Empress Dowager Longyu
| Empress Xiaodingjing 孝定景皇后 |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||
 Regent of the Qing dynasty
|
|||||||||
| Regency | 2 December 1908 – 12 February 1912 alongside Zaifeng |
||||||||
| Predecessor | Empress Dowager Cixi | ||||||||
| Successor | Dynasty abolished | ||||||||
| Emperor | Xuantong Emperor | ||||||||
| Empress Consort of the Qing dynasty | |||||||||
| Tenure | 26 February 1889 – 2 December 1908 | ||||||||
| Born | 28 January 1868 | ||||||||
| Died | 22 February 1913 (aged 45) Forbidden City, Beijing, China |
||||||||
| Spouse | Guangxu Emperor | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
| House |
Yehenara (by birth) Aisin Gioro (by marriage) |
||||||||
| Father | Guixiang | ||||||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| Yehenara Jingfen (叶赫那拉·静芬) |
|
| Posthumous name | |
| Empress Xiaodinglongyukuanhuishenzhexietianbaoshengjing (孝定隆裕寬惠慎協天保聖景皇后) |
| Empress Dowager Longyu | |||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 孝定景皇后 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Lady Yehenara | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 葉赫那拉氏 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 叶赫那拉氏 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Manchu name | |||||||
| Manchu script | ᡥᡳᠶᠣᠣᡧᡠᠩᡤᠠ ᡨᠣᡴᠣᠩᡤᠣ ᠠᠮᠪᠠᠯᡳᠩᡤᡡ ᡥᡡᠸᠠᠩᡥᡝᠣ | ||||||
| Romanization | hiyoošungga toktonggo ambalinggū hūwangheo | ||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Xiàodìngjǐng Huánghòu |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Yèhènàlā Shì |
Empress Xiaodingjing (28 January 1868 – 22 February 1913), better known as Empress Dowager Longyu, personal name Jingfen, was the Empress Consort of the Guangxu Emperor, the penultimate emperor of the Qing dynasty and imperial China. She is best remembered for signing the abdication documents in 1912 on behalf of Puyi, the Last Emperor.
Empress Xiaodingjing was the second daughter of Guixiang (桂祥; 1849–1913), a Manchu general of the Yehenara clan and younger brother of Empress Dowager Cixi. She was born in 1868 during the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor. In 1889, Empress Dowager Cixi, who served as regent during the Guangxu Emperor's minority, decided that the emperor had to marry before he could formally take over the reins of power. She chose her niece, Guixiang's daughter, to be the Empress Consort of the Guangxu Emperor because she wanted to strengthen the influence of the Yehenara clan within the imperial family.
Empress Xiaodingjing married the Guangxu Emperor on 26 February 1889, and became his Empress directly after the wedding. The wedding ceremony of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Xiaodingjing, an extremely extravagant and spectacular occasion, took place on 26 February 1889. However, prior to the wedding, on 16 January 1889, the Forbidden City caught fire, and the Gate of Supreme Harmony was burnt down. According to imperial traditions, the route of the Emperor's wedding procession had to pass through the Gate of Supreme Harmony, which was completely destroyed. As a result, many people believed that this incident was a bad omen.
Due to the fact that the reconstruction of the gate would be extremely time-consuming, and the wedding date of the Emperor could not be postponed once decided, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered a tent resembling the gate to be constructed. The artisans used paper and wood to build the tent, and after it was done, the tent had exactly the same height and the same width as the original gate, with ornamentation extremely similar to the original. As a result, even people who walked through the inner palace on a regular basis could not tell the difference between the original gate and the temporary tent at first.
...
Wikipedia