Empress Xiaoyiren

Empress Xiaoyiren
Empress Consort of the Qing dynasty
Tenure	23 August 1689 – 24 August 1689
Born	Unknown
Died	24 August 1689(1689-08-24)
Burial	November 1689 Jingling Mausoleum, Eastern Qing tombs, China
Spouse	Kangxi Emperor
Issue	Unnamed daughter
Posthumous name Empress Xiaoyi Wencheng Duanren Xianmu Heke Cihui Fengtian Zuosheng Ren (孝懿溫誠端仁憲穆和恪慈惠奉天佐聖仁皇后)
House	Tunggiya (by birth) Aisin Gioro (by marriage)
Father	Tong Guowei
Mother	Lady Hešeri

Empress Xiaoyiren (Manchu: Hiyoošungga Fujurangga Gosin Hūwanghu; died 24 August 1689) was the third Empress Consort of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Life

Empress Xiaoyiren was born in the Manchu Tunggiya clan. Her personal name is not recorded in history. She was a maternal cousin of the Kangxi Emperor. Her grandfather, Tong Tulai (佟圖賴; 1606–1658), was the father of Empress Xiaokangzhang, the Kangxi Emperor's mother. Her father, Tong Guowei (佟國維; died 1719), served as a minister of internal security (領侍衛內大臣) and held the title of a first class duke. Her mother was from the Hešeri clan. Lady Tunggiya had a younger sister, who later also became a consort of the Kangxi Emperor and is known by her title "Imperial Noble Consort Quehui" (愨惠皇貴妃).

It is not known when Lady Tunggiya entered the Forbidden City and became a consorts of the Kangxi Emperor. She was first mentioned in official histories in 1677 when the Kangxi Emperor granted ranks and titles to his consorts. Lady Tunggiya received the rank of Noble Consort. As she was the only one among the emperor's consorts to hold that rank, she did not receive a title to distinguish her from the other consorts.

In 1678, the Kangxi Emperor's second empress consort, Empress Xiaozhaoren, died so there was no one to take charge of the emperor's harem. Lady Tunggiya was put in charge and became the acting Empress. In the same year, another concubine of the Kangxi Emperor gave birth to a son, Yinzhen. Traditionally, the Empress was tasked with overseeing the upbringing of all the Emperor's children, regardless of whether or not she was their birth mother. Since Lady Tunggiya was the most senior among all the Kangxi Emperor's consorts at the time, she was tasked with raising Yinzhen.

In early 1681, Lady Tunggiya was promoted from Noble Consort to Imperial Noble Consort – one rank below Empress. On 13 July 1683, she gave birth to the Kangxi Emperor's eighth daughter, who was unnamed and died after barely reaching one month old.

On 23 August 1689, when Lady Tunggiya was critically ill, the Kangxi Emperor officially instated her as Empress. She died on the following day and was interred in the Jingling Mausoleum in the Eastern Qing tombs. She was posthumously honoured as "Empress Xiaoyiren".

See also

• Ranks of imperial consorts in China#Qing
• Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty

Sources

• Spence, Jonathan D. (2012). Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi (Unabridged ed.). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 0307823067. 
• Wan, Yi; Shuqing, Wang; Yanzhen, Lu; Scott, Rosemary E. (1988). Daily Life in the Forbidden City: The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912 (Illustrated ed.). Viking. ISBN 0670811645. 
• Zhao, Erxun (1928). Draft History of Qing (Qing Shi Gao) (in Chinese).