the subtle foreshadowing of this series is mind-blowing. I didn't even question why she was so excited and could use all the herbs in the palace. Damn.
China's knowledge about medicine back then was very advanced compared to other countries like european countries, probably because of Christian religion and their ban of "devil's work" and "witchcraft"... Life expectancy probably was much lower than today's... Still, a woman's fertility starts decreasing after the age of 30... Getting pregnant with children becomes more difficult over time. It hasn't changed even today... That's one big reason, why young women are more desired than others... Unfortunately for Lady Ah-Duo, she's passed her prime time... And since a concubine's purpose is to give birth to preferably a boy, she can't fulfill that purpose... Even if she hadn't lost her uterus, her chances getting pregnant would have been lower than younger women.
Great reaction by all, but this was one of the more confusing episodes even for me as a Chinese who grew up with this sort of stories on television serials from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The use of the term foster sibling was especially confusing, to me they should have used the term childhood friends to describe the relationship between Ah Duo and the current emperor. Luckily made more sense later. Regarding Ah Duo, yeah, losing the ability to bear a child is one of the most precarious situations a concubine can find herself, unless the concubine is extraordinarily beautiful that the Emperor doesn't care, or that concubine eliminates all the other child bearing concubines. Which sadly quite a few famous concubines committed murder with the help of their favorite eunichs/servants, never mind the law. And I think she became andrgounous possibly as a side effect of losing her baby. Doesn't look like she lost the Emperor's favor, but I think the Emperor being a realpolitik person, is probably forced to let her go from the harem for sake of appearances. It seems like he set her up somewhere nearby though.
To be fair, nowadays we're a little less obsessed with fertility and modern health-care and the advance of medical knowledge has pushed our average life expectancy out to regions the average medieval peasant would deem mythical and the average noble would consider enviable. They're judging the past through the lense of our frankly ridiculously more comfortable age. But yeah, back in the days 35 was kind of approaching the end. The noble classes or Britain for example, which had the best nutrition, doctors and living conditions possible in the country at the time, used to have an average life expectancy of 48 from the 800s to about 1400ish. From the 1400s to the 1800s this rose to about 56 years on average. This is nobility only, mind. Peasants often dropped in their 30s from malnutrition and the knock-on effects of same while working long hours in harsh climates with little protection and while enduring regular starvation during the tail end of the winter season. Obviously that means a good chunk died earlier. Often to causes we now consider preventable or to diseases we stamped out so thoroughly that they're unheard of in western countries. 35 was considered old. If you weren't married by that time, they'd call you a spinster, judging you to be too old to be likely to enter marriage because you're way past your prime and simply no longer a viable option when compared to younger women that might be able to have multiple children yet. This might seem cruel and callous, but back then at 35 you'd likely be relatively frail. The rigours of childbirth weren't a joke back then and a woman that old had good odds of dying to complications a younger, more vigorous woman might survive to try again.
35 is the start of down syndrome baby territory. There is a medical term of eldery gravidarum aka pregnant at old age which is 35 and more. Sadly delusional feminist try so hard to deny that and those guys must said that to pretect themselves lol.
@@Averymindset As some comedians pointed out: women peak earlier in life than men do, but they pay for it by having to get their sh!t together much earlier, too.
If you want to understand eunuchs, you should first understand the so-called harem, which is where the wives and concubines of ancient Chinese royal families lived. But since they are all women (who must remain chaste), except for monarchs and princes...men are not allowed to enter or leave. However, some jobs still required men to do the (heavier) work, so there were eunuchs, who were sterilized male officials.
