A Survival Guide to the Qing Harem

Chapter 16
There is no need to marry a husband and a son, and change owners many times. Is this princess ushering in a happy spring?Hmm, it looks like that.But the heart is sour, it is really not clear in a few words.

The princesses of the Qing Dynasty can be described as golden branches and jade leaves. Regardless of the status of their biological mothers, at least they all have an awesome father. Of course, this father may be the emperor, or he may be the emperor's uncles and brothers. Anyway, they are all relatives of the emperor.Therefore, even if the princess is betrothed to someone else, it is also called "Chu Jiang", "Down Marriage" or "Li Jiang", while the princess's husband is called "Ezui", which belongs to a high-status person who marries a man. People of low status.

After the princess is accused of marriage, the minister in charge of the clan's mansion will take the forehead to the door of Qianqing, kneel to receive the order, and then carry out a series of procedures belonging to the princess's wedding according to the selected auspicious day.Most importantly, the emperor will personally give the princess a dowry—a house for the princess to live outside of the palace.

How about this marriage of "the second generation of the country" and "the second generation of officials" looks pretty good?The elders have paved the way for it, and they live in a big house, so it will save decades of struggle!If you are very envious, I advise you to quickly put away that greedy look, because soon you will not be able to laugh.

According to the law of the Qing Dynasty, the princess is the king, and the son-in-law is the minister. The king and the ministers cannot live in the same room.You might want to say: "What's so difficult about this? You should pay attention to the etiquette of the monarch and his ministers outside. Who knows who to live with behind closed doors? Even if you really can't live in the same courtyard and the same room, wouldn't it be enough for the princess to say hello?" So simple, how did it happen that the princesses of the Qing Dynasty had almost no offspring?It can't be said that they all inherited "infertility"...

In fact, when the princess gets married and does not move to the palace, a nanny is specially arranged to accompany her in the palace. This nanny has a special status, firstly, to take care of the princess, and secondly, to give some advice to the princess, that is, to supervise.Why use such a supervision matter?Because the princess is married on behalf of the royal family, which is different from the common people's marriage. People pay attention to "marry a chicken as a chicken, and marry a dog as a dog", but when it comes to the princess, even if you marry someone else, you still have to maintain the royal dignity, every word and deed You can't break the rules, and you can't brazenly covet the affairs of men and women.

Mammy followed the princess out of the palace and lived in the mansion. It's impossible not to assign some servants to take care of her.What's more, the nanny has a special status. In fact, the nanny next to the princess basically doesn't serve the princess, but specializes in management.The matter of management is the matter of the princess sharing the same room with the forehead.

Let's look at these nuns again. They are basically "spinsters" who have never married or had children in their entire lives, but have lived in the ever-changing harem for decades, or "suffocated" for decades. They are more or less perverted, and the most unseen thing is probably the love between men and women. If the princess and the forehead concubine are in love with each other, the mother will feel that she has violated the requirements of the ancestors for women. How can an orthodox and high-ranking princess seduce a man in a coquettish manner?As a result, the nuns often moved out of the palace rules and regulations to forcibly prevent the princess from meeting the forehead.

But the princess is also a normal person. Since she is already married as another woman, even if she doesn't ask to be respected as a guest, at least she has a child, which is the sustenance of her soul.But the child will not come out of nowhere, he still has to find the forehead to have sex with.

Most of the princesses who grew up in the deep palace were taught to be reserved and introverted. If the nanny was more cruel, they would be even more timid and didn't know how to say this.I had no choice but to collect the dowry I brought out, and dug out all the jewels, emeralds, emeralds, silks and satins, and "honored" them to the nanny, and then blushed and said nothing.

The nanny who took the benefits of the princess would also pass on a message for the princess, but once she got the benefits, she would only do one thing, and if she wanted to see her son-in-law in the future, she had to bring out more good things.Mammy's mouth is sucked, but the princesses are squeezed out, and they can't give anything of value. Mammy doesn't even take care of anyone, and some even abuse the princess. There are not a few people who pinch a few to vent their personal anger.

You might say, since you are so aggrieved, find a way to deal with these vicious nuns.Doesn't the princess have the opportunity to enter the palace to meet her natal family?File a complaint.

But you have to know that a person who can open a complaint and has a bad temper will naturally not be bullied by the old mother.Conversely, whoever is used to being bullied is not weak and cowardly, even if he sees his own mother, he can't speak.Moreover, there are still rules here. When a married princess enters the palace, most of them will stay with concubines and wives and have no chance to meet the emperor.If you have something, tell your mother, it's useless to say it, mother can't take care of herself, how can she control the affairs of your boudoir?Even if you can see the emperor's father or elder brother, how can you open your mouth if you want to have sex with a man!
Therefore, most princesses in the Qing Dynasty were short-lived, why?She is obviously married, but she is like a widow, and she has to be bullied by a perverted old woman every day and every night. It is not surprising that she died of torture!
However, in the history of our Qing Dynasty, there was also such a pungent princess who bravely fought for her own rights and finally lived a happy life with her husband. She was the eldest princess of Emperor Daoguang.

After the eldest princess was accused of marrying Fu Zhen, she was deliberately blocked by the nanny every time she called her. She came and went again and again, but she didn't see her husband for more than a year.It just so happened that there was a grand celebration in the palace, and the eldest princess took this opportunity to enter the palace and came before the emperor and asked Guangdi her father, "Speaking of which, who did you marry your daughter to?"

Emperor Daoguang and the second monk couldn't figure it out. After thinking for a long time, he replied, "Isn't your forehead Fu Zhen?"

The eldest princess replied: "I thought so too, but my daughter has been married for more than a year, and I still don't know what Fu Zhen looks like."

Emperor Daoguang asked strangely: "Why?"

"Because the nanny won't let me see you!" The eldest princess replied angrily.

"What's the nanny's business about your husband and wife? You can decide for yourself!" The eldest princess waited for this sentence, returned to the mansion, severely reprimanded the nanny, and then summoned her husband Fu Zhen.The two were very affectionate and had eight children.Since then, the two have never had any interference from the nanny.

It's a pity that this eldest princess is only the only one in the Qing Dynasty who has a deep love with her husband and wife. The disaster caused by the fact that the mother has such great power, but does not supervise.

Now you know, the reputation of a princess, the seemingly glorious career, should not be taken lightly, it is very short-lived.In comparison, princesses who married to foreign countries for the sake of marriage seem to be luckier. At least they can see their husbands, and they can also fight for a chance to have intercourse from time to time.But marrying a foreign country also means continuing to endure the unfair treatment of father-wife marriage, and may not understand the language, have different habits, be discriminated against, and be excluded... In short, there are a lot of bitterness.

Still envious of the big house of the princess?Do you still envy the princess's extravagant food and clothing?Facts have proved that only inner happiness is the only magic weapon to live well.

These two women have the widest control | The responsibilities of the queen and empress dowager

Although Qing Taizu Nurhachi married many women for political reasons in his life, most of these women may not be able to meet his wishes. Although he loved the concubine Abahai so much in his later years that he left a will to pass on the Khan throne. Give him and Abahai's son Dorgon, which almost led to a military remonstrance, and finally ended with the least harmful palace coup.But generally speaking, Mr. Nurhachi is still a sensible person, especially when it comes to women, he has long advised his descendants: "Don't be too obsessed with women and neglect government affairs. After all, men should put their careers first. of."

He is very clear about these women who have been with him in his life, what role each of them has played, what role they should play now, what background they have, and what benefits can be brought to him by combining with him.To put it bluntly, in the turbulent era he lived in, for an ambitious man like him, rationally utilizing the relationships and benefits that women can bring is a skill that must be cultivated.And he also practiced very well.

A large part of these advantages of Nurhachi was passed on to his son Huang Taiji. In fact, when Nurhachi overcame obstacles and opened up territory, he had already revealed the ability and meaning of strategizing and managing the harem.He hoped that some system could be established to strictly restrain these women, so that they could find their own place, be faithful to themselves and at the same time bear children for themselves.As a result, the concubine system took shape.

As a rule-maker, Nurhachi also understands that a ruler must manage the world, and it is impossible to crowd around a bunch of women every day to tell tales. Women's affairs should still be handled by women, so the queen, the master of the palace, was given a great deal of power.She can manage everyone in the harem, and to a certain extent, the emperor.In this way, the empress is not just an appendage of the emperor. Although she is attached to the emperor, she can also restrain the emperor under the banner of motherhood.As the saying goes, "Those who rule the world, the family is the first, and the way of the family starts with the husband and wife."

(End of this chapter)