When he was a child, the boy's favorite role was the emperor, because when the emperor was the most powerful, everyone had to listen to him. After growing up, many people are still very envious of the emperor, the king of the world is the only one, it is estimated that any man has such a fantasy.
Then the most crucial thing is that the emperor also has three palaces and six courtyards, you can sit in the harem beauty three thousand, it is estimated that this alone, the envy of the people is not a minority, but unfortunately, this dream is estimated to be difficult for anyone to achieve, and if you really have the opportunity to travel to ancient times to become an emperor, perhaps after understanding the real situation of the harem, you will no longer envy the emperor, and even may sympathize with the emperor.
emperor
The first thing to figure out is the three palaces and six courtyards, all of which say that the emperor has three palaces, six courtyards and seventy-two concubines. It is estimated that most people are confused. The three palaces are the Emperor's Qianqing Palace, the Empress's Kunning Palace, and the Jiaotai Hall in the middle. It is also said that it refers to the empress's middle palace, the concubine's west palace, and the prince's eastern palace.
Then the six courtyards, in fact, refer to the East Six Courtyards and the West Six Courtyards, in the east and west of the palace, each has six palaces, such as the Jingren Palace Jingyang Palace Chuxiu Palace Yongshou Palace, etc., the imperial palace is the residence of the emperor, the three palaces and six courtyards, that is, the family members of the royal family, and now mainly refer to the concubines of the emperor.
When it comes to the scale of the emperor's harem, it is generally described as "three thousand beautiful women", does the emperor's harem really have three thousand beautiful women?
harem
The harem beauty three thousand is from Bai Juyi's "Long Hate Song", but in fact, in our five-thousand-year history, there is really no emperor who can have the ability to sit on three thousand beautiful women.
Legend has it that the largest number of harems in history was Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, who is said to have more than 40,000 harem dependents, followed by Sima Yan, emperor of the Jin Dynasty, who is said to have more than 10,000 people in his harem, but the number of harem women's dependents is not equal to the number of concubines, and the number of concubines who can really have a substantial relationship with the emperor is only three digits at best.
In fact, if an emperor really has three thousand wives and concubines, even if he changes one a day, it will take at least eight years to meet one by one, and it is estimated that even the emperor who beats iron cannot survive these eight years.
Therefore, the harem beauty three thousand is just an exaggeration, but the palace women three thousand, that is not exaggerated at all, because the royal courts of all dynasties have mainly relied on palace women and eunuchs to maintain the operation of the royal family.
So how many concubines can there be in the real emperor's harem? Can the emperor really sit on the beauty of the world? Take the emperor of the Tang Dynasty as an example, first of all, there is an empress, there must be only one, and then there is a concubine, a concubine, a concubine, and a concubine, and then there are concubines of different ranks such as Zhaoyi, Zhaorong, Jieyu, and Cairen.
For example, when Wu Zetian first entered the harem, he was a talented person of Tang Taizong, and the emperor gave her the title of "Wu Mei", so Wu Zetian was also called Wu Mei Niang. According to historical records, the Tang emperor could have up to one hundred and twenty-two wives and concubines, of course, this is only the number of concubines with a name.
As a son of heaven, it is true that you can sit on the beauty of the world in theory, but this is only theoretical. In fact, all the palace women in the harem belonged to the emperor's private property, but under normal circumstances, the emperor did not do anything to ordinary palace women, after all, it was difficult for the emperor to cope with more than a hundred famous wives and concubines in the harem.
Although the emperor's harem is very large, the emperor actually has the emperor's troubles, first of all, he can not love any wife and concubine, because he is the emperor, so it must be rain and dew can not favor one over the other.
Secondly, the emperor's primary task is to pass on the incense from generation to generation, so many times, the emperor is just a fertility machine under the imperial power, can not have emotions, and does not have the power to choose independently, even if it is a flop, there are rules for flopping cards, and can not be arbitrary, not to mention that the emperor is still staring at the empress dowager.
For example, Tang Xuanzong once favored Yang Guifei alone, which triggered the Anshi Rebellion, so the relationship between the emperor and the harem concubines often involved the height of the state.
Secondly, for the emperor, "three thousand beautiful ladies" is only an ideal, because the vast majority of "beautiful ladies" cannot be selected by himself, for example, many of the concubines of the Qing emperor look very ordinary or even have no beauty, but based on blood or marriage, the emperor has to accept it.
Therefore, when most emperors face the harem "three thousand beautiful ladies", they are actually more bitter than happy, belonging to the kind of pain that has suffering words, and only after reading do they know the emperor's suffering, so if you can travel back to the past to be an emperor once, you will no longer envy the so-called three palaces and six courtyards.