The Woman Behind Kangxi: The Biography of Virtuous Concubine

Chapter 7 Materials: Elder Brother 4
The election of the prince in the 47th year of Kangxi (1708 AD) made Kangxi very ashamed.At the end of the first month of the following year, Kangxi brought up the old incident again, and tracked down who was responsible for this incident. The members of the "Eight Kings Party" wanted to protect each other at first, but Kangxi's attitude was very firm this time. These people finally couldn't stand it anymore, and they all showed their true colors.Finally, it was found that the leaders were Ma Qi, a scholar and minister of state affairs, Tong Guowei, Kangxi's uncle and father-in-law, and Wang Hongxu and other key members.

Seeing that so many important ministers have turned to the eighth elder brother Yinhu, Kangxi was furious, and he cursed: "Now that Ma Qi, Tong Guowei and Yinhu are the party, it is really hateful to advocate that Yinhu is the crown prince! I can't help being angry at this. Kuang Yinhu is a criminal in prison, and his mother is from a lowly family. Now all the ministers are supporting the same and partial, and Baozuo Yinhu is the crown prince. I don't know what that means? If you have no knowledge, if you can establish the other, then it is in your grasp, and you can tease it in many ways? In this way, the matter of establishing the crown prince is all up to you, not me!"

It turned out that Kangxi first hated Yinhu for taking away his heart, and secondly hated ministers for taking away his right to establish a reserve!

What's more interesting is that after Ma Qi was reprimanded, he defended a few sentences, which made Kangxi so angry that he jumped off the throne and "beat Ma Qi" in public.In front of so many people, it is also a strange story for a 56-year-old man (Kangxi) to beat a 58-year-old man (Ma Qi).However, this Ma Qi is also very powerful. After he was beaten, he showed no signs of fear, and actually "walked out of his sleeves", obviously he was still very unconvinced.Of course, this also shows that the relationship between Kangxi and Ma Qi is extraordinary, so when the ministers asked to behead Ma Qi, Kangxi still treated Ma Qi leniently.

But it's ridiculous to say that it was Kangxi himself who asked the ministers to publicly recommend the crown prince. His own words didn't count, but he blamed others for taking power.No way, who made him the emperor?If the emperor said it was right, it was right, and if it was wrong, it was right. It all depended on his mouth and one's own mind.Those who recommended Yinhu all got their noses up and didn't say anything, but caused trouble instead.Kangxi's punishment was also unceremonious. In the end, Ma Qi was dismissed from his post and detained, his younger brother Ma Wu was dismissed, Wang Hongxu, Minister of the Household Department, was ordered to retire, and other key members of the "Eight Kings Party" were punished accordingly.As for the eighth elder brother Yinhu, it was even more unlucky. He was still in the confinement at that time, but he didn't do anything!
Kangxi said that the eighth elder brother "has never experienced government affairs, has recently been involved in a crime, and his mother's family background is humble." These three reasons seem sufficient, but after careful scrutiny, they are actually untenable.First of all, it is far-fetched to say that Yinhu lacks experience in government affairs.Among the sons of Kangxi, except Prince Yinreng who received the most attention and experience, Yinhu participated in government affairs no less than others, and may even be second only to Prince Yinreng, which can be seen from the number of times he accompanied him.What's more, if Yinhu didn't have the ability and experience in government affairs, why would Kangxi let him be the chief steward of the Ministry of Internal Affairs after the prince was abolished?Besides, there is no experience to accumulate, and most of the princes before the Qing Dynasty did not interfere in politics, didn't they all come here like this?

Secondly, Kangxi said that Yinhu had made mistakes, probably referring to the time when the prince was abolished, when Yinhu dealt with the prince Yinreng's grandpa Ling Pu, Kangxi thought that his methods were too soft and intended to win people's hearts.In fact, this is not always the case. In normal times, Kangxi might even praise Yinhu.But unfortunately, the period when the crown prince was abolished happened to be the most irritable and embarrassing time in Kangxi's life, and anything could make him furious.Of course, Kangxi may not be referring to this incident, but the "face-to-face Zhang Mingde" incident caused by the elder brother Yinyi.Kangxi blamed Yinhu not necessarily because he did not report Zhang Mingde, but because Zhang Mingde said that Yinhu "will be expensive later", which made Kangxi most unhappy.The reason is very simple. Except for Yinhu, the other elder brothers such as the ninth elder brother Yinti, the fourteenth elder brother Yinti and even the fourth elder brother Yinzhen all know about Zhang Mingde and his so-called plan (actually, he just wanted to cheat some money. No one thought it was true, so no one reported it), why punish Yinhu alone?Therefore, the key point is that the sentence "the future must be expensive" annoyed Kangxi.At that time, Kangxi was already in a state of desperation about the establishment of the reserve. At that time, anyone who expressed opinions on this issue would cause unexpected disasters.You know, who should take over? Such an important matter should be decided by Kangxi Qiankun. How can such an inexplicable and lowly person like Zhang Mingde be allowed to talk nonsense?What's even more hateful is that the elder brother Yinxuan would be so stupid as to believe it was true, but Yinhu would take it calmly!This is probably an important reason why Yinyi and Yinhu were severely punished.

Finally, Kangxi said that Yinhu's biological mother was born in a humble background and was not enough to inherit the great position.Under the circumstances at that time, this was indeed a very sufficient reason, which was a bit like the theory of original sin.But looking back at Yinhu's history, you will find that Kangxi did not look at Yinhu differently because of the humble birth of his biological mother Wei.On the contrary, in order to prevent Yinhu from being discriminated against, Kangxi raised him with his elder brother Yinhu's biological mother, Concubine Hui, and raised him himself.In fact, Yinhu has always been favored by Kangxi. For example, when he was knighted in the 37th year of Kangxi (AD 1798), Yinhu and several elder brothers (fourth elder brother Yinzhen, fifth elder brother Yinqi, seventh elder brother Yinyou) ) were named Baylor together, and Yinhu was the youngest at that time.In the 39th year of Kangxi (AD 1700), the Wei family was named a good concubine, and soon he was named a good concubine, and the concubine Dai Jia, who was also a court lady (the mother of the seventh elder brother Yinyou, Yinyou was also concubine Hui brought up), it will be 18 years later for her to go from concubine to concubine.At least from the situation of awarding rewards, Kangxi did not deliberately discriminate against Yinhu's mother and son.On the contrary, because of Yinhu's relationship, although his biological mother, Wei, was old and fading, her status rose again and again.

(End of this chapter)