Concubines and Foot Binding
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A DAY IN THE LIFE
A concubine’s life remained typically boring and lonely. Some cases she would hardly ever interact with the emperor. However, If she became the emperor's favorite, she was likely to be involved in the endless competition for the emperor's love, which entailed schemes and plots against each other. She also risked being jailed or executed for offending the emperor or the Empress. Until then, she must live in the palace and find ways to occupy her time. Here are some of the hobbies and tasks of an imperial concubine.
She must wake up early to greet her empress before the day begins.
(Meet with the Empress Dowager every half a month)
Some hobbies she often would take up were learning to play a musical instrument such as the Guqin or Pipa, read books, draw and paint, to practice calligraphy, or take care of their pet.
Sometimes her time was forced to be spent on maternity. Having babies if it was allowed to bear, dealing with miscarriages, self-done abortions, and facing an abnormally high number of infant mortalities inside the palace.
Performing embroidery and sewing of clothing, shoes, hanky, etc. are proper behavior of a lady’s daily activities.
Much of her time was spent on self-care. She would make organic makeup products from lip-papers and blush to eyebrow liners. She would put on a full face of makeup after applying facial masks or skincare products made of crushed pearl powder, mung bean powder paste, and doing a manicure using color-soaked for 1–3 days from natural flower petals mixed with Potassium Alum.
Making sure her ranking was clear to outsiders, she would always have with her a fixed number of servants. Female servants and Eunuchs were regulated by different rankings, titles, and head counts under each level of concubine, so people could identify her ranking by looking at the number of servants or the way she was transported. Her clothing, embroidered figures or patterns, and accessories would also reveal her official ranking. For any servants or concubines they would recognize a senior level of concubine and greet her accordingly if they bumped into each other in a garden or something.