Which ending is the most painful?

After the king’s death, the chosen concubines will have 3 options for the form of burial. Each of these forms is not easy for a living person who must choose his own way of dying. Those who did not volunteer had an even more tragic end.

Who will be buried with the emperor?

In the six palaces, there are nearly 3,000 beautiful women including the queen and concubines. So when the king dies, what will be their fate?

In fact, in each dynasty, the court will have a different arrangement. Some dynasties will rely on the status and whether the concubine can give birth to the royal bloodline to decide the list of burials with the king.

In the harem, the concubines fought fiercely to compete for favor from the emperor. Part of the reason is to raise the status of yourself and your family, and another reason is to have children to follow. Giving birth to the royal family’s bloodline can be said to be the lifelong wish of a concubine. It is not natural that they desire to have children so, in addition to ensuring their status in the future, they also want to keep themselves from ending up buried when the king dies.

The outcome of concubines who gave birth to a prince and princess was often better than that of other unlucky concubines. After the princes grow up, they will be made royal concubines, even if the prince does not have a high position, he can still live a regal life without having to worry about food and clothing every day. But for the concubines who entered the palace without ever being favored by the king, unable to give birth to a child of the royal family, they would be listed on the list of buried with the king.

How many people will be buried with the king?

According to the book “History of Qin”, after his death, King Qin Vu Cong was buried with 66 concubines, King Qin Mucong died in 621 BC and buried 77 people. As for King Qin Shi Huang, according to the “History of Qin Shi Huang” records that the concubines in the emperor’s harem, if there were no children, would join the king, historians have estimated that there are Thousands of people have been put on the list.

The Han dynasty also had a system of non-mortal burials when the king died. According to the history book “Han Thu, volume 72”, it is written that “during the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu selected thousands of women to enter the palace, until his death ordered them to lie in the tomb”, meaning the number of concubines to be buried with him. King is a lot.

In the Ming Dynasty, according to the book “Mei History”, 46 people were buried with the emperor Chu Nguyen Chuong. In addition, not only the emperor was buried with the living, but also the emperor’s brothers when he died also followed this form.

In the Qing Dynasty, according to historical records, Emperor Thuan Tri was buried with more than 30 concubines. Emperor Qianlong died, planned to be buried with 40 concubines, but he himself hated this regime, so he ordered it to be abolished. Qianlong died in 1662 and this cremation system has since ended in China.

What will happen to the concubines who are chosen to be cremated?

After the emperor’s death, there will be instructions from the emperor on the list of concubines to be buried with. Some dynasties will choose concubines who have not yet given birth to the king or concubines who have never been favored by the king. They can choose one of the following three ways to join the king.

The first way is that they use white cloth to hang themselves, this is the most popular way. In addition, if anyone does not accept hanging themselves, they will choose the second way, which is to drink poisoned alcohol.

The last way is to directly bury them alive. After the emperor’s death, they will be taken to the king’s tomb. In fact, they will be locked in a tomb with a portion of food, enough to survive for a few days, and then slowly die from starvation, in many cases from lack of air.

If they don’t obey the order to be buried and try to escape, their end result is sooner or later they’ll be caught, even causing their entire family to be implicated. That’s why even if they didn’t volunteer, they still had to obey orders to join the emperor.

The reason why the feudal emperors had this same burial regime was because in their opinion, when they died, they would go to another world. Therefore, bringing the concubine, servants, and soldiers to the burial will ensure that when the emperor dies, there will always be someone to follow to serve and serve. But in the end, this form of burial is still very cruel for those who are still alive and have to choose their own death.