Lady Yehenara, otherwise known as Empress Dowager Cixi, was arguably one of the most successful concubines in Chinese history. Cixi first entered the court as a concubine to Xianfeng Emperor and gave birth to his only surviving son, who later became Tongzhi Emperor.
Ying Zheng also known Qin Shi Huang had numerous concubines. The Qin Dynasty, he founded (pronounced 'Chin') changed its name to China and it was he who first initiated the building of the Great Wall and construction of the Grand Canal.
King Solomon had hundreds of wives... and mistresses, too
Obviously the Queen of Sheba enjoyed his affections, but Solomon also shared the wealth with 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, drawn from a range of ethnicities, including the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
Emperor Wu Zetian (r. 624–705) began her life at the palace as a concubine and became the most powerful person in China. 32 She started in a low rank, but she began reporting the doings of the other concubines to Emperor Taizong. 33 This allowed her to become well-known and recognized around the palace.
Concubines had their own rooms and would fill their days applying make-up, sewing, practising various arts and socialising with other concubines. Many of them spent their entire lives in the palace without any contact with the emperor.
Concubinus. A masculine of concubine, concubinus, "man in a concubinage", "male-lover", was also regularly used in Latin, although it is attested less often than concubina.
Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin Emperor, was a brutal ruler who unified ancient China and laid the foundation for the Great Wall.
There are early records of concubines allegedly being buried alive with their masters to "keep them company in the afterlife". Until the Song dynasty (960–1276), it was considered a serious breach of social ethics to promote a concubine to a wife.
In the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), historians Sima Qian and Ban Gu both included reports on ningxing, the emperors' male concubines. From these, Pan concludes that almost every emperor during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) had or was suspected of having male partners. The best known among these was Dong Xian.
Concubines had to be beautiful enough to satisfy the emperor – and his parents. Social background was no barrier and many emperors chose concubines from the general public. The empress was one exception – she was always selected from the family of a high-ranking official.
A peace-loving emperor, the Hongzhi Emperor also had only one empress and no concubines, granting him the distinction of being the sole perpetually monogamous emperor in Chinese history, besides Emperor Fei of Western Wei (although the partially recognized Longwu Emperor of the Southern Ming was also known for devotion ...
In the first part of the Ming dynasty concubines were often immolated and buried in separate tombs near the deceased emperor. In a few cases, consorts were buried alive in a standing position -awaiting the arrival of the emperor in the afterlife.
Although a concubine could produce heirs, her children would be inferior in social status to a wife's children, although they were of higher status than illegitimate children. The child of a concubine had to show filial duty to two women, their biological mother and their legal mother—the wife of their father.
Mostly concubines served to satisfy sexual pleasure since any children that resulted from a mistress was considered illegitimate, and unless allowed by their father, had no rights of inheritance.
Both men and women from the upper classes, especially literati, grew their nails long as a symbol of wealth: Long nails indicated that their owners did not have to do manual labor.
Classical Islamic jurists did not place any limits on how many concubines a man could have. Prostitution of concubines was prohibited. A concubine who gave birth to a child was given the special status of an umm al-walad; she could not be sold and was automatically free after her master's death.
The only female ruler who is historically known to have had (officially) male concubines is Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor (huangdi) who ruled 60 years before the earliest startdate.
Yes, some did like the chinese empress Wu Zetian and the Chinese princess who was married too, Liu Chuyu, had both concubines.
Zhang Zongchang was one of the most infamous and well-known Chinese warlords, and is difficult to differentiate truth from slander and legends in regards to his life.
They were responsible for various palace chores depending on their position and might work in the royal chambers, kitchen, or laundry.
Jang Hee-bin is the only case in which a concubine came from a non-noble family and became queen. Ironically, King Sukjong changed the law so that no concubine could ever become a queen after she was dethroned.
How women were chosen. The empress was always selected from the family of a high-ranking official, but other concubines were selected from the general population, and the criteria ranged from emperor to emperor.