Many people know that Prince Chun’s Mansion on the northern edge of Houhai is the birthplace of the last emperor Puyi, but few people know that the earliest owner of this palace was Mingzhu, the great scholar of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the eldest son of Mingzhu. Nalan Xingde, the most famous poet in the Qing Dynasty, was born in this mansion. Due to historical changes, it is difficult to find traces of Nalan Xingde’s life here. In fact, if you want to better understand the poet's life and experience, the Nalan Xingde Historical Relics Exhibition Hall in Shangzhuang District, northern Haidian District, is a good choice. It was originally a rural garden for Mingzhu and his family. It is also the cemetery of the Nalan family. There are many remains of the Nalan family here, and you can also learn more about the story of Nalan Xingde.
To avoid taboo, "Chengde" was changed to "Xingde"
In the twelfth lunar month of the 11th year of Shunzhi (January 1655 AD), Nalan Xingde was born into a prominent family. His original name was Chengde and his courtesy name was Rongruo. His father, Nalan Mingzhu, had successively served as the chief steward of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the emperor's chief steward), the Minister of Justice, the Minister of War, and other important positions. During the Kangxi Dynasty, he participated in several major Anguo events: destroying the San Francisco dynasty, taking over Taiwan, conquering Russia in the east, pacifying Junggar in the west, In the management of Huanghuai, Mingzhu participated in the decision-making and played an important role. His mother, Jue Luo, was from the royal family and was the daughter of Dorgon's brother Azige (the famous landmark "Eight Kings Tomb" in Beijing was named after Azige's tomb).
The period when Nalan Xingde lived was when his father was at the height of his power in the court. The Mingzhu family's residence is on the north side of Shichahai, where is the current Prince Chun's Mansion (after 1949, Prince Chun's Mansion was used by the State Administration of Religious Affairs and other units, and the garden became the residence of Comrade Soong Ching Ling in Beijing, and is now open to tourists as his former residence). We can vaguely see the scale of this mansion from the full map of the capital in the fifteenth year of Qianlong's reign. At that time, there were many courtyard houses and open spaces in the surrounding area. Later, the Mingzhu family declined, and the mansion was first taken by Heshen as his own. After Heshen's fall, it was given to his elder brother, Prince Yongxuan, by Emperor Jiaqing. After Yongxuan's death, his descendants lived in this mansion for several decades. During the Guangxu period, the palace was given to Emperor Guangxu's biological father, Prince Chun Yixuan. Therefore, to this day, this place is called "Prince Chun's Mansion". The family of Prince Chun lived here for decades, and the last emperor Puyi, who came from the pedigree of Prince Chun, was born in this mansion.
Mingzhu named him Nalan Chengde, which means "a gentleman sets an example with mature virtues". In the fourteenth year of Kangxi (1675), Emperor Kangxi appointed his favorite second son as the crown prince. The crown prince's nickname was Baocheng, and both Rongruo and Rongruo had the word "cheng" in their names. Therefore, in order to avoid the taboo of becoming famous, Nalan Chengde changed his name to Nalan Xingde. The next year, Baocheng changed his name to Yinreng, and Nalan Xingde also changed his name back to Nalan Chengde. In total, the name Nalanxingde only lasted one year. But later, whether in history or in family genealogy, the name Nalan Xingde was recorded, and the word "Chengde" was gradually forgotten.
Nalan Xingde was talented and intelligent. He took part in the Shuntian Prefecture Township Examination at the age of eighteen and passed the examination. At the age of nineteen, he passed the examination and became a tribute scholar. In the twelfth year of Kangxi's reign, he missed the imperial examination due to illness. In the fifteenth year of Kangxi's reign (1676), he took the supplementary palace examination and passed the second, first and seventh place in the examination, and was awarded the title of Jinshi. During this period, Nalan Xingde studied hard and worshiped Xu Qianxue as his teacher. Under the guidance of famous teachers, he presided over the compilation of a Confucian compilation - "Tongzhitang Jingjie" in two years, which was deeply appreciated by the emperor. He also compiled his knowledge and insights from his familiarity with classics and history into a four-volume "Lushui Pavilion Miscellaneous Knowledge", which includes history, geography, astronomy, calendar and other knowledge, showing a considerable breadth of knowledge and hobbies.
Nalan Xingde was only 22 years old when he became a Jinshi. Kangxi loved his talent and because of his prominent background, he was kept by Kangxi's side and awarded him a third-class bodyguard. Soon after, he was promoted to a first-class bodyguard. As a bodyguard, he accompanied Kangxi on many tours. He also sent Solon as an envoy to inspect the situation of Tsarist Russia's invasion of the border areas.
In the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi (1685), Xingde invited his friends to write poems and sing harmony. On the second day, Xingde suffered from cold illness and died seven days later. Nalan Xingde was later buried in the Nalan family cemetery in the north of Shangzhuang Village, Shangzhuang Township, Haidian District.
There is a Mingfu Garden near the family cemetery.
In addition to the mansion in Shichahai, the Nalan family also has a relatively concentrated residence near Zaojiatun, Shangzhuang Township, Haidian District, Beijing.
At that time, Nalan Xingde's ancestors enclosed land in Zaojiatun, northwest of the capital, because of their meritorious service in the war. This area has always been Mingzhu's countryside. Later, Mingzhu built his ancestral tomb in Zaojiatun. After the ancestral tombs were built, Mingzhu rebuilt a new manor, ancestral hall and other buildings across the river in the south, which the locals called Mingfu Garden.
The Nalan family tomb is located on the north side of the garden and is divided into two cemeteries in the north and south, called South Shoudi and North Shoudi respectively. Here, 21 members of the fifth generation of the Nalan family are buried. In the garden and sleeping area, there are buildings such as Xiangdian, stone altar, and stele pavilion. The scale is extremely large and is known as the "Little Ming Tombs" locally. There are many tombkeepers living near the Mingfu Garden. In the fifty-eighth year of Kangxi (1719), Geng, the last wife of Kuixu who was buried in the Nalan family cemetery, reported to Emperor Kangxi: "I have ten maids, and the eunuch Yang Zhi has been waiting for me for a long time. The Yi family left their parents alone or stayed with their concubines to guard the tomb. The year before last, they had chosen 32 rooms from their family members, and 20 people had gone to Zaojia Village to guard the tomb of their husband. Among them were Hu Ran, Wang Liankui, An She, Peng Shou, Sanxiaozi, and Chang. Dai Twelfth House also guarded the tomb with his concubines. "It can be seen from this text that after the death of Kuisu and his wife, there were nearly 40 households guarding the tomb.
Later it developed into a village and was renamed "Lixinzhuang". As the scale of this "new village" continued to expand, it gradually merged with a village called "Shangzhuang" on the west side, so "Lixinzhuang" also took advantage of the pronunciation of "Shangzhuang" and changed its name to "Shangzhuang" "Yes.
It is a pity that the tombs of the Nalan family have been basically destroyed. The only existing thing related to the Nalan family is their "family temple" - Dongyue Temple located in Yongtai Village, Shangzhuang Township. According to the "Inscription on the Reconstruction of the Dongyue Palace" of Dongyue Temple in Yongtai Village, Mingzhu visits his ancestors' tombs every year to pay respects to their ancestors. When he saw that the three ancient temples nearby were in disrepair, he decided to repair them. But due to busy schedule, I have been unable to do so. Before his death, he told An Shangren, the general manager, to fulfill his long-cherished wish to build the temple. An Shangren started a large-scale construction project ten years later. It took three years to renovate Dongyue Temple, Longmu Temple and Zhenwu Temple in the fifty-ninth year of Kangxi (1720). In order to let future generations remember the merits of the Nalan family in building temples, An Shangren set the west corner hall of Dongyue Temple as the Nalan family ancestral hall, and enshrined pearl tablets in Longmu Temple and Zhenwu Temple.
However, due to its age and disrepair, the current preservation status of Dongyue Temple is worrying. The southernmost building of the temple is a three-door mountain gate. Among them, Ximen no longer exists. The six heavy single-winged brackets on the pillars of the central gate are very unique in architectural style and worth a visit. There were originally bell and drum towers on the east and west sides of the mountain gate, but now the drum towers have been destroyed, leaving only the bell tower. On the north side of the Bell and Drum Tower is the Zhandai Gate, which is the main hall dedicated to Emperor Dongyue. The two sides of the main hall were originally the east and west side halls, which housed the statues of Yan Jun in the ten halls. Nowadays, only the platform foundations of the east and west side halls remain, and the buildings on them were added by later generations. Behind the main hall is the apse, with five corner halls on each side. Among them, the corner hall on the west side is the place where the images and tablets of the ancestors of the Nalan family are enshrined. However, due to the changes over the years, the original style of this place has been completely changed.
In the 1980s and 1990s, many relics of the Nalan family were discovered in the Shangzhuang area of ??Haidian, the most important of which is the epitaph of Nalan Xingde (existing in the Beijing Stone Sculpture Art Museum). The writing is seriously abraded and damaged. However, the seal cover of the epitaph is relatively well preserved, and the authentic hand slips of Nalan Xingde were also found. Later, historians built the Nalan Xingde Historical Relics Exhibition Hall based on these remains, displaying a large number of historical documents, pictures, and objects about Nalan Xingde's life and creation. It has also become a base for studying Nalan Xingde.
Most of the poems miss his wife, and the content is sad and moving
Nalan Xingde’s poems always have a sad meaning, and they are more about describing his own experience, especially the description. The love story of myself and my wife.
Regarding Nalan Xingde’s wives and concubines, there are three that can be tested. His first wife, Mrs. Lu, the daughter of Lu Xingzu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, died three years after their marriage. Xuxian Guan's family is the daughter of the first-class male Po Erfen. The Yan family in the side room is the biological mother of Rong Ruo's eldest son, Fuge. Research on this often mentioned Jiangnan talented girl Shen Wan, who is said to have been adopted by Rongruo one year before her death, but is not mentioned in Nalan's genealogy or textual materials. Among the four women, Lu had the greatest influence on him.
In 1674, when Nalan Xingde was twenty years old, he married the daughter of Lu Xingzu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and was given the title of Shuren. Mr. Lu was eighteen years old and was "naturally graceful and dignified." After marriage, the couple loved each other and had a deep relationship. But this beautiful lady, who only gave him three years of poetic life, died due to postpartum cold.
Nalan Xingde was in great pain for this. From then on, "there were many mourning songs, and the hatred of his close friends was especially deep." In his later poems, he continued to express his sad and sad feelings of endless lovesickness, and constantly revealed his feeling of longing for loss. The poems in memory of Lu account for a large proportion in Nalan's poems, and they are the most vivid and touching works of his poems.
"Don't be frightened by wine and fall asleep heavily in spring. Gambling on books will dissipate the fragrance of tea. At that time, it was just ordinary." (Huanxisha·Who read the west wind and cool alone) This sentence is similar to that in Li Shangyin's "Jin Se" The sentence "This feeling can be remembered later, but it was already at a loss at the time" has the same meaning but the same purpose. Being drunk and unable to sleep in spring, betting on books and laughing while spitting tea, small things that seemed ordinary and indifferent at first seemed like needles piercing my heart now.
"The heart of a drop of banana is broken, and the sound reminds me of the beginning" ("Linjiang Fairy: The heart of a drop of banana is broken"). The raindrops hit the banana leaves outside the window, dripping, dripping through the dust that has been sealed for a long time. memory.
He wrote in "Tian Xianzi·Lushui Pavilion Autumn Night": "On a good night, the wine is filled with wine, the heart is drunk, and I can't sleep with sorrow. The moon sets in the southwest and the black sky rises in the city." In "Huanxi Sha" "I am a melancholy guest in the human world. I know what happened to you and burst into tears. I recall my life in the sound of heartbreak." The sadness and sorrow of separation are vividly expressed on the paper. And the song "The Green Shirt Wet All Over - Mourning" fully expresses the pain of missing Nalan Xingde, and at the same time, it also brings him into the past scenes, and he can't extricate himself:
The green shirt is wet all over, Ping Yi Comfort me, endure and forget each other. Half a month ago, I was trying to help the sick, and the sound of scissors was still heard in Yinxiao. Recall that I was born timid and had an empty room. Until now, I am alone with the shadow of pear blossoms, cold and desolate. I hope that my soul will know the way, and I will teach you how to search for dreams.
The jade hook slope road is close at hand, and it is generally tolerated, with creeping grass and the setting sun. Try to wake up from a long sleep, mix with clear tears, and stir in pepper paste. Afraid of the secluded spring, but also sad for me. Taoist scholars are destined to be at the end of their lives, and if they have no time to rest, they will be filled with resentment and sorrow. It is expected that the secret vows will be reunited, and the tender intestines will be broken.
On May 22nd, the 24th year of Kangxi reign (1685), Xingde invited his friends to have a banquet at Lushui Pavilion, and wrote a poem with the theme of night lily flowers. "Double night flowers bloom in front of the steps, and the branches and leaves are blooming." The night flowers are blooming together, which does not bring any good luck to Rongruo. Seven days after writing "Night Lily", Nalan Rongruo died of illness at home. "Night Lily" is the last poem left by Nalan Xingde.
After Xingde’s death, many people mourned him. “Those who heard of his mourning, whether they knew it or not, cried in sorrow.” Wang Guowei praised him: "Nalan Rongruo sees things with natural eyes and expresses emotions with natural tongue. This is because he has not been infected with the customs of the Han people since he first entered the Central Plains, so he can really do this. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, there is only one person."