Jessica Quach
Growing up,
I watched a lot of ancient Chinese soap operas with my mother while other kids
at the time were engrossed in TV shows about high school romance. I was exposed
to fictional characters in historically accurate settings. At the time, I
thought that everything in the show was true and realistic. Now, I have begun
to wonder if the women portrayed in those soap operas reflect what China was
really like back when emperors and dynasties existed.
I had
recently read a novel by Anchee Min called, Empress
Orchid. It was like a written version of the shows that I used to watch,
providing the same outlook on Chinese concubines. Although the book itself is
fictional, the characters involved in the book are real historical figures.
The book was set during the Qing Dynasty and
followed the tale of a poor girl who volunteers as a concubine to the Emperor
of the time. [3] As a concubine she was not the wife of the emperor—they had no
marital ties. [1] She could almost be considered a prostitute of some sort
because her main objective as a concubine was to provide sexual pleasure to the
emperor. Orhid had to scheme and work for the affection and attention of the
emperor: the only male whom she was allowed to have sexual relations with.
In ancient
China, those of high social status and wealth were allowed to have multiple
relations with multiple women. One woman was the “head wife” while the others
were appointed falsely as “second wife”,
“third wife” and so on. [2] To my surprise, Chinese men including the emperor actually practiced
monogamy. They only had one wife by law while the others were considered
“pseudo-wives”. [2] As a result, I was under the misconception that men in China practiced polygamy. However, it cannot be considered polygamy since the other "wives" were not wives at all. During these times, women had little to no rights at all.
They were fully dependent on the dominant male figure and if they did not hold
the position of head wife, their children were deemed illegitimate and had no
right to inheritance. [1]
 |
| The Empress is in the center and the concubines surround her. |
Unlike the
strong bonds between women in West Africa [5], the women in China were pitted
against one another. They stepped and clawed their way up to the position of
head wife and the relationship between concubines was one plagued with deceit,
hate, and jealousy. [2] However, I can somewhat understand why relations were
so ugly. Imagine sharing a man with fifteen other women and the man plays
favorites. What makes it even worse is that the man is the only man you will
ever get to love in your lifetime. From this perspective, it makes sense that
concubines and empresses fought one another.
Emperors
were not limited to the number of concubines they could have. During the Qing
Dynasty, the emperor had over 20,000 concubines in his palace. [2] This
staggering number of women connected to one man was legitimized by a Daoist
theory of Yin and Yang during the time. [2] Yin and Yang was the idea of
balance. Yin represented darkness, cold, and femininity—the representation of
women. Yang symbolized men and stood for the exact opposite: light, hot, and
masculine. To keep balance one could not survive without the other and equal
amounts of both were necessary [4]. In China, it was believed that the Emperor
contained a vast amount of Yang. To compensate this outrageous excess, he must
have relations with numerous women (all of whom were Yin). [2] |
| A painting of an emperor surrounded by his concubines. |
The
additional research I conducted validated the historical representation of
women as concubines in the novel and in the soap operas. Many women in the era
often volunteered as concubines to escape poverty. [2] Others had bigger
ambitions of becoming the favorite and working their way up to power and authority
through their children. [2] However, some women were forced into concubinage
merely because the emperor like the way they looked. [1] Women
were essentially used for sexual pleasure and to increase the number of potential heirs
to the throne. [1]
Citations
[1]. “Concubinage in Asia,” Last modified
Dec 18, 2001, http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/concubin.html.
[3]. Min, Anchee. Empress
Orchid. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2004.
[4]. “The Mandarin Meaning of Yin Yang,” accessed Jan 29,
2014, http://mandarin.about.com/od/chineseculture/a/yin_yang.htm.
[5]. “Three Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality:
Anglo-American, African American, and Native American,” Reading from UNC
Charlotte Moodle Page: LBST2101 History of Sexuality in America, accessed Jan
27, 2014, https://moodle2.uncc.edu/course/view.php?id=58852.
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