The 'first Ladies' of China

by fulltimestudent 1 Replies latest social current

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  fulltimestudent

  Can't offer much on previous 'first ladies,' which is a term I dislike anyway. What in the hell qualifies a woman to be a special representative, just because herpartner has won through to the top of the pile.

  Departing from the topic for a moment, the silliness of the situation is exposed here in Australia. Our current Prime Minister is a woman, she has a male partner (they are not married - just live together). He's been dubbed, the "first bloke. " At international conferences he does all the side trips that the first ladies do. My humble opinion (if worth anything) is that he looks bloody silly.

  Anyway, I though a thread on this topic may be interesting. But to be really interesting lets go back before the current fad for first ladies.

  So I'm going to re-visit history a little. Next post will be about the Empress Wu.
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  fulltimestudent

  And, here she is:

  

  She's painted in accord with concepts of beauty in here times. But I've got to offer the opinion that she seems likely to have been a really tough bitch. But we should remember that much of the information about her was written by men who hated her guts - because she was a woman doing things, that in their opinion should be done by men. SHe was the only woman in Chinese history to wear the yellow robe reserved for the Emperor. Not only that when her first husband, the Emperor Taizong died, she managed to marry his son - but I'll come back to that.

  As a young girl, she seemed to know where she was going, she is supposed to have refused to learn needlework, the traditional skill of young high-born girls. Her favourite occupation was reading, history apparently, as she had highly developed political skills.

  At around age 13 she was summoned to the palace to be one of the Emperor Taizong's concubines. Her mother is supposed to have been crying over this, when her daughter told her to stop, that it was her opportunity of a lifetime - a chance to meet the Emperor, and become someone great. Seemingly, nothing came of the opportunity, though she may have been in the Emperors bed at least once. When, aft roughly 10 years later, Taizong died, she was, according to custom, told to go to a buddhist monastery and become a nun. But our young lady had other ideas. Taizong's youngest son had become Emperor, reigning as Gaozong. It is known just how she did it, but not many years later, she was appointed to be a high-ranking concubine in Gazong's palace. And, that's when things became really interesting.