Empress Gobele Wan-Rong, c. 1920-1940 by an unknown court photographer. 

One of the sadder stories that arose from the end of the Qing monarchy was the story of Wan Rong, otherwise known as the Last Empress of China 婉容皇后. She was chosen at the age of 17 to marry a powerless monarch. This beautiful well educated girl from one of Manchuria's best families was to be turned into a wasted emotionally wrecked drug addict by her loveless marriage in 1922 to the last emperor of China, PuYi 溥儀. Cast by the same ill political winds that buffeted her husband, she was rumored to have had an illicit affair with her driver, resulting in a scandalous pregnancy that was hushed up with the murder of the delivered baby and the exile of the paramour. Following the defeat of the Japanese empire and their lost hold of Manchuria, she eventually fell into the hands of communist forces. After a short period, she died in prison reportedly from a combination of malnutrition and opium withdrawal in 1946, at the age of 39. 

Despite Wan Rong's seeming fairy tale marriage to Qing royalty, it was to bring her nothing but pain, suffering, humiliation, and an unfortunate early death.

(Source: ralph repo)