Ruyi’s royal love 016: Are Qing imperial women allowed to smoke?

In Ruyi's Rongyou Lao, we can say the emperor's daughter is a smoker. But we never see Qianlong's imperial women smoke. So, in real history, did the Qing imperial women smoke? The answer is yes. For example, Qianlong's consort Ling was a smoker. In the historical documents, Qianlong gave the consort Ling high-quality cut tobacco as gifts. In Ruyi's Rongyou Lao, the tool used by the emperor's daughter to smoke is called shui yan hu, hookah. The emperor's daughter Cixi really loved smoking. After Cixi passed away, her favorite hookah was buried with her. Today, if you visit the Palace Museum, you may have a chance to see Cixi's hookah. In Guangxu's time, cigarettes first appeared in China. The last Empress Wanrong smoked about 50 cigarettes per day. Tobacco came into China in late Ming Emperor Wanli's time. At the very beginning, tobacco was a kind of medicine. But when time went to the late Ming Dynasty, tobacco already became a common customer good. Just like one entity, Ming last Emperor Chongzhen seriously banned tobacco. Tobacco in Chinese is yancao. In Ming modern era, people call smoke chiyan, eat tobacco. Meanwhile, in Ming Dynasty, the capital was called Yanjing, which is today's Beijing, because the character yan and yan have the same pronunciation. Chongzhen believed chiyan represents eating the capital, which was the sign that Ming Dynasty would end. In Chongzhen's time, inside the country, rebellions commonly happened. Outside the country, Qing was trying to conquer Ming. So I understand why Chongzhen punished the order of banning tobacco. In Chongzhen's time, Qing country was ruled by Huangtaiji. Huangtaiji also punished the order to ban tobacco. I guess Huangtaiji didn't know Chinese well. Or she should encourage people to eat tobacco. To curse the Ming Dynasty. If he didn't, maybe in his time, Qing already replaced Ming. In Nurhaci's time, Ming armies brought tobacco into Liaodong area. Then tobacco quickly became very popular among Manchurian noble. Because at that time, Manchurian people didn't grow tobacco. Importing was the only way that Manchurian people could get tobacco. So tobacco was very expensive. Starting from 1630, Huangtaiji frequently gave tobacco to other nobles as gifts. But in 1639, Huangtaiji published a formal order to ban tobacco. This because many regular people spent lots of money on tobacco. Unfortunately, this order didn't work. Because Manchurian nobles loved tobacco so much, they didn't follow the order. So only two years later, Huangtaiji had to cancel his order. Then tobacco was widely grown in northeast area. Southern people said there were three weird things in northeast area. One weird thing is 姑娘叼着大烟袋, which means Manchurian girls smoke. Han Chinese girls also smoke. But they usually secretly smoke in their home. Manchurian girls were allowed to smoke publicly. After Manchurian people conquered China, they kept this habit. So in the Qing dynasty, no surprise that imperial women, noble women, and regular Manchurian girls smoked. By the way, in Ruyi's royal law, Empress Xiaoxian put her newborn prince in a swing. I think this is accurate. Putting the newborn in a swing was one of three weird things. In northeast area. Today, if you visit Shen Yun Imperial Palace, you can see the similar swing in Guanju Palace. Thank you for watching this video. See you soon.