A Day in the Life of a Concubine in Imperial China

Until the Chinese communist party came to power in 1949, Chinese law mandated that a man could have only one wife but as many concubines as his wealth allowed. This tradition, which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty of 25 AD to 220 AD, evolved over the years but remained a cornerstone of Chinese familial structure. From slave markets in the ancient times to financially constrained families offering their daughters to wealthy households, the routes to becoming a concubine were numerous and, in many cases, soul-crushing. The dynamic within these extended families was nothing short of a paradox. On the one hand, wives often exercised a degree of veto power over which women could enter the household as concubines, giving rise to layers of both antagonism and alliance. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMCqA_9tag&t=68s" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Addressed often as “little sister” and sequentially numbered</a>, these concubines found themselves in varying relationships with the principal wife, sometimes marked by mistreatment but at other times characterized by an unspoken alliance, particularly if the marriage was fraught with issues. <h1>1. Grueling Selection Process</h1> The recruitment of concubines was no random affair. It involved a rigorous selection process that scrutinized not just beauty but also family background, social status, and virtuous character. <a href="https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-concubine-in-imperial-china-b372c6b12a81">Read More</a>