At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu had high hopes for this system, thinking that the female official system could help him realize his vision of "orderly palace, quiet boudoir", "strict internal education" and prevent "female disaster of the previous generation".
Therefore, in the Hongwu period, the criteria for selecting female officials also met the conditions for completing this idea. Women aged 20 or even 30 are required to be unmarried, with low requirements on appearance, good appearance and good health. This requirement clearly distinguishes between female officials and concubines.
However, compared with the broad requirements of appearance, the selection of female officials requires higher cultural literacy of candidates, and candidates must "read the number of books".
In fact, most of the female officials in Ming Dynasty who can be named in local chronicles and biographies of female officials were recruited by people in Hongwu period, and it can be seen from the records of these female officials that the choice of female officials at that time paid more attention to personal quality.
Such as Qingjiang Fan's Broadcom Classic. Chen, "good at six books and knowing their meanings, is an excellent female worker". Huang Weide, "courteous" ...
During the Hongwu period, female officials were selected as many as six times, and the number of people selected each time ranged from 14 to 60. The region expanded from Suzhou and Hangzhou at the beginning to the whole Jiangnan area, and even covered the whole southeast, Fujian and Guangdong in the later period.
This may be related to the increasing number of female officials in Hongwu period.
In the early Ming Dynasty, female officials were well treated, and the words "give gold and silver, except corvee" are common in records. Moreover, women must enter the palace voluntarily and cannot be forced. After entering the palace, you will enjoy courtesy in the palace, which will bring many benefits to your family, such as giving officials and land. Therefore, women
Officials will also enjoy a high position in the family after returning home.
However, Ming Taizu's female official system, which can teach the court and serve as a model for women in the court, actually did not stand as he thought, but gradually existed in name only.