A Survival Guide to the Qing Harem

Chapter 13 The "Trendy Girls" in the Forbidden City (4)
In fact, I really don’t understand why you have to find someone to carry these troublesome things, especially if you go to Yuanmingyuan on a hot day, you will feel tired just walking all the way with empty hands, not to mention you have to lift them upright every week. With that giant umbrella!But the person who compiled the "History of Ming Dynasty" also said that this is also to reflect the royal dignity and show the distinction between superiority and inferiority, and it is really necessary to make it more troublesome.

Comparing the imperial concubine's ceremonial car, I have to feel that a lower grade is a lower grade. Even if they are the same as the deputy queen, they are only "deputy" after all.You see, the imperial concubine’s golden stove and Jinxianghe are only given one. The important thing is that the eye-catching straight handle three-eaves nine-phoenix umbrella is gone. The straight handle three-eaves Baoxiang flower umbrella has six sides, while the four sides straight handle three The red umbrella with full square eaves has become an auspicious grass flower umbrella with three eaves and straight handle.There are six round fans, six phoenix flags, and four colorful flags. There are two less melons than the queen's.

When it comes to the concubines, even the guard of honor has been renamed the colorful battle. The concubine still has a few straight-handled umbrellas, but the concubine only has the weaving of round fans and phoenix flags.

However, there are too many umbrellas and few umbrellas, and they all need to be carried by people. The "History of the Palace of the Kingdom" tells us that when the empress and concubine go out, the guards of these public officials and guards of honor "all use the flag officer, and the inner court furnishings use the term "inner prison" Explain labor allocation.

In order to illustrate the aura of this guard of honor, we still have to take the Empress Dowager Cixi as an example. There is no way, who made her make the whole Qing Dynasty extravagant and extravagant to the extreme!

"Empress Xiaoqin (that is, Empress Dowager Cixi) came out by public transport, and Emperor Dezong would follow him. The scorching sun, thunder and rain, dare not beg for a rest. Naiqi got on the sedan chairs and accompanied them. Xiaoqin sedan chairs were led by soldiers, and four princes on horseback guarded them on the left and right, and 45 eunuchs rode behind. Red." This is what is described in detail in "Qing Pi Lei Chao Gong Wei Lei".

However, as a woman who has been in charge of the government for more than 40 years, she should be more imposing. After all, the carriages and guards of honor in the harem are to increase the majesty of the country's system, not just decorations and red tape.Just imagine, if there is no difference between the royal family and ordinary people, how can autocratic rule be carried out?

Sister Tuhao, let’s be friends | All aspects of harem funding

Working in the Forbidden City, not everyone is lucky enough to find such a job. The job here has a special feature. It does not require physical strength, but only mental effort. Although the mental pressure is a bit high, the rewards are rich Yes, if you can master the methods well and add a little bit of opportunism, then the money you can earn is really enough to support three generations.

However, when it comes to income, we can only see the figures on the books, which is no different from the current society.As for the gray income, there are no specific figures to count. Everyone has their own little secret in their hearts. Except for himself, no one knows how much money he has.Then we might as well first take a look at how much income there can be on this book.

In our Qing Dynasty, all the expenses of the harem had a unified name, called "inner court funds". This inner court fund included many items, such as paving the palace, annual regulations, daily expenses, and the empress dowager's birthday (birthday). , Empress, imperial concubine, noble concubine, concubine Qianqiu (birthday) gift, concubine and nobleman's birthday (also birthday) gift, as well as subsidies and rewards for concubines to have children, as well as expenses for festivals and dinners in the palace, etc. Wait, there are many items.The emperor attached great importance to these expenditures and formulated corresponding systems.

At the beginning of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the money spent in the harem was mainly provided by the officials' donations and the grain collected from the fields of Huangzhuang.Our Lord Kangxi is more frugal, and has expressed his wish in many documents, hoping that future generations can "learn from the past and learn from the past, and prohibit floating and returning to simplicity."It's a pity that this is just a good wish. Lord Kangxi has the ability to create a peaceful and prosperous world and make the country rich and the people strong, but he can't control people's desire to enjoy wealth and comfort.In Kangxi's later years, extravagance and exaggeration began to prevail.This is reflected in the harem and courtiers.

In this regard, the "Funds" column of "Guochao Palace History" has detailed records. Let's take a look at what level the so-called royal luxury has reached.

For example, the empress dowager’s palace has hundreds of items. If I count them one by one, you may feel sleepy. Let me describe it in another way.In short, these are the necessities of life, such as candlesticks, kettles, cups, bowls, plates, plates, chopsticks, spoons, and tea barrels for tea, including the hand stove for warming hands, all of which are gold, and even the small square table on the kang. The rims are gold, and almost all the chopsticks and spoons are inlaid with precious stones.There is more than one set of these things, and they have to be used differently from time to time. When the gold ones get tired, they will be replaced with silver ones. This time even the pots are silver.In addition, there are countless things made of copper, tin and magnets. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are so many things.

The empress dowager is like this, so the queen's things are naturally comparable. Anyway, the emperor, if you make your mother happy, you have to make your daughter-in-law happy too. Only the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law can live in harmony.The imperial concubines below the empress agreed that the items of the palace would naturally decrease layer by layer, but no matter what, it would not make people feel shabby, there were everything that should be there, and it was still first-class and exquisite.

To put it bluntly, the things in the palace are our current "soft furnishings". After the house is decorated and the large pieces of furniture are arranged, we add small things in the house to make the house look more beautiful. Emotional, more life breath.And the things in the palace are nothing more than showing nobility, otherwise, why would you need dozens of gold and silver bowls?But this palace shop is only one of the inner court funds, and the next year will be a bigger expenditure.

Let's take a look at the Queen Mother's annual regulations first, "Gold is 20 taels, silver is 2000 taels." In order to give you an idea, we might as well convert it into modern currency. Silver is about 44 RMB. Adding it up, the empress dowager's annual salary is about [-] RMB...

Don't be speechless, don't stare, and don't be jealous or envious. Not everyone has this kind of blessing. The so-called "what kind of person has a life", if you can live up to your son, and at the same time cultivate him into a talent (unless You are a queen, you can take care of your own children), and you can win the favor of the emperor. After your emperor's husband dies and your son successfully inherits the throne, you can also get such a high annual salary!Moreover, this is only the money sent to the salary card, and there are many valuable things in the rest.

For example, "Two bolts of boa satin (dragon-shaped brocade), two bolts of mending satin, two bolts of weaving gold (cloud brocade with all patterns woven with gold threads), two bolts of makeup satin, four bolts of Japanese satin, and one bolt of glittering satin." One piece, two pieces of gold letter satin, seven pieces of cloud satin, four pieces of plain plain satin, two pieces of blue plain satin, two pieces of hat satin, six pieces of poplar satin, two pieces of palace silk, four pieces of Lu silk, eight pieces of yarn, and wrapping yarn Ten bolts, ten bolts of silk, ten bolts of spun silk, ten bolts of hang fine cloth, ten bolts of cotton silk, ten bolts of Goryeo cloth, five bolts of three-thread cloth, forty bolts of woolen blue cloth, five bolts of coarse cloth, twenty gold threads, and cashmere Ten catties, six catties of cotton thread, forty catties of kapok (our current half catty is equal to the previous eight taels, you can calculate these figures yourself), two hundred silver coins of No. [-], two hundred silver coins of No. [-], and second-class mink Ten skins, twenty third-grade mink skins, seventy fifth-grade mink skins, twelve wrapped mink skins, and twelve sea dragon skins."

This material is high-quality material, most of which are only used by the royal family, and the fur is even more expensive, and ordinary people are not willing to buy it, and it is also specially presented to the palace. Hacking your calculator for a while?

Maybe the queen dowager's age limit is too extravagant, and not everyone can achieve it, so why don't I tell you about the lowest-ranked age limit.

"30 taels of silver, one piece of cloud satin, one piece of plain satin, one piece of peng satin, one piece of palace silk, one piece of Lu silk, one piece of yarn, one piece of silk, one piece of spinning silk, and three catties of kapok."

This comparison is effective, Xiao Xiao promised to compare in front of the empress dowager, it is simply impossible to live.No wonder everyone in the harem is vying for the top position. Apart from favor and power, there is also the most tangible thing—money.Money can turn ghosts around. If you have money, you can’t do anything. Even if you can’t do it off-the-shelf, you can always spend some money and find someone who can do it.But if your income is tight enough to cover your own expenses, what can you use to convince those people who have lived in this luxurious world for a long time?
Don't think that this year's payment is just like our current salary. You have to bear all the expenses, and you have to pay for food, drink, and sleep.This is not the case in the harem of the Qing Dynasty. The white money is given to you, which is for you to keep as pocket money, and the high-quality satin is given to you. Naturally, someone will tailor the clothes according to your favorite style. Don't worry at all.As for the matter of filling your stomach every day, the canteen in the palace will handle it for you. After it is ready, it will be delivered to your palace, and you can just eat it. You don’t need to pay any meal fees or delivery fees.In addition, the charcoal for heating in winter and the ice for cooling off in summer, these are all spent separately in the item of "daily use", which will not touch your little private money.

So how much is there for this day?Because most of them are for food, let's put them in the back.Now let's talk about the birthday expenses of important people in the palace.

The empress dowager's birthday is called "Shengshou". When her husband dies and her son becomes emperor, she is the most senior person in the palace. Even if someone has a higher seniority than the empress dowager, their status is definitely not as noble as her, so everyone has to "respect" the empress dowager, not only to show respect, but also to show her unparalleled majesty. To put it bluntly, everyone has to congratulate the empress dowager Live like a hundred years old.

Therefore, the birthday of the empress dowager, who longs for a long life, must not be sloppy, and there must be a lot of bloodletting in the palace.First of all, silver needs to prepare 1 taels, which is 200 million RMB today! (God, what kind of concept is this? I dare say this is a rich celebration, buying a luxury car for a birthday or something.) In addition, there are [-] strings each of large and small pearls, small pearls, large and small coral beads, and small coral beads! (This means that it will take several years to wear a string every day, not to mention there will be more next year.) There is no need to count all kinds of precious, rare and fine satin cloth. A big piece of land.

These are just the expenses in the palace. In the name of the entire royal family, there are tributes to the empress dowager. In addition, there are offerings from the emperor, concubines, and wives of foreign ministers. I believe no one dares to send some worthless things to send the empress dowager away. Well, don't forget, these gifts have to be registered, and who gave what is clear at a glance from the empress dowager.Not everyone can be as lucky as Liu Bang. You can get a daughter-in-law by eating and drinking in Lu's house. If you are too stingy and make the empress dowager unhappy, you will soon taste the bad results.

You may want to say that the empress dowager has a lot of good things, she is really the number one "local rich lady" in the world, and it's not bad. If this small promise often has nothing valuable to honor, the empress dowager can understand Bar?But grandma, who would think that she has too much money?For example, our extravagant Empress Dowager Cixi, her treasures are countless, right?But when people see good things, their eyes light up and they try to keep them for themselves. They still search for valuables all over the world and decorate everything magnificently.Let's just say that her 1000th birthday cost the Qing court more than 20 million taels of silver, equivalent to more than 80.00 billion yuan.I believe that [-]% of people in this world have never seen so much money.But I enjoy it very much, I don’t care at all that the money was embezzled for the purchase of warships by the Beiyang Navy (which indirectly led to the disastrous defeat of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-]), but when did you see that he was rich and tired, and wanted to rest and save money? one time?Therefore, the wolf is not full.

I have seen the most extravagant birthday of the empress dowager, and the rest is just a small case. Anyway, the lower the status, the simpler the life.But no matter how simple it is, the basic expenses are still there, and they are still counted as part of the inner court funds, and they are still obtained by searching for the people's fat and anointing.The so-called "respectful support from the world" actually means that the people all over the world work hard at sunrise and work hard, and then use most of their income to support us idlers in the court.

(End of this chapter)