The life of an emperor in the minds of modern people is, of course, "sleeping until he wakes up naturally and counting money until his hands cramp." In fact, this is impossible. Today we will take Emperor Qianlong as an example to see how he spent his day.
"Notes on the Daily Life of Emperor Qianlong" relatively completely records the daily life of Emperor Qianlong. On the eighth day of the first lunar month in the 30th year of Qianlong's reign (1765), "Notes on the Daily Life of Emperor Qianlong" recorded that at about 4 o'clock in the morning, "Yangxin Hall asked you to come and change clothes." This means that Emperor Qianlong at 4 o'clock It's time to get up.
When the lights appeared in Emperor Qianlong's palace, the eunuchs and maids on duty had to cheer up and come in to help Emperor Qianlong change his clothes.
After Emperor Qianlong finished changing his clothes, the first thing he did was to go to Kunning Palace to perform a ritual ceremony.
Kunning Palace is located behind Jiaotai Hall, where large and small sacrificial activities are held every day. On the days of big sacrifices and on the first and fifteenth day of each month, the emperor and empress would go to battle together to worship the gods in person.
At around 5 o'clock when the imperial sacrifice ended, Emperor Qianlong drank a bowl of bird's nest stewed with rock sugar. This is a snack before breakfast. At 6 o'clock, Emperor Qianlong passed down breakfast. Generally speaking, wherever Emperor Qianlong is, the imperial meal will be passed on. However, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Qianlong was in a good mood. He left Xihuamen early in the morning and came to Tongyuxuan in Xiyuan (today's Zhongnanhai) to have breakfast.
What should Emperor Qianlong do after breakfast? He would come to the West Nuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace to read the Hadith. What is the Hadith? This is the emperor's edict and words to warn his subordinates. After a new emperor ascends the throne, he often orders someone to compile the "Hadith" of the previous emperor as his own policy for governing the country. The "Sacred Instructions" that Emperor Qianlong read was the "Sacred Instructions of Emperor Sejongxian" by Emperor Yongzheng.
After reading "Hadith", Emperor Qianlong came to Jianfu Palace at about 7 o'clock, took a short rest, and then came to Chonghua Palace.
Chonghua Palace is inconspicuous among the buildings in the Forbidden City, but it has extremely special significance for Emperor Qianlong.
Back then, when Emperor Qianlong was still Prince Bao, he lived in Chonghua Palace. There he left his daily belongings from his teenage years. More importantly, after Prince Bao married the Fucha family, they also lived in Chonghua Palace and spent a loving and sweet life. In 1748, the Fucha family unfortunately passed away. Emperor Qianlong was heartbroken and arranged the Chonghua Palace according to the original appearance of the room where he and the Fucha family lived together. He often came to Chonghua Palace to miss the good times.
On this day, Emperor Qianlong held a tea banquet in Chonghua Palace, which lasted for 2 hours. Here, he is no longer a lofty emperor, but a mortal with seven emotions and six desires.
While Emperor Qianlong was nostalgic and writing poems in Chonghua Palace, the memorial of that day had been sent to the Yangxin Hall and Qinzheng Qinxian Hall. The Qinzheng Qinxian Hall is located to the east of the Zhengda Guangming Hall and is the office where the emperor reviewed memorials. At 10 o'clock, Emperor Qianlong came to Qinzheng Qinxian Hall and started his day's work.
We know that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the emperor acted relatively free and easy. The cabinet "voted" for him and the eunuchs "approved" for him. He had almost nothing to do. In order to control power, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty abolished the "red approval" of eunuchs, and all reviews and memorials were done by himself. Emperor Qianlong was naturally no exception.
After reviewing the memorial, Emperor Qianlong also had to meet with his ministers to learn about the relevant situation and give them face-to-face instructions.
After doing all this, it was almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Emperor Qianlong felt hungry and ordered dinner to be passed on.
What is different from everyone’s imagination is that under normal circumstances, the Qing emperor only ate two meals a day, namely breakfast and dinner. This is because the Qing Dynasty was originally a nomadic people outside the customs, and their life was very hard. They could only eat two meals a day, which was already very good. After entering the customs, the habit of eating two meals a day was retained in the palace, and the emperor was no exception.
Of course, we don’t have to worry about Emperor Qianlong being hungry. If he is hungry, he can add a snack in the afternoon to replenish his energy.
After dinner, Emperor Qianlong took a short rest. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, he started his afternoon work, reading the memorials of various ministries, governors and towns submitted by the cabinet.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Emperor Qianlong met with Fu Heng, a bachelor of Baohe Palace and a first-class loyal and brave man. Fu Heng was a famous official in the mid-Qing Dynasty, ranking first among the hundred heroes in Ziguang Pavilion. He was also the younger brother of Emperor Qianlong's empress Fucha, and had a close relationship with Emperor Qianlong.
It was already dusk after Fu Heng left. The days in early winter are short, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the Forbidden City is already lit with lanterns. Emperor Qianlong came to Sanxi Hall of Yangxin Hall to appreciate his collection of exquisite calligraphy and paintings.
Sanxi Hall is located in Xinuang Pavilion of Yangxin Hall, with an area of ??only 4.8 square meters. It was the study room of Emperor Qianlong. Emperor Qianlong also personally wrote the "Sanxitang" plaque and the ink ink "Sanxitang Ji" and hung them on the wall for people to admire. Although Sanxitang is small in size and unimpressive in appearance, it contains a large number of calligraphy and painting works by famous artists. Among them, "Quick Snow and Clear Tie" by Wang Xizhi, the great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, "Mid-Autumn Tie" by Wang Xianzhi and "Boyuan Tie" by Wang Xun are the most cherished calligraphy and painting works of Emperor Qianlong.
It was already 7 o'clock at night when we came out of Sanxi Hall. Emperor Qianlong returned to Yangxin Hall. If there were still memorials delivered at this time, he would review them in his bedroom. If there were no memorials, he could get ready for bed.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month of the 30th year of Qianlong's reign, Emperor Qianlong went to bed at 9 o'clock in the evening - if he were a modern person, his nightlife would have just begun at this time.