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Guifei
The ranks of imperial consorts have varied over the course of History of China, Chinese history but remained important throughout owing to its prominence in the management of the inner court and in imperial succession, which ranked heirs according to the Women in ancient and imperial China#Tang dynasty, prominence of their mothers in addition to their birth order. Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify this hierarchy into the three ranks of empress, consorts, and concubines. 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 Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese dynasties, these quarters were known as the inner palace (內宮; ''nèigōng'') or the rear palace (後宮; ''hòugōng''). In Chinese, the system is called the "rear palace system" (後宮制度; ''hòugōng zhìdù''). No matter the dynasty, the empress (皇后; ''huángh� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Ming Of Song
Emperor Ming of Liu Song ((劉)宋明帝; 9 December 439 – 10 May 472), personal name Liu Yu (劉彧), courtesy name Xiubing (休炳), childhood name Rongqi (榮期), was an emperor of the Chinese Liu Song dynasty. He became emperor after his violent and impulsive nephew Liu Ziye was assassinated in January 466, as he was regarded as more lenient and open-minded at first. However, he soon turned cruel and suspicious as well after becoming emperor, and during his reign, his nephews and brothers were nearly all slaughtered on his orders. This greatly weakened the Liu Song dynasty and contributing to its fall in 479, just seven years after his death. Background Liu Yu was born in 439, as Emperor Wen's 11th son. His mother Consort Shen Rongji () was a low-ranked imperial consort with the title ''Meiren'' (). For reasons unknown, Wen once wanted to put her to death, but she convinced him that killing her would offend the spirit of his deceased wife, Empress Yuan Qigui, and she wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhao Feiyan
Zhao Feiyan (, ? – September or October 1 BC),Peterson, Barbara Bennett & He Hong Fei & Han Tie & Wang Jiyu & Zhang Guangyu. (1999) ''Notable Women of China'' "M.E. Sharpe". pp. 87–90. . formally Empress Xiaocheng (孝成皇后), was a Chinese courtesan and empress. She was an empress during the Han dynasty. Her husband was Emperor Cheng. She was known in the collective consciousness of Chinese society more for her beauty than for the regal presence that she and her sister, the Consort Zhao Hede engaged in and exuded, but unlike most of the famous beauties in Chinese history (such as the Four Beauties), she was often vilified by her own sisters. She was often contrasted with Yang Guifei, the concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, because she was known for her slender build while Yang was known for her full build. This led to the Chinese idiom ''huanfei yanshou'' (環肥燕瘦, literally "fat Huan, thin Fei"), describing the range of beauty types. Later, the idiom was applied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Yellow River valley, which along with the Yangtze basin constitutes the geographic core of the Chinese cultural sphere. China maintains a rich diversity of ethnic and linguistic people groups. The traditional lens for viewing Chinese history is the dynastic cycle: imperial dynasties rise and fall, and are ascribed certain achievements. This lens also tends to assume Chinese civilization can be traced as an unbroken thread many thousands of years into the past, making it one of the cradles of civilization. At various times, states representative of a dominant Chinese culture have directly controlled areas stretching as far west as the Tian Shan, the Tarim Basin, and the Himalayas, as far north as the Sayan Mountains, and as far south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Wu Of Han
Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), born Liu Che and courtesy name Tong, was the seventh Emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later – and remains the record for ethnic Han Chinese, Han emperors. His reign resulted in a vast expansion of geopolitical influence for the Sinosphere, Chinese civilization, and the development of a strong centralized state via governmental policies, economical reorganization and promotion of a hybrid legalism (Chinese philosophy), Legalist–Confucianism, Confucian doctrine. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including the development of the Music Bureau, Imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly incre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Xiaowu Of Song
Emperor Xiaowu of Song (宋孝武帝; 19 September 430 – 12 July 464), personal name Liu Jun (劉駿), courtesy name Xiulong (休龍), childhood name Daomin (道民), was an emperor of the Liu Song dynasty of China. He was a son of Emperor Wen. After his older brother Liu Shao assassinated their father in 453 and took the throne, he rose in rebellion and overthrew Liu Shao. He was generally regarded as a capable, but harsh and sexually immoral emperor. He curtailed the powers of the officials and imperial princes greatly during his reign. Background Liu Jun was born in 430, as Emperor Wen's third son.(世祖孝武皇帝讳骏，字休龙，小字道民，文帝第三子也。) ''Song Shu'', vol.06 His mother, Consort Lu Huinan, was not one of Emperor Wen's favorite consorts, and he was also not much favored by his father. In 435, he was created the Prince of Wuling. In 439, at age nine, he was made the governor of Xiang Province (湘州, modern Hunan), and for the next sev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu Song Dynasty
Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It succeeded the Eastern Jin dynasty and preceded the Southern Qi dynasty. The dynasty was founded by Liu Yu (Emperor Wu; 363–422 CE), whose surname together with "Song" forms the common name for the dynasty, the "Liu Song". This appellation is used to distinguish it from a later dynasty of the same name, the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE, ruled by the House of Zhao). Although the Liu Song has also at times been referred to as the "Southern Song", the name is now mainly used to refer to the Song dynasty after 1127 CE. The Liu Song was a time when there was much internal turmoil. A number of emperors were incompetent and/or tyrannical, which at least partially led to many military revolts. These rulers include Liu Shao, Emperor Xi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern And Southern Dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as the latter part of a longer period known as the Six Dynasties (220–589). The period featured civil war and political chaos, but was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. The period saw large-scale migration of Han people to lands south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification of China proper by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. During this period, the process of sinicization accelerated among the non-Han ethnicities in the north and among the indigenous peoples in the south. This process was also accompanied by the increasing popularity of Buddhism in both northern and southern China and Daoism gaining influence as well, with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jin Dynasty (266–420)
The Jin dynasty or Jin Empire, sometimes distinguished as the or the , was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty in China that existed from 266 to 420. It was founded by Emperor Wu of Jin, Sima Yan, eldest son of Sima Zhao, who had previously been declared the King of Jin. There are two main divisions in the history of the dynasty. The (266–316) was established as the successor to Cao Wei after Sima Yan usurped the throne from Cao Huan. The capital of the Western Jin was initially in Luoyang, though it later moved to Chang'an (modern Xi'an). In 280, after conquering Eastern Wu, the Western Jin ended the Three Kingdoms period and reunited China proper for the first time since the end of the Han dynasty. From 291 to 306, a series of civil wars known as the War of the Eight Princes were fought over control of the Jin state which weakened it considerably. In 304, the dynasty experienced a wave of Invasion and rebellion of the Five Barbarians, rebellions by non-Han Chinese, H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cao Rui
Cao Rui () (204 or 205 – 22 January 239), courtesy name Yuanzhong, was the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. His parentage is in dispute: his mother, Lady Zhen, was Yuan Xi's wife, but she later remarried Cao Pi, the first ruler of Wei. Based on conflicting accounts of his age, Pei Songzhi calculated that, in order to be Cao Pi's son, Cao Rui could not have been 36 (by East Asian age reckoning) when he died as recorded, so the recorded age was in error; late-Qing scholars Lu Bi (卢弼) and Mao Guangsheng (冒广生) argued instead that Cao Rui was Yuan Xi's son. Cao Rui's reign was viewed in many different ways throughout Chinese history. He devoted many resources into building palaces and ancestral temples, and his reign saw the stalemate between his empire, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu become more entrenched. His building projects and his desire to have many concubines (who numbered in the thousands) greatly exhausted the imperial trea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Wen Of Wei
Cao Pi () (late 187 – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eldest son among all the children born to Cao Cao by his concubine (later wife), Lady Bian. According to some historical records, he was often in the presence of court officials in order to gain their support. He was mostly in charge of defence at the start of his career. After the defeat of Cao Cao's rival Yuan Shao at the Battle of Guandu, he took Yuan Xi's wife, Lady Zhen, as a concubine, but in 221 Lady Zhen died and Guo Nüwang became empress. On 25 November 220, Cao Pi forced Emperor Xian, the last ruler of the Eastern Han dynasty, to abdicate in his favour, after which on 11 December 220 he proclaimed himself emperor and established the state of Cao Wei. Cao Pi continued the wars against the states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu, founde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cao Cao
Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation for the state of Cao Wei (220–265), established by his son and successor Cao Pi, who ended the Eastern Han dynasty and inaugurated the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). Beginning in his own lifetime, a corpus of legends developed around Cao Cao which built upon his talent, his cruelty, and his perceived eccentricities. Cao Cao began his career as an official under the Han government and held various appointments including that of a district security chief in the capital and the chancellor of a Jun (country subdivision), principality. He rose to prominence in the 190s during which he recruited his own followers, formed his own army, and set up a base in Yan Province (covering parts of present-day Henan and Shandong). In 196, he received E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cao Wei
Wei () was one of the major Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic states in China during the Three Kingdoms period. The state was established in 220 by Cao Pi based upon the foundations laid by his father Cao Cao during the end of the Han dynasty. Its capital was initially located at Xuchang, and was later moved to Luoyang. The name ''Wei'' first became associated with Cao Cao when he was named the Duke of Wei by the Eastern Han government in 213, and became the name of the state when Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor in 220. Historians often add the prefix "Cao" to distinguish it from other Chinese states known as ''Wei (other), Wei''. The authority of the ruling Cao family dramatically weakened following the deposition and execution of Cao Shuang, a regent for the dynasty's third emperor Cao Fang. Beginning in 249, another regent in Sima Yi gradually consolidated state authority for himself and his relatives, with the last Wei emperors largely being puppet ruler, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
