Editing Concubinage (section)

=== China ===
{{Main|Concubinage in China}}
[[File:Concubine Ban's Rounded Fan.jpg|alt=|thumb|16th-century painting of [[Consort Ban|Ban Jieyu]] ({{circa|48 BCE|2 BCE}}), poet and concubine to [[Emperor Cheng of Han|Emperor Cheng]] of the [[Han dynasty]].]]
[[File:The Fourth Concubine of Hexing.jpg|thumb|Portrait of a concubine, by Chinese painter [[Lam Qua]], 1864]]
In China, successful men often had concubines until the practice was outlawed when the [[Chinese Communist Party]] came to power in 1949. The standard Chinese term translated as "concubine" was ''qiè'' {{lang|zh|妾}}, a term that has been used since ancient times. Concubinage resembled marriage in that concubines were recognized sexual partners of a man and were expected to bear children for him. Unofficial concubines ({{lang-zh|t=婢妾|p=bì qiè}}) were of lower status, and their children were considered illegitimate. The English term concubine is also used for what the Chinese refer to as ''pínfēi'' ({{lang-zh|t=嬪妃}}), or "consorts of emperors", an official position often carrying a very high rank.<ref>Patricia Buckley Ebrey (2002): ''Women and the Family in Chinese History''. Oxford: Routledge, p. 39.</ref>

In premodern China it was illegal and socially disreputable for a man to have more than one wife at a time, but it was acceptable to have concubines.<ref>Ebrey 2002:39.</ref> From the earliest times wealthy men purchased concubines and added them to their household in addition to their wife.<ref name=Hinsch/> The purchase of concubines was similar to the purchase of slaves, but concubines had a higher social status.<ref name=Hinsch>{{cite book |title=Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China |first1=Bret |last1=Hinsch |publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkley |date=1990 |page=51}}</ref>

In the earliest records a man could have as many concubines as he could afford to purchase. From the [[Han dynasty#Eastern Han|Eastern Han]] period (AD 25–220) onward, the number of concubines a man could have was limited by law. The higher rank and the more noble identity a man possessed, the more concubines he was permitted to have.<ref>Shi Fengyi 史凤仪 (1987): Zhongguo gudai hunyin yu jiating 中国古代婚姻与家庭 ''Marriage and Family in Ancient China''. Wuhan: Hubei Renmin Chubanshe, p. 74.</ref> A concubine's treatment and situation was variable and was influenced by the social status of the male to whom she was attached, as well as the attitude of his wife. In the ''[[Book of Rites]]'' chapter on "The Pattern of the Family" ({{lang-zh|t=內則}}) it says, "If there were betrothal rites, she became a wife; and if she went without these, a concubine."<ref>{{cite book |url=http://ctext.org/liji/nei-ze#n9964 |title=Nei Ze|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051012/http://ctext.org/liji/nei-ze#n9964|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Wives brought a [[dowry]] to a relationship, but concubines did not. A concubinage relationship could be entered into without the ceremonies used in marriages, and neither remarriage nor a return to her natal home in widowhood were allowed to a concubine.<ref name="Ebrey 2002: 60">Ebrey 2002: 60.</ref> There are early records of concubines allegedly being buried alive with their masters to "keep them company in the afterlife".<ref name="Concubines of Ancient China3">{{cite web |year=2012 |title=Concubines of Ancient China |url=http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608030129/http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china |archive-date=8 June 2012 |access-date=13 June 2012 |work=Beijing Made Easy }}</ref>

Women in concubinage (妾) were treated as inferior, and expected to be subservient to any wife under [[traditional Chinese marriage]] (if there was one).<ref>Patrick Fuliang Shan, “Unveiling China’s Relinquished Marital Mode: A Study of Yuan Shikai’s Polygamous Household,” ''Frontiers of History in China'', (Vol. 14, No. 2, July 2019), pp. 185–211;</ref>  The position of the concubine was generally inferior to that of the wife. 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 piety|filial duty]] to two women, their biological mother and their legal mother—the wife of their father.<ref>Ebrey 2002: 54.</ref> After the death of a concubine, her sons would make an offering to her, but these offerings were not continued by the concubine's grandsons, who only made offerings to their grandfather's wife.<ref>Ebrey 2002: 42.</ref> 

Until the [[Song dynasty]] (960–1276), it was considered a serious breach of social ethics to promote a concubine to a wife.<ref name="Ebrey 2002: 60" /> During the [[Qing dynasty]] (1644–1911), the status of concubines improved. It became permissible to promote a concubine to wife, if the original wife had died and the concubine was the mother of the only surviving sons. Moreover, the prohibition against forcing a widow to remarry was extended to widowed concubines. During this period tablets for concubine-mothers seem to have been more commonly placed in family ancestral altars, and genealogies of some lineages listed concubine-mothers.<ref name="Ebrey 2002: 60"/> Many of the concubines of the emperor of the Qing dynasty were freeborn women from prominent families.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2011|p=203}} Concubines of men of lower social status could be either freeborn or slave.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2011|p=203}}

Imperial concubines, kept by emperors in the [[Forbidden City]], had [[ranks of imperial consorts in China|different ranks]] and were traditionally guarded by [[eunuch]]s to ensure that they could not be impregnated by anyone but the emperor.<ref name="Concubines of Ancient China">{{cite web |title=Concubines of Ancient China |url=http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china|work=Beijing Made Easy |access-date=13 June 2012|year=2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608030129/http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china|archive-date=8 June 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> In [[Ming dynasty|Ming China]] (1368–1644) there was an official system to select concubines for the emperor. The age of the candidates ranged mainly from 14 to 16. Virtues, behavior, character, appearance and body condition were the selection criteria.<ref>Qiu Zhonglin(Chung-lin Ch'iu)邱仲麟:"Mingdai linxuan Houfei jiqi guizhi" 明代遴選後妃及其規制 (The Imperial Concubine Selection System during the Ming Dynasty). Mingdai Yanjiu 明代研究 (Ming Studies) 11.2008:58.</ref>

Despite the limitations imposed on Chinese concubines, there are several examples in history and literature of concubines who achieved great power and influence. Lady Yehenara, otherwise known as [[Empress Dowager Cixi]], was 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]]. She eventually became the ''[[de facto]]'' ruler of Qing China for 47 years after her husband's death.<ref name=EmpressChina>{{cite book |first1= Sterling |last1=Seagrave, Peggy Seagrave |title=Dragon lady: the life and legend of the last empress of China|year=1993 |publisher=Vintage Books}}</ref>

An examination of concubinage features in one of the [[Four Great Classical Novels]], ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'' (believed to be a [[autobiographical novel|semi-autobiographical]] account of author [[Cao Xueqin]]'s family life).<ref>{{Cite web|last=China-Underground|date=2016-05-08|title=Dream of the Red Chamber|url=https://china-underground.com/2016/05/08/dream-of-the-red-chamber/|access-date=2021-10-20|website=China Underground}}</ref> Three generations of the Jia family are supported by one notable concubine of the emperor, [[Jia Yuanchun]], the full elder sister of the male protagonist [[Jia Baoyu]]. In contrast, their younger half-siblings by concubine Zhao, [[Jia Tanchun]] and Jia Huan, develop distorted personalities because they are the children of a concubine.{{Citation needed |date=July 2018}}

Emperors' concubines and [[harems]] are emphasized in 21st-century romantic novels written for female readers and set in ancient times. As a plot element, the children of concubines are depicted with a status much inferior to that in actual history.{{citation needed |date=July 2018}} The '''zhai dou''' ({{lang-zh|t=宅斗}}，residential intrigue) and '''gong dou''' ({{lang-zh|t=宫斗}}，harem intrigue) genres show concubines and wives, as well as their children, scheming secretly to gain power. [[Empresses in the Palace]], a ''gong dou'' type novel and TV drama, has had great success in 21st-century China.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://en.people.cn/102774/8067124.html |title=Top 10 Chinese entertainment events in 2012 (7) – People's Daily Online|website=en.people.cn |access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref>

Hong Kong officially abolished the [[Great Qing Legal Code]] in 1971, thereby making concubinage illegal. Casino magnate [[Stanley Ho]] of Macau took his "second wife" as his official concubine in 1957, while his "third and fourth wives" retain no official status.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aiweibang.com/yuedu/101925130.html |title=港台剧怀旧经典|website=aiweibang.com |access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923232525/http://www.aiweibang.com/yuedu/101925130.html|archive-date=23 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>