Some are prominent, some are ill-fated. How did the ancient emperor's wet nurse exist?

In ancient China, middle and upper class women almost never breastfed their babies after delivery, but let wet nurses do it for them. In Xunzi's Book of Rites, it is defined as "wet nurse and eater".

Judging from the ancient books such as The Book of Rites, the "mother-eater" of the children of princes and nobles is often chosen from the "doctor's wife, doctor's wife".

Once qualified, he will be retained for life, take care of the young master wholeheartedly, and will be treated like a baby in the future. So, how did the emperors in history repay the wet nurse? Generally speaking, there are three ways.

Emperors of all dynasties have a tradition of respecting and rewarding wet nurses.

In ancient times, feeding babies with wet nurses was a status symbol. The Book of Rites says: "A doctor has a mother, and a scholar's wife adopts a son."

That is to say, only the powerful descendants above the position of doctor are qualified to use wet nurses, and children below the scholar class are fed by their own mothers, so people who are wet nurses are generally from humble origins.

Because the main duty of harem concubines is to serve the monarch wholeheartedly and take good care of their health as soon as possible so as to carry on the family line, it is not appropriate to raise infants and young children hard.

In addition, in order to prevent the royal mother-child relationship from being too deep, leading to the intervention of consorts in the future, princes are usually brought up by carefully selected wet nurses with humble origins.

Accompanied by upbringing from an early age, it is very easy to produce intimate feelings that are superior to blood relatives and exceed generational levels. The emperor's deep affection for the wet nurse began with the respect and reward of Emperor Tuoba Tao in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

After he ascended the throne, Dou Shi, the wet nurse, was honored as the queen mother, which set the precedent for the emperor to treat wet nurses well. By the Tang Dynasty, it had become a system that nannies of emperors, princes and others were awarded the title of "madam".

This kind of system guarantee enabled them to achieve a leap to the aristocratic class, not only enjoying prestige and status in the imperial court, but even participating in the management of the harem and benefiting their families.

For example, Tang Gaozong's wet nurse, Lv Congbi, was named Mrs. Fan Yangjun and Mrs. Guo Yan, who was in charge of the Sixth Palace. Even the mansion she revered in her later years was carefully selected by Tang Gaozong, so that she could go in and out of the palace at any time.

An emperor's wet nurse, prominent position, power for a while.

For the prince who grew up in the deep palace of hierarchical, intrigue and power struggle, the wet nurse who accompanied him since childhood is both a loyal servant and a loving mother, which deserves attachment and trust.

Therefore, many princes have even regarded the wet nurse as more important than their biological mothers since childhood. For the honor and disgrace of their lives, the wet nurse must spare no effort to maintain her noble status.

With this unbreakable relationship, after the emperor's position is stable, he often doesn't care about the nanny's position to play politics.

Take Emperor Han 'an of the Eastern Han Dynasty as an example. Because the wet nurse king advised him to consolidate the imperial power, he suppressed the forces that Queen Deng was dissatisfied with his words and deeds, and finally won the trust of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and was named the "wild king", and his power was tilted for a while.

Wang's daughter indulged in debauchery, took bribes and perverted the law, and abused her power to buy officials and titles, which led to court complaints.

Andy ignored the minister's books and showed them to Wang and others, making them bear a grudge and inciting the emperor to kill the minister and abolish the prince in vain.

During the reign of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian, a nine-year-old eunuch, was good at making mistakes in his country, colluding with him and "eating" with Hakka, the adopted mother of Emperor Xizong, which won him special respect.

Due to the lack of parents' care since childhood, Xizong attached great importance to taking care of his Hakkas since childhood and immediately named her "Mrs. Shengfeng".

Even after the wedding, Hakka people were forced out of the palace by their ancestors' customs, but they still tried their best to give up. After many twists and turns, they returned to the palace again, conniving at her and Wei Zhongxian's arbitrariness.

He framed the minister in the imperial court, ignored the queen in the inner palace, abused the concubines and killed the prince, resulting in Xizong having no children. After the new emperor ascended the throne, Hakka and Wei Zhongxian were completely liquidated.

A companion is like a tiger and an ill-fated wet nurse.

As can be seen from the last article, the royal nanny was awarded the title of the city because of her meritorious service in feeding her son and grandson, not because her husband or son made meritorious service, so according to jurisprudence, there is actually no official product.

However, the emperor sometimes pays special attention. For example, Tang Gaozong conferred the title of "the first prize" on the wet nurse Lv Congbi, which provided sufficient guarantee for her and her family to join the bureaucratic aristocracy.

However, your heart is unpredictable, the emperor at the top of the power tower in feudal society is moody and the political situation is unpredictable. Even the wet nurse who is close to the emperor will inevitably encounter the dilemma of "much cry and little rain, all of which are prized by the court."

For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty intends to deal with his criminal wet nurse fairly according to the law. As a result, the wet nurse got Dong Fangshuo's trick in advance and accepted the emperor's decision without saying a word, only to look back at him frequently when he left.

Dong Fangshuo, who accompanied him, deliberately said, "Don't be silly. Do you still expect the emperor to recall the kindness you gave when you were a child? "

Even though Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had a heart of stone, after listening to this sentence, he aroused his soft compassion and ordered to pardon the wet nurse.

Another example is Shi Jiao, the nurse of Puyi, the last emperor of the feudal dynasty. When she was elected because of her dignified appearance, she was just a poor young woman under the age of 19, and lost her husband after giving birth to her daughter.

She took care of Puyi until she was nine years old and was driven out of the palace by the toffee Duan Kang. The cry of the little emperor failed to keep her.

But it was not until after she left the palace that she knew that her daughter and in-laws had already passed away, but the palace people were afraid that the bad news would affect her mood and concealed it.

Puyi was still obsessed with her wet nurse after her marriage, and finally sent someone to find her and arranged for her to live in a small courtyard in Tianqiao, Beijing.

Ten years later, Puyi became the emperor of the Puppet Manchukuo. She did not forget to take Jiao to the Puppet Manchukuo Palace in Changchun for support, but she was hysterically angry with her from time to time.

At the end of the war, Jiao was hit by a stray bullet in his right arm and died of massive blood loss at the age of 59. This is the life of the last emperor wet nurse in our country.

To sum up, the ancient wet nurse was actually the exclusive slave of the privileged class. Even the wet nurse who raised the emperor seems to have extraordinary prestige and status, but the promotion of status depends entirely on the gratitude of children when they grow up.

At the same time, once they enter the palace and become wet nurses, they will face the situation of long-term separation from their husbands and children, and the young master will become all their responsibilities and emotional sustenance.

When the affection between mother and son is better than that between mother and son, they finally gain high authority, and the distorted mind of the court is inevitably alienated, resulting in extreme cases of power manipulation. The impermanence of the emperor and the vagaries of the political situation of the times can easily subvert the fate of these wet nurses.