by Poon, Alice;
Thirty
When China was restored to relative peace, Kangxi set his eyes on the island of Taiwan, to which Zheng Jing had fled when the Green Standard Army had defeated his army along with the Fujian rebels. Zheng Jing had meanwhile died of illness and had been succeeded by his son, Zheng Keshuang. Kangxi felt that the coastal ports of Fuzhou and Amoy would never have peace until Zheng’s Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan was placed under Qing’s control.
After consulting his trusted Han ministers in the Ministry of Defense, he appointed Admiral Shi Lang as the Naval Commander to lead a naval fleet of three hundred battleships to conquer Taiwan. Shi Lang had once served in Zheng Chenggong’s naval force for a short time, and after he defected to the Qing thirty-seven years earlier, Zheng killed Shi Lang’s father, brother and son. Kangxi knew there was no one more eager than Shi Lang, a skilled naval officer, to lead the Qing navy and see the Zheng family vanquished.
As a matter of courtesy, Kangxi consulted his Nana about his choice of Naval Commander, and she endorsed it without hesitation, being fully confident now of his shrewdness in decision-making.
After meticulous preparations, Shi Lang led his fleet and an army of twenty thousand soldiers out into the Taiwan Strait in the direction of the Penghu islands. Within days, his fleet had crushed the enemy’s ships. Their incursion over the much larger island of Taiwan also met with little resistance and it fell under Qing rule.
While Kangxi had no mercy for two-timing traitors like the three Warlords, he was always ready to be lenient towards die-hard Ming loyalists who were prepared to pledge allegiance to the Qing. Granting him an honorary title of “Duke”, Kangxi attached Zheng and his soldiers to the Green Standard Army.
Before the news of victory in the Battle of Penghu reached Kangxi, he had been dealt another blow in his private life.
Imperial Noble Consort Tunggiya gave birth to a beautiful daughter on an early summer day. She had been looking forward to the day so eagerly, it put a luminous glow on her smiling face. How she and Xuanye would love this precious child! She had waited for this moment for six years, and finally her most cherished wish was to be granted.
All through her pregnancy she had kept busy sewing and embroidering clothes for the coming infant. She knew Xuanye was just as excited as she was, although he had left a couple of days earlier with his Nana on a trip to the Kharahotun Mountain Retreat in Jehol. She was in labor for half a day when finally her bundle of joy made her grand entry. The little thing had large, dark almond eyes, just like hers, and silky soft, black, curly hair. Tears of gratitude filled her eyes as she looked down at her newborn.
On the tenth day, the baby bloomed into a little pink beauty whose nimble hands and feet wouldn’t stop waggling to draw attention. The mother imagined her daughter would grow up to be a good rider just like her father. She was visualizing the expression on Xuanye’s face when he got to see his infant daughter. In another twelve days he would be back.
Bumbutai had wanted to take this trip for a long time and she had been waiting impatiently for the revolt of the warlords to be put down so that Xuanye would be free to accompany her. She had just passed her seventieth birthday and her health was not as robust as it once was. While she could still move about with relative ease, she was anxious to visit once again the place where Dorgon’s life had tragically ended.
Her life had always been lived for other people and never for herself. For her grandfather, for the Khorchin Mongols, for Hong Taiji, for Shunzhi, for Kangxi and for the Qing Empire. Yet for her most beloved Dorgon, she had given so very little of herself. She wanted so much to tell his spirit everything that had weighed on her mind for so long. She was convinced that his spirit lingered still in that place of death because there had never been a proper entombment of his remains, and she chose to believe what she wanted to believe.
Kangxi decided to bring only Sumalagu and a small team of bodyguards on the journey. He knew his Nana’s wishes and selected an old guardsman who had been on Dorgon’s last hunting expedition to join the party, so that he could lead them to the exact spot where his grand-uncle had lain, dying.
The two women rode together in a horse-drawn carriage while Kangxi and two guards rode in front on horseback and another two trailed behind in a wagon filled with food provisions and camping and hunting gear. They moved at a leisurely pace and made overnight stops in the evenings. Kangxi took care not to tire his Nana.
A few years after assuming full imperial power, Kangxi had built the Mountain Retreat of which Dorgon had first conceived. Possessed of a fervent passion for hunting just like his grand-uncle, he visited this haunt as often as he could.
Though he seldom spoke his mind about his grand-uncle, he maintained a secret admiration for his chivalrous, though forbidden, love for his Nana during his younger years. He often felt sorry for them both. Ever since his Nana had told him that he had eyes like his grand-uncle’s, he had developed a fondness for him. But throughout his youth, people around him were strangely reticent about Dorgon and his deeds. Nana was the only one who sometimes let a few words about him escape her. What upset him most, though, was the brutal way his corpse had been treated. He could never understand the acrimony that existed between his father and his grand-uncle, and even less that between his grandfather and grand-uncle.
After six days’ travelling, they reached the Mountain Retreat in Kharahotun. The cool mountain breeze was refreshing and a welcome change after the sweltering summer heat in Beijing. The travelers, who all had nomad blood running through their veins, took their time drinking in the serene and wild beauty, which made them feel right at home.
The Retreat was a modest complex of four annexed buildings, all sparsely furnished with bamboo furniture. The main building housed the lounge and dining area, and opened onto a large courtyard, while the east and west wings had three bed chambers each, with the remaining building in the backyard serving as the kitchen area and servants’ quarters. The Retreat was nestled in a pine-forested ravine, right beside a crystal-clear turquoise lake fed by a nearby glacier.
Upon their arrival at the Retreat, a message was waiting for Kangxi, sent from the Board of Rites, announcing the birth of Imperial Noble Consort Tunggiya’s first daughter. His face flushed with excitement as he read the missive. Relaying the happy news to his Nana, he bade Sumalagu prepare a big meal for the whole party that evening to celebrate.
The next day, Kangxi and two bodyguards left on a six-day hunting trip into the mountains, while Bumbutai and Sumalagu rested in the Retreat. They took daily strolls in the surrounding forest or spent time fishing in the glacial lake.
On the day following Kangxi’s return from the hunting excursion, he accompanied his Nana, Sumalagu and the old guardsman to locate the camp site where Dorgon had died. The old guardsman had a good memory and within half an hour’s riding, they reached the windswept plateau to the east of the ravine where the Retreat was situated, where Dorgon’s expedition had camped on that fateful night. Although the sun tried to wrap its warmth around the forlorn plain, it was too engrossed in its own frigidity to respond.
Here, Kangxi, Sumalagu and the guardsman discreetly rode off to a nearby clearing to let Bumbutai have a moment alone.
It was thirty-two-and-a-half years since it had happened. The image of Dorgon lying unconscious in a pool of dark blood after his deadly fall flashed into her mind. She saw him clutching the pink bundle in his bloodied hand, and saw herself hugging his lifeless form in the mortuary. Burning the letter and the lock of hair over the candle. These images had never left her. They had been locked in the bottommost layer of her memory. Now she unlocked them and let them free.
At this moment a large golden eagle swooped into sight and circled above her head. She was excited to see it.
“Dorgon my love, can you hear me?” she murmured to herself. “I have come to talk to you.”
She paced back and forth on the
spot where Ajige’s tent had stood. The eagle had landed atop the highest of the pine trees fringing the plateau. It squatted perfectly still on the crest.
“I am here to tell you how much I have missed you all these years,” she continued. “I can assure you that it won’t be long before I come and join you.”
She glanced up at the eagle.
“There is something I wanted to tell you long ago but never did. I’m so ashamed that I kept it from you…. Please forgive me. Dorgon, I bore you a daughter, a beautiful daughter. Her name is Shuhui and she is now fifty-one years old.”
She tried to find a rock surface to take the weight off her legs. Noticing a large flat boulder jutting out at knee level from hill slope within ten walking paces, she shuffled over and sat down. When she looked up, she saw the eagle still on the same perch, directly opposite her.
Without realizing it, she found she was fiddling with the butterfly buttons on the collar of her jade green robe. Sumalagu had made this robe with the same jade green silk as the Chinese-style waistcoat and skirt ensemble that she had worn the night when she performed a butterfly dance for Dorgon in Yongfu Palace.
“Do you remember that night when you came into my bed chamber soaked in alcohol? Hong Taiji was away fighting in a battle at Dalinghe. You would not leave…” She paused, deep in the memory.
“Shuhui is happily married and lives with her husband in the Khorchin Mongol State. For her sake as well as yours and mine, I kept the truth from everyone. It is only recently that I told Suma about it. Please forgive me, Dorgon.”
The stately eagle flapped its expansive wings a few times.
“Through all these long lonely years, it is our lovely daughter who has kept me going. Ahhh, there was so much heartache and anguish that I was destined to go through, the tragic deaths, the maniacal hatred, the never-ending battles, the treachery …. But now I have completed all my duties. Your grand-nephew is a grown man and he is firmly set at the helm now. If you could see him, and I am sure you can, you would find that he has an air that takes after you.”
During her pause, the eagle darted to the next tall tree and sat there, as if waiting for more. She drew out a pink kerchief with an embroidered blue swallow and put it on her lap before continuing.
“Dorgon, it was horrible what they did to your corpse. You didn’t deserve that. I cried my eyes out for several days. I always took with me the drawing you gave me. It was the only thing that could give me a little comfort. Please forgive Fulin. He was under Oboi’s bad influence. I am going to ask Xuanye to rehabilitate both your title and your tomb.”
As she said this, a rivulet of tears escaped her eyes. In a husky voice, she carried on:
“You will be pleased to know that after so many years of turmoil, the Qing Empire is now finally consolidated under Xuanye’s rule. If it hadn’t been for your efforts and Hong Taiji’s, this day would not have come. Dorgon, I hope you know that I meant every word in my first letter to you, and I still do. My heart has always only belonged to you alone. It is just that I had my own obligations and at times I was forced to make hard choices.”
She raised her eyes again and was awed to find that the eagle had swooped down from its perch to the ground and was strutting on the spot of the tent site. Then it stopped in front of her and stood there quietly.
“My love, I knew that your claim to the throne was justified. You had opportunity to seize it after Hong Taiji’s death but you didn’t. You gave it up for my sake. This is a debt that I will never be able to repay you. Eternal Blue Sky willing, when my time here is up, I will come and serve you with my heart and my soul for eternity.”
She stood up slowly and left her pink kerchief on the boulder. The eagle soared out of sight. Then she headed towards the party who were waiting for her. When she turned her head to look, the kerchief was gone.
After spending twelve days in the Kharahotun Mountains, the party was ready to leave. If Kangxi was anxious to get back to his Palace, he didn’t let his impatience show. The party took the same six days for the return journey.
By the time they arrived at the Meridian Gate, it was early evening and Kangxi left the riding party to head straight to the East Palace where Hexian lived. It was the twenty-fourth day since the infant’s birth. As he approached her bed chambers, he heard the sound of women wailing inside, and he felt his legs go weak.
His lovely infant daughter had passed away that morning from an unknown illness. Hexian had fainted several times during the day from heartbreak. Seeing his distraught wife, he stepped up to hold her in his embrace and did his best to comfort her, while hiding his own grief.
Hexian would remain childless right up to her death in the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi’s reign. Kangxi would make her Empress on the day before her death, hoping that the auspicious event might pull her back from the Emperor of Ghosts. He would leave the post of Empress unfilled through the remainder of his life.
Four peaceful years quietly slipped by after the Kharahotun trip. Bumbutai’s health was on a downward track during those years but she still kept up her studies. In the winter months of the twenty-sixth year of the Kangxi reign, she fell very sick and was bedridden.
Kangxi was crushed with grief over his Nana’s illness. For thirty-five days in a row, he personally spoon-fed her herbal medicine and congee meals and slept on the floor beside her sick bed, keeping vigil overnight. He bade his Grand Secretariat not to submit Court memorials to him while he was at Cining Palace, unless they were of an extreme urgent nature.
One morning when she felt a little stronger, she asked Xuanye to sit on the edge of the bed and prop her up. She told him her last wishes:
“Xuanye, please listen carefully. I have two wishes that I want you to fulfill when I’m gone.” She paused for a moment and then continued in a weak voice: “The first is that I would not want your grandfather’s tomb in Mukden disturbed, and so I would rather be buried close to Shunzhi’s tomb here near Beijing.” She coughed heavily. Kangxi gave her some warm water to soothe her throat
“Yes, Nana, I’ll see to it.”
“The second is that I want you to promise to take care of Princess Shuhui for life after I’m gone.” She was struggling to continue.
“You don’t need to worry, Nana. I’ll have her and her family brought here to live in the Palaces, if they are willing.”
“Also, make my funeral as simple as possible.”
“Yes, Nana, I know what to do. Now you must lie down and rest.” He tried hard to blink back his tears so that she wouldn’t see them.
When all the finest physicians had been consulted and her sickness still showed no signs of improvement, Kangxi sat down at his writing table and penned a long petition to the Shamanist deity.
In a praying ritual held at the Shamanist Shrine located to the southeast of the Forbidden City, a Shaman led the Aisin Gioro clansmen and Court Ministers in a group prayer pleading for the Grand Empress Dowager’s speedy recovery. When the chanting was finished, Kangxi read out aloud the petition that he had earlier written, in which he specifically offered to have his years of life cut short in exchange for his Nana’s recovery. As he came to the end of the petition, his face was drenched in tears. There wasn’t a dry eye in the hall.
But as Bumbutai would often say, in the matter of life and death, there was no arguing with Eternal Blue Sky.
On her sickbed, she wandered into a dream and returned finally to her beloved homeland for the first time since leaving it at the tender age of twelve.
Chronology
1613 (March 28): Birth of Bumbutai in the Khorchin State of Mongolia.
1625 (Spring): Bumbutai becomes concubine to Hong Taiji.
1626 (February): Battle of Ningyuan.
1626 (September 30): Nurhaci, founder of the Later Jin Dynasty, dies.
1627: Hong Taiji commences reign as Khan, assisted by three other B
eiles.
1629: Birth of Bumbutai’s first daughter.
1630 (September 22): Yuan Chonghuan executed by slicing.
1631 (September): Battle of Dalinghe.
1632: Birth of Bumbutai’s second daughter.
1633: Birth of Bumbutai’s third daughter.
1634 (November): Harjol becames Hong Taiji’s Consort.
1635: Hong Taiji changed tribal name from “Jurchen” to “Manchu”.
1636: Hong Taiji changes dynasty name from “Later Jin” to “Qing”.
1636 (May): Hong Taiji assumes title of Emperor.
1636: Bumbutai granted title of “Consort Zhuang”.
1636: Harjol granted title of “Consort Chen”.
1636 (December): Surrender of Korea to the Manchu Empire.
1638 (March 15): Birth of Bumbutai’s son Fulin (Shunzhi).
1641 (October): Harjol dies.
1641 - 1642: Battles of Songshan and Jinzhou (or Battle of Songjin).
1643 (September 21): Hong Taiji dies.
1643 (October 8): Fulin (Shunzhi) accedes to the Manchu throne, with Jirgalang and Dorgon as Co-Regents.
1644 (April 25): Ming Emperor Chongzhen commits suicide on Prospect Hill.
1644 (May 27): Battle of Shanhai Pass (at the eastern end of the Great Wall).
1644 (June 5): Official surrender of the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Empire.
1644 (October 19): Dorgon receives Shunzhi Emperor into Beijing.
1644 (November 8): Formal enthronement of Shunzhi Emperor in the Forbidden City.
