Empresses and Consorts from the Ming to the End of Imperial China, 1368-1911

FAIN: FA-54404-09

R. Keith McMahon
University of Kansas, Lawrence (Lawrence, KS 66045-7505)

This final component of a three-part book is a narrative history of rulers, their wives, and concubines in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the last two dynasties of Chinese imperial history. It deals with key developments in the treatment of empresses, consorts, and their families; the focus is on women as agents of power in spite of the basic principle in China that women shall not be rulers. Ming emperors chose spouses from low-ranking families, picking women based on personal qualities, not the rank and political status of their families, thus weakening the power of the families of empresses and consorts. The Qing further eroded the power of consort families by instituting palace regulations that made it impossible for imperial wives to maintain close relations with their natal families. After completing the sections on the Ming and Qing, I will revise and tie the entire book together based on the historical panorama of more than 2,000 years of imperial marriage in China.

Associated Products

Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao (Book)
Title: Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao
Author: Keith McMahon
Abstract: na
Year: 2013
Publisher: Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing (Book)
Title: Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing
Author: Keith McMahon
Abstract: This is the second volume of the history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China, covering the period from the Song dynasty (960-1279) to the Qing (1644-1911). 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 after Empress Wu (624-705) in the Tang, strong and active women continued to appear, of both high and low rank. 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. They enhanced their aura and that of the royal house with their acts of artistic and religious patronage. Dynastic history ended in China when Dowager Cixi broke the rule that women should not rule for the final time, the last great monarch before China’s transformation into a republic.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/celestial-women-imperial-wives-and-concubines-in-china-from-song-to-qing/oclc/928606357&referer=library_profile_recentitems&returnRegistryId=61129&libraryname=Peabody%20Essex%20Museum
Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-1-4422-550
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Sexe et pouvoir à la cour de Chine Épouses et concubines des Han aux Liao (IIIe s. av. J.-C.-XIIe s. apr. J.-C.) (Book)
Title: Sexe et pouvoir à la cour de Chine Épouses et concubines des Han aux Liao (IIIe s. av. J.-C.-XIIe s. apr. J.-C.)
Author: Keith McMahon
Abstract: This is a translation into French of Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao (Rowman and Littlefield 2013)
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.lesbelleslettres.com/livre/?GCOI=22510100355200
Publisher: Les Belles Lettres
Type: Translation
ISBN: 2-251-33843-8
Translator: Damien Chausende
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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