Lessons from History - Chinese Concubines

In ancient China being an imperial concubine was a complex practice and concubines were ranked according to the level of favor with the Emperor.

Therefore a concubine situation free between very well treated pseudo wives poorly treated prostitutes to complete strangers that the emperors had forgotten never existed a concubine then could improve her situation by producing an heir although their sons would still be inferior to the Emperor's legitimate children.

And then they could rise up the social ladder according to the Emperor's favor.

The Chinese emperors kept concubines with them in the Forbidden City by the king dynasty.

There were around twenty thousand concubines in the Imperial Palace the Imperial concubines were guarded by an equally obscene number of Unix or castrated men to ensure that they couldn't be made pregnant by anybody except the Emperor therefore imagine being one of those 20000 women.

Your survival depends only on gaining the Emperor's favor.

But you know that you may never see the Emperor anyway because there are nineteen thousand nine hundred

and ninety nine other women that the emperor could chat or sleep with.

Not surprisingly the internal hierarchy was firm and flexible and concubines would really guard their rankings and do virtually anything to advance jealousy and bickering between concubines ensured that daily life was far from pleasant.

So what can one do.
So let's look at what we are working with here in ancient China.

It was for referrable for noble ladies to not be intelligent or talented to be respectable.
A proper first scene in the main Dynasty book is quoted describing the ideal woman a woman is virtuous as long as she is ignorant the ideal Chinese woman therefore was obedient to her husband dutiful to her children mindful of the domestic affairs and Aigner and on everything else. The concern to maintain class distinction was also expressed in injunctions that genteel women should not be trained in the entertainment arts especially in poetry and music.

Women who were trained in the entertainment arts were considered low class.

Therefore if we were to put a woman's asset and liability according to this context it would look something like this.

Her number one asset is her location.

She lived in close proximity to the most intelligent and respected minds of her time her second asset is access.

It may be frowned upon to try to gain these men's attention intellectually but to be honest she was merely a faceless concubine among so many anyway.

Except for the Unix making sure she didn't escape and other concubines guarding their places.

No one really cared what she did.

Her other asset is time the only man for whom she was there.

Most likely didn't know who she was.

So what else could she do with her time.

Her one liability is that women who were trained in the entertainment arts were considered low class.

But then so what.

She's already a concubine.

The Emperor was not going to divorce her and unless she's disloyal to the Emperor she wouldn't be executed for simply knowing how to sing.

And also if being considered low class is harmful for her or her family's reputation.

Think of it this way the entertainment arts may be considered low class but what about the art of conversation.

Here is where we assess our target audience.

You want to ask yourself what can I give them that they can't get elsewhere.

Now as unpolitically correct as this may sound the well-being of upper class ladies at that time very

much depended on the men therefore it is safe to say that the upperclassmen scholars are aristocrats
Emperor were the concubines target audience as wives and all sorts of were expected to but abide by his social codes.

The men were in need of intellectual counterparts of the opposite sex as marriages were matters of social hierarchies endless scholars and aristocrats had marriages that lacked both the affections and communication that can be found on a deeper level.

So how would a concubine fit in full a clever concubine would learn the skills of a courtezan if she has many if she has any musical inclination.

She would have learned music if her talent and inclination lies in literature she would have learned

poetry otherwise she would settle on learning the current news to accommodate and perhaps elevate the conversation with Powerful men.

Now it would seem that the concubine was breaking the rule if she did these things but truthfully learning the skills of ACORDA son does not mean that a concubine would no longer be able to retain her position in the Imperial Palace.

In fact if anything it would have ensured her more visibility.

There were two classes of corta sons who would be an especially frequent contacts with emperors and courtiers.

They were the government quarter size and the household court assigns the household Corozal were often referred to as concubine servants or simply serving maid.

These terms hinted that the woman's relationship with the master of the house was more personal than that of a mere entertainer.

It was very likely that they were concubines with special skills.

One example of a concubine who set herself apart from others was Wongs June she was a native of the Western Hubie province.She was beautiful she could have been just the concubine.

Like many others however she was well-read.