They were not paraded before the emperor as had previously been the tradition; instead, they had their photographs taken and presented to Puyi, who was encouraged to choose his empress from among them.

In Lady Tatara's opinion, Wenxiu was not beautiful enough to be empress, and she came from a lesser family background than Wanrong.

She held a discussion with other nobles and officials in the imperial court, who persuaded Puyi to select Wanrong as his empress, naming Wenxiu as a consort.

A spell of indescribable mawkishness ran through me and I thought: I was just like this half-burned candle whose tears would run out soon and whose life would be turned into a smoke.

"[3] Wanrong, who was unhappy with Puyi having another wife, wrote a letter to Wenxiu critical of her while they both lived in the Forbidden City.

[4] Along with Puyi and Empress Wanrong, Wenxiu left the Forbidden City in 1924, and moved to the Zhang Garden (张园) in the Japanese Concession of Tianjin.

According to Puyi, during this period Wenxiu and Wanrong were both obsessed with luxury and material possessions, specified by the fact that as soon one of his consorts was given a gift, the other one demanded to be given the same.

Puyi, who was nearby, misinterpreted this as an attack on him and put out an edict, knowing she was potentially suicidal, ordering Wenxiu to die.

[15][16] Wenxiu married Major Liu Zhendong in 1947 at the well-known Dongxing Pavilion (东兴楼) in Beiping (present day Beijing).

Later, their landlord fled following the surrender of Beiping in 1948 (which was renamed "Beijing" in 1949 at the end the Chinese Civil War).

After the war, Liu confessed to the government regarding their historical issue and found a job in a cleaning services company.

[citation needed] In 2004, the descendants of the imperial house of the Qing Dynasty granted posthumous titles to Puyi, his two spouses, and his two consorts.

However, Wenxiu did not receive a posthumous title because she was considered to have been reduced to the status of a commoner after she divorced Puyi.