Can a maid-in-waiting in 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 are not allowed to get married until they are 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 older after leaving the palace, because "the queen needs them and they have stayed 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 all kinds of manners and grooming skills by her mother. 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 maids in Qing dynasty;

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

Beauty pageants, like imperial examinations, have a set of strict rules. Women who run for election must come from good families, that is, non-doctors, non-witches, non-businessmen and non-workers. The women in these families are called good families, and all previous dynasties stipulated that maids should be selected from good families;

According to Ji Yun's Biography of Queen Ming Yi, in the first year of the Ming Dynasty's apocalypse, Song Xizong selected 5000 women aged between 13 and 16, gathered in the capital and divided them into dozens of groups. On the first day, they were selected by the internal supervisor, and the taller, shorter, fatter and thinner people were eliminated.

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

On the third day, these women's hands and feet were measured with a ruler, and then they were asked to take dozens of steps to observe their "richness". Those with shorter wrists and bigger toes, those with slightly impetuous behavior, and thousands of people have disappeared. After being elected to the palace, they lost their personal freedom and could not leave the palace.

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