本文分為兩部分，首先考察選宮女，其次討論放宮女。明代前期，採選宮女的範圍較大，涉及南直隸、北直隸、山東、浙江、江西、福建、廣東等地。1540 年至1560 年間，局限於北京城與北直隸境內；1560 年以後，則選自北京城附近。明代中葉以前，採選宮女通常指定要識字者，中葉以後則不太提及。在放宮女方面，明朝初年曾有宮女屆齡或服務滿一定年限，即放回家鄉的慣例，但似乎並未落實。1435 年，英宗即位，曾大規模放出宮女，此後成為不成文的慣例，因此後繼的皇帝登基，也常有放宮女之舉，最後一次為1621 年。至於宮女的數字，1564 年是2,575 人；而清朝康熙皇帝曾兩度談到明末的宮女人數，一次說9,000人，一次說是20,000 餘人，這顯然互相矛盾，而且過度誇大。實際上，以紫禁城所能容納的空間計算，應該沒有這麼多。

This article is divided into 2 sections, the selection of Royal Palacemaidservants and the discharge of these maidservants. In the early Ming dynasty,royal palace maidservants were selected from larger areas, such as the Northernand Southern Zhili provinces, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdongand surrounding areas. After 1540, the selection areas were limited to Peking cityand Northern Zhili. Even after 1560, they were only selected in the vicinity ofPeking City. Prior to the mid-Ming, literacy was required in the selection process.However, after the mid-Ming, it was not explicitly stated. As for the discharge ofthe maidservants, the general practice in the early Ming dynasty was that they werefree after certain years of service. But this policy was not enforced. When EmperorYingzong ascended to the throne in 1435, he extensively released themaidservants. Afterwards it became an unwritten law. All of the followingemperors released numerous maidservants. The last event recorded in 1621. In1564, the number of royal palace maidservants was 2575. Emperor Kangxi of theQing dynasty had mentioned the number of late Ming dynasty’s maidservantstwice: once it was around nine thousand, and the other time it was twentythousand. The numbers were an obvious exaggeration. In reality, the living spacearea in the Forbidden City did not have the capacity for such a large number ofmaidservants.