Having multiple wives was one of the mainstays of male privilege during the Ming and Qing dynasties of late imperial China. Based on a comprehensive reading of eighteenth-century Chinese novels and a theoretical approach grounded in poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, and feminis…
"This volume completes Keith McMahon's acclaimed history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. Avoiding the stereotype of the emperor's plural wives as mere victims or playthings, the book considers empresses and concubines as full-fledged participants in palace life, w…
"This volume completes Keith McMahon's acclaimed history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. Avoiding the stereotype of the emperor's plural wives as mere victims or playthings, the book considers empresses and concubines as full-fledged participants in palace life, w…
"This volume completes Keith McMahon's acclaimed history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. Avoiding the stereotype of the emperor's plural wives as mere victims or playthings, the book considers empresses and concubines as full-fledged participants in palace life, w…
Chinese rulers guaranteed male successors by taking multiple wives, sometimes in the thousands. Women Shall Not Rule is a fascinating history of the imperial wives and concubines, especially in light of the greatest challenges to polygamous harmony-rivalry between women and thei…
Chinese emperors guaranteed male successors by taking multiple wives, in some cases hundreds and even thousands. This book offers a history of imperial wives and concubines, especially in light of the greatest challenges to polygamous harmony-rivalry between women and their atte…