Preface
Now there are many people who envy the ancient emperors that in addition to having the supreme power, they can also have a lot of women, and women are like a piece of clothing to them, and they can change it when they say it.
However, in ancient times, when the emperor summoned the concubines to sleep, the concubines were not allowed to wear clothes or make a sound, why did the Qing Dynasty have such a peculiar system?
The daily life of the emperor
We now have a lot of people, when they understand the life of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to books, it is a TV series, and the life of the emperor we know in the TV series is very nourishing, but the previous emperors were not so idle.
As the head of a country, the emperor has to deal with the affairs of the state, and they cannot be idle every day, if this is the case, then the country is not finished.
So every morning at about four or five o'clock, the emperor will get up, and when he finishes cleaning up, the emperor will go to the morning court, and when it comes to this, I have to mention those sad ministers.
Resources
The emperor wants to go to the court, at least not far from the place where he needs to go to the court, and there are some ministers who are a little farther away, in order to be able to get up early and not be late, they can only get up in the early morning and rush to the palace.
In the court, the ministers will report some situations, and the emperor will discuss some issues with the ministers, and after the early dynasty is dispersed, the emperor cannot rest.
The emperor is about to start the next item, that is, to review the recitals, many of which are from local officials, and it is not easy for these local officials to present their own recitals, and they need to be handed in layer by layer.
When it was time for lunch, the emperor would go to eat and take a lunch break, but when it was time, they would need to continue to deal with the government, and if they felt that a certain measure could be implemented, the emperor would summon people to let them do it.
When the dinner is over, the emperor can rest, this is the emperor's day, no wonder people in costume TV dramas always use the word "day" to describe the emperor when they talk about the emperor.
What we envy, the emperor's luxurious life, that can definitely be regarded as a top enjoyment, and although the emperor can have many women, the emperor's private life is not as chic as we think.
The concubine who sleeps
The women who can go to the emperor's side are carefully selected, and if they are a little unqualified, those women will be brushed down.
Despite this, if the women in the palace want to contact the emperor, it is also a very difficult thing, after all, there is only one emperor, but there are a lot of women.
In the evening, when the emperor wanted to choose someone to sleep, the eunuch would present a plate to the emperor, and on this plate was a sign engraved with the names of the concubines.
If the emperor wants a concubine to sleep, then the emperor will directly reverse the brand of that concubine, but there is also room for operation, after all, this brand also has to be handed over.
After the emperor has chosen the candidate, the eunuch will retire with the plate, and then the chosen concubine will begin to prepare, and they will be dragged to bathe.
After bathing, the eunuchs would wrap the concubines in quilts and send them to the emperor's bedroom, and when the eunuchs put the concubines on the bed, these concubines needed to climb up from the quilt under the emperor's feet.
When sleeping in the bed, the concubines also need to control their mouths, because they can't scream, and the time that the concubine and the emperor are together, generally speaking, can not exceed half an hour, the reason why there is such a rule is to prevent the emperor from indulging in women.
Some people may wonder what if the emperor still doesn't want the concubine to leave after half an hour?
Because the eunuch outside the door saw that the time was up, he would report the time outside the door, if the emperor ignored it, the eunuch would wait for a while, and then remind the emperor again that if the emperor still did not answer at the third time, then the eunuchs would have to take some action.
After sending the concubine away, the eunuchs will ask the emperor if he will stay, if the emperor answers, then the eunuch will not do anything to the concubine, if the emperor says not to stay, then there will be a commissioner to send medicine to the concubine.
Some people may wonder, what kind of medicine will those people give? That is naturally the medicine that does not allow pregnancy, after all, the dragon species is not conceived by anyone who wants to conceive, and the emperor has a detailed record.
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If any concubine is pregnant, you can check when the concubine went to bed, if those concubines are in the bed, if the emperor is unhappy, then she has a great chance that she will lose the opportunity to be promoted in the palace.
You must know that in feudal society, it is not easy to serve the emperor, there are many women who have waited for the emperor in the palace all their lives, but they have not slept once.
And when the concubine is in bed, she can only stay with the emperor for a while, and then she has to go back, because in the ancestral training of the Qing Dynasty, the concubine cannot spend the night with the emperor, and if she can spend the night with the emperor, there is only the queen in the entire palace.
Why are the rules of the bed strange?
The reason why the Qing emperor's sleeping rules were peculiar was because they learned from the experience of the previous dynasty and washed the concubines, wrapped them in clothes and sent them to the emperor's bedroom, in order to prevent them from hiding sharp weapons on their bodies, which would be unfavorable to the emperor.
There is also this example in history, this example is the Renyin Palace Change in the Ming Dynasty, the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is a relatively uncertain emperor, as long as he is unhappy, the palace maid and some concubines may suffer.
Therefore, under the hands of Emperor Jiajing, there were 200 palace maids who lost their lives, and those palace maids who were still alive were also trembling, so they conspired together to kill the emperor.
One night, these palace maids decided to do it, but because they were too nervous, they did not kill Emperor Jiajing, and all those palace maids were executed afterwards.
This incident gave the emperor of later generations a wake-up call, so there was also the item of washing the concubine, and there was also the fact that the concubine was not allowed to call, and in case of an accident, if the emperor called someone, people could quickly rush to the emperor's side.
In fact, there is a more important point, that is, not to let the emperor indulge in beauty, after all, in history, there are many examples of misleading the country because of beauty.
Resources:
[1] "China's Last Eunuch" dictated by Sun Yaoting, compiled by Zhang Wenhui.
[2] "On the Moral Life in the Political System Arrangement of the Qing Dynasty", Peng Dingguang, j.cnki.llxyj.2009.06.001.