Why is the royal concubine always looking for ways to become queen?

In the harem, the most powerful person is the queen. The queen is considered the model of the world. The emperor is normally busy with official affairs, so the queen will be in charge of managing all the concubines and servants in the harem, anyone who does not follow the rules will be punished. The reason why the queen holds all the power in her hands is determined by the hierarchy in the harem.

The concubines in the harem are strictly hierarchical, under the empress there is a royal concubine, two concubines, four concubines and six concubines, and there is no limit to the number of concubines below and below. The queen is the top of the pyramid, the power is also the greatest. Even though the royal concubine and the empress are only one step ahead of each other, the treatment is one hell of a world.

Although the empress and the queen consort are both assistants to the emperor, their status and treatment are far different. The empress is someone who can sit on the same level as the emperor in the true sense of the word. Although she also had to bow to the emperor, she was the one who could sit next to him. The remaining concubines could only kneel and look up at the emperor, but the queen could look directly.

When organizing a wedding, the emperor only holds a wedding ceremony once in his life with the queen. The other concubines including the royal concubine, if considered by their status in an ordinary family, they are also considered as concubines, even though they have royal status, they cannot hide this fact. Moreover, only the queen’s children born of the queen are considered as the eldest, the rest will be the second children. And the future eldest son will have the greatest chance of inheriting the throne.

In terms of dress, there is also a clear difference between the empress and the queen consort. Although the empress and the queen consort can both wear yellow, there are many differences in their outfits. The biggest difference is that on the phoenix hat, the queen’s phoenix hat is made of mink fur in winter, blue velvet in summer, inlaid with 320 pearls. There are only 192 pieces on the royal consort’s hat.

The royal concubine and other concubines had to bow when they saw the queen. When the royal palace has a big event, the royal concubine and the concubines must also participate, they have to pay respects to the queen like the emperor.

From the perspective of perks for comparison, the queen’s annual expenditure is 1000 taels of silver, while the queen consort is 200 taels less than the queen, and the concubine is 200 taels less than the royal consort, so to calculate for the ranks below.

An amount of silver if exchanged into current currency is equivalent to 300 yuan (about more than 1 million VND), The queen’s annual salary is 300,000 yuan (more than 1 billion VND), while the royal concubine has only 240,000 yuan (more than 800 million VND).This is not a small difference. Perhaps that’s why, in many feudal dynasties, there were many cases of noble concubines because they wanted to become queens, but they spent a lot of effort. Such a big difference, even if it’s only 1 level lower, indeed, everyone in their hearts will feel very unfair.