A Love for the Ages: Emperor Chenghua and Consort Wan

At the age of four, Wan was selected to enter the palace as a maid in Empress Dowager Sun's household. When she came of age, she began serving the future Emperor Xianzong in the Eastern Palace. Skilled at anticipating the emperor's wishes, she became his favorite above all others, leaving the other women in the harem with few chances to see him. In the first month of the second year of the Chenghua era, Wan gave birth to the emperor's eldest son, and Xianzong was overjoyed. The prince died not long afterward. Consort Wan was devastated, and, unable to conceive again, her temperament changed completely from then on... Xianzong was helpless and could not bear to punish her. In the twenty-third year of the Chenghua era, Consort Wan died at the age of fifty-nine. Xianzong was inconsolable and suspended court for seven days. In August, overcome with grief, he died at the age of forty-one.