Obviously, there are prisons, so what kind of existence is Zongren House?

In fact, it was a department that only appeared in the Ming Dynasty and was widely used in the Qing Dynasty. The difference between Zongrenfu and prison is that Zongrenfu lives in royal families, while prisons live in ordinary people or officials.

Just like many TV dramas now, people like royalty and relatives make mistakes and will be put in Zongren House. In fact, part of its duty is to punish and imprison people who make mistakes, but its duty is not limited to imprisonment. You also need to write some genealogy of the emperor and record the lives of the children of the imperial clan. Some information about the children of the imperial clan, such as title, birth and death time, marriage, posthumous title, burial, etc., all need the records of the imperial clan.

At the same time, Zongrenfu was also responsible for some sacrificial ceremonies, mainly some internal affairs of the royal family. If it is related to the sacrificial ceremony of the whole country, it will be handed over to the Ministry of Rites. Some relatives of the royal family imprisoned in Zongren House committed heinous crimes. Normally, once you are imprisoned, you can't get out. They belong to life imprisonment, which is different from imprisonment. Those royal relatives who have committed crimes in Zongrenfu will still be served by servants.

In fact, being imprisoned means restricting personal freedom, and then sitting there eating and waiting for death can do nothing, but compared with those imprisoned in ordinary prisons, life is still very easy. It also has many criminal laws, such as mouth slapping, flogging and claustrophobia, which is quite painful. In terms of punishment for prisoners, there is not much difference between Zongren House and prison. Generally speaking, Zongrenyuan exists to manage and punish some internal affairs of the royal family.