Regarding the life of the ancient court, people often say that "once you enter the palace door, it is as deep as the sea", once a woman enters the palace, whether she is a palace maid or a concubine, it is difficult to step out of the palace door since then, like being imprisoned. The Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Shu's "Palace" said: "Few ancient palaces, palace flowers are lonely and red." The white-headed palace lady was there, sitting idly and saying Xuanzong. "It is even more that the ancient court women can only freeze the life in the old death palace, but in fact, in the Han Dynasty, the palace women are not as repressed and imprisoned as the later generations, and there is still a chance to come out after entering the palace, let's take a look at the way out of the Han Dynasty palace women."
I. Who are the palace ladies of the Han Dynasty?
The range of palace women in the Han Dynasty is very wide, not a fixed concept, and mainly has the following meanings:
The first refers to the emperor's concubines other than the empress. The Book of Han and the Chronicle of Emperor Wen contains his testament: "At least the following envoys are attributed to The Lady." Emperor Jing also left his order that "those who leave the palace return to their homes and return to their homes for life." During the Wenjing period, concubines below the empress were called wives, and specifically there were the ranks of beauty, good people, eight sons, seven sons, long envoys, and young envoys. Emperor Wenjing's emissaries apparently referred to concubines other than the empress.
Dunsa's version of Chestnut Beauty
The second was women who worked in the palace, including official concubines. The Eastern Han Dynasty Lang Yan believed that the reason why Emperor Shun "had many deaths and many heirs" was because he "accumulated more palace people to violate the will of heaven", and believed that he should "simply leave the palace women and marry them arbitrarily". The "palace people" here refer to the palace women. Empress Mingde ma died, and Emperor Zhang's biological mother was given the title of "Two Hundred People of Yongxiang Palace". During the reign of Emperor Wu, Empress Deng issued an edict that "everyone in the Palace of the Imperial Household is a commoner, in order to express the feelings of depression and stagnation." Yeting is the renaming of Yong lane. The people who are exempted from the palace are commoners, and it can be seen that the palace people here are officials and concubines with lower status than the common people.
The third is the concubine in the palace of the princes. According to the Book of Han, Liu Jiansheng, the king of Jiangdu, was cruel and cruel, "those who have had eight sons of the palace man Ji Ji, they are ordered to stand naked and beat drums, or place them on a tree, and those who have been for thirty days are clothed." Tao Wangqing, the xiujing wife of King Guangchuan, was framed by Zhaoxin, and one of his crimes was to "do everything possible to take advantage of the people of the palaces".
The fourth is a rank of harem concubines. The han dynasty harem grade system underwent an evolutionary process from simple to complex. During the Wenjing period, there were beauties, liangren, eight sons, seven sons, chang envoys, and young envoys below the empress, and Emperor Wu added the fourteen ranks of 倢伃, 傛(xíng) E, 傛华, Chong Yi, and when Emperor Yuan added Zhaoyi, a total of empresses, Zhaoyi, Jieyu, Concubines, Concubines, Concubines, Huihua, Beauties, Eight Sons, Chongyi, Seven Sons, Liangren, Long Envoys, Young Envoys, Five Senses, and Shunchang Fourteen Ranks, under which there were Wu Juan, Republican, Entertainment Spirit, Baolin, Liang envoys, Night People, Family Sons, etc., and the family members were divided into upper family children and lower family children, which can be called complicated. After the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, emperor Guangwu made a drastic move to streamline the harem system, "the title of six palaces, only empresses and nobles", and also placed beauties, palace people, and women. "Palace people" have now become a specific harem grade.
Empress Guo of the Guangwu Emperor (Wang Yuanke version)
Second, what are the ways out for the palace women of the Han Dynasty?
Compared with later generations, there are still more ways out for the palace women of the Han Dynasty, which can be roughly divided into the following categories:
The first is to leave the palace and return home.
In addition to the empress, some concubines in the Wenjing period could also be released and returned home, and some were exempted from lifelong taxes, such as Emperor Jing's testament that "those who leave the palace return to their homes and return to their homes for life." Others are allowed to marry after returning home. For example, in the spring of the twelfth year of Emperor Wen (168 BC), "the beauty of the harem of Emperor Xiaohui was ordered to be married". After Emperor Ping's death, Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun also ordered his concubines to be sent, "all return to their families to marry." The imperial concubines could also marry in the palace, which was almost unimaginable after the Tang and Song dynasties.
Wang Zhengjun
The emperor's concubines can all marry people out of the palace, and the ordinary palace women can of course marry after leaving the palace. The "Miscellaneous Records of Xijing" records that Jia Peilan was originally Lady Qi's maid, and after Lady Qi's death, she married Duan Ru, a fufeng person, as her wife, and Lady Qi's other maids also went out of the palace to marry. According to the "Story of Han Wu", Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built the Mingguang Palace, "sending Yan Zhao beautiful women to two thousand people, the rate is more than fifteen years old, under twenty, and those who are over thirty are married." When the Emperor was mourning, he also allowed "the people of the Imperial Palace to marry Chinese New Year's Eve below" and marry them." In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also ministers who suggested that the palace daughter marry someone. For example, Emperor Huan accepted Chen Fan's advice, "For more than five hundred women in the palace."
Lady Qi in "The Song of the Great Wind"
The second is to be given marriage.
The palace maid who was given marriage to others was mainly the person who worked in the palace or served the concubine, not the concubine herself. The palace women were given marriages to a wide range of objects, including princes and emperors' favorites, as well as the leaders of the surrounding ethnic minorities. The marriage of palace women to the princes surnamed Liu was initiated by Empress Lü in order to make them serve as his eyes and ears, and thus strengthen the monitoring of the princes surnamed Liu everywhere. When Emperor Wen of Han Liu Heng was still the Acting King, Empress Lü gave her handmaiden Dou Shi to Daidi. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was still common for emperors to give palace ladies to princes. For example, when Empress Dowager Yin Lihua died, her son Liu Cang, the Prince of Dongpingxian, returned to the country, and the Ming Emperor Liu Zhuang specially gave 500 slaves to the palace. During the reign of Emperor He, Zuo Xiao'e, a beautiful palace man who was given to the royal palace, was given to Liu Qing, the king of Qinghe, "blessed with great love, concubine Mobi".
Lin Xin is like a version of Dou Shi
The emperor can give the palace daughter to the princes, but the princes cannot take the initiative to marry the people who leave the Palace of the Han Palace, "the people of the old Forbidden Palace are not allowed to marry the countries", otherwise they will be punished by the imperial court. For example, Jun, the son of Emperor Xiaoming's son Chen Jingwang Xian, "made li lou a young wife and sat back in the three counties of Yilu, Yilu, and Fugou."
The emperors of the Han Dynasty would also give palace women to meritorious ministers. For example, Emperor Wu of han once gave Jin Ilju several palace maidens, but the cautious Jin Riju "did not dare to come near" to the palace women he gave. The ministers of the Han Dynasty could not forcibly marry the palace women themselves, otherwise they would go against the way of the courtiers and should be judged with great disrespect. In the last years of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Gen and Wang Quan, members of the Wang clan who were very powerful, either "took the five facial features of the former Ye Ting female music Yin Yan, Wang Feijun, etc., and put wine and song" or "hired the nobles of the former Ye Ting as wives", and they were strongly impeached by the ministers, accusing them of "betraying the righteousness of the courtiers" and "having no courtesy and great disrespect" and "no one to be courteous."
The Han Dynasty had frequent exchanges with the surrounding ethnic minorities, and in order to consolidate the relationship between the two sides, they also chose to marry. In addition to marrying a chambermaid, sometimes they also choose to reward the palace maid. For example, during the han zhao emperor period, the proton tu qi returned to the country to succeed to the throne, and the Han court "gave the palace lady as a lady, and prepared a car to ride a heavy weight". During the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, the Han and Hungarians made good friends, and the palace lady King Zhaojun was rewarded with the title of Hu Han Evil Shan Yu as his wife, with the title of Ning Hu Fu. However, this opportunity to be given to foreign leaders as wives was still relatively rare in the Han Dynasty.
Zhaojun is out of the jam
The third is to follow the king to the kingdom.
This way out was mainly for the emperor's concubines. As the emperor's concubine, if she has a son, and the son grows up smoothly and is crowned king, once the emperor dies, she can follow her son to the country and become the empress dowager in the feudal country. For example, after the death of Han Gaozu, the unfavored Bo Ji, with the permission of Empress Lü, and her son Liu Heng were enfeoffed. Fu Zhaoyi had a son, Dingtao Wang, and after emperor Yuan's collapse, he returned to China with Dingtao and was honored as Empress Dingtao.
Bo Ji and Liu Heng in "Beauty and The Heart"
If a concubine has a son, although she is young and is crowned, but does not have a kingdom or an heir, after the death of the son, the concubine can return to the mother's house. For example, Emperor Xuan of Han's Rong Jieyu had a son, and in the second year of the first yuan (47 BC), he was named the King of Zhongshan, "the country of young and young", and after 12 years of childless death, Rong Jieyu left the palace and returned to her mother's family.
In the harem with women like clouds, who can be favored by the emperor and give birth to a son, and the son is crowned king, such a palace girl as a whole is not much, so following the king to the country can only be the way out for those lucky concubines with children.
The fourth is the Shouyuan Mausoleum.
That is to say, guarding the tomb for the emperor, which is a particularly tragic way out for the palace women of the Han Dynasty, even the childless concubines must guard the tomb. For example, in the "Book of Han and the Biography of the Six Kings of Xuanyuan", Yun: "The palace people have no children, but they are guarding the garden tombs." "Shouyuan Mausoleum began in the zhao emperor's period, after the death of emperor Wu, Huo Guang specialized, "all the palace women were placed in the garden mausoleum." Since then, this system has been inherited, and the same was true during the Zhaoxuan period. The number of palace women guarding the Garden Mausoleum is large, for example, there are hundreds of people in the Tomb of Emperor Xuan alone. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, some ministers began to oppose the use of palace women to "guard the garden mausoleum", and suggested that the palace women who were childless or not fortunate were dismissed, but they were refused.
By the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the practice of guarding the cemetery with palace women was also inherited. After the death of Emperor He, it was limited to the system, "the palace people returned to the garden", and the empress dowager Deng Shi was "forever nostalgic for the night, and felt sorry for it". Because during this period, "the harem nobles all guarded the garden mausoleum", and these concubines also had a unified title - the nobles of the gardens. For example, Yu Meiren, the mother of Emperor Chong, was named a nobleman of XianYuan, and Dong Shi, the mother of Emperor Ling, was named a nobleman of Shenyuan.
Death in the garden was the most common unfortunate outcome of the "Shouyuan Mausoleum" palace women in the Han Dynasty, either due to illness, or because of old age, or because of suicide. Empress Zhao Feiyan was deposed as a shuren after The Death of Emperor Cheng, and was sent to the Tomb of Emperor Cheng, but she could not bear it and committed suicide on the same day she entered the mausoleum. The palace women were unfortunately infected with the disease, and sometimes they could not be treated, which also contributed to the death of the palace women and made their fate even more tragic.
Tong Liya's version of Zhao Feiyan
For the palace women of the "Shouyuan Mausoleum", they could also be allowed to return home, but this opportunity was too rare in the Han Dynasty. Once, during the reign of Emperor Cheng, he ordered "duling to return home to the emperors". However, these tomb keepers have spent more than 30 years here, and when they come out, most of them are old or sick. Another time was during the reign of Emperor Wu, when Empress Deng was in charge and released some of the palace women who guarded the tomb, mainly elderly and frail people. It is conceivable that these sick and weak palace women who have lost their ability to work should also have a very difficult life after leaving the palace.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, where the throne changed and often entered the imperial domain to succeed the unification, it provided an opportunity for some palace women to change their fate, that is, they could return to the palace again. For example, Emperor Huan was the son of Liu Yi, the Marquis of Liwu, and after succeeding to the throne, he posthumously honored his father as Emperor Xiaochong, Ling Yue Boling, and his mother As the noble man of Boyuan. Since Empress Liang was still alive, the Huan clan went to Boling to guard the tomb, and after Empress Liang's death, Emperor Huan took her back to the palace and lived in Yongle Palace. Another example is the Ling Emperor's biological mother, Dong Shi, who also returned to the palace from the cemetery because her son inherited the throne. Throughout the two Han Dynasties and four hundred years, only these two people returned to the palace from the palace maid who "guarded the garden mausoleum" to become the empress, which was a special case. In general, shouling is a particularly tragic ending for the palace women of the Han Dynasty, and there is no way out.
Wen Shijun said
From the initial outgoing palace women ordering them to return to their homes or remarry to later "guarding the garden mausoleum" with palace women, the way out for the palace women in the Han Dynasty became more and more single, and it became more and more unfortunate. This change is actually a reflection of the social concept of the Han Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, etiquette was not obvious, people's concept of chastity was relatively weak, and the status of men and women was relatively equal, so even the emperor allowed palace people to return home or even remarry, and in the period of Emperor Wu, because Confucianism established its dominant position, the concept of male superiority and female inferiority and husband power supremacy prevailed, the status of men and women was unbalanced, the requirements for women increased significantly, advocating women to "not change a button", and the phenomenon of women taking the initiative to observe the festival and not remarrying increased significantly. Except for a very small number of people, the chances of the palace women in the Han Dynasty being able to leave the palace were greatly reduced, and their lives were miserable and their endings were sad.
bibliography
Wei Guanglai: "Examination of the System of People Leaving the Palace in the Western Han Dynasty", Wenshi Zhe, No. 2, 2002.
Zhai Mailing, "The Way Out for the Palace Women of the Han Dynasty", Journal of South China Agricultural University (Social Science Edition), No. 4, 2005.
Zhao Yanxu, "An Analysis of the Phenomenon of "Shouyuan Mausoleum" of Palace People in the Han Dynasty: Looking at the Social Status of Women in the Han Dynasty from the Side", Tangdu Academic Journal, No. 5, 2016.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Wei Swift)
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