About the harem of ancient emperors, it is often mentioned that there are "seventy-two concubines in three palaces and six courtyards". On the one hand, it is pointed out that there were many concubines of ancient emperors; On the other hand, it also shows that ancient China was a society where men were superior to women. Although there are many concubines, the emperor can only get married once in his life. This is the so-called "emperor's wedding".

The emperor's wedding generally means that the emperor did not marry a suitable wife before he ascended the throne, so he held a wedding after he ascended the throne. Let's take the wedding of Guangxu as an example. According to the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor came to power after the wedding. However, Empress Dowager Cixi unilaterally postponed Guangxu's wedding again and again until she was 18 years old.

You know, ancient emperors usually got married before 15 years old. Guangxu/kloc-married at the age of 0/8, very old. In today's words, Guangxu is a "leftover man". As we all know, after the wedding, it is the wedding night. The emperor, like ordinary people, needs a bridal chamber after the wedding. What is the difference between the emperor's bridal chamber and the ordinary people's bridal chamber? .

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emperor's wedding was very grand. For example, when Emperor Guangxu got married, he spent 5.5 million taels of silver, even though the Qing Dynasty had already set the sun. The bridal chamber of the Ming and Qing emperors was located in a quiet palace on earth. The wedding is naturally impossible, but the necessary etiquette must be carried out.

After the emperor and queen sat on the bed in Longfeng Creek, the queen began to eat a kind of food called descendants crisp. The so-called children's cakes, jiaozi, must be half-baked. When the queen eats jiaozi, the maid-in-waiting next to her will ask, "Are you alive?" The queen will answer, "Are you still alive?" . This means that the queen is about to give birth to a child and the emperor's eldest son for the emperor's family.

After eating the children's sweet cake, there will be a wedding, which is roughly similar to today's "toast". Jin, an ancient gourd used to hold wine when getting married, cut a gourd into two gourds, and the bride and groom each took one to drink. Drinking the wine in the gourd symbolizes the happiness of marriage.

After all the above ceremonies are over, the emperor can enter the bridal chamber. It should be pointed out that many emperors in ancient times got married before they ascended the throne, that is to say, they could not hold a big wedding. For example, among the 10 emperors who entered the customs after the Qing Dynasty, only Shunzhi, Kangxi, Tongzhi and Guangxu were married during their reign.

References:

Full picture collection of weddings in Qing dynasty: weddings of ancient emperors

How heartless and affectionate history is, we don't forget every contribution to history, and we don't tolerate every obstacle to history. -Fan Wenlan (middle)