The royal family likes to hire wet nurses. What are the functions besides breastfeeding?

In the court of feudal imperial society, the imperial heirs of feudal emperors were not raised by their biological mothers, but taken care of by royal wet nurses. In addition to the founding emperors of various dynasties, "at the beginning of the emperor's birth, people from Abao must be provided for to recuperate their morning sleepiness and maintain their health", that is, the so-called heir "was born in the palace and grew up in the hands of women".

In fact, in ancient times, not only the royal family, but also some wealthy families hired wet nurses once they had newborns.

Because these educated and well-behaved girls have been extravagant and have never suffered since childhood. Naturally, she can't stand the hard work of breastfeeding and taking care of the children at night. This situation is more common in the royal family, and they are even more disdainful to do these things that are contrary to their status. So there is another important reason why these wet nurses need to feed their children. Let's have a look!

As a special and indispensable special group, the royal wet nurse has an extremely important influence on the temperament, cultural accomplishment and even the policy and style of governing the country.

It turns out that the royal wet nurse system in feudal society has a long history. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the imperial court began to select women as wet nurses in the harem, and assumed the responsibility of protecting and teaching the prince and the prince.

The Book of Rites Internal Rules compiled by Dai Sheng, a ritual scientist in the Western Han Dynasty, is a book used to record the ritual system in the pre-Qin period, which records the royal wet nurse system:

If you are an obedient child in the palace, you must be generous, kind, gentle, respectful, cautious and taciturn. You are the teacher, then the loving mother, then the wet nurse, and everyone lives in the children's room. Others can do anything.

In order to avoid interfering in the affairs of the harem, the Qing royal family took many measures, among which the most worrying thing was that after the young emperor succeeded to the throne, the young emperor's mother would disturb Chaogang because of her expensive mother, so they asked the prince to be raised by a wet nurse after birth, and the choice of these wet nurses was also made by the emperor or the harem. The little prince's heart can only be based on his love for Xinjue Roche, and his mother's surname is not their main reliance. Only the Qing royal family is the most important belief in their hearts.

In addition, the eldest son of the Qing emperor inherited the throne in a small number, and the uncertainty of their succession made every prince have a certain chance, so it was even more difficult for the prince to transfer to the matriarchal line after birth. This makes the Qing emperors often lack maternal love, which also makes many emperors have some defects in character, which is bound to be cruel to the young prince and his biological mother.