Her family originally belonged to the Han Chinese Plain Blue Banner from Fushun in Liaoning, but managed to reclassify themselves as Manchu.

The Han Chinese Tong (佟) clan of Fushun in Liaoning, from whom Kangxi's mother descends, falsely claimed to be related to the Manchu Tunggiya (佟佳) clan of Jilin, using this false claim to get themselves transferred to a Manchu banner in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor.

[1] However the private genealogical records of the Fushun Tong clan actually demonstrate Han ancestry from the Central Plains, contrary to their later claims of Manchu ancestry, later reclassification as Manchu bannerman, and the official Qing records.

In 1653, Lady Tong entered the Forbidden City and became a concubine of the Shunzhi Emperor.

She was interred in the Xiao Mausoleum alongside the Shunzhi Emperor and Consort Donggo.