论明代的选秀女之制

朱元璋创建明王朝后，为预防外戚干政现象的出现，在后宫实行了从民间选拔良家女子以服侍封建帝王的制度。在此制度下被选入宫的女子，绝大多数处于宫中最底层，毫无人身自由可言。从明代没有出现前代的女主干政现象而言，朱元璋的这一制度是成功的，但是由于封建制度本身的痼疾和继世之君的纵欲享乐，遂使选秀女制度给明代社会造成极大的扰害，给平民百姓带来极大的灾难。

On the System of Beauty-Selecting in the Ming Dynasty

After having established the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent imperial relatives from interfering in the state affairs, Zhu Yuanzhang put into effect the system of selecting beauties from respectalbefamilies as maids of the emperor. Most of the maids were kept at the bottom of the imperial palace without any personal freedom at all. This system, to some extent, was successful in that no interference in the state affairs on the part of imperial relatives was seen in the Ming Dynasty. However, due to the chronic malady of feudalism itself and the emperors' indulgence in sensual pleasures, this system eventuallycaused great disasters to the society and the people.