Well of Concubine Zhen

　　The Well of Concubine Zhen is situated on the Outer Eastern Road of the Forbidden City. In the 24th year of the Guangxu reign (1898), after the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform, Empress Dowager Cixi harbored resentment against Emperor Guangxu, who supported the reform, and his beloved concubine, Concubine Zhen...

　　Concubine Zhen was the favored consort of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. She was the daughter of Chang Xu, an official of the Ministry of Rites, and was selected to enter the palace at the age of 13 along with her elder sister (Concubine Jin). In the 15th year of Guangxu's reign, she was conferred the title of Noble Lady Zhen, and five years later, she was promoted to the rank of Concubine Zhen. She incurred the hatred of Empress Dowager Cixi for sympathizing with Guangxu and supporting the reform movement. After the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform, Concubine Zhen was confined in a small courtyard near Jingqi Pavilion on the Outer Eastern Road of the Forbidden City (and when Empress Dowager Cixi went to the Summer Palace to escape the summer heat, Concubine Zhen was placed under house arrest in the "Western One" building inside the Summer Palace). In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi decided to flee to Xi'an with Guangxu. Before escaping, using the excuse that "foreign invaders might humiliate her," Cixi ordered Concubine Zhen to commit suicide by jumping into a well, calling it an "imperial decree of self-sacrifice." But Concubine Zhen resisted and refused, so Cixi then ordered the chief eunuch Cui Yugui to push her into the well and drown her. She was only 25 years old at the time.

　　A year later, Concubine Zhen’s body was recovered and buried outside Xizhi Gate. Later, she was posthumously honored as Imperial Noble Consort by Emperor Guangxu. After Guangxu’s death, she was laid to rest in the Chongling Mausoleum of Emperor Guangxu in the Western Qing Tombs. Due to this incident, the well became known as the “Well of Concubine Zhen.”