The Lives Of Palace Women In Tang Dynasty

With the establishment of the emperor system, another system, within the walls of the Palace-with its own cast of characters including concubines, female officials, maids, and Chinese geishas and complete with its own set of rules and etiquette-also formed and was centered around the Queen. The queen had a supreme status as the official wife of the emperor while the concubines were nothing more than her servants or, at best, subordinates. The queen was in charge of six palaces and "backyard affairs"-affairs that were behind the political stage. Due to the rigid hierarchy of the system, the queen was superior to any concubine, who followed different rules. Female officials typically had decent family backgrounds acted as the boss of maids. Chinese geishas excelled at singing, dancing, acrobatics or other performance arts, dedicated themselves to entertaining the emperor.The number of harem in Tang dynasty was massive-up to40,000in the imperial period of Kaiyuan Tianbao for example. Even in the last few years of the dynasty, the harem was still no less than10,000. While some women entered the Palace willingly, the majority was coerced. Some young women even mutilated themselves in order to avoid being selected.Palace women tended to the daily living needs of the emperor and his wives, including preparing and serving food and tea, delivering messages, accompanying the emperor, inspecting books, guarding the palace, making the beds, ironing clothes, embroidering, sewing, sweeping the floors, singing, dancing and entertaining. They were all hard-working and redundant jobs.The harem all had received advanced cultural education. Those who could enter the Palace in the end not only had outstanding beauty, but also knowledge and virtue or even a specific skill. Some had literary talent while others had artistic talent. A literature institution was set up in the palace and stored sets of historical books such as Jing, Shi, Zi, Ji and calligraphic stuff. Female scholars and lecturers taught subjects like literature, etiquette, music and mathematics. Other than literature institution, performance arts institutions were also established to give an opportunity for potential palace women to receive professional training. Therefore, these excelled among the area of literature, calligraphy, music, dancing and acrobatics then became litterateur, calligrapher, musician, dancer and acrobats, which was big assets in Tang dynasty's culture. The harem had a colorful life that brimmed with sports and entertainment, including various puzzle games, ball games, gambling, recreation and customs. Either playing alone or in teams, games such as chess, ball games, equestrianism, hunting, drinking and eating, horticulture, tug of war. fishing, boating etc were either competitive or leisurely. All that have showcased a lively, enthusiastic, positive and persistent lifestyle to descendants.Palace women once longed for love, longed for their home towns and yearned for freedom. They managed to find solace and love within various legendary love poems. Some women wanted to escape or even murder the emperor as their torture and insult of a life became unbearable. The harem in the palace was jealous of Empress Wu, who was the first and only empress in the history of China whose dominance and power was unsurpassed by other women. Her role as the only female empress was of great historical significance. This is indeed history that proverbially and literally will not repeat itself. Though a few concubines lived illustrious lives and were well-known even in death, the majority's fate was not so fortunate. They shut themselves down in their rooms or eventually expelled from the palace after falling out of the emperor's favor; they had nothing in the end and the only reward was being buried with the deceased emperor; they struggled and died from the power struggle of the harem; they were given like objects to subordinates or foreign embassador as gifts; they became nuns and isolated from the world; they were coerced to follow the royal rules and guarded the tomb their whole lives. Sometimes a few of them would be released to freedom out of the emperor's token kindness, royal financial hardships or superstitious concerns towards natural disasters. However, most of the harem eventually died in the palace and were buried together with the emperor and the queen, along with other concubines. Regular maids can be only buried in the specific remote area--gong ren xie.