Wenxiu (20 December 1909 – 17 September 1953), also known as Consort Shu (hanzi: 淑妃) and Ailian (愛蓮), was a consort of Puyi, the last Emperor of China and final ruler of the Qing dynasty. She was from the Mongol Erdet (額爾德特) Clan and her family was under the Bordered Yellow Banner of the Eight Banners. Early life Wenxiu was born on 20 December 1909. Her courtesy name was Huixin and her self-chosen pseudonym was Ailian. She belonged to the Mongolian Erdet clan of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. Her father was Duangong (1852–1908), and her mother was Lady Jiang. She also had a sister named Wenshan. During her childhood, Wenxiu was to be enrolled in a school, and was given the name Fu Yufang. Marriage to Puyi In 1921, Wenxiu was among the candidates listed as suitable by the Qing court as Empress consort. 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. Puyi himself claims that he in fact chose Wenxiu as his empress rather than Wanrong. However, his choice was not approved of because of a conflict among his predecessor's widows, who had different favorites among the candidates. When the time came for Puyi to marry, Imperial Noble Consort Duankang and Imperial Noble Consort Jingyi had an argument over who should be the empress (the emperor's primary spouse). Lady Tatara favoured Wanrong, while Jinyi preferred Wenxiu. In Lady Tatara's opinion, Wenxiu was not beautiful enough to be empress, and she came from a lesser family background as compared to Wanrong. Despite this, Puyi's first choice was Wenxiu, and this frustrated Lady Tatara. She held a discussion with other nobles and officials in the imperial court, and they succeeded in persuading Puyi to select Wanrong as his empress and name Wenxiu as a consort. Wenxiu was taken to the court before Wanrong and welcomed her when she arrived in 1922. As imperial consort Wanrong, who was unhappy with Puyi having another wife, wrote several letters to Wenxiu deriding or teasing her while they both lived in the Forbidden City. Wenxiu politely replied to one of Wanrong's more caring and respectful letters, helping to correct Wanrong's typos. Wenxiu said of her time in the Forbidden city: "There was a generator in the palace, but it