The last post I did was 9 Interesting Facts about the Forbidden City. When I wrote this I kept thinking about all the tours I went on at the city and the part of the tour that everyone liked, was when the tour guide talked about the
concubines. The moment this was mentioned a silent tour group would change and become this uncontrolled classroom. Here are are some of the things that were mentioned that people than whispered about:
6 facts about Concubines who lived in the Forbidden City
The King had many concubines and sometimes would complain because of his daily chores to try to produce more sons.
The concubines were jealous of one another and were able to ascend up the social ladder if they produced a son.
The concubines on occasions would poison or kill other concubines.
A common gift for a concubine was a backscratcher.
Before a concubine would see the Emperor she would be bathed and inspected by the Emperor doctor.
Up until one point when the Emperor died the concubines would be buried with him. (this changed at the protest of the people. We were told that the people did not think it was fair to kill all these young women that had just been assign to an old emperor. Remember there were always new women being brought in to be concubines. On the tour it was said that in the Qing dynasty the emperor may of had as many as 20,000 women that were considered to be the emperor concubine. Remember that this is justified because of the Yin and Yang theory; the circle shape where half is black and half is white. The reason for this is the man is the Yang and the Emperor is the ultimate Yang. So to balance out he needs a lot of Yin or women.)
