The first level is "auditions". When the emperor got married, eunuchs were sent to all parts of the country to select beautiful girls aged 13 to 16, and 5000 were selected by Zhonghai. These 5,000 people are equivalent to getting a beauty pageant "admission ticket". The royal family paid a number of silver coins as bride price and travel expenses, so that the parents of the selected girls could send their daughters to Beijing for election within the prescribed time limit.
The second level is called primary election. In this primary election, we will choose a big venue, and eunuchs will arrange a row of girls for every1000 people, sorted by age, and after reading them one by one, eliminate those girls who are slightly taller, shorter, fatter or thinner. 1000 people will be eliminated in this primary election.
The third level is called inspection. On the second day of the primary election, these girls who passed the primary election continued to line up. Eunuchs carefully examined everyone's facial features, hair, skin and, of course, very strict "size". As long as there is one violation, they are ordered to "stand aside". Then let everyone report their family status, name, age, etc. To examine their timbre and manners, and eliminate those who are hoarse, inarticulate and have poor manners. In this way, two thousand people were screened out.
The fourth level is choice. The eunuchs measured the girls' hands and feet with a ruler, and then asked them to walk dozens of steps to see their posture and charm. As a result, those with big feet and thick wrists were eliminated again. Finally, 1000 beautiful women were called into the palace to continue to take the "grading examination". And the eunuch's mission has come to an end.
The fifth floor is staying in the palace. Arrange the old palace moths separately, lead the beautiful women to the secret room one by one, explore their breasts, smell their armpits and inquire about their texture. Its physical examination is as strict as choosing an astronaut. Through physical examination, it was determined that 300 of them became palace maids who were selected to stay in the palace.
The sixth level is gold. These 300 beautiful women who stayed in the palace were carefully observed by the emperor's special correspondent for a month. According to their temperament and speech, they were judged whether they were gentle, honest, intelligent and virtuous. According to this, 250 people were screened out, and the remaining 50 people were automatically promoted to concubines.
The seventh level is "choose three". The so-called "choosing three" means that the empress dowager or the toffee chooses three out of fifty people for the emperor to decide. This is somewhat similar to the "one armor and three places" posted after the imperial examination. Take the election of Emperor Mingxi as an example. At that time, Liu Guifei personally summoned 50 people, and selected three people, namely Queen zhangyan, Guifei and Duan.