Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing - Paperback

by Keith McMahon (Author)

This volume completes McMahon's acclaimed history of imperial wives and royal polygamy in China. Avoiding the stereotype of empresses and imperial concubines as mere victims or playthings, Keith McMahon considers them as full-fledged participants in palace life; whether as mothers, wives, or go-betweens in the emperor's relations with others.

Author Biography

Keith McMahon is professor of East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Kansas. His books include Women Shall Not Rule: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Han to Liao and The Fall of the God of Money: Opium Smoking in Nineteenth-Century China.