Can maids in the Qing Dynasty leave the palace?

Maids in the Qing dynasty were not allowed to leave the palace.

Maids in the Qing dynasty lost their personal freedom from the first day they were elected to the palace. They were not allowed to get married until they were 25 or even 30. Those who leave the palace early due to illness, stupidity or other reasons are allowed to leave the palace after being examined by the eunuch in charge.

Some ladies-in-waiting are old after leaving the palace because "the queen needs to stay in the palace for ten years", so it is difficult to get married normally. The first thing a maid-in-waiting does when she enters the palace is to shave her head and take a bath. When she is old, she can keep her hair.

The little maid who just entered the palace should be taught various manners and grooming skills by the wet nurse. 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.

Extended data:

The selection system of maid-in-waiting in Qing dynasty;

Most of the early ladies-in-waiting came from female slaves, female prisoners and wives of criminals, and some of them began to be selected from folk "beauty contests" and "picking women";

Beauty pageants, like imperial examinations, have a set of strict rules. Women who run for office must be from good families, that is, non-doctors, non-wizards, non-businessmen and non-workers. The women in these families are called good families, and it has been stipulated in past dynasties that the maids should be taken from good families;

According to Ji Yun's Biography of Queen Anne of Ming Yi, in the first year of tomorrow, Emperor Xizong selected 5,000 ladies-in-waiting from the age of 13 to the age of 16, gathered in the capital and divided them into dozens of groups. The first day was selected by the internal supervisor, and the taller, shorter, fatter and thinner ones were eliminated.

The next day, the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hair, skin, collar, shoulders and back were examined, and all the abnormal ones were eliminated. Then let the candidates say their native place, name and age, and listen to their voices. Those who are slightly strong, poor, ugly, turbid and stuttering are eliminated.

On the third day, I measured these women's hands and feet with a ruler, and then asked them to take dozens of steps to observe their "abundance". Those with shorter wrists and bigger toes, and those with slightly impetuous behavior, thousands of people will be gone. After being elected to the palace, he lost his personal freedom and could not leave the palace.

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