Empresses, concubines, concubines, concubines, concubines and maids in the palace all have strict grades. The Qing Dynasty was a hierarchical society, and the imperial palace was even more hierarchical. Dressing, accessories, eating, drinking tea, eating meat, monthly salary, money, utensils, room size and so on are all stipulated. There are also rules for grading and rationing concubines. In short, there are rules from head to toe, from eating to wearing.
Due to the influence of many court dramas, in our impression, the emperor has 3,000 harems, but everyone is a "beauty embryo". The emperor is the happiest person in the world, surrounded by "flowers" every day. But the real harem is not like this, and concubines are not as beautiful as we thought.
Moreover, the book "Revealing the Archives of the Qing Dynasty" points out the real archives of the Qing draft: the women in the Qing draft are by no means beauty pageants.
The harem of the Qing Dynasty, from empress to maid-in-waiting, was selected from Manchu flag-bearer women. Moreover, the purpose of choosing a woman to enter the palace is not only to enrich the harem, but also to marry the descendants of the royal family, or to marry the prince, the county king and their sons, which is very important to the politics here.
At that time, the open draft criteria were morality and birth status. In the Qing Dynasty, we often see magnanimity, filial piety, gentleness, prudence, "noble family" and "Zhongxiang Fahua" in the titles of queens, concubines and concubines. Among them, family status is extremely important. As we all know, Yulong, the empress of Emperor Guangxu, was ugly, but because she was the niece of Empress Dowager Cixi, she became the empress. When Zhen Fei, who was regarded as a confidante by Emperor Guangxu, was selected, her father was assistant minister Chang Xu, her grandfather was former governor Yu Tai, and her uncle was Guangzhou general Chang Shan, son-in-law of Gui Liang, a university student, and brother-in-law of Prince Gong Yixin. Therefore, most of the concubines entering the palace have political factors.
Most of the concubines who have lived in the palace for a long time are weak and sick, and have been interacting with Dan medicine decoction for many years.
It is the wish of every concubine who lives in the palace to live a long life and pray for good luck. However, due to her long-term life in the palace and lack of exercise, many concubines are in poor health, most of them are weak and sick, and they associate with Dan medicine decoction all the year round.
There are a large number of prescriptions and medicines for concubines in the imperial pharmacy of Qing Dynasty, which provides evidence for future generations to understand the health care of concubines in Qing Dynasty.
In addition, there are many prescriptions for preventing miscarriage, invigorating qi, tonifying kidney and promoting blood circulation in the palace prescriptions collected in the Forbidden City, but none of them were prescribed for grandpa. Therefore, the concubines who have lived in the deep palace compound for a long time have a hard time and are very weak and empty.
Loneliness, smoking, playing cards and sewing kill time.
Living in the deep palace, the emperor is busy every day and has no time to accompany his concubines. Many people have never seen the emperor in their lives. Therefore, the life of the harem concubines is extremely boring, and they need to find some fun to pass the time.
Although they enjoy splendor on the surface, in real life, they are like canaries in cages, and thick palace walls separate them from the bustling urban scene outside the Forbidden City. In fact, in their spare time, concubines can only paste yellow on the mirror and make powder; Or thread a needle, embroider a purse, and do some needlework; Or pinch walnuts with your hands to calm your mood; Or gather around a table to play cards, or just hold a cigarette bag and smoke; Or people who love art, draw and write, entertain themselves and chat to pass the lonely long time.
However, after all, they are a special group around the emperor, living a parasitic life of pampering and extravagant enjoyment. Clothes and jewelry are all jewels, which are extremely luxurious.
Concubines in the Qing Dynasty were assigned by the "palace"
In the Qing palace, fame was highly valued, and even the amount of food varied greatly. From the empress dowager to the nobles, the daily supply of food, meat and vegetables is different. The daily expenses of concubines include dividing the palace and spreading the palace. Tribute refers to the regulations on the variety and quantity of gold and silver, cloth, grain, meat, vegetables and non-staple food. They are all supplied by Empress Dowager Cixi, nobles, people who are always there and promise, including silks and satins, minks, rice noodles, charcoal wax and so on. Paving the palace refers to the regulations on the variety and quantity of different grades of metal utensils, porcelain and lacquerware used by the Empress Dowager, Empress, Concubine and Fujin palaces. In the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty, due to the different names of concubines, the number of daily expenses is also obviously different, decreasing according to grades.
This is the real life of the harem in the Qing Dynasty. It's not as described in the court play.
In fact, behind the beautiful scenery, there is indeed more sadness and sadness than ordinary people. Since they entered the world surrounded by high walls, they were doomed to be isolated from the bustling world, and they went to live in the deserted palace. They wait for them every day except loneliness and wear concubines' hats, but they rarely see the emperor several times in their lives and are also wary of the cruel harem struggle. They were victims of thousands of years of feudalism in China.
When we look back at history, although we sigh and envy the luxurious life of the royal family, there is endless sorrow behind it. Real court life is not as wonderful as TV series, full of darkness and loneliness.
Mi Lu, a senior official of the Qing Dynasty, had only 90 stones, and his salary was only 180 Liang. Mi Lu, a do immortal, only had 15 stone and 30 taels of silver-in the Qing Dynasty, the immortal was not as good as the queen! Of course, "sisters" are jealous of the Queen's generous material treatment and the power to command thousands of "female soldiers". It would be better to be able to replace it; Even if you can't do it, you should use your magical powers and wipe the oil and water of the emperor's husband as much as possible.
Family members of maids are allowed to visit their daughters in the palace once a month. There is a row of small and low rooms in the corridor outside Shunzhen Gate, where the maids meet their families. Except the most beloved ladies-in-waiting, they wait on their masters all day. Generally, maids don't go out to work every day. Once every three days, once every five days, the redder you are, the more diligent you are on duty. You can also see the red and black ladies from the monthly shift.
Maids-in-waiting lead a stressful life, because they are on duty, so when it's their turn to rest, they try to relax as much as possible. The most obvious thing is to wash your face and rinse your mouth after getting up in the morning, even if you don't apply makeup or make fat, let alone draw eyebrows and temples. You dress casually. Powerful maids learn embroidery, writing, painting and calligraphy, and can play cards if they like.
After Manchu entered the customs, in order to show that they are not separated from each other, it is said that Manchu and Han can marry each other first. In the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), the first emperor, Qing shizu, announced that women who wanted to marry Han officials in Manchuria could register. In order to set an example, the Qing ancestor specially invited the daughter of Shi Shen, a servant of the Han family, to be his concubine. "Yongping Fu Zhi" records that this young lady is quite favored, because she got a residence in Yongshou Palace, where she can wear Chinese crown clothes. When Zhao, the wife of her mother Shi Shen, comes to see her, she can also get off the sedan chair nearby-"shoulder into Xihua Gate and enter the palace under the inner right door"! There was also a Han surname in the harem of Kangxi, the second emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
This kind of situation has been common in the palace. The most noteworthy is the fifth emperor Renzong Jiaqing. His biological mother, Empress Xiaoyi, whose real name is Wei, is one of the three Empresses of his father Qianlong. According to Records of the Qing Dynasty, in 18 18, entrusted by her son, she specially changed the book Wei Jiashi in Jade Butterfly, which seems to cover up the statement that today's Sagrada is half Han.
Outside the Longzong Gate of the Forbidden City, there is a group of buildings with Cining Palace as the main body. Some people call it the home of widows in the Forbidden City. Because the original owners here were the empress, concubines and concubines of the first emperor. Among them, women entered the palace mainly through the draft. Although the Ming and Qing emperors were not like the "three thousand harem beauties" in the Tang Dynasty, the number was not small. Empress, imperial concubine, concubines, nobles, Chang Chang, Yan Xu, etc. They all live in the East-West Sixth Palace on both sides of Gan Qing Palace.
In terms of residence, the wife above lives in the East and West Zodiac, each with a special room, while the nobles below have no special room at all, so they can only live in the East and West Zodiac and study hard. Thus, it is basically impossible not only in the fifth episode "I promised to spoil my arrogance, but let a nobleman like eyebrow zhuang make way for her", but even a nobleman like eyebrow zhuang can't live in the magnificent Xianfu Palace because of his high status-promise or nobleman, even without his own room, but also "spoil his arrogance"?
In addition, it should be noted that slavery prevailed in the Qing Dynasty, as did the abuse of handmaiden. In the early years of Kangxi, Zhu Zhibi, the viceroy, said at the recitation: "No fewer than 2,000 servants and maids of the Eight Banners commit suicide every year. Are they all happy to die and evil to live? It is natural that he is not enterprising, unprepared, hungry and cold, whipping his whip and killing himself. " The ladies-in-waiting have a similar situation. They are burdened with heavy labor and chores necessary for royal luxury and enjoyment. If they are not careful, they will be severely punished or even executed.
/kloc-in the winter of 0/778, Chunfei was beaten to death by a palace maid. In order to express his opposition to this kind of behavior of "longitudinal torture and handmaiden abuse", Qianlong summoned his ministers in hall of mental cultivation West Warm Pavilion the next day and announced that "Chunfei was reduced to a concubine, as an example; And let the concubines and others take the warning in the future, and don't repeat the same mistakes and commit crimes. " However, it didn't take long for him to revoke the punishment for Chun Kun. It can be seen that his handling of this incident is nothing more than flaunting wisdom and kindness, and it is a ruling force.
The harem scenes on TV are all made to adapt to the contemporary audience, especially the contemporary female audience, so it will weaken the political struggle and emphasize the women's scheming, which will easily make the audience misunderstand the palace fight.
The audience can't accept the plot setting that the beautiful and kind heroine falls in love with the "beast", so emperors and princes are often forced and encouraged, and finally "make a difficult decision". So it is not as "bloody" as in reality.