Empress Xiaoxianchun

Life

Lady Fuca gave birth to her husband's first daughter on 3 November 1728, who died prematurely on 14 February 1730. On 9 August 1730 she gave birth to Yonglian, who died of smallpox on 23 November 1738. On 31 July 1731 she gave birth to Princess Hejing of the First Rank. Over time, Lady Fuca developed a wonderful relationship with Lady Gao, her husband's secondary consort since 1734.

Qianlong era

The Yongzheng Emperor died on 8 October 1735 and Hongli was enthroned as the Qianlong Emperor. On 23 January 1738, Lady Fuca was instated as empress. She was assisted by Noble Consort Gao in managing the palace and caring for Empress Dowager Chongqing. The Draft History of Qing describes her as a respected and virtuous person who looked after the people in the palace.

She did not like spending money for her own aggrandizement and wore artificial flowers instead of expensive jewelry. When the Qianlong Emperor told her that their Manchu ancestors were too poor to make pouches from cloth and had to settle for simple deer hide, she immediately made one for him. He was touched by the gift. She took her duties seriously regarding Confucian rituals, supervising other palace women.

A sericulture altar was completed in 1744 largely at her urging, and that year she became the first Qing empress to personally lead these rituals, making offerings of mulberry. On 27 May 1746 she gave birth to Yongcong, whom the emperor named crown prince shortly after his birth, but Yongcong died on 29 January 1748 due to smallpox. During a southern tour in 1748, Empress Fuca became seriously ill with a malarial fever and died on 8 April, three months after Yongcong's death.

Death

Her funeral was lavishly done. The emperor was deeply affected and removed two sons from his list of potential successors for not mourning enough. Court officials who shaved their hair during the mourning period were heavily punished or executed. The bereaved emperor wrote the poem 'Expressing My Grief' after her death.