For Immediate Release Contact: Pat Kremer/Nancy O’Shea (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) Life in the Imperial Palace Splendors of China’s Forbidden City, with its hundreds of beautiful artifacts and recreated settings, depicts a life that was in many ways luxurious. Certainly those who lived within the walls of the Forbidden City never wanted for material things. Yet palace life was not something many of us would choose today. Palace residents—the women in particular—lived strictly regimented lives in a relatively small, closed area, behind high walls. It could be a stifling place both psychologically and physically. As one court lady noted, more than a century after Qianlong’s reign, “the courtyards were very small, and…all the rooms were dark….One could not see the sky except by going into the courtyard and looking up.” A World of Its Own Within the high walls of the Forbidden City, the emperor Qianlong managed an empire and several thousand people lived their lives. Among the daily workers were court advisors, government officials, and administrative personnel who directly served the governance of China. Guards and laborers came by day and left at night; artisans plied their trades in the imperial workshops; and dignitaries from the far reaches of the empire and beyond came to pay tribute. But little of this was seen by the palace women, who lived in the residential area north of the administrative center. Here were the narrow courtyards that housed the emperor’s family: his wives, their children, and his mother, along with other wives and unmarried daughters of previous emperors. This was almost entirely a world of women. To ensure the purity of the imperial bloodline, no men—besides the emperor and the palace eunuchs—were permitted to stay the night inside the palace walls. So while imperial daughters lived in the Forbidden City until they married, sons generally had to leave at puberty. During Qianlong’s reign, several hundred young court ladies (from prominent Manchu and Mongol families) and maidservants (from lower classes) also lived in the Forbidden City. Their lives were as restricted as those of the wives, and as subject to the will and sexual desires of the emperor. Yet the positions were widely viewed as a great honor (though perhaps not by the girls themselves). Selected as teenagers, these girls usually left service, with a dowry, after just a few years. For an attractive lady-in-waiting or maidservant, the position held great opportunity; if she caught the emperor’s eye, she might become a consort…and perhaps the mother of the next emperor. Continue