Consort Dun
| Consort Dun | |
|---|---|
 Part of a portrait of Consort Dun | |
| Born | 27 March 1746 |
| Died | 6 March 1806 (aged 59) |
| Burial | Yuling Mausoleum, Eastern Qing tombs, China |
| Spouse | Qianlong Emperor |
| Issue | Gurun Princess Hexiao |
| House | Wang (by birth) Aisin Gioro (by marriage) |
| Father | Sige |
| Consort Dun | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 惇妃 | ||||||
| |||||||
Consort Dun (27 March 1746 – 6 March 1806) was a consort of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty.
Life
Consort Dun was born in the Manchu Wang (汪) clan, which was under the Bordered Yellow Banner. Her personal name is unknown. Her father was Sige (四格), who served as the Prefect of Longyan from 1755–1756 and as the Magistrate of Yixing County from 1763–1766.
In 1764, Lady Wang entered the Forbidden City after she was selected to join the Qianlong Emperor's imperial harem. She received the rank of changzai under the title "Changzai Yong" (永常在). She soon earned the Qianlong Emperor's favour and was quickly promoted to "Noble Lady Yong" (永貴人). She was further promoted to "Imperial Concubine Dun" (惇嬪) in 1770 and to "Consort Dun" in 1774. In 1775, she bore the emperor's tenth daughter, Gurun Princess Hexiao. The Qianlong Emperor deeply favoured the princess and showed even greater favour towards her mother. According to Qing dynasty palace archive records, Lady Wang became pregnant again not long after giving birth to Gurun Princess Hexiao, but she ended up with a miscarriage.
Sometime in 1778, Lady Wang ordered a palace maid to be severely beaten for making a minor mistake. The maid died from her injuries later. The Qianlong Emperor felt very frustrated by this incident because under the Qing dynasty's laws, he ought to harshly punish Lady Wang for causing the maid's death, but at the same time he was worried about how punishing Lady Wang would affect Gurun Princess Hexiao. He eventually demoted Lady Wang to "Imperial Concubine Dun" and ordered her to compensate the maid's family with 100 taels of silver and pay half of the financial penalty levied on her servants, whose salaries were suspended for a year or two. However, after two years, in 1780 Lady Wang was restored back to "Consort Dun".
Lady Wang died in 1806 during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor's 15th son and successor. She was interred in the Yuling Mausoleum at the Eastern Qing tombs.
See also
References
- Zhao, Erxun (1928). Draft History of Qing (Qing Shi Gao) (in Chinese). Vol. Volume 214.
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