A few years ago, when the theme of crossing was popular, crossing into a prince of the Qing Dynasty became a "dream" thing for many people.
In fact, being a prince of the Qing Dynasty is not as simple as imagined, although it is different from the rules of the Ming Dynasty, most of the princes of the Qing Dynasty are in the capital, but it does not mean that these princes have nothing to do every day.
The prince who holds real power, the most important thing in every day is to complete his own work, and those who do not have real power do not eat, drink and have fun all day long, they also wear positions, although most of them are fictitious, but there are also many things that must be done.
The princes of the Qing Dynasty, whether they had real power or held a vacant position, generally had four ways to spend time: enriching their personal spiritual life, engaging in private business activities, and all kinds of fancy dogs and horses.
First, enrich the spiritual life of the individual
Regardless of the dynasty or generation, as a member of the royal family, the necessary education is very necessary and an important activity that must be carried out.
According to the titles of the Qing Dynasty royal family, from high to low, they are divided into princes, county kings, beylors, beizi, dukes, etc., as long as the titles are above the "duke", they can be called princes.
Taking the Qianlong period as an example, after several generations of development, the society at that time was stable, the country was rich and the people were strong, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
The country treats the heavens well, the annual expenses are millions, and all the clan's weddings and funerals have camp compassion, so it is appropriate."
There is no need to worry about food and clothing, and even how to come to luxury, so these princes of the Qing Dynasty have more time and more conditions to receive higher education and develop personal hobbies.
In particular, the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the education of the children of the royal family, so there were not a few people in the Qing Dynasty clans in the past dynasties, such as calligraphy and painting.
Emperor Qianlong's eleventh son, Yongzhen, is one of the famous "Qianlong Four Masters", at that time, his calligraphy and painting was sought after by many literati, and even reached the level of "scholars have only a piece of paper, heavy as a treasure", it can be seen that it does have a certain artistic achievement.
Yongying's artistic cultivation benefited from his hobbies and intentions on weekdays, and he was one of the many representatives of the Qing Dynasty princes who were obsessed with calligraphy and painting at that time.
From the prince to the idle clan, the literati came out, the master of Honglan, the general of Bowenting, and the servant of Saixiaoting, etc., all of which can be seen in the works of Wang Yuyang and Shen Qushi. His successor, Wen Zhao, a monk of the Purple Building, is the great-grandson of Prince Rao Yu and is the author of "Purple Poems". Zongmu Dun became the fifth grandson of Prince Ying, and Di Dunmin was as famous as a time, the poetry of the late Tang Dynasty, quite a lot of fun, Qu Xian General Yongzhong was the grandson of the king of Qinjun, the poetry is beautiful, the calligraphy is strong, and there is quite a Jin flavor.
Continue to study and learn, so that these rich and idle Qing Dynasty princes will gradually improve in their favorite fields and eventually become a generation of everyone.
In addition to their own study and study, these princes who love literature are particularly fond of strange books from the previous dynasty and beyond, and the biggest pleasure every day is to "search for books".
If you are in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, you will see such a very interesting scene, one or several princes, dressed casually, strolling around the market, if you see a favorite book, calligraphy and painting, it must be bought without hesitation, if you encounter something similar to a lone book or the like, even if the clothes on the body are pawned, you must buy it on the spot, so as not to be taken first, the degree of obsession can be seen.
Therefore, in many cases, the first choice of pastime is to enrich one's spiritual life, write, read books, and draw a picture, after all, there is money and status, and there is still a lot of time.
Second, engaging in private business activities
There is a saying that no matter how big the family business is, there will always be a day when it will be finished, so the prince of the Qing Dynasty also paid attention to the management of his own industry.
Especially these princes themselves are members of the royal family, and if they do business, they will have a unique advantage, whether it is news or resources, they are much better than ordinary people.
In fact, there are not a few princes who do this, such as Emperor Qianlong's own brother, Aixin Jueluo Hongyi, who is a well-known financial master.
Aixin Jueluo Hongyi, the sixth son of Emperor Yongzheng, the brother of Emperor Qianlong's mother, inherited the title of Prince Heshuoguo at the age of six.
In addition to being diligent and thrifty, his biggest hobby is to buy a property, "the accumulation of salary, to fill the house", as if the family is full of pits and valleys, and he is satisfied.
At the same time, Hongyi is good at investment, whether it is opening a coal kiln, or selling ginseng, as well as opening a clothing bureau, providing court clothes for courtiers, making clothes for various royal palaces, and unpopular items such as python robes, all of which are within the scope of his business, not to mention the business of pouring antique calligraphy and painting, basically, he is involved.
The use of identity advantages, while the use of various resources, to carry out "money to make money" business activities, is the common choice of most Qing Dynasty princes, after all, money will always be spent one day, how to afford the huge expenses of the palace without making money, at the same time, do some business, you can also meet more people, for their own position to lay a solid foundation.
Third, eat, drink and have fun, and sound dogs and horses
Love literature, like to do business, this kind of prince is not a few, but at the same time, there is no shortage of Qing Dynasty princes who eat, drink and have fun all day long, and there is no shortage of them, after all, their status, and wealth allow them to be drunk and dreamy of death, not drunk and fascinated, it seems that they are sorry for the title of prince.
Therefore, if it comes to playing, then the princes of the Qing Dynasty will have more fun.
Cage birds, fighting grasshoppers and raising crickets, etc., these are just small fights, and some "high-end" players play like boiling eagle hunting, which is not too new.
According to the Qing Dynasty's salary for the prince, the prince is the highest, with an annual salary of 10,000 taels of silver every year, not only that, but also 10,000 taels of rice every year.
According to the purchasing power, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, one tael of silver was about equivalent to about 100-120 yuan today, that is to say, a prince's annual salary alone was as high as one million yuan, not counting various benefits during the New Year's holidays and other incomes such as rice.
If you are so rich, you can't make it hard?
Therefore, like some princes who are not motivated and are content with the status quo, the biggest thing every day is to study how to eat, drink and have fun in different ways.
First of all, in terms of eating, the princes have been pampered since childhood, and they are naturally the masters who have eaten and seen, so in terms of eating, what they pay attention to is not to eat well, but to eat "strange" and "precious" food.
For example, an ordinary chicken stewed mushroom, this very home-cooked dish, if the princes want to eat, it will be different, not with ordinary side dishes to stew, but with precious ingredients such as cordyceps sinensis and ginseng to make this dish.
This is still the simplest, and there is a more famous one, called "pig back meat", choose the best piglets, wash the piglets while they are alive, and then whip their backs constantly, so that they will gather blood in the spine due to pain, and then cut a palm-sized piece of meat at the spine to make dishes.
When a dish is finished, dozens of these piglets are needed, and the rest of the meat is all discarded. There are countless ways to eat similar to this, such as cooking goose paws, eating humps, etc.
Good dishes naturally have to be matched with good tableware, and the tableware of the princes is either jade or crystal, and they will definitely not use bamboo chopsticks, so they will lose their share.
In addition to all kinds of expensive wine, the daily drink and tea used by the princes to quench their thirst and heat are also essential.
In the west of the Summer Palace in Beijing, there is a Yuquan Mountain, the water here is specially for the Qing Dynasty royal family members to supply the court water, it is said that the Qianlong Emperor once took a silver bucket to weigh, found that the water here, the lightest weight, that is, the least impurities, therefore, here until the end of the Qing Dynasty, is the royal water place.
And the princes, naturally also love to drink tea, the general popularity, is to drink West Lake Longjing, and even the prince in order to drink the freshest tea, directly in the tea production of the local tea mountain, after the tea matured, with the master of roasted tea in the palace to make on-site.
It took so much effort just to drink good tea, and I have to say that it's good to be rich.
At that time, there was an old saying, called "Lord Belle has three treasures, and the bird in the walnut cage" is a true portrayal of some royals who have nothing to do all day and spend time.
As mentioned above, carrying cages and racking birds, boiling eagles and hunting, etc., these are the necessary items of many princes' pastimes, and there are also a group of servants in the palace, who are dedicated to serving their masters to play all kinds of games, and are always thinking of new ideas for their masters' interests.
Of course, after getting tired of these regular projects, there are some people who like to play some "exciting" projects, such as organizing their own funerals.
Emperor Qianlong's other younger brother Hongxuan, won the favor of the Queen Mother, so he was extremely reckless, and this absurd thing of holding a "funeral" for himself was done by this master.
Hongxuan's "funeral" is extremely beautiful, and the palace itself is large, so it is arranged in the palace according to the prince's specifications, not only that, but he also sent out invitations to invite the princes and ministers to come to his funeral, and required, must bring gift money.
At the funeral, Hongxuan asked his relatives to cry as if he was really dead, and at the same time, the ministers who wanted to attend strictly followed the standard process to mourn, while he himself sat at the offering table, eating his own tribute, while enjoying the performances of the people below.
It's boring, it's ridiculous.