Biography
Empress Xiaochengren was born in the Manchu Hešeri clan. She was the daughter of Gabula, a duke and general. Her grandfather Sonin served as one of the Four Regents for the Kangxi Emperor from 1661 to 1667 when the emperor was still a child. Lady Hešeri's great-grandfather Shuose and great-granduncle Xifu were both fluent in the Chinese, Mongol and Manchu languages, and served as Grand Councilors. One of her uncles was Songgotu, a diplomat and minister.
Lady Hešeri married the Kangxi Emperor in 1665 when she was 12 and he was 11, thus becoming Empress.
Lady Hešeri died on 16 June 1674 in the Forbidden City shortly after giving birth to her second son Yinreng. After her death the Kangxi Emperor left the position of Empress vacant for several years. One of Lady Hešeri's younger sisters later became Kangxi's Consort Ping (平妃).
Read more about this topic: Empress Xiaochengren
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)