I've watched a few imperial court dramas, both Korean and Chinese, and a thing I've noticed is that when women are carried to a man's bed, they get wrapped up in a blanket and carried over sideways like a burrito! Instead of showing up on her litter, she's bundled over by servants and plopped on the bed. This is a good example of it - 14:10 It seems so strange and I've seen it in a couple of different settings, so I'd like to find out about the etiquette that surrounds this. Is this a specific thing with a name? This shows an interesting level of etiquette surrounding sex in imperial china and I'm really interested in it! If you could point me in the direction of any information about this in general, I'd really appreciate it!
Author Susanne Alleyn (who wrote Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders: A Writer's (& Editor's) Guide to Keeping Historical Fiction Free of Common Anachronisms, Errors, & Myths) said it best: "Do not borrow your period details and information from other people's historical novels & movies. Why? Because sometimes their author get stuff wrong. Okay, often they get stuff wrong. Especially in movies..."
Qing Dynasty author Zhang Zhuyi (张祖翼, aka 梁溪坐观老人) wrote a (fictional) book called 清代野记, I don't know what the official English translation is but I think it's appropriate to call it Field Journal of Qing Dynasty. He is probably the first person to describe this and he claimed since the emperor has a large harem of commoners, it was difficult to verify the actual identity of each woman. There was a rumor that a woman assassinated/attempted to assassinate Emperor Yongzheng for revenge on literary inquisition against her family by getting selected for the harem. As a precaution, the lady selected for the night will be notified and she will go to a room near the emperor's room, strip naked in front of a eunuch who will wrap her in red quilt, and carry her to the emperor's room.
(If you speak Chinese, here's the text:
出于清代皇帝高度的戒备心理，防止妃子中出现刺客，妃子必须裸体来到皇帝寝所。方法是妃子被带到离皇帝寝所不远的一间屋里脱光衣服，宦官用红锦被或大衣将她裹上，扛上肩，背进皇帝的寝所。到帝榻前，去掉外裹的红锦被或大衣。)
However every other contemporary account seem to use that book as reference, and other sources completely dismissed it as fiction. For example according to the memoir of Empress Cixi's personal maid (宫女谈往录) the maids only joke about it amongst themselves ("You're so pretty! Be careful the eunuch don't carry you away at night!"). According to Forbidden City Museum historian Zhu Jiajin (in his book 故宫退食录, I'm not sure how to translate the title), what actually happens is during dinner the emperor is given the names of all available concubines and all available concubines would go wait in one room. One concubine's name will be called to dine with the emperor and the rest of them dismissed. He specifically said carrying in burrito is completely fictional.
Edit:
Most accounts say the women were carried on the shoulder instead of on the arms like in the show.
From what I'm understanding Field Journal of Qing Dynasty is one of those works where it claims to be a true account but the author has a reputation of "trolling" people and didn't try too hard to defend the details, most contemporary readers understood it as a work of fiction or at least embellished reality (kinda like how /r/nosleep works). However after a few generations many people do not realize the book is suppose to be fictional and took it at face value. Basically the book is a very detailed account of society during Golden Age Qing Dynasty. It literally described every detail from major events to random trivias and rumors.
I read somewhere in Cixi's biography too about this. The concubine for the night was naked, bundled up, and carried by an eunuch straight to the emperor's curtained bed. Would be glad if there's someone knowledgeable who can explain whether this is true or just a legend, as in Cixi's biography the author did put 'if legend is to be believed' preceding the statement.