There are thousands of palace ladies in the past dynasties. When a woman enters the palace, her way out is also very different. The emperor can give ladies-in-waiting as prizes to heroes and relatives. Others, such as Wang Zhaojun, are married. Some emperors constantly replaced older maids, released thousands of maids and married them to the people. Some maids were also killed by the emperor.
In the ancient court, except for the retirement system of maids in the Qing Dynasty, maids in other dynasties, with occasional exceptions, were generally lifelong.
In the history of China, there is a record of releasing maids from the palace. For example, Han Feizi (14) said that the foreign reserve was lower right, and Guan Zhong advised the ladies-in-waiting to be released, so that "no resentment inside, no husband outside" was adopted.
After his death, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ordered all the unborn concubines in the palace (including beauties, lovers, eight sons, seven sons, long ambassadors and small ambassadors) to be returned, and all the concubines were exempt from national tax for life. After the death of Emperor Jingdi, it was also "the monk returned to his home and lived for life."
According to the biographies of the old and new editions of Tang Shu and the Biography of the Monk Maid in Volume III of Tang Yaohui, there are many records about the monk maid in the Tang Dynasty. There are many reasons for letting ladies-in-waiting leave the palace, such as the new emperor's accession to the throne, resigning the old and welcoming the new; For example, when some natural disasters occur, maids are released to adapt to the weather and calm down the disasters; For example, some ladies-in-waiting are too old and sick to drive, and choose young and beautiful ladies-in-waiting services; For example, courtiers wrote to release maids as a reform measure to save money, or to sympathize with palace grievances; For example, giving ladies-in-waiting as gifts to heroes or people valued by the emperor.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Sun Yuan's "The Night Banquet" included 75 poems describing the past events of Wu, Jin, Song, Qi, Liang, Chen and other dynasties, two of which mentioned the release of imperial secretaries.
Sun Song Dynasty imperial court people: "Yao Xing maid Fang, release the imperial court as leisure." The released imperial secretary turned out to be the maid of Yao Xing, the monarch at the end of Qin Dynasty. Afraid of the beauty, Song Wudi accepted the advice of Minister Xie Hui and sent her out of the palace. This situation is rare.
Sun's Bean Curd Maids: "There is a new method to clean the palace and divide it into two thousand maids. Poverty is endless, like a flower, and you can see peaches and plums in the world. "
In the reign of Emperor Wudi, after Liang Wudi ascended the throne, a letter was issued to let a large number of maids see the light of day.
In the Ming dynasty, since the "thirteen-year-old palace", women in the palace never left the palace. The ladies of the Ming Dynasty lost their freedom once they were elected to the palace. Most of them have insufficient food and clothing, poor accommodation, hard labor for life, and can't see their parents. Red tape, strict hierarchy and occasional insults make them almost hopeless.
The Qing dynasty stipulated that maids were not favored by the emperor, and were sent out of the palace at the age of 24 (sometimes 25 or 30) for another match.
1September, 923, the remaining Qing royal family dismissed the ladies-in-waiting, which was the last time in the history of China to release the ladies-in-waiting, and the harem system declined until it collapsed.