It was an honor for ancient officials to be able to meet the emperor, but it was not easy, and there was a possibility that there was a danger to life.
The ancient people's living routine was restricted, and during the Qing Dynasty, the emperor held a court meeting between about 5:00 and 7:00 in the morning, a custom that has a long history, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was already a saying of "smelling the chicken on the dynasty", and in the "Poetry Of Qi Feng Chicken Song", it is recorded that "the chicken is both singing, and the dynasty is both prosperous", that is, when the rooster barks, it is time to prepare for the dynasty, and if it is late, the ministers of the upper dynasty have arrived.
Where did the ministers of the ancient capital live?
First of all, we must understand the regional settings of the capital. The design of the capital city is related to the prosperity and destiny of the country, from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the design of the capital city of successive dynasties has become more and more perfect, taking the Qing Dynasty as an example. The capital is divided into outer cities, inner cities, imperial cities and forbidden cities, all of which are layered and included in form, symbolizing the status of the emperor's stars and moons.
Inside the Forbidden City lived the emperor and concubines and concubines, etc., of course, there were also a large number of court service personnel and security personnel; the Imperial City arched the Forbidden City, providing a place for royal activities, such as the Taimiao Temple, the Sheji Altar, etc., most of the people living in the Imperial City were the princes, county kings, belles, princesses, etc.; the inner city could only live in the Eight Banners, until after the Shunzhi Emperor, the Han people could live in the inner city; the outer city was where the Han people and officials lived, which was the most lively place in the capital.
The ministers lined up at the palace gate to have knowledge
Ministers who need to go to the court generally need to get up at two o'clock in the morning to prepare, because the feudal dynasty has its own strict etiquette system, the courtiers must dress according to the requirements, if there is a dress that does not conform to the rules, it will even bring the disaster of killing the head, as the saying goes, "accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger", the officials are always cautious.
When the packing was done, the ministers would go out to the palace gate to wait in line for the upper court, and before five o'clock, the ministers must arrive, and the late ministers would be recorded by the inspectors.
The ministers would stand according to their rank, which was called "pilgrimage", which means the number of pilgrimages. Because courtiers were often promoted or degraded, coupled with the transfer of personnel between different departments, each person's position could be different every day. According to the Wan Li Ye Zhi, during the ming dynasty, two officials argued over the issue of standing.
When the ministers entered the palace and entered the palace, they had to walk in the dark
After the ministers attending the court meeting entered the palace gate, basically the sky was not yet light, and there was still a long way to go from the palace gate to the main hall of the court meeting, and how to go on this road?
During the Ming Dynasty, the roadsides were illuminated, and during the Apocalypse, the eunuch Wei Zhongxian took control of the power, and he ordered people to remove all the street lamps and discard them so that he could do bad things at night.
The Qing Dynasty inherited the tradition of the Ming Dynasty's black lights and blind fires, and the reason given by the Qing Dynasty was that it could eliminate fire hazards, and in the Forbidden City, only the imperial rooms and palace gates were illuminated. The history books record that the hundred officials of the Qing Dynasty "went to the dynasty at night, all of them entered in secret, and they did not examine and distinguish between encounters."
Some of the ministers of the Upper Dynasty received special rewards from the Emperor and could ride horses or sedans to the Court, and these people were relatively happy, while most of the remaining ministers could only walk in the dark, and they had to be careful of tragedies. There were once officials who went to the sky in the rain and fell into the Royal River because of the slippery road and drowned.
Ancient officials will be affected by the weather, starting from the Tang Dynasty, if you encounter rain, snow, summer, mud and other weather, the emperor will be exempted from the court meeting as appropriate, at that time hundreds of officials will praise and thank the emperor for his grace, which is indeed true for officials, after all, it is dangerous to touch the dark on the road to the dynasty.
Enjoy the gastronomic treatment after retiring from the DPRK
After the courtiers' deliberations, from the Tang Dynasty onwards, all the ministers could eat in the palace, which was the "pilgrimage food" prepared by the emperor for hundreds of officials, so there was also an idiom called "retreating from the public".
In costume dramas, you can often hear the words "retreating from the dynasty" and "scattering the dynasty", in fact, the meaning of "retreating from the dynasty" and "scattering the dynasty" is not the same, and "scattered dynasty" should be the whole process of the minister eating the pilgrimage after "retreating from the dynasty".
Where the courtiers worked
The imperial court institutions in the capital can generally be divided into two parts: the inner dynasty and the outer dynasty. The institutions of the inner dynasty include the Zhongshu and menxia, which are generally within the palace ban, while the institutions of the outer dynasty include the Shangshu, the Six Ministries, and so on, most of which are not far from the palace ban.
According to historical records, the off-duty time of officials in the capital will be adjusted according to the solar terms, specifically: after the spring equinox, they will leave at 4 p.m. and after the autumn equinox at 3 p.m.
Since most of the places where the hundred officials lived were in the outer city, and the imperial court palace was basically in the imperial city, it was basically dark when the hundred officials returned home. The ministers basically went out in the dark and went home in the dark, and at this time, they understood the emperor's happiness of a day off.
How often ministers go to work
Different dynasties have different rules for the frequency of the Shang Dynasty, such as every five days during the Han Dynasty and every ten days during the Qing Dynasty.
The rules are made by people, and the actual frequency of the upper dynasty is determined by the emperor himself, and it is also possible to meet the industrious emperor Tiantian Shangchao, such as the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
On the whole, the emperors of all dynasties have been the emperors of the previous dynasties who have gone to the court more times than the emperors of the back, which is a historical law and may also be one of the reasons for the collapse of the dynasty.
Ministers could not take time off at will, and even late arrivals would be punished. For example, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Li Longji, it was clearly stipulated that if an official was absent from the court without explaining the reason, he would be fined three months. In some dynasties, if absent for no reason, they were transferred to remote areas.
What rank were the officials of the Upper Dynasty
Officials who are eligible to ascend to the throne are different in different dynasties. For example, during the Ming Dynasty, all officials in the capital had to go to the court, so the Ming Dynasty was a very sensational scene, with thousands of officials neatly arranged to listen to the emperor's words.
The order of the officials' positions naturally corresponds to the rank of the officials, although the emperor can be seen from a distance, but the officials below the four pins have no right to speak.
During the Qing Dynasty, only officials with a grade of three pins or more could participate in the imperial meeting, and during the Qing Dynasty, the position of the officials of the upper dynasty was also exquisite, the first product official was in the hall with the emperor, the second product official could only stand at the door of the hall, and the three product official was even more miserable, and could only stand on the square outside the hall.
The posture of the ministers when they ascended to the throne
Regarding the posture of officials in the upper dynasty, they have gone through different stages with the development of history. During the Han dynasty and tang dynasty, the hundred officials and the upper court were all seated, and only stood up to show respect when something was played. In the Song Dynasty, the ministers changed from sitting to standing, and after the Yuan Dynasty, the ministers usually stood in the upper court, and if they wanted to speak, they needed to kneel and speak.