When discussing the emperors of the Qing Dynasty today, most readers will say: " There was no faint emperor in the Qing Dynasty !"
Indeed, among the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty, there was not a single faint emperor in the traditional sense.
Among the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty, there was Qianlong who was very successful, there was mediocre Daoguang, and there was Guangxu who was reduced to a puppet...
Only there was no faint emperor.
Even if he is the Emperor Daoguang who signed the Unequal Treaty "Nanjing Treaty" which is humiliating and humiliating the country, you can say that he is mediocre or incompetent, but you can say that he is stupid, which is really unacceptable.
In terms of personal conduct, Daoguang was by no means a coward among the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and even China, nor was he a greedy, tyrannical or lewd emperor. On the contrary, his "frugal virtue" was highly praised by historians, and he could be said to be the most eminent emperor in all dynasties. One of the frugal emperors, he was also diligent in governing the government. If we measure Daoguang according to the traditional moral standards of feudal society, Daoguang is probably a virtuous king.
The later Emperor Guangxu, although he was completely ignored by Empress Dowager Cixi from the moment he ascended the throne, he was reduced to a puppet emperor.
However, he never gave up his ambition of self-improvement. Every day he was thinking about how to revive the Qing Dynasty instead of indulging in wine and sex. He studied the ways of governing the country on time every day and reviewed the optional memorials (important memorials). All submitted to Cixi for review). After
took office, Guangxu immediately appointed reformers and began the vigorous Hundred Days Reform. It is rare in the world for a puppet emperor to be able to do what Guangxu did. He never gave up on self-improvement for decades and continued to fulfill his responsibilities as an emperor for decades.
Many people will be confused, why did the Qing Dynasty not have a faint king?
If you look at the daily work schedule of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, you can actually know the reason why the twelve emperors of the Qing Dynasty did not appear to be weak emperors.
Get up at Yinshi (3-5 o'clock)
The daily life of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty continued the habits of the Manchu before entering the customs. They went to bed early and got up early, worked at sunrise and rested at sundown.
At 3 o'clock at the earliest, the Qing emperor had to get out of his warm bed, freshen up and dress up under the service of maids and eunuchs, and wear different clothes such as formal clothes, court clothes, ordinary clothes, rain clothes or walking clothes according to the activities he would participate in later. Guanfu, wearing different clothes, such as formal dress for sacrifices, court clothes for court meetings, and then tying up braids.
It is worth mentioning that in many Qing palace dramas, there are many young palace ladies serving the emperor. In fact, this is inconsistent with historical facts.
Emperors of the Qing Dynasty most of the time did not use young palace maids, but maids aged around 40-50 years old. Most of these maids had the following characteristics: they were older, had no children at home, and were widowed.
The reason why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty did not use young palace maids was to prevent the emperor from being deceived by beauty and neglecting government affairs, so he used those old and lustful maids. History proves that this ancestral system is indeed very effective. There were lustful emperors in Qing Dynasty.
In addition, before Yongzheng , the emperors of the Qing Dynasty mostly lived in Qianqing Palace . After Yongzheng, because Yongzheng lived in Yangxin Hall for a long time, all the emperors of the Qing Dynasty after him chose to live in Yangxin Hall permanently, which became a custom.
Why did Yongzheng not want to live in the Qianqing Palace, but chose to live in the Yangxin Palace?
1. Yongzheng was afraid of seeing things and missing people. Kangxi lived in the Qianqing Palace most of the time when he was alive. Yongzheng was an emperor who was deeply influenced by Han culture. He couldn't help but have some grudges when he lived in the room where the remains were kept;
3. Living in the Yangxin Palace is much more convenient than living in the Qianqing Palace.
Yangxin Hall is located on the west side of the southern edge of the inner court area, and to the north is the West Sixth Palace (the residence of the emperor's wives and concubines, including Yongshou Palace , Yikun Palace , Chuxiu Palace , Xianfu Palace and Changchun Palace It is connected to Qixiang Palace ), and is adjacent to the Imperial Kitchen and the warehouse on the south side. Across the street to the east is the Yuehua Gate leading to the Qianqing Palace, and the three main halls of the Outer Dynasty (Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe Hall), Cining Palace (the residence of the Empress Dowager) is closely connected, making it easy to come and go.
After Yongzheng, as the power center of the Qing Dynasty, the military aircraft office was also located outside the inner right gate on the south side of Yangxin Hall, very close to it.
It can be said that it was much more convenient for the Qing Emperor to live in the Yangxin Palace than in the Qianqing Palace, whether in life or in administration.
After waking up from the Qianqing Palace or Yangxin Palace, under the service of maids and eunuchs, the Qing emperors were dressed and greeted with breakfast.
Maozheng (6 o'clock) breakfast
Before Kangxi, because the earliest time for morning court was 5 o'clock, the emperors before Kangxi did not eat breakfast in the morning, and went directly to morning court. If they were hungry, they drank a bowl of soup. Soup to fill your stomach temporarily.
After Kangxi, the time for going to court was changed to 7 to 8 o'clock, so the emperor had time to have breakfast before going to court.
Unlike us who eat breakfast, lunch and dinner today, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty had two main meals a day, breakfast at 6 am and dinner at 2 pm. If they were hungry at noon, they would ask someone to prepare some tea and snacks.
In addition, before going to bed at night, if you are hungry, you can also have some refreshments.
Similarly, regarding the issue of Qing emperors eating, there are also mistakes in today's Qing palace dramas. The most obvious mistake is that when the emperor eats, there will always be concubines or princes and princesses at the table. In fact, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty always eats alone. Eat at the table.
An ancestral dish of the Qing Dynasty, no matter whether it is morning or evening, the Qing emperor had a total of 48 dishes with vegetables and staple food at each meal, half of which were eaten by others and half of which were eaten by themselves.
Looking at food means looking at it but not eating it. For example, the "sacred meat" used for sacrifices means killing two pigs every day and cutting a plate of meat slices. Most of the time, this dish is only looked at and placed there. Just to let the emperor know that every meal should not forget the difficulties of the ancestors in starting a business.
Most of the half that the emperor ate was nutritious meat and seasonal dishes. All the dishes were no different from those used outside the palace. The only difference was that they were more refined, but the taste may not be as good as those outside the palace.
At the same time, the Qing emperors rarely ate seafood, including fish. Since the Qing emperors were Manchus, although they were sinicized after entering the customs, their diet still retained strong characteristics outside the customs. They liked to eat game, such as venison and roe deer. Meat, pheasant , wild duck and so on.
The majority of livestock meat is mutton, followed by beef and very little pork. Among poultry, duck meat is the most popular, followed by goose meat, and then chicken meat.
Of course, there was one Qing emperor who was an exception when it came to eating, and that was Daoguang.
As a rare frugal emperor in the feudal era, Daoguang ignored any ancestral rules during his reign and ordered that each meal should not exceed four dishes, and sometimes even only a bowl of tofu and roasted pork liver.
Although the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was the most respected person, he also had many rules on eating. Because it was an ancestral system, they did not dare to resist and could only obey obediently.
Every time he ate, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty would have eunuchs serving the meal. In addition to helping the emperor pick up dishes, these eunuchs also had another task, that is, once the emperor picked up a certain dish twice, he had to remove it immediately. The emperor must not be allowed to be gluttonous.
The reason why the emperor of the Qing Dynasty established such an organization was that he was afraid that the emperor would be poisoned. After all, if someone knew that the emperor particularly liked a dish, then as long as someone with ulterior motives tampered with the dish, the emperor would be in danger;
The second is to prevent the emperor from being gluttonous. Eating too much can easily harm the body. The emperor's health is related to the country and the country.
Because the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty strictly controlled the emperor's meals, young emperors often did not have enough to eat.
Puyi He said in "My First Half of Life": I was so hungry that I grabbed something to eat in the eunuch's room. I grabbed an elbow and stuffed it into my mouth desperately.
In addition, the recipes of the Qing Dynasty emperors were basically fixed and passed down from generation to generation. There were basically 47 kinds of staple food, 47 kinds of hot pots, 59 kinds of hot dishes, 26 kinds of soups, and the cooking methods were basically the same.
Like this, if the emperor gets tired of eating, he can only order a la carte.
It is said that "he who rules the world eats the world." In many people's minds, the emperor must be omnipotent. He can do whatever he wants, eat whatever he wants, and he can get everything in the world. In fact, this is not necessarily the case. .
Emperor Daoguang once wanted to order a dish called " noodle soup ", but he didn't eat it.
Daoguang told the Ministry of Internal Affairs that he wanted to order "noodle soup". The Ministry of Internal Affairs replied that if Daoguang wanted to eat noodle soup, he would first have to build a special noodle soup stove in the imperial dining room, which would cost 60,000 silver. Two, and then hiring a chef who specializes in making soup will cost 15,000 taels, and the combined silver will cost at least nearly 80,000 taels.
As one of the most "stingy" emperors, when he heard that it was so expensive, he said that it didn't take so much trouble and just ordered the eunuch to go to the restaurant outside Qianmen to buy a large bowl for 40 Wen. Unexpectedly, the eunuch did not buy it, but said that the restaurant selling noodle soup was closed. I don’t know if
is closed or not, but Daoguang definitely didn’t have any noodle soup to eat. If he wanted to eat it, he could only spend a lot of money to ask the chef to make it in the imperial kitchen. But for Daoguang, it was really distressing to spend this money, so Daoguang was doomed. Can't eat the sliced soup.
Daoguang had no temper for this, and could only sigh to the sky: "I have never wasted money on the food and drink, but I am the emperor, and it is sad that I can't get even a soup of food."
Nowadays, when it comes to the Qing Dynasty palace drama, when it comes to the morning dynasty, the emperor sits in the main hall of Qianqing Palace, and then discusses state affairs with the important ministers of the court.
However, in fact, the interpretations in movies and TV dramas are all wrong. They are just a joke. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty did not go to Qianqing Palace in the early morning, but went somewhere else.
The emperor of the Qing Dynasty had a professional term in his early dynasty - imperial gate to listen to politics.
The original location of the "Imperial Gate to Listen to Government" in the Qing Dynasty was at the Taihe Gate (the largest palace gate in the Forbidden City and the main entrance to the palace of the outer court).
However, because Taihe Gate was far away from the Qianqing Palace where several emperors lived in the early Qing Dynasty, it was time-consuming and inconvenient to go back and forth. Therefore, during the Kangxi period, it was changed to Qianqing Gate (the main gate of the inner court of the Forbidden City, behind which is the Imperial Palace). The queen's bedroom, as well as the living areas for concubines, princes and princesses) can only be customized.
Therefore, the imperial gate listens to the government, also known as the "Qianqing gate listens to the government."
In the beginning, the time when the imperial government began was Mao hour, that is, from 5 to 7 in the morning.
For ministers, they come out from home, either on horseback, in a sedan chair, or on foot, to gather outside Meridian Gate to wait for the call, and then walk to Qianqing Gate. The fastest distance between home and Forbidden City is more than 2 kilometers. Hours, if it's far away, more than 3 hours is normal.
In other words, if officials want to arrive at Qianqing Gate on time, they have to get up at 3 o'clock at the latest. Otherwise, it is absolutely impossible to arrive at Qianqing Gate for the morning court. In the feudal era, it was a serious crime to be late for the morning court.
Getting up at two or three o'clock is fine if it's summer, but it's very painful in winter. On cold days, you have to get up at two or three o'clock, which is a torture for young officials, let alone elderly officials.
In this way, Kangxi, who was very considerate of his courtiers, could not bear to have his courtiers be so burdened, so he issued a very humane edict:
"It is too early for me to go to court, and all the officials rush to the court meeting on the four or five drums. It is a special service." Since then, the imperial court has been conducting daily affairs, and the time for going to court in spring and summer will be at the beginning of the day, and in autumn and winter at the beginning of the day. "
" means that starting from today, the time for going to court in spring and summer will be postponed by one hour, and will be changed to 7 o'clock. In autumn and winter, the morning court time will be extended to two hours and changed to 8 o'clock. Since then, the time for Yumen to listen to politics has been determined to be between 7 and 8 o'clock.
Of course, although the time has been postponed, it is still a "hard job" to listen to politics in Qianqingmen. Listening to the government in the open doorway, summer is okay, at most it is a little hot, and it will be over after a while, but winter is very difficult.
In winter, dripping water turned into ice. The emperor was sitting in the cave and was blown by the cold wind. Although a curtain was pulled up behind the throne to resist the cold wind, and two charcoal fire boxes were placed in front, it was still cold. , the charcoal fire box and the cloth curtain are of no use at all.
At that time, in order to prevent the ink used by the emperor from freezing, the Ministry of Internal Affairs specially made a warm inkstone for the emperor. Under the inkstone was a cloisonné iron box. Boiling water was poured into the inkstone to heat the inkstone to prevent the ink from freezing and preventing the pen from being opened.
After talking about these things about going to court, many people must have this question:
When the emperor of the Qing Dynasty went to the morning court, did he speak Manchu or Chinese?
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty was a country established by ethnic minorities. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty was a Manchu, and the vast majority of the ministers of the Qing Dynasty were Manchu and Han.
In the early Qing Dynasty, because most of the court officials who were qualified to go to court were Manchus, in the early days, the Qing emperors spoke Manchu when they went to court, and the few Han officials who were qualified to go to court also had to learn to speak Manchu.
After Shunzhi entered the customs, as Han officials gradually occupied the majority in the court, and the Qing Dynasty had to actively integrate into Chinese culture if it wanted to rule the majority with a minority, so Chinese gradually became the exclusive language for the Qing emperors to go to court.
Until the Yongzheng Dynasty, most of the people in the Qing Dynasty spoke Chinese. Only when summoned in private would the emperor serve food to people. If he needed to speak Manchu, he would speak Manchu, and if he needed to speak Chinese, he would speak Chinese. Mainly It is decided based on the official’s identity and the content of the performance.
Due to the needs of governance, since Shunzhi entered the customs, every emperor of the Qing Dynasty needs to master both Manchu and Chinese languages. Every prince in the Qing Dynasty received both Manchu and Han education since childhood, with both Manchu and Han masters.
The Manchu masters mainly teach Manchu language and martial arts, riding and archery, while the Han masters teach Chinese language and cultural classes.
I would like to mention here that the education of princes in the Qing Dynasty was the strictest in the feudal era of China. The education system of princes in the Qing Dynasty had the following salient features:
1. The age of admission is early, and princes must enter the Shangshufang (Part 1) at the age of six. Study);
2. The class time is early. The prince must appear in the study on time at 3-5 o'clock every day and start reading early;
3. There is a lot of learning content. In addition to Confucian classics, he also has to learn Chinese , Mongolian, Manchu, riding and shooting, music, chess, calligraphy and painting, etc.;
4. Strict requirements. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty would make surprise inspections of the prince's learning at any time. If he failed, he would be reprimanded or punished.
As Qing Dynasty Zhao Yi said: "The strictness of family law in this dynasty, that is, the matter of princes studying, has been unprecedented through the ages."
The reason why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty could not become emperors was because they had received strict education since childhood. ,
Strict education, although it cannot completely guarantee that every generation of Qing emperors will be very capable, it can basically ensure the lower limit of the emperor's ability, that is, at least not faint, able to handle government affairs normally, and be a conservative king.
After the imperial court was over, the next thing to greet the Qing emperor was study.
The emperor of the Qing Dynasty can be said to be the hardest-working emperor in the feudal era.
Before becoming an emperor, as a prince, he had to get up early and study late at night every day. After becoming an emperor, he still could not relax and continue to study. This is called "Jing Feng Ri Lecture".
Since Kangxi, the Qing emperors have selected ministers to give lectures on Han Confucian classics every day. Every few months, a grand ceremony will be held to exchange lectures.
Even after becoming an emperor, he had to take time out to study every day. It is no wonder that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty did not appear to be stupid emperors who acted recklessly and ignored political affairs.
At Sisi (9-11 o'clock), the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager greet each other.
Go to the elders to say hello. This is a must-do task for the Qing Dynasty emperors every day. Sometimes they have to go to say hello twice a day.
If we talk about ability, there may be many emperors of the Qing Dynasty who are not as good as those of other dynasties, but if we talk about filial piety, there are few emperors in the past dynasties who can compare with the emperors of the Qing Dynasty.
For example, Emperor Kangxi would always accompany his grandmother Xiaozhuang the Empress Dowager out, no matter in a car or sedan, or in sunny or rainy days, whenever the mountain road was rugged or muddy, Kangxi would definitely come down and personally support the Xiaozhuang axle. 's carriage or sedan poles travel.
At the same time, Kangxi also cared deeply about his aunt, the Empress Dowager Xiaohui. From personal life to the selection of people to carry the sedan chair, Kangxi did everything personally.
Another example is Qianlong. Qianlong always obeyed the words of his mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing. Once Chongqing accidentally mentioned to people around him that there was an abandoned temple in the east of Shuntian Prefecture that should be rebuilt. After Qianlong learned of this, he immediately sent people to allocate funds for repairs, and warned the eunuchs around the Queen Mother that they should see things in advance in the future and should not let the Queen Mother bother to make appointments.
In addition, Qianlong had four southern tours, four eastward tours, three tours to Wutai, two visits to Shengjing, one tour to Zhongzhou, visits to Dongling, and hunting magnolias, all accompanied by Empress Dowager Chongqing, who was inseparable. Be filial by your side at all times. Every year on the birthday of the Empress Dowager Chongqing, Qianlong would personally lead the princes and ministers to celebrate. The sixtieth, seventieth and eighty celebrations were more grand each time.
Wei Zheng (14 o'clock)Dinner meal
Dinner meal is roughly the same as breakfast meal. There is no big difference. The only difference may be that the food on the table is different from breakfast meal.
It is worth mentioning that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty also had the tradition of having New Year's Eve dinner, that is, there would be a different dinner on New Year's Eve. Due to the need to prepare for the New Year's Eve dinner, the New Year's Eve dinner will be postponed to Zhengshen time (16:00).
The New Year's Eve dinner in the Qing Dynasty was held in the Baohe Hall or the Qianqing Palace. The emperor had one table per person. A long table was placed between the table and the emperor's throne. The emperor's dishes were placed on the table. The emperor's meal was served by the eunuch Put the dishes on the long table for the emperor to eat.
Most of the food on the New Year's Eve dinner in the Qing Dynasty was traditional Manchu food, and most of the ingredients used were produced in the Northeast, the ancestral homeland of the Qing Dynasty, such as Guandong goose, wild boar, deer tail, venison, pheasant, etc.
In addition to the emperor's table, there will also be the queen mother, concubines, princes and princesses accompanying the emperor to eat New Year's Eve dinner.
Compared with the emperor's table of 63 hot and cold dishes, these people's tables had much fewer dishes. For example, during the Qianlong Dynasty, there were only 24 hot and cold dishes. Although there were additions and subtractions at other times, the difference was almost the same, that is, more than 20 dishes.
After the banquet begins, the serving eunuch will first serve soup and rice to the emperor in pairs of boxes. The emperor has two pairs of boxes. The left pair contains bird's nest red and white duck kidney soup and japonica rice dry rice, and the right pair contains bird's nest and duck kidney. Soup, duck tofu soup .
Then, the serving eunuch will deliver soup and rice to the concubines according to their rank. The concubines will use a pair of boxes, containing japonica rice and mutton and egg powder soup. After the banquet, there is also a banquet, where you drink while watching the performance. In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's wine and dinner table was divided into 5 routes with a total of 40 dishes, while the concubines' wine and meal table was reduced to 15 dishes.
After the banquet, fruit tea will be served, and then the New Year's Eve dinner will be over.
Shenshi (15-17 o'clock) Administration, reading, and entertainment
After dinner, the emperor could arrange the rest of the time by himself, including reviewing memorials, reading, and entertainment.
Because of different hobbies, the Qing emperors did different things at this point.
For example, Kangxi liked to read at this point: "In my spare time from listening to politics, I read classics in the palace. I feel that the meaning is endless and I never tire of it." Kangxi once said to the people around him, you only know that I am rich in knowledge. But I don’t know how much effort I put into it. After going to court, I spent almost all my free time reading and studying.
For example, Yongzheng was a famously diligent emperor in history, comparable to Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, who was known as a workaholic. After coming to court, in addition to greetings and meals, Yongzheng spent most of his time working and reviewing memorials.
During the Yongzheng period, in order to strengthen the imperial power, Yongzheng expanded the number of people allowed to go to the secret book in the Kangxi Dynasty from more than 130 to more than 1,000. In this way, the number of memorials he had to review every day ranged from twenty-three to fifty or sixty. For these In terms of secrets, Yongzheng never relied on others. He always did it himself and reviewed it himself.
What is even more admirable is that when Yongzheng reviewed the Mi Zhe, he didn't just look at it and comment on a few words. He read it word by word. Sometimes the comments were more than the Mi Zhe's own words. Sometimes As many as hundreds or thousands of words.
Another example is Qianlong. After the foundation of the prosperous age laid by Kangxi and Yongzheng, Qianlong, who had a full treasury, paid more attention to entertainment in his spare time, writing, painting, doing Buddhist services, watching theater, fishing, hunting, and raising dogs. His life was extremely comfortable. Kangxi and Yongzheng were much more comfortable.
Go to bed at Xuchu (20 o'clock)
Emperors of the Qing Dynasty liked to go to bed early and get up early, so it was almost time to go to bed at 20 o'clock. Of course, a workaholic like Yongzheng often stayed up all night to review memorials, but most emperors of the Qing Dynasty were at this time Go to bed.
According to custom, after the Qing emperor finished his dinner, the eunuch in the Jingshi room would bring a tray with the names of many concubines for the emperor to choose.
If the emperor is interested, he can choose a concubine to go to Wushan with him before going to bed. If not, he simply refuses to turn over the cards, and then sleeps directly in Yangxin Hall around 20 o'clock.
After the emperor chooses a concubine, around 20 o'clock, the eunuch in the respect room will send the concubine to the emperor's palace to sleep.
The above is a day in the life of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It can be seen from this that it is not unreasonable for the Qing Dynasty not to have a weak emperor. After all, a dynasty that attaches so much importance to the education of princes and pays great attention to filial piety will not be far behind in the emperors it cultivates.
