Although the ancient royal family had the right to select beautiful women from all over the country to serve in the harem, and the people were proud that their daughters could become the emperor's wives, in fact, there were very few women who could actually enter the palace and become concubines.
Whenever the royal family holds a large-scale draft event, many women will flock to it, but they must go through strict screening, in addition to appearance, the royal family will also conduct a comprehensive investigation of their origin, psychology, physiology and other aspects, and those who fail to meet will be eliminated.
The physical examination process of the draft is extremely cumbersome, and every step is extremely exquisite.
Beauty is the primary condition, and the figure must also meet the specifications when the "appearance" meets the standard. In addition to these, the show girl's body must not have any flaws, even a tiny mole may be eliminated immediately.
In addition, there was a clear age limit for the selection of the imperial palace: in the Eastern Han Dynasty, for example, show girls were usually between the ages of thirteen and twenty. However, different dynasties have different requirements, for example, Sun Hao, the lord of Wu in the same Eastern Han Dynasty, his requirements are relatively broad, "fifteen or sixteen years old concise reading", as long as it is about the same.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Northern Qi Dynasty had similar regulations to the Eastern Han Dynasty, requiring show girls to be between the ages of fourteen and twenty. In the Ming Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang raised the bar again, requiring that women should be between fifteen and twenty years old.
However, some extreme rulers have also relaxed the draft criteria, but the minimum age cannot be less than 11 years old. Obviously, the marriage of the ancient emperor did not conform to the modern marriage law, and it is now punishable to marry a young girl who is about ten years old.
So why didn't the ancient rulers have the concept of "age-appropriate marriage"? Again, this is a deep-rooted patriarchy. From ancient times to the present, most Chinese men have a "** complex", and emperors like "old cows eat tender grass".
Generally speaking, girls around the age of thirteen have already begun to develop, from childhood to the flowering season, and this age girl is just in line with the appetite of the ancient emperors.
Historically, there have been emperors who had a special preference for younger girls, such as Zhu Houxi of the Ming Dynasty. He set the age of eleven as the minimum age limit for selecting girls, and even believed that he could collect the menstrual blood of young girls at menarche.
Although the rulers of all dynasties have prescribed the age of selection, in individual cases the age limit does not apply. This explains why some emperors would choose young girls or widows who still had charm as the forbidden side of their harem.
In addition, all eligible show girls are required to undergo a medical examination to ensure that they are in good physical condition.
Does the girl have to strip naked during the medical exam? The answer to this question is yes. Although the records in "The Secrets of Han Miscellaneous Affairs" are a "secret" that is detached from the official history, it still has a certain reference value.
Emperor Liu Zhi of the Han Dynasty heard that Liang Ying, the daughter of the general Liang Shang, was both good and good-looking, and wanted to make her queen. But Queen Na is not just talking about it, it needs to go through a series of rigorous processes.
To this end, the emperor sent a female official, Wu Jiao, to the Liang Mansion, first verbally asking Liang Ying about her personal hobbies and daily habits, and then observing her walking posture and manners. After the preliminary inspection, the female officer asked Liang Ying to take off her clothes and be examined.
Liang Ying resolutely refused to strip naked in front of the strange woman, and Liang Ying did not agree until the female official showed Liu Zhi's holy decree and assured that the entire medical examination process would only be carried out in Liang Ying's boudoir.
The two then entered Liang Ying's boudoir, and Liang Ying took off her clothes as promised. The female officer first asked Liang Ying to walk around the room, and then asked her to brush her hair and check the back of her neck and ears.
Then, the female officer began to touch Liang Ying's body with her hands, first checking whether her chest was symmetrical, and then checking her abdomen and ** downward. After making sure that Liang Ying was unemployed and had no hemorrhoids, the female officer asked Liang Ying to shout out the words "Emperor Wannian" loudly to check if there was anything wrong with her voice.
Liang Ying felt very embarrassed by this experience, blushing with shame, and covering her private parts with her hands from time to time. This kind of physical examination process is a bit like the "internal cutscene" in a modern beauty pageant.
Unlike modern beauty pageants, where models only need to wear bikinis, Liang Ying has to strip naked, looking a little embarrassed.
The Mysterious Journey of the Ancient Draft: The Pageant Road from Five Thousand Girls to Fifty Royal Concubines If you think that the ancient draft was secret and no one knew about it, you were very wrong.
Although historical data about the physical examination of ancient show girls is scarce, we can learn about this mysterious process through some records. According to the records of "The Secret of Han Miscellaneous Affairs" and "The Biography of Empress Ming Yi'an", the draft in the Ming Dynasty was very humane, and the imperial court provided travel expenses for the families participating in the draft, so the people were willing to send their daughters to the capital to participate in the election.
In this year-long draft, a total of 5,000 women participated in the primary. The primary selection process was carried out by all the eunuchs, who divided the show girls into groups of 100 people, and each eunuch was responsible for screening one group.
The eunuchs would pass in front of the showgirls, and those who were too tall or too short, too fat or too thin, were all eliminated. After the first day of screening, 1,000 show girls were eliminated, and the remaining 4,000 entered the second round of reselection.
The second selection was carried out by eunuchs, and each hundred show girls were divided into groups, and each group was inspected by a eunuch. The secondary selection is more careful than the primary selection, and the eunuchs will carefully examine the facial features and skin texture of the beautiful girl, and once they find a flaw, even a small beauty mole, they will be eliminated.
After the inspection, the eunuch would also ask the girls to report aloud to the door of the house, to hear if their voices were pleasant and whether they had stuttering. After the second selection, more than 2,000 show girls were eliminated.
The next re-selection is more strict, and the eunuchs will check whether the figure of the show girls meets the "** proportion", and then see if they have an elegant temperament. Those who behave inappropriately will be eliminated.
On this day, there are only 1,000 show girls who can "clear the customs". The last link is the "naked inspection", but this link is served by the older palace maid as the "judge".
These 300 show girls will be taken to the secret room of the palace, and their clothes will be taken off for examination. Female officers will check their breasts to see if they are firm; Sniff your armpits and check for odors.
For each candidate show girl, the female officer will carefully touch the whole body to avoid mistakes. Only 300 show girls can pass the naked inspection. But that's not the final victory.
These show girls also need to go through the fifth round of "pre-finals" that lasts for a month. During this month, they are given "training", which focuses on female virtue and court etiquette.
In the process of training, the palace people will observe the words and deeds, living habits, IQ and character of these girls. If the first four links focus on observing the appearance of the show girl, then this last link is the inside of the show girl.
In the end, the royal family would select the best fifty of them, who would become the emperor's concubines, and the remaining two hundred and fifty show girls would remain in the palace and become palace maids if they had no other defects.
From the first 5,000 people to the last 50 people, it is in response to the phrase "one in a hundred". The mysterious process of this draft makes people sigh at the difficulty of ancient women and the royal strictness in choosing concubines.
In this process, five thousand girls went through layers of screening, and in the end, only fifty were able to become concubines of the royal family, and the rest could only stay in the palace to become palace maids.
The process was full of competition and pressure, but it was precisely this selection method that allowed the ancient royal family to select the best talents.
Originally, fifty beauties had been selected through layers and had become alternative concubines, but their struggle did not end there, and they still needed to make the final move"Finals", that is, to compete for the position of queen.
This time, the judges are no longer eunuchs and palace maids, but Concubine Zhao, who has just been promoted to the empress dowager. Concubine Zhao will interview these fifty beauties one by one, and will also test their cultural level.
In the end, Concubine Zhao chose three beauties, Zhang Yan, Wang and Duan, and asked the elderly female official to conduct a final physical examination for them. According to Zhang Yan's physical examination report, her physical condition is very good, her face is like Guanyin, her complexion is like morning glow reflecting snow, her eyes are like autumn waves, her teeth are white, there are 38 up and down, and her plump cheeks and soft hair are very attractive.
Her gait is like a green cloud out of the distance, her voice is like a drop of water, and there is no disease. In the end, the emperor chose Zhang Yan as the empress. It can be seen from Zhang Yan's draft road that it is not easy to become a queen, and many women in ancient times had it"Queen's Dream", but the path to the draft is very difficult, almost harder than climbing to the sky.
References: "The Ancient Chinese Concubine Selection System" and "Rites and Rituals".