Royals › Empress / Consort
Empress Xiaokangzhang
Consort of the Shunzhi emperor and mother of the Kangxi emperor, honoured as Empress Dowager Cihe, who died at twenty-four in 1663
In a spring palace garden, a pavilion with round windows stands over a pond of goldfish; a peony-painted round fan, a zither and a lacquer box of pearl hairpins lie in the foreground, and one small figure in a long-sleeved gown stands at the far end of a covered walkway.
Also known as Tongjia Shi · Xiao Kang
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
Empress Xiaokangzhang was born in 1640 into the Tong family of the Chinese-martial banners, daughter of the banner general Tong Tulai, and entered the palace as a consort of the Shunzhi emperor. In the spring of 1654 she gave birth to his third son, Xuanye, in the Jingren Palace. When Shunzhi died in 1661 and Xuanye came to the throne as the Kangxi emperor, she was honoured as Empress Dowager Cihe. She died in March 1663 at twenty-four by Chinese reckoning and was buried with Shunzhi in the Xiao tomb; her posthumous title, Empress Xiaokangzhang, raised her to the rank of empress. In 1688 her family was moved from the Chinese-martial banner into the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner under the Manchu-style clan name Tunggiya, and her niece became Kangxi's Empress Xiaoyiren.
Life and times
Dates 1640 CE–1663 CE