In Chinese history, there is special term "nuhuo" or "woman disaster". It refers to the situation when an imperial concubine rather than the emperor himself ran State affairs. Ancient scholars thought whenever a woman occupied such a position it would lead inevitably to disaster, as if a hen instead of a cock were to crow in the morning.

The woman subjected to the most relentless criticism was probably the Dowager Empress Ci Xi (1835-1908) near the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). She entered the Forbidden City when 17 years old and later held ultimate power for 47 years. In most accounts, she has been described as one of the chief culprits leading to the end of the dynasty and national disgrace.

Ci Xi diverted money intended for building a modern navy into follies for her garden at the Summer Palace, signed unequal treaties with Western invaders, cracked down on insurrectionists and reformists, and was also suspected of murdering the young Emperor Guang Xu who was her nephew. Many Chinese people think of her as "the Old Witch".

Apart from Ci Xi, in the long history of imperial dominion in China, there were several famous women who have ruled the country for longer or shorter periods, such as Wu Zetian, the only woman emperor in Chinese history, and Lu Zhi, the consort of Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220).

This whole topic is known as "Imperial Concubine Politics" by some Chinese scholars. But why, in a society that was ruled by men, would such "Concubine Politics" repeatedly arise? The reason is to be found in the contradictions of the Chinese cultural system, according to Zhang Xingjiu, an expert from Wuhan University.

Feudal concubinage

The traditional cultural system not only uplifted men and debased women, it also had a principle of respect at its core. This system also emphasized the mother's power, Zhang says in his essay.

To understand this, we should first take a look at the concubine system. It is commonly acknowledged that concubinage was based on concepts which placed man's position higher than woman's.

Because he needed a male offspring to inherit his imperial position, the emperor accumulated many concubines to maximize his chance of an heir, as well as for their beauty and intrinsic desirability.

In China, having a large number of offspring was considered the greatest happiness for a family. Such ideas led to superstitions concerning human fertility. The family with children was considered to be divinely protected, while the childless family was believed to have been punished by supernatural forces. The emperor, understood as "the Son of God", should of course have many more children than ordinary people.

Because of this, most emperors had a large "household". Though criticized by many scholars, the trend was for the number of concubines and maids in the palace to remain enormous. Records describe one emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) as having 40,000 women in the palace. By the end of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), there were still over 9,000 women.

In a feudal society where men dominated women, it was natural for the emperor to rule over numerous concubines as well as the whole country. If one of these women dominated the country it was considered abnormal.

What makes the issue more complicated was that the imperial concubines were not only women, they were also mothers, especially mothers of the young emperors. How, then, to prevent the emperor's own mother from becoming involved in her son's business?

When an emperor was still too young to manage State affairs, or if he was too weak or too ignorant, a vacuum appeared in the government. This meant imperial concubine had the opportunity to become involved in State affairs as representatives of the emperor. The officials couldn't protest strongly about this, because everyone - even the emperor - owed respect to his own mother.

In ancient China, influenced by Confucianism, most emperors were told to run the country in accordance with ethics and morality. As a son, the emperor should respect his mother as much as his father, once the father had died. For any official serving the imperial family, respecting the emperor's mother was also a necessity, which lent support from the moral angle to concubines running State affairs.

Political chaos

Unavoidably, when talking about "Concubine Politics", we should talk about the chaos it brought.

In most cases, the politics led to social disorder or administrative violence. Ancient people thus concluded, as a matter of principle, that "Concubine Politics" should be avoided.

For example, Wu Zetian, the female emperor, has been appraised as an intelligent woman politician by some modern scholars, but she has also been criticised for her cruel reign. She introduced tortures and raised her own family into important positions.

When a woman grasped power in a male society, no matter whether she was the mother of the emperor or not, her position was not as solid as that of a man when it came to running State affairs. There was a threat to the legitimacy of her position from the very beginning. This meant weaker support and more intense opposition in comparison to a (male) emperor. To consolidate her dominion, it was natural for such women to turn to more violent methods to entrench their rule.

The woman in power would try to fiercely suppress all actual or even potential opponents. Sometimes, the approach taken was very cruel.

Lacking the security of political legitimacy, the woman would usually raise her relatives to high official positions. Because concubines couldn't make direct contact with the male officials, she required family members in important posts to support her.

Actually, no matter whether the rule was by emperors or concubines, they shared the same basic despotism. Chaos could appear no matter whether a man or a woman was running the country. "Woman disaster"? It would be better to talk of "despotism disaster".

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