The martyrdom system appeared very early and was very cruel. So it was stopped or even abolished in the Han Dynasty. After all, it is cruel and unnatural to let the living and the dead be buried together. Although there were some martyrdom in later dynasties, there were not many. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor in the Ming Dynasty that this system was even restored. Zhu Yuanzhang's life is full of legends. He is a famous grass-roots emperor in the history of our country. After he became emperor, he also formulated many policies that were beneficial to people's livelihood and made the people love him very much. But in his later years, he paved the way for his grandson Zhu Yunwen and slaughtered a large number of meritorious ministers, so he was also criticized. But on the whole, Zhu Yuanzhang is a famous sage, but I didn't expect that he actually resumed the abolition of the human sacrifice system for nearly a thousand years, and when his son Zhu Shuang died, he was the 66 th.
Zhu Yuanzhang may have done this out of his father's love for his son, hoping that his son would be accompanied on the way to the grave, but for his two concubines, it was a disaster and he lost his life. After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his grandson Zhu Yunwen became emperor. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's will, all concubines in Zhu Yuanzhang's harem who have never given birth to children should sacrifice to Zhu Yuanzhang. This frightened the concubines in the harem and cried for a while. After all, no one wants to die, but the emperor's orders are inviolable. All the concubines who had never given birth were taken as human sacrifices. After all, they are the emperors' concubines, all of whom are beautiful. Many of them were valued by some officials and protected, leaving their own lives, but some concubines offended officials, so they were retaliated and forced to die.
It's creepy that the living concubines were forced to die, so how did these concubines die? How these concubines died in history is also controversial. Some historians think that they should commit suicide by force. There should be a list of concubines in the harem, so according to Zhu Yunwen's orders, these concubines who have never given birth will be arrested and locked in a room, forcing them to commit collective suicide, and the way to commit suicide is to hang themselves, and everyone will die, or choose to hang themselves, or be strangled alive by eunuchs. Some historians believe that in addition to hanging themselves, they may also be given poisoned wine and drink poison to commit suicide.
But no matter how you die, you will eventually lose your life. Such a cruel system makes the concubines in the harem hate their guts, especially those who have never given birth to children. It is also sad to think about it. As soon as she entered the palace, the life of the harem concubine was in the hands of the emperor, unable to control her own destiny and human rights, and finally even lost her life. As the emperor's concubine, the appearance looks infinite, but behind it is all kinds of sadness. In order to survive in the harem, they constantly competed for favor and cheated, and even a large part of them died in the harem struggle. Most of the concubines in the harem have strong endings, and few can get happy endings. I have to say that in ancient times, it was also a kind of sorrow to devote myself to female identity.