by Veronika | Filed Under Articles, Muse History
Chapter 1: The Royal Concubines and Maitresses-en-titre: Stratospheric Careers and Slow Fades
From a Striptease on an Ancient Witness Stand to Drinking Pearls: The Courtesan’s Many Graces and Faces
Wherein we explore the lives and inspirational qualities of some of the most powerful women who ever lived: the Conquering Beauties from the 5th through the 17th century: The Royal Concubines, Maitresses-en-titre. Edo-era Geisha, Korean kisaeng, and Italian Renaissance Courtesans.
Wu Hou: from courtesan to empress, no matter what the cost
Like Theodora, the prostitute who crawled out from under the 6th century big top to become Empress, the 7th century Chinese woman Wu Hou (born 625; died 705) rose from being one among the myriad concubines bound to Tang emperor Taizong, who ruled from 626 to 649, to eventually become the empress of China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). She has the distinction of being the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Emperor, ruling in all but name for many years, and finally in her own for the last fifteen (690-705).
After becoming a junior concubine in 638, at the age of thirteen, she became a special favorite to Taizong, who was ruling over a recently reunited China he helped to fashion. Not a lot is known of their relationship, but it is generally thought that by the time of Taizong’s death in 649, she had taken actions to safeguard her future by already having seduced Taizong’s heir, Gaozong. Although custom dictated that she be forced to enter a Buddhist convent upon Taizong’s death – a tradition very similar to the treatment of royal favorites after the death of their king in ancien regime France – the new emperor Gaozong made a beeline to the convent to collect her and bring her back to court. There the still young and reputedly lovely woman became the chief consort to the second emperor in a row. With a combination of cunning and sensual wiles, she first made sure that no other amongst the vast stable of concubines would threaten her place, and by 654 had risen to the title of chenfei, the highest rank among concubines and second only to the empress. Then Wu Hou turned her attention to that royal lady.
In 1654 a baby that emperor Gaozong fathered and Wu Hou had given birth to mysteriously died, and reports soon circulated that “eyewitnesses” had seen the Empress Wang near the child’s room immediately before her death. Some legends say that Wu Hou, so viciously desirous of the empress’ position, resorted to the unthinkable action of killing her own child in order to frame the current empress, but it is impossible to know whether that accusation was simply slander by the chief concubine’s enemies. In any case, Empress Wang was tried and executed for killing the baby, presumably out of jealousy of Wu Hou’s high rank and place in Gaozong’s heart, and soon after, in 655, Wu Hou assumed the position of empress herself.
When Gaozong began to suffer from strokes five years later, Wu Hou began to rule the kingdom from behind the scenes, a policy she maintained for the next thirty years, after Gaozong’s death and during the reigns of two of her sons (much like Catherine de Medici’s semi-official ruling of France in the 16th century). In 690 she finally decided to shed the façade and, flouting the law that forbade women from ascending to the throne, announced herself the leader of China, under the new name “Emperor Shengshen,” shocking everyone around her. Nevertheless, she maintained her rule, with the help of Machiavellian policies and the assistance of her two lovers (who happened to be brothers, vying for the attention of the apparently still desirable empress in her 60’s), for fifteen years, until a coup finally ended her years of both puppet governing and overt sovereignty. Despite conflicting views of her time in power, some of which claim she was a ruthless tyrant who squashed opposition by the means of secret police, her legacy as the only women “emperor” of China has inspired numerous semi-autobiographical novels and an abiding fascination with this dynamo of a woman.
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