In The Harem: Part One
The word 'harem' often conjures up images of beautiful, seductive oriental women lounging in some stately pleasure dome, waiting for an opportunity to satisfy their masters. In some ways, this was not far from the truth. Read on if you want to know more. Happy reading!
If the harem is in order, the country is stable;
if the harem is in turmoil, the country is lost.
Ever wonder how a woman can influence the progress and the decline of a dynasty? The role of women in the history of China is not as well-documented as that of men since most Chinese historians were male and tended to play down their contributions and play up their faults. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that women played significant roles in shaping Chinese history.
The harem was where the emperor's family (his empress and concubines) lived. History usually focuses on the emperor, but in reality, the women behind the emperor was a considerable force which controlled the rise and fall of dynasties. The harem, often relegated to some hidden corner of history, was in fact the scene of murder, intrigue and power struggles.
The System of Empresses and Concubines
The Chinese emperors enjoyed a polygamous marital system. The wives were collectively known as imperial consorts. The empress was the official or legal wife of the emperor while the concubines were imperial consorts other than the empress. Polygamy was a legal institution for the emperor. According to the known regulations, the emperor could have a hundred and twenty concubines and one empress. In The Rites of Zhou
周禮, it is written that "the emperor has one empress, three wives, nine high-ranking concubines, twenty seven mid-ranking concubines and eighty one low-ranking concubines
". The structure of the harem therefore mirrored the structure of the men's world of the outer court. The Zhou court had established the system of magistrates or officers of the court who were responsible for teaching the imperial women of the six palaces
the female rituals.
What are The Six Palaces?
The six palaces were divided into one front palace and five rear palaces. The five rear palaces included one palace for the empress, one for the three wives, one for the nine high-ranking concubines, one for the twenty seven mid-ranking concubines and one for the eighty one low-ranking concubines. Who were the palace women?
The Rear Palace was where the emperor and his family lived. Numerous people worked in the Rear Palace to serve the imperial family. The lowest-ranked of these workers were the palace women. They were responsible for sweeping, cleaning and sundry tasks which kept them busy throughout their uneventful lives, living like caged birds within the confines of the palace, growing old and eventually dying. Only the rare minority would be lucky enough to become one of the emperor's glittering phoenixes and perch on a higher branch in the pecking order.
The vast majority of palace women came from among the commoners, but all needed to have come from "good families" that were not doctors, witches, merchants or artisans. Anually in the month of August during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the court would send people out to recruit women from good families. The women who were selected to enter the palace not only had to be beautiful but their faces must conform to fortune-telling rules.
It was recorded in The Unofficial Biography of Ming Empress Yian
by Ji Yun 记昀 of the way in which the Ming Dynasty Emperor Xizong selected palace women: The tall and short, fat and thin would be rejected; then the eyes, ears, nose, lips and tongue as well as muscle, skin, hair would be inspected and those who failed to reach palace standards would be rejected; then hearing would be tested and those with hearing problems or stammers would be rejected; then they would be asked to walk several paces to inspect their movements, rejecting several more. Those who remained would be sent to the palace to become palace women. According to their personalities, words and actions as well as the emperor's liking, a few of these would be selected to be concubines.
Most of the populace did not wish for their daughters to be sent to the palace because the women would lose their freedom. As a result, each time the emperor set out to find palace women from a place, the people would quickly marry off their daughters or flee to another part of the country. Such was the problem for the emperor that before set off to find palace women, he would order that in the place that he was going to choose women, all marriages were prohibited until after the campaign. Court officials, however, were often eager for their daughters to be taken into the palace as palace women. Unlike ordinary people, court officials were able to influence the emperor's treatment of their daughters so that most of these girls were given titles upon entering the palace. In order to foster kinship with the emperor, some officials would go to elaborate lengths to have their daughters taken into the palaces that they could have the opportunity to win the emperor's favour. Emperors also sometimes gave away palace women as rewards or gifts to ministers or family members and to foreign rulers to form diplomatic relationships with them.
The lot of palace women who did not win the favour of the emperor was grim. During the Qing Dynasty, those women who were not chosen by the emperor would be sent from the palace when they reached twenty four or twenty five years of age to be married off. In the palace, there were also strange phenomena of dui shi
对食 and cai hu
菜户. Dui shi
referred to two palace women coupled together as "husband and wife", while cai hu
referred to palace women coupled with eunuchs as "husband and wife".
The emperor could have unlimited number of concubines but there could only be one official wife, the empress. The emperor was known as the "ruler of the world" while the empress was known as the "mother of the world". The empress was the most venerated and revered figurehead for women in China. Everyone in the harem, apart from the queen mother and the emperor, would have to obey the empress. Throughout all the dynasties of Chinese history, during the new moon and full moon, the empress would ascend the throne of the inner pavilion and receive the veneration of all the concubines of the harem.
In archaic times, the word for empress actually referred to the son of heaven (the emperor) while the consorts of the emperor were all called "concubines" with the official wife referred to as "official concubine" or "premier concubine". All the other consorts were referred to as "secondary concubines". The word for "concubine" 妃 (fēi) was originally pronounced as "pèi" and was used interchangeably with the word 配 (pèi) meaning "spouse". It was not until the Western Zhou Dynasty when the ruler came to be called "king" that the word "empress" was used to refer the wife of the emperor who till then had been referred to as "queen". The other wives of the emperor continued to be called "concubines".
After Emperor Qin Shihuang established the imperial system and the word "emperor" was used for the ruler of China, the wife of the emperor began to be called "empress". Qin Shihuang was the first to use the title "emperor" but there was no empress during his reign. Right after Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty and ruled as Emperor Gaozu, his wife from the Lü family was referred to as the "empress". Hence, she was the first woman in Chinese history to bear the title "empress". This nomenclature remained in use right until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
In order to obtain and secure the position as an empress, innumerable bloody acts and scandals were committed in the harem.
Here are some examples:
- Wu Zetian killed her newborn and blamed Empress Wang for the crime in order to get rid of the empress.
- Empress Jia of the Jin Dynasty killed a pregnant palace maid in order to secure her position as an empress.
Who can become an empress?
- Zhao Hede, the highest ranked of the nine concubines chosen by Emperor Chengdi, also the sister of Zhao Feiyan, killed Lady Cao's and Lady Xu's newborn sons in order to be the favourites of the harem along with her sister Zhao Feiyan.
The first empress of any emperor is usually not his own choice but that of the empress dowager if he is already enthroned as emperor, or the choice of his father (reigning emperor) and his mother (reigning empress) if he is yet to ascend the throne. Majority of these empresses were of aristocratic and noble origins. The empress was revered as the mother of the country, but if the emperor didn't like her, he could find some excuse to dispose of her and install another in her place.
The fate of a deposed empress was tragic. Some of them were imprisoned while others were sent to temples or other palaces to study Buddhism or Taoism. Some were even ordered to commit suicide.
The Empress Dowager
When an emperor died, the empress was promoted to empress dowager. If the new emperor was still young, the empress dowager would govern the court and government. As the empress dowager governed, she would sit in person in the front palace and meet with the ministers. Physical contact between men and women was forbidden. Hence, the empress dowager would sit behind a curtain so that the ministers would not see her face. This was called "holding court from behind the curtain".
The Four Concubines of Huangdi
The royal family of the archaic period implemented a polygamous marriage system and the first semi-mythological ruler, Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), had four concubines.
The official concubine was Lei Zu 嫘祖. Short and dark-skinned, she learned how to make use of silk worms to produce silk. The populace was taught the art of making silk, thus her era saw a great cultural leap forward as the practice of making silk clothing replaced clothes that was made up of tree barks and animal hides.
Two of Huangdi's secondary concubines were called Tongyu 彤鱼 and Fanglei 方雷. Tongyu invented chopsticks and Fanglei invented the comb.
Another secondary concubine of Huangdi's was Momu 嫫母. She was extremely ugly but was hard-working and thrifty, ever happy to help other people and she earned the love of the people. Huangdi brought her back to the palace and made her a secondary concubine, putting her in charge of the harem and the concubines.
It has been said that Huangdi gave Momu the position of fang xiang shi
方相氏 (the spirit who drives away ghosts), using her ugly countenance to drive off evil. Her spirit is said to live on today in the qi tou
(a spirit mask that drives away ghosts) that are pasted on the doors of some farm houses. According to some traditions, these qi tou
are said to be fashioned by her ugly appearance.
The Yellow Emperor did not choose his wives according to how they looked. Neither his official concubine nor secondary concubines were good looking but all of them proved to be very competent, thus providing great assistance to Huangdi in his work ruling the country.
"Disastrously Beautiful" Imperial Women
· Meixi 妹喜
Meixi was the last king's favourite concubine, King Jie 夏桀 of the Xia Dynasty. He was infatuated with her beauty. King Jie worked the people and depleted his wealth by building luxurious palaces in order to please her and spending days in debauchery. In the end, King Jie lost the goodwill of his people and was eventually overthrown by King Tang 商湯 of the Shang Dynasty.
· Daji 妲己
Just like Meixi, Daji was the favourite concubine of King Zhou 商紂王, the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty. Captivatingly beautiful, King Zhou spent the whole day feasting and entertaining for her sake and neglected the affairs of state. It is said that Daji liked to hear the terrible cries of prisoners being tortured. In order to make her happy, King Zhou tried to make her happy by increasing the use of heavy punishment. The tyrannical King Zhou caused the resistance led by King Wu 周武王 of the Zhou Dynasty and was overthrown. King Zhou burnt himself to death and the once glamorous Daji hanged herself.
· Baosi 褒姒
Baosi was the queen of the last king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King You 周幽王. As usual, she was a beauty sent as a present to King You by the country of Bao. Baosi bore him a son, Bofu, and became King You's favourite. Blinded by love, King You deposed his long-standing queen, Queen Shen and her son, Crown Prince Jiu, and installed Baosi as queen with the young Bofu as Crown Prince.
Making Baosi laugh was not an easy task but King You wanted to see his sweetheart smile and tried very hard in doing so. Once when travelling to Lishan, he played a trick on the nobles by lighting the warning signal beacons. Baosi laughed when she saw troops rushing to the border line to meet a non-existant danger. Soon, King You lost the trust of his people. Duke Shen, the father of the deposed Queen Shen, united with the ethnic group Quanrong from the northwest in ancient times to avenge his daughter and his grandson's deposal and attacked the capital. King You ordered the signals to be lit but the dukes thought this was another trick and did not send troops to his assistance. King You was killed and Baosi was taken away by the Quanrong."Disastrously Beautiful"?
Here's something for you to ponder about. A few historians believed that the decline and collapse of dynasties were caused by women and they called these women "disastrously beautiful".The earliest dynasties in China collapsed due to the "disastrous" beauties mentioned earlier. However, the prosperity of a dynasty cannot be attributed solely to the emperor and the collapse of a dynasty cannot be concluded to be the work of "disastrously beautiful" women either.
The modern literary master, Lu Xun 魯迅, had this to say about the "disastrous beauties" theory:
I feel that in a patriarchal society, women could not possibly have this power. The responsibility for the prosperity or collapse of a society is principally the work of men.
That is to say if an emperor was not muddle-headed or debauched, then the women around him did not have the opportunity to become "disastrous". If there was nothing that could save the emperor himself, then the virtuous imperial women around him couldn't change the fate of a decaying dynasty. Take Empress Xiao of the Sui Dynasty for instance. She often tried to persuade the tyrannical Emperor Yangdi to be thrifty and give up his debauched lifestyle. Alas, he did not listen and the empress could only watch the dynasty move towards its eventual collapse.
The Period of Qin and HanMother of the First Emperor Zhao Ji
Qin Shihuang, the man who first united the various states that existed in China into one nation in 221 BC, was the first person to be called "emperor" in Chinese history. For such an important historical figure who remains famous to this day, the true situation regarding his birth is still a mystery. It seems that only his mother, the Empress Dowager Zhao Ji, was clear about it.
In the beginning, Zhao Ji was a favourite concubine of Lü Buwei. Lü Buwei travelled to Zhao to conduct business and became familiar with a hostage of the Zhao state, the grandson of the King of Qin Ying Yiren. Lü Buwei had the foresight to see that Ying Yiren was a "rare commodity" who would one day become an important person. He spent money "sponsoring" Ying Yiren, and succeeded in getting him adopted as a son by Lady Huayang (the official concubine of An Guojun, the crown prince of Qin, who originally had no son) and he changed his name to Zichu.
Zichu saw Lü Buwei's beautiful concubine, Zhao Ji, and requested as a favour that she be given to him. Lü Buwei agreed and Zhao Ji went with Zichu. It has been said that Zhao Ji was two months pregnant at the time for soon after she married Zichu, she gave birth to a son called Ying Zheng, who later became the first emperor, Qin Shihuang.
Soon after Zichu came to the throne as King Zhuangxiang after King Xiaowen (An Guojun) died, Ying Zheng became the Crown Prince. Ying Zheng was only thirteen when he ascended the throne. The power rested with his prime minister, Lü Buwei. Zhao Ji was made queen mother, and with her husband gone, continued her old romance with Lü Buwei. As Ying Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei began to worry that his illicit relationship with the queen mother become known, so he got a person called Lao Ai to pretend to be a eunuch to wait upon the queen mother. Lao Ai soon became her favourite and was made Duke of Changxin. He started to gradually develop some power in the court. The queen mother also bore him two sons out of wedlock.
In 238 BC, when Ying Zheng started to rule in his own right at the age of twenty two, Lao Ai took the opportunity to stage a rebellion which Ying Zheng succeeded in suppressing. As a result, Lao Ai was executed and the two sons were killed. Because it was Lü Buwei who had advanced Lao Ai, he was dismissed from his position as prime minister and he committed suicide two years later. Zhao Ji was put under house arrest but was later pardoned. In 228 BC, the queen mother died when she was over fifty years old. Qin Shihuang posthumously gave his mother the respectful title of "empress dowager".
The Ruthless Empress Lü
She was the wife of the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, who became emperor Gaozu. In 202 BC, Liu Bang became emperor and Empress Lü became the first empress of the Han Dynasty.
Empress Lü was a decisive and ruthless person. She did two things the emperor wanted to do but did not have the courage she executed two former military leaders, Han Xin and Peng Yue, who, although achieving much for the country, were seen as threats to the sovereign. Emperor Gaozu resented Han Xin's high position and influence. He demoted him from Prince of Chu to Marquis of Huaiyin, but was not brave enough to have him killed.
Once when Emperor Gaozu was out suppressing an uprising, Han Xin plotted a rebellion in Changan. Empress Lü, with the help of Xiao He, killed Han Xin. Another time, Prince of Liang Peng Yue was unwilling to join Emperor Gaozu in his attack against the conspirator Chen Xi and was banished to Sichuan. Peng Yue pleaded with Empress Lü to intervene on his behalf. Afterwards, she told Emperor Gaozu that Peng Yue must be killed, afraid that he might stir up more troubles in the future.
After Peng Yue was killed, Empress Lü had his body minced to a pulp and sent to the other princes and nobles as a warning that they should not consider rebelling. Although Empress Lü was ruthless and merciless, she succeeded in destroying the separatist movement and helped consolidate the rule of the Han Dynasty.
The son of Empress Lü, Liu Ying was weak willed and Liu Bang preferred to make Ru Yu, the son of his beloved concubine, Qi Ji, crown prince in his place. But some of his chief ministers opposed him and he was forced to abandon the idea. After Emperor Gaozu died, Liu Ying became the emperor as was known as Emperor Huidi. Emperor Huidi was weak and cowardly and it was Empress Dowager Lü who wielded power. Empress Dowager Lü was finally able to vent her jealousy and hatred of Qi Ji. She had Qi Ji imprisoned in Yongxiang palace and punished her by shaving her head bald and doing hard labour. But the Empress Dowager was still not satisfied, so she had Qi Ji's hands and feet cut off, her eyes gouged out, ears deafened and throat made mute. Then, she had her locked up in a cesspit where she was called the "human sow". Qi Ji's son was killed by the empress dowager soon after.
In order for her family to accumulate as much power as possible, Empress Dowager Lü arranged for Emperor Huidi to take her granddaughter, Zhang Yan as his empress. (Zhang Yan was the daughter of Emperor Huidi's sister, Princess Luyuan, and was therefore his niece.) Empress Zhang was childless and so Empress Dowager Lü killed one of the concubines of Emperor Huidi who had given birth and pretended that the baby was Empress Zhang's. His name was Liu Gong. After Emperor Huidi died, Empress Dowager Lü installed Liu Gong as a child emperor while she ruled as great empress dowager. Liu Gong was emperor for four years when he found out the truth about his real mother being killed by Empress Dowager Lü and came to hate her. So, Empress Dowager Lü had him killed and installed the young Liu Hong as the emperor.
Empress Dowager Lü betrayed Emperor Gaozu's dying request that "no one other than a Liu be made prince" by making many of her relatives princes and dukes, who then controlled all the important posts. Another aspect of her betrayal was that she plotted to kill or harm Emperor Gaozu's sons, Liu You and Liu Hui, so as to supplant the owner of the house of Liu.
In 180 BC, Empress Dowager Lü died of illness. She was sixty two years old. Following her death, some of Emperor Gaozu's old ministers such as Chen Ping and Zhou Bo took control of the military and then set about eradicating the Lü clan that Empress Dowager Lü had meticulously created. She led to the annihilation of the Lü family.The Divorcee Empress - Empress Wang
Emperor Han Wudi of the Han Dynasty was the son of Emperor Jingdi and a divorcee. His mother, Wang Zhi, who was born into an ordinary family, married a man called Jin Wangsu and gave birth to a daughter. But her life changed when her mother had Wang Zhi's fortune read. The fortune teller predicted that Wang Zhi's fate is to be extremely rich and influential.
Driven by the fortune teller's prophesy, Wang Zhi's mother instructed her to leave Jin Wangsu and did everything possible to get her into the imperial harem, expecting this would lead to the prophesied honour and wealth. It turned out that Wang Zhi did
make it into the harem and she was made to wait on the crown prince, Liu Qi. She soon bore Liu Qi a son, Liu Che.
Liu Qi became Emperor Jingdi. His empress, Empress Bo, did not have a son. Hence, Liu Rong, the son of his concubine, Li Ji, and the third oldest of Liu Che's brothers, was installed as crown prince. Emperor Jingdi planned to do away Empress Bo and install another empress. In the harem, the rank of the mother depended on her son's position and so it would have seemed natural that Li Ji should be the new empress but Wang Zhi took the crown. What happened was the Emperor Jingdi's sister, Liu Piao, planned to give her daughter, Ajiao, in marriage to Liu Rong so that Ajiao would become empress in the future. However, Li Ji refused to let her son marry his cousin. Liu Piao took the refusal as a slap in the face and made Li Ji her enemy.
Wang Zhi reckoned that Liu Piao, as the sister of the emperor, had the power to influence Emperor Jingdi's opinion and it would not bode well to snub her. She therefore actively sought to get on Liu Piao's good side, proposing that their son and daughter be married. Liu Piao agreed and Liu Che and Ajiao were married. Liu Piao now had a strong vested interest in supporting Liu Che. She continually said bad things about Li Ji and Liu Rong and talked highly of Wang Zhi and Liu Che in the emperor's presence.
This added to Li Ji's anxiety about becoming an empress, such that a number of times she shouted and got angry in Emperor Jingdi's presence, making him very annoyed. Wang Zhi skilfully inflamed the situation by inciting the official in charge of receiving guests, Da Xing, to make a written appeal for Li Ji to become empress. When he saw this interference in palace affairs, the emperor flew into a rage and had Da Xing beheaded. Before long, he revoked Liu Rong's status as crown prince and Li Ji, overwhelmed with grief, fell sick and died.
Wang Zhi succeeded in rising to the position of empress to become the revered mother of the country. Her son, Liu Che, became crown prince and he finally became Emperor Wudi after Emperor Jingdi died. It was believed that Liu Che's success in becoming emperor was largely due to his mother's quick assessment and manipulation.
(to be continued...)