The life of ancient ladies-in-waiting

Basically, whether you are a virgin or not depends on your beauty, physical defects and good family background. It is impossible for an ordinary daughter to become a maid-in-waiting ... finally, you have to go through layers of training and choose the rest to become a little maid-in-waiting. After being eliminated, they will generally be intercepted by senior officials and become maids. The first thing to do after entering the palace is to shave your head and take a bath. You can keep your hair bigger. Little maids who have just entered the palace should be taught various manners and grooming skills by their wet nurses (old maids). The wet nurse is very strict at ordinary times and often scolds them. If you are smart and dexterous, you will be able to serve in the post for half a year and get a monthly salary. Maids-in-waiting have no customized monthly money, ranging from 4 Liang to 20 Liang. Meals, clothes, rouge and gouache are provided by the Ministry of the Interior. In fact, their main income is the reward from the palace on weekdays. If you are favored by the queen or queen mother, you can also win wealth for your parents, but most ladies-in-waiting live a miserable life. From the first day they were elected to the palace, it was like being in prison and losing their personal freedom. They were not allowed to get married until they were 25 or even 30 years old. Those who leave the palace early due to illness, folly or other reasons are allowed to leave the palace after being examined by the competent eunuch. Some ladies-in-waiting stayed in the palace for ten years because of "the needs of the empress". After leaving the palace, they are all spinsters, and even a normal marriage is very difficult. There are exceptions, that is, those who are favored by the emperor, promised promotion, and often have wives and concubines, will stay in the palace forever, but this is rare. Emperor Kangxi limited the number of concubines and maids in view of the fact that there were too many concubines and too much money after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. By the forty-ninth year of Kangxi (17 10), there were about four or five hundred people, which gradually increased after Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties.