In ancient court dramas, we often see concubines being sent to the cold palace because of doing evil or angering the emperor, and since then they have been insulated from the emperor's favor, spending a lonely and miserable life, and it is difficult to turn over and become the heroine of the court.
However, what is puzzling is that even such concubines will have many eunuchs and palace maids vying to serve them. You must know that eunuchs and palace maids were very snobbish in the ancient court, and they would praise the high and the low, just to gain benefits.
So, why do they fight to serve these concubines who have been sent to the cold palace? The answer is simple: they are profitable. Behind this is the dark side of human nature.
In the ancient courts, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was no clear indication of which dormitory was the cold palace. "Cold Palace"This term is actually derived from literary works such as **.
In that era, women who could enter the court and become concubines were all stunning beauties, and their thresholds and conditions were very high. Therefore, the requirements for entering the palace as a concubine are very strict.
If you win the emperor's favor after entering the palace, the whole family is expected to soar. Therefore, although the threshold and requirements for entering the palace are very high, it is still a yearning of that era.
However, although it is difficult to enter the palace, it is even more difficult to leave the palace. If the concubine loses the emperor's affection, it is not as simple as a divorce. Once the concubines fall out of favor and cannot leave the palace, what awaits them will be to enter the cold palace.
This is the difficulty of entering the palace, and it is even more difficult to leave the palace, so the ancients often sighed that "once you enter the palace, the gate is as deep as the sea".
In ancient courts, concubines were often deprived of all benefits after falling out of favor, and could only stay in their original dormitories to be cared for by one or two palace maids or eunuchs. Since the emperor no longer patronized, the concubines seemed to be left out in the cold, so the dormitory where they lived was called "cold palace" by the court.
Although there is no clear location of the cold palace, what is cold is the heart that is lost due to the loss of favor. Concubines who had fallen out of favor were often demoted or demoted to concubines, but remained in the court, or were confined to remote palaces, where they were served by maids or eunuchs.
In the court, when the concubines were beaten into the cold palace, the eunuchs and palace maids who rushed to serve had their own motives. Its main purpose is threefold.
First of all, they don't need to look at the faces of the concubines who have been beaten into the cold palace, and their work is easier. Generally speaking, after the concubine fell out of favor and was sent to the cold palace, the emperor would immediately order the removal of all the palace maids and eunuchs who served by the side of the disgraced concubine.
These palace maids and eunuchs were even implicated in the fall of favor from their masters, punished for doing menial court work, or even exiled. The emperor did not allow the concubines who had fallen out of favor to continue to use their henchmen and eunuchs in the cold palace, so once the palace maids and eunuchs around the disgraced concubines were removed, someone needed to make up for them.
Institutions in charge of court affairs, such as the 24 Yamen of the Ming Dynasty and the Internal Affairs Office of the Qing Dynasty, would rearrange for court maids and eunuchs to serve the disgraced concubines in the cold palace.
In the fiercely competitive harem, even the palace maids and eunuchs are willing to bribe the supervisors, just to go to the cold palace to serve the concubines who have fallen out of favor. This is not because of how well the concubines in the cold palace are treated, but because the life in the cold palace is relatively easy.
Concubines who have fallen out of favor often have nothing to do in the cold palace, have no social entertainment, and even relatives cannot visit, so the work of the palace maids and eunuchs in the cold palace will be relatively easy.
In contrast, serving a favored concubine is a heavy job, not only needing to get up early to dress up for the concubine, but also to deal with various personal contacts, such as receiving visits from other concubines.
In addition, the diet and living habits of the favored concubines also have a lot of exquisiteness, which need to be carefully taken care of by the palace maids and eunuchs.
Although the life of the concubines in the cold palace is deprived of the fireworks in the world, it is indeed easier than serving by the master's side. These concubines who have fallen out of favor only need to be responsible for food and drink every day, and they do not need to care about personal contacts, no one will visit them, and they are not allowed to leave the cold palace.
The task of the eunuchs and palace ladies is also very simple, they only need to serve their food and hygiene, and they don't need to look at the face of their masters, and they don't have to worry about being punished for their mistakes.
Therefore, the work in the cold palace is undoubtedly easy for these palace maids and eunuchs, and it is also a popular choice for them to compete for.
Although they fell out of favor, the concubines who entered the cold palace still had their own "small treasury". This is because the concubines who are thrown into the cold palace are mainly divided into two categories, one is from high-level concubines to low-level concubines, although such concubines have lost their favor, they can still get a monthly downgrade monthly payment.
The other type is completely abolished as concubines, although these people basically have no income, but their families will find ways to send them money to ensure their livelihood.
The eunuchs and palace ladies turned their attention to the concubines who had fallen out of favor, wanting to make money from them. These concubines are accustomed to a good life on weekdays, and once they are beaten into the cold palace, they hope to live a comfortable life, enjoy good food, and be well cared for.
As a result, money became a bridge between them and the eunuchs and palace maids. The eunuchs and palace ladies were able to get more service fees when serving these disgraced concubines. These eunuchs and palace maids spent a lot of money in order to find errands in the cold palace.
Since they have spent the money, they certainly hope to recoup the cost. Their means of making money is to squeeze these concubines who have been sent to the cold palace as much as possible. The treatment of these concubines was very poor, the lowest in the court, especially those who had fallen out of favor as concubines, they had no monthly money, and they did not even have the rouge gouache issued by the court.
Every woman loves beauty, they all want to dress up beautifully every day, and they also hold the hope that they can be favored by the emperor.
Cosmetics are no longer available in the palace, and the concubines who have fallen out of favor have to figure out their own way. They entrusted the eunuchs and palace maids in the cold palace to go out to buy, but they needed to pay a fee to buy them.
So, the eunuch palace maid took the opportunity to sit on the ground and raise the price, and sold the cosmetics outside to these concubines who had fallen out of favor. This situation is like the black prison guards in old Hong Kong movies who oppress prisoners and increase the price of a cigarette to dozens of yuan.
And these eunuchs and palace maids are the realistic version of the "black prison guards", and the targets of their oppression are the disgraced concubines who are imprisoned in the cold palace. Especially the eunuchs, because they can't have children, they value money very much, and they regard money as their lives, so the oppression of these disgraced concubines is particularly ruthless.
Third, psychologically twisted people need to find an outlet for catharsis. Ancient eunuchs, because of their physical defects, often had unhealthy psychological conditions, and their hearts were depressed and needed to find a way to vent.
However, due to their low status, there was no place to vent, and those concubines who fell out of favor became their best choice. The concubines who are sent to the cold palace basically mean that their lives will be full of difficulties, and the people in the palace will no longer pay attention to them.
At this time, the lowest-ranking eunuchs in the court could show their prestige in front of them and vent their inner troubles. The most classic example in history is that Qianlong succeeded Nala in the cold palace every day to suffer the insult of eunuchs, in Qianlong's fourth southern tour, Nala and Qianlong for some reason had a conflict, she cut her hair in front of Qianlong.
Manchurian women can only cut their hair when their father dies or when their husband dies, and cutting her hair in front of Qianlong means that she is cursing Qianlong to die quickly, so Qianlong is very angry.
After returning to Beijing, Qianlong originally wanted to abolish the status of the empress of the Nala clan, but major national affairs needed to be discussed at the court meeting before they could be decided. Qianlong did not provide sufficient reasons to explain why he had a conflict with the Nala, and the ministers did not advise him to depose the queen, so the status of the Nala clan as empress was retained.
However, Qianlong took back the queen treasure of the Nala clan and dismissed all the palace maids and eunuchs in her Yikun palace, leaving only one eunuch and two palace maids to serve her.
This kind of treatment was only enjoyed by the lowest-ranking concubines in the Qing Dynasty court, so the Nala clan had actually been "abolished" by Qianlong, her status as the queen existed in name only, and the Yikun Palace also became a real cold palace.
Although she still lives in Yikun Palace, there are only two palace maids who really take care of her daily life, and the eunuch is only responsible for bringing her food and insulting her.
Emperor Qianlong hated Empress Nala very much, but due to the opposition of his ministers, he could not be abolished, so Qianlong ordered the eunuchs to insult Empress Nala every day during the dinner according to the holy decree he had written.
This move made the eunuchs happy, because they could scold the queen every day, and the queen had to listen on her knees before eating. However, the Empress Nala died of depression less than a year after being treated like this.
From this, we can see that the eunuchs satisfy their psychological inferiority complex by humiliating the concubines who were beaten into the cold palace and fell out of favor, which is one of the reasons why they are willing to rush to serve in the cold palace.
In the cold palace, eunuchs and palace maids compete to serve those concubines who have fallen out of favor, and their behavior makes people feel lazy and greedy, and the psychology of bullying is also visible.
This distorted psychology reveals the dark side of human nature. Of course, the disgraced concubines who were thrown into the cold palace also had their mistakes, but their tragic fate was already doomed the moment they were sent to the cold palace.
After spending a long time in the cold palace, they not only had to endure physical and mental wear, but also suffered from the bullying and oppression of the eunuchs and palace maids, which caused great harm to their physical and mental health.
In the end, it was difficult for them to escape the fate of being depressed like Qianlong's successor, Nala.