Biography
Empress Xiaogongren was born in the Manchu Uya (烏雅) clan. Her personal name is unknown. Her father was Weiwu (威武), a Commander of the Guard (護軍參領) and Duke of the First Class (一等公).
In 1678 Lady Uya gave birth to the Kangxi Emperor's fourth surviving son Yinzhen. A year later she was granted the rank of Imperial Concubine De (德嬪). In 1681 she gave birth to another son and was promoted to Consort De (德妃) the following year. Over the next five years Lady Uya gave birth to three daughters, and her last son in 1688. When the Kangxi Emperor died in 1722, Lady Uya's eldest child, Yinzhen, succeeded to the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor. As the mother of the reigning emperor, Lady Uya received the title of Empress Dowager Renshou (仁壽皇太后).
Empress Dowager Renshou died of illness in 1723, a year after the death of the Kangxi Emperor. Some sources claimed that she wished to accompany her husband in death but the Yongzheng Emperor denied her permission. She fell ill shortly afterwards and refused medical treatment, eventually dying at the age of 64. She was interred in the Jingling Mausoleum (景陵) in the Eastern Qing Tombs in Zunhua. She was posthumously granted the title of Empress Xiaogongren.
Read more about this topic: Xiao Gong Ren
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)