|
General information Yehenala, the Long Yu Empress (Chinese: 隆裕皇后叶赫那拉氏), 1868 - 1913 was the Qing Dynasty Empress Consort of the Guang Xu Emperor of China. The Long Yu Empress was of the Manchu Yehenala clan and also a cousin of Guang Xu Emperor, who reigned from 1875 to 1908. Also, she was a niece of the Ci Xi Imperial Dowager Empress. Biography Yehenala was chosen as the Empress Consort because her aunt, the Ci Xi Dowager Empress wanted to strengthen the power of her own family. She married the Guang Xu Emperor on February 26, 1889 and was granted the title The Long Yu Empress. Yehenala was detested and ignored by the Guang Xu Emperor, who favoured the Imperial Concubine Zhen of the Tatala clan (他他拉氏珍妃). Yehenala undermined the Imperial Concubine Zhen by reporting and exaggerating stories about Zhen's rebellious nature to the Ci Xi Dowager Empress. Imperial Conbubine Zhen in turn urged the Guang Xu Emperor to be more independent and capable. Concubine Zhen also supported the new political reforms. The Ci Xi Dowager Empress eventually grew more hostile to the Imperial Concubine Zhen and had her drowned in a palace well before the imperial court fled to the City of Xi'an when Beijing became occupied by foreign armies. After the Guang Xu Emperor's attempt to gain power from the Ci Xi Dowager Empress's hand failed, he was imprisoned by the Dowager Empress in a lagoon inside the former Imperial Residence. The Long Yu Empress would frequently spy on the Emperor and report his every actions to the Ci Xi Dowager Empress. When both the Guang Xu Emperor and the Ci Xi Dowager Empress died within 3 days, Empress Long Yu was made the Long Yu Imperial Dowager Empress. As a Dowager Empress, Yehenala adopted the Xuan Tong Emperor Puyi as her son after Guang Xu Emperor's death in 1908. The Ci Xi Dowager Empress had maintained before her death that the Qing Dynasty would never again allow the regency of women, but that the Long Yu Dowager Empress would remain the leading respected figure, and therefore must be consulted on all major decisions. This decision was in many ways contradictory, and when Empress Long Yu assumed the title of Dowager Empress, in theory, she was in a position to make all the most important decisions, but in practice, because of her inexperience in politics, in the first few years the Imperial Court was dominated by the young regent Zai Feng, and then by Yuan Shikai; she was dependent on both. Under Yuan's advice in the fall of 1911, the Long Yu Dowager Empress agreed to sign an abdication of the Xuan Tong Emperor, while providing the conditions that the Imperial Family would continue to live in the Forbidden City, and would keep its assets, titles, and servants. In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was abolished, making way for the new Republic of China. Within a few months after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Long Yu Dowager Empress died in Beijing following an illness. She was 46 years old, and she was the only Empress of China whose coffin was transported from the Forbidden City to her tomb by train. On her funeral, the President of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhong (黎元洪), praised the Long Yu Dowager Empress as the "most excellent among women". | |||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |