all, her mother was heavily pregnant and couldn't prepare a dowry or arrange the wedding.
Of course, Yu Ludai wasn't in a hurry to marry into the Xilin Jue Luo family.
Without any decree from Emperor Kangxi, Yu Ludai's father, and without any news from the palace, Yu Ludai's mother, though pregnant, personally handled everything. Even as her pregnancy progressed, she instructed Consort Que and Consort Duan to oversee every detail of Yu Ludai's dowry.
Finally, a month before Yu Ludai's wedding, her mother gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
Yu Ludai was genuinely happy for her mother, but at the same time, she wondered in her heart if her mother could send her off to her wedding on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, when she would only have given birth three days prior.
With trepidation and anticipation, the sixth day of the sixth lunar month finally arrived.
Early in the morning, Lady Que, Lady Duan, and others came to the small courtyard where Yu Ludai and the others lived, busying themselves with various tasks. As the auspicious hour approached, Yu Ludai's mother, dressed in her finest attire, came over. Yu Ludai was immediately moved to tears. However, since brides are not allowed to cry on their wedding day, Yu Ludai was sure to be moved to tears.
Like her several older sisters, Yu Ludai's wedding was a grand affair, with a ten-mile-long procession of red bridal makeup.
After Yu Ludai married her husband, he treated her very well. However, Yu Ludai always felt that while he respected her, he wasn't intimate enough with her. Their relationship was more of a polite, distant formality.
However, Yu Ludai didn't care.
To be honest, Yu Ludai didn't really like her husband very much either, but she was restrained by Emperor Kangxi's decree.
The prince consort was a proper Manchu nobleman, fond of riding and archery, but not fond of studying. He was not as refined as his seventh brother-in-law, nor as gentle and refined as his fourteenth brother-in-law.
Yu Ludai was fond of handsome young men who were learned, talented, and erudite.
As for horsemanship, archery, and martial arts, it is certainly good to be proficient in both literary and martial arts, but it is not a big deal if one does not have them.
The prince consort respected Yu Ludai, and Yu Ludai treated him with courtesy. They lived a simple and peaceful life together. The prince consort did not take any concubines, and Yu Ludai did not interfere in the affairs of his household.
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