Story of Yanxi Palace: Red Seal Spring Star

Since the queen was suddenly convicted and sent back to the palace, nobleman Wu was very emotional. Suddenly, she figured out the grudge between herself and the fourth elder brother of the queen.After Yuan Chunwang went crazy, although no one gave her drugs, she still had no children.Everyone didn't know that it was Zhang Yuanju who drugged her.Toya is in good health, but she suffers from itchy skin. Before she entered the palace, she took pills all year round to maintain her skin, so she said that Concubine Rong's skin is better than hers, and she relies on medication to keep it supple.

After the emperor knew about it, he taught the imperial hospital to give her the prescription of the Toujixiang body pill that Concubine Gao used back then, so that she didn't have to use perfume, because the emperor gave her many expensive Western perfumes. It would cause itching on her skin, similar to spring ringworm, and the emperor did not want her to use the incense made of dried sweet-scented osmanthus. At that time, she wanted to get close to the emperor, but she had been using that incense since she was a child. The Queen of the Palace never used it at first, because she also had a kind of self-made rose nitrate, she thought highly of herself, and she didn't want to imitate Concubine Rong's body fragrance.

Later, Concubine Rong also knew that she had this problem, so she taught her to apply sliced ​​peaches to her face and all the skin on her body every June and July when the peaches were fruiting, because Concubine Rong herself liked it very much. She had this habit when she was in Yili in her early years. Her favorite aromas are the aroma of sandy dates, and the aroma of peaches.

It was the queen who instigated the medicine behind the scenes. Zhang Yuan judged as a family of young and old, unable to disobey orders and dare not speak out. Over the years, the imperial hospital was often inspected, but because he was the head of the imperial hospital, and the status of the nobles was low, no one paid attention. So after Yuan Chunwang went crazy, he immediately proposed to leave the palace and return to his hometown.What everyone doesn't know is that after taking the Toujixiangti pill, it will lead to infertility. Since the emperor ascended the throne, because he was dissatisfied with the Gao'e party struggle, it was not very fortunate for Concubine Gao, so Concubine Gao had no children, and never had one. people doubt.

Following the emperor's will, Concubine Rong told Concubine Ling and Concubine Qing privately that Concubine Xin's death was related to the Empress and Yuan Chunwang, and they were both shocked.Caiyun and the others knew the same thing.Wei Mei thought of her own worries in the past years, and felt afraid.

Concubine Shu thought that the empress was punished because of the frame-up of Concubine Jia. Although the empress dowager and the emperor had never told her anything, she did not ask.Because she had expected this day long ago, there would be no matter of Concubine Jia, forcing the palace with the prince, and being in the queen's residence was also a thorn in the emperor's heart.She didn't know the relationship with the prince and queen, but she always felt that it was the queen who couldn't think about it and refused to abdicate to give up power. If the queen mother and the emperor didn't like someone, whoever would end up like this sooner or later.It's no fun for the queen to separate his mother and son. She understands the temperament of the emperor and the queen mother very well.

After the southern tour, Concubine Shu told the emperor that she was used to serving the Empress Dowager, and that Yong Xing had grown up, so she asked to go back to Changchun Garden, just like before, where she would welcome the emperor at any time.After Wei Mei was registered as the imperial concubine, the emperor decreed that Concubine Shu, who lived together in Changchun Garden all the year round, should be the adoptive mother of the ninth princess. for wife.

Aisha also asked Concubine Rong quietly, what happened to the emperor and the empress? Although the empress is not favored, the emperor need not be so heartless, right?Concubine Rong just shook her head and said: I am a latecomer about the emperor's family affairs, so it is not easy to ask about many things.

The sixteenth elder brother also suffered from acne during the emperor's southern tour, Concubine Ying blamed herself to the extreme, and understood Concubine Qing's feelings back then, but both the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and Concubine Ling said it was not her fault.The Empress Dowager lamented to Nanny Liu in private, saying that it was better to be a girl, but it was a pity that He An didn't live in that year.

And Wei Mei met again in the second half of this year, and the emperor and her were very happy. Wei Mei took out the sapphire uniform that the emperor gave her when she was born Qigege, and said to the emperor: Your majesty, ah Although Mae is already the imperial concubine and the lord of the sixth house, but giving birth to the emperor is the happiest thing for me. God is confirming my words. No matter what other people think or say, I will always be your Mae , I will do what you say.The emperor smiled, and after Wei Mei was promoted to the imperial concubine, her record of being Rongyin's maid of honor in Yingluo's life was also erased.

Xijun leaves the palace, and the imperial concubine invites the emperor to marry into the third-class guard's house as a concubine.The Li family officially became the female official in charge of Chuxiu Palace, and the Yilu family was favored by the queen mother, the imperial concubine and concubine Rong, daughter and daughter-in-law all entered the palace and became the female officials of Xuanbao or Prince Fujin, and their status in the harem was extremely prominent. .Wu Min was promoted to be the second-rank minister of the Ministry of Industry, and officially became a hall official. Mrs. Wu can enter the palace to perform the ceremony of a married woman.The lord of the Sixth Palace is already Wei Mei, so there is no need to have any scruples about meeting the imperial concubine, although it is even more necessary to keep the relationship between the imperial concubine and the Wu family secret.Qingyi Garden was fully completed last year, costing a total of 480 million taels of silver.The Emperor will celebrate the Empress Dowager's 73rd birthday in the garden this November.

Wu Min was led by the emperor on several southern tours, and had a lot of detailed discussions with the emperor. The Qingyi Garden built by the team he led was based on the famous southern garden landscape, and carried out the emperor's ideas from beginning to end, and expanded on the basis of the previous generation. The Jiangxi-style architecture of Yuanmingyuan is completely different from the combination of Western architecture.Because Kunming Lake was originally called West Lake, the design of Kunming Lake borrowed from the landscape of West Lake in Hangzhou.The West Lake has the Su Causeway, and Kunming Lake has designed a West Causeway. The Su Causeway has six bridges, and six bridges have been built on the West Causeway. There is a Xiling Bridge on the West Lake, and a small Xiling Bridge in the northwest of Kunming Lake.There is also the Changguan Hall on the edge of the southwest lake of Kunming Lake, which was built after the Banana Stone Mingqin in Dingjia Mountain in the southwest of the West Lake.

The Phoenix Pier in the lake is a copy of Huangbu Pier in Wuxi.Huishan Garden at the eastern foot of Wanshou Mountain is designed and constructed according to Jichang Garden in Wuxi Huishan. In Jichang Garden, there is a bridge for watching fish, a place for enjoying stone calligraphy, a place for listening to water sounds, and a place for enjoying poetry. Huishan Garden Both are reflected, but the details are not exactly the same.

The emperor transplanted many beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River into the garden, not copying them, but redesigning them creatively.For example, the West Causeway of Hangzhou is a straight causeway, while the West Causeway of Kunming Lake is a curved causeway; the six bridges of West Lake are all flat bridges, but the six bridges of Kunming Lake are very unique, the jade belt bridge is very thin, tall and white , you can take a dragon boat underneath, and the other five bridges have different and beautiful double-eave bridge pavilions, which are completely different from the Sixth Bridge on the West Causeway of West Lake in Hangzhou.

The Seventeen-Arch Bridge is actually modeled after the design of the Lugou Bridge. There are 480 five stone lions on the watchtowers of the Lugou Bridge. The Seventeen-Arch Bridge also has many stone lions on the watchtowers, a total of 540 four.The Seventeen-Arch Bridge is very different from the Marco Polo Bridge. It is not a flat bridge. There are seventeen holes under the bridge, and the middle bridge hole can pass through the dragon boat.Among the seventeen holes, the ninth hole is located in the middle, and nine is the largest in singular number, symbolizing imperial power.

Qingyi Garden integrates various cultural elements of Chinese garden architecture, including the legacy of primitive nomadism, the thought of "benevolence", the concept of supremacy of imperial power, belief in immortals, natural aesthetic awareness of mountains and rivers, and architectural ideas of Buddhist temples and Taoist temples. The room, open the way along the trend, manage the water and divert the flow, and integrate the pavilions surrounded by green trees and grass with the natural environment of distant mountains and near water. Every water, stone, grass and tree have been carefully designed and decorated in a flexible and diverse way. The techniques created a delicate and elegant style and beautiful artistic conception, becoming the highest level of horticultural mastery in China at that time, reaching the peak of Chinese royal gardens for thousands of years, reflecting the emperor's ruling thought of "everything under the sky is the land of the king".

Like other imperial gardens such as the Old Summer Palace, officials must use their waist badges to enter and exit through the designated gates, and princes and ministers are not allowed to enter without being summoned.Later, Hongzhan's son Wang Yongxuan of Guojun entered Zaojian Hall in Qingyi Garden privately to play, and was severely punished.

The Empress Dowager still lives in Changchun Garden, and because she likes the Dabaoen Yanshou Temple in Qingyi Garden, she often goes there.

According to the order of the Empress Dowager, the emperor cultivated all kinds of camellias in the Qingyi Garden. A large garden with excellent Fengshui is full of red camellias. Reflecting the water, as bright as the glow of fire, it was named "Danhong Garden" by the emperor. On the gate of the garden, there is an imperial inscription "Naturally Bright and Bright".

After Qingyi Garden was fully completed, the emperor opened a secret camellia ceremony in Danhong Garden for his biological mother, Mrs. Qian. Besides Concubine Rong and Li Yu, Yingluo Fuheng was the only guest invited.For this sacrificial ceremony, Fu Heng was ordered to collect sacrificial songs for the emperor, and Lu Wenhong and all over the country presented many songs, of course they didn't know they were sacrificial songs.In the end, the emperor chose the folk song "Xintianyou" sent by the Horqin Grassland. He felt that the lyrics were better and the title better. The Chinese translation is:

I bow my head to the ravine

chasing the passing years

The wind and sand are all over the valley

miss my childhood

I look up to the sky

search for the past

Baiyun swim leisurely

nothing changed

wild geese have heard my song

Xiaohe kissed my face

Shandandan flowers bloom and fall

again and again

The earth leaves my dream

Xintianyou took away my love

little stars in the sky

miss forever

Yingluo embroidered another purse of black ground red camellia for the emperor for this big day. She didn’t make things for the emperor anymore, but since the truth of the empress dowager’s murder of her mother and child was revealed that year, she insisted on embroidering for the emperor. Make a purse of red camellia.She made that purse at the very beginning, and gave it to the emperor after her first trip to Jiaxing. Both she and the emperor felt that it was the manifestation of Mrs. Qian.The appearance of the red camellias she embroiders is different each time. From the second purse, she has used the Qiang embroidery technique, because she feels that the simplicity and fullness of Qiang embroidery can highlight the delicate beauty of the camellias.The queen was right, the emperor did often wear red camellia purses, and that was the source of it, and Concubine Rong and Fu Heng, including the queen mother, Mother Liu, naturally knew it.

The emperor specially made a set of "red jade cups" for this ceremony, made of the color and shape of red camellias, and the bottom of the cups was dyed the color of yellow stamens of camellias.Because there is a sentence in Mei Yaochen's "Camellia Trees Gifted to Li Tinglao" in the Song Dynasty:

There are beautiful trees in the southern country, and the flowers are like red jade cups.

There has never been a change in winter and spring, and it often takes snow.

During the ceremony, of course, Jiaxing Sanbaijiu was drunk. When the auspicious time came, the person who came up to sing "Xintianyou" was Gao Yun, and he sang it three times in Mongolian with the accompaniment of the two-stringed top Xiuer.Her bright and vigorous voice expresses this simple and unrestrained folk song with passion and openness, although she doesn't know what it is.The four people present in the courtyard, including Li Yu, all burst into tears when they heard this.

This song flew over Qingyi Garden and merged into the boundless night sky...

Forbearance to leave, can't bear to leave!What kind of mood did my mother feel when she looked at her four-year-old self?The emperor's heart is boundless and full of pride: he is the ruler of the world, he is astonished, he achieves hegemony and conquers the world, and he is chic, it is his mother Qian Honghui who turns the sound of the phoenix; Spread your wings and travel to every corner of the Wanli territory!The picturesque landscape is Hongli's best return to his mother, and also the son's voice to his mother: love to the earth, "Shandandan blossoms red and bright"!

This garden has also become the garden where Concubine Rong and Yingluo have secret banquets together, and Ybor is often in charge of the cooking. Only then did Haishi understand why Yingluo said that Ibol was useful.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month in the 31st year of Qianlong, the House of Internal Affairs received the emperor's decree that the pregnant imperial concubine Wei of the Chuxiu Palace will replace the empress Nala, who was imprisoned in the back hall of the Yikun Palace, to handle the presidency of the inner court on the Lantern Festival. Tables and matters concerning living in the Old Summer Palace; on the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the imperial concubine held a private tea party in the Chuxiu Palace as usual to entertain Madam Nalan, Concubine Rong and Concubine Qing.On May [-], the imperial concubine gave birth to the emperor's seventeenth son, Yonglin.This child was the youngest son of the emperor on the jade certificate, and he was brought up by Concubine Ying and nobleman Wu of Jingren Palace in compliance with the Queen Mother's order.In March of this year, Concubine Shu performed the silkworm ceremony for the Queen.

On the [-]th day of June of the same year, the empress's natal family transferred back from the Zhenghuang Banner of Manchuria to the original Banner of Manchuria Xianglan Banner, and lost two Shi Guanzuo collars.Soon, the queen's nephew, Nasuken Zhuo, served as a third-class bodyguard and was dispatched by Counselor Ushi; on July [-], the queen died of illness.At that time, the emperor and his party were hunting in the Mulan paddock. When they received the news that the queen died of illness, they ordered the twelve princes to go back to the palace to wear filial piety.At that time, Li Yuming, who served as the censor, asked for instructions to hold a funeral according to the queen's etiquette, and was banished to Yili.

The emperor ordered Nala's funeral ceremony to be downgraded to one level, that is, it was held in accordance with the rules of the imperial concubine; on September 28, he was buried in the Yuling Concubine's Garden.In fact, according to the funeral regulations of imperial concubines, ministers, princesses, and wives should gather together every day to mourn and salute, which was also cancelled.The Ministry of Internal Affairs spent only two hundred and seven taels of silver on the funeral. The coffin used by the queen was made of fir wood, and there were 64 coffin bearers, who were only concubines. There were neither god cards nor sacrifices. mentioned, nor was he given a posthumous title.

Since then, the emperor has not stood up again.

The author has something to say:

There is also an epilogue, postscript, and extra episodes.

[Xintianyou] is a unique form of folk songs spread in the Jin-speaking areas of Northwest China (mainly including Shaanxi Province and northern Shanxi Province, western Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region).Its lyrics use the seven-character pattern two, two, and three as the basic sentence format to change the style of the upper and lower sentences. It is good at romantic metaphors, and then repeats the cycle, which can be long or short.In northern Shaanxi, it is called "Xintianyou", also known as "Shuntianyou" and "Xiaoquzi", in Shanxi it is called "Shanqu", and in Inner Mongolia it is called "Climbing Tune".Most of Xintianyou's rhythms are very free, and the melody is unrestrained, open, exciting and soul-stirring.The most familiar to the public should be the song "Xintianyou" sung by Cheng Lin at the Spring Festival Gala in the 80s, which is the entire lyrics selected in the novel.

[Rose Nitrate] Chapter 59 of "A Dream of Red Mansions": "One day at dawn, Baochai woke up from the spring sleepiness. So Xiangyun and others were called up to wash up. Xiangyun said that his cheeks were itchy, and he might have apricot psoriasis again. , because I asked Baochai for some rose salt." Xiangyun's "apricot tinea", also known as "peach blossom tinea", is a skin allergy symptom that tends to appear in spring. "Rose nitrate" is a cosmeceutical product that is always available on the women's dressing table in Daguanyuan. It has the functions of dispelling and reducing inflammation.It is recorded in medical books that rose branches can cure alopecia; external application of leaves can promote granulation and close the mouth; flowers can clear away heat, harmonize the stomach, and stop bleeding.The "nitrate" mentioned here is a general term for certain mineral salts, which generally have the effects of dissipating, pulling out pus, and removing rot. Therefore, rose nitrate has a certain therapeutic effect on spring tinea.Pick off the whole rose flower, soak it in an appropriate amount of water, put it in a stone bowl and grind it with a pestle, extract the clear flower juice, mix it with spices, silver salt, orange blossom essential oil and other materials for fumigation, dry it and crush it into powder. It can be used for face makeup, and can be put into a powder case for daily use, or it can be put into a purse as a lotus fragrance to carry.

Historically, Concubine Shu was the adoptive mother of the Nine Princesses.

[Qingyi Garden] The existing Summer Palace is only a part of Qingyi Garden, as I said before.The designer of the Old Summer Palace was the Lei family, and the Western architecture was designed by Castiglione and others.But there is no record of the designer of the Summer Palace.It is recognized by later generations that the Summer Palace was actually designed by Qianlong himself. The design and construction of the garden fully embodies the concept of "three parts belong to the craftsman and seven parts belong to the master", reflecting Qianlong's personal aesthetic taste and art. This section makes a detailed description. Based on this, the novel fabricated Wu Min himself.

"In front of the empress dowager, she couldn't fulfill her filial piety, acted unreasonably, and was insane. The emperor thought that she had been extraordinarily merciful to the side Fujin bestowed by the imperial examination when she was in the Qing Palace, and did not abolish her queen title." These are In history, Qianlong himself explained the succession of confinement. The words "I hate the emperor deeply on weekdays" were also said by Qianlong himself in Zhu Zhu, because the subsequent hair loss is a curse to the emperor according to Manchu custom.

Historically, Concubine Ying was the adoptive mother of Brother Seventeen.