Empress Xiaoxianchun

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Empress Xiaoxianchun : biography

28 March 1712 – 8 April 1748

It is also said that Lady Fuca did not like spending money for her own good. Instead of wearing jewellery she would put wild flowers in her hair.

The Qianlong Emperor once told her a story that Manchus were too poor to make their own pouches from cloth and had to settle for simple deer hide instead. She immediately made one for him. He was touched by the gift. Lady Fuca also made other pouches for him.Splendors of China’s Forbidden City "The glorious reign of Emperor Qianlong" ISBN 1-85894-203-9

Lady Fuca took her duties seriously when it came to Confucian rituals. As head of the women’s quarters in the palace, she supervised the emperor’s concubines when performing a ritual. One of these was a rite concerning sericulture that was presided over by the Empress. This rite, which had been practiced since the Zhou Dynasty, was gradually restored during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. For this a sericulture altar was constructed in 1742.

In 1744 a new Altar to Sericulture was completed,Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900 (University of California Press, 2000), p. 308. largely at Lady Fuca’s urging.Qing liechao houfei zhuan gao, F. 86. Qingchao yeshi daguan, 1.55. In the same year Lady Fuca became the first empress in the Qing Dynasty to personally lead the women in the palace in these rites. They made offerings of mulberry and presented them to silkworm cocoons, all of them working industriously.

The whole rite was painted on four scrolls in 1751 in memory of Lady Fuca, who died in 1748."Empress supervising the rites of sericulture" painting hangs in the National Palace Museum, Beijing.

Death

Lady Fuca often joined the Qianlong Emperor on his excursions throughout China. In 1748, during one of Qianlong’s southern tours, Lady Fuca became seriously ill and eventually died on 8 April at the age of 36. She was interred in the Yuling Mausoleum in the Eastern Qing Tombs. It is said that the Qianlong Emperor often visited her grave with wistful longing, and remained heartbroken to the end of his days.