This is the case with Houmen, and the palace gate is even worse. Since ancient times, countless folk beauties have been elected to the palace every year, and these women will spend their lives in the red palace wall. Most emperors like beautiful young women. What should the old ladies-in-waiting do? Will they also get the attention of the emperor?
The world thought that the ancient emperors had "three thousand harem beauties", but in fact "three thousand" is not a real number. In some dynasties, the number of palace concubines far exceeded 3,000, while in others, it was worse. The specific number of harem maids depends on the court system of the dynasty.
The Book of Rites "Ancient emperors had six palaces, three concubines, nine concubines, twenty-seven concubines and eighty-one emperors" According to the Book of Rites, the wives of emperors had 1, 2 1, and there were also unknown maids.
Whether the emperor's wife or maid-in-waiting, as long as the emperor has physiological needs, they must meet them unconditionally at any time.
However, the situation in the harem is "fleshy teen wolf" after all, and it is impossible for the emperor to "enjoy" so many ladies-in-waiting. So there are many "bench players" in the harem of each dynasty. They have never been favored by the emperor in their lives, or even had sex.
There is a saying that was carefully written by Song people:
"Ordinary people into the royal righteousness, fifteen times from the back down ... his ninth wife has dropped, all nine people and royal, eighty-one kuya. Twenty-seven women for three nights, nine women for kuya, and three women for one night are fourteen nights. After one night, it is fifteen nights. On the fifteenth day of the Ming dynasty, the imperial power was restored, and on the sixteenth, the imperial power was restored ... Those who were less than nine women but under the age of 50 were all admitted to the imperial power, ending at 50. After the wife is not involved in this case, fifty is still a royal family. Therefore, Neize says: If my concubine is under 50 years old, she will be treated for five days. Then you know that a 50-year-old concubine cannot enter the palace. "
Although all women in the harem are forbidden by the emperor except the first emperor, his concubines and the princess's daughter, it is not necessary for the emperor to satisfy every woman's sexual needs. According to Qi Dong Yu Ye, every emperor only needs to have sex with 12 1 celebrities on a regular basis. Rao, this is also a task that ordinary men can't complete.
The female emperor is 8 1, and the emperor needs to be with the female emperor every month 18 days, and it is lucky to need 9 days every day; 27 women, the emperor needs to be with women for six days every month, and he needs to be lucky for nine days every day; Nine women's wives, the emperor needs to accompany them for two days every month; Three wives, the emperor needs to accompany his wife for two days every month; The queen is the most distinguished, and she can enjoy the emperor for two days every month.
In all fairness, this frequency of sexual intercourse is undoubtedly a kind of torture for a normal man. Even the strongest people, I'm afraid these years will be very sad. No wonder the average life expectancy of ancient emperors was short. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, such frequent sexual intercourse will inevitably make some functions of the emperor retire early, which will affect their health.
According to Qi Dong's wild talk theory, except for the queen and three ladies-in-waiting, ladies-in-waiting are not allowed to sleep with the emperor after the age of 50. This system seems to give people a feeling of "beauty declines before she gets old". In fact, it is not because the emperor is unkind, but because of the special social situation in ancient times.
As we know, most women will enter menopause around 50 years old. At this age, women no longer ovulate and lose their fertility. Every emperor's sexual life is based on having children. If a woman can't have children, there is absolutely no need for the emperor to waste energy on her. After all, there are too many women who need the emperor to "work hard", and the emperor works too hard.
The theory in Dong Qiye's History only applies to individual dynasties, at least this set of rules is not applicable in the Tang Dynasty. According to historical records, there were more than 40,000 concubines in the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty. If Li Longji abides by this rule and has more than 100 famous ladies in turn every day, wouldn't other ladies-in-waiting also be "cared for" by the emperor?
It can be seen that the ancient emperors may not have complied with the requirements of etiquette when planning to have sex with maids. To put it another way, the emperor has the absolute right of self-mating, and it is not a word for the ancient emperor to want to get lucky. Just as Emperor Yang Di said, "Those who gave birth to me can't, those who gave birth to me can't, and the rest can't", few emperors abide by etiquette.
Of course, some dynasties also had a specific "imperial system", such as: making money into treasure. For example, Sima Yan's practice is to "randomly" take a lucky concubine in a sheep cart, which is a kind of "luck". So, some imperial secretaries put bamboo branches on the door and sprinkled salt water on the ground. Because the sheep liked the taste of salt water, they stopped eating it, and the sheep cart stopped at the door of her palace.
It seems that not only concubines were busy in the ancient court, but even the emperor was busy.
Those women who enter the palace may not be happy. They devoted their whole youth to the palace, but they could not continue to have children when they were old and weak, and were abandoned by the emperor. This is a great sorrow for women.
References:
Rites, internal rules and Qi Dong's wild stories.