The last feudal dynasty in Chinese history, with 12 emperors, this regime established by ethnic minorities ruled China for more than 200 years, and the multi-ethnic state was consolidated and developed at the height of the Qing dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty not only unified many Mongolian tribes, incorporated Xinjiang into the mainland territory, maintained the integrity of national sovereignty, and established the pattern of a multi-ethnic world power, but also appeared the three prosperous dynasties of Kang Yongqian.
During the Kang Yong dynasty, China made unprecedented development achievements and the economic life of small farmers prospered, which is why the Qing Dynasty has always been called a prosperous era by later generations, but unfortunately after the time entered the Jiaqing period, the Qing Dynasty went into decline.
Qing Dynasty
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government was mired in war and could not protect itself, and the lives of women and princes in the dynasty were also miserable.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the last eunuch of the Qing Dynasty, Xin Xiuming, wrote a book called "Memories of the Old Eunuch" based on what he saw and heard in the Forbidden City.
This book records the lives of court men and women in detail, so that future generations have a more comprehensive understanding and understanding of the Qing Dynasty, so what did this eunuch say in his memoirs, and what tragic encounters did the concubine and the prince encounter in the late Qing Dynasty?
emperor
Harem women are more restricted
First of all, starting from the concubine, the women in the Forbidden City are like canaries trapped in a cage, people outside want to come in, people inside want to go out, Zhang Hu once wrote a song "Palace Words": "Three thousand miles of the old country, twenty years in the deep palace." He Manzi screamed, and tears fell in front of the king."
The concubine selection system of the Qing Dynasty was different from the previous dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty, there were many ordinary women from commoners in the harem, but the Qing rulers attached great importance to their family lineage and status, and the women who could enter the palace through layers of selection were either rich or noble, with extraordinary origins, and they were all highly qualified people.
But the concubines of the late Qing Dynasty, regardless of their family lineage, lived very miserable without exception.
The concubine system of the Qing Dynasty has been established since the Emperor Taiji period, with the empress as the honor, the imperial concubine as the second, the palace has empresses, noble concubines, concubines, nobles, Chang Zai, promise and other positions, in addition to the emperor's concubines, there are also a large number of personalities in the palace.
Shunzhi
When the Shunzhi Emperor ascended the throne and the Qing army had just entered the customs, the Qing Dynasty's concubine system was not perfect and the number was very small, and it was not until the prosperous era of Kang Yong that the number increased, and the treatment of the concubines also improved qualitatively.
During the prosperous years of Kang Yong, the country was rich, China's GDP reached the peak of the world, and the Qianlong Emperor was also generous to the beauty of the harem, and the concubines during this period lived very richly.
It was not until after the death of the Jiaqing Emperor that the number of concubines of the late Qing Emperor declined rapidly, and when the Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangxu Emperor were in power, the number of concubines was greatly reduced compared with the previous dynasty, and the Tongzhi Emperor had only one empress and four concubines around him, and the Guangxu Emperor had only one empress and two concubines.
Since the women of the harem relied on the favor of the emperor and took the country's fortunes, the quality of the country's finances was highly related to their living standards.
Guangxu
In the late Qing Dynasty, the country was in deep financial crisis, the fiscal deficit was particularly serious, and the women living in the palace faced huge economic problems.
Looking at the history of the late Qing Dynasty, we will find that after the time entered the 19th century, the Qing government has been losing money.
The Qing government not only had to spend a lot of military money to suppress the people's uprising after the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion, but also developed national defense, honored a series of unequal treaties signed with the invaders, paid high military expenditures and war reparations, and made the Qing government pay more than 30,000 taels of silver in just two opium wars.
In order to solve these financial crises, the rulers of the Qing government introduced many measures, and they carried out many reforms in foreign trade, finance, currency and customs, but unfortunately, because the Qing government's reform was compromised and incomplete, the reform policy was not only unable to return to the sky, but also triggered a series of chain reactions.
The poor financial situation made the women in the harem of the Qing Dynasty particularly poor, and their level of clothing, food, housing and transportation plummeted, losing the wealth that the palace deserved.
Palace maid stills
The number of palace maids decreased suddenly
Friends who have watched Qing palace dramas such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan" are no strangers to palace fights, although these film and television dramas have exaggerated and dramatic elements in them, but they convey the treacherous and deceitful of the Qing palace.
These women who entered the harem, their every move not only affected their personal lives and personal favors, but also related to the honor and disgrace of the family and the promotion of officials in the previous dynasty.
In order to improve their living standards, get more money, and ensure the wealth of their brothers, fathers, and relatives, they often use all means to rob them of favors.
The harem was filled with endless oppression and cannibalism, and these women were forced to become so-called "smart people".
Qing Palace drama
Based on this, there are mostly women in the harem, but the appearance of palace maids is mostly mediocre, Shin Xiuming once bluntly wrote in his memoirs:
"My experience has several insights, the Empress Dowager uses palace maids for good envoys.
The only condition for them to choose palace maids is that they are robust, and they don't need to be beautiful at all, and the rest of the ladies are not willing to choose women as beautiful as Zhao Feiyan and Xi Shi.
Letting these palace maids serve Banzai Master is tantamount to finding an enemy for yourself, and there are really no such stupid sissies in the palace."
Qing dynasty concubine
Xin Xiuming's words directly told the real reason for the mediocre qualifications of the palace maids.
There are two main reasons for the mediocre qualifications of harem women, the first is that the concubines are not allowed, at that time, the DPRK and China are in turmoil, all forces are about to move, and the harem concubines have a strong sense of insecurity.
Out of their own protection, they will specially command the officials and eunuchs responsible for selecting palace women, and select some people with mediocre qualifications to enter the palace, and under the operation of the concubines, the really beautiful women are stopped outside the palace, and most of the mediocre people who enter the palace.
The second is because women with better qualifications do not want to enter the palace, when Kang Qian was prosperous, officials and eunuchs would often send beautiful women into the palace to consolidate their position in the previous dynasty, if these women entered the palace and were loved by the emperor, then her family could make a lot of money. Therefore, palace maids were a hot profession in their prime.
Qing dynasty concubine
However, after the late Qing Dynasty, the general environment was not good, and people's attitudes towards the palace also changed, and everyone was reluctant to enter the palace, so only some people who could not make a living in the people and officials who had no choice would send their daughters to the palace.
When Xin Xiuming wrote his memoirs, he also made it clear that in the late Qing Dynasty, the number of people participating in the selection of show women and palace women was getting smaller and smaller year by year, and the ladies of local powerful families were not willing to enter the palace to be palace maidens.
When Kang Qian was prosperous, the welfare in the palace was very good, whether it was palace maids or eunuchs, they could get a piece of it, but in the late Qing Dynasty, the class solidification was very serious, and people who could grasp power and get money only at the top of the pyramid, even if concubines and palace maids could give birth to princes, they could not really control their own destiny with mediocre origins.
It is said that mothers are expensive by their children, but how can it be so easy to occupy a place in the court? If you are not favored, even if you give birth to a child, you will not be able to meet the child, and you will not only suffer from lovesickness, but also suffer ridicule from others.
Just as the so-called "cold palace grudges are still groaning, the emperor's harem is happy to ascend to heaven", the harem is ruthless, there are favors, and there are also wails.
Late Qing palace maid
The prince starved and suffered from hunger
In this thousand-mile deep palace, there are not only women who work hard, but also those princes who have grown up in etiquette and rules.
It stands to reason that under the whole world, it is not the royal land, the shore of the land, the prince, as the son of the emperor, the prince should live a very rich and carefree life. But through the eunuch's story, we learned that there were often things in the Qing palace that the prince did not have enough to eat.
The real reason why the prince in the palace often starves to death is not because the court has no money, but because of the backwardness of ideology and concepts, the medical level of the Qing Dynasty is not as good as that of modern people, they want to ensure good health, they must pay attention to taboos, so what the prince eats and how much he eats is very particular.
As early as the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the palace had the habit of starving the prince, whenever the prince suffered from cold, fever, and could not use medicine because of his youth, the imperial doctor would appropriately use starvation to stimulate their body's immunity and help them get through the crisis.
Some physically strong princes were able to survive the crisis and rejuvenate, while others who were weak could aggravate their illness.
prince
When making meals, the Qing Dynasty court dining room did not pay too much attention to the taste of food, but put more energy on the health of food, most of the court's diet is based on less oil and less salt, the purpose is to ensure the health of the prince to the greatest extent.
There are indeed certain reasons for this concept, but in the actual operation process, the prince's body will become weak due to neglect of nutritional balance.
Because the prince's status is noble, the harem is deceitful, and framing and palace fights often occur, so there is an unwritten rule in the palace, that is, the princes cannot pick up the same dish multiple times when eating, so as to prevent others from finding out the prince's preferences and poisoning.
If the imperial dining room knows that the prince loves this dish, then the imperial dining room will reduce the frequency of making this dish.
Neither the people in the imperial dining room nor the servants around the prince dared to let the prince eat without authorization.
prince
Xin Xiuming once bluntly lamented in his memoirs that in his impression, the Guangxu Emperor's childhood was particularly turbulent, and when Guangxu was ten years old, he often secretly ran to the eunuch's room to rummage through food, picked it up and ran, and sometimes was chased by the eunuch.
The eunuchs who chased Guangxu did not dare to stop him, nor did they dare to let him eat indiscriminately, so they had to kneel and plead.
Shin Xiuming was particularly emotional when he mentioned this memory, saying:
"The Guangxu Emperor suffered so much and was so hungry because of the ancestral law, which is really amazing, he said that there is actually a reason why the children of peasant families can grow up with their parents, eat well, run around the streets, and develop well, be healthy and live a long life, but rich and noble children have many diseases and short lives."
The prince of the Qing Dynasty had heavy schoolwork, struggled in half hunger and half food since he was a child, and lived a very hard life.
Guangxu
Through these memories said by the eunuch Xin Xiuming, we see another different Qing Dynasty, the so-called magnificence is actually just an illusion covered up on the surface of the Qing Dynasty, whether it is the tragic experience of the prince or the reduction of palace concubines, it is the inevitable result of the evolution of the times.
The ignorance and "cannibalism" habits of feudal society will eventually be abandoned, and the collapse of the feudal imperial system will be irreversible.
Resources
Qing History Manuscript