Introduction: Shangguan Wan'er was a famous female official in the Tang Dynasty and a celebrity around Wu Zetian. She was killed by Li Longji who launched a coup in the fourth year of Jinglong. Female officials, also known as internal officials, palace officials, and commonly known as female eunuchs, refer to senior palace maids who take care of harem affairs for the royal family and do not have concubines. As a companion to the imperial concubine system, the female official system existed in the long feudal society and had an important impact on the ancient palace and even the imperial power.
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The tombs of third-rank officials in the Tang Dynasty are 40-80 meters long and have 4-12 patios. Shangguan Wan'er's tomb is 36.5 meters long and has 5 patios. The shape of the tomb is consistent with his genuine and third-grade status during his lifetime, but the scale of the tomb is not luxurious.
According to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology, the owner of the tomb, Shangguan Shi, is a human being, and the people are more familiar with her other name "Shangguan Wan'er". There are two books from the Tang Dynasty. She was a famous poet during the Tang Dynasty. Her poetry inherited the form and technique of her ancestor's "Shangguan style" metrical poetry, and has a certain status in the history of ancient Chinese literature. The excavation of Shangguan Wan'er's tomb and the study of unearthed cultural relics have provided archaeologists with valuable information for studying the history and culture of the Tang Dynasty.
The existence of female officials
The establishment of female officials can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. Documents record that the king of Zhou had established queens, wives, concubines, imperial wives, female wishes, female historians, etc. Among them, besides the queen, wife, and emperor, who are the real wives, wives, concubines, etc. of the emperor? She is both a concubine and a female official. The wife is responsible for the education of the women in the harem, the woman is in charge of the sacrifices and guests in the harem, and the imperial wife is responsible for the emperor's food, clothing, housing and transportation. The women who were in charge of the sacrifices and prayers in the harem and the women who were in charge of the queen's ceremonies were both full-time female officials.
The Qin and Han Dynasties followed the harem system of the previous dynasties, and the levels of concubines were further refined. The wives and concubines in the Qin Shi Huang Palace were divided into eight levels: queen, wife, beauties, lovers, eight sons, seven sons, long envoys, and young envoys; Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty even classified the wives and concubines in the harem as queen, madam, Zhao Yi, Jieyu, envoys, and vigilantes. There are 14 levels of people. In the harem of Qin and Han Dynasties, except for the queen and his wife, other concubines were still concubines and female officials, with titles and ranks.
It was Tuoba Hong, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, who separated concubines and female officials for the first time. He established positions for women to manage harem affairs, and their official ranks were equal to those of foreign officials. Female officials with different titles such as internal minister, administrative secretary, eunuch, female waitress, female secretary, female sage, female secretary, etc. appeared. The highest is two and the lowest is five. The Sui Dynasty established a female official system of six bureaus and twenty-four divisions in the palace to take charge of the palace. The six bureaus are Shang Gong, Shangyi, Mi Shang, Shang Shi, Shang Qin, and Shang Gong. Under the six bureaus, each bureau has four divisions, and there are several positions under the divisions, which are clearly hierarchical. Different official positions are awarded according to different levels. The highest has five levels and the lowest has nine levels.
The female official system of the Sui Dynasty was inherited by the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, with only slight adjustments in each dynasty. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, on the basis of the twenty-four divisions of the six bureaus of the previous dynasty, the Gongzheng Division was established separately, responsible for inspecting Gong Wei, banning, and whipping crimes; after Yongle, eunuchs were favored, and most of the powers of female officials were replaced by eunuchs. was cancelled, leaving only the Four Shang Palace Divisions. It was an ethnic minority regime in the Qing Dynasty. The emperors of the Qing Dynasty inherited the concubine system of the previous dynasty: "The queen is in the palace and is in charge of internal affairs; there are one concubine, two concubines, four concubines, and six concubines, separated from Dong'an
Under the six bureaus, each has four departments, and the work is meticulous. For example, in the Shangshu Bureau, there are two ministers, who are responsible for the food quantity and quantity. Anyone who brings food into the royal family will taste it first. Personal departments: the catering department is responsible for cutting, cooking, and frying; our company is responsible for brewing and drinking wine; the pharmacy department is responsible for distributing medical prescriptions and medicines; our company is responsible for delivering food and firewood to the palace people. There is more than one female historian in the fourth department, who is responsible for recording. Matters.
Living within the palace walls and serving the royal family, the work of female officials is extremely private. Make it and fill it with a book written by a good woman, so that she can remember the daily life in the palace and the affairs of Yan Yan in the inner court, and use it as a warning. "They used red pens to record the daily life of the emperor and his concubines, and even the emperor's sex life.
Female officials are different from lower-class maids. They are officials, have official positions and enjoy salaries. Those with high official positions, such as Female officials in the Liu Song, Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties could obtain the first rank. These female officials were respected in the palace and had to curry favor with officials abroad, so some female officials could intervene in national affairs, such as those in the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. There were only five official positions for female officials in the Ming Dynasty, and some were not even ranked among them.
Female officials are different from concubines. Concubines are the emperor's concubines, while female officials are the emperor's servants. In history, there were female officials who became concubines because they were favored, but for most female officials, this may just be their psychological sustenance throughout their lives. If she makes the slightest mistake, a female official may become a palace maid and may even be punished more severely. "Anyone who commits the crime of a palace maid must be punished with humiliation or with a bell."
The number of female officials varied from dynasty to dynasty. According to historical records: "In the Tang Dynasty, there were six bureaus and twenty-four divisions, with 190 officials and more than 50 female historians, all of whom were women from good families." In the early Ming Dynasty, there were six bureaus and one division, with a total of about 300 female officials. Due to the large number of personnel and complicated official positions, there was also a phenomenon that "the 24th Division was divided into six bureaus, and the headquarters frequently saw wrong calls."
The sources of female officials in past dynasties are mainly concentrated in the following two ways:
Selection and selection. The selection of palace maids is more common in history books: Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty Liu Xiu "sent a Chinese doctor to work with Ye Tingcheng every year to visit a large family in Luoyang Township. Anyone who is over thirteen years old and under twenty years old, beautiful in appearance, legitimate and legal" If you want, you can use them to ascend to the imperial palace." In the Sui Dynasty, "Emperor Yang ordered the Jianghuai counties to pay tribute every year for his great achievements in the eighth year of Emperor Yang's reign." Every year, special envoys are sent to choose the best places in the world, and they are called 'flower and bird envoys'" and so on. Among the women selected, the most beautiful is the concubine, and the second most beautiful is the female officer. There are also those that only select adult women, such as the "Fourteenth Year of Hongwu" in the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial edicts for Susong, Jiahu and Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Among the people, women over thirteen years old and under nineteen years old, and women over thirty years old and under forty years old without husbands originally entered the palace to wait for orders, and each paid the toll to be sent to the capital. The heroine builds a harem, and the heroine fills in the sixth place. ".
Unregistered. In ancient China, if an official committed a felony, his property and family members might lose the official. Take the Tang Dynasty as an example. "The clan butchers not only slaughtered their young men, And he slaughtered his wives, concubines, children, and descendants, all of whom were slaves. "According to the "Old Tang Book", in the thirteenth year of Tang Xiantong, "Minister of State Yu Yin came to the entrance of the pavilion to discuss the matter of Sh
In the early Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that "the parents should marry each other for five or six years of service, and the elderly should pay it themselves" , those who stay behind listen to it.” Yongle continued the old system. "After a wife enters the palace, she is willing to listen to anyone from twenty to fifty years old who wants to return; after a woman enters the palace for more than ten years, educated people will take her place. Those who are willing to return to their hometown and are suitable for the family will listen to her." The old female official who passed away "had no choice but to be buried in her parents' home." If she did not return, she was carried to the Jing Le Hall and burned. "All palace maids and officials who have no relatives are burned here after death. There are two towers in the hall, and there is a well under the tower, which contains Ashes."
Some female officials are favored for their talents. For example, Han, a talented girl from Wu County in the Southern Dynasties, was called into the palace when Emperor Xiaowu of the Song Dynasty presented a gift to the Palace; Emperor Wu of Qi was a doctor at the time and taught Liu Gong calligraphy; in the era of Emperor Ming, he was used as a servant in the palace and was praised for his profound knowledge Because of his knowledge and higher age, he was honored as "Han Palace". Song Ruoshen, Song Ruohua, Song Ruozhao, Song Ruolun, Song Ruoxian, and Song Ruoxun are the daughters of Sun Tingfen, a famous poet in the early Tang Dynasty. They showed their talents at birth. They were summoned to the palace by Dezong and granted official positions. Every time Dezong and his poets sang, he would call five people to entertain him. For example, when the Song Dynasty was an official in the Three Dynasties, everyone called him the teacher, and the concubines, princes, and princesses were always polite when they met.
The reason why some female officials are noble is because they are favored. For example, Shangguan Wan'er, a female official in the Tang Dynasty, was the granddaughter of Shangguan Yi, Gaozong's prime minister. Shangguan Yi was killed by Wu Zetian for drafting an imperial edict to abolish Wu Zetian. The newly born Shangguan Wan'er and her mother Zheng Shi were assigned to the palace. Because of his "alert nature and good writing skills", he was appreciated by Empress Wu Zetian. "She has been in control of her life since she was born. She is as beautiful as a fairy. However, all the courtiers' speeches and what is happening in the world are related to it." When Tang Zhongzong was reused, he was responsible for making patent certificates and was later accepted as Zhao Rong.
Some female officials even lost power for a time. For example, Lu Lingxuan, a female official in Xianbei in the Northern Qi Dynasty, was originally the wet nurse of Gao Wei, the queen of the Northern Qi Dynasty. After Gao Wei ascended the throne, he was named the county king. Lu Guan was a minister of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and his son Mutipa controlled the Northern Qi government for several years, causing great harm to the country and the people, leading to the fall of the Northern Qi Dynasty.