The emperor had many concubines, and the most familiar one was the phrase "three palaces, six courts, and seventy-two concubines." The emperor chose so many spouses, first, because of the poor medical and health conditions in ancient times, the high rate of premature death of young children, the emperor in order to ensure that there are successors, only more children can ensure the continuation of heirs. If you want to have more children, you have to have multiple spouses first. This is a realistic consideration. In addition, the empress dowager is also a manifestation of the emperor's authority. The custom of the emperor having so many concubines was a continuation of the slave society, indicating the difference between the top and the bottom. Only an emperor could have so many concubines to highlight the emperor's authority and strength. The emperor's marriage also had a political element in it. Why did the emperor have to "regularly" draft him? In addition to liking freshness, more factors are political needs. Especially when the emperor was still drafting when he was older, it was completely political. This was actually a means of connecting various political forces and allowing the major families to contact the royal family. Of course, in this process, the emperor is beneficial, the families are also profitable, and the only ones who are really sacrificed are those little girls, especially those who participate in the old emperor's draft.
Let's start with the draft women of the Qing Dynasty. Generally, the daughter of the Eight Flags can participate in the draft. Only the daughters of foreign officials and civilian officials who know the same level or above, and the daughters of military attaches and above can participate in the draft. For example, Cixi's father Hui Zheng was a Daoist in Anhui, and the official position was Zheng Si Pin .e. Therefore, Cixi cannot marry, but must first participate in the draft. The draft has age requirements: fourteen to sixteen. Under special circumstances, it can be relaxed to seventeen years old, but more than seventeen years old is definitely not allowed to participate in the draft. The draft is held every three years, and if there is an unmarried woman, over seventeen years old, and misses the draft girl, is it possible to marry herself? In principle, anyone who meets the requirements for the draft cannot marry if he does not participate in the draft. If you want to marry, you must get the consent of the emperor. This is not necessary to ask for instructions by person, but to report to the emperor one by one with the flag as a unit.
At first, this system was quite well implemented, but after the middle of the Qing Dynasty, this system was difficult to implement. Because the population is growing so fast, there are too many show girls participating in the draft every time. As a result, the standards for the draft have risen, mainly because the official position requirements for the showgirl's father are getting higher and higher. When the Guangxu Emperor chose empress, the candidates were basically the daughters of inspectors or attendants. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were very few daughters of Daotai and prefects running for the show.
The biggest difference between a draft girl and a house girl is that a show girl does not necessarily enter the palace. Because the draft girl is not simply for the emperor to choose a concubine, in fact, it is for all the princes and emperors of the near branch clan - of course, mainly for the emperor, but after the candidate is elected as a show girl, it may also be assigned to the near branch clan as a wife. The palace ladies were all left in the harem. In the Qing Dynasty, the first age requirement was thirteen years old. The second must be the daughter of the Three Banners. The upper three flags are the positive yellow flag, the positive white flag and the yellow flag. Only the innocent daughter of shangsanqi can be selected as a palace girl. Except for a very small number of palace ladies who were favored by the emperor and promoted to concubines, or the empress dowager and the empress especially liked her and could not do without her, otherwise they would have to leave the palace at the age of twenty-five. The palace maid looks bright and beautiful on the surface, but in fact, her life is very difficult. They did not have a special accommodation palace, they could only shop around, and they ate leftovers from the imperial dining room, and they were often beaten and scolded. There are only four seasons of clothes, and the palace ladies are not lacking. But that is also to make the palace ladies dressed neatly and look better on the face.
Empresses, like Qing officials, were hierarchical. After the Qing Dynasty, there were empresses, imperial concubines, concubines, concubines, concubines, nobles, constant presence, and promises, and there was only one empress and imperial concubine, two noble concubines, four concubines, six concubines, and there was no definite number of nobles and below. It is very difficult for a concubine to be promoted to a higher rank. Only when the emperor did not marry when he ascended the throne, these show girls had the opportunity to directly become empresses and concubines, or at least as a concubine. In case this emperor is very old and the harem is complete, then all the show girls are basically started from the promise after they are selected, and few can be sealed as permanent, and even fewer can be crowned as nobles in one fell swoop.
There are only twelve palaces in the harem to arrange concubines, which arrange imperial concubines, concubines, concubines, and concubines, and even concubines do not necessarily have their own independent palaces. The low-ranking concubines were no different from the palace maidens and slept on the floor. At the age of fourteen or fifteen, he left his parents and slept on the floor of the palace, and could only eat the cauldron of rice brought from the imperial dining room all day, sometimes it may be leftovers, and life was as miserable as it was. He Gangde, an official of the late Qing Dynasty, recalled seeing many dumplings lined up under the porch in the palace, and the palace women made a living from it. The disgruntled palace maid made her own purse and entrusted the eunuch to sell it. Four or two silver a purse, not cheap, but because of the good materials, fine workmanship, can barely be sold out to supplement the use of the palace. After the empress dowager entered the palace, in principle, immortality could not take a step out of the Forbidden City. The most typical example is "Dream of the Red Chamber", why the "Yuan Fei Provincial Relatives" spent so much ink, one of the important reasons is that this is a great grace. In principle, as long as you enter the palace, even if you become an empress and become an empress, you cannot take a step out of the palace except to die.
After the queen concubine gave birth to a child, she could not enjoy the joy of heaven. First of all, all the children born to the concubines were theoretically the children of the queen. Children were to be raised uniformly by the court. In order to prevent the unspeakable relationship between the crown prince, the imperial grandson and the empress dowager, there were strict rules for the prince and the empress dowager to meet each other. Once the crown prince and the empress dowager met alone, they were severely punished. The emperor died, became a princess, and could not see his son very often. In principle, a low-ranking empress dowager who was not martyred when the emperor died was already considered a grace. The rest of his life was spent either in the Buddhist hall or in the deep palace. Some high-ranking concubines and concubines can live in the palace, but they also have to make room for the new emperor's concubines and move to other palaces, where many people live together. Of course, if she is lucky enough, old enough, to become a concubine, and her son has become an imperial uncle, to claim the throne outside, and is willing to serve her mother, at this time, her son needs to apply to the current emperor, so that it is possible to take her outside. Therefore, everyone should not think that entering the palace is a good thing. After many showgirls entered the palace, they had never even seen the emperor's face in their lives. Therefore, in "Dream of the Red Chamber", the Yuan Princess is provincial, why did she cry with her grandmother and mother? Because court life is indeed not something that ordinary women can endure. The draft is for the daughter to dedicate her life to the family. The family did benefit from the daughter who entered the palace, but it also put her whole life into it.
The emperor's original intention in choosing the harem was to hope that the queen concubines would provide themselves with a peaceful backing. The emperor lived in the "Qianqing Palace", the empress lived in the "Kunning Palace", from the name can be seen, he hopes that the harem is peaceful, can provide himself with a peaceful rear. The emperor did not want the empress dowager to come to the front court, and did not want the empress dowager to interfere in politics. Once the empress dowager entered the government, she posed a threat to the imperial power. So this is the one thing the emperor tried his best to guard against. In fact, the emperor could not eliminate the political influence of the harem, and the harem has always existed. The most extreme example is "listening to the government".
What channels does the harem have to intervene in politics? There are three main ones. In the first channel, the empress is the mother of the country, and her every move itself has political implications. The same is true of the harems, whose existence itself is political. Moreover, the emperor sometimes asked his concubines to play some political role. The second channel is that the empress dowager can influence the emperor through the bits and pieces of daily life, for example, if a minister is very good to the emperor's favorite concubine's family, this good will be conveyed to the pet concubine, and then subtly affect the emperor's evaluation of the minister. The third situation in which the empress dowager intervened occurred after the death of the emperor. If the new emperor was too small, ancient China often took the form of being assisted by the empress dowager, and from the perspective of imperial power, this form was a violation of the supremacy of imperial power. But from another point of view, successive dynasties have ruled the world with filial piety. Should the little emperor listen to his mother? Moreover, the empress dowager was the wife of the old emperor, originally the mother of the country, and originally had political legitimacy. Therefore, whenever the empress dowager is needed to come to the foreground, and she is to assist or listen to the government, the bureaucracy and the readers can barely accept it.
The most lively form of harem politics is the "hanging curtain". "Hanging curtain" is actually not a curtain, but a piece of yarn, in the Qing Dynasty is a hanging piece of "yellow mantle", a kind of yarn with a good perspective effect, yellow represents the royal. The deeper meaning of the curtain was to emphasize that the queen concubine could only exercise imperial power behind the scenes, and could not legitimately exercise imperial power.
The empress dowager has no special circumstances and cannot take a step out of the harem, so even if the empress dowager hangs the curtain, she can only listen to the government in the harem's Yangxin Hall. Some books say that on the eve of the coup d'état, Rong Lu reported to Empress Dowager Cixi overnight. However, from the perspective of the political system, Rong Lu could not inform Empress Dowager Cixi, because he could not see Cixi in the middle of the night, and Cixi could not summon ministers in the harem late at night. Rong Lu's late-night whistleblowing to Cixi was impossible to achieve from the palace system.
In addition, "listening to the government" means that the empress dowager has only the power to listen, only the power to give advice to the emperor, and all orders can only be issued by the emperor in name, and can be issued in the form of holy wills. For example, in "Toward the Republic", there is a scene where the Guangxu Emperor sits in front and Cixi sits behind a curtain and talks to the chancellor. The conservative minister was resolute and said a lot, and Cixi quarreled with him. At the end of the argument, Guangxu couldn't listen to it anymore and stood up angrily and slapped the table. At this moment, all the ministers immediately fell to their knees, and even Cixi shut up. Because nominally, Guangxu will always be the number one. If Guangxu was angry and smashed something, even if he was a puppet, the ministers would have to calm down. Cixi's order, as long as Guangxu did not agree to Gai Yuxi, this order could not take effect. The original intention of the curtain is an auxiliary measure, a stopgap measure. This also shows from another aspect that the influence and interference of the harem on the imperial power are indirect. Nominally, it is always the little emperor who makes decisions.
"Hanging curtains" have a time limit. The day when the emperor is pro-government is the day when the curtain ends. If the emperor made it clear that I wanted to be pro-government, the empress dowager would have to withdraw the curtain, because her power was dependent on the imperial power.
That is to say, the entire harem, in the end, only one person benefits, and there are still unknown factors.