In 1636, Emperor Taiji changed the name of the country to Daqing, but the real establishment of the Qing Dynasty should be calculated from 1644. After the Manchus entered the customs, they gave great favors to the nobles of the palace. Therefore, we often see in the Qing Palace drama that the Eight Flags children have nothing to do all day, but they can still live a very moist life. And the "Chong Long Ditch" we want to talk about today is just a small microcosm of their daily luxury.
What is "Chong Long Gou"?
Listening to the three words of Chong Longgou, I believe that many netizens will think of wrongdoing, in fact, the answer is not what you think. The so-called Chong Long Ditch has nothing to do with the waiter's bed, but it is an ancient "way of gargling".
From the name, you can also feel that this is specially for the emperor and the eight flags disciples, where do ordinary people dare to call it "dragon"? Chong Longgou refers to the fact that after the emperor got up every day, the palace maids around him brought tea and let the emperor gargle. Longgou, that is, the emperor's mouth.
The ancients knew how to gargle, the earliest can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, when there was already a saying of "chicken first singing, salty cough", which means that at dawn, people will rinse their mouths to freshen their breath.
Later developed into the Ming Dynasty, in 1498, the ming emperor Zhu Youfan invented the first toothbrush in the true sense, which was made of pig bristles and bone handles. In the Qing Dynasty, later generations developed better quality toothbrushes on the basis of it, but the habit of gargling every morning has been retained.
To give the emperor "Chong Long Gou", why did the palace ladies rush to go?
Most of the palace ladies of the Qing Dynasty were clothed slaves of the Eight Banners, so their status in the imperial palace was very low. Every once in a while, the imperial court would select some palace women to enter the palace, and the days of waiting for them were not comfortable.
After the palace women enter the palace, the first thing is to learn various etiquette rules, once they behave badly, they may be excluded at any time, or even lose their lives, in order to prevent them from going to the toilet during work, even when they are on duty, they cannot eat enough. It is rare for a concubine like Liangfei to be regarded by Kangxi in Xinzhiku and become a noble concubine.
Therefore, most of the palace women are holding the attitude of mixing up the days, staying up until a certain age to leave the palace, who will go to scramble to work and express themselves? But Chong Longgou is really an exception.
Why? Because the tea leaves given to the emperor Chong Longgou are extremely precious, they may be good teas for tribute from all over the world, or tributes from Fanbang, in short, the best varieties. And the ancients gargling is actually a step, the first step is to drink a sip of tea, and then spit it out, freshen up the breath, the second step is to drink another cup of tea.
The reason why the palace ladies rushed to serve the emperor was on this tea. Most of the tea leaves that the emperor had rinsed his mouth would be thrown away and would never be used a second time. And the palace women took out these tea leaves to dry, because they only used it once, and the price after drying was still expensive, so they sold the tea leaves and still got a good price.
Therefore, the reason why the palace ladies rushed to serve the emperor chong longgou was to make some small money from it. In fact, it is understandable that the life of the palace women in ancient times was very bitter, under normal circumstances, the palace women of the Qing Dynasty could only leave the palace at the age of 25, and there was no savings in their hands, and the family would not be welcomed. So making a little money in the palace is what they plan for the future.