Palace Love Affairs Historical Romances of Love Changes Through Dynasties: Historical Romances of Love Changes Through Dynasties

Author: Zou Jimeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: The number of concubines in the imperial harems of Chinese emperors throughout history can also be considered a record in human history. The Rites of Zhou explicitly states that an emperor should have one empress, three principal consorts, nine concubines, twenty-seven palace attendants, and eighty-one maids of honor. In reality, the number of women possessed by any emperor in later dynasties far exceeded this. The court of Emperor Wu of Han had as many as 10,000 concubines, a figure that could not be called unprecedented, and the imperial harem of Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang had as many as 40,000, which may not have been the absolute peak either. These thousands of women around a single emperor were given titles such as empress, consort, concubine, palace attendant, beauty, or simply waiting or regular attendants, depending on their status. They were all legitimate wives of the emperor, but few of them lived the stable and normal life of a commoner's couple, with men farming and women weaving, or with the husband leading and the wife following. The emperor had desire but no love; to him, these women were merely tools to fulfill his lust and carriers for lineage. He was their master, with absolute freedom to choose and abandon them, determining their rise and fall, and even their life and death. This book tells the fates and endings of these women.