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Imperial Chinese Harem

houstonwolves

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Jan 14, 2003
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An example of advanced progressive ideals- From Caroline Ellison and SBF:

On what is assumed to be her Tumblr account, Ellison likened the polyamory in the Bahamas house to an "imperial Chinese harem." She supposedly noted that there was an established hierarchy and everyone knew where they fell within it.​


So, you may ask? What is an imperial Chinese Harem?
This is from wikipedia

The ranks of imperial consorts have varied over the course of Chinese history but remained important throughout owing to its importance in management of the inner court and in imperial succession, which ranked heirs according to the prominence of their mothers in addition to their strict birth order. Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify these hierarchy into the three ranks of Empress, consorts, and concubines.[1] It is also common to use the term "harem", an Arabic loan word used in recent times to refer to imperial women's forbidden quarters in many countries. In later Chinese dynasties, these quarters were known as the back palace (後宮; hòugōng).[2] In Chinese, the system is called the Rear Palace System (後宮制度; hòugōng zhìdù).[

The Rites of Zhou states that for Kings, they are entitled to the following:

  1. 1 Queen (王后; wáng hòu)
  2. 2 Consorts (妃; "fei")
  3. 3 Wives (夫人; fū rén)
  4. 9 Royal Concubines (嬪; pín)
  5. 27 Hereditary Consorts (世婦; shì fù)
  6. 81 Royal Wives (御妻; yù qī)
It was suggested that a system (not necessarily resembling the one listed above) was set up to prevent the situation of having two Queens/Empresses.
 
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