How did palaces recruit maids in history?

The Qing Dynasty stipulated from the time of Shunzhi that all women aged 13 to 16 from the Eight Banners of the Manchu tribe must participate in the emperor's female draft every three years, and the selected ones would stay in the palace to accompany them. The emperor becomes a concubine, or is given to a descendant of the royal family to be a female who has not participated in the draft and is not allowed to marry. During the reading and selection, generally seven or eight people stood in a row according to the order of the Eight Banners, and were selected by the emperor and empress dowagers. The names of the selected women were written in a list for each row and kept in the palace archives. This kind of list was called the "Show Girl Ranking List" in the archives.

The harem in the Qing Dynasty, from the queen to the maids, were all selected from banner women. Bannermen were unique to the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the system of selecting harem beauties from bannermen women was also unique to the Qing Dynasty.

In the process of unifying the Jurchens, Nurhaci, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, created the Eight Banners system. This system was established on the basis of the original hunting organization of the Jurchens. It was a system that integrated military and political affairs, including administrative, Military, production and other functions. The four-color flags of yellow, white, red and blue are used as symbols to form eight flags: yellow, white, red, blue, yellow, white, red and blue. After the Qing Dynasty took over the Central Plains, the bannermen were divided into the Eight Banners and the Three Banners under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Eight Banners include the Eight Banners of Manchuria, the Eight Banners of Mongolia, the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and the Twenty-four Banners of the Qing Dynasty. They are the main pillars of the Qing regime; the three banners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are slaves of the Qing royal family, and their political status is different. . Therefore, although in the early Qing Dynasty women from the Eight Banners and the Three Banners were all called Xiu Nu, the selection methods and their status in the palace were also different. The show girls of the Eight Banners are selected every three years, and are presided over by the Ministry of Household Affairs. They can be selected as queens and concubines, or they can be given marriages to close relatives (that is, within three generations and with close blood relations) of the clan; the show girls of the Three Banners are selected once a year. , presided over by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Although some of them were gradually promoted to concubines, the ones who took on the harem's chores were all the daughters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the late Qing Dynasty, the women who were selected to serve as the Three Banners were no longer called Xiu Nu. When selecting palace maidens, it was clearly stated that "introducing the Handmaids of the Three Banners". Therefore, those who could become the concubines of the Qing Dynasty were mainly the Eight Banners showgirls.