How did the ladies-in-waiting in the Tang Dynasty live in the harem?

Maids living in the Tang Dynasty are mainly divided into two categories. One kind can be female officials, who are mainly responsible for the needs of the emperor and the harem nobles, queens and concubines, such as eating, drinking and accommodation. Their workload is very heavy; The other is an ordinary handmaid, who is responsible for all the hard physical labor in the palace and sits from morning till night every day. Therefore, the ladies-in-waiting of the Tang Dynasty who lived in the harem spent their time and loneliness by working every day.

As we know, ancient folks were divided into three or six classes, and so was the royal harem. Maid-in-waiting is divided into three or six grades, and the rules of maid-in-waiting in the Tang Dynasty carry this out most thoroughly. The number of maids in the Tang Dynasty was very large, as many as 10,000. They work at sunrise in the harem according to their positions and responsibilities, which is very hard. The rulers of the Tang Dynasty paid special attention to quality education, so all the ladies-in-waiting could be exposed to education for a period of time in the palace, reading and learning temperament.

At that time, there were fewer maids with official products in the harem of the Tang Dynasty. They mainly serve the masters in the harem. In addition to food, clothing, housing and transportation, some of them also need to provide song and dance performances and acrobatics. For example, the well-known Shangguan Waner was originally an ordinary palace maid. After entering the palace, she received a good education, so she was brilliant and clever, so she was promoted to a female official by Wu Zetian to help Wu Zetian handle government affairs together. However, there are still few female officials like Shangguan Waner. Most ladies-in-waiting spend their lives in ordinary jobs.

There are also ordinary ladies in the harem. They do some housework every day, such as sweeping the floor, gardening, washing clothes, helping in the kitchen and so on. Every day is hard. Maids in the Tang Dynasty all lived in Ye Ting, and when they could not work, they were sent to nuns. Some good emperors took pity on them and drove some maids out of the palace appropriately, but this is a minority after all.