Secret No. 1. Where is the cold palace?

The cold palace in Chinese means a palace where the wife or concubine of an emperor resides when the emperor doesn’t like her anymore or she commits crimes which cannot be forgiven by the emperor. However, you cannot find any place in the Forbidden City has such a name. This doesn’t mean it didn’t exist during the past dynasties but means some discarded, remote or disliked palaces in the Forbidden City served as cold palaces.

Secret No. 2. What are the Green Head Pieces (Chinese: 绿头牌)?

There are four kinds of Green Head Pieces:

1. Those who want to see the emperor must have a pink piece on which a person’s name and resume are written. Pieces that have green ends are called Green Head Pieces.

2. The Qing Dynasty inherited the system of the Ming Dynasty, which means as long as officials meet emergencies or have very detailed things to report, and their reports or suggestions will be handed over to the six departments of the government (Chinese: 六曹) to report the emperor. At the time they use green wood pieces, on which summarized Manchu scripts will be written. These pieces are called Green Head Pieces.

3. Pieces that were used to arrest or pardon criminals during the Qing Dynasty were. The ends of these pieces are painted green and they are named Green Head Pieces or Green Head Slips (Chinese: 绿头签).

4. When an emperor selects maids or concubines for himself or summon his concubines to sleep with him, he uses the Green Head Pieces. This usually refers to Turning over the Piece (Chinese: 翻牌子).

Secret No. 3. How odd was an emperor’s marriage in the Qing Dynasty?

Among the concubines of Emperor Huangtaiji there were three females who were nephews and

auntie; among the concubines of Emperor Shunzhi there are four females who were nephews and auntie; and in comparison, Emperor Kangxi had four concubines where came from one family. Have you heard of such things before? Truth be told, I haven’t.

Secret No. 4. What is an emperor’s back palace like?

In the Qing Dynasty the back palace had 8 levels which include a queen, 2 important concubines and many other unimportant concubines, who resided in the 13 palaces of the Forbidden City, with the queen residing in the central palace. Different emperors had different numbers of concubines.

Secret No. 5. Fujin and Gege were once the concubines of an emperor.

When the trail blazer of the Qing Dynasty Nurhachi fought against the Ming Dynasty outside the Great Wall, he had no rules of his own back palace concubines. At that time they had no high official titles and were all called Fujin (Chinese: 福晋) or Gege (Chinese: 格格). For example, the 16 wives of Nurhachi were called Fujin. Yet, this tradition was changed after Emperor Kang set up a new series of rules to entitle concubines.

Secret No. 6. In fact, an emperor was lonely that time.

An emperor ate alone and twice a day. After two diners, he would have snacks twice a day. The place he ate were usually his sleeping palace or office. If without the order the emperor, no one was allowed to dine with him. In addition, his concubines were not allowed to sleep all night with the emperor. Yes, he was lonely.

Secret No. 7. Which gods does an emperor worship?

Emperor Shun set up a rule to worship gods in the morning and evening. In the morning an emperor should worship the Lord Buddha and Guanyu (a hero during the Three Kingdom period and he was later worshiped as god by civilians), and the ancient gods of Mongolia and the goddesses of the Manchu race. There were over 40 sites to worship gods in the Qing Dynasty.

Secret No. 8. Officials were not beheaded at the Meridian Gate but spanked here.

In Chinese TV series we often hear an emperor announces: “Behead him at the Meridian Gate!” However, this was not true that time. An emperor wouldn’t be willing to cut off one’s head at the gate of his own house, but what he did was spank them with large and heavy sticks at the gate.

Secret No. 9. Where did an emperor discuss events of the country with his officials?

Today we wrongly think an emperor discussed national events with his officials at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but the fact is he didn’t do this at the hall. This morning report took palace initially at the Gate of Heavenly Purity and then moved to the Gate of Supreme Harmony. When the time came to the reign of Emperor Xiangfeng, the morning report was removed and would never be restarted.