In the ancient patriarchal society, the social status of women was very low, they were only appendages of men, they existed in dependence on men, from their fathers at home, from their husbands to their husbands, and from their husbands to their sons. If a woman has a father, a husband and a son, then her life is relatively stable, and therefore it is very important to be a wife and concubine and give birth to a son. Especially in the royal family, after all, there is a throne to inherit, even if his son cannot inherit the throne, but he can give birth to a son, he can also ensure his life in the second half of his life to a certain extent.
I believe that many people know the words "mother by child" and "son by child", in fact, the two are connected in the royal family, and mother and child are interdependent. This is also why, the women of the harem, to rack their brains to climb up and day and night to give birth to the crown prince. There is a big difference between having sons and not having sons, let's take the situation after the emperor's death, in many dynasties, such as the Tang and Song dynasties, after the emperor died, concubines who did not give birth to sons could only go to the monastery to become nuns, and the empress Wu Zetian, whom we know well, once had such an experience.
Wu Zetian was originally a talented person of Li Shimin, and after Li Shimin's death, Wu Zetian had to go to the Ganye Temple to become a monk because he had no children, but fortunately, he was later accepted into the palace by Li Zhi, and there was a later female emperor. Of course, although it is said that the monk is said to be with the Qinglan Ancient Buddha for a lifetime from now on, after all, he can live, if it is in some period of the Ming and Qing dynasties, such a concubine who has not given birth to a son will be martyred.
Martyrdom is a kind of living burial system, the pre-Qin period and earlier periods are more prevalent, there was a period of time in the middle was abolished, the Tang and Song dynasties did not exist this martyrdom system, but after the Song Dynasty, the martyrdom system revived, the Ming Dynasty from the beginning had a martyrdom system, after the death of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, many of his concubines were required to be martyred.
Mao Qiling, a writer of the early Qing Dynasty who participated in the compilation of the History of the Ming Dynasty, recorded in his book "The Collected Remains of the History of Tong of the Victorious Dynasty": "The early Taizu was buried with forty-six concubines, of which more than a dozen people were martyred in the palace. ”
That is to say, 46 of Zhu Yuanzhang's concubines were required to be martyred, and there were more than a dozen palace women. This number is actually quite large. Of course, this does not mean that all the concubines were required to be martyred, in fact, when Zhu Yuanzhang died, many of his concubines had already gone before him, including many concubines of relatively high rank, Empress Ma needless to say, as well as Chengmu Guifei Sun, Li Shufei, Guo Ningfei, Concubine Qi, and so on.
Among the concubines who were alive, the concubines who gave birth to sons naturally did not have to be martyred, and the others could not escape the fate of martyrdom even if they gave birth to princesses.
Of course, one of Zhu Yuanzhang's concubines was also required not to be martyred although she was born a princess, and this person was Zhang Meiren. Zhang Meiren is nothing special in history, but she is a concubine of Zhu Yuanzhang in her later years, and the princess born to her is Zhu Yuanzhang's youngest child.
This princess was Princess Baoqing, who was born around 1395, when Zhu Yuanzhang was already 68 years old. Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons and 16 daughters in his lifetime, four of whom were born after Zhu Yuanzhang was sixty years old.
Of these four, two sons were born in 1388, and the youngest son was born in 1394, but died soon after, and Princess Baoqing was born in 1395 and was the youngest child, so this is a real old woman, who must be pampered.
Zhu Yuanzhang was quite fond of Princess Baoqing, and therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that Princess Baoqing's birth mother, Zhang Meiren, not be martyred in order to take good care of Princess Baoqing.
You know, when Zhu Yuanzhang died, Princess Baoqing was only four years old, so Zhang Meiren survived because she gave birth to Princess Baoqing. However, in the later rearing of Princess Baoqing, it was not Zhang Meiren who was raising her, and there is such a record in the History of Ming: "First, Chengzu took the throne, the lord was eight years old, and Empress Renxiao was like a daughter." ”
That is to say, after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, Princess Baoqing was raised by Empress Renxiao, and when Zhu Di ascended the throne, Princess Baoqing was only eight years old, and whether Zhang Meiren had died during the Jianwen Emperor's time we do not know.
Speaking of which, Princess Baoqing was very favored by her brother Zhu Di, and her dowry when she got married was much higher than that of other princesses, but Princess Baoqing's life expectancy was not long, and she died less than forty years old.