In many Chinese historical films, people often portray a small palace maid who receives the emperor's favor and gradually climbs to a noble position in the harem.
This “one-step-to-heaven” path, although difficult, was the dream of many concubines and beauties in the palace. However, in reality, in feudal history, most concubines were afraid of the emperor favoring them. Why was that?
According to Sohu, the reason why the palace maids did not want to be noticed by the emperor was because of 3 reasons.
Despite having the chance to change their lives, the palace maids did not want to be noticed by the emperor. (Photo: Sohu)
First , the distance between the palace maids and the emperor was too far. Not every palace maid had the opportunity to serve the emperor closely. The residences of the palace maids were often arranged very far from the emperor's palace. Therefore, the opportunities to meet the emperor were few, so the possibility of becoming his woman was even rarer.
Second , they want to avoid a tragic fate. A palace maid who is lucky enough to be favored by the emperor, or even give birth to the emperor's child, may not necessarily change her fate. Especially for palace maids of low birth and without support.
History books have recorded that after being favored by the emperor, palace maids disappeared or were tortured to death. There were also many exceptions for those who were pregnant, they were not allowed to approach or raise their children. Instead, they had to bury their youth in solitude.
The palace maids who did not conceive had to continue working amid the jealousy and ostracism of others. When they were old, they returned home to loneliness and sadness because no normal man dared to love them, to avoid offending the king. In more painful cases, they could be buried with the emperor when he died or had to become monks. If they were lucky enough not to be buried, they could only stay at the Buddhist temple to pray for the emperor until they died.
Being favored by the emperor made the palace maids live in jealousy and boycott. (Photo: Sohu)
Third , the palace maids held a grudge against the emperor. Palace maids were not an easy position in the palace. They had to do everything from light to heavy work, every day they had to do a huge amount of work and were almost always mistreated. Palace maids had to do all the extremely hard work day and night, sometimes without even having time to eat. The work was hard but the master's requirements were too high. No matter how hard they worked, it was difficult to satisfy their master, so gradually they developed a feeling of resentment.
A typical example is the near assassination of Emperor Ming Shizong (Jiajing era) by a group of palace maids. According to historical records, the reason for the reckless actions of these palace maids came from the terrible mistreatment of Emperor Ming Shizong.
This emperor wanted to make an elixir of immortality by adding menstrual blood from his female servants to the medicine. Emperor Ming Shizong forced his female servants to not eat rice and only drink dew. Many of them lost their lives because of the emperor's wishes. Therefore, they gathered and assassinated the emperor.
Quoc Thai (Source: Sohu)
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