LIFE INSIDE THE FORBIDDEN CITY

                                 HOW WOMEN WERE SELECTED FOR SERVICE

All females within the Forbidden City were carefully chosen and carefully sequestered in the imperial quarters deep inside the palace. They were requested to the inner court and forbidden from venturing out of the northern section. Most women in the Forbidden City were employed as maids and servants, but there was also a select group of concubines whose task was to bear children for the Emperor --- as many as he could father. Those who gave birth to male offspring were elevated to imperial consorts, with the Empress at the top of the pecking order.

Women were selected as "Xiuni" (elegant females) for the court as early as the Jin Dynasty (265 - 420 AD) and the selection criteria ranged from Emperor to Emperor. In the Ming Dynasty, no household was exempt from the selection. All unmarried women, who had no disabilities or deformities, went through the "Xiunu" selection.

The Qing Emperor Shunzhi (1638 - 61) began to exclude most of the Han population by limiting selection to 'Eight Banners' families, who were mainly Manchurian and Mongolian. (Eight Banners was a Manchurian administrative and military framework).
The women were put through a series of physical and mental tasks and only the best were chosen. These were initiated into the forms of acceptable behaviour and how to speak, gesture and walk. They also learnt arts such as painting, reading, writing, chess and dancing. Those who stood out spent several days serving as the Emperor's mother's maids and taking care of her daily needs.

Those chosen as concubines were strictly forbidden from having sex with anyone other than the Emperor. The eunuchs would oversee all of the activities, monitoring the concubines at all times. Concubines were required to bathe and were examined by a court doctor before the Emperor visited their bed chambers. They had their own rooms and would fill their days applying make-up, sewing, practicing various arts and socializing with other concubines. Some spent their entire lives in the palace without any contact with the Emperor.

Maids were female servants in the palace. They were ranked according to their families social position and they would only be recruited from the Eight Banners families that were mainly Manchurians and Mangolians. They were selected when they reached the age of 13. Their role was to attend to the daily needs of the Empress, imperial consorts and concubines. They could not leave their ladies' side, day or night, seven days a week. The maid-in-waiting held the highest rank. Their families were banned from visiting until they turned 25.