A Survival Guide to the Qing Harem

Chapter 4 Retreat Training, Nanny is very busy (1)
There is a saying that "accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger". Serving the emperor is not an easy task.When the emperor is happy, it is not too much to reward you with gold and silver mountains, but if he is not happy, just find any excuse, and you will not be able to see the sun tomorrow. There are such things.Therefore, in front of the emperor, everyone has to be extra careful and cheer up. On the one hand, they take care of their own lives, and on the other hand, they also show respect for the emperor.

However, as a beautiful girl who has just arrived, she has never even met the emperor, so how can she get to know the emperor?This requires someone to spare no effort to teach you the experience they have accumulated.If this teacher works hard and you are smart and eager to learn, you can understand the relationship network and strict rules in the harem in a short time, but if you rely on yourself as the master and have a powerful father, you will be arrogant , what kind of students will be taught by such a careless teacher who doesn't keep everything together...

In any case, now that you have entered the palace, you must look forward, learn the rules, learn etiquette, learn interpersonal relationships, and learn to make yourself no longer like yourself... To borrow a sentence from "Zhen Huan Biography": "In this harem Among them, if you want to be promoted, you must understand the mind of the emperor, but if you want to live, you must understand the minds of the palace masters."

Walk steadily, stand up straight, kneel down | Rules of Salute

The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China. Although the minority nationalities ruled the world, there was no difference between the Manchu people and the Han people when it came to maintaining the feudal hierarchy and patriarchal system.So how to maintain this imperial power, one is nothing more than formulating palace regulations and laws, and the other is strict etiquette.

In the former dynasty, how the ministers saluted the emperor will not be repeated here. Anyway, we stay in the harem all day and have no chance to see those.But in the harem, etiquette is also the most important item. After the new entrants are assigned to the east and west palaces, there will be special nuns in charge of teaching them, mainly to teach you the rules of the palace. Let you live here generously and decently.

When someone teaches you, you must study hard. If you miss in class, where you didn’t remember it, and you accidentally lose your life in the future, don’t blame the nuns for not working hard.

Before going to this first class, I should interrupt first and explain where the little masters live and the origin of this place.

In the Forbidden City, needless to say, there is only one legitimate man living, and he is the emperor.The rest of the eunuchs who look like men, everyone knows that they are not real men, so they can be ignored when talking about men.Then what is left is a large group of women, regardless of their status, they are all women anyway.Of course, the princes born to the emperor by these women are not counted. The general situation is: a large group of women revolve around a man.

As for our orthodox men, we usually live in the Hall of Mental Cultivation or the Palace of Qianqing.Firstly, these two palaces are located on the central axis of the Forbidden City; secondly, these two palaces are spacious and bright, showing domineering aura, in fact, only the real dragon emperor can live there.

Taking this as the dividing point, the women were arranged to live in the East and West Sixth Palaces.The East Six Palaces are Zhongcui Palace, Chengqian Palace, Jingren Palace, Jingyang Palace, Yonghe Palace and Yanxi Palace.The West Six Palaces include Chuxiu Palace, Yikun Palace, Yongshou Palace, Xianfu Palace, Changchun Palace and Taiji Palace.There are only twelve palaces in this palace, but there are so many women in the harem that it is impossible to tell them apart. Therefore, few people can enjoy a palace alone. Therefore, there is a main seat in each palace. She has the highest status and has decision-making power and punishment. right.

When all the new girls are confirmed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will sort out the list immediately, and then assign who will live in which palace according to the number of people living in each palace and the status of each girl.The distribution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is done on the bright side, and when the list is adjusted, it will be submitted to the queen for review and approval.

So, things began to have unspoken rules.Under normal circumstances, during the draft, the empress sits with the emperor to watch, whoever the emperor likes, I believe that the empress is like a mirror in her heart.Or among these show girls, there is the Empress Empress who looks very unpleasant at first glance.There is also a situation where there are relatives of the queen.Then, when reading the list, the queen will exercise the power of the master of the harem to replace one or two people, transfer the people she wants to protect to a better palace, and transfer those who are not related to her. It is very likely that those who are favored will be transferred to other palaces.

This situation is just like in "The Legend of Zhen Huan". The concubine Hua, who favors the harem, hears that the emperor has a special opinion of the new show girl Zhen Huan, so she uses her power to assist the sixth palace and arranges Zhen Huan to Sui Yuxuan, far away from the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Not only is this place remote, but the lord of the first palace has already been relegated to the sidelines, which is very unlucky. They tried to hinder Zhen Huan's promotion path in this way.

Now that the digression is over, let's move on to the matter of saluting.

In our harem, there are roughly four types of daily salutes: kneeling and kowtowing rituals, kneeling rituals, saying thousands of blessings, and nodding.Of course, the most solemn thing is to kneel and kowtow.

This kneeling and kowtowing ritual has strict decomposition movements, namely: one suspense, one kneel, three kowtows, and six sues, three kneels, and nine kowtows.Let's understand it literally, the so-called "su" means standing upright; "kneeling" means kneeling down;Then the coherent saluting steps of "one sue, one kneel and three knocks" are to stand up straight first, take a small step back with the right leg, bend both legs at the same time, then kneel down with the right knee first, followed by the left knee, During this process, both hands should lift the cheongsam first. When kneeling, the front of the cheongsam is laid on the ground instead of under the legs. Although the legs are moving, the upper body must be kept straight until the kneeling is stable. , Stretch your hands in front of your head, and at the same time bend over and kowtow, the forehead touching the ground shall prevail.After prostrating three times, stand up in reverse order, one prostration is complete.Of course, the process of "six sues, three kneelings and nine kowtows" has to be repeated three times, which is the most solemn kowtow ceremony.

Kneeling rituals were more popular in the late Qing Dynasty. The reason for this is that when women in the palace of the late Qing Dynasty wore auspicious clothes, they generally no longer matched with auspicious clothing crowns, but wore tins.As for what is tianzi, I will introduce it in detail in the following chapters. What I want to say now is that this tianzi is very beautiful when worn on the head, but it has certain restrictions on the range of people's activities and requires the head to be kept straight.Therefore, when I kneel down, I no longer kowtow, but raise my right hand behind my head and hold my head and wings. This shows that my head and hands are on the same level, which is similar to kowtowing with my hands on the ground. .

Daowanfu ceremony originated from the ancient Manchu etiquette, which expresses a kind of respect for the elders from the younger generation.When saluting, take a small step back with your right leg, cross your legs together, and at the same time, point your right hand up and your left hand down, intersecting your ten fingers, put them on the left side of your body, keep your body upright, then squat down, and of course say the words "Please So-and-so Ann" and the like.

Finally, let’s talk about the nod.As the name suggests, nodding means nodding, and it is the lowest level among the four etiquettes, and it is suitable for treating people with lower status than oneself.

How to perform this ceremony, there are several types, I believe you have already understood, but the question is, who should this ceremony be performed to?For people of different status, what is the difference between performing different rituals?Let's talk about it in detail now.

Let's start with the emperor's generation, after all, this generation is the mainstream of the harem.For the emperor's unmarried sisters who are waiting in the boudoir, it must be inevitable to ask for peace.Especially when dealing with the lord of the palace—the empress.Although for them, the queen may be their sister-in-law or sister-in-law, but they are the emperor's main wife, and their noble status is placed there, so when they see the queen, they have to pay a thousand blessings.As for the queen, just give a nod and return.

Although the emperor's sisters basically didn't participate in the harem battles, they still knew how to watch people order dishes in this big dye vat, like the red top and the white one.Although there are strict distinctions in harem status, there are still big differences between those who are favored and those who are not, and those who have children and those who have no children.When the princesses see a concubine who is favored or has heirs, they usually give a blessing ceremony, so as to please the other party, and secondly, to avoid trouble for themselves. , this is not good.But for those concubines who haven't seen the emperor all year round, even if they are as high as the imperial concubine, they can use a nod to perfunctory them. Anyway, you will not be favored, who is afraid of whom?
If you meet a nobleman or a woman of lower status, the order of salutes will be reversed, and the princesses can calmly wait for the other party to kneel down for themselves first, and then return the nod.Because these women of the emperor, below the nobles, have no status and dignity.Unless you give permission, it is a crime of disrespect for her not to kneel down.

Of course, the empress dowagers and queens with high status will bow their heads more often every day, especially the empress dowagers. After many years of daughter-in-law, they can finally sit on a large couch and accept everyone's kneeling, while No need to kneel down to anyone anymore. (Except for offering sacrifices to ancestors and Bodhisattvas) As for the queen, she only needs to kneel down and salute to the empress dowager and the emperor.Well, among the remaining concubines, I believe it is not difficult for you to understand, push down according to status, in short, people with low status have to give big gifts to those with high status.

Maybe you have to ask, it is easy to understand among peers, but what about the younger generation?It is impossible for the emperor to have every child be a son. There are always some daughters. What is the status of these princesses?Do all juniors have to salute their elders?
According to the traditional etiquette of respecting the old and loving the young, it is a matter of course for the younger generation to salute the elders.But in the feudal society where the descendants were different, it might not be the case.According to the concept of concubine and concubine, the emperor's princess should be divided into these two categories.Unless the queen did not give birth to a princess, that's another matter, otherwise, the rules of salutation followed by the princess and the emperor's sisters are the same.

But the concubine princess is more troublesome.

First of all, you must kneel and kowtow to the queen, because this one is not only the elder, but also the master of the harem.

Secondly, for those who are higher than their birth mother, they must kneel down.

Again, kneel down to your own biological mother, unless your mother is a court lady next to a certain master, who has you after having a one-night stand with the emperor, and has not been sealed after giving birth to you, and you are a woman... It sounds really miserable. In this case, you don’t need to kneel down to your mother in front of outsiders. If you want to kowtow to your mother after closing the door, it’s okay, but you must be careful to avoid people’s eyes and ears.

Finally, the concubines who have the same status as their mothers will perform the Wanfu ceremony, and the women who are lower than their mothers will bow their heads or do not need to salute.Although this may seem a bit rude, there is nothing you can do about it. Even if you are a concubine, maybe you can be cute and cute and win the sacred heart, and become the jewel in the palm of your emperor's father. possible.Although the concubines are jealous, they will not harm you rashly, because even if you are favored by the emperor, it does not conflict with their interests.In today's words, it is not on the same path at all!So it's only normal that you don't salute the regulars whose names you probably can't even pronounce.

Please pay attention to adjust your breath, your voice should be gentle, your speech speed should be moderate, and your greetings should be appropriate | Rules of speaking

At five o'clock in the morning, according to the law of nature, you wake up, (because you go to bed early at night, so you wake up early) the maid in charge of night duty immediately got up vigilantly when she heard the sound of you turning over, and waited until you opened your eyes and sat down. When you get up, the whole dormitory becomes busy. Someone will help you get dressed, someone will help you rinse your mouth, someone will help you wash your face, and someone will help you comb your hair...

Are you enjoying it?Does it feel good to be served?That's right, but you also know that waking up so early is not idle. According to the rules of the palace, the rules of greeting are more important than heaven. You have to greet your mother-in-law and "big sister" first.

After everything is packed, your personal maid will follow you and set off. If your mother-in-law, that is, the empress dowager, is still alive and energetic, and can withstand the stimulation of her son's ostentatious concubines every day, then it is reasonable to go to pay her respects to her mother-in-law first. of.

After entering the door, I first knelt down and kowtowed, and said something in my mouth: "Greetings to the Lafayette, the Lafayette is auspicious..." Well, you are done playing, your bright future and great ideas will soon be wiped out... ...Dare to love you, you have watched too many chaotic Qing palace dramas that have no respect for historical facts!why?Because of you, you said the wrong thing, or in other words, you asked An Yu to completely lower your identity and mess up your identity.

Let's correct mistakes first.In this short greeting, two words were shared wrongly, the first being the "Lafayette". The name "Lafayette" should have appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. It was the private address of some eunuchs in the palace to the Empress Dowager Cixi. When they mentioned the Empress Dowager Cixi, they said Lafayette, which meant that they were very favored and close to the Empress Dowager. , but this is only a private address, and you absolutely dare not call it that in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi.

A little further back, during the Qianlong Dynasty, this title also appeared. It was because Emperor Qianlong lived too long. The title that was circulated among the eunuchs, the ministers and concubines would definitely not call it that.

So what is the correct name?In fact, whether it is the emperor, the courtiers, or the concubines in the harem, they all address the empress dowager properly, and they are called "empress dowager".

Besides, the second mistake is the word "auspicious".Dao Jixiang is also a popular greeting among eunuchs. As a concubine with status, she would never use the eunuch's common language to greet the empress dowager.

After correcting the error, have you figured out how to say this please Anyu?Let's practice again: "The concubine respectfully invites the Empress Dowager to be safe." That's right, that's it. When kneeling down and saluting, say such a greeting, and when you say it, the voice should not be too loud to disturb the Empress Dowager, and it should not be too low As a result, the old lady could not hear clearly; the speed of speaking should not be too fast to be vague, nor too slow to pause every word, otherwise, it may offend the empress dowager.If you make your mother-in-law unhappy, you will have to wear shoes in the harem.

(End of this chapter)