In Chinese feudal society, the emperor could have “seventy-two concubines in three palaces and six courtyards”, and the number of wives and concubines was unimaginable. So, how do they live? In some film and television literary works, this mysterious “forbidden zone” is fabricated at will, creating many unreasonable and strange stories. Some said that the emperor would “summon” an empress every night, and summon a certain imperial concubine to wait on the bed, which was carried by the eunuch or carried to the place where the emperor stayed. Others said that the emperor’s bed was not wrapped in horns, and the concubines who were summoned to take off their clothes crawled in from their feet, etc. These were unreasonable and fabricated out of thin air. In fact, in different dynasties, the emperors, empresses, concubines and concubines in the harem served the emperor in a variety of ways.
Concubines of the Zhou Dynasty slept with the emperor and paid attention to the sun and the sun
In the Zhou Dynasty, there was no office of eunuch in the imperial palace. The emperor’s affairs were determined by the sun, moon, stars and stars. People in the Zhou Dynasty liked to decide the order of things according to celestial bodies, yin and Yang, and calendars. Even the order in which concubines and emperors share the same bed should be decided according to the moon.
According to the so-called moon, we should first make clear that the moon will gradually fill from the first to the fifteenth day of each month, and will gradually become deficient from the fifteenth to the thirtieth day of the following fifteen days. It can be inferred from this that from the first day to the fifteenth day of junior high school, the favored objects begin from the lower status to the higher status; In the second half of the month, on the contrary, it is gradually arranged from high status to low status.
According to the book of rites, the empress system of the Zhou Dynasty is: “the emperor has six palaces, three wives, nine concubines, 27 worldly wives, and 81 Royal wives.” It means that the son of heaven has six palaces, three wives, nine concubines, 27 worldly wives, and 81 wives, adding up to 126 wives of various levels and names. With this so-called empress system, the emperor naturally enjoyed it and passed on this unreasonable thing from generation to generation. Just like the fallacious truth, it was later changed from the original “126” to “3000”. Among the more than 3000 beautiful women, the emperor summoned the empress and the three first-class ladies naturally have absolute priority. When the nine concubines and below served the emperor, nine people accompanied the emperor to bed. One man and nine women sleeping together is ridiculous and unimaginable. How many harem women, their youth, talent and beauty have become victims of the rulers’ Lust!
The imperial palace of emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty was blessed
After the Yuan Feng coup in the Han Dynasty, Huo Guang’s power reached a point where no one could restrict it, and the Huo’s Waiqi group completely controlled the inside and outside of the Han court, the court and the public. Although Huo Guang did not have the name of an emperor, he was already an emperor. Huo’s dictatorship, even the official curtain of Liu Fuling, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, called the lucky concubines to be controlled by Huo Guang. Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty was only eight years old when he ascended the throne. Four years later, he made Shangguan the empress. Empress Shangguan was Huo Guang’s niece, who was six years old.
After emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty Liu Fuling was a little bigger, he was surrounded by Huo Guang’s left and right confidants? Lock it up. Outside, Huo Guang’s two sons-in-law served as palace guards to protect the emperor’s access, and inside, Huo Guang’s niece, the queen, was watching. The palace staff obeyed Huo Guang’s will, and even motioned to the imperial doctors to let the emperor “ban”, forbid the emperor to live in other concubines, let alone summon luck, on the grounds that the emperor was weak. Huo Guang also stipulated that all women in the palace must wear pants with front and rear crotch, and skirts are not allowed. Moreover, the front and back crotch pants you wear must be tied with several more trouser belts to prevent the young emperor from being sexually impulsive and fortunate to other concubines, so that emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty can only focus on his nieces, and the empress Shangguan can give birth to a man and a half for emperor Zhao. The heir to the throne should have the blood of the Huo family. In this way, except for the queen of Shangguan, many harem beauties cannot serve the emperor. However, although the Shangguan empress was good at spoiling her house, she did not give birth to a royal son and daughter, which directly led to the reign of emperor Zhao for 13 years. But no children. What’s more ridiculous is that since Huo Guang announced the rule that concubines in the harem were not allowed to wear skirts and tie more trouser belts, several concubines had unfortunately died for violating this rule.
Emperor Wu of Jin took a sheep cart to choose his concubine
Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty, lived a decadent and extravagant life in his later period. In 273 ad, a large number of virgins from the families of civil and military officials above grade were selected to enter the palace. The next year, 5000 maids from civil and military officials and ordinary gentry families were elected to the palace. So far, there are more than 5000 palace maids of emperor Wei Yuan and SUN Hao of the late Wu Dynasty, and more than 10000 beautiful women in the harem. He was dazzled and at a loss, because he didn’t know who to choose to sleep with every day, so he pulled the imperial cart with sheep. When the sheep stopped in front of the house where the concubine lived, he drank with the concubine and slept in the room of the concubine. The concubines racked their brains to compete for favors and companionship, so some concubines inserted bamboo leaves beside the door, and some dipped salt juice on the open space in front of the door, so as to attract the emperor’s sheep cart, so as to get the emperor’s favor. To achieve the purpose of sleeping and competing for favor. In the harem, concubine Hu is the favorite concubine of Emperor Wu of Jin. Because concubine Hu is not only beautiful and gentle, but also good at luring sheep with a bow. Therefore, Emperor Wu of Jin often stays with her.
In the Tang Dynasty, the order of the Imperial Palace and the dormitory was very important
People used to call it “3000 beauties in the harem”. In fact, in the Tang Dynasty, 3000 was just an imaginary number. There were tens of thousands of beauties in the harem of the Tang Dynasty. Due to the large number of beauties, the distribution of the harem Chamberlain naturally became a problem. However, women in the harem of the Tang Dynasty have a clear position, in order: queen; Fourth lady: imperial concubine, lady, virtuous concubine, virtuous concubine (the above is the first grade); Nine concubines: Zhaoyi, Zhaorong, Zhaoyuan, Xiuyi, Xiurong, xiuai, Chongyi, chongrong, Chongyuan (the above is the first and second grade); Twenty seventh wife: Nine Jieyu (the third grade), nine beauties (the fourth grade), nine talented people (the fifth grade); Eighty one Royal wives: Twenty seven in Baolin (the sixth grade), twenty-seven Royal daughters (the seventh grade), and twenty-seven Cainv (the eighth grade). These high-ranking concubines, of course, are accompanied by many female officials, palace maids, and factotum. The number is very large. In the Tang Dynasty, the order in which the Imperial Palace attends the imperial bedroom is based on the full moon and the lack of the moon, which is similar to that of the Zhou Dynasty& lt;!&# 8211; end–& gt;
The first fifteen days of each month are gradually full, and the next fifteen days are gradually deficient. Therefore, from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first day of the month, the low status turns to the high status, and from the sixteenth day to the end of the month, the high status turns to the low status. The queen and the fourth lady have priority, and the following nine concubines are “99 and royal”, that is, every nine people share a night of grace. To be more specific, from the first day of the first day to the ninth day of the ninth day, the Royal wife is eighty-one, and every nine people share one night. Thirteen is nine concubines, fourteen is four wives, and fifteen is exclusive to the queen; Similarly, sixteen is also exclusive to the queen, and seventeen is the fourth lady. Eighteen are nine concubines, nineteen to twenty-one are twenty-seven wives, every nine people share a night, twenty-two to thirty are eighty-one Royal wives, every nine people share a night. On the whole, two nights for the queen, two nights for the fourth wife, six nights for the worldly wife, and eighteen nights for the Royal wife are fair distribution for the concubines. However, for the son of heaven, he cannot choose freely and has to deal with several at a time, which is really not a happy thing. Although the regulations for concubines in the harem to accompany the imperial bedroom are clear, because there are many concubines, and sometimes people feel unwell or the moon comes, the people on duty every night are very complicated and troublesome. Therefore, most of the “female history” in the palace is set up to take charge of the order of concubines serving the emperor.
In the late Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there were many female concubines in the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty, so they dug out hollow ideas and made a strange move – to love with butterflies. Every spring, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty held a banquet in the palace all day, letting many concubines wear flowers. He caught a butterfly by himself, and then let it fly to see which concubine it fell on. That night, the concubine would sleep with him. Later, the game of choosing concubines to sleep with butterflies didn’t stop until Yang Guifei was specially spoiled.
The Qing emperor summoned his Empress
Before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, there were few residences in Shengjing palace, only the central palace, Qingning palace and the four auxiliary palaces of Guanju, Linzhi, Yanqing and Yongfu, and the two main palaces of Dazheng hall and Chongzheng Hall had no beds, so Taizong Huangtaiji or Zhongzhong palace, or they could only spend the night in the warm pavilion where a concubine lived, and there was no separate bedroom to call a concubine to accompany them. However, after the Qing Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, the situation changed greatly. There were more than 9000 halls and pavilions in the Forbidden City. In addition to the East and west twelve palaces where the empress lived, the emperor also had residences, such as the magnificent Qianqing palace or the heart nourishing palace. After the emperor’s wedding, the queen stayed with the emperor for three months, and had to spend the wedding period before choosing a residence in the East and West six palaces. In addition to the queen, the emperor wanted to call some concubines to wait on the bed, so he looked at the sign after dinner, turned to someone, and was told by the eunuch that it was night that he went to the emperor’s bedroom to celebrate. Every time the queen or concubine attends to the bedroom, the eunuch records the date of the month and year in detail as evidence of conception. After dinner every day, the imperial eunuch who served him would put the green head sign with the name of the concubine on a silver plate, and then kneel on the ground and hold the silver plate high, waiting for the emperor’s orders. If the emperor doesn’t intend to spend the night with his concubines, he just needs to simply say “step down”; If the emperor liked any of his concubines, he would stretch out his hand and turn her green label over. After the former eunuch retired, he handed over the green head sign to the eunuch who was on duty. Their task is to inform the concubine selected by the emperor first, let her wash and prepare, and then wrap her naked body in a special feather coat and carry it to the emperor’s bedroom. After the emperor and his concubines go to bed, the eunuch should wait outside the palace. If it exceeds the set time, the eunuch will shout “time is up” outside! If there is no echo from the emperor, the eunuch will shout again. After repeating this three times, the emperor must answer, and the concubines who serve as bedfellows must be sent back. At the same time, the eunuch who accompanied him asked the emperor if his concubines who stayed overnight with him were allowed to have children. If the emperor said “keep”, then the eunuch would record the date in detail as evidence of pregnancy in the future; If the emperor said no, he would immediately implement contraceptive measures on the concubine.
The queen who refused the emperor’s blessing
For thousands of years, the emperor’s harem concubines have been numerous. In order to get the emperor’s blessing, the concubines have been fighting for favor by all means, and their biggest extravagant hope is to get the emperor’s blessing. The reason is very simple. As long as you get the favor of the emperor, you can become the master of the harem, you can achieve prosperity and wealth, and you can have everything. However, it sounds incredible that someone actually refused the emperor’s blessing. The one who refused to be fortunate was Hongjila, the queen of Emperor Wu of the Yuan Dynasty.
Queen hongjici is frugal and hardworking by nature, open-minded and cheerful, will not be jealous, and is strict with herself. Qi Shi, the third queen living in the West Palace of Xingsheng, was favored by the emperor and often stayed with the emperor. The right and left ministers told queen Hongjila these things, and she did not show jealousy and complaint. Once, Hongji stab went out of Beijing for an inspection with Emperor Wu of the Yuan Dynasty. On the way, Emperor Wu of the yuan sent an official to receive stab queen. Stab queen refused with too deep night. The inner officer returned to Emperor Yuanwu. Emperor Yuanwu ordered the inner officer to say that Qing was the emperor’s servant. After repeated several times, he never promised.
In history, not only empress Hongjila, but also Luoluo, a maid in waiting during the reign of emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, refused to be lucky for many times. Once, after the emperor was drunk, he toured the palaces and accidentally met the maid Luo Luo. The emperor was very happy at the sight of the fairy Luo Luo. He was particularly fond of it and immediately called for luck. Luo Luo knew the mystery and was afraid of concubine Xiao. Because concubine Xiao had evaporated Han June and disappeared not long ago, people with clear eyes knew that Han June had gone to the West. Therefore, despite the emperor Yang’s proximity, Luo Luo Luo could not serve the emperor on the grounds of “lunar affairs”.
For thousands of years, the monarchs of all dynasties in China have practiced polygamy. The concubines in the harem, at least hundreds, at most tens of thousands, are a huge “pink and Dai” team. I’m afraid no one can tell the exact number. Whether they can get the favor of the emperor or refuse to be fortunate, the vast majority of them are slaves and servants of the emperor, consciously or unconsciously acting as tools of political struggle, playthings for the emperor’s pleasure and midwives for generations. Therefore, the tone of life of the emperors and concubines in the harem is sad and bitter. In their lives, hate is more than love, and pain is more than sweetness. Sorrow is more than joy, crying more than laughter.