The three thousand beauties of the emperor's harem have always been the topic of people's after-dinner talk, although polygamy prevailed in ancient times, and most of the high-ranking and powerful princes and generals could indeed have many beautiful women to serve around, but in the end they were still more proud emperors than the heavens.
If you want to talk about the gathering place of beautiful women, it must be the palace, and the emperor will choose the right ones from many women of the right age to serve in the palace every year, and it is no wonder that this treatment makes the men of the world envious.
Political considerations
But in fact, the emperor's admission of concubines to the palace is not only a love of beauty, but also wants to extend the royal bloodline, but also to balance the status and power of the powerful ministers in the government and the public.
And the women in the harem are not as happy and happy as people think, although the harem ladies and ladies are all raised by the golden branches and jade leaves, but it is indispensable to compete with other women for the favor of the emperor, the number of women in the harem is very large, and if you want to get ahead, you can only win the favor of the emperor a few times, so that you have the opportunity to conceive a child, and in the future, the mother will rely on her son to stand firm in the harem, and she can also let her mother's family be valued by the emperor.
However, there are many favored women in the harem, but they cannot always be favored, especially if they are more than fifty years old, even if they are well maintained, they are still not able to serve the emperor no matter how much they are loved. Many people will think that this is a very normal thing, after all, the emperor is not stupid to face the young and beautiful women who come in the draft every year, how can he look at the old love of those old Zhu Huang?
However, although the aging of appearance accounts for a certain proportion, it is not the most important, after all, the women in the palace attach the most importance to their own appearance, and they will use the most precious materials to preserve their youth every day, so even if they are over fifty years old, they will not necessarily lose to women who have just entered the palace in appearance and temperament.
If the appearance of the new love and the old love are comparable, then one of the key factors that makes the fifty-year-old concubine unable to sleep in the "Inner Rules" is the issue of the balance of the imperial court.
The emperor's selection process of concubines is very exquisite, in addition to good looks and slender figures, but also to consider their status, as well as the forces behind them, generally only the children of officials and eunuchs or the children of princes and nobles have the opportunity to enter the palace draft.
The newly entered women in the palace often have the power that the emperor values more behind them, hoping to balance their former dynasty forces by promoting them, so as to consolidate their supreme position from being threatened, so they will also be particularly favored by the women they send to the palace.
And those concubines who are over fifty years old, often the forces behind them are relatively fixed and relatively powerful, and the emperor's reluctance to serve is actually to a certain extent to warn these forces not to overdo it, so as to damage their own authority, on the other hand, to avoid other courtiers from seeing the concubines representing these forces get excessive favor and to prevent the further expansion of their power.
In history, the most typical example is Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the harem from colluding with the former dynasty, delivering information to each other, and avoiding ruining his great cause because of the little woman, he would rather choose his own empress from ordinary women than look at the daughter of the princely general.
Even the emperor has to be wet with rain and dew
The second reason is to rain and dew evenly, the so-called harem beauty three thousand people, which can be exaggerated, according to historical records, the harem women are so many that even the emperor is not favored, the emperor has dozens of concubines over the years are a common phenomenon, not to mention the following official women and other positions, so for the female emperor who has just entered the palace will often be more pampered, especially those who look beautiful and the family power is more likely to become the new favorite concubine than the powerful woman.
In contrast, for those concubines who stayed in the palace all year round, they had already received enough favors, and their status was relatively stable, it was difficult to rise or fall again, so there was no need to compete with the new concubines for favors.
Succession is the key
In fact, even if the emperor has more women, the most important thing is to pass on the lineage, extend the royal bloodline, and let the glory of the imperial family be in the hands of his own people, so the emperor's concubines are also in order to have more opportunities to give birth to the crown prince and inherit the throne in the future.
And the more sons born, the more opportunities to choose, the emperor can carefully choose the most suitable son to inherit the unification, and even if there is infighting between the princes, as long as the number is large enough, the status and power will eventually fall on their own heads.
Compared with the young and beautiful women who have just entered the palace, the concubines over fifty years old have passed the age of childbearing, and it is difficult to give birth to a prince even if they are slept again, so from a physiological point of view, the emperor has no need to spoil them, unless it is a woman who is particularly loved by the emperor or a woman who is strong in the former dynasty and needs the harem to balance, otherwise the emperor will rarely accept the old love of more than half a hundred years.
epilogue
In ancient times, the idea of male superiority and female inferiority has always been respected, women have never been able to have their own freedom and dignity, can only be bound by the three principles and five constants, even if the woman who enters the palace to become the emperor's concubine, only looks glorious on the surface, the status is majestic, in fact, it is only a tool used by the emperor to continue the bloodline and balance the imperial court.
And every woman who enters the palace is not as easy as imagined, they often have to carry the expectations of the family, use all wisdom and strength, to compete for the meager favor, often only those concubines who are fortunate enough to have princes and princesses can barely put their hearts at ease.
After all, the mother is precious by her son, even if she makes some small mistakes, she can rely on her children to regain the emperor's pity and not be disliked by the emperor.
From this point of view, the women in the palace are also very sad, they have glory and wealth, and they have a status and favor that others cannot envy, but they have no freedom, and they can only be imprisoned in Bauhinia City like caged birds, and they cannot come out for a lifetime.