There are many buildings in the palace, and the most important thing is fire prevention. If you light a stove and burn charcoal in private, you will be beheaded, which is the most common way to die in the Ming Dynasty Palace. All three meals in the palace are prepared by the imperial kitchen and sent in food boxes. There is no kitchen.
It was spring now, and the palaces had already removed the charcoal basins and other heating items, so it was not easy to heat a pot of sweet rice wine.
However, Meixiang is an old palace maid, and she has her own way. The six departments and one bureau of the female officials are located to the west of the West Six Palaces, which have a total of six palaces, namely Jingren Palace, Yanxi Palace, Chengqian Palace, Yonghe Palace, Zhongcui Palace and Jingyang Palace.
Among them, Concubine Hu of the Yanxi Palace had the highest rank and was the head of the six western palaces. Concubine Hu gave birth to Zhu Zhen, the Prince of Chu, and was pregnant at this time. According to the palace rules, pregnant concubines could set up a small kitchen in the palace to regulate their bodies at any time.
It just so happened that the Yanxi Palace was closest to the Six Bureaus and One Department, so Meixiang took a wine pot and went to the Yanxi Palace to use the small kitchen.
There was an acquaintance of Meixiang in the small kitchen, who readily agreed to her request and boiled a pot of water to heat the wine.
After heating the wine, Meixiang thanked him and went back with the wine pot. When she pushed the door open, she saw Hu Shanwei's study room full of new female officials. They were testing each other on palace rules and etiquette, which was quite lively.
On the desk, in addition to the osmanthus cake and yam cake sent by Meixiang, there were also midnight snacks given to other female officials by others as a gift, such as tiger eye nest candy, wisteria cake, snails soaked in ghee, and even precious foods such as bird's nest and lotus seed porridge.
It turned out that after Meixiang left, Chen Ermei, a neighbor from Guangzhou who lived next door, visited Hu Shanwei with some butter-fried snails, saying that it was too lonely to study alone and wanted someone to accompany her.
Chen Ermei is innocent and lively, and likes to socialize. Although she is sometimes outspoken, she is not annoying. With her around, a taciturn person like Hu Shanwei can talk more and smile more.
After a while, several more female officials knocked on the door and asked Hu Shanwei to borrow his class notes, fearing that they had missed something.
Hu Shanwei's writing was the fastest and her notes were accurate, which was well known to everyone. Her notes became authoritative. They were all educated and cultured people, and they would not visit empty-handed. There were more and more food and drinks on the desk in the study.
As the big exam was approaching, all the female officials were a little nervous. When they heard the sounds of talking and laughing coming from Hu Shanwei's room, they could no longer sit still and went to join in the fun with some food.
Soon, Hu Shanwei's room was filled with female officials. Almost all of the forty-four newlyweds were present, making it difficult to turn around. The table was full of food, and everyone gathered together to share the food.
Chen Ermei laughed and said, "Everyone knows the palace rules by heart, but the more you talk about it, the more nervous you get. How about I give you a question to test your palace etiquette?"
Everyone applauded and said it was a good idea.
Chen Ermei pointed to the West Six Palaces, which were separated by two palace walls and a street. "Concubine Hu in the Zhongcui Palace is pregnant. I will test the birth and naming ceremonies of the princes. They will be needed in a few months. Starting from my left, everyone will start the chain and each person will say one thing."
Hu Shanwei said: "On the third day after the birth of the prince, the emperor wore sacrificial clothes and went to the southern and northern suburbs to offer sacrifices. Civil officials of the fifth rank and above, military officials of the fourth rank and above, and royal relatives and their husbands accompanied him in the sacrifices. After returning to the palace, they offered sacrifices to their ancestors in the Fengxian Hall and the Chongxian Hall."
After saying the first point, Jiang Quan, a 39-year-old widow from Fujian sitting next to Hu Shanwei, quickly followed up, "The next day, the emperor wore his imperial robes and went to Fengtian Gate, and all the civil and military officials wore auspicious clothes to congratulate him and performed the four-bow ceremony. From the day the prince was born, all the civil and military officials wore auspicious clothes for ten consecutive days, and a day was chosen to announce it to the world, and the six civil officials from the Hanlin Academy and Chunfang were sent to the various princes' palaces with the imperial edict to inform them."
Jiang Quan, a native of Fujian, was the oldest of the 44 female officials. The Hongwu Emperor restricted the age of female officials to those under 13, under 19, over 30, and under 40. Jiang Quan was exactly 39 years old.
In the common people, she would be a grandmother at her age and her life would have come to an end. No one knew why she insisted on entering the palace and competing with a group of candidates who were good enough to be her daughter to take the examination for a female official.
Sitting below Jiang Quan was the female official Shen Qionglian, who was only thirteen years old, the youngest female official and also the first place in this female official selection exam, the "top female champion."
A genius girl indeed!
Shen Qionglian not only received A grades in her discussions on the Four Books and Five Classics, but also made a stunning debut on the topic of "keeping chastity" in "The Analects of Women".
Because she wrote at the beginning, "How terrible it is that Qin is so unrighteous, why should we keep our integrity?"
He overturned the idea of chastity and bluntly stated that there was no need to observe chastity. His answer was simply shocking.
The meaning is that the Qin State is violent and lawless, so there is no need to be chaste. Then she gave another example and changed the tone:
"The Yuan Dynasty was unjust, so people's hearts were divided and wars broke out all over the country. Our emperor was originally a commoner from Huaibei. When the world was in chaos, he was supported by the people and saved the people from suffering, so that everyone could get what they wanted..."
It is said that the Yuan Dynasty had lost the support of the people, so armies all over the country rose up and there was no need to "keep their integrity". Emperor Hongwu, a commoner from Fengyang, was elected as the leader by the people and saved the people from dire straits.
Hu Shanwei admired her very much. When she was taking the exam, she did not agree with the sentence "If one line is lost, a hundred lines will fail" in "The Analects of Women", so her handwriting was obscure and her thoughts were not smooth. She did not finish the question when she handed in the paper, which dragged down her final score. She ranked 37th among the admitted female officials, which was considered the last.
However, Shen Qionglian took a different approach. She went beyond the narrow concept of "keeping chastity" and discussed the change of dynasties. She also cleverly flattered the royal family, saying that Emperor Hongwu was not "keeping chastity" and raised an army to save the people from disaster.
If this talented yet sensible girl doesn’t take first place, who will
Anyway, Hu Shanwei was convinced.
Shen Qionglian skillfully took over the next step of the prince's birth ceremony, and it was the turn of the fourth female official...
In this way, the female officials recited the prince's birth ceremony and naming ceremony in one go. Only two female officials made slight mistakes, which were corrected by other female officials on the spot. This method strengthened memory and created a relaxed and lively atmosphere.
Just then Meixiang came back with some hot sweet rice wine. As the host, Hu Shanwei certainly couldn't be stingy. He gave everyone a cup, which was just emptied.
Everyone drank the cup. Then it was Hu Shanwei's turn to ask a question, saying, "Let's ask about the enthronement ceremony of the princesses..."
In just fifteen days, the Palace Administration required the female officials to memorize the palace rules in "Huang Ming Zu Xun" and the parts of "Da Ming Hui Dian" that involved various court etiquette. The books were as thick as bricks on the desks.
The assessment criteria for palace rules is that there cannot be any mistakes. The etiquette of "Da Ming Hui Dian" is complicated and rote memorization is simply not enough. One must first be proficient in "Zhou Li" before understanding the logic of the etiquette process.
There is a big exam tomorrow. Hu Shanwei is immersed in the enthusiastic atmosphere of preparing for the exam. There is pressure, but she feels lucky to study and compete with the best women in the Ming Dynasty.
Everyone ate while reciting the code of conduct, and they dispersed at the second watch. Almost all the midnight snacks on the table were eaten up, and the sweet rice wine had long been sold out.
The top scholar Shen Qionglian was only thirteen years old, very childish, and had a sweet tooth, especially the sweet and fragrant osmanthus cake. Everyone admired her.
They liked her and were willing to pamper her. Seeing that she was enjoying the meal, they all gave in to her and no one competed with her for the osmanthus cake, so she ate almost all of the cake.
Hu Shanwei was the host and ate the least out of consideration for his guests.
At three o'clock in the morning, Shen Qionglian, who was the youngest, ate the most, and was the weakest, was the first to have an attack. She vomited and had diarrhea. Afterwards, one after another female officials felt various discomforts, but none of them were as severe as Shen Qionglian.
Some people were in good health and had nothing wrong with them, like Hu Shanwei. She slept soundly until she was woken up by the noise outside in the middle of the night.
It turned out that the palace servant on night duty in the corridor was afraid that something might happen, so he went to the Shangshi Bureau to wake up the female pharmacist who was on duty that night.
There are six bureaus in the harem, and those with the surname “Shang” are all fifth-rank officials. They are the highest-ranking female officials in each bureau, for a total of six.
According to their duties, each of the six bureaus had four departments, for a total of 24 departments. Emperor Hongwu believed that the Yuan Dynasty's rituals and music were in decline and eunuchs were ruining the country, so he simply copied the system of female officials in the six bureaus and 24 departments of the palace during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
For example, the Shangshi Bureau has four subordinate departments: Sishan, which is responsible for managing meals; Siyun, which is responsible for managing the brewing of wine and vinegar; Siyao, which is responsible for managing medicines; and Si of firewood and charcoal.
Each department has two female officials with equal rank, who take turns on duty day and night to ensure that there are female officials on duty in the harem twelve hours a day to serve the palace.
The forty-eight "Si" generations in the six bureaus are all female officials of the sixth rank.
The female pharmacist on night duty tonight was named Ru. She immediately came here with several female doctors and examined each of the new female officials who were feeling unwell.
Shen Qionglian was the sickest. After vomiting and having diarrhea, she started to have a high fever. Her whole body turned red, but her hands and feet were cold.
According to the "Imperial Ming Ancestor's Instructions", medical care in the harem was the responsibility of the pharmacist in the Shangshi Bureau, and the imperial physician was not allowed to set foot in the harem, otherwise he would be beheaded.
Ru Siyao is experienced and sees that most of the people who fell ill have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. In this case, it is either dysentery or food poisoning.
Ru Siyao immediately ordered the palace servants: "Close the palace gates, sprinkle lime around, seal the dung buckets, put them separately, and send them far out of the palace tomorrow morning. No one here is allowed to step out of the palace gates, and they can only go out after they recover."
The palace maid looked embarrassed and said, "Ru Siyao, there will be a big exam in the palace tomorrow."
Ru Siyao said coldly: "Then let the people from Gongzhengsi come to question me. Once dysentery is confirmed and spreads, both you and I will be beheaded."
The palace servants dared not disobey the order and had to close the palace gates.
Ru Siyao woke up all the new female officials living in the corridor rooms, and regardless of whether they were feeling unwell or not, each of them was examined and diagnosed by the female doctor.
Shen Qionglian's condition became more and more serious, and the female doctor gave her acupuncture treatment.
A female official discovered that anyone who was unwell would sit in Hu Shanwei's room at night.
Seeing Shen Qionglian's tiny body full of silver needles and on the verge of death, she felt very sorry for her. She was so excited that she pointed at Hu Shanwei and said:
"It was all Hu Shanwei's trick. She saw that Shen Qionglian was very talented, and she felt that she would not be able to beat the other female officials in the exam tomorrow, so she poisoned the midnight snack and knocked everyone out. You see, she is fine, it was others who got into trouble."
When everyone looked, they found it was true and all their eyes were focused on Hu Shanwei.
Seeing the person who used to smile at him and call him sister suddenly stabbed him, Hu Shanwei was speechless, "I didn't... I wasn't..."
Ru Siyao pointed at Hu Shanwei and said, "Catch her."