The secret of the Qing harem is far from the movies, the audience is surprised because they have been deceived for so long

The Qing Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty founded by the Manchu people. This was also the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history. Many filmmakers have relied on this dynasty to create immortal historical works of archery. However, the truth is that the Qing Dynasty harem is far different from the movies that we often see.

The prince doesn't have a love interest like in the movies

The audience was once fascinated by the love story of the A Ca with Tinh Xuyen - a girl who traveled through space from the 21st century to the reign of King Khang Hy. The truth, however, is that the Qing Princes were never free to meet court ladies, let alone fall in love. According to historical records of the Shunzhi period, the Qing princes always had to live in tension and confinement and hardly had time or mind to fall in love.

Due to strict palace regulations, the Prince and his biological mother were not even allowed to meet freely, so it was certainly not possible for the princes of that time to meet and fall in love with any girl.

"In the past, when Thuan Tri was born, he could only see his mother once. Empress Dowager Tu Xi gave birth a few days before she was carried away by the nanny", quoted from the record. One film critic said: "The romantic love scenes in the film are just staged and the directors need to add to make the film more dramatic and not completely real."

Being the king's son, but not having enough to eat and dress warmly

It is often said that being the son of an Emperor is like being born at the finish line. Princes and princesses will have a happier life than people. But there is a detail revealed by history books that makes many people surprised that the princes of the Qing Dynasty were "starved". Although living in rich luxury, the princes did not eat much. King Kangxi and King Qianlong issued a rule that only two meals a day were allowed to be good for the stomach. Even King Quang Tu when he was a child, because he couldn't eat enough, he went to get food from the eunuch.

It's not like the Empress was harmed by her concubine

Stories about favoritism or fighting in the harem are not new to the audience of Chinese historical films. People often see that concubines will use all means to please the Emperor, even harming the Empress to achieve the goal. Sometimes in some movies, the audience also encounters the scene of a weak and fragile queen, being harmed by a jealous concubine to her face.

In fact, the Empress is the person with the highest position and the owner of the harem. The other concubines, even though they are loved and cherished by the Emperor, are only small masters. Only the Queen is allowed to stay with the Emperor all night, and the other concubines will be taken away by the eunuch as soon as "done". If the Queen scolds and punishes the concubine, the Emperor has no right to stop it. The empress is only deposed when she commits a felony, related to national politics. The Emperor can control everything, but the harem is the Queen's, no one can interfere.

The beauty in the movie is far from the prototype in real life

The beauties in Chinese-language historical movies are all beautiful, tilting the water, and diving. But there is a big gap between the screen and reality. Although the characters in Chinese ancients are based on real people, the beauty of the past and present of princesses, empresses, and concubines is clearly different. The reason is that in ancient times there were different standards of beauty than today. Looking at the series of photos of the real faces of real characters in Chinese films, this difference will be clearly seen.

For example, On Tinh Hoang Quy consort, known as Can consort or Doan Khang Hoang Quy Thai consort, was a concubine of Emperor Thanh Duc Tong Quang Tu and the sister of Tran consort. After Emperor Quang Tu died, she became Can Thai consort, the head of the Tai concubines in the harem. Under the reign of Emperor Tuyen Thong, she was made a Thai consort, playing an important role in deciding the marriage between Emperor Tuyen Thong and Empress Wan Rong. In the movie "Greater Kien Dang", the character of Can Phi played by Luu Dao possesses a sharp, cold look. But the real-life stereotype of this character seems a bit more mundane and less sharp.

According to some historians, the reason why most of the Qing concubines were poor is the strange elective regime of this dynasty. The main purpose of the ancient post-concubine selection was not actually for the happiness of the Emperor, but for other political purposes.

For the Qing Dynasty, in order to ensure the sanctity of the Manchu nobility, the court stipulated that the king must choose the mistresses of the mandarin families with transparent bloodlines, then consider external factors. shape and character.

In addition, this dynasty often maintained the "implicit rule" that restricts Han ethnic women from participating in the election, instead increasing the selection of girls of Manchu and Mongol descent. belonging to the Bat Ky. Historical facts also show that, out of a total of 187 concubines with Dai Thanh's titles, the number of Manchu people is up to 136, the number of people from Mongolia has 21, and the Han concubine has only a small number of people. 9 flavors.

Unlike the direct selection of courtesans of the Emperors in the movies, the selection process of the Qing Palace will mainly be handled by the House of God and the Ritual Department. The king actually did not have much power to speak on this matter, because this is the rule passed down by the ancestors.

The girls who are eligible to participate in the selection process will first be received and processed by the Ministry of Households, and then screened by the Ministry of Ceremonies, only a few final candidates will be eligible to debut in Heaven. death.

Moreover, the officials in charge of the selection process themselves will also voluntarily remove those who are too beautiful. Because a harem with too many beauties will make it easy for the Emperor to fall into alcoholism and neglect the main court, even having a bad reputation such as "wild sex", "exciting beauty".

Towards the end of the Qing Dynasty, because Empress Dowager Tu Hy was very careful in her early days, this supreme ruler would of course find it difficult to please those brides who were too beautiful.

In the past, this old Buddhist monk himself once proudly affirmed: "The palace people take me to be beautiful", that is, the top and bottom of the harem must consider her appearance as the standard of beauty, so the quality of the harem must be considered. The beauty of the post-concubine at that time was also difficult to improve.

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