The emperor was the supreme ruler of the ancient Chinese dynasty, and the emperor had supreme power, which directly affected the country's major policies and even determined the life and death of millions of people. But even the emperor who is high above cannot be ten thousand years. Man is inherently dead, and the emperor is no exception. After the death of the emperor, the country cannot be left without a monarch for a day, and soon a new emperor will ascend the throne. In general, the new emperor is the son of the old emperor, and in the absence of sons, it may be a nephew. But there are exceptions, that is, brothers and brothers, this situation is the most embarrassing. If the brother is the last brother and the brother, how to deal with the harem concubines left by the previous emperor?
First, let's talk about the normal order of succession to the throne. Although the courtiers chanted "Long live our emperor all day long," no emperor in thousands of years of history has been able to live forever. Therefore, the emperor will set up an heir. Generally speaking, the heir is definitely the son of the emperor, especially the advantage of the eldest son is very obvious, such as Li Shimin's crown prince Li Chengqian, who belongs to the standard eldest son. In addition to the eldest son, it is also possible for a more virtuous prince. However, once the emperor has no sons, the heir to the throne will have great problems.
In such cases, heirs were generally selected from the emperor's close royal family, for example, after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, because the emperor had no sons, eventually, the emperor's nephew Puyi inherited the throne. Both sons and nephews belong to the younger generations, and there is no confusion in terms of titles and ranks. In ancient Chinese history, the northern nomadic regime often had a situation of brotherhood and brotherhood. But in the Central Plains Dynasty, there were not many such examples, and not many did not mean that there were none.
For example, song taizu and song taizong of the Song Dynasty, emperors of the Ming Dynasty and Chongzhen emperors, Tongzhi emperors and Guangxu emperors of the Qing Dynasty, etc., all belong to brothers and brothers. So, in the case of brothers and brothers, how to deal with the concubines of the harem? Generally speaking, after the new emperor ascended the throne, the concubines left behind by the old emperor, even if they were younger than the new emperor, were still the elders of the new emperor.
According to traditional etiquette, the new emperor could not be disrespectful. Generally speaking, after the death of the old emperor, those concubines with relatively high status will continue to stay in the palace, such as the original imperial concubines, noble concubines and concubines, etc., and will add a tai character to their honorific titles, such as taifei and so on. As for the concubines of relatively low status, they either guarded the tombs of the previous emperors or went to special royal monasteries to become monks. For example, after the death of Emperor Taizong of Tang and Li Shimin, Wu Zetian, who was not of high status, was once sent to the Ganye Temple for monasticism. Some dynasties adopted a cruel burial system, and after the death of the old emperor, some concubines were forced to be buried.
For example, after the death of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, there were a large number of concubines buried. In the last case, the happiest, some concubines have given birth to a prince, and the prince has been crowned as a prince and has his own mansion or fief. After the death of the old emperor, these concubines could go to their sons' homes to live, provided that the new emperor agreed. As for the empress of the old emperor, whether his own son ascended the throne or not, the empress of the previous emperor would certainly be honored as the empress dowager. Whether it is a son or a nephew ascending the throne, it belongs to the younger generation to inherit the cause of the elders. If it is a brother and a brother, this situation is very embarrassing.
Because the new emperor and the old emperor belong to the same generation, for example, after the death of the 19-year-old Tongzhi Emperor, the 3-year-old Guangxu Emperor ascended the throne. From the perspective of the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty, the Guangxu Emperor was the cousin of the Tongzhi Emperor and belonged to the same generation. After the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, he left many young harem concubines. For these concubines, they cannot be called concubines and concubines, because they belong to the same generation. Therefore, it was only possible to continue to refer to the original title, and in order to prevent confusion with the new emperor's concubines, notes were often added to written documents.
After the death of Zhao Kuangyin, the ancestor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi of the Song Dynasty came to power. Because they belonged to the same generation, in the documents at that time, only the empress of Zhao Kuangyin could be called Empress Song, and the empress of Zhao Guangyi was called Empress Li. In fact, in addition to the embarrassing title of brother and brother, having two empresses at the same time is also a more troublesome thing. For example, during the reign of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, there were empress dowagers Chen and empress dowager Li. According to the regulations of the imperial court, the birthdays of the emperor, empress dowager and empress were major festivals and needed to be celebrated. Since there are two empresses, there are naturally two festivals that need to be celebrated.
In ancient Chinese history, the number of empresses owned by emperors varied greatly. Some emperors are very and can have hundreds of concubines, and some concubines have not seen the emperor until they are old and yellow. There are also emperors, who are standard wives and strict, and in the face of strong empresses, the emperor does not even dare to crown a concubine. For example, Emperor Yang Jian of Sui, the ability of the lone empress was too strong, and Emperor Wen of Sui did not dare to crown a concubine at all. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the number of concubines owned by the emperor had strict regulations, for example, the palace and title of the concubines were only so many, they could only be less than the highest standard, not more than the highest standard.
Especially in the Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent the playthings of later generations from losing their minds, there were strict regulations on the number of concubines, and even the time of the concubines' bedtime and flipping cards was accurately determined. In the late period of Qing rule, the number of harem concubines was not much, generally only a few to a dozen concubines. As for the number of concubines in the folk, there are also strict requirements. In everyone's traditional impression, as long as there is money, they can continue to take concubines. In fact, this statement is obviously wrong, if there is no meritorious name, ordinary merchants or squires, can not take concubines at all. Of course, this is a rule of the imperial court, and the people do not necessarily abide by it.