death_date birth_date spouse article_title partner occupation
1 bce 23 bce married dong xian
 emperor ai of han commander of the armed forces
dong xian

dong xian -lrb- 董賢 -rrb- -lrb- 23 bc -lrb- ? -rrb-
-- 1 bc -rrb- was a han dynasty politician who quickly rose from obscurity as a minor official to being the most powerful official in the imperial administration of emperor ai within a span of a few years .
most scholars agree that dong 's quick career advancement came mostly because of his personal relationship with emperor ai , likely a homosexual one , rather than a demonstration of abilities .
both men were married , but emperor ai , at least , was childless .
an idiomatic term for homosexuality in chinese is `` duanxiu zhi pi '' -lrb- 斷袖之癖 , literally , `` passion of the cut sleeve '' -rrb- , derived from an episode involving dong and emperor ai .
they often slept together on the same bed , which in ancient china was not necessarily an indication of a sexual relationship .
one afternoon , after emperor ai woke up from a nap , dong was still sleeping , and emperor ai 's sleeve was stuck under dong 's head .
rather than waking dong up , emperor ai cut off his sleeve to allow dong to continue to sleep without disturbance .
