page_title: Imperial Chinese harem system
section_title: Qing
hierarchical_section_title: Imperial Chinese harem system / Qing
caption_attribution_description: English: Consort Zhen, a concubine of the Guangxu Emperor (1871–1908) of the Qing Dynasty in China.
context_page_description: 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. 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 hougong.
  In Chinese, the system is called 後宮制度.
context_section_description: The system was one of the simplest systems in Chinese history. Officially, there were eight classes:
  Empress (皇后; huáng hòu)
  Imperial Noble Consort (皇贵妃; huáng guì fēi)
  Noble Consort (贵妃; guì fēi)
  Consort (妃; fēi)
  Imperial Concubine (嫔; pín)
  Noble Lady (贵人; guì rén, literally "precious person")
  First-Class Female Attendant  (常在; cháng zài, literally "often present")
  Second-Class Female Attendant (答应; dā yìng, literally "promise")
  Chosen Maid (官女子; guān nǘ zǐ), typically granted to female servants whom the emperor has taken to a liking and to accompany him without any official recognition while still doing regular servant work. This rank was not part of the official concubine ranking.
  There were limits placed on how many consorts could hold the ranks of Imperial Concubine (嫔; pín), and above. 
  1 Empress (皇后)
  1 Imperial Noble Consort (皇贵妃)
  2 Noble Consorts (贵妃)
  4 Consorts (妃)
  6 Imperial Concubines (嫔)
  Consorts that attained the rank of Concubine (嫔) and above would be honoured with a residence in the main section (and hence manager) of a palace in the Forbidden City, and be able to self-title themselves as "本宫 (ben gong)" (literally, "This Palace") when addressing those below them. When being addressed by lower ranked concubines, they would have to be addressed as  "娘娘 (niang niang)" (ma'am). All people were expected to use deprecating self-titles when addressing higher ranks, and concubines were no different. They either used "嫔妾 (pin qie)" or "臣妾 (chen qie)". If the Emperor of a consort has died, they were self-titled as "哀家 (ai jia)" (literally, "Grieving House").
  For an Empress who lived well into the reigns of at least two subsequent Emperors, she would be referred to as Empress Dowager (皇太后; huáng tài hòu) if her husband's son was the Emperor, or Grand Empress Dowager (太皇太后; tài huáng tài hòu) if her husband's grandson was the Emperor. If a consort was never an Empress during her husband's reign but her son became the next Emperor, she would be referred to as Holy Mother, Empress Dowager (聖母皇太后; shèng mǔ huáng tài hòu) and be posthumously honoured as an Empress. On the other hand, if a consort held the rank of Empress but had no son or her son does not succeed the throne, she would be honoured as Mother Empress, Empress Dowager (母后皇太后; mǔ hòu huáng tài hòu) and is officially honoured as an Empress.
  The prefix for Dowager (太) was added to a consort's rank (皇贵妃 and below) if she was a consort of the reigning emperor's father. All consorts of the previous emperor usually resided within one palace (寿康宫 Shou Kang Gong), with the exception of those who attained the rank of Empress Dowager, who would be honoured with their own palace (慈宁宫 Ci Ning Gong).
  The system was solid, but the number of consorts an emperor actually had during the Qing dynasty was subject to wild variations. The Kangxi Emperor holds the record for having the most consorts with 79, while the Guangxu Emperor holds the record for having the fewest consorts, with one empress and two consorts – a total of just three consorts.
  The tradition of ranking concubines ended when the Qing dynasty was overthrown. However, the practice of giving rank to people who "unofficially" (lives with, but never marry) have more than one wife is still widespread. In addition, the term (夫人; fū rén) is still used, albeit rarely and only in very formal settings, as an honorific title towards another person's wife in China.
  After the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, the Joseon kingdom was forced to give several of their royal princesses as concubines to the Qing prince-regent Dorgon. In 1650, Dorgon married the Korean Princess Uisun, a distant relative of the king, who was adopted and given the royal princess title so she can be married off to Dorgon.  Joseon court revoked Princess Uisun's title and royal privileges after Dorgon died. Dorgon married two Korean princesses at Lianshan.      There is no evidence of Dorgon marrying any other Joseon princess besides Princess Uisun in Joseon records and it is extremely unlikely as Dorgon died in December 1650, only few months after his m
caption: Imperial Noble Consort Keshun, better known as Consort Zhen or popularly as the Pearl Concubine, was a consort of the Guangxu Emperor.
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