In court dramas, we often find that once some concubines make mistakes, then she will be thrown into the cold palace, thus completely losing her trust and favor in front of the emperor, and her concubine status will be completely abolished. But after these concubines are beaten into the cold palace in the play, we will find that her change is only a reduction in treatment, she still lives in a gorgeous palace, and there is also the possibility of restoring the status of concubines. However, in reality, this is not the case, and the real cold palace is extremely terrifying. 
During the reign of Emperor Guangxu, her concubine Zhen was sent to the cold palace. According to historical records, the cold palace where Concubine Zhen was located at that time was a remote courtyard, and Concubine Zhen was completely placed under house arrest in this courtyard for the rest of her life, losing her personal freedom. In this small courtyard, the house where Concubine Zhen lived was locked from the inside out, and only one window was open, which was to facilitate the delivery of daily food to her. Moreover, in this kind of small courtyard, she was forbidden to talk to anyone, not even the palace maid who delivered the food. 
It can be seen that the real cold palace in history is very cruel, and the concubines who are beaten into the cold palace will live an extremely miserable life. It can be said that this cold palace is even more terrible than today's prisons, and the terrible part of this is in the following three points. First of all, the first terrible thing about the cold palace is that being beaten into the cold palace means that his status is worse than that of ordinary people. After being beaten into the cold palace, the treatment of concubines was much worse than that of ordinary people. Because it was impossible for the emperor to disgrace his face, he sent the concubine to the cold palace instead of sending her back to his mother's house. This is because if you send your concubine back to her mother's house, then the world will definitely point fingers at the emperor. 
Therefore, the emperor can only put the concubine under house arrest in the cold palace, just to maintain her daily diet. As a civilian, at least you can have personal freedom and be able to talk to others. And in the cold palace, they have completely lost the freedom of life, they can't go, and they can only spend their lives alone. The second terrible thing is that entering the cold palace not only means that she has lost the favor of the emperor, but also means that her family has lost its status in the court. In ancient times, there was a saying called "One person attains the Tao, the chicken and the dog **", which is indeed the case for these concubines. 
When they were favored by the emperor, even their parents and brothers and sisters would be rewarded and reused by the emperor, so the status of the concubine's family in the court would become higher and higher, and the wealth they had would increase. However, once the concubine is snubbed and sent to the cold palace, not only will her own status become worthless, but her family will also be greatly implicated. What's more serious is that the people who used to tie up her family at the beginning will completely stay away from her family because she was beaten into the cold palace, which will lead to the continuous decline of her family, and even lead to extinction. 
The third terrible thing is that the original concubine was high and loved by thousands of people, but she ended up in a position that was not as good as that of a palace maid, and the psychological obstacles caused by this gap will lead to mental insanity. When they are still concubines, they can eat what they want to eat, do what they want, and they can live without worrying about food and clothing, and they can also send palace maids in the palace at will. But because of a mistake, after being beaten into the cold palace by the emperor, everything that was original disappeared, the place where he lived was dilapidated, and he couldn't eat enough food. Moreover, those palace maids and servants will treat them coldly, and this gap will cause them to have psychological defects, and then produce insanity. If it is serious, the concubine may change from the original high-ranking little fairy to a crazy crazy woman. Concubines in the cold palace, "despair" is the best adjective for them. 
It can be seen that the cold palace in ancient times was not as easy as the cold palace in film and television dramas. According to historical records, in the competition between Concubine Xiao Shufei and Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian won in the end, and Concubine Xiao Shufei was sent to the cold palace and imprisoned. The cold palace where Concubine Xiao Shu is located is almost all a closed place, dark and dark, and there is only one small hole for passing food. 
In ancient times, the emperor always had many concubines, so in the competition for favor in the harem, there will always be people who are victims. And these victims are often beaten into the cold palace. It can be seen that behind the glory and wealth, there is actually a cliff hidden. The concubines of the ancient emperors seemed to be prosperous and wealthy on the surface, and they lived very easily, but in fact, they were also walking on thin ice, for fear that they would be beaten into the cold palace by the emperor if they made a mistake, and they would never be able to turn over.