From time immemorial, harems have been popular not only in the eastern states. In China, their own traditions of polygamy took place throughout the long history of the existence of this state. Of course, harems were the prerogative of only rich and noble nobles - harems that were record-breaking and sometimes numbered up to several hundred young concubines.
However, informal harems were common even among beggars, like church rats, temporary workers. Without a single penny in their pockets, ragged, soiled, arriving in another city, they first of all found themselves a marching woman who always fed, courted and washed her new stern master. In spite of everything, the counter husband not only did not leave yuan, but also fulfilled his marital duty once a year according to the schedule.
In principle, in the medieval period, in China, harems were commonplace. No one noticed absolutely nothing unusual in this, and the concubines themselves too. To arrange a young girl in the harem of a rich man or nobleman was considered the dream of almost all poor parents. Thus, she was guaranteed food, clothing, and sometimes life itself.
In spite of everything, there were difficulties here too. What can we say about others, if the numerous concubines of the emperor himself from time to time lived from hand to mouth. There was an internal hierarchy in the harem. Therefore, those concubines who were not at the beginning of the “sexual chain” received enough food so that they simply did not stretch out their legs from hunger. The same girls who included half a chicken or a piece of beef in their diet for the whole month were unconditionally considered the luckiest. Often, poor concubines managed only the most vegetables. Thus the problem excess weight disappeared from them once and for all. As, perhaps, and excessive life expectancy ...
Some, the least rights, appeared in the older wives and concubines in the Chinese harem, only when they gave birth to a child - of course, a boy, the fate of female children did not bother anyone. It happened that the queue never reached some girls, they observed their own royal husband only from afar. When a girl, in despair, dared to change, she was sentenced to death. In addition, sometimes a mere suspicion of such an act was enough for execution.
A huge number of disturbing stories about concubines and simple wives of emperors and local princes who committed suicide due to difficult life. As a rule, they hung themselves or jumped into full wells - every large estate has these wells to this day.
There were, of course, situations in which ordinary concubines, thanks to their own intelligence, agility, resourcefulness and perseverance of character, came to the very pinnacle of power. The most striking example is the famous Empress Cixi. But still, Cixi is only an exception. Usually the fate of the women of the harem of old China was completely unenviable.
And far from all the girls got at least into harems.
I need very little to be happy: power over the world and something to eat ...
concubine's status traditional China
The Status of a Concubine in Traditional China
In traditional Chinese society, women not only raised children and took care of the household, but also lived in the palace, serving the emperor, sometimes playing an important role in government. state affairs.
Concubines in the Emperor's Palace
To begin with, it should be determined that one of the main signs of the power and might of the Son of Heaven in China was a large harem. The status of each inhabitant of the harem was determined by the degree of activity of her yin energy (阴 - the negative (female) principle of the universe) energy. highest degree The empress was endowed with the activity of this energy.
In the family hierarchy, each woman had a strictly defined place: servants were subordinate to concubines, concubines - to wives, wives - to main wives, and all without exception - to the first mistress, the main wife of the father of the family, and in the event of his death - the main wife of the eldest son. In the harem of the Son of Heaven, the empress was in charge of all the minor wives. Secondary wives, as well as concubines, did not have the right to sit with the first or main wife. This was expressed even in the writing of the hieroglyph 妾（tse - concubine）, which consists of two parts: on top the hieroglyph 立（li - stand), and below 女（nyu - woman, maiden).
The concubines had to remain in the harem until the age of twenty-five, and then, if they did not have children (primarily sons), they were removed from the palace. The concubines-mothers of children who gave birth from the Son of Heaven remained in the palace and could claim the role of the wife of the emperor and empress.
The women and girls of the palace made up two categories: the wives and concubines of the emperor and palace employees. All women of the imperial palace were divided into several categories. By the time of the reign of Emperor Yuandi (from 49 BC to 33 BC), according to the famous Russian historian R. Vyatkin, there were 14 categories of concubines. In the late Han period, according to S.V. Volkov, only four ranks were established for concubines.
And here is the gradation of wives and concubines given by the historian Wang Yaping. The main among the women in the palace was the Empress, or the main wife of the Son of Heaven, followed by four (and not three, as V.V. Malyavin believes) “additional” wives, each of them had a special title: a precious concubine, virtuous, moral and talented concubines. This is stated in the treatise "Li-Ji". There were also three favorite ladies who occupied the first the highest level; nine senior concubines who occupied the second step; 27 junior concubines, which in turn were divided into: nine ladies-in-waiting, nine beauties and nine talents, who occupied the third, fourth and fifth steps, and 81 "harem girls". They were also divided into three categories: 27 girls, 27 imperial women and 27 women-gatherers, which made up the sixth, seventh and eighth steps. According to the above data, we can conclude that there is no exact gradation of concubines in the imperial palace, but one thing is for sure - there were many concubines and they were all endowed with different powers.
According to some materials of the Sung time, the emperor was supposed to officially have twelve wives and concubines, according to the number of months in a year (three wives and nine concubines); princes were to have nine women (one wife and eight concubines); a major dignitary - one wife and two concubines.
In addition to the concubines, in the palace of the Son of Heaven there were still palace girls who stood at the last step, and palace maids who were outside all the steps and were the lowest in status people in the palace. The use of palace girls and maids was strictly limited to a narrow circle of palace institutions. In the Ming era, they were organized into seven specialized institutions, to which 24 divisions were subordinate. In the 15th century, many women's functions were taken over by eunuchs, and only one female institution remained - the clothing service with four auxiliary bureaus.
All these numbers, as we see, had cosmological semantics. However, there could be more women in the harem. According to the Chinese authors Dian Dengguo and Wang Yaping, it was during the Tang (618-907) and Ming (1368-1643) dynasties that there were the most concubines in the palaces of the emperor. It is known that Emperor Xuanzong (712-756), who was distinguished by extreme love and fell under the spell of the young concubine of his son Yang Guifei at the age of sixty, kept about 40 thousand women in his palaces.
Based on historical materials, Wang Yaping cites such data on the number of women in the palaces of the Son of Heaven in various historical eras. In the palaces of Qin Shi Huang (246-210 BC), there were 10 thousand of them, Wudi of Han (140-87 BC) - 20 thousand, Wudi of Jin (265-290) - 15 thousand, in the palaces of Yandi of Sui (605-617) - several tens of thousands and, as we have already said, Xuanzong had about 40 thousand women in Tang time.
In the period of other dynasties in China, according to Dian Dengguo, the number of concubines was much less. Emperor Guangxu of the last Qing Dynasty only had two concubines.
Wives and concubines in the palace were served by eunuchs and female servants. The number of those and others in different dynasties varied. So, in the last half of the reign of the Qing Dynasty, according to Dian Dengguo, the Empress Dowager had 12 servants, the Empress - 10, the concubines of the first category - 8, the second - 6, the third - 4, the ordinary concubines - 3 servants.
The concubines, as they entered the owner's house, received serial numbers: concubine No. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The more was the serial number of the concubine, the lower the price was in the eyes of society. J.I. Vasiliev notes that women in the Chunqiu period, in contrast to later times, felt quite free and sometimes acted very actively.
In the Tang time, and even later, according to the well-known Russian historian A. A. Boyutsanin, the number of concubines was not limited until the 16th century. Marriage with a concubine in those years was formalized. Concubines were either “married” or “bought”. When they marry a concubine, they should also draw up a contract, - it was said in the Tang Codes. If they buy a concubine and do not know her last name, the latter should be determined by fortune-telling. It was forbidden to take as concubines former concubines of relatives of older generations, as well as women of the same surname as the future husband.
I would like to clarify the situation that developed after the death of the emperor. Even in ancient times, there was a ritual according to which, at the death of the emperor, the burial of his wives and concubines was also carried out. This followed from the ancient Chinese concept that the soul of the deceased lives in the next world and needs everything that it had on earth. From here came the custom of burying wives alive along with their dead husbands. Already with the first emperor of the centralized empire, Qin Shi Huang, his wives were buried (but only those who did not have children from him!). The emperors of the Ming Dynasty decided to restore this ancient terrible ritual - the burial of concubines along with the death of the emperor. In the imperial tombs, the main wife of the Son of Heaven, sometimes the mother of the heir and individual concubines who glorified themselves in some way, were buried. However, as a rule, many concubines were given a special burial place somewhere near the tomb of the emperor. Emperors built separate tombs for their favorite concubines. In this regard, the tomb of the concubine of Emperor Sizong Tian Guifei is interesting. It is a large hall with nine rows of columns. The emperor who committed suicide and the concubine Zhou, who was killed by him, were buried in this grave. A cruel custom reintroduced under the Ming (1368-1644) - the killing of concubines was far from being limited to the imperial court. Gradually, its scope expanded, the number of victims increased. The highest dignitaries, who imitated throughout the court, soon also began to perform this bloody "ritual", and it often turned out that in cruelty they surpassed the Son of Heaven.
The murder of concubines was carried out in a rather peculiar way - as if by the will of the concubines themselves. The whole system of public education with early childhood she developed in the future concubine the consciousness of the impossibility of existence without the emperor, convinced her that she must be both in this and in the next world. Of course, this conviction of the young concubines was cherished by the old religious beliefs. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that the Son of Heaven was a "god on earth", before whom everyone trembled, not excluding the concubines. All this served as the reasons for their mass suicides on the day of the burial of emperors and nobles or in the near future after their death. It should be added to this that the imperial palace, as we well know, was the scene of a struggle for power and the throne not only among the nobles and officials, but also among the imperial concubines. Many of them had to go to the next world ahead of time as a result of secret intrigues, the envy of their own palace friends.
The conviction of the concubines about the need to commit suicide at the death of emperors or nobles was reinforced not only by fear, not only by upbringing from childhood, not only by generally accepted customs that had become normal, from which no one dared to make exceptions. It was also reinforced by the system of exaltation of the concubines who sacrificed their lives, a system that greatly aroused the vanity of the concubines, the consciousness that, having killed herself, she was committing a noble, pious deed. Often, palace dignitaries from the chamber of rituals incited young beauties to commit suicide.
After suicide, the concubines were given majestic names with hieroglyphs, testifying to certain virtues of innocent victims. The names were given beautiful, euphonious and moralizing, speaking of the merits of the deceased.
But even worse was the fate of the palace servants, who were not exalted after their forced death, but were burned in common so-called "wells". One of the largest wells was located 5 li (2.5 km) outside the city's capital gates of Fuchenmen. This place, which turned into a "cemetery" of palace maids, was called "Gunzhense".
Here is what was said about Gunzhense in Chinese chronicles: “There are two pits there, the walls of which are lined with bricks; on a small house there is a pagoda... The wells are covered with stone slabs on top, they have small holes through which air enters the well. All the unfamous servants of the palace were not buried in separate graves ... Their corpses were burned inside the well.
It wasn't until the end of the Jiajing reign that the senior maids of the Son of Heaven's palace were allowed to buy land for their tomb; if they did not want their corpse to be put on fire, they were given the opportunity to be buried in the ground.
Concubines in rich houses and commoners
As for the presence of concubines ordinary people, it should be noted that during the Ming Dynasty there was a set of rules “Laws of the Great Ming Dynasty”, in which it was strictly described - to whom, depending on the rank, how many concubines are supposed to be. Concubines for the closest relatives of the emperor were allowed to choose once upon submission of a report, at most 10 people, their sons were allowed to have 4 concubines.
Gradually, not only relatives of the emperor and dignitaries began to take concubines. During the Han Dynasty, even middle-class men could afford to keep concubines. They often bought the girls they liked from brothels, and this custom was preserved throughout subsequent dynasties.
The concubine called her husband's wife mistress and wore mourning for her in the event of her death, and the wife in a similar case did not wear mourning for her husband's concubines. Naturally, the concubine had to wear mourning for her husband, but the husband did not wear mourning for his concubine, who did not have a son from him, and for the concubines of his sons and grandchildren. The husband did not bear any responsibility for beating the concubine without visible wounds, fractures or mutilations. But if the husband killed the concubine, then he was punished two steps more weakly than for the murder of an ordinary person. According to the laws of the Tang Empire, a slave for raping the owner's concubine received a punishment one step less than for raping his wife. In general, the punishment for the rape of a concubine or adultery with her has always been one step less than for the rape of a wife or adultery with her. A wife who scolded her husband received a year of hard labor, a concubine - one and a half. In the Middle Ages, a concubine in the case of inflicting a wound or mutilation on her husband was subject to the death penalty.
The position of a concubine in the family changed dramatically if she gave birth to a son, and especially if her son, in the absence of direct heirs from the head of the family, himself became the head of this family. The priority right in this respect belonged to the eldest son of the first concubine.
For the rape of a concubine of a father or grandfather, who had a son from his father or grandfather, the perpetrator faced the death penalty by strangulation. If she did not have a son, the punishment was less severe. For the rape of a wife, a more severe form of punishment was imposed - beheading. In Minsk times, a concubine who raised her hand to her wife was subject to 60 thick batogs and a one-year exile; the wife, who did not cause fractures and more severe injuries to the concubine as a result of assault, was not held accountable at all. The concubine, who scolded his wife, received 80 blows with thick batogs, while the law did not provide for any punishment for the verbal abuse of the concubine by the official wife. Thus, we see how different was the attitude in the family and society towards the main wife and the concubine.
In addition to harems, princes and high-ranking officials had their own troupes, trained in dance and music, girls who showed their art to guests during official banquets, meals and private feasts. As Chinese chronicles testify, they often passed from hand to hand, they were sold and resold, or simply presented as a gift. Gifting beautiful dancers became the norm of diplomatic etiquette at princely courts. It is known that in 515 BC. e. one major official involved in the lawsuit offered a troupe of such girls as a bribe to the judge. The presence of dancers and singers was considered a certain indicator social status their owner. However, over time, only the ruling families could have private troupes, although brothels provided professional singers and dancers to anyone who was able to pay for it.
Commoners from forty years and older, in the absence of sons, were allowed to purchase one concubine. All childless husbands had the right to marry a concubine. At the same time, the man took concubines for himself, guided not only by his desire, but also by financial possibilities. In poor families, all the concubines lived in the same house, sat at the same table, they performed all homework, ran the household. As for the concubines living with the emperor, they are either in the palaces. In Beijing's Gugong complex to the east and west of Housangong, the three "far palaces" set aside for the emperor's residence, there were six palaces belonging to empresses and concubines.
Thus, after analyzing the situation with the position of concubines, we can draw the following conclusion: the position of girls who received the status of a concubine was unenviable, especially if they did not give birth to boys. Only the most beautiful and worthy girls became empresses and close concubines. Once in a palace or a rich house, a young girl endured all the hardships and insults from older concubines and wives. If she could not give birth to a boy or gave birth to a girl, she could be sold to a brothel. The status of a concubine in traditional China can be equated with the status of a slave - she had no right to anything other than how to fulfill the wishes of her master. But some were lucky, at the birth of a son and a combination of successful circumstances, they became the main concubines and even wives, subsequently came to power, and implemented their policies, as can be seen from the example of Empress Cixi.
One of the emperors of ancient China sailed in a canoe on wine lakes, made by his orderWhen the reign of Di Xin settled down, and life became more or less measured, the successor of the family of the great dynasty began to look for ways to amuse his Majesty, sometimes these were truly strange things.
He commissioned the construction of a pool of wine and a meat island. Yes, yes, in the truest sense. It was a reservoir of impressive size, man-made and filled with liquid. To understand the size: several canoes could easily fit on the surface of such a lake. The middle of the "reservoir", as a rule, was decorated with an island with trees, the branches of which were hung with meat. Dee and his concubines spent their evenings drifting in canoes, drinking wine and eating deli meats.
It is obvious that such behavior of the ruler of a great power did not arouse the approval of the population. As a result, when the uprisings against Di Xin began, he committed suicide, his paradise lakes and islands were destroyed, and subsequent rulers strictly forbade their subjects from drinking alcohol.
The desire to prove his power ruined Emperor Wu Emperor Wu had a fairly muscular physique and was very fond of demonstrating his power. For him, physical strength was above all. He removed all the objectionable from his inner circle, leaving only real strongmen who passed a tough selection.
The passion for demonstrating physical strength played a cruel joke on the emperor. One of the most famous Chinese strongmen, Meng Yue, challenged the ruler to a competition where it was necessary to raise a cast-iron cauldron over his head. And it seems that Meng Yue won: when Wu Qin lifted the heavy cauldron over his head, his knees gave out and he fell.
Wu spent eight long months in bed until his body finally gave in and he died. This news was not happy, especially for Meng Yue and his family - after the emperor passed away, Meng's family was brutally murdered.
Emperor Wu Jin's harem was so numerous that the ruler traveled around it in a carriage One of the main advantages of emperors was the ability to have a harem. Such a privilege was meant as a small compensation for the hardships involved in ruling a vast empire, but Wu Jin abused his powers a little.
Wu devoted most of his time to the harem, he could take any girl he liked as a concubine, he was especially attracted to the daughters of those close to him. He even forbade marriage until he chose concubines for himself in one or another locality.
As a result, there were about 10,000 women in his harem, and in order to choose who would spend the night with him, he toured the harem every evening in a goat-drawn carriage. She, near which these goats stopped, went to the emperor's chambers to spend the night with him.
Emperor Gao Zu publicly demonstrated dislike for science and scientists in a not the most noble way This ruler did not particularly support the development of education. He relied more on the reliability and power of the military and obedience to a strong and centralized government. Questions of philosophy or other sciences were very far from his understanding and did not arouse interest at all. He answered his mentors that he conquered everything that he owns while sitting in the saddle, and did not see the need to spend time reading books at all.
The very idea of gaining knowledge caused the emperor great irritation and even anger. At that time, most scientists were followers of Confucius and wore hats with pointed corners. When the emperor saw someone in such a hat, he asked to take it off and relieve himself right into the headdress.
His mentor wrote a book about the achievements of the great emperor, after which the worldview of the ruler changed a lot: he realized that he was not right in everything and contributed to the spread of Confucianism in China, adopting this ideology as official and opening many schools throughout the empire.
It seems that this ruler was insatiable, he hardly remembered even one of his 40,000 concubines In ancient China, it was customary to dismiss the emperor's harem after the end of his reign. And, since the newly elected ruler was usually killed within a couple of years after the coronation, the position of the concubines was unstable.
However, Xuanzong did not plan to die: his reign lasted a long 44 years, and the size of the harem only increased during this time. As a result, the number of concubines exceeded 40,000. Obviously, the emperor could not devote time to each of them, so the women devoted their time to reading books, studying mathematics and caring for the trees in the garden.
But Xuanzong did not stop there. At the age of sixty, he forced his own son to divorce his wife so that his daughter-in-law could join the harem.
Emperor Houfei was only 9 when the responsibility for the entire great power fell on him Emperor Houfei ascended the throne at a fairly young age, he was only 9 years old. History taught the Chinese an excellent lesson and now they know that managing a huge empire at 9 years old is not an easy task. The young ruler was blinded by absolute power and did terrible things. At the age of 14 he was killed. The beginning of his end was laid on the day he saw one of his generals sleeping naked.
The bulge of a plump belly inspired the little emperor - he decided to shoot him with a bow, like a target. He even wanted to use real arrows, but the assistant convinced him to use fake ones. This saved the general's life.
But this trick did not go unpunished: the owner of the target hired an assassin who cut off the head of the sleeping emperor, after which the general inherited the throne.
Emperor Qin killed his opponent during board game and it wasn't a coincidence If you have ever quit playing Monopoly in anger, then you have something of Emperor Qin in you. Once, while playing the ancient Chinese game of Lubo, he lost his temper and threw a stone playing field at his opponent, who, according to eyewitnesses, hurt the feelings of the emperor. This seemed to him not enough, and he beat the opponent with a board until he died.
Unfortunately, the slain enemy was a prince and heir to the Wu Empire, whose ruler was determined to avenge his son's death. He persuaded the seven kingdoms to protest against Qin.
By the will of fate, Emperor Qin fought better than he played Liubo, and was able to crush the rebellion. The protesters were punished - the size of the territories entrusted to them was greatly reduced.
Even people with unlimited power are not immune to self-esteem issues. Legend has it that Fu Sheng lost an eye when he tried to steal an egg from an eagle's nest. Maybe this is just a story, but he really did not see with one eye and did not like it when this issue was raised. In his paranoia, he reached the point that he took it as a personal insult when someone in his presence used words with the meaning "without", and declared their use in speech a crime. Anyone who uttered them was sentenced to death.
Fu Sheng sincerely believed that killing was the only way out. Astrologers warned the emperor that if he did not change his mind, then his reign would be short-lived, but Fu was not inclined. In less than two years of reign, he executed his wife, her father, her uncle, and this is far from full list sentenced relatives.
When his cousins realized that their lives were also in danger, they plotted against the emperor and staged his assassination. Despite Fu's efforts not to focus on his problem, he went down in history as a one-eyed tyrant.
The ancient Chinese ruler Wen Xuan had a really strange addiction Wen Xuan's reign at first went on as usual, but over time he became less interested in his country and drank more and more. After some time, there was not a day that he was not seen in the insole drunk. Then he had a strange ritual: the emperor stripped naked, put on makeup and walked through the countless bedrooms of the palace in this form, even cold winters could not stop him.
But his worst hobby was getting drunk and killing people. One day he stopped a woman in the street and asked what she thought the Son of Heaven was like. She replied that he was so insane that he could not be called the Son of Heaven. At that very moment the woman was beheaded.
And it wasn't an accident. His passion for killing was so strong that when he got drunk, the ministers brought those sentenced to death to him so that innocent people would not suffer.
Thirteen-year-old Zhengde forced the courtiers to take part in his childhood games Zhengde became emperor at the age of 13. It should be noted that childhood still played in his blood, and he was very fond of fantasizing. And since he was not just a teenage boy, but an emperor, everyone around him should immediately be included in the game.
He made the ministers dress up as merchants so that he could walk around their "shops". Those who refused to take part in the games were suddenly deprived of their ranks.
By his order, a building was built near the zoo, where there were two hundred rooms, here the emperor drank with friends and hunted animals, imagining that this was a real jungle.
In addition to all these games, the young ruler came up with a second self - General Zhu Shou. On behalf of the emperor, he ordered his subjects to go to Zhu with instructions, dressed as a general and portrayed sincere surprise at the wishes of the ruler.
For an imaginary military man, the general was very good. Zhengde was in power for 16 years. His life ended in a curiosity: drunk, he fell out of the boat, caught a cold in cold water and died some time later.
Conclusion.
All these stories seem funny and funny, and even a little unrealistic, at first glance, but the facts say that all this really took place. Unfortunately, the tyranny of rulers sometimes knows no bounds, and amazing stories from the life of the Chinese emperors, only a small part of the eccentricities of the great rulers.
We all heard about harems, but Chinese harems and the life of concubines has its own amazing features. Many concubines, a special way of life and several examples of the amazing ascent of mistresses to the Imperial throne.
The imperial family should correspond to the service, where several cups belong to one teapot. Chinese harem distinguished by the clarity of the distribution of roles, the absolute influence of traditions and submission to the strictest instructions arising from natural-philosophical erotological theories and reduced to maintaining the balance of yanna (male) and yin (female) energies in the body of a partner.
It was believed that the predominance of yin over yang led to early aging of potency, and also influenced the weather, bringing with it heavy rains, earthquakes and other cataclysms.
The Empress possessed the highest energy, but the Emperor could have sexual intercourse with her no more than once a month in order to produce the strongest offspring. The main among the women in the palace was the empress, or the main wife of the Son of Heaven (huan hou), followed by four additional "wives" (fu ren) - each of them had a special title: precious (guifei), virtuous (shufei), moral (defei ) and a talented (xianfei) concubine.
The emperor could have three ladies-favorites, who occupied the first highest step, nine "senior concubines" or "concubines" (jiu bing), who occupied the second step; 27 "junior concubines" (shifu), which, in turn, were divided into: nine jie yu (maid of honor), nine mei ren (beauties) and nine cai ren (talents), occupying the third, fourth and fifth steps, another 81 so called "harem girl" (yu qi). They were also divided into three categories: 27 girls bao lin (precious forest), 27 - yu nu (imperial women) and 27 - sai nu (women-gatherers), making up the sixth, seventh and eighth steps.
During the last Qing dynasty, the emperor's concubines were divided as follows: huangguifei - the concubine of the first rank, gui-fei - the second rank, fei - the third, bin - the fourth, gui-ren - the fifth, dain - the senior maid of honor, changzai - the junior maid of honor, finally, the servants - shine.
The number of imperial wives under the Xia dynasty was to be 12 (three taken four times). During the Shang-Yin dynasties, another 27 (that is, three times nine) concubines were given to the sovereign, so now the emperor had 39 wives and concubines. This number was also explained by the consideration that the female age ends at forty. At Zhou dynasty the number of inhabitants of the imperial harem has already increased to 120. Each of them in without fail provided his house on the territory of the Imperial Palace. Each was assigned maids and eunuchs.
Their number varied from dynasty to dynasty - the maximum number of servants was provided to the Empress - 12, then the concubines of the first category - 8, the second category - 6, the third category - 4, ordinary concubines - 2.
They all lived together and therefore the number of women in harems reached 40 thousand people!
Vladyka was supposed to have four concubines of the 1st rank. They were called: precious venerable friend (guifei), good venerable girlfriend (huifei), beautiful venerable girlfriend (lifei) and graceful venerable girlfriend (huafei). The concubines of a lower rank were called “examples” (yi), there were six of them: a sample of purity (shui), a sample of virtue (dei), a sample of dignity (xianyi), a sample of meekness (shunyi), a sample of charm (wanyi) and a sample of fragrance (fangyi).
The concubine for the night was chosen as follows - the Emperor had a huge vessel with jade tablets with the names of the concubines, as well as albums with drawings of the concubines. Numbers were assigned to all concubines, and the higher the number, the more shameful was the life of the concubine. There is a saying in China - she is the daughter of the fifteenth concubine, which roughly means our saying - the seventh water on jelly. By the way, intrigues in the harem were present in full force and some of the concubines could persuade the artist to paint the most beautiful concubines as ugly, so that the Emperor would never choose them. Being in a harem and being a virgin was considered a mortal disgrace.
The emperor took out the tablet, struck the gong and silently gave the tablet to the eunuch, who noted in a special journal whom the Emperor had chosen, they sent for the concubine, she was stripped naked (in order to avoid the presence of any weapon), washed, put on her a cloak of heron fluff and carried on their backs to the chambers of the Emperor.
The concubine had the right to stay in the chambers only for a certain time. If the time was running out, then the eunuchs sitting outside the doors shouted that the time was up. Not a single concubine was allowed to stay until the morning, this is a privilege only for the spouse. The concubine quietly slipped under the covers to the Emperor, and at the end of the pleasures, the eunuch asked permission to leave the seed. If the Emperor allowed, then the number of copulation was recorded in a special journal, and if not, then a specially trained person pressed the concubine's stomach in a special way so that the sperm flowed out.
All visits of the Emperor to his wife, the only woman to whom he himself could go and stay with her for the night, were still recorded in a special journal. After the Emperor left the bedroom, he was always asked whether the intercourse took place or not. If not, then the column in the journal remained empty, but if so, then the column was filled in - on such and such a date, such and such a month, such and such a year, intercourse took place.
Even the number of sexual acts was regulated. Once every five days, the Emperor was obliged to call a concubine. Only the death of the parents released from this duty for three months.
The cruelest etiquette and conventions determined even this side of life.
A large number of concubines required more and more effort in accounting. So, the concubines who were in the bed of the Emperor, put a special seal on the palm, rubbed it with cinnamon and it was preserved forever. Without this seal, it was considered a disgrace to remain in the harem for a long time.
Pregnancy was the highest good, and for this purpose any intrigues, bribery, even murders and secret abortions of already pregnant concubines were used.
Girls for harems were selected separately, specially trained people from among the daughters of governors and princes. At the age of 12-14, they passed the bridegroom, which was arranged by the mother of the Emperor and, if successful, entered the harem. However, knowing the terrible morals that are happening in the harems, many parents deliberately maimed their daughters or gave away the daughters of servants instead.
In addition to intrigues, masturbation in the absence of the Emperor's caress and walks in the garden, the concubines took care of their toilet and jewelry every day - the concubine must always be ready to be called by the Emperor. High hairstyles - hair to hair were invested daily and stabbed with a huge number of hairpins. No wonder the hairpin in China is considered a symbol of a woman.
Wu Zetian is the first and only woman in China to rule the Empire for 15 years. On the left - this is how she was in life, on the right - this is how modern Chinese cinemas see her.
Being the concubine of Emperor Taizong, she showed too strong a nature and was exiled to a Buddhist monastery, but managed to become the mistress of the Emperor's son, who later became Emperor - Gaozong. She removed all competitors from her path, including the Emperor's main wife, and became his only woman. According to legend, Wu Zetian strangled her own newborn daughter with her own hands, but pointed to the Emperor's wife, for which the latter, who could not give birth, was punished and expelled. She also got rid of all competitors among relatives by drowning them in wine and executing them in other ways. She expelled the son of the Emperor and for many years ruled with a firm hand a country for which a woman on the throne was an unprecedented case.
Also known is another concubine who reached the top of the board - Cixi. She was unusually pretty, and although the Emperor did not pay attention to her for a long time, she nevertheless dragged the aging ruler to her bed and charmed him with singing and dancing so much that he stayed with her for several days, thereby unthinkably raising her status. She gave birth to her only son, Tongzhi (and according to legend, this was the son of one of the concubines who was killed immediately after giving birth), and after the death of the Emperor, having eliminated all competitors, she herself ascended the throne.
Cixi was famous for her cruelty. One day, she ordered the cannons to fire on the Catholic Cathedral, in which there were women and children. She brutally cracked down on anyone who was against her rule. During the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi ordered the extermination of foreigners whom she considered a threat to ancient Chinese traditions. Foreign powers sent troops to rescue their citizens. The Empress fled. She lost money and power. Chaos broke out in the country. In her old age, Cixi became addicted to drugs.
Harem Concubines Who Became Emperors October 24th, 2016
We all heard about harems and the information is very unusual. For example, but Chinese harems and the life of concubines has its own amazing features. Many concubines, a special way of life and several examples of the amazing ascent of mistresses to the Imperial throne.
First, let's find out some shocking details about Chinese harems.
The imperial family should correspond to the service, where several cups belong to one teapot. The Chinese harem was distinguished by the clarity of the distribution of roles, the absolute influence of traditions and obedience to the strictest instructions arising from natural-philosophical erotological theories and reduced to maintaining the balance of yang (male) and yin (female) energies in the body of a partner.
It was believed that the predominance of yin over yang led to early aging of potency, and also influenced the weather, bringing with it heavy rains, earthquakes and other cataclysms.
The Empress possessed the highest energy, but the Emperor could have sexual intercourse with her no more than once a month in order to produce the strongest offspring. The main among the women in the palace was the empress, or the main wife of the Son of Heaven (huan hou), followed by four additional "wives" (fu ren) - each of them had a special title: precious (guifei), virtuous (shufei), moral (defei ) and a talented (xianfei) concubine.
The emperor could have three ladies-favorites, who occupied the first highest step, nine "senior concubines" or "concubines" (jiu bing), who occupied the second step; 27 "junior concubines" (shifu), which, in turn, were divided into: nine jie yu (maid of honor), nine mei ren (beauties) and nine cai ren (talents), occupying the third, fourth and fifth steps, another 81 so called "harem girl" (yu qi). They were also divided into three categories: 27 girls bao lin (precious forest), 27 - yu nu (imperial women) and 27 - sai nu (women-gatherers), making up the sixth, seventh and eighth steps.
During the last Qing dynasty, the emperor's concubines were divided as follows: huangguifei - the concubine of the first rank, gui-fei - the second rank, fei - the third, bin - the fourth, gui-ren - the fifth, dain - the senior maid of honor, changzai - the junior maid of honor, finally, the servants - shine.
The number of imperial wives under the Xia dynasty was to be 12 (three taken four times). During the Shang-Yin dynasties, another 27 (that is, three times nine) concubines were given to the sovereign, so now the emperor had 39 wives and concubines. This number was also explained by the consideration that the female age ends at forty. During the Zhou Dynasty, the number of inhabitants of the imperial harem had already increased to 120. Each of them was provided with their own house on the territory of the Imperial Palace without fail. Each was assigned maids and eunuchs.
Their number varied from dynasty to dynasty - the maximum number of servants was provided to the Empress - 12, then the concubines of the first category - 8, the second category - 6, the third category - 4, ordinary concubines - 2.
They all lived together and therefore the number of women in harems reached 40 thousand people!
Vladyka was supposed to have four concubines of the 1st rank. They were called: precious venerable friend (guifei), good venerable girlfriend (huifei), beautiful venerable girlfriend (lifei) and graceful venerable girlfriend (huafei). The concubines of a lower rank were called “examples” (yi), there were six of them: a sample of purity (shui), a sample of virtue (dei), a sample of dignity (xianyi), a sample of meekness (shunyi), a sample of charm (wanyi) and a sample of fragrance (fangyi).
The concubine for the night was chosen as follows - the Emperor had a huge vessel with jade tablets with the names of the concubines, as well as albums with drawings of the concubines. Numbers were assigned to all concubines, and the higher the number, the more shameful was the life of the concubine. There is a saying in China - she is the daughter of the fifteenth concubine, which roughly means our saying - the seventh water on jelly. By the way, the intrigues in the harem were in full force and some concubines could persuade the artist to paint the most beautiful concubines as ugly, so that the Emperor would never choose them. Being in a harem and being a virgin was considered a mortal disgrace.
The emperor took out the tablet, struck the gong and silently gave the tablet to the eunuch, who noted in a special journal whom the Emperor had chosen, they sent for the concubine, she was stripped naked (in order to avoid the presence of any weapon), washed, put on her a cloak of heron fluff and carried on their backs to the chambers of the Emperor.
The concubine had the right to stay in the chambers only for a certain time. If the time was running out, then the eunuchs sitting outside the doors shouted that the time was up. Not a single concubine was allowed to stay until the morning, this is a privilege only for the spouse. The concubine quietly slipped under the covers to the Emperor, and at the end of the pleasures, the eunuch asked permission to leave the seed. If the Emperor allowed, then the number of copulation was recorded in a special journal, and if not, then a specially trained person pressed the concubine's stomach in a special way so that the sperm flowed out.
All visits of the Emperor to his wife, the only woman to whom he himself could go and stay with her for the night, were still recorded in a special journal. After the Emperor left the bedroom, he was always asked whether the intercourse took place or not. If not, then the column in the journal remained empty, but if so, then the column was filled in - on such and such a date, such and such a month, such and such a year, intercourse took place.
Even the number of sexual acts was regulated. Once every five days, the Emperor was obliged to call a concubine. Only the death of the parents released from this duty for three months.
The cruelest etiquette and conventions determined even this side of life.
A large number of concubines required more and more effort in accounting. So, the concubines who were in the bed of the Emperor, put a special seal on the palm, rubbed it with cinnamon and it was preserved forever. Without this seal, it was considered a disgrace to remain in the harem for a long time.
Pregnancy was the highest good, and for this purpose any intrigues, bribery, even murders and secret abortions of already pregnant concubines were used.
Girls for harems were selected separately, specially trained people from among the daughters of governors and princes. At the age of 12-14, they passed the bridegroom, which was arranged by the mother of the Emperor and, if successful, entered the harem. However, knowing the terrible morals that are happening in the harems, many parents deliberately maimed their daughters or gave away the daughters of servants instead.
In addition to intrigues, masturbation in the absence of the Emperor's caress and walks in the garden, the concubines took care of their toilet and jewelry every day - the concubine must always be ready to be called by the Emperor. High hairstyles - hair to hair were invested daily and stabbed with a huge number of hairpins. No wonder the hairpin in China is considered a symbol of a woman.
Wu Zetian is the first and only woman in China to rule the Empire for 15 years. On the left - this is how she was in life, on the right - this is how modern Chinese cinemas see her.
Being the concubine of Emperor Taizong, she showed too strong a nature and was exiled to a Buddhist monastery, but managed to become the mistress of the Emperor's son, who later became Emperor - Gaozong. She removed all competitors from her path, including the Emperor's main wife, and became his only woman. According to legend, Wu Zetian strangled her own newborn daughter with her own hands, but pointed to the Emperor's wife, for which the latter, who could not give birth, was punished and expelled. She also got rid of all competitors among relatives by drowning them in wine and executing them in other ways. She expelled the son of the Emperor and for many years ruled with a firm hand a country for which a woman on the throne was an unprecedented case.
Also known is another concubine who reached the top of the board - Cixi. She was unusually pretty, and although the Emperor did not pay attention to her for a long time, she nevertheless dragged the aging ruler to her bed and charmed him with singing and dancing so much that he stayed with her for several days, thereby unthinkably raising her status. She gave birth to her only son, Tongzhi (and according to legend, this was the son of one of the concubines who was killed immediately after giving birth), and after the death of the Emperor, having eliminated all competitors, she herself ascended the throne.
Cixi was famous for her cruelty. One day, she ordered the cannons to fire on the Catholic Cathedral, in which there were women and children. She brutally cracked down on anyone who was against her rule. During the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi ordered the extermination of foreigners whom she considered a threat to ancient Chinese traditions. Foreign powers sent troops to rescue their citizens. The Empress fled. She lost money and power. Chaos broke out in the country. In her old age, Cixi became addicted to drugs.
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