Pride and a Fall

The death of the Pearl Concubine

It was in these northeast halls that the hurried conferences of Cíxǐ and her court took place as the foreign armies approached Běijīng during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.

At the rear (north) side of the complex is the Zhēnshùn Mén (贞顺门, Gate of Faithful Obedience), through which she fled with the Guāngxù emperor, past what is now known as the Well of the Pearl Concubine.

Despite the decayed state of the dynasty, the Guāngxù’s emperor’s wedding, arranged by Cíxǐ, was said to have cost 5.5 million taels of silver. Nevertheless Guāngxù slept with his wife only once, prefering a concubine called the Zhēn Fēi (珍妃, the Precious Consort, but popularly known as the Pearl Concubine).

As Cíxǐ was leaving for Xī’ān, she informed all the imperial concubines that they would stay behind, but the Zhēn Fēi protested that it would be more honourable for the emperor to remain.

There are several versions of what happened next, some of which are derived from the now discredited diary of a Manchu official. Black sheep expat Sir Edmund Backhouse, quite brilliantly, wrote the fake diary in Chinese himself, and it long served as primary source material for histories of the Qīng court:

The Pearl Concubine, who had always been insubordinate to the Old Buddha, came with the rest and actually dared to suggest that the Emperor should remain in Peking. The Empress was in no mood for argument. Without a moment’s hesitation, she shouted to the eunuchs on duty: ‘Throw this wretched minion down the well!’ At this the Emperor, who was greatly grieved, fell on his knees in supplication, but the Empress angrily bade him desist, saying that this was no time for bandying words. ‘Let her die at once,’ she said, ‘as a warning to all undutiful children, and to those “xiao” birds who, when fledged, peck out their own mother’s eyes.’

J. O. P. Bland and E. Backhouse, China Under the Empress Dowager, London, 1910

Imperial tutor Reginald Johnston offers another version, equally colourful, which he claims to have had directly from eunuchs, although none would admit to having been present. In this one the Empress Dowager’s response to the concubine’s pleas shows sardonic humour:

‘We will all stay where we are, but we cannot allow ourselves to be taken alive by Western Barbarians. There is only one way out for you and me — we must both die. It is easy. You go first — I promise to follow you.’ Then at a sign from her mistress the eunuchs seized the girl and hurled her into the well, where she was left to drown — alone.

Reginald F. Johnston, Twilight in the Forbidden City, London, 1934

The official version of the Communist Party has the concubine a martyr to her comparatively enlightened political views and especially her support of the emperor’s moves for reform, which Cíxǐ strangled. While the terms of reparations were being worked out with foreign powers during the following months, Cíxǐ issued a decree praising the Zhēn Fēi for her loyalty in committing suicide when unable to catch up with the departing court. Her final resting place can be seen at the Western Qīng Tombs.

Return to The Palace Museum or ‘Forbidden City’.

See other Forbidden City stories:
Monumental Mismanagement
The Two Palace Museums
Where are They Now?
A Storm in a Coffee CupThe End of the Emperors
The Last Occupant of the Forbidden City
The Ends of the Eunuchs

Links below to neighbouring sights around the Imperial City and Tiān’ān Mén Square. Or see Main Index to A Better Guide to Běijīng.