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Text| Binbin
Edit| Li Li
Preface:
In the depths of the splendid palace, the fate of the palace ladies has nothing to do with the splendid palace.
They were sent to the court, seemingly to serve the royal family, but in fact they were merely tools driven at will, and even had a low status like livestock.
What do they eat? Where to stay? How to spend the long youth? Is it fine clothes and fine food, or is it dark?
Tracing the origin of the palace maid system: from slaves and maids to "flower and bird envoys"
The palace maid, as the name suggests, is a woman who serves in the palace.
This system can be traced back to the Han Dynasty.
In the beginning, most of the court ladies were female captives or slaves selected from defeated countries.
With the passage of time, the sources of palace maids gradually diversified, and there were even cases where the wives and daughters of criminal ministers were assigned to serve as palace maids.
Entering the palace has become a shortcut for many women to change their fate.
In the Han Dynasty, there were only a few dozen palace maids.
By the Qing Dynasty, that number had swelled to thousands or even tens of thousands.
Beauty pageants are one of the important ways to choose palace maids.
The Book of Han records that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court would send special people to the folk beauty pageant every August, and girls from 13 to 16 years old from peasant families were all selected without exception.
It is mentioned in "Tang Hui Yao" that during the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the envoy in charge of selection was given the nickname of "Flower and Bird Envoy", and his duty was to "select the beauties of the world".
The selection criteria for palace maids can be described as harsh.
The body should not be too fat or too thin, the appearance should never be half flawed, and even the height should be just right, not too tall or too short.
All kinds of conditions discourage many girls.
The "foil" of imperial power: the miserable life of the palace maid
It's easy to enter the palace, but it's hard to live.
Those palace maids who enter the palace for the first time often have to go through some torture.
More than a dozen people are crammed into one place, and they can only lie on their sides when they sleep, and even turning over is luxurious.
What you eat and what you use must be carefully calculated.
The most unbearable thing is the strict rules in the palace.
Walking posture, speaking voice, the slightest carelessness is a human life.
The days passed in fear.
The palace ladies carefully serve their masters, always worried about being framed by others.
In order to win the favor of the saints, intrigue is not uncommon.
If an inferior palace maid violates the palace rules, she will inevitably have to eat a whip, and at worst, she will be cut off her hands and feet.
Once you are sent to the cold palace, your fate is tantamount to that of the walking dead.
However, even such days are exclusive to the "lucky ones".
The vast majority of palace maids have no chance to get close to the emperor at all, and they have been busy with trivial matters in the palace all their lives.
In the face of the supremacy of imperial power, their lives are as insignificant as dust.
A companion is like a tiger: act carefully to survive
If you are lucky enough to be favored by the emperor, don't be too happy.
The ancients said that "a companion is like a tiger", and what they said is true.
Let's talk about the Tang Dynasty, Tang Xuanzong doted on a little palace maid, and just after a good day of mixing oil in honey, he turned his head and got a holy decree to give death, just because the queen felt that her husband fell into a woman and hurt the emperor's prestige.
Looking at Emperor Wen of Sui again, he finally fell in love with a delicate and lovely palace maid, but before he came to the next bed, he waited for the queen's poisonous wine.
Those who love beauty don't love the country, how can jealous women tolerate other women around the emperor?
In order to survive, the palace maids were cautious and took every step of the way.
To please the emperor, you must also pay attention to the eyes of the other women around you.
If you are not careful, you will be doomed.
This kind of day of walking on thin ice is really breathless.
Abandon dignity: humiliate a life just to make a living
The vast majority of palace maids have spent their lives in the palace like this.
They have never had the right to dream, let alone the qualifications to expect love.
Beat the small and enter the palace until the youth is no longer there, just to change the food.
There is a palace maid named Zhao, who is white and beautiful, but her hands are even more delicate and tender.
Once, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty couldn't help but praise her skin.
Who would have thought that Zhao had his hands cut off that night.
Later, it became known that this was the result of the queen's jealousy.
There is also a little palace maid, who is the daughter of Gao Lishi, the most trusted secretary of Emperor Tang Ming.
Before her death, her mother pleaded with Colliers to keep her daughter away from the court.
Who knew that Gao Lishi did not give up, and insisted on sending his daughter into the palace, but in less than three days, his daughter was used as Yang Guifei's pillow plaything.
These tragic experiences abound in the palace.
The palace ladies are like dust, trampled on, without dignity at all.
In order to survive, they chose to swallow their anger and bury their sadness in their hearts.
The light is faint: there is no hope for the palace maid to be freed
What is embarrassing is that such unbearable days often last until the palace maid is in her thirties before it is possible to be relieved.
When they reach the age of thirty, the ladies of the palace will be pardoned from the palace.
However, at that time, they were already emaciated and their hearts were like ashes.
Some palace maids who left the palace had no long things and had to become street prostitutes.
Some people simply commit suicide on the spot, never wanting to endure a humiliating life again.
More people choose to live incognito, survive and make ends meet by manual work.
Only a very small number of people, such as the famous Wei Zifu and Concubine Wei Yingluo, can rely on their extraordinary intelligence and skills to turn over and become masters in this land of right and wrong.
But such a miracle is too slim.
Epilogue:
For ordinary people, the story inside the red wall is so bizarre and unfamiliar.
However, for the palace maid, that palace is a desert that can swallow everything, and the youth of countless women has withered on this land.
Perhaps, death is their only relief.
But who can guarantee that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated in the next life?
Today, when we revisit that dusty history, we should perhaps let go of our curiosity about the emperors and generals and listen to the voices of the palace ladies.
Even a sigh is worth being moved by.
After all, their lives have never really belonged to them.
Survival, for the palace maid, what a luxury word.
In this palatial cage, even dreaming is a sin.
When they came into the world, they were destined to curl up in the shadow of imperial power for the rest of their lives.
Even if there is all kinds of sorrow, I can only sigh secretly in my heart.
History will not remember the names of the palace maids, but we must not forget their once vivid lives.
Let us light a candle for those souls who have passed away, and may their souls rest in heaven.
May no one weep over their fate again.