What kind of palace is the Cold Palace?

The cold palace is the place where monarchs in ancient palaces placed their out-of-favor concubines and princes; today it is a metaphor for a place where unused things are stored.

When watching TV dramas, we often see a certain concubine being thrown into the cold palace. So what kind of palace is the cold palace? Let me tell you about it below. Details 01

"There are many resentful women in the palace." In feudal society, many young women were imprisoned in the palace and were not allowed to be free throughout their lives. Once she became the emperor's wife, she could not remarry for the rest of her life, so she could not leave the palace for the rest of her life. As for the women chosen to be in the palace, once they fall out of favor, they will end up alone in the palace, which is even more miserable. Generally, for the sake of the dignity of the royal family, the chances of concubines committing crimes and being punished with death were low, so a place was needed to accommodate them, so the cold palace was created. 02

To talk about the cold palaces in the palace, we need to first talk about the "three palaces and six courtyards" in the palace. Among the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qianqing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, and Kunning Palace were called the "Three Palaces". The "Six Courtyards" refer to the Zhai Palace, Jingren Palace, Chengqian Palace, Zhongcui Palace, Jingyang Palace and Yonghe Palace on the East Road respectively. The emperor had many wives and concubines, and it was said that he had "seventy-two concubines" or "three thousand beauties". "Book of Rites" records that the system of the Zhou Dynasty was "six palaces after the emperor, three wives, nine concubines, twenty-seven wives, and eighty-one royal wives." 03

Regarding where the Cold Palace is in the Forbidden City, some scholars believe that the Cold Palace actually has no fixed place. Any place where princesses and princes are imprisoned is commonly known as the "Leng Palace". Looking through the historical materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we found that there is no clear plaque for "Leng Palace" in the Forbidden City. It can be seen that the Cold Palace is not the official name of a certain palace in the palace. According to historical records, there were several places that were used as cold palaces in the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Tianqi's concubine Li Shi offended the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian and was driven from Changchun Palace to Qianxi Palace to the west of the Imperial Garden, where she stayed for four years. Moreover, there were three other people who lived in Qianxi Palace, including Concubine Ding and Concubine Ke. This Qianxi Palace was the "Leng Palace" at that time. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, before Emperor Guangxu's concubine Zhen was thrown into the well by Cixi, some eunuchs later said that Concubine Zhen was placed under house arrest by Cixi in Beisansuo (now collapsed) to the north of Jingqi Pavilion. This place is west of today's Zhenfei Well. In the mountain gate. If what the eunuch said later is true, then Beisan Institute can be regarded as a "cold palace" in the Qing Dynasty. 04

To be relegated to the cold palace is actually to be deposed (no longer the emperor’s concubine). Most of the concubines in the TV series are relegated to the cold palace and live in a fixed and secluded place. In the beautiful houses of the palace, in fact, in real history, most of the concubines would live in some remote palaces, and there was no fixed place. Historically, it was extremely rare for a concubine to be deposed as a commoner. Usually, the title would be abolished and the concubine would be demoted to a lower-level concubine. For example: Concubine Zhen was demoted to a nobleman. Even if she is deposed as a commoner, she will still be imprisoned in a small, dark house, no different from a prisoner, and will not be allowed to leave the palace. For example: Concubine Xiao Shu and Queen Wang of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty failed in the court struggle with Wu Zetian and were deposed as common people and imprisoned in a dark room. This is the cruelty of court struggle.