Quick Wear: I and the Female Match Share the Battle Shirt

Chapter 233: If you are not called Qingping, you can’t be happy (2)

The Shangshu Neisheng Office was located deep in the imperial palace. Lu Changqing followed Li Xuan, walking along the Funing Hall towards the Shengping Tower, passing the Qinxian Hall and entering the Xuanhe Hall.

The palace courtyard was filled with tall and slender green bamboos, and a few eunuchs were sweeping the dead and yellow bamboo leaves on the ground.

Li Xuan pointed to another group of palaces not far away and said, "After the platform in front is the Yuhua Palace, behind the palace is the Jigu Pavilion, and in the west wing of the Jigu Pavilion is the Shangshu Neisheng, where we usually work."

When passing by Yuhua Palace, Li Xuan pointed to a wing next to a side hall and said, "That's where we usually live."

Lu Changqing listened carefully. Beyond the red wall in the distance, a palace stood quietly there, with a high roof ridge and flying eaves, solemn and mysterious.

Li Xuan followed Lu Changqing's gaze and said, "That's Taiqing Tower, where the palace's books are stored."

Lu Changqing asked curiously: "Can we borrow books from Taiqing Tower on weekdays?"

Li Xuan nodded and said, "Of course you can. As long as it is within the inner court, we can go in and out, but we cannot enter the outer court without the emperor's permission."

The so-called inner court and outer court are separated by the long road between Xihuamen and Donghuamen. The outer court is where court officials gather, and the inner court is where the emperor rests, entertains and lives.

"But..." Li Xuan added, "Because of our special status, the emperor doesn't like us to have too much contact with other nobles besides him, including the queen and the ladies of the palaces. If you have nothing to do, it's best not to leave the Yuhua Palace."

Li Xuan led Lu Changqing into the hall. There were several desks in the spacious palace, and six officials in casual clothes were concentrating on writing something.

Li Xuan approached an elderly man and bowed, saying, "Master, the person has arrived." [Note: 1]

Yang Shanjun raised his head from the memorial and looked at Lu Changqing who was standing next to Li Xuan.

"Your humble servant Bai Fuying greets the governor." Lu Changqing bowed and saluted Yang Shanjun.

Yang Shanjun reached out his hand and helped Lu Changqing up, "No need to be so polite."

After saying this, she stopped the official duties of the other five female officials in the palace.

"Everyone, please stop being busy. Today, a new colleague has arrived in our yamen." Yang Shanjun said to Lu Changqing, "Please introduce yourself to everyone."

In fact, there was not much to introduce, so Lu Changqing briefly stated his name, official position, age and background.

Next, Lu Changqing thought that Yang Shanjun would ask other people to explain the rules of the palace to her, but she didn't expect her to put aside the official duties at hand and explain them to her personally.

It was nothing more than the two words "avoid suspicion". Lu Changqing was almost warned in person that he must not contact any foreign officials. If the emperor knew about it, the consequences would be very serious.

Lu Changqing nodded like a chick pecking at rice, indicating that he would definitely remember it in his heart.

Later, I learned from Yang Shanjun that there are currently 25 female officials in the yamen. The department adopts a shift system, and six officials are arranged to go to Jiguxuan every day to assist in handling official business.

When Lu Changqing first arrived, he was not qualified to "approve imperial documents" and still needed to study for a period of time.

The Northern Song Dynasty did not hold court meetings every day. In the early days of Emperor Zhao Zhen's reign, he wanted to achieve some political achievements, so he tried holding court meetings once a day, but he could not stick to it and soon returned to the original practice of holding court meetings once every five days. [Note: 2]

Before each court meeting, all officials would write down in advance the opinions or compliments they wanted to make. After the meeting, the eunuchs in the palace would collect the memorials, seal them in a yellow bag, and send them to the Secretariat and the Privy Council.

A large number of these letters of request will be screened out in the Secretariat and the Privy Council, and the rest will be submitted to the Emperor's Secretariat Office, namely the Shangshu Neisheng.

One of the duties of these female officials headed by Yang Shanjun was to help the emperor sort out and screen a large number of memorials.

Some memorials with less important contents did not need to be presented to the emperor, and they had the power to approve them on his behalf.

In other words, a large portion of the memorials sent back to the Secretariat or the Privy Council for approval had the approval content written by these female officials themselves, and the emperor had never even read them.

In addition to assisting the emperor in reviewing memorials, they also helped the emperor draft all his decrees and documents.

For example, the imperial edicts that are common in film and television dramas and novels, in the Song Dynasty, were not issued from the emperor’s Funing Palace, but from the Shangshu Neisheng Palace.

The emperor's jade seal and official stamp are all in their hands, and any decree must go through their hands.

Some people may think that how can such an important thing as the imperial seal be placed in another palace? Isn’t there any fear of it being lost?

Let me tell you the conclusion first. Of course I’m not afraid.

The jade seal (the imperial seal) is something that only emperors who came to power in an unleashly legitimate way would use to prove that they were the chosen one. For those rulers who have already secured their thrones, the jade seal is just a seal. If it is lost, they can just find a craftsman to carve a new one.

From this we can see that the power of female officials is much greater than imagined, especially in the period when women are in power.

For example, the well-known Shangguan Wan'er, the less well-known Lin from the time of Liu E, and Madam Zhang from the time of Empress Dowager Meng.

But unfortunately, although they have considerable power, they have never been able to truly stand on the same level as the men in the court.

Lu Changqing was arranged to stay alone in an ear room in Yuhua Palace. The room was not big, only about 20 square meters.

"You rest in the room first. I have arranged for the palace servants to get the clothes, bedding and other items you need."

After Yang Shanjun finished speaking, she carefully explained: "The palace can also accept letters and items from outside. Winter is coming soon. Your family is in Tokyo, so you can ask your family to send you some cotton clothes."

Yang Shanjun pointed at her cuffs and said, "Don't make the color too bright, and pay attention to the size. It's best to make the top into a narrow-sleeved jacket style, and never make it with wide sleeves."

Lu Changqing thanked Yang Shanjun for the reminder. The latter nodded at her and went back to Jiguxuan to take care of his own business.

As soon as Yang Shanjun left, several heads appeared at the door of the ear room.

When Lu Changqing saw the visitors, he hurriedly invited them into the house.

There were eight people in total, and there were not enough stools in the room, so some of them could only stand with Lu Changqing.

"Everyone knew that a few days ago, they said that there would be new people coming to the government office. I didn't expect you to come so soon."

"Which palace were you from before? Why do I feel like I've never seen you before?"

"What's your name? Where are you from?"

……

Everyone asked Lu Changqing questions at the same time, but Lu Changqing did not feel annoyed and answered all the questions one by one.

"You are actually from outside the palace? You look quite old!" Zhang Wenniang exclaimed.

Wu Qian patted Zhang Wenniang and said, "Don't be so surprised. Fu Ying has a reason why the government likes her."

Lu Changqing smiled gratefully at Wu Qian and said shyly, "The official praised my neat and regular handwriting."

Zhang Wenniang said: "The emperor is best at calligraphy. Since even he praised it, your handwriting must be very good."

Lu Changqing said modestly: "You are too kind."

"I'm not exaggerating, it's the government that said that."

Zhang Wenniang looked young, and her words were lively and innocent. "I forgot to ask, how old are you this year?"

"Thirteen."

Zhang Wenniang clapped her hands excitedly, as if she had heard something very happy. "That's great. I'm finally not the youngest among us anymore."