Commentary: Empress Chun Yuan

Introduction

Empress Chun Yuan (actual name: Rou Ze) is the deceased first wife of Emperor Yongzheng and the elder sister of Yixiu (the current empress in the drama). She is kindhearted and talented in many areas (singing, dancing, poetry, what does she not know?). 

She was Yongzheng's true love and died after giving birth to a stillborn child. Years after she died, Yongzheng still tries to search for a woman who can be as good as Chun Yuan.

She is not represented by an actor in the drama but she is frequently mentioned in the drama, affecting the fate of many characters in the drama. 

Her personality

Chun Yuan is allegedly a kindhearted person as she is nice to her servants. On her deathbed, she asked Yongzheng to take care of her sister as well.

But Chun Yuan's role in the following scenes indicates she isn't as nice as she seems. 

Punishment of a concubine

There was a scene where Consort Hua punished Zhen Huan by getting her to kneel for one hour. This caused Zhen Huan to miscarriage. 

Subsequently, Consort Hua said she thought the punishment was okay because Chun Yuan made another pregnant concubine kneel for four hours and that concubine did not miscarriage. If Chun Yuan was really that kindhearted, why would she make a pregnant concubine kneel for four hours? 

The death of the empress' son

When the emperor was a prince, the empress gave birth to his first son. When the son was 2 years old, he had a high fever and could not get treated because every physician was tending to Chun Yuan's pregnancy. The son died in her arms. She carried his corpse and walked in the rain, asking for the gods to take her life instead of her sons'. The empress started having frequent migraines after that night. 

See anything weird in this story? If Chun Yuan was really that kindhearted, why did she not ask for a physician to tend to her younger sister? Why did no one care about the fact that Yongzheng's elder son was critically ill?

Her role in the novel

Someone to improve Emperor Yongzheng's image

When Zhen Huan was selected to be a concubine, the servants from the palace went to her residence to teach her the rules of the Forbidden City. The servant told Zhen Huan and Ling Rong about the love story between the emperor and Chun Yuan. This establishes Yongzheng as a devoted Emperor and improves his image among his concubines (and possibly the whole of China).

A role model for other concubines

Yongzheng never got over Empress Chun Yuan. Many concubines were favoured by him because of some similarity to Empress Chun Yuan. Let's take a look at the times the concubines were compared to Chun Yuan:

• Looks: Zhen Huan gained favour for looking like Chun Yuan. In the later half of the drama, Yongzheng wanted to take in Zhen Huan's sister as a concubine for the same reason.
• Poetry: During a banquet, Emperor Yongzheng walked around a garden in the palace and heard Zhen Huan recite a few lines of Chun Yuan's favourite poetry.
• Singing: Ling Rong gained favour as her voice is similar to Chun Yuan.
• Dancing: Zhen Huan also gained favour for her dancing skills because they were similar to Chun Yuan.
• Embroidery: Both Ling Rong and Zhen Huan made a sleeping gown for Emperor Yongzheng. On the surface, it seems that he favours Zhen Huan's gown more, but both of them don't hold a candle to Empress Chun Yuan who made many gowns for him over the years. 

She may have many talents, but it's more likely that Chun Yuan is an embodiment of the standards females were expected to live up to. They were expected to be beautiful, kindhearted, possess many talents, and be subservient to their husbands. 

By putting Chun Yuan on a pedestal, Emperor Yongzheng can keep his concubines in line.

For example, if they did something worthy of praise, they would gain favour because of their similarity to Empress Chun Yuan. But if they did something wrong, they were "not like Chun Yuan" or they "disrespected Chun Yuan" and hence, lost favour.

Chun Yuan is a convenient role model because she died many years ago. Most of the concubines in the palace have not met her in person. There is no way to ascertain if she was that amazing and the only people who have seen her in person might be beautifying the person she was. 

How is it possible that Chun Yuan possessed exceptional singing, dancing, embroidery and poetry skills at the same time? Was she really that beautiful and amazing as a person? 

In Yixiu's words, "If Chun Yuan was still alive today, would you still love her as she gradually grew older? I really regret not keeping her alive. I should have let you seen how Chun Yuan ages like me. Perhaps you wouldn't hate me so much then." In the same scene, Yixiu repeatedly mentions "I cannot do this" when she opens up about her struggles to be the virtuous woman she was expected to be.

A tool for Yixiu's power struggle

Chun Yuan is also used by Yixiu to stabilise her power in the palace. Yongzheng treats Yixiu with respect because she is Chun Yuan's younger sister. 

When Yixiu wants to improve the standing of Ling Rong in the palace, she trains her to sing like Chun Yuan to gain favour. 

She brought down Zhen Huan by making her wear the ceremonial gown that Empress Chun Yuan wore, which caused Yongzheng to be angered at Zhen Huan. 

Even when Yixiu's misdeeds were exposed, she was not disposed of because of Chun Yuan's request for Yongzheng to "treat her well".

Trivia

Despite the title "Empress Chun Yuan", she was never the official Empress as she died while Yongzheng was still a prince. Her title was conferred posthumously, "Chun" meaning pure and "Yuan" meaning the only one. 

An interesting fact: the character 'Empress Chun Yuan' is fictional and not based on an actual historical figure, unlike Zhen Huan/Consort Hua. Some people speculate that the character Ruoxi (from Scarlet Heart) is the same character as Empress Chun Yuan, as they were dearly loved by Yongzheng in their respective dramas.