After reading this book, you will have a deeper understanding of life in the Qing Dynasty. As ordinary people, we are always full of yearning for court life. Usually, our understanding of the court is limited to watching TV dramas, but there are always deviations in understanding court life by watching TV dramas. This book gives you an idea of the real life of the Qing Dynasty by describing many details of court life.
After reading this book, you will be amazed at the luxury of court life and full of sympathy for the life of palace maids and eunuchs. This book is not a big and empty historical theory, it is full of details, just like you put it in court yourself, and it is very interesting to read.
After reading this book, you can learn how to eat in court. The court eats very carefully, there will be different foods in different seasons, and it will never eat seasonal food indiscriminately. The aesthetics in the court is simple and elegant, not red and green, and everything including people pays attention to perfection; Festivals in the court are also full of ceremonies, although the form is cumbersome, but it is also lively.
Of course, this book is mainly about people in the court.
First of all, the life of Cixi is the most involved in this book. The maid-in-waiting in this book is about Cixi, who was widowed in her later years. She is an old lady who pays attention to eating, wearing and playing. She is always full of energy, loves beauty and health care.
Secondly, there are some descriptions of the lives of maids and eunuchs in the book, which are in sharp contrast with the luxurious life of Cixi. Their lives are extremely miserable, and they have no right to life freedom and dignity.
In a word, this book is extremely readable in both language and content, and you will find all your imaginations about the palace in it. Here are some excerpts that I think are good to share with you:
1. What kind of old lady is Cixi?
The old lady is a person who loves beauty and teaches others to love beauty. She often says,' What's the point of living if a woman has no intention of dressing herself up?'
After the old lady, she talked about spirit. So many important things have to be taken care of by the old lady all day. Every day, she still swims freely, controls her time freely, and pays attention to eating, dressing and playing. She is always full of energy and doesn't feel tired. Just say "wake up" Whether it is windy or rainy in winter and summer, it is not easy to get up on time and go to hall of mental cultivation for decades.
2. Taste and temperament of Qing Palace
The Queen Mother's Temple is always fragrant and refreshing. If in summer, the smell penetrates the bamboo curtain and the whole porch is full of fragrance, take a deep breath, and you will feel particularly comfortable in My Sweetie. If it's winter, when the curtains in the hall are lifted, the heating will smell and feel soft and crisp all over. This is the smell of Palace of Gathered Elegance.
But there is another smell, not to mention. What a clever mouth, this taste is hard to describe. No matter who he is, as soon as he enters Palace of Gathered Elegance, his chin must be rounded immediately. Up to the emperor, master, young master, down to the eunuch, maid-in-waiting, no matter who, frowning, it is impossible to enter Palace of Gathered Elegance; Holding a knot in one's heart, forcing a smile, a kind of skin smile but not meat smile, that is even worse. Must be flattered, want to laugh and embarrassed to smile, mouth sipping, but the smile on his face, beaming, agile, and measured, with this kind of strength, is the taste of Palace of Gathered Elegance.
The old eunuch came in from the palace gate, bowed slightly, with a kind smile on his face, his hands hanging down, and walked slowly, his soles rubbing against the ground, but he didn't make a sound. He told the housekeeper in a low voice, with respect, tameness, kindness, gentleness, politeness, etc. , and this smell blend together is the smell of Palace of Gathered Elegance.
Little sisters are very handsome and smart, and they are all smart in their bones. When we meet, we speak with our eyes completely, and our hands and feet are light, but every move is measured and we always have a smile on our faces. This is the smell of Palace of Gathered Elegance.
3. Diet in the Palace
Shoushan room should respect breakfast, and there are all kinds of porridge, such as rice porridge, Yutian Redmi, Jiangnan glutinous rice, coix seed and so on. There are also eight-treasure lotus porridge; There are all kinds of tea soups, such as almond tea, fresh soybean milk, beef bone marrow tea soup and so on.
There are more than twenty kinds of breakfasts in the box. In addition to the above, there are eight-treasure porridge and shredded chicken porridge, sesame sauce sesame cake, crisp sesame cake, white horseshoe, radish cake, clear oil cake, inby, sugar packets, sugar cakes, Muslim fried dumplings, fried noodles, assorted bean products, braised products, such as braised duck liver and braised chicken breast.
This palace is famous for its snacks. Candied fruit in autumn and winter and sweet bowl in summer are simply exquisite. Sweet bowls are summer snacks, including melon lotus roots, lily lotus seeds, almond tofu, longan powder, raisins, fresh walnuts, yams, jujube paste cakes and so on. The lotus root of sweet melon and fruit is not cut together with the lotus root, but the tender buds of the lotus root that have just been picked are cut into thin slices, and the pulp inside the melon is used to remove seeds and mix with the lotus root, and the lotus root is eaten with ice. Fresh walnuts with raisins are prepared by soaking raisins (seedless) in honey, breaking green walnuts (produced in the south), peeling off the tender skin with astringency inside, pouring grape juice on them and eating them in cold storage. Eating fruit lotus root can benefit qi, and eating green walnut can tonify kidney. Not to mention others, such as sour plum soup and sherbet.
4. Real court manufacturing is not afraid of materials, not afraid of labor, just seeking perfection.
Toilet paper is processed by the maid. Take a thin, soft white tissue paper, cut it into large pieces separately first, and then spray a little water gently, which is thinner than fog. We can all do it. We often compete, take a sip of water and spray at the same time to see who is strong enough, spray for a long time, and the fog stars are even and thin. As the saying goes, a clever woman cannot cook without rice, which is also a skill in needlework. We all practice hard. Spray the paper until it is wet and wilted, walk it gently with copper and iron twice, then cut it into long strips, pad it with a wet cloth, and iron the paper with hot iron as long as it comes and goes. Never burn the paper, it will be brittle and can't be used. In this way, the soft, clean and angular toilet paper is folded for later use. Iron it twice, one is to make it clean, and the other is to iron the paper wool in turn. Hairless paper is slippery, and hairy paper is astringent. Only paper for ironing hair is the best. Toilet paper is often placed in a wooden box under the coffee table in the south window of the dressing room.
And how to make rouge.
"It's almost the middle of April in the lunar calendar. There will be roses on the Miao Feng Mountain in Jingxi, and the palace will start making rouge. This matter should be supervised by experienced old eunuchs from beginning to end. The old lady's energy is very strong, and we have to see these things ourselves, so we also participate in these things.
"First of all, choose flowers. The standard color is sand red. Flowers are not the same color as flowers. As the saying goes, you are not afraid of not knowing the goods, but you are afraid of comparison. Put the flowers together and you can tell the colors. The color of a petal is also different, and there are differences from top to bottom. So we have to choose one petal, one petal, one petal. Only in this way can we make rouge and ensure pure red. A few hundred catties of roses can only pick out ten or twenty catties of petals. Palace manufacturing, not afraid of wasting materials and labor, only seeking perfection. Without these two things, they are said to be imperial and fake.
"Chosen, with mortar dao. The stone mortar is deep, like a mill in a drugstore, but it doesn't squat. The pestle is also made of white marble, don't use metal. Mud with a stone pestle and filter with fine gauze. Gauze washing and ironing, no wool is allowed. In this way, pure flower juice is made. Then pour the flower juice into the prepared rouge jar. Add some alum when you pound the roses. It is said that this color can catch meat, not floating color.
"Then cut the silk floss into small squares or round blocks, fold it into five or six layers, and soak it in a rouge jar. Soak for more than ten days, so that the silk floss has a thick layer of juice. Then take it out to dry through the glass window to avoid dust. Never bake it, it will change color.
When in use, the little finger is dipped in warm water and sprinkled on the rouge to make it melt, so you can draw on your face with your hands instead of your lips. Lip painting is to roll the silk floss rouge into a fine roll and transfer it to the lips with a fine roll, or transfer it to the silk floss rouge with a jade scratch (the name of the hair clasp) and then click the lips. The old lady is very particular about these things and is not careless about them.
5. Qing Palace Health Care
Emperors, empresses, empresses, young masters and Gege all take naps. Get up early in the morning, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, get up from five to six, and freshen up before seven. Even if the young master sits around the house or walks around the yard, he should be bald and clean. At the latest, the emperor sleeps between 9: 00 and 10, and between 1 and1,which is the time for deep sleep. The same is true during the day. From 1 1 to 1, you need to take a nap. This is the so-called meaning of yin and yang of heaven and earth, the secret of health and longevity, the guarantee of vigor and vitality, and the family law of the court ancestors. It is absolutely forbidden to stay up late at night and sleep late in the morning. Thousands of people in the palace should obey this rule. The old lady is full of energy. Even in the garden, she never gets up after 5 o'clock.
In Palace of Gathered Elegance, it is very important to wash the old lady's feet, and the water for washing feet is also very particular. For example, in the dog days, the weather is hot and humid, that is, boiling, airing and washing the chrysanthemum can make the old lady dazzled, cool and windy, and ensure that she will not suffer from heatstroke; If it's March 9th and the weather is extremely cold, then wash it with papaya soup, which can promote blood circulation, warm your knees, make your whole body soft and warm, and be full of spring. Of course, according to the changes of the four seasons and the sunny weather, adding or subtracting ready-made prescriptions at any time is also the secret of the old lady's fitness.
6. Palace aesthetics
In the court, it is exquisite that the pearls are round and smooth, which can be said to be the standard of beauty, not red and green. Palace etiquette, whether skin or clothes, should be soft and moist from the inside out.
"Our cheeks are dizzy with wine, as if they were slightly red after drinking. Never put two red plasters on your cheekbones like the ugly girl in the play. Lips should take people as the center line, the upper lip should be painted less, and the lower lip should be painted more to cover the sky, but they are all scarlet, slightly larger than soybeans. In the book, this is called cherry mouth, which is the decoration of a court girl. This is different from painting a woman's mouth red in the west.
Of course, the content of this book is not only these, but also more details. For example, how do ladies-in-waiting spend the Beggar's Day? How did you spend the New Year in the palace? The Summer Palace has beautiful scenery in summer. How to swim the lake? How to raise beautiful birds? Wait a minute. Anyway, this book covers the court's food, clothing, housing and transportation, eating, drinking and sleeping, and all the details are in it. This is really a feast of details.
In short, everyone will find this book to read in their spare time, which will definitely make you enjoy it.