The concubines in the palace have different fates, and they naturally have a high status when they are favored, but most of them are unloved concubines, even extremely humble people, which the emperor does not remember and no one cares about. Nobody knows when he is alive, and nobody knows after he dies. But the ancients still taboo the dead, so what about the relics left by these harem concubines after their death, such as the clothes they usually wear and the jewelry they wear?

The so-called "life without, death without" refers to the jewelry of Qing empresses. The concubines in the harem have more or less some daily jewelry and jewelry given by Empress Dowager Cixi. Empresses used to wear these pearls and jade rings in court, but not all of them were buried with them after death.

Generally speaking, after the death of empresses, except for a few jewels that have not been disposed of before, they will be buried with them, and most of them will be recycled by the palace.

In the impression of many people, it is unlucky to use things used by the dead, not to mention the fact that the royal family is the richest in the world, why should it be reused? This was not the case in the Qing Dynasty, nor did Manchuria taboo these things. At the same time, the Qing dynasty was relatively stingy with the harem concubines.

Since the Zhou emperor, the emperor has three thousand harems in three palaces and six courtyards. However, in the Qing dynasty, there were only one concubine, two concubines, four concubines and six concubines under the queen, and many dignitaries were always present to make promises, which was quite small in scale. An ordinary princess in chains doesn't even have an independent living hall. There are also strict restrictions on the jewelry worn by different grades of concubines. The higher the level, the more jewels they have.

Only the favorite concubines and senior concubines of the emperor will have a lot of jewelry. After the empresses were promoted, if the emperor loved them very much, he would take some jewelry as funerary objects and bury them in the mausoleum with the empresses.

Most of the jewels will be collected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the damaged old ones will be restored and remolded, and collected in the royal treasury for the emperor to give to the next owner. This is also the main destination for the jewelry and cultural relics of the Empress of the Qing Dynasty.

In feudal society, women had no status. Even the concubines in the harem seem to have higher status than ordinary people, but they are still privately owned by the emperor.

Among the gold and silver jewelry given to concubines by the emperor, except for gold and silver, the jewelry still belongs to the royal family. In other words, concubines only have the right to use, but have no ownership.

So, what if my empresses die and have no ownership?

recover

The imperial palace system in Qing dynasty was the most taboo of extravagance and waste, which can be known from the fact that the emperor usually distributed some meals to ministers. Therefore, after the death of the queens, some jewels will be taken back and melted by the royal family.

After all, it is unlucky to give the jewelry of the deceased to the new concubine. After melting, the jewelry will be rebuilt by royal craftsmen to prepare for the emperor to give another concubine.

Teach and inherit

The imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty stipulated that the princess was allowed to keep some jewelry for her children before her death. What's more, some jewelry is an orphan. There is only one such piece of jewelry in the world, which was made by craftsmen with a lot of painstaking efforts. This is not allowed to return to the furnace, and it is also allowed for concubines to be left to future generations as a souvenir.

Some high-ranking concubines in the harem get more rewards every day, which also shows that the emperor dotes on them, and most of the well-known jewels will be left to his daughter as dowry.

Although there is no shortage of good things for a princess to get married, the jewelry handed down by her mother to her daughter is the real maternal love, which will be passed down all the time in the future and become a historical memory.

Buried alive with the dead

Jewelry has always been buried. Of course, funerary objects are divided into thick burial and thin burial:

Heavy burial:

For example, Empress Dowager Cixi can't be buried as an emperor, even though she has been listening to politics and controlling state power. If buried according to the highest level of the harem, Cixi has many funerary objects, which is a "reburial".

After Sun Dianying stole the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi, an amazing number of cultural relics were unearthed. Longquan sword, luminous pearl, cabbage and all kinds of rare antique calligraphy and painting are all priceless, which also makes Sun Dianying make a windfall.

Thin burial:

The concubines in the harem are also graded. Under the queen, there is only one concubine, two concubines, four concubines, six concubines, and a group of dignitaries who are always there, making promises.

Wuji is the lowest rank among harem concubines, and even the usual salary is the least. Some of them have never even seen the face of the emperor once in their lives, let alone the emperor's reward.

However, the harem in Qing Dynasty was relatively humanized. After the death of these lower-ranking concubines, in order to avoid their loneliness in the underground, they will also write down the jewelry they usually wear for burial.

But these funerary objects are very few, which is what we call "thin burial". After all, the few funerary objects make people sad.