What is the concept of "three thousand beauties"? It is said that in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, there were 24 queens in Zhou Wenwang. What about the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? The Book of Rites says: "The ancient emperors had six palaces, three concubines, nine concubines, twenty-seven concubines and eighty-one concubines." At that time, most monarchs often had hundreds or thousands of wives and concubines.
After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six countries and unified the whole country, thousands of beautiful women selected from the original palaces of the six countries all served as his harem. The emperors of the Han Dynasty went further. In addition to the queens, nobles, beauties and imperial secretaries in the harem, he also regularly selected beautiful women from the people for the emperor to indulge. All beautiful women over thirteen and under twenty can't escape. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, actually expanded the number of beautiful women in the harem to 10,000, and rode a sheep to decide which concubine to love.
Emperor Yangdi was famous for his dissolute and decadent life. There are 5000 beautiful women in his harem, and there are more than 10000 concubines in palaces around the country, which is really amazing. Bai Juyi once wrote a poem saying that Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty was "a lady with a different family, with 3,000 rare beauties", while Du Fu called it "a harem with 8,000 ladies". However, according to the Records of New Books of Tang Dynasty, during the Tianbao period of Kaiyuan (from the palace to palaces around the world, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty had as many as 40,000 concubines!
In fact, this kind of situation will not happen under normal circumstances, because there is an official in the palace who is responsible for arranging the life of the emperor and his wives, called the female history. They know the birthday of the emperor, as well as the birthdays, habits and menstrual periods of his wife and concubines. They tried their best to provide excellent arrangements and perfect services for the emperor and his women in the depths of the palace.
Moreover, eunuchs, as one of the important managers of the palace's sexual life, although seemingly the emperor's sexual life depends on the emperor's will, they can take advantage of the loopholes and cheat in specific links such as placing famous brands, preparing, transporting concubines, mastering time and filing records.