The basic necessities of ancient Chinese emperors
The emperor’s life is divided into basic necessities, food, clothing, housing and transportation. I will introduce Puyi’s self-reported situation; this is the most reliable first-hand information - of course, his basic necessities, food, housing and transportation are more or less the same as those of his ancestors. It’s different.
The eunuchs who managed the emperor's clothing were called the "four deacons", namely: crown, robe, belt, and shoes. It was stored with crown robes and shoes, and was called the "Four Deacons' Treasury", which is actually the Duan Ning Hall in the east corridor of the Qianqing Palace, which means "Duan Mian Ning Qi".
According to Puyi, he "makes clothes all year round. I don't know what he does, but he always wears new clothes." Citing another source, statistics show that in October of a certain year, eleven leather jackets, six leather robes, two leather tights, and thirty cotton trousers and tights were made. According to this view, cotton clothes and tights can be worn new every day. He also said: "A single robe and coat that is usually worn needs to be replaced 28 times a year according to the list, from the green and white leather robe and coat on the 19th day of the first lunar month to the mink fur coat on the 1st day of the 11th lunar month."
Note: Twenty-eight types of robes and coats are recorded in the ceremony, which is good, but it is not set in stone and must be replaced when the time comes. Puyi couldn't help himself because he was in charge of others. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the internal eunuchs had to spend extravagantly to make ends meet, so they prepared such a large amount of clothes. Before this, this was not always the case, and Xuanzong was particularly frugal.
There is no need to ask for the clothing materials used on the table. Before Hong Yang, the three weaving yamen of Jiangning, Suzhou and Hangzhou were responsible for producing the four seasons clothing materials for the table; others such as Pi Tongzi were paid tribute by the northwest border provinces. All that is needed is purchased from the market, but "little bits and pieces such as welts, pockets, buckles, and threads." However, according to Puyi's records, just making the aforementioned lint clothes cost more than 2,100 silver dollars for these "little bits and pieces".
In terms of clothing, I must point out an erroneous popular concept: as shown in TV series, the emperor must wear a dragon robe or a bright yellow robe when he appears. In fact, this is completely wrong. In addition to being stipulated by rituals, which required the emperor to be under the control or to serve the emperor, the emperor also wore casual clothes when visiting the palace and even meeting ministers. However, the casual clothes at that time were the current Chinese attire, including long robes and the "crouching bag" now called mandarin jackets. ", and melon skin hat, etc.
About food, Puyi has a very vivid description:
There is another set of terminology about the emperor's eating, and others are absolutely not allowed to say it wrong. The meal is not called rice, but "shan", eating is called "dining", opening the meal is called "passing the meal", and the kitchen is called the "imperial dining room". It's time to eat - there is no fixed time, it is completely decided by the emperor himself (Note: Since Puyi lives in the Yangxin Hall and has no one to supervise him, he can do whatever he wants. Before Puyi, I was in front when the meal was passed around in the palace. We have already talked about it; the rules in the palace are very strict and cannot be broken casually. Puyi's situation is a special case and not the norm.) - I ordered "pass the meal", and the little eunuch in front of me also told Ming who was guarding the Yangxin Hall. The eunuch in the palace said: "Pass the meal!" The eunuch in the palace passed this word to the eunuch standing outside the Yangxin Gate. He then passed it to the eunuch in the imperial dining room waiting on Xichang Street... and so on. Inside the imperial dining room. (Note: There are two gates in the Qianqing Gate, one in the east and one in the east. The east is called "Rijing" and the west is called "Yuehua". Inside the Yuehua Gate, it starts from Shufangzhai in the north and passes through Chuxiu Palace, Yikun Palace, Yongshou Palace, Yangshou Palace and so on. The east side of the Heart Hall reaches the inner right gate, which is called "Xi Long Street". This is what Puyi refers to as "Xichang Street". As soon as you enter the inner right gate, the west end is the imperial dining room, which is located in the same position as the Yangxin Hall. Facing each other from a distance. Outside the south wall of the imperial dining room is the military aircraft office.) Before the echo disappeared, a procession like a dowry had already walked out of the imperial dining room. This was a team of dozens of neatly dressed eunuchs, carrying seven large and small dining tables and dozens of vermilion lacquer boxes with golden dragons painted on them, and marched straight to the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart. After entering the Ming Palace, the young eunuch wearing white sleeves took it over and placed it in the Dongnuan Pavilion. There are two tables of dishes on weekdays, and another table of hot pot in winter. In addition, there are three tables of various dim sum, rice dishes, porridge, and a small table of pickles. The box is made of bright yellow porcelain painted with dragon patterns and the words "Longevity without Borders"; in winter, it is made of silverware, with a porcelain pot holding hot water underneath.
Each dish or bowl has a silver medal, which is set up to guard against poisoning, and for the same reason, before the dish is delivered, it must be tasted by a eunuch, called "Taste the meal".
After these things were placed and before I sat down, one of the little eunuchs called out, "Take the bowl lid," and the other four or five little eunuchs took off the silver lids on each dish and put them in a big box. So I started to "eat".
The so-called "eating master" and the so-called "jade eating all directions", in ordinary people's imagination, the treasures of Tianchu are not the dragon liver and phoenix marrow in folklore, but must be a mixture of water and land materials. , everything; in terms of cooking, there are many styles of frying, stir-frying and cooking. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
Let’s talk about the ingredients first. They are unremarkable, mainly pork, mutton, chicken, and duck. There are very few seafood and fresh fish are rarely used. The ingredients for vegetarian dishes are only mushrooms, cabbage, spinach, yams, and wild rice. , radish, tofu, bean sprouts and the like. Not only is it not as good as the food of river workers and salt merchants, but the food of ordinary wealthy families is also more exquisite than the food of jade from Shangfang.
When it comes to cooking methods, they are even more crude and crude. Most of them are stewed in advance, placed in a yellow sand bowl, placed on an iron plate, burned with hot charcoal, and then covered with an iron plate. The hot charcoal is rekindled, so the yellow sand bowl always remains boiling. With the sound of "passing the meal", the waiters quickly removed the iron plate, poured the dishes in the yellow sand bowls into the royal porcelain, fastened the silver lids, and served.
Is this dish delicious? Of course it doesn't taste good; actually, I don't eat it at all. So what to eat? Puyi said:
What I actually eat for every meal is the dishes sent by the Queen Mother. After the Queen Mother died, the four concubines took over the dishes, because the Queen Mother or the concubines had their own dining rooms and used them all. He is a senior chef and the dishes he makes are delicious. There are always about twenty kinds of dishes for each meal. This is the dish that is placed in front of me. The dishes cooked in the imperial kitchen are placed far away, just for show.
Since the Kangxi era, the small kitchen system has been prevalent. After Cixi came to power, it intensified. The imperial dining room has become like a wart, but no one has dared to abolish it. The motto passed down from the Ministry of Internal Affairs is: if there is no example, it cannot be promoted; if there is an example, it cannot be destroyed. What's more, the imperial kitchen is a proper system, not to mention that the imperial kitchen is a major source of support for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
When it comes to living, the emperors, queens and concubines all have their own plans. Theoretically, the emperor lives in the Qianqing Palace, the queen lives in the Kunning Palace, the Queen Mother lives in the Cining Palace to the west of the Yangxin Palace, the Supreme Emperor lives in the Ningshou Palace to the east of the "East Sixth Palace", and the concubines live around the Kunning Palace. The "East and West Six Palaces" are the so-called "Yeting". But this may not be the case.
Let’s talk about the emperor and empress first. The reason why Kunning Palace cannot be inhabited is as mentioned above; since Emperor Shizong, except Mu Zong, who stayed here alone because of his anger, other emperors had to die and their bodies were moved to this "normal resting place". Most of them did not stay here during their lifetimes. this. So where to live? Live in Yangxin Hall.
The Yangxin Hall is located in front of the Qianqing Palace on the right side. Since the early years of Yongzheng, it has been the emperor's bedroom and administrative place. It was renovated in the seventh year of Jiaqing. In addition to the East and West Nuan Pavilions, the Yangxin Hall has two houses at the back. The famous "Sanxi Hall" is connected to the Xi Nuan Pavilion. In addition, there are Sui'an Room, Wujuan Room, Meiwu, Nengjian Room, Youtao Room and other pavilions. The queen immediately lived in Sui'an room, opposite the emperor's palace in the east.
The six east and west palaces are where concubines and concubines live. This is a place that is admired by those who love to read palace stories. Generally speaking, the East Sixth Palace retains the legacy system of the Ming Dynasty with little change; the West Sixth Palace has quite a few changes. Let’s talk about the East Sixth Palace first.
The East Sixth Palace is divided into two rows, with three seats in each row: the first row from south to north is Jingren Palace, Chengqian Palace, and Zhongcui Palace. To the east of these three palaces, from south to north are Yanxi Palace, Yonghe Palace, Jingyang Palace. The most famous among them is Yonghe Palace, which was the residence of Concubine Tian Guifei in the late Ming Dynasty. The "Yonghe Palace Ci" written by Wumeicun is full of sadness and beauty, with a sense of prosperity and decline. Coincidentally, Longyu, the last queen of the Qing Dynasty, also lived in Yonghe Palace. After Longyu's death, Concubine Duankang moved into Yonghe Palace, and Duankang became Concubine Jin of Guangxu.
Before Longyu, Emperor Mu Zong’s aunt, Empress Dowager Ci’an, lived in Zhongcui Palace. This is the origin of the name “Empress Dowager of the East”.
The regulations of the Sixth Palace in the West were originally the same as those in the Sixth Palace in the East, but they have been changed repeatedly since the Ming Dynasty. The first row was originally Yongshou Palace, Yikun Palace, and Chuxiu Palace, and the second row was originally Yongshou Palace, Yikun Palace, and Chuxiu Palace. Qixiang Palace, Changchun Palace, Xianfu Palace. Yongshou and Xianfu palaces remain as before, while Yikun and Chuxiu, Qixiang and Changchun are both merged, and their names have also been changed.
Yikun Palace was the residence of Empress Dowager Cixi when she was a concubine, and Mu Zong was born here.
When it merged with the Chuxiu Palace, the Chuxiu Gate was demolished and the original site was rebuilt into the Tihe Palace; the Chuxiu Palace behind the palace was later the residence of Queen Xuantong Qiuhong. There are wing rooms in the east and west of the two palaces. Among them, the east wing room in the back of Yikun Palace is called Pingkang Room. I don’t know which emperor named it, but the word "Pingkang" is not mentioned, which is also strange.
After the second row of Qixiang Palace and Changchun Palace merged, Qixiang Palace was renamed Taiji Palace; Changchun Gate was demolished and Tiyuan Palace was rebuilt. The original name of Qixiang Palace is Weiyang Palace. King Shizong's father, King Xingxian of the Ming Dynasty, was born here, so it was renamed Qixiang Palace. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was the residence of Mu Zongyu's concubine
Changchun Palace was the residence of Cixi after her return to Luan. Xuantong's concubine Wenxiu lived here. The special feature of Changchun Palace is that "Dream of Red Mansions" pictures are painted around the corridor. The west wing is called Chengxi Hall, where there is a shrine of the most holy teacher, where Wenxiu studied.
Wenxiu wrote a short article called "Jingyuan Deer", which said that "wild animals do not belong to the family", Yuan Lu lost his freedom, "like a prisoner in prison, he cannot be released unless he is pardoned" ". The conclusion is: "Zhuang Zi said: It is better to live with his tail trailing in the paint than to die with bones." In the 20th year of the Republic of China, when Puyi was still in Tianjin, Wenxiu filed for divorce, which became a sensation. Social news, the results are as expected. And one of her brothers published an open letter to Wenxiu in Tianjin's "Business News", saying: "Emperor Man Yunxun did not mistreat you; even if he did mistreat you, you should endure it to the death." He also said: "I will treat you a little harshly in the palace, and I will not pretend to be polite. However, it is Xiaoxing's duty to hold the quilt and crotch." This wonderful article was also passed down for a while.
The Chonghua Palace behind Changchun Palace has been an important place in the emperor's life since Qianlong. When Yongzheng was on the throne, the princes did not have separate palaces. Gaozong granted him the title of Prince Bao and lived in Chonghua Palace after his marriage. After Gaozong came to the throne, Chonghua Palace became a "hidden residence" and was greatly decorated. There is a Chongqing Hall inside, with the inscription "Le Shan Tang" on the forehead; a collection of poems printed by Emperor Gaozong when he was the prince is called "Le Shan Tang Ji". The story of Chonghua Palace can be told by two reporters, "History of the Palace of the Kingdom":
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month of every year, the chief eunuch of Maoqin Palace, Chen Longjian, Dabi and Mohai, visited the Chonghua Palace. Only time. With the pen of "blessing the common people", more than ten pieces of blessing characters were written and hung in various palaces. Since then, a letter from the general and supervisor has arrived, and he has given it a sealed seal. On the fifteenth and sixth days, the imperial ministers and guards were summoned to the Chonghua Palace; on the twenty-sixth and seventh days, the royal ministers, inner court officials, etc. were summoned to the Qianqing Palace to give blessings.
Note: There is a ritual when summoning ministers to bestow the word "blessing": the emperor faces south and writes the word "blessing"; the recipient faces north and kneels, and when the imperial pen is first stroked, he begins to kowtow. After finishing writing, the two eunuchs moved the word "blessing" over the recipient's body and placed it on the ground to wait for the ink to dry. They called it "one body is a blessing".
Also "Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records":
In the reign of Emperor Qianlong, on the third day after New Year's Day, he appointed the king's ministers who were good at poetry to have a banquet in Chonghua Palace and perform a play. Tea, made in imitation of Bailiang, is ordered with couplets to commemorate its prosperity. When he returned to the throne, he made the royal seal and ordered all ministers to harmonize it. Later, I thought it was common courtesy.
The stage of Chonghua Palace is on the east side, with a five-couplet open hall in front of the stage called Shufangzhai. After the Xinyou coup, the curtains were hung between the two palaces, and Shufangzhai was used as the "official residence". After the emperor retired from the court, he was used to conduct business and have meals here; there was a show every month at the new moon. At that time, the two palaces were in harmony, relying on King Gong on the outside and caring for the young emperor on the inside. Although they were orphans and widows, they were prosperous. The so-called "Tongguang ZTE" was actually just the years when the two palaces were in Shufangzhai.
In addition, to the east of the East Sixth Palace is the Ningshou Palace, which was originally the residence of the Empress Dowager. It was rebuilt in the 37th year of Qianlong's reign and prepared as a residence for the emperor after returning to power. land. Cixi also lived in Ningshou Palace in her later years. The main reason is that Ningshou Palace has a three-story stage called "Changyin Pavilion", which is convenient for Cixi to "pass on operas".
Opposite to Ningshou Palace are Cining Palace to the west of Xiliu Palace, Shoukang Palace to the west of Cining Palace, and Shouan Palace after Shoukang Palace. "Palace History of the Kingdom":
The emperor respected the Holy Grandmother as the Empress Dowager, and the Holy Mother as the Empress Dowager. They lived in Cining, Shoukang, Ningshou and other palaces, and lived with them as concubines and concubines. .
The Shoukang, Shou'an and other palaces were the residences of concubines of the previous dynasties and palace dependents with titles such as "Chang Zai" and "Promise". In the palace, these people belong to a forgotten group, so calling Shoukang and Shouan the cold palaces is not far from the truth.
When it comes to business, the emperor always rides in sedans when he goes out and walks in and out. There are many kinds of sedans, from the "jade chariot" carried by sixty-four people to the soft sedan carried by two eunuchs in the palace. After all, there were not many opportunities for the emperor to leave the palace, so there is no need to elaborate; the situation of "walking" in the palace can be discussed. As Puyi recorded, it is a regulation that has been followed throughout history; no matter where the emperor went, there were dozens of people cheering in front of him and supporting him:
At the front was a eunuch from the Jingshi Room. , like a car horn, making a sound of "eat-eat-" from time to time, warning people to avoid it early. Twenty or thirty steps behind him were two eunuchs in charge, walking on both sides of the road. About ten steps behind him were the center of the procession (me or the Queen Mother). If you are riding in a sedan chair, there will be a young eunuch on both sides holding the sedan pole to accompany you. If you are walking, they will support you. Behind this, there is another eunuch holding a large umbrella. A few steps behind the umbrella, there is a large group of eunuchs holding various objects and bare hands: some are holding horses to rest at any time, and some are holding clothes to change at any time. , some holding umbrellas.
Behind these imperial eunuchs are the imperial teahouse eunuchs, holding several food boxes containing various snacks and tea. Of course, there are also hot water kettles, tea sets, etc. Behind them is the eunuch from the Imperial Pharmacy, carrying a load containing all kinds of standing medicines and first-aid medicines. The indispensable ones are rush water, chrysanthemum water, reed root water, and bamboo leaf water. , Zhu Ru Shui, in summer there must be Huoxiang Zhengqi Pills, Liuhe Dingzhong Pills, Jinyi Qushu Pill, Wanying Tablets, Sha Medicine, Biwen Powder, Sanxian Drink for digestion regardless of the four seasons, etc.
At the end is the eunuch with a toilet. If you are not riding in a sedan, the sedan will follow at the back. According to the season, sedan chairs are divided into warm sedan chairs and cool sedan chairs.