How did Emperor Qianlong spend the rest of his time except approving the memorial?
At four o'clock in the morning: the queen sacrificed to heaven, and the emperor didn't get up for half a day. Music from the Palace of Kunning tore open the silence that enveloped the Forbidden City. There was a song in the music, which was faintly mixed with the cry of pigs.
The pilgrimage to Kunning Palace starts at 4 o'clock every morning. The ceremony was shamanistic, offering sacrifices to Liu Ye, lord protector in the Qing Dynasty, as well as to Sakyamuni Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva and Guan Shengdi, the Han people in Shanhaiguan Pass. In the holy joy, the cook's eunuch has prepared two pigs. The queen is the chief priest, and the emperor may come to worship in person. In the Ming Dynasty, the Palace of Kunning was the residence of the empress. After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the system of offering sacrifices to gods in Qingning Palace, the harem of Shengjing in Shenyang, was moved to Kunning Palace.
The pigs used to sacrifice to the gods must be all black and full of fat. The pig's hoof and mouth were tied with hemp rope, and the shaman shaman knelt down to hold the pig and poured water into its ear. If the pig's ears shake, it is a good sign that God has accepted the sacrifice. If they don't move, they will continue to irrigate. They always change pigs. Both pigs had good omen, so they slaughtered and bled in the main hall of Kunning Palace, burned their hair into pieces and cooked it in two cauldrons. It is said that cook the meat's soup was also scooped out from the pot in the Qingning Palace in Shengjing.
Boil the pig until it is 70-80% mature, take it out and cut several plates of meat, and put the rest of the meat and pig's feet into a basin for god. God is happy, and Mrs. Shaman is singing and dancing. The courtiers of Empress Dowager Cixi who attended the sacrificial ceremony wanted to share half-cooked and salt-free meat slices-from killing pigs to cooking in Boiling Meat, it took less than an hour and a half, and the meat was not easy to swallow, but it was to commemorate the hunting and picnic of Manchu ancestors.
Sacrifice to God twice in the morning and evening, day after day. Smoky and dusty, the main hall of Kunning Palace is like a big kitchen in the northeast style.
At 4 o'clock in the morning, there was movement in hall of mental cultivation's back bedroom, and Emperor Qianlong was about to get up. As soon as there is a light in the room, the eunuchs and maids on duty have to cheer up and prepare to serve.
The name Yangxintang, from Mencius, is nothing more than lust.
Before Yong Zhengdi, the Gan Qing Palace on the central axis of the Forbidden City was the emperor's bedroom, and it has been like this since the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty took Nuange as his bedroom, with nine rooms and twenty-seven beds. He randomly chooses a bed to rest every night. There is no fixed quantity, probably for safety reasons. However, the Jiajing Palace changed: two concubines conspired with more than a dozen maids to assassinate the emperor in Gan Qing Palace.
No one knows why Yongzheng moved his bedroom to hall of mental cultivation, but since then, eight emperors have lived and ruled here.
The maid folded the quilt for the emperor, served him with hot water in a silver basin to wash his face, and then combed the eunuch's head with Huang Yunlong satin, and came in quietly and entered the palace. The emperor combs his hair, braids his hair and shaves every day.
People in the kitchen on the south side of Yangxintang are already as busy as a bee, waiting to deliver meals. Where there is an emperor, there is imperial food. Sometimes Ganlong leaves Xihuamen early in the morning and goes to Tongyuxuan in Xiyuan for dinner. Xiyuan is called Zhongnanhai today, and Yuxuan is next to Bao Yue Building, which is today's xinhua gate.
The emperor dressed neatly, walked out of the bedroom, and went to the Nuange in the east-more than one hundred years later, the Empress Dowager of Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties lived here for 27 years. The emperor's dresses are managed by four warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-four warehouses: crowns, robes, belts and shoes. What the emperor wore every day was recorded in the Palace Dress, which, together with many other court files, became the evidence that Qing historians restored court life many years later.
The Imperial Chef is a big institution in the palace, with 370 chefs. There are more than 100 stoves in the room, all numbered, and each stove is equipped with one person to cook, side dish and do odd jobs. In this way, almost every link of every dish in the imperial cuisine can be clearly blamed on people, whether it is reward or punishment, there is a landing.
The names of the meals used by the emperor every day are recorded in detail by the chef, delineated by the Minister of the Interior, and written into a book every month, which is called the bottom file of meals. However, the tastes and preferences of the emperor and queen are taboo in the palace, and you must never ask, let alone write. Imperial meals are often served with dozens or hundreds of dishes, mostly for safety reasons, which makes it difficult to analyze the dietary preferences of emperors and queens even from the accumulated data.
Imperial rice was served, the emperor sat down, and the eunuch who served the rice stared at the emperor's eyes. When the emperor saw which dish it was, he quickly moved to the front of the emperor and spoon it into the cloth dish in front of the emperor. The emperor was right, scooped it again, then immediately withdrew the vegetables and never scooped it again. This is the method of clearing the palace. The emperor should be careful not to be insatiable and avoid poisoning.
Qianlong ate quickly, about a quarter of an hour, then pushed open the tableware and got up.
Working hours: I know how to be a courtier properly. After breakfast in the palace every day, you must read a volume of Memoirs of the First Emperor and Preaching, and a volume of Memoirs every day. I will never forget the traces of starting a business. He used the most energetic moment of the day to read the records of his ancestors, because for every generation of emperors, the law and discipline of their ancestors were the ideological resources and spiritual guidance for governing the country.
Read the Hadith in Gan Qing Palace NuanGe, or in hall of mental cultivation NuanGe and Hongde Hall. During the Qianlong period, Gan Qing Palace was the showroom of the old residence of the Qing Dynasty, especially Emperor Kangxi. It contained the records of Mao Nuerhachi and the old books of Shengjing, which recorded the wars waged by Nuerhachi again and again.
The memorial of this day has been waiting for the emperor to read it. The memorial is a secret musical instrument, which can be directly played by the original player to the emperor without bureaucratic barriers.
Commemorative system began with Emperor Kangxi. In order to grasp the first-hand grass-roots political situation, he asked some trusted officials to attach the emperor's compromise and secret performance to the detected provincial events in addition to their daily official documents. After Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, he knew that secret folding was fast and efficient in transmitting information, which expanded the scope of use of secret folding.
According to "Tian Wen Zhi" written by Zhen Jun, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, every night, six officials saluted and tortured soldiers, and one official from each department went outside the East Gate. They followed the staff on duty of the Foreign Affairs Office into the Forbidden City and went to the Jingyunmen duty room on the east side of Ganqingmen Square, where they handed over the boxes with memorials and the printed materials of their respective government offices to the staff on duty for registration. According to the priority of the folded contents, the performance officials sorted them out and sent them to the infield office of Gan Qing Gate, and then the imperial envoys or eunuchs in the infield office sent them to the emperor. The receiving time of Nellie Office shall not exceed two o'clock in the morning.
Apart from going through the yamen in Beijing, the memorials from other provinces are equivalent to being sent to the palace by Beijing Office messengers today, and some are sent to Beijing through the postal system, sent to the good news office of the Ministry of War, and then sent to Ganqingmen by the secretary of the Ministry of War. If the commemorative courier indicates that it will be delivered immediately, it is required to walk 300 miles a day. If it is more urgent, you can ask to drive 400, 500 or even 600 miles a day.
After the door was cleared, the clerk would not leave after delivering the memorial, because the memorial sent to the emperor for examination would be handed out one after another from 3 am. If the white gauze lamp that wiped the stone fence at the gate is moved up the steps, Zhu Pi's memorial will come out soon, and the clerks in various departments and hospitals will take back their units. The memorial of Zhu Pi personally instructed by the emperor has legal and administrative effects. During the Yongzheng period, it was stipulated that the memorials approved by the emperor must be returned to the palace for safekeeping. After the establishment of the military department, Zhu Pi's memorial must first be copied by the military department, which is called a deputy record. Palace memorials and the return of military manuscripts have become important files in Qing history today. For example, the memorial archives of the Qianlong Palace are now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the memorial archives of the Military Department are in the China No.1 Historical Archives on the west wall of the Forbidden City.
The content of Zhu Pi may be a serious political admonition, and more often it is just a simple understanding and enjoyment. The National Palace Museum in Taipei learned about Yongzheng Zhu Pi and made it into a tape, which became the most popular museum souvenir for tourists. Before the emperor, the people who wrote the memorial claimed to be different from the Han people: those who claimed to be slaves must be ministers of banners, and Han officials can only be princes. There are also Han officials who are willing to befriend. The National Palace Museum in Taipei has a copy of Yang Zongren, governor of Huguang during Yongzheng period, in which Yang claimed to be a slave. Yongzheng carefully crossed out the slave with a brush, wrote a courtier beside him, and gave instructions: be a courtier.
New Year's Day: After the breakfast in the three halls finally came in handy, Qianlong spent the whole morning dealing with the government affairs that the emperor faced every day. The administration of the Qing emperor was mainly to examine the memorial and summon officials in the palace every day. If the emperor can't make up his mind for the time being, he will convene a meeting of officials from all sides in the form of listening to politics the next day. On the one hand, he will consult officials of relevant ministries and hospitals to obtain more specific information, and on the other hand, he will demonstrate and deal with the think tanks in the palace.
In hall of mental cultivation, Qin Qinxian Temple was approved all morning, and Qianlong remembered that there were still a group of middle and lower-level officials waiting for him to meet. The Qing Dynasty stipulated that the appointment, promotion, transfer and punishment of officials below grade four and above grade seven, as well as some officials below grade eight who were not even in the inflow area, were witnessed by the emperor and inspected in person. The background and resume of the officials have been investigated by the relevant departments and written into the introduction document. When the emperor introduced them, he looked at these personnel materials, talked, formed judgments and made decisions. When Ganlong was introduced to officials, he lived in the center of hall of mental cultivation's front hall. After the official saw it, it was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon, and it was time to eat.
The emperor has two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. After dinner, Gan Long takes a short rest, then he will read some official documents or summon relevant dignitaries. By four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the day's government affairs have come to an end. In today's Forbidden City, the three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe, which belong to foreign dynasties, have gathered the most tourists because of their huge volume and magnificent momentum. But in a palace like the Forbidden City, these places are only used for festivals and important celebrations, such as New Year's Day.
When China doesn't use Western calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the Lunar New Year. The emperor usually ends on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, and the ceremony of the first day of the New Year begins at 0: 00 on the first day of the New Year. The emperor got up, first made incense and saluted everywhere in hall of mental cultivation, and then opened a pen instrument in Dongnuange. On the console table, there is an European cup filled with Tu Su wine and a brush engraved with the words "evergreen tree". The emperor used Zhu pen first, then changed ink pen, wrote some auspicious words and prayed for blessings in the coming year.
Then the emperor went to the temple in the Qing Dynasty to offer sacrifices to the imperial court. After the sacrifice, the emperor and queen went to the Kunning Palace to offer sacrifices to the gods and eat meat with their ministers. After that, the emperor went to Fengxian Temple to worship his ancestors, and then led his ministers to Cining Palace to pay tribute to the Empress Dowager. At dawn, the emperor rose to the hall of supreme harmony with the sound of being neutral and having less fun, and accepted the New Year greetings from officials of civil and military affairs in the hall. This is called the Great Dynasty. At eight or nine o'clock in the morning, when the Great Dynasty was over, the emperor went to the Imperial Palace to do the Qing Palace and received gifts from his family.
In fact, since Yongzheng, the emperor has rarely lived in the Forbidden City, but in the Yuanmingyuan in the western suburbs of Beijing. Emperor Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng all spent the New Year in the Forbidden City and moved back to Yuanmingyuan before the 15th day of the first month. Empress Dowager, Empress, Prince, Princess and other family members also moved into the garden. Wait until winter, and then move back to the palace from Yuanmingyuan. Moving twice a year was called a big move at that time.
Palace drama is also an important part of festivals. Love drama, and all kinds of major festivals and court celebrations will be staged. Historian Jane Bozan calculated in his Examination of the Palace Drama in Qing Dynasty that there were about 3,000 people in two palace troupes in Jingshan, Fu Nan during the Qianlong period.
Yang Zongren, governor of Huguang, claimed to be a slave, and Yongzheng Zhu approved him as a servant.
Leisure, palace worship: before going to bed, the eunuch came to urge. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the off-duty Emperor Qianlong entered Sanxi Hall from the small door on the west side of his office, namely the diligent Qinxian Hall. This is a small room on the west side of hall of mental cultivation, Qian Dian, where Gan Long enjoys his favorite calligraphy and painting tools alone. Sanxi is his three most cherished books, namely, Sunny in the Snow by Wang Xizhi, Mid-Autumn Festival by Wang Xizhi and Yuan Bo by Wang Xizhi.
In the early years of Qianlong, there were more than 10,000 paintings and calligraphy in the Neifu collection. Qianlong ordered the minister to carefully identify these paintings and calligraphy, select the best products and catalogue them, which is called "Shiqu Treasure Land", with a total of 45 volumes. The name of Shiqu comes from Shiqu Pavilion in the court library of Han Dynasty. "Shiqu Baodi" is arranged according to the place where paintings and calligraphy works are collected and displayed, that is, the temples in the palace. According to Baodi's records, the places with the most calligraphy and painting are Gan Qing Palace, hall of mental cultivation, Sanxi Hall, Zhonghua Palace, Imperial Study, Yuanmingyuan and Summer Resort. Gan Long likes painting and calligraphy. In addition to appreciating ancient paintings, he often goes to the Ruyi Pavilion of the General Hospital of the Fifth Academy in the east of the Imperial Garden to watch court painters paint. The source of the antique collection of Qing palace paintings and calligraphy is first of all tribute. In all parts of the world, whether it is the land of emperors or not, officials and officials of various countries will make contributions on holidays or long live birthdays. The second is the confiscation of goods. When ministers or civilians break the law, the emperor has the right to confiscate their private property. Then the emperor paid for it.
Sanxi Hall is divided into two rooms inside and outside, each of which is only about four square meters. The outer room under the window is the real Sanxi Hall, and the inner room is the rest room. After a busy day, I stepped into Sanxi Hall, sat on the kang in front of the window, pondered over antique calligraphy and painting, and tried to figure out the meaning of the ancients, so as to get carried away. The Forbidden City is as big as Sanxi Hall, but it is the broadest spiritual space for Emperor Qianlong. After 7 o'clock in the evening, you can eat midnight snack or drink, then twist beads to chant Buddhist scripture. It's time to take a bath and sleep.
The private life of the emperor is still a good topic for discussion in the general market today. However, due to the hidden rules of Confucianism, there are no words about Ganlong's private life in all official court files. Real scholars of Qing history can only try to analyze and piece together their own understanding of historical facts with fragmentary information such as indirect historical materials and folk sayings. There are naturally different versions of this understanding.
Yuan Hongqi, a retired research librarian of the Palace Museum and an expert in court history, wrote in Daily Life of the Qing Emperor: Usually, the emperor can't spend the night in the palace of concubines, so if he wants to let any concubines sleep, he can only call them to the emperor's bedroom. Who is lucky at night depends on the emperor's flop at dinner. Empresses and concubines each have a green card. As early as in the female manuscript, it is necessary to select women and write their surnames on bamboo slips for the emperor to choose. The head of the bamboo stick brand is dyed with green paint, hence the name green head brand. The so-called lucky princess didn't go back to her bedroom that night, but she couldn't stay with the emperor all night, but slept in another NuanGe. Wu Weiguo, director of the Cultural and Cultural Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, described in his book "A Day in Qianlong" that before Emperor Qianlong went to bed, the eunuch presented a lucky book, in which the concubines who were sick or in physiological period had been crossed out, and the rest were selected by the emperor. Qianlong gestured on the roster with his fingers, and then the eunuch went straight to the harem and carried the chosen concubine to the front of the imperial couch. Palace rules, low-level concubines must leave within a certain period of time, when the eunuch will loudly remind outside the window, repeatedly urged, which is undoubtedly very disappointing.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, it is the time for the emperor to go to bed. Early to bed and early to rise is the family motto of cleaning the room, in order to absorb the righteousness of heaven and earth. At noon, a new day will begin. The emperor was already in a dream, and six clerks who sent the memorial arrived at Donghuamen, waiting to open the door. The shaman lady who made a pilgrimage to Kunning Palace has entered the Shenwumen in a donkey cart.