In ancient China, there has always been a patriarchal society, with men occupying a dominant position, and women having a very low social status, in a subordinate or dependent position. The emperor is at the top of the entire pyramid, holding the power of life and death, one person owns tens of thousands of women, and there are many poor people who cannot afford to marry a daughter-in-law in their lifetime, and the society is so unfair. However, it is also an annoying thing for the emperor to deal with so many beauties alone.
In the Zhou Dynasty, generally according to the moon's cloudy and sunny circle to determine the concubine's bed, generally from the first to fifteenth, the moon gradually from the lack to the round, from the low status of the concubine slowly ranked to the high, from fifteen to thirty, the moon gradually from the round to the short, then from the concubine level from high to low, the "Book of Rites" records, the Zhou Dynasty's concubine system is: "The Son of Heaven set up six palaces, three ladies, nine concubines, twenty-seven women, eighty-one wives." This is the earliest "concubine system" in China that can be documented. Don't say anything else, let's just say that there are more than 120 people, how to arrange an emperor, let's calculate it yourself, it seems that the ancient emperor died early for no reason.
The emperor's harem concubines for a long time after that, the emperor referred to this method of the Zhou Dynasty. Sima Yan, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, is simply a wonder, because there are tens of thousands of people in his harem, and there are many concubines, he really doesn't know how to arrange a bed, so Sima Yan came up with a strange way, that is, to sit in a sheep cart, let the sheep walk freely in the palace, and the sheep cart stops at **He is pampering the concubines. So a palace man put a bamboo branch on the door and sprinkled salt water on the ground, and the sheep stopped eating because he liked the taste of salt water, so the sheep cart stopped at the gate of her palace. Later, many concubines imitated this method, and the lambs didn't know where to stop, but more and more salt was purchased in the palace.
In the Tang Dynasty, the treatment of women was relatively humane. If ordinary people feel unhappy in their marriage, they can file for divorce from their husbands, which was basically impossible before, and only men can divorce their wives. Ordinary women are also relatively open in dressing, unlike the original Arabian women, who must be wrapped tightly, and everyone who has seen the city's ** armor directed by Zhang Yimou knows that the dressing of the palace maids inside is really open enough. The scale of the imperial palace in the Tang Dynasty was huge, and the number of people in the harem reached an astonishing tens of thousands.
In order to manage such a huge harem, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty implemented a grade system, with a total of eight levels, similar to the ** rank. The queen is the mother of the country, and there is no need to be included in the grade system, as for the other concubines, the grades are as follows:
Zhengyipin is a lady, including: concubine, concubine, concubine, concubine virtuous;
The second product is nine concubines, including: Zhaoyi, Zhaorong, Zhaoyuan, Xiuyi, Xiuyuan, Xiuyuan, Chongyi, Chongrong, Chongyuan;
The third grade is Jieyu, the fourth grade is a beauty, and the fifth grade is a talented person, and the number of these three grades is 9 people, collectively referred to as 27 women;
The sixth grade is Baolin, the seventh grade is the royal maid, and the eighth grade is the maid, and the number of these three grades is 27 people, collectively known as 81 royal wives. According to different grades, the treatment enjoyed by palace concubines at all levels is also different.
The harem of the Tang Dynasty and the emperor also adopted the Zhou Dynasty's sleeping system, according to the moon's cloudy and sunny days, from the first day of the new year to the fifteenth to the thirtieth, the concubines were arranged to sleep according to the rank, on the whole, the queen two nights, the four ladies two nights, the world wife six nights, the royal wife eighteen nights. The Queen's blessing is the best and can be.
Ten. 5. 16 monopolized the emperor for two days. The largest number of eighty-one wives could only serve the emperor for one night every nine days from the twenty-two to the thirtieth day of the month. The poor emperors were busy with government affairs during the day and the imperial wives at night, nine people in one night, and for nine consecutive days, that kind of pain was difficult for ordinary people to understand. This is a fair distribution for concubines, however, for the Son of Heaven, to be evenly wet with rain and dew, and to deal with several at a time, it is really a bit more than enough to be able to do it
In the Qing Dynasty, the rotation of concubines was gradually abolished. The emperor can turn over the cards on the plate sent by the eunuch in the worship room according to his own preferences, and if he doesn't like the woman, he can't wait for the day of meeting in his life. In the Qing Dynasty, I don't know how many women have been widowed in the palace for a lifetime, which is really the sorrow of women.
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