Will Of Heaven

一

Women In The Imperial Harem

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"YOUR mother is foolish" Grand Empress Dowager once said. I didn't argue with her on that subject. She didn't like my mother that much. It is no secret that my mother took a few years to get pregnant, and worse she gave birth to a girl. A princess and not a prince. I was well aware that my existence in this world is not favored by many people.

Empress Chen, was once an influential woman. A wife and a cousin to the Emperor. She was remembered as a vicious woman, sly and egotistic. She was the only woman of the Emperor for five years before he brought ¹three thousand women in the back palace as his, just like any other emperors before him, filling the imperial harem, bustling with women's activities, not just about their extraordinary grace, peerless elegance, and breathtaking beauty, but of their schemes and murder.

A charming smile can hide thousands of malicious thoughts, a simple sentence can be interpreted in different ways, verbal attacks had always been common but to insult someone without being fault by people will take a woman's greatest capability in speech, likewise, over elaborated etiquette in the palace must not be forgotten.

To rely on beauty alone, living as a white lotus, a woman like that will definitely not last in the imperial harem. Such are the women in the palace.

A woman's power in court entirely lies on how much the Emperor favored her. One wrong word and someone might cut your tongue, one wrong step and you'll surely lose your head. The imperial harem is also a reflection of the political power, a consort's rise in the imperial harem is her whole clan's rise to power in the imperial court. Naturally, her downfall is also her whole clan's downfall, at worst she may be sentenced to Lian Zuo (a collective punishment), executing nine generations of her clan.

It is no wonder that each of the powerful noble families would push their daughters to the Emperor's bed to elevate their status and position. A single night might change thousands of people's fate.

Conversely, if a consort who entered the imperial harem came from an already powerful clan, depending upon the situation, the Emperor may deal with her in two ways.

First, favor her more to pull her whole clan on your side in order to strengthen their loyalty to the monarch in case someone incites a rebellion from the Emperor's brothers, uncles, and sons, which carry the titles of ¹kings, dukes, and princes. Second, keep her at distance to stop her clan's ever-growing power that is starting to threaten the dragon throne.

Clans that have a threatening influential power are usually military officials, as soldiers are loyal to their brotherhood. The commander has been with them through many life and death situations, how could they be loyal to the Emperor who sat comfortably in the palace with luxurious things and beautiful women surrounding him?

If not from military officials, then those civil officials who remained in high seats through the changing of dynasties, and had served different emperors. Their influence in the imperial court is deep-rooted, therefore, they're the hardest to deal with. Having dealt with many different emperors throughout the changing of dynasties, they're the ones most familiar with the schemes and deceptions to fight for power. Civil officials clan like them are hard to come by. Noble clans have their rise and fall after all.

On the other hand, Generals can be easily stripped of their titles as they spend their time on battlefields and borders, an Emperor can easily fabricate a crime, such as defying military orders, nitpicking a single small mistake. A small mistake like this can be overlooked since, on the battlefield, one must be flexible, if they report each and every one of their actions to the emperor, then the emperor might as well command the army himself. From the border to the palace, distance is something that can't be denied.