In many costume deep palace dramas, it is often seen that the emperor is happy, the dragon is happy, and the wave of the hand is waved, and the small eunuch in the back takes a small melon seed from the plate and sends it to the kneeling person, and the person below is a flattered look.
Or some concubines, who seem to be smiling and holding a handful of golden melon seeds to the hands below, and the people kneeling below are also smiling. If you think this is just the plot of the TV series, then you are very wrong, and this plot also has a real basis.
Ancient emperors would treat the golden melon seed as a reward, and as to why the people or concubines below would be flattered, first, because the gold was originally a valuable item, and second, because the melon seed represented the supreme glory.
The valuable value of the golden melon seeds themselves
Ancient currency is not very circulating, not as convenient as we are now swiping weChat, many times are used for broken silver, broken gold for trading. The heavier the natural weight, the higher the price.
There is a saying in ancient times that the emperor would often reward the golden melon seeds. The golden melon seeds mentioned here are not golden melon seeds, but a hard currency made of gold.
But golden melon seeds are not gold made into melon seeds, but a small piece of broken gold.
First, because the ancient forging technology was not as fine as it is now, there was no way to create a large-scale production of abrasives; second, due to a limitation of cost, there was no great interest in the style of forging small pieces of gold called melon seeds.
The ancients were more elegant and elegant, and it was not good to directly call this kind of broken gold broken gold, so they directly named this small piece of gold as golden melon seeds.
There are many objects as currency, and the sea shells that can be seen everywhere at the beginning of the sea have become copper coins with the changes in social structure and the evolution of life.
China up and down five thousand years, the change of money is after a long period of time, copper, iron, gold, silver, these materials have been used as money, with the change of dynasties, these materials were forged into a variety of currencies by skilled craftsmen, from the Qin Dynasty gold coins, copper coins, to the Sui and Tang dynasty five baht coins, just the evolution of money, you can write a book.
But no matter how it evolves, gold will always be the most precious thing. After all, things are rare and expensive, the rarer the thing, the higher the price, and the material of gold and other currencies is naturally much more expensive.
Whether it is some idol drama, movie, or some documentary, some ancient treasures are inside a pile of boxes, not some ruby things, or copper coins and currency, but shiny gold.
But if there is only one currency, it is really difficult to trade, and there are many gold-derived hard currencies.
And these are just gold being forged into different styles, some are forged into lumpy gold nuggets, some are made into utensils, gold bowls, gold chopsticks, or are made into various decorative necklace rings, or some Buddhist tools placed in the home and other things.
In the later Qing Dynasty, it gradually evolved into golden melon seeds.
In ancient times, golden melon seeds symbolized imperial power and represented a kind of honor
In ancient times, imperial power was supreme, and rulers had a class consciousness in order to make everyone fear themselves. In order to publicize the supremacy of imperial power, and to make ordinary people afraid in their hearts, many rules were established.
Commoners could not use imperial family things, nor could they imitate forging, of course, the emperor and other members of the royal family also had a distinction, including the things used by the emperor, and even the pattern on the clothes was unique.
If someone dares to break through the shackles, what awaits them will be the crime of killing the head, and of course, what is more serious is the crime of the Nine Tribes, so neither the merchants who are rich in money nor the officials in important positions dare to take risks.
If you are not careful, you will fall into the handle and become a major crime of offending the imperial power, which was a big taboo in ancient times.
Golden melon seeds were such a existence in ancient times.
Ordinary people can't forge golden melon seeds, only the emperor can use them. Scarce things are precious, and this is a symbol of imperial power, which gives it a certain unique value.
Moreover, when the emperor usually rewards the people below, he can't always let the eunuchs around him carry some silver tickets, or some precious things such as jade ruyi, first, it seems that there is no majesty, but it is too funny to do so.
Therefore, at this time, the golden melon seeds are very precious. You can carry it with you, or you can reward the next person with dignity, so that the people above can feel the mighty grace of the dragon.
Moreover, there is no very strict restriction on the person who the emperor rewards, so there is no specific group of people who get the golden melon seeds, some have made a great contribution, some have made the emperor longyan great pleasure, some have helped the emperor a lot, and some are simply a recognition of the people below.
The meaning of the concubine
In some history books, it is recorded that some women received rewards from the emperor for golden melon seeds, and most of them existed in the following aspects.
- Or the emperor's private visits, rewards for some rural servants who have a good feeling; or some concubines who give birth to princes, so that the emperor is too excited, will also receive the emperor's reward.
In addition to the above, is there any other chance to get? The answer is yes, but definitely not much.
Some of the concubines who can get the emperor's golden melon seeds are either powerful in the family, and the people in the family have made great sacrifices or great contributions to the imperial court, and as soon as the emperor is happy, Long Yan will reward the golden melon seeds.
Either it was a concubine who was deeply favored by the emperor, but this kind of concubine was generally jealous of other concubines, and they did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse.
Although these golden melon seeds cannot be used for trading, the golden melon seeds themselves, as a symbol of honor, are naturally needed by a large number of people. It's like people today, who don't spend effort to verify it, but want to use other channels to obtain this certificate. If you have the blessing of the certificate, you naturally have a confidence in your heart.
Then these people have golden melon seeds in their hands, and other people also have to look up to him.
And some concubines are not very rich, in the deep palace need to dot the place to go, if not the family is very rich, not enough to support their own costs, this kind of concubine may be thinking of forging gold melon seeds into ordinary gold for trading.