3,000 beauties in the imperial harem, but generally so ugly? Emperor had no choice but to marry them 

The Empress or the dowger Empress often were the ones who selected the concubines.

Beauty did have a part to play in the selection of a new wife. Though not as influential as power and status, still was one of the criteria’s. I believe that’s how Cixi got selected considering she came from a minor noble family. These women in these photos are also, more than likely middle aged, by the time these photos were taken. 40’s and up. The Pearl concubine is actually one of the concubines who is photographed and she is beautiful.

@@redmi9834 That would be horrific lol

Harem of royals, wherever that is, always political, concubines is political puppets. Why modern people thinking nobles and people on power back then would allowing a insignificant mere commoners to live arround their monarch?

Its a big leap to assume this was always the case based on photographs of a specific emperor's concubines. At this time the emperor was rather weak, so its not surprising that his power hungry mother picked ugly women for him.

Lmao "relative beauty standards" are just a way for rich ugly people to think that they're beautiful. Actual beauty is a lot more objective.

No actually Qing dynasty is known to select ugly women into the palace to prevent princes from distraction. Also most of the women are selected for political alliances or by the dowager consort's preferences. And let's just say she picked some UGLY women even though there were actually pretty women from her clan. In the end I think she just hated the emperor LMAO. Some of these women are not of the harem, but maids, which btw also selected from the banner.

Cixi made her son married a ugly women who is related to her, and that was definitely not his first or last choice. And one of the emperor love going to brothel. This is Qing dynasty. For other dynasty, they get to pick any Han women, not just from certain class.

Um, from the existing photos, yeah, many were buck toothed and were not beautiful. Sucked to be the Emperor surrounded by ugly women who were grasping for power. 😕

they are pretty obviously ugly. no point denying something that is obvious. Its not like they are alive to get their feelings hurt.

Not for Qing and this pictures was all taken at 19 century to 1911. They are ugly, as pure bloodline or the emperor mother wants the emperor to marry ugly but related to her

To be fair beauty is hard to attain when the mythical *standart* is so hard to find.

😊😅😂🎉

It has nothing to do with inner beauty or outer beauty, it is all about bloodline and social status.

Concubines did not scheme, that’s only entertainment in dramas. Concubines lived very luxurious, peaceful, and sometimes, boring, lives.

It was often the Empress or the dowger Empress who decided . on suitable Concubines

Only to themselves. Nobody else thinks they look good.

To who are they beautiful -? Lmaooo nobody finds those people attractive unless it is a desperate creepy man. Many men are willing to look over their physical appearance if the women's mindset was filled with knowledge and common sense, but they have brainwashed common opinions and base them as facts. Atleast the emperor could wine and dine his consort because she had something of value and was probably very well educated even if she wasn't beautiful as he would like. Those purple haired women cannot compete.

Really? By whom?

Foot binding was not a Manchurian custom.

Manchurians did not foot bind. Neither was Footbinding a law or common amongst noble women. It was a commoners trend done for the intent of enhancing the beauty of a young girl so that she would catch the eye of someone established and have a chance of bettering her living conditions. It was outlawed twice. Once during the Qing dynasty, and once more during the early republic of China. The palace life wasn’t soul crushing either for royal women. It was highly luxurious ( despite the decline of the economy) and boring at times. The rules were to establish order and discapline, everyone including the emperor were subjected to them, and they were products of curating peaceful living and fairness amongst the palace residents. A concubine’s marriage was political. Her role ran deeper than providing the emperor with ample children ( which culturally was believed to be a good omen for a prosperous reign). Though women weren’t allowed to dabble in court, many concubines were often times, crucial pillars, to the stabilization of China’s economy.

Manchus didn't bind their feet. It was started by the Han People as a way of cultural identification.

Foot binding began in the Tang dynasty and was practised by middle and upper class Han Chinese. Like the extremely long fingernails of the Manchus, it was considered a sign that one was wealthy and had servants to perform any tasks. Also, it was believed that foot binding gave a woman an erotic,, rolling gait, but how that was so, since a woman needed one or two servants to help her walk at all, I can't imagine.

@@jeraldbaxter3532Not just “middle and upper class Han. It spread to ALL Chinese little girls in China

There is a 1 in 50 probability that the lady under the veil turned out to be a rare beauty.....

@@brandenburg2388 those are some scary odds...

😊😅😂🎉

Even worse if the emperor was ugly as shit but you have to pretend

Good one! 😂😂😂

Puyi's wife wasnt bad

@@harukrentz435 she was beautiful! Wish he liked her more!😔

Looking at all those photoes I would not call them unattractive. Bear in mind their faces had no deformities, no smallpox scars ect. So health and status was probably the biggest factors.

​@@harukrentz435 I think even the West at that time labeled her pretty.

The last picture wasnt bad at all. One of the first photo had what looked like a group of men 😳. Unless maybe the author posted the photo by accident.

😊😅😂🎉

@@zlonewolf😊😅😂🎉

Dat five-head tho...

Most wore elaborate wigs.

But the Hapsburgs married their cousins - and an uncle married his niece. At least these concubines weren't closely related to the emperor.

Some of them were.

😂😂😂😂

The late ain't dynasty emperor had some ugly ones. But early on the Emperor's at the beginning had more power and had more choice

Empress Xiaoyichun, she was a han chinese booi aha, her clan was then moved to a manchu banner. note she was posthumously promoted, meaning she was promoted after she died, by her son , the Jiaqing emperor.

what is the title of his movie, i would like to watch

The mad monk?

Some concubines were never selected to sleep with the Emperor. Some of the died Virgins

The emperor wasn't married to his concubines. I know in the Ottoman Empire a concubine could be raised to the position of "wife", and like the Chinese, the Ottoman sultans could have more than one wife. I'm not sure if, during the Qing period, an Emperor ever raised up a concubine to be his wife. (I'm gonna look into that!)

for security reasons I don't think that happened as a rule

because mostly manchu women entered the harem, though there were some han, a sizeable portion of mongol, and some other ethnicitties entered the harem, it was mostly and strictly manchu.

@@ariandnesiosana9362 so no real reason, they just wanted Manchu and Mongol women in the harem?

@@lizzie_b first they were manchu, so ofc the imperial family would marry into the manchus, but secondly, mongols had deep ties with the manchus long before, which is why there were a sizable population of manchu imperial women, han chinese were also there, as thay were the majority of the country's populace, but were less favored a pon compared to the manchus as they held lesser postiuons than them durin gthe qing dynasty