Overview

This volume completes Keith McMahon’s acclaimed history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. Avoiding the stereotype of the emperor’s plural wives as mere victims or playthings, the book considers empresses and concubines as full-fledged participants in palace life, whether as mothers, wives, or go-betweens in the emperor’s relations with others in the palace. Although restrictions on women’s participation in politics increased dramatically after Empress Wu in the Tang, the author follows the strong and active women, of both high and low rank, who continued to appear. They counseled emperors, ghostwrote for them, oversaw succession when they died, and dominated them when they were weak. They influenced the emperor’s relationships with other women and enhanced their aura and that of the royal house with their acts of artistic and religious patronage. Dynastic history ended in China when the prohibition that women should not rule was defied for the final time by Dowager Cixi, the last great monarch before China’s transformation into a republic.

Full Product Details

Author:   Keith McMahon
Publisher:   Rowman & Littlefield
Imprint:   Rowman & Littlefield
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.20cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9781538141434

ISBN 10:   1538141434
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   27 January 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface List of Illustrations Prologue: After Wu Zetian Royal Courts, Polygamy, and the Women’s Quarters The Polyandrous Empress From the Song to the Qing, the Last One Thousand Years Women Rulers in Other Parts of Eurasia, Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries Part 1: The Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties, 960–1368 Chapter 1: The Song Dynasty No Calamitous Women Trends in Masculinity and Femininity in the Song The Six Bureaus of the Women’s Service Organization and the Titles of Consorts The Northern Song, 960–1127 The Legend of Lady Huarui, Who Tried to Poison Taizu A Different Way of Recording Wives The Rise of Empress Dowager Liu, Former Entertainer The Curtained Divide A Hidden Mother An Empress Deposed for Fighting with a Consort An Heir Apparent Who Tried to Run Away and an Empress-regent Who Refused to Step Down Great Empress Dowager Gao, “a Yao and Shun among Women” In Twenty Years of Marriage, the Emperor and Empress Never Had a Fight A Deposed Empress Becomes a Heroine during the Fall of the Northern Song Emperor Huizong, Prolific Polygamist and Patron of the Arts Empress Zheng Accompanies the Emperor into Captivity, Gaozong’s Mother Returns A Celestial Consort and a Courtesan Lover The Southern Song, 1127–1279 Connoisseurs and Collectors of Art, Empress Wu and Honored Consort Liu Wearing Clothing for Years at a Time The Atrocities of Empress Li An Actress Becomes Empress Empress Xie Dissuades the Emperor from Moving the Capital Thirty Women in One Night Conclusion: The Role of the Empress in the Song Chapter 2: The Jin and Yuan Dynasties, 1115–1368 The Jin Dynasty, 1115–1234 Hailing, Stealer of Wives His Stepmother Criticizes His Plan to Conquer the Song “He Became Poisoned with Lust and Infatuation” Asking a Woman to Kill Her Husband How Could Anyone Give Greater Pleasure? Having Sex to Music His Male Favorites, a Eunuch and a Storyteller A Ming Dynasty Story about Hailing and his Wanton Women She Killed Herself Rather Than Submit The Heir Apparent Marries a Smart Female Student An Heir Apparent Whipped by His Mother A Homily on Womanly Virtue The Yuan Dynasty, 1271–1368 The Exaltation of Widow Chastity Female Self-sacrifice Mothers Promoting Their Sons Sorghaghtani, Khubilai’s Mother Chabi and the Wives of Khubilai Khan Powerful Women in Later Reigns The Korean Empress Promotes Her Son against His Father The Yuan Transition Part 2: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644 Chapter 3: From Founder to 1505 No Woman Regents Zhu Yuanzhang, from the Bottom of Society Zhu’s Ancestral Injunctions The Ranking and Organization of Ming Palace Women Eunuchs in the Ming Empress Ma, Who Wore Much Laundered Clothing Modifying Ritual Tradition to Mourn a Favorite Empress Xu’s Household Instructions and Executions in the Inner Palace Empress Zhang, Unofficial Regent Deposing His Sonless Empress The Investiture of Empress Sun A Makeshift Regency An Empress Deposed and Re-enthroned An Interim Empress A Nursemaid Becomes a Favorite Concubine Birth Mother versus Sonless Empress Honored Consort Wan A Chance Mother and a Secret Son Discovering His Dead Father’s Sex Manual Chapter 4: Three Intemperate Rulers, 1506–1572 An Emperor Who Liked to Roam No More Keeping Track of Visitations Men Who “Slept and Rose with the Emperor” Stolen Women and Muslim Dancers An Emperor Whose Palace Women Tried to Kill Him The Emperor’s Mother Demands Respect Deposed Empress Chen’s Jealousy and Miscarriage The Emperor Reflects on His Libido Strangled by His Consorts Recruiting Virgins for Immortality “Do Not Pursue Desires without End.” The Debate about How to Mourn His Mother The Empress Criticizes His Indulgence in Music and Women Chapter 5: The Last Ming Emperors, 1573–1644 A Stern Mother and a Meddling Consort “You Were Also Born of a Palace Maid!” The Empress, the Favorite, and the Mother of the Heir Apparent “Consort Zheng Takes Good Care of Me” The Princess’s Husband Suffers a Beating The Man with a Club The Emperor and His Eunuchs A Eunuch and a Wet Nurse “The Calamity of Wu Zetian Is Again Before Us” The Eunuch Dictator Wet Nurse and Lifelong Companion The Selection of Empress Zhang Plotting against the Empress Fictional Stories about Wei Zhongxian Ordering His Empress to Commit Suicide The Frugal Last Empress and a Consort Who Redesigned Palace Lamps The Last Days of the Ming Palace Conclusion: Giving Reign to Imperial Will Part 3: The Qing Dynasty, 1644–1911 Chapter 6: The Founding of the Qing, 1636–1722 The Manchu Social System and the Imperial Family The Banner System, Succession, and Marriage Practices Ranking and Recruitment of Wives Bondservants, the Imperial Household Department, and Eunuchs Two grief-stricken emperors Hong Taiji Marries the Wives of His Enemy Bumbutai, Consort-mother and Dowager The Emperor Grieves for a Consort Fifty-four Wives, Fifty-six Children, and No Chaos in the Lateral Courts Advice to His Sons: “Do Not Stand under a Tree When There is Lightening” Overlapping Favorites and a Preference for Han Women Giving the Ladies a Fright Death and Burial Chapter 7: From Yongzheng to Xianfeng (1722–1861) Diligent Emperor or Evil Usurper The Prince Drinks Deer Blood and Begets His Successor Killed by a Swordswoman, or by “Cinnabar Drugs” No Female Favorites, But a Male One A Wife Who Made Him a Flint Pouch The Empress Who Shaved Her Head The Turkic Muslim Consort His Male Favorite The Last Emperors before the Dowager, 1796–1861 The Jiaqing Emperor’s Wives in Fiction and Television The Daoguang Emperor Demotes His Consorts The Husband of the Last Woman Ruler Chapter 8: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) China’s Last Woman Ruler Writing about the Empress Dowager The Dowager and Her Co-rulers The Emperor’s Incognito Outings The Death of Empress Jiashun The Dowager and Her Eunuchs The Guangxu Emperor, His Empress, and Favorite Concubine The Mystery of the Pearl Concubine’s Death Reminiscences of Those Who Served Her No Shadows on Her Face: the Dowager in Paintings, Photos, and Biographies The Dowager as Goddess “The Very Embodiment of the Eternal Feminine” “May Health Be with You, Imperial Father” Fiction and Legends about Dowager Cixi Delivered to the Emperor Naked Her Intimacy with Eunuchs Li Lianying, the “Arch Villain” The Dowager in a 1916 Novel Conclusion: The Lack of Good Sons The Neutralization of the Position of Empress The Lack of Good Sons Chapter 9: Conclusion to Part 3 Defining the Woman Ruler Bedding Arrangements for the Emperor Pretending There Would Be No Woman Ruler Appendix Selected Bibliography

Reviews

This is the second volume of McMahon's meticulous work on the history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. (The first was Women Shall Not Rule, 2013). Avoiding the stereotype of imperial wives as victims in royal polygamy, the author focuses on these celestial women's active participation in palace life after the dethronement of Empress Wu in the Tang dynasty. Although restrictions on women's participation in politics became severe, McMahon argues that later dynasties still included strong, active women who counseled emperors, ghostwrote for them, and oversaw succession when they died. Dowager Empress Cixi, the last great monarch before Republican China, was an example. Following the dynastic chronology, the book offers detailed accounts from various sources, such as legend, anecdotes, official histories, and miscellanea. It also provides comparative perspectives from monogamous European kings and royal women in Byzantium, Mongol and Timurid Central Asia, and Mughal India. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. General collections; upper-division undergraduates and above.--CHOICE One of the world's leading experts in Ming-Qing fiction and gender relations, Keith McMahon is ideally qualified to undertake the study of women in the emperor's entourage over the two millennia of China's imperial history.In this masterful two-volume survey, Women Shall Not Rule and Celestial Women, he draws on official histories for the basic facts of who, when, and where, and he also casts a wide net, exploiting informal histories, gossipy memoirs, and the countless fictional narratives that have always done more than official histories to shape public perceptions of women and gender relations in the emperors' palaces.... McMahon has expertly crafted a narrative that is at once erudite, encyclopedic, and entertaining. He has set the standard for writing about the empresses and consorts of Chinese emperors and has drawn on countless examples in order to build insightful generalizations about patterns, changes, and continuities in gender relations at the top of the Chinese government over two millennia of imperial history. And he has done all this with careful attention to the ways Chinese examples compare with palace women in other cultures, times, and places. This is a most welcome and valuable addition to global scholarship on Chinese history, literature, politics, and gender studies.--China Review International McMahon offers us once more a vivid, erudite, and comprehensive depiction of the Chinese sovereigns' seraglio. All the notable narratives and anecdotes from Song to Qing are recorded in this captivating volume.--Damien Chaussende, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Celestial Women is the first in-depth study of the intimate lives of emperors, their consorts, and their lovers--both male and female. Based on his erudite command of several hundred primary and secondary sources, McMahon conveys both the details of imperial unions and the significance of these relations for understanding the longue duree of Chinese history. This book is of great interest to China scholars and students as well as global historians.--Harriet Zurndorfer, Leiden University Refreshing and intelligent. . . . Tracing the history of imperial women throughout Chinese history, including native Chinese dynasties and steppe conquest dynasties, McMahon is uniquely positioned to explain change and continuity. . . . The thoughtful balance created between marked change and overall structural characteristics of Chinese imperial women is one of the great strengths of this book. Finally, and most audaciously, Celestial Women is an essay in global comparative history. McMahon displays a wide knowledge of polygyny and dynastic women around the world, and shows a probing and open mind. . . . The insights generated through comparison are powerful and illuminating. . . . The comparative endeavor in the introduction and conclusion of Celestial Women substantially strengthens the detailed core sections. It allows the reader to move back and forth between a richly contextualized story about Chinese women and general issues relating to dynastic women across the globe. . . . The combination of this scholarly achievement with the intermediate sections outlining change in every dynasty, and the overall ambitious comparative framework, makes this an exceptional achievement. Celestial Women combines a sovereign grasp of Chinese dynastic history with a sharp eye for global diversity and structural patterns.--Nan Nu Men, Women and Gender in China McMahon's work, intertextual in its reading and intertemporal in its scope, makes a significant contribution to the study of palace women's lives and roles in imperial China. . . . [S]ince history is usually told from perspectives of emperors and their political, economic, and military deeds, it requires special lenses to interpret the accounts about them in order to better comprehend the roles and deeds of these women. McMahon acknowledges such difficulties with veracity, yet he succeeds in providing lively pictures of these women by filtering out reliable information from the sea of historical records, some of them utterly fictional and even scandalous. His felicitous, lucid translation of selected excerpts from biographical texts and literary records, frequently assembled from numerous, not always consistent, sources, provides a real flavour of the sources and a vivid instance of how they can and should be used. . . . Celestial Women is clearly written with an engaging narrative and interlocking arguments, making the reading of this book a real joy. The many issues discussed invite comparative studies on queenship and imperial marriages in other cultures and will definitely appeal to a broad readership.--Royal Studies Journal

This is the second volume of McMahon's meticulous work on the history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. (The first was Women Shall Not Rule, 2013). Avoiding the stereotype of imperial wives as victims in royal polygamy, the author focuses on these celestial women's active participation in palace life after the dethronement of Empress Wu in the Tang dynasty. Although restrictions on women's participation in politics became severe, McMahon argues that later dynasties still included strong, active women who counseled emperors, ghostwrote for them, and oversaw succession when they died. Dowager Empress Cixi, the last great monarch before Republican China, was an example. Following the dynastic chronology, the book offers detailed accounts from various sources, such as legend, anecdotes, official histories, and miscellanea. It also provides comparative perspectives from monogamous European kings and royal women in Byzantium, Mongol and Timurid Central Asia, and Mughal India. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. General collections; upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE * Refreshing and intelligent. . . . Tracing the history of imperial women throughout Chinese history, including native Chinese dynasties and steppe conquest dynasties, McMahon is uniquely positioned to explain change and continuity. . . . The thoughtful balance created between marked change and overall structural characteristics of Chinese imperial women is one of the great strengths of this book. Finally, and most audaciously, Celestial Women is an essay in global comparative history. McMahon displays a wide knowledge of polygyny and dynastic women around the world, and shows a probing and open mind. . . . The insights generated through comparison are powerful and illuminating. . . . The comparative endeavor in the introduction and conclusion of celestial women substantially strengthens the detailed core sections. It allows the reader to move back and forth between a richly contextualized story about Chinese women, and general issues relating to dynastic women across the globe. . . . The combination of this scholarly achievement with the intermediate sections outlining change in every dynasty, and the overall ambitious comparative framework, makes this an exceptional achievement. Celestial Women combines a sovereign grasp of Chinese dynastic history with a sharp eye for global diversity and structural patterns. * Nan Nu: Men, Women and Gender in China * McMahon's work, intertextual in its reading and inter-temporal in its scope, makes a significant contribution to the study of palace women's lives and roles in imperial China.... [S]ince history is usually told from perspectives of emperors and their political, economic, and military deeds, it requires special lenses to interpret the accounts about them in order to better comprehend the roles and deeds of these women. McMahon acknowledges such difficulties with veracity, yet he succeeds in providing lively pictures of these women by filtering out reliable information from the sea of historical records, some of them utterly fictional and even scandalous. His felicitous, lucid translation of selected excerpts from biographical texts and literary records, frequently assembled from numerous, not always consistent, sources, provides a real flavour of the sources and a vivid instance of how they can and should be used.... Celestial Women is clearly written with an engaging narrative and interlocking arguments, making the reading of this book a real joy. The many issues discussed invite comparative studies on queenship and imperial marriages in other cultures and will definitely appeal to a broad readership. * Royal Studies Journal * One of the world's leading experts in Ming-Qing fiction and gender relations, Keith McMahon is ideally qualified to undertake the study of women in the emperor's entourage over the two millennia of China's imperial history.In this masterful two-volume survey, Women Shall Not Rule and Celestial Women, he draws on official histories for the basic facts of who, when, and where, and he also casts a wide net, exploiting informal histories, gossipy memoirs, and the countless fictional narratives that have always done more than official histories to shape public perceptions of women and gender relations in the emperors' palaces.... McMahon has expertly crafted a narrative that is at once erudite, encyclopedic, and entertaining. He has set the standard for writing about the empresses and consorts of Chinese emperors and has drawn on countless examples in order to build insightful generalizations about patterns, changes, and continuities in gender relations at the top of the Chinese government over two millennia of imperial history. And he has done all this with careful attention to the ways Chinese examples compare with palace women in other cultures, times, and places. This is a most welcome and valuable addition to global scholarship on Chinese history, literature, politics, and gender studies. * China Review International * McMahon offers us once more a vivid, erudite, and comprehensive depiction of the Chinese sovereigns' seraglio. All the notable narratives and anecdotes from Song to Qing are recorded in this captivating volume. -- Damien Chaussende, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Celestial Women is the first in-depth study of the intimate lives of emperors, their consorts, and their lovers-both male and female. Based on his erudite command of several hundred primary and secondary sources, McMahon conveys both the details of imperial unions and the significance of these relations for understanding the longue duree of Chinese history. This book is of great interest to China scholars and students as well as global historians. -- Harriet Zurndorfer, Leiden University

Author Information

Keith McMahon is professor of East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Kansas. His books include Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao and The Fall of the God of Money: Opium Smoking in Nineteenth-Century China.

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