Kavya’s Reviews > The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period > Status Update

Cannot be buried next to the main wife and husband; otherwise a notable offense in the books of rituals. "A concubine, this story makes clear, could be used when convenient, discarded when inconvenient, and even retrieved if the children she bore later were needed by the family."

"Bearing sons raised a woman's status in a family, whether the woman was a wife, a concubine, or a maid. For a wife," reduced 1 possible ground for divorce. "For a concubine, it established kinship obligations... For a maid, it opened possibilities of promotion to concubine. Still, when the wife already had children, bearing children might bring the concubine into even greater conflict with the wife.."

"like unmarried women, retained their obligations to their natal kin, though in practice" unable to fulfill them all. "A concubine mourned only her master, mistress, and the master's children. Only if the concubine bore children would the master's children by other women reciprocate & also mourn her (though not to the same degree she mourned them). The master and mistress did not mourn her even if she bore children."

According to Kao, "Miss Ho wanted to stay in the Kao home as a widowed concubine after he died. Kao knew that this would not work, so in 1210 he decided it was time for her to return home. To conclude his letter, he summed up the justification for her receiving a thousand strings of cash. 1: the money was his: he had earned it himself, & his son had not contributed to it. 2: she deserved it.."

Rarely did literate men write about their concubines: " Liu K'o-chuang praised the way Miss Ch'en (1211—1262), twenty-four years his junior, looked after family matters for the next thirty-five years, remembering everything and managing the family finances. He referred to her not as his concubine but as his youngest son's 'birth mother.' Himself he referred to not as her husband but as her "master." "

"The names of concubines, we find, frequently contained the character nu, "slave," such as "Soft Slave," "Lotus Slave," "Fragrant Slave," or "Slave Who Comes Forward." Kao Wen-hu (1134-1212) gave his concubine Miss Ho the name Silver Flower, a literary term for snowflake. Other educated men also chose literary names for their concubines, and some made up decidedly capricious names"

"I just waited for a chance to go home, but never got one. Gauze clothes cover my body; emptiness grabs my tears. When will I get to wear my old clothes?"
- "Despite Hsu Chi's reformist intentions, his poem probably appealed to people primarily as a depiction of a sensitive, lovely young woman who had suffered at the hands of others."

Step parents often portrayed as selling younger generations; Husbands also could sell wives to others as concubines, though this was considered illegal. Unscrupulous brokers could also kidnap people's daughters. Under circumstances of famine, selling menial service was deemed better than prostitution by some formerly well-to-do people.

Ch'en Yu (d. 1275): poor families trained "their daughters in the arts &.. "sold as concubines." Liao Yingchun wrote, "Lower-ranking households in the capital do not put a premium on having sons, but treasure each daughter born as though she were a jewel. As she grows up, they teach her an art in accordance with her natural talents, so that she will be ready to be chosen by some gentleman as a companion."

"Kao Wen-hu, 67, acquired a.. musically accomplished concubine, Miss Ho, on a 3-year contract with a stipulated wage of one bushel of rice a month, which her mother..came to collect." After 6 years, the mother "renegotiated the contract. This time Miss Ho's wages were set at one hundred strings of cash a year, an increase of about 50%, which Kao considered was due her because of her increased age and experience."