The Daoguang emperor (道光帝) of the Qing dynasty was born Aisin Gioro Mianning (爱新觉罗绵宁). Put Ning and Guang together and you get Ningguang.
Daoguang was also the emperor that lost to Alexandrina Victoria's British Empire in the Opium Wars. Like literally, Daoguang dumped a bunch of British opium (grown in India) into the ocean. And then Alexandrina Victoria (who was only around 20 and newly coronated) declared war on Daoguang and the Qing dynasty. And the British won (First Opium War).
Specifically, a Qing official named Lin Zexu wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, demanding the British to end its opium trade in China, while also viewing Britain as a tributary vassal state of the Qing. This must have triggered the British and made them mald hard. The Qing loss in the Opium war was ultimately blamed on Lin Zexu.
Does Ningguang look like a character that would smoke opium? Maybe. Also the so-called sinthe drug in Fontaine appears to be similar to opium in terms of the social and health problems it causes. Wonder if Furina secretly takes sinthe each night before sleeping.
The Qing dynasty is widely regarded as one of China's most powerful empires in history. And during the reign of Kangxi or Qianlong, the Qing could put up a fight against the British and Europeans and even win. In fact during the 1700s and Qianlong era, it was the British that was paying silver tribute to the Qing. However, the period from Daoguang and after saw the decline of the Qing and rise of a new era.
Besides that, Ningguang may be a reference to a certain novel.
In the game, Ningguang is known for the Jade Chamber, the floating palace in the sky.
She gains stacks using NA. Her CA does increased damage the more stacks she has.
With C6, her Q gives 7 star jades. So her kit is a bit like Noctis or Itto (C1) in that her burst gives stacks and that she can consume stacks for a special CA. Moreover this special CA does not cost stamina.
She can gain star jades by using NA (similar to Itto). However, Itto can also gain stacks through E (or Q with C1).
Her C1 makes her NA do a little bit of aoe damage.
Artifacts: the 4.3 woods geo set can work
She can benefit from geo resonance and shield (Morax, Albedo). She can be played as a driver for hyperbloom teams (and such teams are probably her highest dps teams). She can be used as a subdps (E, Q) on mono-geo Itto or Noelle teams. As an atk scaler, she does not fully synergize with Gorou (but at least benefits from his geo dmg bonus and crit dmg buffs). As a NA/CA focused dps she can pair with supports such as XQ/Yelan, Beidou.
Since certain names like fridge, curry, oven, sautee are given to hyperbloom/burgeon variants, perhaps we can call geo hyperbloom (hyperbloom with geo driver) as 'crunch'.
As certain writers have said before, no person can rule forever. Yes, this is so true for the case of Ningguang, how ironic.