DNA testing has accidentally uncovered the biggest royal secret in modern Chinese history
These past couple of days, the entire Chinese internet has been going wild over this gossip. Every social media platform is flooded with discussions โ this is probably the biggest bombshell in modern Chinese history. And it's not just some casual scandal.
To put it simply: the two emper who created the glorious "Kang-Qian Golden Age" of the Qing Dynastyโฆ had no royal blood. They were swapped in.
Kangxi likely had mixed Han (his bio father) and Mongolian (his bio mother) ancestry, while Qianlong might have been a fully Han chinese.
The first was Kangxi. He wasn't his father Shunzhiโs biological son. The real crown prince Xuanye died of smallpox as a small child outside the palace. The one who returned was an imposter โ Kangxi himself โ actually the illegitimate son of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang (Shunzhi's bio mother) and Hong Chengchou, the last Ming emperorโs former tutor (The most dramatic part of this story is that Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang was likely sent by her husband Huangtaiji to persuade Hong Chengchou to surrender. Hong, a brilliant mind and representative of the Ming scholarly elite, somehow formed a genuine bond with her. They maintained contact in the following years, which eventually led to the birth of Kangxi).
The second was Qianlong, Kangxiโs nominal grandson. In truth, Qianlong was secretly adopted by his father Yongzheng from the Chen family in Haining, Zhejiang. Not only was he unrelated to the Aisin-Gioro clan โ he wasnโt even Manchu. What really shocked Cnetizens is this: the Chen and Hong families have been traced back to the same clan, just with different surnames. Yongzheng made the swap to gain an edge in the "War of the Nine Princes." Official records show Kangxi met Qianlong as a child and was deeply impressed, viewing him as an exceptional grandson โ which later influenced his decision to pass the throne to Yongzheng. The reason he felt such a connection? Qianlong actually came from the same bloodline as Kangxi's own biological father.
Itโs a three-generation conspiracy of imposters ruling the empire.
And Dream of the Red Chamber, the greatest novel in Chinese literary history, was written based on this truth. Its status is like that ofย One Hundred Years of Solitudeย in Latin American literature โ a masterpiece that reaches the pinnacle of artistic achievement, flawless in every aspect, what people call the ultimate "all-rounder."
Now people finally understand: the real reasonย Dream of the Red Chamberย became the most banned book in the Qing Dynasty wasnโt because it mourned the Ming โ but because it was filled with metaphors exposing this bloodline swap and all the political drama that followed.
By now, most people have accepted this conclusion. It all started when DNA tests revealed that modern royal descendants of the Aisin Gioro clan carry genetic matches found in both Hong Chengchou's descendants and those of Chen family from Haining, Zhejiang โ something impossible according to official historical records. These grassroots genetic tests have since been urgently halted by the authorities.
Other direct evidence includes surviving royal portraits โ people noticed Kangxi looks nothing like his nominal father or grandfather, but bears a striking resemblance to portraits of Hong Chengchou himself.
That said, there's still plenty of pushback and skepticism. At the moment, Kangxi's own tomb remains off-limits for excavation, making it impossible to obtain his direct DNA.
(The full chain of evidence is all over chinese internet โ it's just too much to translate and repost here. If you're interested, you can check the summaries on Xiaohongshu, Weibo, or Zhihu -they're everywhere. My main focus here is translating comments of Cnetizens.)
What makes this royal scandal blow up even more is that it's not just some gossip โ it practically solves the greatest mystery in Chinese literary history: the unfinished ending ofย Dream of the Red Chamber. It fills in the real plot of the missing last 40 chapters, completely overturning centuries of Redology research. It also proves that the much-criticized "allegorical school" (based on the Gui You version) might have been right all along. The so-called "absurd" Gui You version could actually be one of the earliest drafts of the novel โ a complete version with the original ending. And those seemingly ridiculous plot twists might just be the real intended ending.
People are realizing that by following this shocking truth and connecting it with existing clues and evidence, they can logically explain so many major events and unsolved mysteries from Qing history. It also completely decodes the metaphors behind the characters and their experiences inย Dream of the Red Chamber. In fact, the historical puzzles and the novelโs hidden messages match up perfectly.
The reason the novel was banned in the Qing Dynasty wasnโt just because it mourned the Ming โ but because it exposed the bloodline swap: Kangxi wasnโt really Shunzhiโs son and carried no Aisin-Gioro blood, and his grandson Qianlong was most likely fully Han. This also aligns perfectly with key events in Qianlongโs life โ most famously, the hair-cutting incident of his second empress.
According to official records, Empress Huifa Nara, the second wife of Emperor Qianlong, suddenly cut her hair during his Southern Tour โ which coincided with the centenary of Hong Chengchou's birth. Under Qing customs, a woman cutting her hair was an act reserved only for her husbandโs death or national mourning. Her drastic gesture is now interpreted by some as a silent protest: she had discovered the secret and was telling the world that the throne had already passed to another bloodline.
After the incident, Qianlong immediately deposed the empress and placed her under lifelong house arrest, forbidding anyone from visiting her. (This exact plotline would later play out in countless popular novels and TV dramas โ most famously inย My Fair Princess. But until now, no one understood why the empress suddenly went mad and cut her hair, especially since she was known for her quiet and dignified temperament. The truth perfectly explains her actions: as a proud member of the prestigious Huifa Nara clan, she could never accept that her husband was an impostor โ and a fully Han Chinese at that.)
So Cnetizens comment:
Male Lineage Server, ้ฆ็ซๆxianghuofu, literally "Incense and Fire Server", the 'Incense and Fire' refers to the ritual of burning incense and maintaining an eternal flame at ancestral altars, symbolizing the unbroken continuity of family lineage. Cnetizens often metaphorically describe Earth as an "Earth Online" game where we're all players, and different regions are seen as separate servers. In this context,ย 'Server'ย specifically refers to China.
"Male Lineage Server"ย is a humorous satire and metaphor targeting the traditional patriarchal obsession with continuing the male bloodline. In this context, "lineage" symbolizes the perpetuation of the family line, a duty traditionally assigned to men.
Under the dominant influence of Confucian ideology, this concept became tightly linked to severe son preference. Ancient Chinaโs dual-track kinship system โ where theย xingย (ๅง) represented the maternal line and theย shiย (ๆฐ) represented the paternal line โ was deliberately erased by patriarchal norms. By downplaying womenโs role in reproduction (e.g., attributing childbirth solely to the "fatherโs essence") and stripping women of ancestral rights (e.g., excluding them from family trees and property inheritance), the system essentiallyย credited womenโs reproductive labor to men.
Language further reinforced this order โ for instance,ย tangqinย (ๅ ไบฒ) refers to paternal relatives, whileย biaoqinย (่กจไบฒ) refers to maternal relatives. Today, as society grows more progressive, an increasing number of Cnetizens are openly rejecting these traditional Confucian values.
The overwhelming majority of Cnetizens are in agreement: "We've just witnessed the gossip of the century and a historical revelation.""Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, THE REAL QUEEN.""I can't believe I'm alive to see the day when the true ending ofย Dream of the Red Chamberย is revealed! ""God, Chiung Yao and Jin Yong died too early โ they must have known something. ""I bet even Sun Yat-sen knew something (founder of the Republic of China). He once said, 'Even if a Han becomes the emperor, I will still oppose Qing rule,' which is now seen as a hint that he knew."
People are now realizing - belatedly - that Jin Yong and Chiung Yao aka Qiong Yao, the two most famous popular fiction authors in modern China (Jin Yong being the master of wuxia literature (1924 - 2018), and Qiong Yao the queen of romance novels (1938 - 2024๏ผ), had actually filled their works with countless hints about this. All their novels set in the Qing Dynasty contain clear references and clues. Whatโs more, the two were related โ Jin Yongโs ancestors were among theย Booiย (bondservant) nobility of Qing โ so this was likely an open secret within their own circles.
What's even more fascinating is that this appears to have been common knowledge locally in Haining (though they only knew about Qianlong, not Kangxi). Back when communication was slow and the internet didn't exist, the story still spread. Many Cnetizens have shared that they excitedly told their parents, only to get a muted reaction โ their parents said they'd already heard growing up that Qianlong was the son of the powerful Chen family from Zhejiang.
In Qiong Yao'sย My Fair Princess, the character Chen Zhihua is said to be the daughter born to Yongzheng's own biological daughter. People think that Yongzheng, then without a son, had a daughter born on the very same day as a son in the Chen family. His wife secretly swapped the baby girl for the Chen's baby boy and brought him back to the palace, and he later became Emperor Qianlong. This explains why Qianlong's nominal mother, Lady Niohuru, was so fond of Chen Zhihua. Upon meeting her, she insisted on arranging her marriage to the then-crown prince Yongqi. Lady Niohuru knew Zhihua was biological granddaughter of Yongzheng โ meaning Zhihua carried enough noble Manchu blood. According to official historical records, Qianlong stayed with the Chen family during all seven of his Southern Tours โ a highly unusual arrangement that now has a clear explanation: he was likely returning to pay respects to his biological ancestors.
This is Chen Gelao House in Haining nowadays:
The first paragraphy: The Chen family of Haining earned its reputation through the imperial examination system. With members โ whether brothers, father and son, or uncles and nephews โ repeatedly passing the exams, often in the same year, the family had already become influential in court circles by at least the mid-Qing Dynasty. Its fame, however, reached every household thanks to the popular belief thatย Qianlong himself was the son of Old Minister Chen of Haining.
But right now, the hottest topic taking over the discussion is stillย Dream of the Red Chamber. "So inย Dream of the Red Chamber, the heroine Lin Daiyu represents the last Ming emperor Chongzhen, the hero Jia Baoyu symbolizes the imperial jade seal, the supporting female role Xue Baochai represents Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and the supporting male role Jia Yucun represents Hong Chengchou... Everything suddenly fits together!" Cnetizens even came up with an improvised art: Lin Daiyu holding Baoyu in her hand and introducing, "I'm the Great Emperor, and this is my little jade seal." (cr ่ทฏ่ฟ็ๅๆฐx)
See update of the gossip here: Chinese authorities release the denial of royal bloodline scandalโCnetizens' reaction towards the denial: utter nonsense
