According to the usual logic, a woman who enters the harem is equivalent to marrying into the harem, that is, the emperor's wife, so it is very normal for husband and wife to live together. But in fact, the emperor and his concubines during the Qing Dynasty could not live together, which was obviously very counterintuitive. Why did the Qing Dynasty have such almost impersonal regulations?
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The rules of the Qing Dynasty were so strict that even husband and wife could not live together. Because in the Ming Dynasty, many emperors abandoned government affairs because of the indulgence of women, and even during the Jiajing Dynasty, there were incidents in which the palace women almost strangled the emperor, and in view of the lessons of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty pursued the admonition not to be infatuated with women when they were outside the Guan, and since the shunzhi period, the management of the harem has been strengthened, the emperor and the queen concubines have their own dormitories, each has its own dining room, except for special circumstances such as ceremonies and festivals, it is not allowed to eat at the same table, and it is strictly forbidden for the emperor to live in the same room with the queen concubine.
When the emperor needed to be lucky, he arranged the "Summoning Concubine Green Head Card" in advance, which was a long strip of thin bamboo with a green head on the head, and the bamboo piece wrote the name, resume, surname, and origin of the queen concubine. After the chosen concubines had received their will, they were to bathe and purify themselves, wrap their bodies tightly in a blanket, and carry them by eunuchs to the emperor's bedchamber. For safety reasons, since Yongzheng, the selected concubines should gently lift a corner from the emperor's feet, climb up backwards, and still withdraw from the emperor's feet afterwards.
After a certain hour, the eunuch would shout outside the window, "It's time!" After three consecutive shouts, the emperor must summon the eunuch to carry the concubine away. And, before leaving, ask the emperor, "Stay or not?" If the emperor says "stay", he must record the name and time of the concubine in the "Lucky Palace Book" and wait for the pregnancy to be checked. If the emperor said no stay, the eunuch would use his hand to gently press the vein, and the dragon essence would be exhausted, and the acupuncture point would be used for contraception.
According to the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", "In the spring of Xianfeng Liu (1856), Emperor Yixuan lived in Xiaoqin (Cixi) for several days and did not look at the dynasty. When Xiao Zhen (Ci'an) slandered him, he went to the palace to kneel and ordered the emperor to listen to the instructions. Emperor Yixuan stopped and said, "To give is to listen to the instructions of the dynasty." 'Exit the dynasty and retreat when you are young.' After asking where he was, tell him at kunning palace.
When Emperor Yi arrived, he saw Xiao Zhen sitting in the middle, Xiao Qin kneeling on the ground, and Xiao Zhen counted his past and insulted him with a staff. According to this record, it can be learned that in the Xianfeng period, the ancestral precept that the emperor and the empress dowager could not live together were still observed, the emperor violated the ancestral precepts, the empress could consult, the emperor did not dare to refute, the empress, as the middle palace, also had the right to punish the concubines.